The Gathering
I’m hot off the heels of workshopping two new musicals, Kingmaker (playing Gordon Brown) and Des O’Connor’s brilliant new version of The Trial, Failed States (playing MI5 agent Frank Bishop), and I’m about to start Hamlet workshops for the Primary Shakespeare Company. Series 2 of Trodd en Bratt say ‘Well Done You’ is recording soon, and Vomica is screening in The London Independent Film Festival. More projects for Slung Low and Showstopper!‘s 8th Edinburgh Fringe are just over the horizon…
Read MoreA Quiet Start
The new year started with fairy tales at the new writing showcase ‘Three Writers Walk into a Forest’ at The Comedy Museum; workshopping School of Night procedures at RADA; and my debut at The Abbey Theatre, Dublin with a concert performance of War Correspondents, as part of the Theatre of War symposium. In February I’m off to Sherman, TX for more bardic improvisation in their Medieval and Renaissance studies week; and there’s Showstopper! performances in London and Aylesbury, and workshops with public school groups (Framlingham) and young lawyers (Inner Temple) to boot.
Read MoreThe Autumn Rush
Edinburgh 2014 is past, The White Whale is past (for now, though this a very nice piece in Exeunt – http://exeuntmagazine.com/reviews/the-white-whale/), and War Correspondents is soon on the road again. Also, sitting in front of me is the 150-page script for Daisy Campbell’s adaptation of Cosmic Trigger, the extraordinary memoir by Robert Anton Wilson of Illuminatus! fame, which will premiere in Liverpool in November (you can find out more and book here: http://www.everymanplayhouse.com/News/COSMIC_TRIGGER/1141.aspx). Better start learning it then. And after that, there’ll just about be enough time for another outing for 59 Minutes To Save Christmas at Z-Arts in Manchester (http://www.z-arts.org/). And...
Read MoreShifting Gears
Shocking to see how much time has passed since I last posted anything. In recent weeks I’ve been absorbed (and challenged) by my work in War Correspondents, a new piece of ‘song theatre’ composed by Helen Chadwick with movement by the brilliant Steven Hoggett (trailer here: http://vimeo.com/93651488). As that draws to a close, I’m turning to the script for Slung Low’s The White Whale, James Phillips’ new adaptation of Moby Dick, which will be performed on open water in Leeds in September – http://www.slunglow.org/moby-dick/, and in which I’ll play Ahab. Before that though, more Showstopper! at The Underbelly on the South Bank, and then Edinburgh.
Read MoreXanadu
Two weeks ago was The London Jam, world-class improvisers from all over the world gathering at The lovely Park Theatre to inspire each other and lose sleep. That, for some years, has been the gateway to the new year for me. Since then, there have been preparations for Slung Low’s new Venetian film at the V&A Museum; an appearance by The School of Night at The Keats Library in Hampstead; teaching in Guildford, Winchester and at LAMDA; and more preparation for Cosmic Trigger, a stage adaptation of Robert Anton Wilson’s novel to be launched in Liverpool on Feb 23rd. A year of much creativity indeed beckons…
Read MoreYear’s End
In Doncaster for a restaging of 59 Minutes to Save Christmas. What a lovely building, and what a lovely company. The audiences are hungry (for adventures) and delighted. What with another 15 Minutes Live recently (at the Holbeck Working Men’s Club), most of my fun stuff this year has been in Yorkshire. Looking forward to the seasonal break, but also to fun and games in January with The London Jam, a week-long festival of improvised fun from some of the best talents around – http://parktheatre.co.uk/whats-on/the-london-jam-shows – and much more. The Showstoppers, The White Whale… roll on 2014!
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