Aaand that’s three Scots, ‘Lockdown’ stories in a row for me and Liars’ League.
I read this beaut, by the delectable Emma Grae, at AN ACTUAL LIVE EVENT at the beginning of December last year:
I enjoyed polishing up my accent a bit more. Getting there…
You can find the text of the story here, a podcast of the whole night here and videos of all the other great stories here.
Not only was it an enjoyable night out, I EVEN WON A MUG 😛
Preparations to set myself up for voiceover work continue, including purchasing a BRAND SPANKING NEW MIC 😀 that I had the chance to deploy whilst recording another Lockdown Literature event story for Liars’ League last week.
Here I am, reading ‘BigThick and Sally’s Gnashers‘ by Emma Grae:
…which I had lots of fun recording in the sweltering heatwave!
You can find the text and mp3 of the story here and all of the other brilliant stories from the event, here.
Hello! How are you all doing out there, in there…? I hope this finds you well and relatively centred? What a time, to say the least.
In the midst of all this, if you happen to be in the market for a bit of video viewing (have you watched enough things yet?) I’ve got a couple of bits for you, if you’re interested…
Firstly, I finally uploaded the preview performance of my show Fabled from waaay back in July 2012:
It feels like a lifetime ago…
My performance was still pretty rough around the edges at this point and not as BEAUTIFULLY HONED as it was after a whole month’s run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but this is the only filmed performance and, actually, I kinda like how shonky it is.
Please note:
-me sweating off most of my mascara as it was SO HOT ON STAGE.
-my bike bell breaking and me having to resort to clanging another prop instead to make a noise.
PLUS: see if you can work out where the soundtrack froze and the backup soundtrack had to be played instead… I think I managed to hide my genuine panic/confusion…
And: I’ve done some more story reading for Liars’ League – this time as part of a Lockdown Special, from the comfort of my own home. Here I am reading ‘A Space to Inhabit’ by Lyndsey Croal for their ‘Mystery and Suspense’ event this week:
A strange cloud appears outside a small Scots town… or has it always been there?
You can find the story text and an mp3 of this story reading here, all the other story videos from the night here, and the event podcast here. It was a good night in 🙂
Other than riding the current wave as best I can, I’m continuing to set myself up for voiceover work and my little makeshift studio is coming along nicely, if slowly. Photo evidence, at some point…
Until then, Big Love <3
I fancied doing a bit of impromptu To Be or Not To Be-ing in my back garden a couple of months ago.
Learnt the speech in the morning then – BAM.
Here are the results:
Now to do it on stage…
Here are some more details about the one-off performance I’m in next Saturday. I’ve got a really great part in a play called ‘No Surprises’, written by my friend Mikail Chowdhury. He wrote it whilst doing the writers course at the Royal Court and is putting it on to raise money for a charity.
Here’s the spiel:
Set in the near future, the first Muslim Prime Minister of Great Britain is facing a terrorist attack and a nuclear crisis which threatens to pull the country into another lengthy and damaging conflict. As he considers a dangerous course of action that could lead to the deaths of thousands of innocent lives he is faced with a younger version of himself.
As the Prime Minister tries to reconcile his past choices and religion with the consequences of his actions, the time for a decision draws closer and he is faced with the choice of making the ultimate sacrifice.
This dark comedy explores the question of whether the greater good is always the most right course of action, and how far would you go for your beliefs.
I’m playing Tahiya, the no-nonsense advisor to the Prime Minister. She has a wonderfully dry sense of humour and I have some really great lines – sort of a cross between Margot from The Good Life, Malcolm Tucker from The Thick of It and CJ from the The West Wing…
This is the info about the charity:
We are setting up an initiative to provide medical care to women, their young children and immediate families in Dhaka (currently they have no medical treatment whatsoever and suffer badly as a result) and are working in conjunction with and NGO called Tarango (http://www.tarango-bd.org/) who do some excellent work taking destitute women and giving them training, a safe place to work, salary and independence.
We need to raise £3,000 for the first year and will provide a weekly on-site medical consultation service, pay for medication and provide seminars on things such as family planning, sexual and women’s health issues.
The event runs:
with the performance starting at 2:45pm
Tickets are £15 (I think!)
The event is on Facebook here.
Rehearsals started this week and it’s going to be one step up from a rehearsed reading – we’re probably still going to be using scripts, but it will be staged. (Need to carry on getting my lines in my head today…) It’s a really great show with a very good cast and I’m really looking forward to it 🙂
I’m currently sat all beatnik-ed up in my room, ready to go and perform at the inaugural night of The Village Preservation Society‘s monthly residency at The Betsey Trotwood this evening.
Slight changes (or rather: additions) are now afoot in my cabaret offerings following my jaunt up to the Edinburgh Fringe last month. I went up to busk on the mean streets of the Royal Mile and prepared some cover versions and original bits to sing and play guitar to. I even made the very serious investment of purchasing a kazoo and bastardised harmonica holder to spice up the proceedings.
Considering I would never have dreamt of singing and playing in front of people under normal circumstances, coupled with the fact that I haven’t picked up my guitar regularly for ages, it went really well! I made a few bob (I do really mean ‘few’), didn’t have rotten food thrown at me and massively upped my confidence levels. I had NOWHERE NEAR as big a crowd as some of the old hands, but it was muchly useful nonetheless.
I subsequently had a radio interview on Leith FM, where I played a couple of my original songs (I’ll upload the catchily titled ‘A Chinese Food Loving Vegetarian’s Lament’, based on a song you’ll aaaaall know, soon…) and a couple of gigs at the legendary Bongo Club Cabaret where I had a fantastic time and realised that playing and singing in front of people and actually speaking(!) in between that, isn’t actually all that bad. Lovely friendly place to discover that. Thank you Bongo and Rhymes with Purple! Who’d’ve thunk it? Lois of the Lane made a brief but triumphant appearance at the Bongo too. She’s definitely here to stay 🙂
So, on the back of this, I’ve decided to start writing some more songs and do them on the comedy/cabaret circuit – as well as Ms of the Lane – and this evening I’m premiering a jaunty new song entitled ‘The Last 2 Zombies in the World‘ which I knocked out on Sunday. A month or so early I suppose, but it’s good to be prepared. (You never know when they might strike..) I’ll get it recorded at some point soon and stick it on my singing page. Keep your eyes/ears peeled for more…
Since I’ve been back from the beautiful ‘burgh I was a part of Jennifer Farmer‘s première performance of her new immersive theatre/sound play ‘Conversations I Wish I Could Overhear’ which was part of the Spit ‘n’ Scrub open studios at ASC Studios in Bow. I’ve also just found out that I’ve got a cracking part in a great piece called ‘No Surprises’ by Mikail Chowdhury, that’s going to be part of a one off charity event on the afternoon of Saturday 16th of October. More details on this one soon. Really looking forward to getting my teeth into it!
Until then, here’s a couple of picture of me busking on the Southbank, just before heading up to Edinburgh, taken by my friend Sarah:
You’ve gotta love a kazoo…
Brrr…
Again, lots of stuff since the last post. The Gawkagogo Freakshow tent went down a storm in the Pleasance Courtyard at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe and subsequently we’ve done a one off, massively extended version of the show, with special guests, at the infamous Barden’s Boudoir…
…which also went down mightily well!
There will inevitably be more Freakshow news soon…
November beckons, and with it comes a series of private screenings of ‘Small Talk‘, the multi-award winning short film I starred in last year. It’s being screened alongside 2 other short films – ‘The Trousseau’ and ‘Crossed Lines’ which feature friends as the lead in each. Here are the dates, times and places:
Tuesday November 13th – Riverside Studios, Hammersmith
1:30pm / 2:30pm / 3:30pm – THE TROUSSEAU
1:45pm / 2:45pm / 3:45pm – SMALL TALK
2:00pm / 3:00pm / 4:00pm – CROSSED LINES
Wednesday November 14th – Curzon, Soho
6:00pm – THE TROUSSEAU
6:15pm – SMALL TALK
6:30pm – CROSSED LINES
Thursday November 15th – The Pleasance Theatre, Islington
1:30pm / 2:30pm – THE TROUSSEAU
1:45pm / 2:45pm – SMALL TALK
2:00pm / 3:00pm – CROSSED LINES
and here are the blurbs:
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THE TROUSSEAU – 17min – Starring Maria Thomas
When the young British Ama learns of her mother’s death she decides to return to her birthplace in Ghana. The women of her clan question her suitability in taking her grandmother’s place in the funeral preparations, but Ama breaks with tradition and proves them wrong, finding a means to express her sorrow.Nominated for ‘Best Actress’ and ‘Best Short Film’ at the BFM 8th International Film Festival 2006.
Screened as part of Africa in the Picture season at the Amsterdam Film Festival 2007.
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SMALL TALK – 13min – Starring me
A short Black Comedy. Madeline is an introverted telephone operator who amuses herself by making prank calls to unsuspecting Londoners passing by the phone box outside her flat. One day she’s caught off guard when someone she calls decides to make small talk back…1st Prize for the ‘Best Digital Film’ at the 13th International Short Film Festival in Drama (Greece) 2007.
‘Best Non-Italian Short Film’ at Kaleidoshorts 2007, organised by the Italian Embassy.
‘Best Student Drama’ at the Southern Royal Television Society Awards 2006/2007.
Digital Video Practice Award for ‘Best Student Short’ at the End of the Pier Film Festival 2007.
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CROSSED LINES – 14min – starring Keith Eyles
Do actions really equal consequences or is life just a lottery and can something as random as a number actually change everything? In just a few hours Jonathan Shepherd’s life is about to change drastically in this dark tale about infidelity, hypocrisy, mixed communication, bad timing and how far someone will go to protect what they have…Premier screening of this new film, written, directed and produced by Keith Eyles.
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You can find my finely crafted e-flyer for the screenings here. If you’re interested in attending one of them, please let me know. Tickets are limited.
Before November we have ourselves Halloween. This year I’m going to be working with Gawkagogo on their Voodoo Witchdoctor Automaton installation. We’ll be at Torture Garden‘s Halloween Ball on the 27th and Opal Nera’s Halloween Ball at T Bar on the 31st. Come get your diagnosis!
Lastly, but certainly not least, I’ve had several Lois of the Lane gigs and have another coming up at ‘You Little Minx’ at Tiger Tiger in Croydon on the 2nd of November. I’ve had some wonderful promotional pictures taken of her which I’ll be uploading soon, along with lots of other information, so watch this space.
Off now to go and dig out me thermals…
First up – my showreel is finally finished! Huge thanks to my flatmate Jamie for having all the necessary cables and bits and bobs to set me on the right track. The many long hours I spent sat alone in front of my computer have paid off and I’m very pleased with the final version. So, come one, come all – witness the glory!
(I’m a bit over excited. Can you tell?)
Secondly, ‘Small Talk‘ has won some kind of award. When I find out exactly what it was it’ll be put straight on my CV! It was screened again on the 15th of February at the NFT as part of Eat Our Shorts.
At the end of this month, on the 23rd, I’m going to be part of Gawkagogo‘s ‘Damnation Alley’ at The Texas Chainsaw Travelling Horror Picture Show‘s 1st Birthday do at Electrowerkz. I think there may well be some kind of facial hair involved 😀
Last week I was part of the 365 event at The Pleasance. I found myself part of ‘Constant 2’ and ‘Ask The Experts’.
Before I go, here are some pictures taken at the Candy Box Burlesque Valentine’s Spectacular, courtesy of Cherry Bomb Rock Photography:
More pictures here.
(Did I mention that I’ve finished my showreel…?)
No news is good news – or something like that…
I’ve been rather slack with the updates on here, but things have been happening nonetheless.
Just finished a shoot for a music video with Jasmin Jodry at the helm. It’s a dark and moody green screen delight with me as a victim of a Vampire of time in a soulless metropolis. You can watch here, it in all its eerie glory:
I’ve also been a Post Production office’s Tea Lady love interest in a project for students of West Herts College in Watford, and bagged the main part in a great little short by graduating students of UCCA down in Farnham (formally SIAD) called ‘Small Talk‘, which has an Amelie / Lost In Translation feel about it according to people who’ve seen it so far. There’s going to be a screening of ‘Small Talk‘ at the Curzon in Soho next month, and I think some more screenings following this one are in the pipeline.
When I have copies of all of these projects I’ll post a link to them/upload to the site.
Showreel here we come…?!
I’ve also had a re-jig of my News page, along with the rest of the website. As always – let me know if something isn’t working properly as I’m doing all this on my lovely, getting on a bit now, Mac.
Should hopefully have some more exciting news in the next few days fingers crossed…
Radio silence – bad…
You can now see me in my half a second, painful, bookish glory in Filament Pictures‘ ‘Figure of Speech’, filmed for the Cobra Vision competition, here (click on ‘September’ on that page if you can’t see it straight away…) Blink and you may miss me, but the whole thing’s worth a look.
If you think it’s the bees knees, then vote for it as your favourite of the month here (I’m guessing there’s not much time left on that one…)
Aaand – the London run of VEGA$M draws ever closer. Expect a full on revamp!
