Tag: Update

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Illness, Writing, and Workshopping.

I know, I know, it’s been a while, yes? I’m sorry, I have a note Miss, I’ve been ill, vomiting in fact. Vomiting commas by the look of that last sentence. But yes, I have been ill for about a week, and only really feeling better over the weekend, then I went gallivanting off to London for a second PhD meeting (The Loughborough funding looking so-so I thought I’d spread my eggs over two metaphorical baskets, and am putting a block grant application into Royal Holloway). The meeting was excellent (it was also really nice to be in London for a day, the place is calling to me!) but unfortunately cut severely into my Being Someone Else redraft final few days. Which took me up to yesterday, and then work, and now here I am. So that’s my long winded excuse for not posting sooner. The redraft went OK, I haven’t had the chance to do a reading, or have some time away from it so I have gotten to the point where I honestly don’t know whether I’m making the thing better or worse, and have just posted it off to Steve for the final time. In hope. I really need the externals to like it this time, and I’d also quite like it to be a good play.

I have two other things to announce (don’t get too excited) the first is that without any creative stuff happening after this redraft (I’m going to take a little break before reworking Eismas, or starting anything new) I am going to try and keep my hand in with some shorter writing, monologues, short stories, bits of prose, that kind of thing. And I will be posting them here. The first thing I’m going to do starting Monday is a little piece of writing on the theme of ‘loss’ each day for 7 days- a week of little writings. Why ‘loss’? It was something provided as a stimulus for submissions elsewhere – I didn’t have time to do anything, but did have quite a lot of ideas, so though I may as well go for it – so I will. Watch this blog- Monday through Friday next week for some EPIC WRITINGS. That’s right. The other thing I have to announce are the details of the workshopped extract of Eismas that’s happening on the 1st of May, see below for more. Should be really good to hear the piece, get some reactions etc. Thanks for the opportunity to Scary Little Girls. Stay tuned later in the week for the new writings, and feedback from the 1st of May.

Thanks for reading

Dear Friends,

The second Scary Little Salon is upon us!

This time rather than focusing generally on new writing we’re honing in on four plays that Scary Little Girls are currently developing/potentially interested in developing. Here’s some information on the selected plays:

‘Consuming Stories’ written by Rebecca Mordan

Under permanent house arrest, surrounded by scandalous accusations of blood and perversion, the Countess Bathory is told stories by the one servant remaining to her. The boredom that threatens the sanity of both women is in part staved off by the tales that are brought to life before the Countess in the single tower room. The only other change in the monotonous existence of the Lady and her retainer is the occasional visits from the man who first accused and then incarcerated Bathory, her son-in-law and the inheritor of her lands since her trial – but do his visits come at their own cost?

‘

If You Lived Here You Would Be Home By Now’ written by LH Trevail

When the biometric lock refuses to open in a state-of-the-art city show-home, three prospective tenants and one estate agent are temporarily imprisoned in the lap of plastic luxury. As their situation becomes increasingly inconvenient they find escape and privacy in their dreams, but someone has been taking their dreaming a tad too seriously.


‘The Tenth Box’ written by Kate Kerrow

World War II Medium, Helen Duncan meets the most pre-eminent psychic investigator of his generation, Mr. Harry Price. During a series of arranged seances, Harry begins to uncover the secrets behind Helen’s infamous materialisations leading to key evidence which contributes to her being the penultimate woman to stand trial for for Witchcraft in Britain.

‘Eismas’ written by Hannah Nicklin.

Eismas is set roughly 30 years in the future.

Amid a world of large scale flooding and other ‘extreme’ weather, several ruined harvests mean that global food supplies are scarce. A one child policy has been enforced throughout Europe . Eismas (Lithuanian for traffic) imagines a black market trade in healthy male babies, for which women are trafficked across the EU (as well as for the ‘standard’ sex trade).

It would be wonderful to see you all there for food, drink, fun and entertainment. It’s also a unique opportunity to shape the direction SLG takes in the near future, your creative and critical feedback is a really important part of the evening.

Event details:
Date: Friday 1st May
Time: 7pm
Venue: Bodrums Cafe
61 Stoke Newington High Street
Stoke Newington
London
N16 8EL

Transport: For map, underground, overground and travel by car see http://www.londontown.com/TransportInformation/Restaurant/Bodrum_Cafe/74e0/#MAP

If you are travelling by bus:
Take the 73 towards Seven Sisters from Euston or Angel or from Angel take the 476 towards Northumberland Park . Both buses run every 4-7 minutes and the 73 is 24 hours.

Many Thanks,
SLG Team

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A Very Quick Post

Hello all, apologies for not posting a bit sooner, but I’ve been gallivanting around Leicestershire on a shoestring budget (and more bottles of red wine than is strictly sensible). Thanks again to all the friends who had me stay, fed me, and generally entertained me, was lovely to see Lucy and MorpheanRamble, Robin Johnson, and my friend Jon, who is unfortunately backward and does not blog so I cannot link him (thinking of it, he should totally do a book review blog. I will tell him this). So yes, a lovely weekend of catching up with all my friends, a nice meal out with Tapas, which I’ve never had before. People seem surprised at this, but Lincolnshire is a bit… behind in terms of culture, when I grew up there, there was only one curry and one Chinese place in the area. And you didn’t get the same kind of curry and Chinese they do elsewhere, added swede or something probably. But yes, Tapas rules! And then the next day was a lovely day of board games (scrabble mainly, a record game and a very worthy adversary) Rock Band, movies, and, as previously mentioned, more than a wise amount of red wine.

And then Monday, my PhD meeting. Not much to talk about that really, Dan Watt at Loughborough Uni is as brilliant as ever, was nice to catch up, and, believe it or not, really nice to be back in Loughborough. The world was conspiring towards it though with a gorgeously sunny day, and freshly cut grass smells wafting around me as I walked in to the university (from the outskirts to the centre of the town in about 20 minutes. I love that). I’ve decided that my proposed thesis will be titled Theatre and Technology. And I think will look at both the use of technology in improving/changing access to theatre and the theatrical experience itself, as well as the way theatre writing approaches how technology is changing our daily experiences/communication. I did mention before how I wanted to write something that pulled in Feminism too, and this definitely will as I intend the thesis to look at the potential for technology in democratising, and bringing in the experience of the Other (IE non white-middle-class-developed-country-male) and how that is written into, and used in the making of theatre. I’m also going to be combining practice (a body of creative writing/performance) in order to test my theories, and make sure I officially have dedicated writing time available to me, formally speaking. I’m thinking of doing a 60:40 theoretical:practical split, which I think will suit my intentions nicely. I’ll try and post my ideas (for the 500 word or so proposal itself) as they develop. I also have to come up with a suggested bibliography, all of which is a bit weird because it will all change a great deal as I actually start getting through it all. But there we go. Hoops must be jumped as I am applying for the single studentship that the department has to offer. The deadline is April, and I should find out in May. I’m basically screwed if I don’t get it, because all of the humanities’ block grants were allocated elsewhere. So yes, tough competition. Dan seemed to think I had a good chance, and I know that Loughborough know me still (there was a big furore about my dissertation A Feminist Theatre Manifesto for the Developing World, I was awarded 84 (I think) in the end, but that happened because the external moderators were demanding that the mark was raised, and some of the department thought that no undergrad work should ever be awarded that high a mark (So I’m told, and I’m making that way more dramatic than it probably was, but yes, smarm smarm)). So, hopefully my work throughout the BA will mean that I’m not a strange name. Fingers crossed eh? I know you’re always supposed to have a plan B, and there are probably several, but I want this studentship so very much, I really do. I kind of want to be happy again, and feel that a combination of financial security, nearby countryside, friends in close proximity, and time to think and do something I love will help me be that.

So yes. Must get on, work tomorrow, and I’m always a zombie on the first day of the three I work because of my appalling sleep patterns. Thanks for reading, and wish me luck!