police – Hannah Nicklin

A lot of Big Things have happened this month. And you know how Big Things sit on your reality and timescales a bit like the metaphorical orange on a plastic sheet of astrophysics? Well among other things a date I have been looking at from the ‘before’ of for three years suddenly now is in the ‘after’. I totally passed my viva and am now Dr Hannah. Yep, that’s right. Officially now have more letters after my name than in it (BA (Hons), MPhil(b), PhD), small corrections to make for the 1st of January, but otherwise DOCTOR. Which, it turns out, is just a word. And I’m still the same. Still earn substantially less than the minimum income standard, still go on earnest but overly simplistic rants on twitter, still sway to the same procrastination and worries. And speaking of worries. One of them is that it turns out that ‘after’ viva time contain a lot of ‘almost previews tour for A Conversation With My Father’ time.

Eek!

So, while my job is to re-learn all of the lines and directions, your job, dear readers, is to PLEASE COME TO THEM!

What is it? Let’s ask the Ctrl+V Fairy!

A Conversation With My Father

Made in collaboration with Alex Kelly

This is a true story.

This is a story about Them. A story about Us. A story about my dad – a retired policeman – and me, a protestor. About fear, bravery, being kettled, Superted, the Lone Ranger, policing the people in front of you, and being sent out of class. It’s about working out what matters, and standing up to protect it.

It’s about me, and my Dad.

There are also some jokes in it. Because serious things are worth laughing at a little bit.

Mentored and supported by Third Angel. Supported with public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, ARC Stockton and Theatre in the Mill. Additional support from Embrace Arts and Sheffield Theatres.

#aconversationwith

It’s going to be doing previews in three cities beginning with ‘L’, because that’s how I rolll. NEED MORE VISUAL STIMULATION? There’s a trailer at the bottom. Scrolll.

Previews Tour Dates:

20^th July – Leicester (at the Crumblin’ Cookie 3pm MATINEE)
Tickets by donation on the door, facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/256755357800146/

21^st July – Leeds (HUB, 5pm)
Tickets by donation after the event, info here, facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/126921560847016

24^th-25^th July – London (Battersea Arts Centre, 7.30pm)
Tickets and Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/465665396859958

Before running in Edinburgh at Northern Stage at St. Stephen’s 14^th-24^th August (exl 20^th) 8.05pm
Tickets: here Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/119382568268633

img_c4_8472-ed1-sm — ACW at Hatch earlier this year, image by David Wilson Clarke

So earlier on this Autumn I was really happy to announce that I’d got Grants for the Arts Support to match funding and support in kind from 3 venues which meant I was going to be able to develop A Conversation With My Father into a full length solo show. I promised further details, and here, just two weeks before it all starts (eek!) are those.

For those who might not remember, A Conversation With My Father is a solo piece born out of a conversation between my dad (an ex-policeman) and me (his protestor daughter). A conversation about fear, grey areas, them and us, duty, and standing up to protect what you think matters. I don’t intend it to be a piece about which side you should take, and it is not addressed at the police, or protestors specifically, rather it’s a conversation between a daughter and father, who is proud of her, which also happens to expose the problems with the idea of ‘sides’ in the first place. This is my first solo show, and will (fanfare…) be developed in the first three months of 2013 with the support of ARC Stockton, Sheffield Theatres, Embrace Arts, MYSTERY VENUE NUMBER FOUR, Third Angel and an Arts Council Grants for the Arts award. (Early work in progress showings have been seen at The Little Festival of Everything, Hatch: Scratch, Contact Theatre’s Flying Solo festival and The Junction’s Sampled Festival.)

The MYSTERY VENUE NUMBER FOUR is an exciting addition of new support – a fourth week at another venue in Yorkshire – which I’m just pinning down, and will announce as soon as possible.

The process will be four weeks in residence in each theatre (spread over three months) in a room with Alex Kelly of Third Angel as mentor and director, plus a visit or two from my dad, writing, improvising, making, learning, thinking and developing the material I’ve already got into something fuller. Full-length, in fact. At the end of each residency there will be an invited or open showing to the public, and in ARC and MYSTERY VENUE NUMBER FOUR options to come along to workshops with me. The aim is to get a finished-ish piece up and reading for Edinburgh and/or touring in 2013/14.

So in the meantime, I’m sure I’ll blog progress as and when it happens (though I won’t bother you about all the learning about spreadsheets and other professional development stuff that’s happening at the moment) and, if you’re interested in seeing one of the work in progress showings, let me know, and I’ll make sure you’re added to some kind of list or other. Here are the dates for those (times closer to the time, like)

January 11th 2013 – Embrace Arts, Leicester (very early work in progress)
February 8th 2013 – ARC Stockton (mid-process work in progress)
March 1st 2013 – The Crucible, Sheffield (invited showcase)
Mid-late March tbc 2013 – Yorkshire (open showcase)

See you in 2013!

Tag: police

A Conversation With My Father in 2013