Mugs Arrows and Festive Fundraising

This week, you have your last few chances to catch Mugs Arrows at the Bike Shed Theatre. Developed by critically acclaimed touring company, Third Man Theatre, at the Bike Shed last year, the show has been running at the venue for the last couple of weeks and has garnered great reviews from Exeunt, Remotegoat and The Express & Echo.

Mugs Arrows at The Bike Shed Theatre

Here’s a bit about the show and the company from the press release:

“Mugs Arrows is a surreal black comedy set in very ordinary surroundings – the local pub.
With rural areas being forever altered through commercial development and extreme
weather conditions and locals disenchanted by a lack of jobs and the ever-increasing
allure of a life elsewhere, Mugs Arrows delves in to a world that is on the change. It
explores the depths of the human psyche, love, loss, friendship (and darts), leading to
hilarious, strange and ultimately disturbing results. Just your average night out down the
local then…

Third Man Theatre is an award winning company based in Cornwall and London that
specialises in new writing. Since forming in 2007, they have toured extensively around the
UK and the US. Their most recent show Botallack O’Clock was nominated for Best Fringe
Show Time Out 2011 and transferred to New York as part of the Brits Off Broadway season 2013 following a 3 week run at the Bike Shed in 2012.”

Mugs Arrows is also the first of this year’s autumn residencies at the Bike Shed Theatre, where companies from across the UK are given a chance to develop new work in the
theatre, while showcasing existing material.

That’s not all that’s happening at the theatre though: preparations are afoot for the Christmas show and The Bike Shed team could do with your help...

Their ‘exciting seasonal show’ is called Eliza and The Wild Swans and is an adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen tale, Wild Swans. It’s a collaboration with Bristol’s Wardrobe Ensemble, which will see the Bike Shed theatre and bar transformed into a wintery wonderland, with mulled wine at the bar, Christmas trees and ‘festive cheer all around’!

However, as they say on their Christmas Fund page, ‘making a new play doesn’t come cheap’ and they don’t receive regular public funding, so they’re trying a bit of crowd funding to help ‘make this Christmas production truly special’.

As with all crowd funding, if you give, you will receive. If you donate to the Bike Shed Christmas Fund, what you receive ranges from a ‘thank you’ in the programme, to having a unique song composed for you, a free year’s Membership and your own custom cocktail served in the bar! Obviously, the more you give, the more you receive, but if any of this sounds tempting then have a look at their Christmas Fund page for more information.

Useful Links

Mugs Arrows
Third Man Theatre
Eliza and The Wild Swans
The Wardrobe Ensemble
The Bike Shed Christmas Fund

tidy carnage puts Motor Neurone Disease in the Spotlight

I’m going to start this post with an apology: I apologise to anyone who has sent me a Press Release in the last couple of months. I have responded to some of you, but not been able to reply to all of you. I have been busy as both an Actor and Graphic Designer, so I haven’t been able to find the time to blog - even about the productions I’ve been working on - but keep the releases coming!

Apology over, Kelly Smith, producer of 'dream//life', contacted me with details of the show, currently running at The Bike Shed Theatre in Exeter and it sounded really interesting, so here’s a bit about the company and the show.

Helen Cuinn in 'dream//life'

Tidy carnage, is a new theatre collective from Glasgow, who merge new writing, movement and multimedia, and their current show, 'dream//life', is at The Bike Shed Theatre until Saturday 20th July. It’s a moving account of one couple’s experience of Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and has been developed in collaboration with Motor Neurone Disease Scotland.

Director Allie Butler was initially inspired by a piece of creative writing entitled ‘A Day In The Life’, written by someone with the condition. She further developed the piece by researching and talking to people who have MND or care for those with it. Performed by Neil John Gibson and Helen Cuinn, 'dream//life' became a piece, not explicitly about the illness, but about a relationship affected by it. The piece has been supported by Ovalhouse in London and The Arches in Glasgow, where the company presented early work in progress showings and received feedback from the venue, community and charity to enable further development. This development process certainly seems to have worked, as Arthur Duncan has given them a glowing review on Remote Goat: http://www.remotegoat.com/uk/review_view.php?uid=9970

Neil John Gibson & Helen Cuinn in 'dream//life'

The company has been in residence at The Bike Shed Theatre for the last two weeks and is collaborating with the local branch of the national charity, Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA), the only national charity raising awareness and money for research into MND and support for those affected, to raise awareness and support. Although the screening of the documentary film, 'I AM BREATHING' and their Q & A session have passed, there is still an opportunity for audiences who want to find out more about and support the charity, to do this, as there is a stall in theatre’s Café Bar where you can read and take away information.

Helen Cuinn in 'dream//life'

If you like their work, then you can also catch some of their work in progress before they leave Exeter. As part of their residency at the theatre, tidy carnage are collaborating with local writer Cally Hayes to create a new piece of Theatre. 'writer//collaborator' will be developed over a few days as the company give sections of text the tidy carnage treatment and then perform what emerges as scratch showings 18th-20th July (see the Bike Shed website for details).

You only have until Saturday to catch 'dream//life' in Exeter, but if you like the company’s work, then make sure you watch 'writer//collaborator' as you have the opportunity to be one of the first people to experience and provide feedback on their next show.

Links

The Bike Shed Theatre
tidy carnage on Twitter (@tidycarnage)
'dream//life' Remote Goat Review 
Motor Neurone Disease Association Website
I AM BREATHING Website
Ovalhouse Website
The Arches Website

The Last Blog Post (of 2012)

The end of the year is fast approaching, so I thought I'd squeeze in one final blog post.

Every now and again I am reminded it's a strange, small world, and never more so than in the world of The Arts. To cut a very long story (involving a New Year's Eve party 10 years ago, performing in a florist's shop, graphic design and 'Bunnies') short, I found myself designing the posters and flyers for this is tinder's production, 'The Last March', the Christmas show at The Bike Shed Theatre in Exeter.

I haven't previously discussed it on my blog, but as well as being an Actor I am also studying Graphic Design. Whilst I can't claim to have designed the beautiful main collage (Ian Nicholson, Tinder's Artistic Director, had already commissioned it), it was a great job to work on as Ian gave me a clear idea of what he liked, but plenty of room to be creative. In addition to this, I have watched the show and it is a great piece of Theatre!

On the left is the original collage and on the right is the final design for 'The Last March' poster

The play is the tale of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's final expedition to the Antarctic in 1912. He planned to lead the first team to reach the South Pole, but was beaten by the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen. Furthermore, Scott and his team died before they could make it home. “He didn’t go for material gain,” explains Ian, “It was a dream and he wanted to do it, it was important to him and his family. It was the last possible place left to be discovered, everywhere else in the world had been found.” Much like the story of Titanic, I haven't given away the ending and the heroic tale is full of myth and adventure. And tea, let's not forget the tea.

The final design for 'The Last March' flyer

Death and failure may not sound like the stuff of a heartwarming, Christmas, family tale, but Tinder saw the story from a very angle. After discovering Ian's great grandfather served under Captain Scott, Tinder did some research and discovered 2012 marks 100 years since Scott died. The story that emerged for them, was one of a very British adventure, with moments that appeared absurd and humourous when viewed from the 21st Century:

“They took out champagne and Christmas trees and a piano and a slide projector...They took 31 men and Amundsen took nine. Nine men and dogs while Scott had champagne
and brandy and footballs.”

Ian Nicholson, Director of The Last March, Artistic Director of this is tinder

The poster strapline states: "...This time, history is written by the losers..." because, as Ian explained to me, although it was Amundsen who won the race to the Pole, it was Scott's expedition and subsequent death that usurped his victory.

This is not to say that Tinder treat the expedition glibly, but the absurd and humourous moments they draw out make it both enjoyable and exciting, whilst in turn making the 'serious' moments more sympathetic and touching. If you are still concerned about it being a family show in which people die, the deaths are cleverly portrayed in a way which doesn't allow the audience to dwell on them and some younger children may not even realise that characters have died.

The Last March runs until 12th January 2013, so you still have time to catch it, before it disappears into the mists of time and a flurry of fake snow, but if you really can't find time to watch it, at least pick up a flyer to keep me happy!

Useful Links

Tickets for 'The Last March'
this is tinder on Facebook
this is tinder on Twitter (@thisistinder)

'Actual Reality' is a Gripping Yarn

This weekend Gripping Yarns will take place at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum (RAMM) in Exeter, and my monologue, Actual Reality, is one of the twelve pieces selected for performance.

Although I do a lot of writing for different things, I have never written a script or monologue, and submitted it anywhere, because I’m always saying ‘I haven’t got an idea I want to develop’. So, when I turned up halfway through the first scriptwriting workshop, I had no intention of writing a script, I just wanted to say hello to Sheila (Show of Strength), but as I walked around the beautifully refurbished museum, a kernel of an idea started to form.

Front of leaflet advertising the writing workshops for the project

On my list of ‘Interests’ you will find History, and although I have my favourite periods, part of my interest lies in a desire to learn from the past and understand how it affects our present and ultimately our future. This gave me an idea: what if you were in the future, looking back at the present as if it was the past? What defines this period of time? How could things change on a small or large scale?

I still didn’t put anything down on paper, but over the next few weeks a couple of issues came up in the news and suddenly I had a starting point, but no real story. Time was marching on and as I was now considering submitting a monologue I needed to get back to the museum and properly explore the objects on display.

If you’ve been to the new museum and picked up one of the maps, you’ll know that finding your way around is still a bit confusing, but thankfully they have the room numbers on the walls, so, on my second visit, I was determined to visit every room. It was the last, and perhaps the most underwhelming room I tracked down that provided the inspiration I needed.

Room 6, Behind the Scenes, is a tiny room which aims to give you an idea of what happens behind the scenes at the museum, and on the wall you will find copies of catalogue cards for objects in the museum. They have a picture of the item and all sorts of information like, what it is, what it’s made from, where it comes from, etc, etc. As I looked at the cards I found myself wondering how you would fill out the cards if you were cataloguing a human. Suddenly, I knew I had an idea I wanted to develop and no more excuses not to write it.

Without giving too much away (in case you pop into the museum and watch the performance), Actual Reality, explores what it means to be human, my frustration with endless terms and conditions and disclaimers as well as the constant advertising bombardment and privacy intrusion from companies battling for our personal information and touches on some current political ideas. That’s right, I’ve packed all that (and more) into a darkly humorous, five minute (ish) piece holding a mirror up to modern life.

That’s enough about my piece, there are eleven others being performed and it’s going to be a brilliant weekend at the museum. I haven’t seen all of work, but it’s likely that there will be pieces that make you laugh, some that make you sad and definitely ones that make you stop and think.

It’s a similar setup to Show of Strength’s Trading Local, but instead of taking place in local shops, each piece will be performed in the museum. If you’ve never been to Trading Local, think of it as a mini theatre festival that happens in one building and there will be a timetable so you can see find out what’s happening, when and where it’s taking place. Assuming it becomes available online, I’ll post a link to it, when it’s released.

In the meantime, if you want to find out more, there are some links below and I hope you get a chance to visit the RAMM over the weekend and see some of the Gripping Yarns.

Useful Links

RAMM Gripping Yarns Page
Exeter Northcott Gripping Yarns Page
Exeter Northcott Gripping Yarns Press Release
Show of Strength