Hannah Nicklin
Hannah is a theatre maker, performer, producer, and occasional academic based in the East Midlands. She also runs a performance night in Leicester called 'Performance in the Pub'; speaks at events about theatre, games and digital technology; and works with individuals and companies on digital and playful things.
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Posts
- May 20, 13
On Thursday I hosted the last (for now, I will be returning with one, maybe two more, as part of my Edinburgh Previews in July, and the Everybody’s Reading Festival in October) of the regular Performance in the Pub nights that I’ve been running since January 2012. They’ve been a brilliant bloody thing to be a part of. And I’m not going to blather on about my own experience of it all for a change, as I did enough to that effect over on this blog post for the year anniversary. I’m really sad to have stopped running them, but to do so from a different city, and with all the new projects I’m working on now I’m in That London, and the problems of subsidising it out of the unpredictable income of a freelancer, is pretty much untenable. Alas. Alack. Etc.
I did get to do a cool thing to end on though – I handed out one of 40 limited edition coasters with writing on the back – donated by friends and performers from past events. That’s the main picture here – designed by the ever-brilliant Lee Keith Innes. Pay him to do stuff, yeah? Felt nice to give people something to keep, of the art as well as the merch.
I also do want to carry on supporting and promoting this kind of thing. I’ll be trying to do something Proper with the site and the legacy of it all as soon as I have a moment (September), but for now, I was wondering if you could help me? Could you tell me what that legacy is? If you’ve experienced Performance in the Pub in any way – whether one of the online bits of work over the summer, whether you’ve seen a show, or performed in one, if you have a moment, could you tell me a little bit about your strongest impression/s of the experience? Any moments that stand out? Either on Twitter @performancepub, on the Performance in the Pub Facebook page, or in the comments section here. Tell me about a moment, a feeling, an idea, anything that’s stuck with you. That you still remember or return to.
If you have the time, thank you.
- Mar 27, 13
I’ve been trying to write this blog post for a long time. 3 weeks or so. OK, so not AGES, but a while. A bit. It has a title: “A Conversation With My Father: final, Bradford week”. But I’m not really sure what to write. Because unlike all the other things that I write about – on my blog, or for zines and reviews, my PhD and academic papers, I’m not looking at this from the outside. I’m in it. Properly buried deep inside it, and it, in turn, in me. I think of two images when I write that. I think about a song that used to play off a tape my mum kept in the car. Dusty Springfield. And her grainy sounding voice with the crunch of tyres on gravel.
“Like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning
On an ever spinning reel”That stationary smell of the inside of the black car with the grey patterned seats on a hot day. The song my dad used to sing every time we came back from a long drive, from Scarborough, Whitby, Wales on holiday.
“Here we are again
Happy as can be.”And I think of that Ren and Stimpy* gross-out kids cartoon, that was on in the 90s, on Nickelodeon. Satellite TV! Imagine that. And this one episode (I can’t find a still from it you’ll be glad to hear) where Stimpy turns himself inside out. I think of that, too. I think of how I felt standing in front of gently house-lit friends, family, and strangers at the end of the Bradford week and telling them this story. I think of the bits of the show, the quiet bits that stay behind my eyes – that Alex, my collaborator, that he knows, but probably, he’s the only one. Some of the things I’ve seen, and the things I feel, most of them I tell you… and to stand there and tell you what I do, what I’ve done, in situations where I’m scared, cold, angry, frightened, or about the rationalisations I draw out of myself, that allow me to step back out of danger, to walk away from the symbol I’ve tried to be. That’s what it feels like when I tell you about those memories. Inside out. Raw. In the same way when I sit across the table and look at the empty chair where my dad was when I did the interview, empty, now, though, in the theatre. And I describe him to you. As he appears to me simultaneously across 28 years. A shimmering reality of a person.
I set out to make a piece of theatre about the space between them and us. In order to do that, I stand in that inbetween, set-aside space of the theatre and tell you about Hannah and Roger Nicklin. One of us a policeman, the other a protestor. Both of us more than that. Me and my dad. I’m proud of us both. I’m scared of when we might let ourselves down.
In Sheffield, at the very end of the third week, we did a MAJOR rewrite. Except it wasn’t major. It felt major, until it lay there in front of us, and then suddenly that was it. The story. Muddled, woven, difficult and true. Exactly in the same way life is. Rachel from Third Angel saw the uncut show on the Wednesday of that week and had said ‘you need to decide whether this is political, or it’s personal, which is the thing that matters most’.
It’s personal. It has to be. Through that it will – of course – be political, and the subject area, inevitably so. But the show Alex and I made; with the very great help of my dad, with the generous support of 4 theatres in the North and Middle of England; the show Alex and I made together is one only I can tell. It’s a true story. I can prove it, if you’ll consent to listen to me.
Also, I totally wrote an hour long show, learnt it all, and then remembered it in front of an audience.
I hope you’d be proud.
Here’s two things audience members said:
“Totally beautiful, affecting evening: A Conversation with my Father by the inestimable @hannahnicklin #Recommended in the strongest terms” – @discoverbrevity
“’A Conversation with my Father’ by @hannahnicklin – a terrific thing. The personal and political blend with charm and incisive thinking, win” @ADatMill
It’s going to be in Edinburgh from the 14th–24th of August. 8.05pm start. I’d love it if you could come. Venue announcement coming soon, and of course, I’ll definitely bring it to The Cookie in Leicester on the way up to preview, maybe somewhere in London and Leeds if I can too. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, forgive me for some thank yous: Thank you, Alex. Thank you Third Angel. Thank you to Arts Council England, ARC Stockton, and Theatre in the Mill. Thank you to Embrace Arts, Leicester, and to Sheffield Theatres. Thanks Lawrence for filming it, Lee for making some proper good (forthcoming) print work for it. And thanks, Daddy, for all that you are, and all you helped give me.
The end of week four. C’est tout.
*that was a weird show. You know what was weirder? Googling it just now and discovering the slashfic.
- Mar 13, 13
On Sunday I gave a provocation at a Salon hosted by Coney at Camden People’s Theatre, introduced by the lovely Tom Frankland (pictured). I was invited to respond to the question ‘how (can) we ask people to act?’, and offer my own question for discussion. Here is the thing that I said.
Audiences want to believe.
Audiences want to be told.
Audience want to play along.
Audiences turn away from ‘what is’ to conspire together to hold between them ‘what if’ – what if this were true, what if this was a different place and you were a different version of you.The word ‘conspire’, by the way, means ‘to breathe together’.
Theatre is a rip in the space-time continuum held apart by collective hands. Even if it is just me, maker, and you, participant. In that space between, that hot metallic space between ‘what is’ and ‘what if’ we breathe together.
I read that meaning of ‘conspire’ in a book called The Most Radical Gesture. In it a woman called Sadie quotes an old drunk French philosopher who said:
Plagiarism is necessary. Progress demands it.
I’m not citing him out of purposeful irony.
There’s something there for me about co-creation.
I make community theatre. For some reason people insist on calling me a ‘digital artist’ but as far as I’m concern you might as well also call me a ‘water drinking artist’.
I make community theatre. Communities online and off.
3 years ago I collected stories of kissing in the rain online and wrote a soundwalk around them, designed to be listened to under a white umbrella in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester. Incidentally that’s the only time I’ve been to Manchester and it didn’t rain).
In The Umbrella Project - yes umbrellas are a thing for me – 250 umbrellas were released into the wild of York with a number on them which when called, depending on the time of day, asked a different question; Tell me about York at night; Tell me about an encounter with a stranger; Tell me about a journey.
I also collected stories in person, and made 3 sound walks for different times of day, with each question’s answers as source material.
For Northern Big Board I spent 4 weeks in residence in a swimming and diving pool in Shipley near Bradford. The pool was suffering under government cuts and at the time were facing huge staffing upheaval – where, for example, 4 people with over 80s years experience of both working there and with one another were being interviewed for only 2 posts. And being interviewed for it by a friend.
I listened. I asked questions. Of both pool users and staff. Questions like ‘what does this place mean to you?’ ‘if you could have a plaque put up to you anywhere in the building where would you put it’ and ‘tell me about a time when you were the best of yourself’.
Dave told me about what it feels like to rip a dive – a perfect entry off a 10m platform – like silence he said.
Gee told me about looking up as he was administering CPR to someone who had had a heart attack to see his full team standing ready to take over and said ‘they were the best of me’.
Angie spoke of a place she had worked for over 35 years, the people she had seen grow up, have their own kids. She said ‘we’re like a family’ and that the cuts were like ‘a death in the family’.
I made 7 different interactive and non-interactive installations with their stories.
I set out to find common voices in these pieces – common experience, a common city, a community. But what I found – the overwhelming thing I found when I asked people for stories was the answer “oh, I haven’t got anything interesting to say.”
In York I asked a man with a zimmer frame – tell me about a journey – and he replied ‘oh, I’ve nothing to tell you.’ I reframed the question a couple of times and then he said ‘well, I have sailed around the world single handedly.’
No joke.
He told me ‘you can’t fight the ocean, you’d never win, you have to move with it.’
In Shipley people lit up when they saw their words on a plaque in their favourite place in the pool. They ran around trying to spot them all – came to me afterwards and asked if they could keep them. Their own words.
In Shipley when I asked one woman ‘tell me about a time you were the best of yourself’ she burst into tears at the idea that she might ever be worth enough to have an answer to that question.
Capitalism has stolen our stories.
It sells them back to us, like bottled water.
They are never about us.
They never listen.Audiences want to believe.
Audiences want to be told what to do.
Audiences want to play along.
They turn away from ‘what is’ and carefully pass ‘what if’ between them.I think the beginning of asking audiences to act is to make something they aren’t afraid to break. You’re not afraid to break things when you know they can be fixed. How they’re put together.
Something that doesn’t say ‘believe’ but ‘look’, that doesn’t tell, asks. Not ‘play along’ but ‘construct’ that in turning await from ‘what is’ turns us towards one another, within ‘what if’.
The work I told you about – my part in it – was constructing a mirror. Unimportant. The important part, I’ve discovered is the asking questions – in listening – but crucially in a way that tells people that they will be listened to. The work is the device that says ‘I heard you’.
The last thing I want to share with you is a definition of community I read in a different book. Another french dude – Jean Luc Nancy, in fact.
For Nancy community is not defined by space or proximity. No material communality – community – he says – should not be ‘productive’ infact it is impossible, indescribable, unavowable.
The clearest examples of community he talks about is that between lovers, and between the person dying and their companion. It is in the inability to truly accompany someone to their death in the knowledge you will take the same journey alone.
It is in the thrusting together ourselves together as we continue to do because we can never truly be close enough. The way I love you, this ache in the place I know in my head is not my heart is- is- this is- never enough never enough.
Community is the space between. Th space between what is – me – and what if – you, with your alike agency.
It is not the characters capitalism makes us to one another.
But hot, metallic possibility.I am not you but what if
That has not happened to me but what if
I have not made that action but what ifIn short; empathy.
These, I suggest, are the components of audience action:
- Knowing that you will be listened to
- Thinking you have something worth saying
- Listening to other people.
We cannot ask people to act. We can only offer them a space where they might recognise their being in the world, their being together with others, and their implication – the effect they might have upon that nexus. A space for action. A space of community.
We can offer them the community found in the in-between – in between possibility; in between you and me; in between idea and action – and we can offer them the ability to play with it without worrying it might break – by making it with them. Knowing that our coming together is impossible. Knowing the point is we try.
So, I have a question for you:
When was the last time you let someone change your mind?
- Mar 13, 13
While I am too exhausted – due to 2 solid weeks finishing the show, then moving house and starting a new job – to actually put out a proper reflective blog post on the making of A Conversation With My Father (coming to an Edinburgh near you soon(!)) I thought I’d offer you a bit of bonus material from off the cutting room floor. Consider it part of the show’s DVD extras DIRECTOR’S CUT, or something. You’ll see how it fits in if you see the final show (you should, the last two weeks of Edinburgh in an UNDISCLOSED VENUE) – where in fact the whole thing becomes condensed down to the single line “filled with the subversive silence of a school corridor during class”. But for now, in it’s solitary state (and completely out of context) here’s the story ‘School Corridor’. Enjoy:
School Corridor
I’m standing in the corridor outside a classroom.
I’m 14, wearing a white school shirt and black trousers, with my blue and white diagonally striped tie worn long, because that’s the opposite of what the cool kids do.
We’re on the first floor, outside a science classroom – the science classrooms are different to the rest, all high tables, tall benches, and Bunsen burners in the centre of each table. The corridor outside follows the outside edge of the building, with big windows all along the inside opposite me, looking onto a glass covered courtyard in the centre.
The corridor is usually full of people, shouting, fighting, teasing girls, pulling at newly acquired bra straps, rushing to get to their next lesson, or queuing up waiting to go in.
But now it’s quiet.
The only other person outside the classrooms is a boy called Nathan. Nathan is the son of one of Lincolnshire constabulary’s few black policeman, and is one of the cool kids. One of their leaders.
He’s standing on the other side of the science classroom door too, because he’s been sent out. Like me.
We haven’t been sent out together, but we have been sent out for the same thing: being cheeky.
We don’t have our usual teacher today. I corrected them about something. They don’t know me. Don’t know that though I’m a bit gobby, I’m a Good Girl, really. The teacher thought I was being cheeky –
- I was being cheeky -
and has sent me out.
I am angry at the injustice of it.
Or at least the injustice of being caught.
And I’m also scared. Scared because I’ve never been here before.
The empty school corridor is kind of… suffocating. It’s quiet and heavy, in a way I haven’t noticed before when out inbetween lessons, on an errand for a teacher, or with permission to go to the toilet. A place to move through then.
Now it’s a place with unknown rules.
A place for waiting…
…the feeling is…fuzzy… like the feeling you get in your extremities when you think you might faint but more… in my tummy. Here. I’m nervous. Worried. I don’t know what will happen next.
The waiting makes it worse. I can’t control what happens next.
To Nathan, this is just part of his day.
His control is not caring.
I’m trying to hide the fact that I’m scared.
But he’s still laughing at me.
It seems like ages, it probably isn’t.
The teacher comes out.
And I do what I do when I’m always scared.
I get ultra logical. I’m both wholly present in my body, heavy and more 3d. While I also watch from afar, observe my actions. I explain clearly and remember snippets of my mum talking about negotiation and assertiveness training that she did at work recently. Open body language, steady eye contact, listening, a clearly articulate response about why I don’t deserve to be punished for independent thinking.
Nathan sniggers at me.
The teacher lets me back in the classroom. Nathan stays out on the corridor.
The teacher was probably going to do that anyway.
- Feb 12, 13
You know, I’m not quite sure how interesting process blog posts are. Do you care enough about a show you haven’t seen to want to know how Alex and I are putting it together? If you are, let me know, I will totally write that. But I’m hedging my bets on ‘not interested yet’ and so am instead going to post a few photos of interesting looking things from the week. The 2nd week of the 4 weeks we have to make the show into something finished and full length. At week 2 version of the piece we defiinitely have enough material, and a little too much in places. The next two weeks (starting 25th Feb) are my favourite bits of writing, and I hope will be in devising, too: editing. Cutting. Making it fucking tight. Just the right word, just the right placing, or flicker of thought across my face, just the right question, well asked.
Also, before I paste a bit of new stuff in below, I must really say how proper proper brilliant ARC and all who sail in her are. So welcoming, and a wonderful, interested, articulate and empassioned mid-week workshop and after show discussion. Thanks to Annabel Turpin in particular (whose offer of space and a small grant began this whole development process) and Helen’s support, too, a brilliant programme manager.
Also, good news! Alex is no longer full of the black death. He did exactly zero vomiting during this week of the devising process. Improvement.
Oh, and you can now invite people to the facebook event for the Bradford showing. Check it out: Click
Photos:
- Jan 30, 13
The Tweeture - twitter made huggable and slightly sociopathic. Creature by Slingshot. Picture by CultureHackDay on Flickr
So below is a job application I put in a while back. They didn’t want these ideas, but I thought someone might. Open source job applications? Heh. It just felt a bit like staking my territory on this stuff, anyway. And I wanted to share it. I’m cutting out stuff that refers directly to the organisation and their job description, though, as it’s not a dig at them at all. Just some crystallising of thinking I wanted to put in public if not practice.
[stripped-out intro] I want to talk to you about ‘digital’.
What is digital in the arts? The easiest thing is to tell you what it’s not; it’s not live streaming, it’s not Twitter, and mostly, it is not marketing. It won’t sell stuff.
The act of selling is based on a broadcast ‘push’ model of communication that is increasingly irrelevant in a world of filter, of ‘pull’. We don’t live in the information age. We live in a noisy data-ridden one. Noise is data without context. Information is data with it. Our lives are noisier and noisier, and only through tools like personalisation are we able to filter it back into information. Personalisation – things like subscribing to people you like through social media, and getting your information via word of mouth and recommendation. Getting people to care, not see, is the key thing.
So I just want to set this out. For me, digital isn’t marketing, and it isn’t broadcasting. It doesn’t mean it can’t serve a similar purpose. But also I believe those words aren’t useful while they are so tied to an old communications-space.
Digital a different space, and space is important; we shape it but it also shapes us. McLuhan’s ‘the medium is the message’ should still be ringing in all of our ears: it doesn’t matter what you say as much as how you say it. What one train carried wasn’t half so important as the way the infrastructure changed our society. The digital age is changing our behaviour - how we communicate, and how we expect to interact. Audiences for the most part are now better considered participants. You can determine the level of interaction you want to employ, but know that it has to be a conscious and considered choice. It is my rule of thumb that you think ‘why’, always. Not ‘let’s make a digital thing and see if they interact’ but begin with the questions: ‘why interact?’ ‘Why should they care?’ This has implications. The greater the input invited, the less the direct authorial control, the role of author might become more like curator, or the task might even become massively authorial. The important point is that the relationship between audience and creator is no longer typically one thing. Who they both are, the story being told, and the platform it’s being told on all need to shape the techniques used. I propose that a creative digital producer should start by thinking about the space they design, the experience – not just the content or delivery method.
As one example, I’ve been an ‘active evaluator’ working alongside Hoipolloi to develop this online space that allows people to explore the online version of Hugh Hughes’ childhood, the same thing the live show of Stories From an Invisible Town explores. I’ve been working alongside them on the interaction design, and I’ve developed the following mantra:
- Why interact
- Why continue to interact?
- Why come back?
(You could ask similarly of your content; why care? Why continue to care? Why pass it on?). The work is a standalone online experience where you wander through the muddled memories of the central character – you build your own collection by tracing your own path through things past. It operative associatively – like memory does – and delivers a variety of content. It is of the universe from which the live show draws, but a completely different experience. I use this here as a key example of formal – rather than content-driven – innovation. Formally inventive; that’s what I propose to bring to [x organisation].
And indeed, in terms of relating the live experience as well as the flavour of a piece of work (what we might without the baggage of previous context call ‘broadcast’) – the live documentation involved in my work with Third Angel doesn’t create a standalone version of the show, but rather weaves the content-delivery mechanism into the show itself; taking the documenter into full view and performing as bridge between online audience and ‘real life’ one. This wouldn’t always be appropriate, but it shows possible a formally inventive approach to the brief ‘document’ or ‘broadcast’ which I would likewise be eager to implement.
And then, with regards to the [organisation] in particular, it’s incredibly important to pick up on the ‘festival’ model on which it lays strong emphasis, and the drive in the artistic programme towards learning and participation. I propose that the digital output should lean towards a game-studio approach – one which starts by asking the ‘why’ questions, and it doing so investigates the approaches and influences of ARGs, pervasive gaming, flash mobs and other carnivalesque models, all of which drive people into conjunction with one another. Because digital is not ‘the web’. What all these digitally triggered forms have in common is that they bring people together in a live, unusual and (metaphorically speaking) electric context. Digital is fundamentally a way of processing information, but socio-politically it is a new way of being that is changing how we communicate. The basic unit of the digital revolution is the human being. As such I believe all experiences, where possible should have real-life residues, because what social media in particular represents is the urge to reach out; connect to one another.
New community arts models that would draw new audiences, and connect in new ways to old, can be derived from digital and games-inspired practices. I have personally been involved in large-scale community-storytelling-led digital works such as the Umbrella Project, which translated the stories of a city (York) into three discreet interactive sound experiences, and more recently Northern Big Board – which collected the stories of the users and staff at a communal pool just outside of Leeds, and produced 7 digital installation pieces as part of a weekend-long festival and gala celebrating the place of the pool in its community. Such community-driven models represent an approach to diversity and participation that isn’t ‘representative’ but generative. So too I propose open culture (in terms of permissions, sharing, remixing) from process to product to enable ongoing online and physical participation and co-creation.
(by-the-by, this site-reactive [not specific] approach is also a fascinating model for new touring practices, developing along the ‘hyperlocalism’ trend in the digital world, but in a manner that isn’t flippant or exploitative).
My approach to setting up a games-studio approach would also involve looking to invite close work with leading innovative technology partners, such as BERG, and the Pervasive Media Studio; Caper’s Culture Hacks, Hide and Seek’s carefully crafted playful experiences; Coney’s anarchic and generous live play. But learning, too, from the cultural sphere of indie gaming; work such as Sword and Sworcery (Capybara games) and Bientot l’ete (Tale of Tales) as well as large revolutionary studios such as Thatgamecompany and Team ICO, and other art forms flourishing at the end of the age of broadcast; DIY musicians, board game designers, zine-makers, parkour artists, youtube film makers, bloggers.
The learning and participation potential of game and interaction forms is well documented (from Homo Ludens, on), but their forms as culture in their own right should not be dismissed. As such I propose the [organisation] might also open itself as a community hackspace. A hub for local creatives and digital-folk interested in interaction design and digital storytelling, a space for R&D driven by the [organisation], but also a space for outside ideas; a place for their coming together. I would not come with a fully formed programme of action, but a series of starting points, and the intention to build the [organisation] as a crucible for digital innovation.
This, of course, would go alongside producing content for mobile, web, and more traditional ‘broadcast’ forms. But as a leading thread I propose that the [digital position to which I applied] should investigate these convivial, space-interested and large-scale playful and interactive possibilities of the word ‘digital’.
And then there was a final paragraph about how I was well situated to lead it. But which I sort of agree probably didn’t include the profile and experience they were looking for/needed. I’m still quite ‘early career’, after all.
- Jan 23, 13
A really quick update to announce proper a couple of exciting additions to the A Conversation With My Father working process. I’m delighted to announce a fourth week in residence – at the brilliant Theatre in the Mill. They’re being extremely supportive and I’m really happy to be adding that extra week on just after the week in Sheffield – Yorkshire ‘r’ us, and also, 2 weeks solid feels properly productive to get the show tied up at the end. The showing at that week will be fully public, and pay-what-you-can, so if you’re in the area, you should definitely come along.
Also, I will be running a workshop at ARC in Stockton on the 6th of February. A bit of blurb here:
A short 2 hour workshop with time for discussion afterwards. Looking at autobiographical performance as a manner of addressing the wider political questions of contemporary life; from personal relationships, everyday encounters, to conflict and large-scale historical events from the point of view of the individual.
More info and booking on their website.
So, just to round up, here’s how the next couple of months looks:
Residencies:
4th-8th Feb – ARC, Stockton
25th Feb-1st Mar – The Crucible
4th-8th Mar - Theatre in the MillShowings:
February 8th 2013 – ARC Stockton (mid-process work in progress) — 4.30pm in the Studio – contact me for tickets
March 1st 2013 – The Crucible, Sheffield (invited showcase) – 6pm in the rehearsal room – contact me for tickets
March 8th 2013 – Theatre in the Mill (open showcase) 6.30pm in the main studio pwyc tickets from their websiteWorkshops:
ARC 6-8:30pm Weds 6th Feb book here.
Theatre in the Mill - Weds 6th Mar – Studio space. Booking and content tbc (contact me if interested) - Jan 19, 13
So, in a couple of weeks, Performance in the Pub (the DIY performance night I’ve been running in Leicester) will be a year old.
I wish I had time for a big, reflective blog post on every little thing I’ve learnt from it, and every little thing that might be useful for others to learn from, if they want, but I don’t at the moment. However I do have something up my sleeve for sometime in the near future… Bear with me while I do try and find the time for that.
In the meantime, here’s what I’m going to do, just out of interest for anyone thinking about running this kind of thing on a very simply monetary basis – you can download all of my expenditure and income from over the first year (7 events – at the bottom of the post). One of the most-asked questions I receive is about how Pay-What-You-Can ticketing works. Well, so far as I can see, it works on a margin that the majority of subsidised theatre work. I’d love subsidised traditionally-ticketed venues to let me know if their events strike a better break-even point than mine.
It’s also worth noting, that since I started, the lovely Cookie Jar/Crumblin’ Cookie venue have stopped charging me a deposit, and have fed me and my artists – as well as occasionally writing off a bar tab. That kind of support money can’t buy. Likewise, both me and my artists all work for free. That’s just a thing. If I did pay ITC minimum, I’d have to go for ACE funding, and then, frankly, I think it would be a vastly different show. Not least because of the generosity that all those artists offering something for the audience in that context represents, but also because of the deal I strike up as a testing ground for work-in-progress stuff – I have to make sure I’m offering something if I can’t offer money. Also it would be a big FU to all of the underground DIY music scene folk putting on gigs that would never be able to approach the arts council to do similar. If I had time to raise local sponsorship, I definitely would. But solidarity with an art form that is half of my life, and that I properly love, is important too.
I’ve learnt an awful, awful lot, but the things that stand out the most in terms of money that I’ve learnt as I went: you will always need more flyers and fewer posters than you think. Flyers and posters are important - make it easy to share online, but remember that online on twitter is not half so good as on facebook – twitter is full of brilliant people not near you, whereas facebook allows word of mouth to spread (ideally) between locals. Good design is worth investing in – and good design for your target audience, too – I’ve mostly used band poster designers. Local radio and press exposure is priceless (well, results in roughly 4x the pre-sales), and, most importantly for me, you have to have a conversation about pay what you can. I post the same figures you can download here on the door at every show. I explain what the break even figure is (£5, usually [though at capacity, which I haven't hit yet] and I’ve yet to have a show where I’ve received less than that, average), I talk about worth, and try and chat to everyone on the door, remember names, say hello. I also play with reward systems which borrow a little from the merch world of music; all donators get a sticker featuring a bit of the poster art, and there’s usually something extra for people who donate over £5 – mince pies, cookies, pin badges, that kind of thing.
I can’t remember especially setting out any particular aims for the event when I started it – beyond ‘there’s none of the kind of small scale DIY performance I love happening here, so how about I stop complaining and do something about it’. I did, though, come up with the idea of aiming it at all the people in Leicester/the East Midlands who go to its thriving gig scene (well, semi-thriving, it’s been a tough couple of years) but would never and have never think of going into Curve. There are several people who have taken the time to talk to me and tell me they hadn’t seen theatre since school, and they didn’t know it could be like this. That it could talk to you. That it could be there with you, like good music is.
So in those terms, for a loss of ~£900, over 7 events? I’m glad I paid that.
As a little ‘anniversary’ thing at the event last Thursday I played a little game at the beginning, and did the whole ‘stand up’ and then ‘sit down if’ thing to find out who had been to the most events. About 7 people had been to all but one, so as a tie breaker I asked who could show me the most stickers. A guy called Andy showed me all 6 of his stuck to the back of his phone. I bought him a drink as his prize. Before Performance in the Pub he had been to the theatre once since school and the odd musical.
And this is a quote from a couple of tweets around about event 5, from a regular gig go-er who I sometimes saw at post-rock shows:
“I’m not a theatre goer *at all* and it’d normally be something I find intimidating, but @performancepub proved…that there’s more to theatre than stuffy pantomime and shakespeare and it can be all kinds of entertaining & provocative =)” – @frivolousshrig
*cough greatartforeveryone cough*
Anyway, here’s that money stuff:
download (pdf)
download (excel)right click save as, or click to view in-browser (pdf)
Thanks to the audiences for coming, for donating, and for telling people about it. Thanks to Dave and Natalie who have taken pictures. Tinny and all at the Cookie. Thanks to brilliant illustrators and designers Cameron Stewart, Tom Humberstone, and Lee Keith Innes for working way under what they were worth. Thanks to my mum, for buying me food and slipping me the odd £100 when money gets really dire, also for the small loan which I could run the first event with (paid her back and everything). And thanks to all the following acts for coming along and giving me their time. It would have been nothing without any of them.
Thank you, Tassos Stevens, Ira Brand, Daniel Bye, Laura Mugridge (with Tom Adams), Jodean Sumner, Alex Kelly (Third Angel), Chris Thorpe, Hannah Jane Walker, Sam Halmarack, Sylvia Rimat, Kieran Hurley (with Julia Taudevin), Victoria Melody, Ross Sutherland and Fergus Evans (with Jennifer Gaskell).
See you at the next one?
- Jan 17, 13
Find the Facebook event over here, buy tickets and read more over here, check out the performanceinthepub website and go and tell Lee K Innes what an ace designer he is on his Tumblr. Simple. See you there!
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Videos
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Tweets
- Today & tomorrow is relearning #aconversationwith for Pulse Fest next week. Features my experience of standing between UAF and EDL. Huh.
- Don't know how to do that.
- Itching to stand between persecutor and victim. To bodily say to EDL etc. 'in this war of Them and Us, you are not Us'.
- Feel complicit doing nothing while more and more racist and anti Muslim attacks occur post-Woolich.
- RT @londoncyclist: Britain's biggest driving schools to roll out cycle awareness module: http://t.co/36zYxerpQ9
- (with a 20 minute extract, I should say.)
- Just did an interview for a Surrey Newspaper on #aconversationwith. Watch out, Ipswich, I'm a coming for you http://t.co/vfSL2wWvHQ
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Facebook event! https://www.facebook.com/events/438639629559656/
Eventbrite link! http://performanceinthepub09.eventbrite.co.uk/
- FINAL EVENT!! (for now) Molly Naylor, and Greg Wohead, with music from Mat Martin
performanceinthepub.co.uk // @performancepub // facebook page
We are delighted to announce the 9TH AND FINAL Performance in the Pub, happening at the Crumblin’ Cookie, Thursday the 16th of May, at 8pm (doors at 7.30pm).
The pay-what-you-can night out for people who don’t really ‘do’ theatre (and those who do!).
FEATURING…
The Many Apologies of Pecos Bill
by Greg Wohead, with music by Mat Martin,
Supported by BAC, The Yard, The Basement and Arts Council England“truly intimate, gentle and richly evocative” - Total Theatre (RE previous show Just Inside My Tent)
and
My Robot Heart
By Molly Naylor (presented by Show and Tell)
“Brave, funny, tough and beautiful writing” - The Guardian
Hannah and the Crumblin’ Cookie are getting ready to welcome to you to the last hurrah of Performance in the Pub! As Hannah’s swanned off to London in order to, you know, earn money and stuff (on several occasions so far she’s been known to affect a Doncaster accent and tell everyone about how cold it is in Leicester) running performance in the pub has become a bit impractical, however, we have an AMAZING line up for the final show. Absolutely not to be missed. Two brilliant, funny, affecting and joyous shows. Live music, cowboys, and being a long way from home from the lovely Greg Wohead; and robots, shambolic folk-punk, and a tale about different kinds of love, born out of that thing where you really want to love someone, but you just don’t.
Finally, we have something really, really special to give to people who donate at this final show - incredibly limited edition (50 x one of a kind) lovely things to take away and keep. Functional, too. NO MORE SPOILERS. Come and see what they are.
Here’s more info on those shows!
The Many Apologies of Pecos Bill
by Greg Wohead, with music by Mat Martin
“truly intimate, gentle and richly evocative” - Total Theatre (RE previous show Just Inside My Tent)
Greg is a charming, lively and lovely storyteller, and is coming to Leicester all the way from Texas! (via London) along with the lovely musician Mat Martin, who provides live music. The show
Greg says: “The show is about a mythical cowboy called Pecos Bill, who is from the same place as me: Texas. I started making the show when I had spent enough time away from home to forget a lot of things about it and to make up a lot of things about it. I loved that, so I made a show that’s basically a tall tale about real life. With banjo and guitar music.”
and…
My Robot Heart
By Molly Naylor
(presented by Show and Tell)
“Brave, funny, tough and beautiful writing” - The Guardian
Molly wrote the really brilliant show Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You - about surviving one of the London 7/7 tube bombings. This next show of hers is in exactly the same way dealing with big difficult things, but in a charming, honest, funny, and open way. You can hear the audio version of Whenever I Get Blown Up… over on bandcamp.
My Robot Heart features music from the brilliant The Middle Ones (though they’re not live for this showing) and is Inspired by experiments about love using robots in Japan” a lovely bit of music-infused storytelling, “Molly offers the tale of three generations of one family and an impending wedding.” It’s about love, fear, and how close those things are, actually.
So, there you are. You should DEFINITELY COME, and give Performance in the Pub a beautiful send off, and hang out with us afterwards, to raise a glass to love, home, banjos, and robots. Because what better way to spend your Thursday night?
Thursday the 11th of April at the Crumblin Cookie - doors at 7.30pm. Break-even donation at full capacity is £5, any more is very welcome, and it all goes to paying for food, accommodation, travel, print and props. Artists, venue, and the organiser all give their time and space for free. Because they’re lovely.
Things people have said about previous events:
“back from a brilliant night watching @performancepub […] you’re a twat if you miss it” - @churlishmeg
“lovely fun” - @spunshon
“I’m not a theatre goer *at all* and it’d normally be something I find intimidating, but @performancepub proved…that there’s more to theatre than stuffy pantomime and shakespeare and it can be all kinds of entertaining & provocative =)” - @frivolousshrig
“heart meltingly beautiful stor[ies]” - @discoverbrevity
“try the latest Performance in the Pub at the Crumblin’ Cookie on Thursday night” Lyn Gardner *The Guardian*
- Event 8: Deborah Pearson and Pat Ashe
performanceinthepub.co.uk // @performancepub // facebook page
We are delighted to announce the 8TH Performance in the Pub, happening at the Crumblin’ Cookie, Thursday the 11th of April, at 8pm (doors at 7.30pm).
The pay-what-you-can night out for people who don’t really ‘do’ theatre (and those who do!).
Spring is (will be) in the air, and Performance in the Pub is gambolling (that’s a thing that lambs do) on with two fresh new acts from Down South. Patrick Ashe returns from London to his home country with his ode to Ashby de la Zouch; An Oasis in 5 Parts (including a zine, a lot of post rock, and a liberal springing of video game references), and the incredibly well renowned Deborah Pearson brings a work in progress of an untrue story; None of This Happened. Unreal people, places that no longer exist, and, of course, STICKERS.
We are delighted to announce the EIGHTH Performance in the Pub, happening at the Crumblin’ Cookie, Thursday the 11th of April, at 8pm (doors at 7.30pm). Break-even donation at full capacity is £5.
So, on the 11th of April we’ll have with us the brilliant:
»» Deboarh Pearson with her work-in-progress None of This Happened, and
»» An Oasis in 5 Parts, from Leicestershire local Pat Ashe
Thursday April 11th downstairs at the Crumblin’ Cookie in Leicester (LE1 5YP). Doors at 7.30, show starts at 8pm, and should be done by 10pm. Break-even donation at full capacity is £5.
So! What’s it all about, then?
None of This Happened A work-in-progress by Deborah PearsonDeveloped in part at the National Theatre Studio.
“Andrew, Elena and Joseph are standing in front of you, sitting before you. I’ve tried to keep them back, but they’re already here. Spectres of our expectations.”
A fictional story that wonders why we like fictional stories. This is a show about people who don’t exist.
“beautiful, accomplished, bittersweet and philosophical” - The List (on Pearson’s ‘Like You Were Before’)
Check out the video for a recent performance of Debbie’s
And then there’s Pat’s piece -
An Oasis in 5 Parts - Patrick Ashe
“I am live artist, performance-maker and games designer. An Oasis in 5 Parts is a series of works about hometowns, memories and journeys. About my hometown - it’s a show about Ashby De La Zouch - about leaving places and having to go back. A story about a town that I no longer have any love for and a town that I wish still existed. A mixture of fragments that builds into a whole piece hopefully bigger than itself. It’s about finding something to love in a town you hate. It is a show in 5 parts across different media: performance, audio, zines and video games.
It is mostly a show about post-rock and snow.”
“Pat Ashe’s unique performance style mixes video games and technology with stories overheard and remembered” - Hatch Nottingham
Things past, and things never-happened. Things remembered and things made up. Two shows from two gentle, lovely, and self-depreceatingly funny artists. Not to be missed.
Thursday the 11th of April at the Crumblin Cookie - doors at 7.30pm. Break-even donation at full capacity is £5, any more is very welcome, and it all goes to paying for food, accommodation, travel, print and props. Artists, venue, and the organiser all give their time and space for free. Because they’re lovely.
- Event 7! Fergus Evans and Ross Sutherland
We are delighted to announce the SEVENTH Performance in the Pub, happening at the Crumblin’ Cookie, Thursday the 17th of January, at 8pm (doors at 7.30pm).
Back in the new year with an incredibly exciting lineup - Performance in the Pub returns to Leicester with two shows about memory, nostalgia, and the ways we fit together our own story. This double bill of DIY performance tumbling into poetry presents two performance poets crossing over into the the world of theatre as they move from the dusty boxes of an attic in Essex, to the long-left streets of Atlanta, Georgia.
As ever, free stickers (and badges if we can afford them) for everyone who donates over £5. TICKET LINK!
So, on the 17th of January we’ll have with us the brilliant:
Fergus Evans with My Heart is Hitchhiking Down Peachtree St. and
Stand By for Tape Back up, a work-in-progress showing by Ross Sutherland
So! What’s it all about, then?
My Heart is Hitchhiking Down Peachtree St. - Fergus Evans
Fergus has lived in England for almost seven years. He hasn’t been back to his hometown in five.My Heart is Hitchhiking Down Peachtree St. is a one-man show about living far away from home. It’s about the stories you tell people when they ask you when you’re from. It’s about learning that once you leave, you can’t go back. Not in the same way, anyway.
‘a refreshing reminder of just what can be achieved in Theatre’ - thepublicreviews
“Gently perceptive… rich and unhurried… its questions about home, memories and distance pack an emotional punch” – Total Theatre
And then there’s Ross Sutherland’s piece -
Standby For Tape Back-Up - Ross Sutherland
Ross Sutherland found an old videotape in his loft. On it: two episodes of The Fresh Prince of BelAir, half a Crystal Maze and the opening 10 minutes of Jaws. He has remixed the tape to tell his life story.
”Top Ten Literary Star” - The Times
I’ve been trying to get hold of these two for AGES. They’re both brilliant examples of how performance poetry tumbles over into theatre. And vice versa.
AND GUESS WHAT, videos below for you to have a quick taster of the two performances this time. Lucky us!
Join us, on the 17th of January, and also, do stick around and hang out with us after.
Thursday January 17th downstairs at the Crumblin’ Cookie in Leicester (LE1 5YP). Doors at 7-7.30, show starts at 7.30-8pm, and should be done by 10pm. Break-even donation at full capacity is £5, any more is very welcome, and it all goes to paying for food, accommodation, travel, print and props. Artists, venue, and the organiser all give their time and space for free. Because they’re lovely.
Things people have said about previous events:
“back from a brilliant night watching @performancepub […] you’re a twat if you miss it” - @churlishmeg
“lovely fun” - @spunshon
“I’m not a theatre goer *at all* and it’d normally be something I find intimidating, but @performancepub proved…that there’s more to theatre than stuffy pantomime and shakespeare and it can be all kinds of entertaining & provocative =)” - @frivolousshrig
“heart meltingly beautiful stor[ies]” - @discoverbrevity
“try the latest Performance in the Pub at the Crumblin’ Cookie on Thursday night” Lyn Gardner *The Guardian*
Amazing poster for event 6 designed by comics artist Tom Humberstone. Check out his work, it’s brilliant.
- Announcing! Event 6!
We are delighted to announce the SIXTH Performance in the Pub, happening at the Crumblin’ Cookie, Thursday the 6th of December, starting between 7:30/8pm.
Back with a December show after a glorious Autumn reboot, Performance in the Pub returns to Leicester with two shows about personal-as-political journeys; funny, striking and affecting by turn, this double bill of DIY performance moves from a work in progress about beauty pageants and dog shows to hitchhiking from Glasgow to Italy. Although we should say it’s technically a triple bill, because Victoria Melody comes complete with Major Tom, her Basset Hound. AN ACTUAL REAL LIFE DOG.
Also, we might make mince pies for the people who donate over a 5ver. MINCE PIES. Yes.
So, on the 6th of December we’ll have with us the brilliant:
Kieran Hurley with Hitch and Major Tom, a work-in-progress showing by Victoria Melody
Thursday December 6th downstairs at the Crumblin’ Cookie in Leicester (LE1 5YP). Doors at 7-7.30, show starts at 7.30-8pm, and should be done by 10pm. Break-even donation at full capacity is £5.
So! What’s it all about, then?
Major Tom is an early work in progress from Victoria Melody. Here’s how she introduced it on a blog post at the beginning of
her process: “One morning in the 1980s in the advert break of Saturday cartoons I was pulled in by an advert for a toy from American toymakers Tonka. That toy was a pound puppy, a stuffed basset hound dog with floppy ears and droopy eyes. At the age of 27 I decided I was serious enough to own a real basset. I picked him up from Kent and called him Major Tom in the vague hope that he would howl along to Bowie songs and I could get a cabaret spot. To cut a long story short Major Tom turned out to be a show-stopping stud. People in the street would stop and gawp, tourists would flash their cameras at him, dog professionals drooled and I was told that if this dog wasn’t taken to dog shows I would be depriving the World”.
Major Tom’s first championship show was a disaster, feeling an overpowering sense of guilt about her dog being scrutinised, Victoria decided to put herself through the same process by becoming a beauty queen. Major Tom and Victoria increasingly immerse themselves into the obsessive and confusing realm of personal scrutiny as they participate as genuine contestants and aim to win.
And so the dog Major Tom is going to Crufts and Victoria at 34 and 5ft 4 is going to the Mrs England 2013 beauty pageant. She currently holds the title of Mrs Brighton. This show is a work in progress showing about Victoria and Major Tom’s journey so far. Brilliant, funny, warmly amusing stuff.
Here’s our favourite quote about Victoria Melody and her work:
‘She is either an idiot or a genius, it is up to you to decide’ - University tutor reference for Chelsea College of Art
or if you like a ‘proper’ quote from a review of the show itself:
“beneath the show’s natural charm there’s an uneasy commentary on self-obsession…” Ben Hunt, Exeunt magazine - Sampled 2012
And then this will be swiftly followed (after due drinks break) with one of the best, quietly life affirming pieces of work we have ever had the privilege to witness. Kieran Hurley’s Hitch. Here’s how Kieran introduces it:
“On the 8th of July 2009, the leaders of the eight most powerful countries in the world met for three days in the earthquake-ravaged town of L’Aquila in Italy to make plans for the future of our society and our planet. On 27th June, I hitched a lift from Glasgow, alone, to be there too. Humorous, honest, thought-provoking and ultimately hopeful, Hitch is a story of global leaders, compassionate strangers, a young man…and his thumb.”
Hitch is a gentle and open piece of storytelling about the real experience of this journey. Kieran recounts his journey openly, honestly, funnily, and with real compassion. Tackling all the doubts, adventures and moments of quiet optimism and despair he encounters on the way. Not to be missed. Properly. Not. To. Be Missed.
“The best performance I’ve ever seen”.
Chris Goode – The ObserverAlso, to give you a taste of the show, why not check out the guys who made the soundtrack for Hitch? Over the Wall is a brilliant Glasgow based two-piece band - listen to them over at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_meDV_-RnM and check their full album out here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Treacherous-Over-The-Wall/dp/B0049BV3UW
Join us, on the 6th of December, and also, do stick around and hang out with us after.
Thursday December 6th downstairs at the Crumblin’ Cookie in Leicester (LE1 5YP). Doors at 7-7.30, show starts at 7.30-8pm, and should be done by 10pm. Break-even donation at full capacity is £5, any more is very welcome, and it all goes to paying for food, accommodation, travel, print and props. Artists, venue, and the organiser all give their time and space for free. Because they’re lovely.
Ace poster design by twoducksdisco for the 5th event, go here to join and invite people to the fb event, or go here for more info and to buy tickets!
- FIFTH EVENT
Back after a rainy, sporty, and then latterly sunny summer, we present Performance in the Pub THE REBOOT. For this first one back after the summer holidays we’re scheduled as part of the brilliant Everybody’s Reading Festival, with a new brilliant double bill of DIY performance. Presenting two shows that reach out and ask the audience (like the best performance does) ‘what’s this about then, being here, right now, together?’. Also features anthemic electro pop, and the neuroscience of decision making.
On the 4th of October we’ll have with us the brilliant:
Sam Halmarack and The Miserablites, with
If You Decide to Stay, a work-in-progress showing by Sylvia Rimat.
Thursday October 4th downstairs at the Crumblin’ Cookie in Leicester (LE1 5YP). Doors at 7-7.30, show starts at 7.30-8pm, and should be done by 10pm. Break-even donation at full capacity is £5.
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE!
(Or on the door, though capacity is limited, people, limited.)So! What’s it all about, then?
If You Decide to Stay is an early work in progress from Sylvia Rimat, a brilliant artist from Down South (Bristol and Germany, is Germany, South? In my head it is because you have to go through France to get to it).If You Decide to Stay will be a chance to be involved in an early performance in the development of a show about (in Sylvia’s words) “decisions, the neurones involved, the difficulty of many of us to know what we want (really) and the complexity of the worlds around and within us. Part lecture performance, part live experiment, the show will look at the decisions that lead to this performance and celebrate the choice of everyone who has come along to join.” It will involve neuroscience, the mathematics of chance and possibility, and the simple question ‘how did we get here?’
Here’s what people have said about Sylvia’s previous work:
‘The show was warm, engaging, funny and left me thinking, always a good state to leave a show in, the rest of the audience were equality impressed and left buzzing. I’d recommend catching Ms Rimatif you have the opportunity; she’s a unique, charming and thoughtful talent.’ Gscene Magazine
And then we pack away the chairs for an amazing roller coaster ride (yeah we said that) from the world famous Sam Halmarack and The Miserablites. Sam says the show “is a mixture of lots of different things - it’s part gig, part theatre show, part stupid comedy. You might find yourself dancing and singing possibly without realising your doing it. It’s essentially me putting years of being a failed musician onstage and laughing at myself.” Well that’s all very well, (I hear you cry) but what do Other People think? They think this:
Sam Halmarack’s vulnerable little gem of a show drips with courage, comedy and openhanded honesty. A hero in the making.’ Joe Spurgeon, Venue Magazine
Also there’s a smoke machine. What’s not to love?
Join us, on the 4th of October, and also, do stick around and hang out with us after.
GET YOUR TICKETS HERE (or on the door)
PITP 5 is on Thursday October 4th downstairs at the Crumblin’ Cookie in Leicester (LE1 5YP). Doors at 7-7.30, show starts at 7.30-8pm, and should be done by 10pm. Break-even donation at full capacity is £5, any more is very welcome, and it all goes to paying for food, accommodation, travel, print and props. Artists, venue, and the organiser all give their time and space for free. Because they’re lovely.
Performance in the Pub may be taking a short summer break while most artists are in Edinburgh, you lot are swanning around music festivals, and Hannah is stuck in Loughborough University library trying to wring a final PhD draft out of her brain. But as hinted at the last Performance in the Pub event, there are to be exciting things afoot on the Performance in the Pub Facebook or @performancepub accounts. Enter: Performance in the Pub Post Its, or #pitpPI on the twitters. (Official hashtag of the Performance in the Pub Post Its. Abuse it and we’ll send LOCOG around to hit you with a surface to air missile.)
We chose post its for a few reasons, because they kind of feel like a tactile, visual version of a status update in length, they stick places (which is always fun), and because quite a few artists seem use them quite in devising and writing processes; it felt nice to make a feature of them. What are Performance in the Pub Post Its? Well, quite simply a series of provocations, miniature plays, poems, collaborations, drawings, and links to exciting things made especially for Performance in the Pub fans and followers. From next week Performance in the Pub will be (attempting to, give or take PhD and the rate they come in from other busy artists) curating a series of creative reactions to the Performance in the Pub Post It challenge. The first is a collaboration (or perhaps a challenge?) between Andy Field (@andytfield) and Hannah (@hannahnicklin), and will appear on the PitP Facebook and @performancepub feed next Thursday evening. Then, hopefully, there’ll be a different artist’s contribution each Thursday. Until we run out.
Andy’s work is totally awesome, he has a fascinating turn to his reactions and thoughts about the world, and is brilliant at always challenging the premise of the question you didn’t know you were asking. A lot of his work is interested in the city, and Zilla (part one) was one of the best things at the Junction’s Sampled festival this year. A little bird tells us it’s on its way to the East Midlands, soon too (not brought by us, unfortunately, though we’d love to be able to afford to). Anyway, this is how Andy has described next Thursday’s #pitpPI to Hannah:
“It’s a game that you and I are playing together. A challenge perhaps, in response to the utterly charming and honest self-portraits that you often post on twitter.”
There’ll also be the chance for you to respond to the provocation/s, too, if you want… We promise this will all make sense soon enough.
So, hang around after 8pm on Thursday evening on Facebook or @performancepub, and see what you think! Oh, and do give @andytfield a follow. He’s brilliant.
This photo is the brilliant Chris Thorpe and Hannah Jane Walker performing their brilliant and award winning ‘The Oh Fuck Moment’ for the fourth Performance in the Pub event. It was another lovely, lovely crowd of people swearing that they will bring all their friends next time and that they didn’t realise theatre could be this, y’know, not-stuck-up. But don’t take our word for it, here’s some incredibly biased selections of things people facebooked and tweeted after the show.
Performance in the Pub is having a short break over the summer, while Hannah finishes her PhD, all the students have gone back home, and all the brilliant theatre artists are swanning around the rainy hills of Edinburgh.
HOWEVER we do have a date for the next show: the 4th of October as part of the brilliant ‘Everybody’s Reading’ festival in Leicester, and we’ll announce the lineup closer to the time.
In the meantime, do follow @performancepub on Twitter, and ‘like’ us on Facebook over here. Thoughts are buzzing around Hannah’s head about possibly playing around with these spaces over the summer, with little snippets from guest theatre makers, so hit those links, and stay in touch!
Finally, just a quick thanks to the lovely brilliant and amazing artists, audiences, helper outers, people shouting about PitP, and of course everyone at the Cookie for making the first 4 shows so brilliant. Here’s to the next!
See you on the 4th of October.
- FOURTH EVENT
We are delighted to announce the FOURTH Performance in the Pub, happening at the Crumblin’ Cookie, Thursday the 14th of June, at 7pm.
Following the lovely line up of Performance in the Pub event 3, we’re ECSTATIC to be able to bring you a double bill from two of the most exciting performers currently performing words what they have written in the UK today. This stage version of ‘The Oh Fuck Moment’ (orginally performed around a desk) is based on an award winning Edinburgh 2011 tour. Also including some stories from the masterful Chris Thorpe, and Poetry from Hannah Jane Walker, Hannah and Chris are bound to be electrifying, hilarious and heart stopping. You don’t want to miss this. And nor do your mates. I wholeheartedly promise you everyone will find something to love in this one. Invite friends to the facebook event over here.
More on the show:
You just fucked up. Now what?
Sometimes, fuck ups are so massive there’s no way back. Poet Hannah Jane Walker and theatre maker Chris Thorpe examine the poetic guts of mistakes in a bundle of words and poetry. Fucking up is the truest, funniest, most terrifying moment you can experience. You will make a mistake, maybe you’ll learn from it.
You should probably see ‘The oh fuck moment’ if you’ve ever stood on a rake. Or accidentally made party cocktails with bleach. Or locked yourself in a shed.
Or been caught cheating. Or followed your inclination to experiment and ended up in A+E with a traumatic wanking injury. Or crashed a plane. Or been responsible for someone’s death. Or watched someone die.
Or set fire to yourself. Or fallen awkwardly. Or fallen awkwardly on a rake. Or fallen awkwardly while flying a plane. Or while wanking.
Or put your tongue in the wrong person’s mouth. Or put your tongue in what you thought was the right person’s mouth and it turned out to be the wrong person’s mouth. Or got really angry because someone told you a story about a horse.
A Scotsman Fringe First Award Winner 2011
The Guardian **** ‘Brilliant celebration of our mistakes and evolutionary reflexes’ Lyn Gardner
’The Oh Fuck Moment drills a burr hole in each of us, releasing the build up of guilty pressure beneath the surface. By the end, you’ll wear your cock ups with pride: life’s little battle scars; badges of humanity. To err is indeed human, but Thorpe and Walker don’t put a foot wrong.’ Matt Trueman
Doors will open at 7pm, and the shows will start at 7:30 prompt, there will be two 15 minute breaks between stories, with the Oh Fuck Moment as finale. Tickets are by donation, £5 helps us break even but as much or as little as you like. Donators get a STICKER. Imagine that.
- THIRD EVENT
We are delighted to announce the THIRD Performance in the Pub, happening at the Crumblin’ Cookie, Thursday the 24th of May, at 7pm.
Following the lovely and funny line up of Performance in the Pub event 2, we’re excited to be able to bring you a double bill of established and upcoming Leeds/Sheffield-based talent. We’ve put these shows together because they both look at words and stories; how and what we tell people about ourselves. The two performers are really lovely, and conversational, there may not be glowsticks this time, but there is the downing of a pint of beer.
The up-and-coming Jodean Sumner, of Trace Theatre, will be bringing us It Starts Like This. It Starts Like This plays with words. Words from your favourite song, words from that poem in that film with Hugh Grant in, maybe words that someone wrote for just you; how they can be perfect, how they can trip you up, how they can mean everything… and nothing.
Jodean Sumner is a solo artist as well as being part of Trace Theatre. A recent graduate of the Leeds Met ‘performance works’ MA, she makes site specific and interactive performance as well as performance that talks about being yourself - not playing other people. The work Trace makes is based on the actual conflicts of trying to make things together.
“Trace Theatre’s Once Upon a Something was all heart. It genuinely made me laugh out loud […] Beautiful.” - Vee Uye
And the internationally touring company Third Angel will present the one-man show The Lad Lit Project. The Lad Lit Project is about men/blokes/lads/mates/chaps/fellas and their stories; stories of mates, of wanting to belong, stories about girls, (mercifully brief) stories of sex, stories of love and of loss. Lad Lit is like chick lit, but, y’know, for lads. A fun, semi-autobiographical piece about how you might fit your life into a story.
Established in Sheffield in 1995, Third Angel makes work that talks openly and playfully to audiences. They make work inspired by films, comic books, novels, television, radio chat shows, music. Third Angel has shown work in theatres, galleries, cinemas, office blocks, car parks, swimming baths, on the internet and TV, in school halls, a damp cellar in Leicester and a public toilet in Bristol. The company has taken work to festivals and venues across the UK and mainland Europe, including Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal, France and Spain.
“consistently innovative and challenging… extraordinary performances” - The Times
Doors will open at 7pm, and the shows will start at 7:30 prompt, the first show is 30 minutes long, and the second approximately 65, there’ll be a 20-25 minute break in between for people to get more drinks. Tickets are by donation, £5 helps us break even but as much or as little as you like. Donators get a STICKER. What more could you want?
Things people have said about events 1 and 2:
“back from a brilliant night watching @performancepub […] you’re a twat if you miss it” - @churlishmeg
“lovely fun” - @spunshon
“I’m not a theatre goer *at all* and it’d normally be something I find intimidating, but @performancepub proved…that there’s more to theatre than stuffy pantomime and shakespeare and it can be all kinds of entertaining & provocative =)” - @frivolousshrig
“heart meltingly beautiful stor[ies]” - @discoverbrevity
“try the latest Performance in the Pub at the Crumblin’ Cookie on Thursday night” Lyn Gardner *The Guardian*
- SECOND EVENT
We’re delighted to announce the lineup for the second Performance in the Pub event, happening on the 22nd of March 2012, at the Crumblin’ Cookie at the heart of the city of Leicester.
The second show will be a double bill of solo story-telling theatre. We put these two shows together because they both play with the idea of being ‘true stories about made up things’; value, and a man who journeyed to the bottom of the sea. They’re also ace.
Laura Mugridge will be performing The Watery Journey of Nereus Pike accompanied by live music from the brilliant Tom Adams. This is a half an hour work-in-progress show, but is guaranteed to be lovely and transporting, with the witty delivery of a theatre-maker whose began her career in stand-up comedy. Here’s how Laura describes the piece: “It is about an old man who begins the show floating on the surface of the water, and makes it to the bottom of the ocean. It’s a true story that I made up.”
“Mugridge is endearingly sweet, quietly witty and knows exactly how to take an audience into her world”. - WHATSONSTAGE.COM
Laura is a comedian, improviser, theatre maker and writer. She is originally from Lancashire, which means that she likes Eccles Cakes and that when she went to America, people didn’t understand her accent at all. Laura’s Running On Air - a story for an audience of 5 told from the inside of her VW campervan ‘Joni’ - won a Fringe First award at Edinburgh in 2010.
Daniel Bye will bring us The Price of Everything. A comedy-come-performance lecture about value. How much is beauty worth? What would you get for an air guitar on eBay? These important questions (and others) are answered in Daniel Bye’s hilarious and provocative stand-up/powerpoint presentation/storytelling show. Daniel has been described as ”The future of British theatre” by The Times, though he points out that “this is from a review that’s now several years old, so by by rights I ought to be the present of British theatre”.
“With some genuinely fascinating sciencey stuff at the beginning and several hilarious and well-told stories interspersed, The Price of Everything is a warm and welcome piece of theatre” - The Leeds Guide.
Dan is a writer, director and performer of immediate, playful, surprising theatre. His work plays with with comedy and tragedy, roughness and polish, truth and astonishment. His work has been described as “almost perfect” by the Scotsman; “near perfect” and “genius” by the Stage; “Fantastic” and “excellent” by the Herald; and “stylish”, “terrific” and even “intelligent” by the Guardian.
Doors will open at 7pm, and the shows will start just after 7:30, the first show is 45 minutes long, and the second approximately 55, there’ll be a 25 minute break in between for people to get more drinks.
- FIRST EVENT
We’re delighted to announce the first ever Performance in the Pub event, happening on the 2nd of Feb 2012, at the Crumblin’ Cookie at the heart of the city of Leicester. Tickets here!
The first show will be a double bill of solo story-telling theatre. We put these two shows together because although they go in very different directions, they both start in the same place; with the end of a relationship. Somewhere we’ve all been.
Tassos Stevens will be performing Jimmy Stewart. Here’s how Tassos explains Jimmy Stewart: “it’s just a story informally told to you, it’s about love, it is funny (in both senses of the word). My favourite quote is “a magical show: tender, questioning, hopeful and sad” by Maddy Costa here.”
Tassos is co-director of the Agency of Coney, who take playful and gaming experiences all over the world. He’s worked on iPhone games (Papa Sangre), with the National Theatre, the Science Museum, in schools and lots more. Tassos is a warm, funny, and brilliant storyteller, and this show is especially designed for pubs and back rooms.
Ira Brand will bring us Keine Angst. This is Ira describing it: “It’s a funny, touching and very honest piece about fear as something that is designed to protect us but can sometimes hold us back from being who we really want. It’s about what it feels like and what it means to be afraid, about sensible fears and illogical anxieties, and, most importantly, about how to be brave.”
Ira is a solo performer, as well as a main artist in up and coming collectives like Tinned Fingers and Antique Women. She describes her work as ‘handmade’, it is often developed alongside audiences, and happens in unusual places. The show is really brilliant, involves some cool playing with a mic/projection, and is about the stuff that scares us.
Doors will open at 7pm, and the shows will start just after 7:30, each show will be 45-60 minutes approx, and there’ll be a 25 minute break in between for people to get more drinks!
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Posts
- Provocation Videos
All of the videos are edited now, but they’re taking about half a day each to upload, as each one finishes I’m adding them to the playlist below. You can either keep an eye out here, or check out the playlist on Youtube here.
- Images and provocations
You can hear all four provocation bursts over on audioboo right now.
Also, see below for the image set from the day. All images creative commons licensed (click through for full terms). If you’re on a non-flash device head on over to the flickr set. Videos will appear as soon as I have access to a consistent broadband connection.
- Edgelands Live Blog
Welcome to the liveblog for Edgelands! The event happened on the 21st of August, and you can see all of the tweets, conversations, and on-the-go photos taken of the even from start to finish below. Hi quality video and images to follow. To find out more about what happened when you can find the schedule here. Thank you!
Only 12 short day until it all begins! We’ve added a new section to the site with details of a schedule and confirmed contributors so you can begin to get ALMOST AS EXCITED AS WE ARE. The event is now totally sold out, which is very exciting, but if you haven’t managed to get a ticket, do follow the hashtag #edgelands, and bookmark this page, which on the day will be an effective liveblog including regular updates from Rachel Kaye, Jake Orr, and Hannah Nicklin (probably Andy too), as well as any submissions you want to send through (whether attending or not). Where possible everything will be fed in and back. We’re also hoping to live stream the long-form conversations. Stay tuned on that front.
And finally, continuing thanks to all the many and brilliant contributors and partners (scroll down) who are helping to make this such an exciting prospect.
See you on the 21st!
- Questions, Speakers and Tickets!
We are delighted to announce that the 2 submitted questions that came out strongest from the voting are…
Artists. Audiences. How can we do this better?
Why have we failed to convince people the arts are important? Are the arts still important?
So now we have the full four, what’s next? Well, the very exciting opportunity to grab a ticket, along with our first list of confirmed speakers/artists/participants! Currently confirmed are:
- Chris Goode
- Tim Etchells
- Chris Thorpe
- Kieran Hurley
- Laura McDermott
- Harun Morrison
- Rohan Gunatillake
- Annette Mees
- Ryan Van Winkle
- Third Angel
- John McGrath
- Emma Adams
- Matthew Somerville
- Rachel Coldicutt
- Emily Sexton (Next Wave)
- Tom Armitage
- Gob Squad
- Fuel
- and design from Paul Price
And you can now grab a ticket from the first batch over at edgelands.eventbrite.com. There will also be another batch released along with the final list of speakers/artists/participants next month.
As ever, do share/talk about the event on Twitter using the hashtag #edgelands, and finally, do go and check out all of the wonderful partners who will be supporting the event.
- WE WANT YOUR QUESTIONS
The Edge Lands Flash Conference is going to be shaped around four main questions, for timescale’s sake, two of those questions have already been decided, but we need you to help us decided on the other two.
These questions need to be short, snappy, and formed around an area you think suits the conference theme of the ‘borders of performance’ and ‘the state of the world’.
To submit a question, simply email questions@flashconference.co.uk between the 6th and the 11th of June. (If you want to talk about us on Twitter, the hashtag is #edgelands)
On the 13th of June the most common themes will be turned into (up to) 10 final options, which can be voted for by anyone before the 17th, when the two remaining questions will be announced.
Email questions@flashconference.co.uk with your suggestions now!
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Posts
The Umbrella Project collected stories from the people of the city of York. These stories were made into 3 ‘soundwalks’ - sound-based experiences designed to be downloaded and played in specific places, at different times of day throughout York. You can download the instructions and a map here (pdf). And the walks (for free) below. You can also borrow a ready-loaded mp3 player from the Central Library, or by contacting Pilot Theatre. The lead artist on the project was Hannah Nicklin, and music was by Simon Ralph Goff.- Soundwalk 1: Evening - Download link (mp3 - right click, save as)
- Soundwalk 2: Daytime - Download link (mp3 - right click, save as)
- Soundwalk 3: Commute - Download link (mp3 - right click, save as) - please note, you will need a pen or pencil and a piece of paper with you for this one.
- Map and full instructions Download link (pdf - right click, save as).
The full site for the project with lots of information on who did it, how it was supported, and what happened, can be found here. (The running umbrella image is kindly CC licensed by Anna_t - All the soundwalks are shared via a BY-NC-SA Creative Commons License)
