Over the next few months you can
catch the show in Japan at Okinawa, in England at Loughborogh &
Nottingham and in Gallway, Ireland.
For more information on the tour, click
here.
If you saw the show and you liked
the music you can purchase Nik and Niroshni's amazing soundtrack
here, if
you so wished.
If ever you fancy learning Gaelic
and have the time to give to it, I can't recommend the introductory
course,
An
Cùrsa
Inntrigidh and the progression course,
An
Cùrsa Adhartais, strongly enough.
The methodology of learning the
language is brilliant, and highly adaptable to your own needs.
It's a brilliant challenge and one I've relished. So be expecting
updates in Gaelic on this site in the relatively near future.
(Once I've set the macros up for the accents in Front Page.)
Too Many Cooks
I'm chuffed to bits to have been
asked to work with Nik Paget-Tomlinson providing direction for his new
show, Too Many Cooks, which he's delivering as part of his
Star Catchers residency.
Nik is joined on stage by the highly talented Hazel Darwin Edwards, with
whom I can't wait to work.
Nik and I met whilst working on
Cloud Man back in 2010, so I'm rather looking forward to working with
him again.
Set in a kitchen with a live and
looped soundtrack of music from kitchen objects, it's got the potential
to be a wonderfully silly feast for the eyes and ears.
More news and videos as it
develops in June.
Gaelic On Mull
The Gaelic on Mull Project pilot
is up and running with Ulva Ferry Primary.
So far we've had workshops on
drama, basket making, and film making, all with a Gaelic language and
culture focus, married with the school's crofting topic.
Coming soon are workshops on
Gaelic placenames, an arts based workshop and a Waulking and Spinning
workshop.
There will be two upcoming Ùlpan
taster workshops in the near future, for the older members of the
community.
It's been a blast to run this
project with Heather Waller and the children of Ulva Primary.
There's so much to do on it that the mighty Fiona Blakey has come on
board to help run it too. I'm delighted with the way it's working.
Understanding Cinema
The Centre For the Moving Image's
Understanding Cinema Project, which I've been delivering with
schools in Edinburgh and Dundee is rapidly drawing to its conclusion.
There will be a presentation of the films at the Film House in Edinburgh
as part of the Edinburgh International Film Festival on the 20th of
June. The films are looking particularly interesting and range
from comedy to horror.
We'll be taking one of the films
to Paris, to the
Cinémathèque Française as part of the Cinema, Cent Ans De Jeunesse
programme in June.
I'm really looking forward to this, as the group will get to see their
work on the big screen, along with offerings from other groups from all
over the world. It should be a very special event.
Ulva Ferry Local Development
I've been working extensively with
Cally Fleming and the Ulva Ferry Community over the last year, looking
to develop business, housing and social opportunities on the West
coast of Mull. The project has a few months to run yet, and we're
making interesting progress.
One of the particular highlights
of the job is working with other LDO's from around the country at
sharing events, such as in Doune, Knoydart in March. Doune is a
very inspirational place, and if you ever get a chance to visit it, I
can't recommend it strongly enough.
The Ulva Ferry Community took part
in a consultation which has lead to the development of a Community Plan,
which Cally and I published in April.
If you'd like a copy of the community plan, please feel free to download
it
here.
Working with the community of Ulva
Ferry is a very inspirational experience. The breadth of knowledge
and expertise of people in the area is awesome. When my time
working with them comes to an end, I think the legacy it will leave on
my creative work will be significant.
Faerie Stories
In February of this year I worked
with Roundstring Theatre
on Faerie Stories, which went out on the road in the Spring, taking in
venues in Kirkcaldy, Edinburgh, Bunessan, Ullapool, Banchory, Stonehaven,
Dundee and Paisley.
Mixing puppetry, tréteau, music,
elements of Gaelic and English, Faerie Stories will be charming its way
around the country again, soon.
If you're in London over the
festive season you can catch up with Cloudia and Cloudman at the South
Bank as part of their
Winter
Festival. The show runs from the 22nd of December to the 6th
of January.
Gaelic On Mull
The report in to the Gaelic on
Mull Project which Heather Waller of Ulva Ferry School and I have been
developing over the last few years is now complete. We are looking to
deliver the pilot of the project at Ulva Ferry School from January to
July '13.
I've
been working with the Centre
for the Moving Image in Edinburgh,
La Cinémathèque Française
and the BFI in the
delivery of the pilot of an exciting program of workshops called
Understanding Cinema, inspired by the wonderful
Cinéma, Cent Ans de Jeunesse project.
Taking
the theme of "Mettre en Scene" or Placement and Shooting, the project
invites groups to explore the language of film making through very
precise means, and highly specific exercises. As the years of the
project progress the participants build a detailed vocabulary of film
making.
I've
been working with a group in Scotland on the delivery of this project,
delivering training days, and meeting with participants on Glow as they
work their way through the exercises.
It's a very exciting project, and one I'm
delighted to be a part of.
Videos of Recent Work
Here's a link to some recent work:
The Lorimer Delusion -
Rehearsal Footage
Dark
Forest - Rehearsal Footage
Dark Forest was part of the Giants In The Forest
project, created by Vision Mechanics and performed at Calgary Art in
Nature. The Dark Forest event was directed by Simon MacIntyre.
The Lorimer Delusion- Surge
Cabaret
Who is Sam Lorimer?
What did he do?
And why do they want him dead?
A devised Tréteau theatre piece
inspired by the adventure thrillers of Alfred Hitchcok, The Lorimer
Delusion, can be seen as part of the Surge Cabaret at The Arches
from Friday 27th - Sun 29th July.
Starring performer / devisors
Camille Marmié, Emma Prior, Gilchrist Muir, Lewis Sherlock and Miriam
Sarah Doren, The Lorimer Delusion was devised and directed by
myself.
Experience over 30 different
locations in 8 minutes 41 seconds.
Check back in to see a video of
The Lorimer Delusion after the cabaret has been and gone.
Do come and see us at the cabaret,
as it will be quite spectacular, especially as the host is the one and
only Marquis De Sade.
I wonder if he'll have the True Prince Of Wales along with him lurking
somewhere in a cupboard?
More info on the Surge festival and Conflux can be found
here.
Fairy Play
Over the coming months I'm going
to be working with Ewan MacIntyre and Reem Behzad as we devise a puppet
play based around myths and tales of the Scots Fairy Folk.
Highly visual, the play will be
performed in Gaelic and English with the occasional word of Arabic for
good measure.
More details as the project grows.
Youth Music Theatre
In August I'll be directing Youth
Music Theatre's Edinburgh Summer Skills project at Fettes College.
I'll be working with Ross Brown -
MD & Composer, Chris Kidd - Choreographer and a cast of 41 young people
as we devise a musical in a week around the concept of "farce".
Needless to say I'm enjoying
researching the project by filling my eyes with Fawlty Towers.
I've been working with our local
arts centre in the North of Mull, An Tobar, in the delivery of the
Giants In The Forest project.
Created by Vision Mechanics, the
project places three giant willow heads in forests throughout the UK and
then invites community projects to take ownership of them, working
through various arts disciplines.
Here, on Mull, I've been working
with our heads at the Calgary Woodland Art in Nature through several
projects.
I've made a film with Salen
Resource centre, which will be uploaded to vimeo soon, and ran Gaelic
and English Drama workshops.
We also created a playwriting
competition, which was won by local writer Catriona MacLeod. The
finished piece will be performed as a rehearsed reading by a cast of
young local actors from Mull Youth Theatre in the Calgary Woods on
the evening of Saturday 18th August.
Links to the Giants in the Forest
project can be found
here and
here.
Cloud Man
Cloud Man continues to tour here
there and everywhere.
Over the last few months he's been
spotted at Imaginate in Edinburgh and in festivals in Brighton, Bath and
throughout Ireland.
He'll be floating in to the
Edinburgh Fringe from the 1st - 14th of August at the Scottish Story
Telling Centre. A link to the Fringe site can be found
here.
After that he's off to London to
join the National Theatre for Inside Out. A link to the National's
site can be found
here.
There's a few more jaunts here and
there in the Autumn, about which more later, and then you can catch
Cloud Man over the festive season at the Southbank Centre, London from
the 22nd of December - 6th January. A link to which can be
found
here.
Cloud Man also has his own website
with all sorts of info and activities on:
www.cloud-man.co.uk
Community Development
Since the start of April I've been
working with Cally Fleming of the Hebridean Whale and Dolphin Trust in a
job share post as Local Development Officer for the Ulva Ferry area of
Mull.
Over the coming months we will be
drawing up a Community Plan, following consultations with the community
in the Ulva Ferry area. This plan will then be used to source
funding to improve the residents' amenities and facilities.
If you want to follow our
adventures please feel free to add us on twitter
@UFLDO.
Gaelic Film Project
Mar A Tha Daoine Eile Gar
Faicinn
Phase 1 of CAST's Gaelic Film
Project 2012 is now complete, and the videos are up on the web for all
to see.
We hope to deliver phase two in the coming
months. More news as the project develops.
December 2011
Conflux: Master Class in
Tréteau
30th Jan - 3rd Feb
Dancebase- Edinburgh
Tréteau is a dynamic form of theatre that
places a group of actors on a 2 metre by 1 metre stage and asks them to
tell the biggest story they possibly can, without ever leaving that
stage.
How, using such a tiny space, can you tell the
grandest tales: The life and death of Joan of Arc; the sinking of the
Kursk; Cyrano de Bergerac’s trip to the moon; or the entirety of HBO’s
The Sopranos?
The discipline that tréteau imposes on you is
economy. Economy of space, economy of movement and economy of narrative.
Economy with high return.
With up to 7 people on one tréteau we will
explore the nature of space and imagination at play.
As a case study, the work of the masterclass
will reference Bohumil Hrabal’s Too Loud A Solitude, in which a lone
paper recycler muses on his life, solitude and the nature of language,
learning and meaning. The work will be physical, and based around
exploration and devising in a workshop situation.
At the end of this class participants will be
better prepared to devise and present their own epic-scale work for
intimate-scale settings…
CAST - Gaelic Film Project
January - March 2012
I'll be delivering film making
workshops inspired by the work of Mitchell & Kenyon to Gaelic Medium
Unit schools in Argyll & Bute throughout the start of 2012. The
films will be silent, one shot movies capturing an element of everyday
life from each of the school's town life.
I will be working with BBC Young
Musician finalist Rona Wilkie on the project. Rona will work with
the participants to create a unique score for each film.
CAST - Non Violent
Communication
Secondary School Workshops
I'm delighted to be continuing on
with the conception and delivery of more NVC workshops through out the
secondary schools of Argyll and Bute.
Mull Schools Gaelic Project
An exciting project running
throughout 2012. More information and external websites to follow
soon.
Playwriting Workshops @ An
Tobar
The playwrighting workshops are
continuing on apace, and we're heading towards working on our final
pieces.
A sharing of our work will be held
in February.
September 2011
Playwriting Workshops @ An
Tobar
Starting on October the 6th I will be running a
series of 10 Playwriting workshops, in Tobermory at Ana Tobar, here on
the island of Mull.
The workshops will be offered through Argyll &
Bute's Community Education Office.
The workshops will look at how plays work, what
makes something theatrical, how to craft and structure story and the
balancing process of visual and linguistic interests in a play.
We'll work through classic exercises,
improvisation, textual analysis and a hearty dose of watching examples
from the world of theatre and film.
There will be a web page on this site to
accompany the sessions, where participants can refer back to the
materials used in class.
Gaelic on Mull Schools
Project
Throughout this coming year I'm
going to be working with schools on the islands of Mull & Iona to see
what Gaelic language and culture means to the young people here and now.
We're going to be working through
the curriculum for excellence to investigate the past, present and
future of Gaelic in our communities.
I'll post more information about
the project as it develops, but if you're interested in what it may look
like, please feel free to have a gander at this project outline:
Project Outline (pdf)
June 2011
CLOUD MAN
Made in Scotland Showcase - Edinburgh Fringe - August 2011
I'm delighted to announce that Cloud Man has
received a place in Creative Scotland's Made In Scotland Festival,
showcasing the best in Scottish theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe in
August this year.
We're delighted to be a part of the festival
and in such distinguished company as Fish & Game, David Hughes Dance,
Grid Iron and 13 other companies, hand picked to be part of this
exciting initiative, now in it's third year.
For more info on Made in Scotland please click
here.
For Cloud Man's page on the Made in Scotland
site, click
here.
Introduction to Gaelic
Drama Workshops
Throughout June I'll be dotting
around the Isle of Mull delivering Gaelic language workshops to primary
schools through the medium of drama.
The workshops are offered through
Fèis
Muille /
Fèisean nan Gàidheal.
Preparation for the Neutral
Mask Workshop
On June the 8th I'll be delivering
a workshop on preparing the body to work with the Neutral Mask for The
Actor's Kitchen in Edinburgh. If you'd like more info on the
Actor's Kitchen please feel free to visit their site
here.
April 2011
Amid The Blaze Of Noon
by
The Village Orchestra
I'm pleased to tell you that an album on which
I collaborated as a guitarist has just been released through Highpoint
Lowlife.
The Village Orchestra and I are long time
collaborators on various projects, theatrical and otherwise, including
the sound experiment Accrual...
Cloud Man could be coming to a theatre near
you! The show is part of the excellent Puppet Animation Festival
touring across Scotland from March!
The tour dates are:
27/3
Edinburgh - Pleasance Theatre
7/4
Rutherglen - Town hall
8/4
Dunfermline - Carnegie Hall
10/4
Stracathro - Village
Hall
12/4
Mull - Druimfin, Tobermory
14/4
Macrobert - Stirling
22/4
Edinburgh - Scottish Storytelling Centre
25/4
New Galloway - Catstrand
December 2010
Cloud Man has successfully completed
its first tour, taking in Glasgow's Mask & Puppet Centre, a couple of
schools in the Clyde valley and an Imaginate event in Livingstone.
But have no fear, Cloudia and her little friend will be back out on the
road in the Spring of 2011 as part of the Puppet Animation Festival,
touring all over Scotland and then heading off on its own here and
there.
I recently attended a Federation of
Scottish Theatre event about artists working through the curriculum for
excellence within Scottish schools and was very inspired by the hope
that there is within the artist and school communities.
In the new year I will be delivering
workshops for Argyll & Bute's CAST team in schools right around the
county, looking at empathy and non-prejudicial means of communication.
It looks to be a wonderful project, and I'm very pleased to be working
with drama therapist Rachael Rodgers and a team of highly skilled visual
and dance artists in the delivery and creation of the workshops.
Planning has started for a large scale
community project here in the North West corner of Mull, taking place in
a local sculptural trail, which should hopefully reach fruition late in
the summer of 2011. Do feel free to drop back in and check out how
it develops...
My work with Mull Film Club takes us
out on the road in January with our annual tour, taking films to Creich
in the Ross of Mull and Dervaig here, off of the Quinish Peninsula.
First though is the matter of Xmas and It's A Wonderful Life, which
we're showing at An Tobar, Tobermory on the 23rd of December.
Regards of the season
to you, where 'ere you be.
October 2010
I'm
delighted to have been invited to direct Ailie Cohen's new play Cloud
Man which will make it's premier at the Scottish Mask and
Puppet Centre in Glasgow on the 23rd of October.
Cloud Man lives in the clouds. It is a very quiet life and a bit lonely
sometimes. Cloudia is a cloud expert. Her life is quiet and a bit lonely
sometimes too. One day they meet and an ordinary day becomes more
colourful and chaotic than either thought possible. Adventure is just
one little step away!
For more
information please feel free to visit Ailie's site
here.
I’ve launched an
amazon A-Store. It’s called Theatre Books For The Curious and can be
found here:
Bookshop on my site, or
alternatively here on Amazon’s A Stores:
The store features
lots of books on and about theatre with my comments on them to help you
select what you’re after. It breaks down in to several sections, from
Plays to Directors, Theory Books and many more beyond.
The shop is an
ongoing project, so it will change quite a lot over the coming months,
so do drop by to see what's changed now and again if you like.
Northern Scottish Touring Fund
Thursday
my new project, based on GK Chesterton’s The Man Who Was Thursday,
has been short listed for the new Northern Scottish Touring Fund.
A touring theatre
piece, with an accompanying education programme, Thursday, will
be a very entertaining and exciting piece. More details to follow
soon!
For more information
have a look at the NSTF site on:
August sees me working as Movement
Director with Youth Music Theatre in Edinburgh for their Summer Studio,
devising a musical in a week with over 42 young people on stage.
The project, entitled Terminal, is
directed by Eddie Latter with original music by Jodie Oliver.
June 2010
Ulva Ferry Primary school, here on the
Isle of Mull, invited me to come and join them for an afternoon to help
out with their “Victorians” project. This involves me shaving my beard
off in to a very fetching pair of lamb chops, sporting braces and a
tause.
Neutral
Mask Workshops
I'm
running Neutral Mask workshops in Glasgow from
Monday 29th March until Friday
the 2nd of April.
The Neutral Mask is one of the most
dynamic actor training tools, providing the corner stone of the Lecoq
approach to making theatre.
The
workshops will be practical in nature, building on the participants
physicality, and based around their own stamina.
The
workshops will be of use to actors, writers, directors, dancers &
designers, people keen to learn more about physical theatre and anyone
who wants to revitalise their creativity or top up their skills.
The masks we'll be using
were created by Max Dana, please visit him on
www.mister-face.com
If you'd like any further information please feel free to drop me a
line.
I'm intending to run some neutral mask workshops in Glasgow in April /
May 2010.
If you'd like any further information please feel free to drop me a
line.
November 2009
November sees me
directing Johnny McKnight's Cinderella at Platform and on
tour around various community centres in Glasgow. Dates and details to
come soon.
Argyll Workshops
I'm currently out
on tour delivering workshops for Argyll & Bute in primary schools around
the county, taking in the sights of our fine land, whilst listening to
the finest progressive rock known to man.
Casting For
Panto
As well as being on tour with Mull Theatre I’m currently doing a spot of
casting for a panto that I’ll be directing at Platform, Easterhouse
later in the year.
The panto in question is Johnny McKnight’s version of Cinderella,
the contract is equity minimum / ITC and the project will run from the
start of November until the 19th of December. It will be a
touring production, rehearsed at Platform, touring to various community
centres and spaces in Glasgow and the surrounds, then returning to
Platform for a two week run leading up to the 19th of
December.
I’m looking for:
2 Ugly Sisters
An Evil
Stepmother
A Buttons
If you would think you would be appropriate for any of the above roles
please feel free to forward your CV on to me at
info@alsatch.com
Many thanks
Alasdair
Island Nights Entertainments
Mull
Theatre Tour Summer 2009
I'm now
on tour with Mull Theatre's
summer tour Island Nights Entertainments.
The director is Graham McLaren, of Theatre Babel, Alan Penman is
creating the original songs and music (www.alanpenman.co.uk) with the
students and Jen Edgar is also working as assistant director.
Tickets are free, but have to be booked in advance.
Neutral
Mask Workshops
Argyll Workshops
Island Nights Entertainments
Transform Moray
Hong
Kong Microfest
One Man Rant