St. Albans Film Festival Is Coming… Are You? December 20, 2012

Looks like St. Albans is going to get its first film festival next year from 8th – 10th March, conveniently called the St Albans Film Festival. And if you’re a filmmaker, then you still have time to submit.
 

 

The regular deadline is 28th December so if you’ve got withoutabox then pootle on over to there and click the buttons. The next deadlines (will obviously be a bit more expensive) are in January so GET A MOVE ON!

 

And the reason I’m excited about the festival? Because:
 
a) It’s on my doorstep
b) There are some amazing things in the pipeline for the festival
 
and
 
c) I’m a judge

 
St Albans has been a popular location with the film industry not only because of its close proximity to some of the leading film studios such as Pinewood (Superman, James Bond); Elstree (Star Wars, Indiana Jones); and also Leavesden (Harry Potter). But also because it’s relatively close to London, a 20min train trip (if you get the right train).
 
It’s been featured on TV (Life Begins, The Inbetweeners), film (The Birthday Girl, Johnny English) and Arthur Melbourne-Cooper – the pioneer of moving pictures – was born in the City. Stanley Kubrick came to settle in the area and remained, crafting his prolific works. The Shining was finished there, and Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut were started and completed there. He also used to only leave the place to buy his bottled ink from Ryman, y’know, the very shop I used to work in.
 
So checkout the website: www.stalbansfilmfestival.com
 
Look at the Facebook page: StAlbansFilmFestival on Facebook
 
Peek at the Twitters too: StAlbansFF

Juggling Scripts And Research May 19, 2012

I’ve been crazily busy with three different scripts recently. One children’s theatre script, one half hour screenplay and a full length play. Which is a short way of saying that I haven’t got round to blogging recently. But as part of research for the children’s theatre script I’ve been wandering around my village to the places I used to play when I was a kid. This beautiful place is at the end of my road and I (along with my older brothers) used to spend a lot of time wreaking havoc and getting muddy there.
 

 

 

 
The children’s theatre script is going to be a promenade performance in a small wood in Pembroke. So I’ve been spending a lot of my spare time walking through my childhood woods to get into the perspective of a child. Do we change where we look as we become older? I’m looking up feeling small with all the trees, but I’m sure I looked down at the insects when I was small wanting to feel big.
 

Whiteboard Writing Question (crass) April 15, 2012

 

This has remained on the whiteboard for quite some time. Provocative. And a reminder. There are more poetic ways of putting this statement, but that’s the point – if you’re not after poetic why dress it up in words that your character would never say?
 

 

Whiteboard Writing Question April 8, 2012

 

 
I love whiteboards, I love my whiteboards. I have four of the bigguns mounted on my wall and some spare ones that I can move around the house to boot. I have a tendency to write fragments of ideas and snippets of dialogue. But I also have a whiteboard for questions. And I tend to spew things out on there about my project that are either unanswerable or I already know the answer. I think it helps to answer inane questions just so you can prove to yourself that you know them. And sometimes I write down what seems to be a seemingly naive question and it leaves me a little stumped. This is one I wrote earlier this week. And it’s definitely got me thinking.

Collaboration March 19, 2012

I’ve been asked a lot over the last few months about how I can be so busy with different projects. My response is that I actively seek collaborative partners so I keep creatively stimulated. The other major influence for me wanting to delve into the collaborative process with projects like Ship Notes, Simone, Nascent Collage .etc. is because it makes me do work. By including other people you’re actively spurring them on to do work and therefore creating an environment where you too have to respond. In essence you’re not wanting to let anyone down. So you do the work. If only for that reason alone, it makes me work hard. Some people may not like that approach, but it works for me. It keeps it simple transaction.
 

“If you don’t do the work you will let someone down. So do the work.”

 
And voila! I do the work. It actively engages your brain with the notion that if I do A then B happens. It’s something we already know but it’s putting it in a different context. I apply it to all areas of my work. In my own theatre work I’ve gone out of my way to avoid doing what I need to do, we all do it. For me a lot of my work is off my own back which means there are no enforced deadlines or definite productions so I meander through the weeks and come up with excuses. But because I’m juggling different projects it makes me focus in on what I need to do. It crafts its own work schedule.
 

 
Binshit is not a word. But it’s part of the creative process of elimination…
 

“I’ve got to respond to so-and-so’s part of the project and then I want to do some brainstorming on my play, oh and by that time the other so-and-so might have got back to me with their next chunk of the project so I’ll look at that…”

 
Overall it makes me aware I’m generating work for myself. And that’s how it should be. It makes me feel like I’m doing something and keeps me busy. And when I say busy I don’t mean it just in the literal sense, but I mean creatively busy. I’ve been lucky in that so far two collaborative projects have worked so well that the end fruition will be displayed to the public. But that should never be the end goal essentially – if you embark on something only because of the end result you’ve got your perspective all wrong. Fair enough you may have a project you want to release into the world, but the thought has to be put into it otherwise it’s a hollow shell of what it could be. And that ‘thought’ translates as work. It should be an area of your life devoted to keeping yourself creatively fresh and bouncing off ideas with people, helping someone else out of a creative funk and being a support but through your work. The idea should always be, “let’s create an environment where we can fail and it doesn’t matter”. Nothing should be sacred, nothing should be too polished otherwise you’re not really listening to each other. It should be one big experiment, nothing is concrete. Not only will it allow you to explore areas that you might not have pondered on before, but it will also heighten your awareness of working with other people either in the same medium or a different one.
 

I’m not saying that everyone reading this should instantly fire off an email to a whole bunch of people demanding they work on a collaborative project. But I do suggest mulling over if there’s someone you know in a different creative field who might be open to the suggestion of ping-ponging some ideas. You never know where it will lead, but I bet you anything you’ll learn something from it. Whether it’s never to do it again or not is another thing. The absolute worst that could happen is that it doesn’t work for you. It’s just an idea. 

Regina V Cooper Footage January 4, 2012

Another blast from the past! Unfortunately a lot of the footage for Regina V Cooper was lost, but myself and cameraman Matthew Farman have trawled through what we have and compiled what we’d like to call a trailer for the piece. And when I say ‘we‘ trawled, what I really mean is I gave Matt notes and he did all the hard work.
 

So here it is…

 

 

My Story About Milk August 30, 2011

Apologies for the sound quality AND the wet hair…

My Story About Milk

►

End Of 2010 For Katie December 22, 2010

Katie’s Breakdown (not mentally, not this year) For 2010 In Writing Terms

Yes, it’s going to be one of those blog entries… I warn you that this will be one long list of lists so I have a record of what I’ve done this year, I tend to forget you see.

 

Plays I’ve Seen

The Priory, Royal Court Theatre

Lieutenant Of Inishmore, Barn Theatre, Welwyn

Early Bird, Finborough Theatre

Space Vixens, Barnet

The Factory Round 2, Electric Showroom

Bluebird, Landor Theatre

Ghosts, Duchess Theatre

The Yellow Wallpaper, Ye Olde Rose and Crown Pub Theatre

Off The Endz, Royal Court

Peter and Vandy, Theatre503

Playing Faustus, OVO

Little Shop Of Horrors, Abbey Theatre, St. Albans

A Day At The Racists, Finborough Theatre

Leopoldville Theatre, Tristan Bates Theatre

Posh, Royal Court Theatre

Whipping It Up, Bridewell Theatre

Mrs Reynolds And The Ruffian, Watford Palace Theatre

Little Gem, Bush Theatre

A Thousand Stars Explode In The Sky, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

Children Of Darkness, Leicester Square Theatre

Marine Parade, The Old Market, Brighton

OperaShots, Royal Opera House

66a Church Road, New Players Theatre

Sucker Punch, Royal Court Theatre (twice – took the ‘rents the second time)

Volpone, Old Town Hall, St. Albans

Money:Shunt, Bermondsey Street, London

Little Shop Of Horrors, St. Albans Amphitheatre

Spur Of The Moment, Royal Court Theatre

Show Of The Night, Lion & Unicorn Theatre

Traverse Live! Clapham Picturehouse

Ghost Stories, Duke Of York’s

Bunny, Watford Palace Theatre

Wanderlust, Royal Court Theatre

Cut Off, Theatre503

Clynbourne Park, Royal Court Theatre

The Big Fellah, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

Tribes, Royal Court Theatre

Wicked, Apollo Victoria Theatre

The Fool, Cock Tavern

Red Bud, Royal Court Theatre

Blasted, Lyric Hammersmith Theatre

Kin, Royal Court Theatre

Hungry Ghosts, Orange Tree Theatre

Cut Off, Tristan Bates Theatre

 

Plays I’ve Had Performed

The White Room, Abbey Theatre, St. Albans

Regina V. Cooper, Old Town Hall, St. Albans

Shakesperience, Abbey Theatre, St. Albans

Love-Aged-Trilogy, The Book Club – Interrobang, London

Food For Thought – Cut Off, Tristan Bates Theatre, London

 

Schemes/Programmes/Opportunities

Writing for Radio, Fraser Grace, Menagerie Theatre Company, Cambridge

ICA Lab, for children’s TV series CIRCUS, London

The Fielding Programme, Kilcreggan, Glasgow

Royal Court Invitation Group, Royal Court Theatre, London

 

I also got published! I had my short story, “Providence”, published by Tonto Press in, “Even More Tonto Short Stories” and went along to the book launch up in Newcastle. Thank you to Caroline Smailes and Stuart Wheatman who selected my story as a winning one and went and published it. You made me a very happy giddy girl.

 

I also received my first proper London commission from Box Of Tricks theatre company. They liked my work and then asked me to write something for them which I will forever be eternally grateful for, because somewhere in my heart that makes me feel like a playwright. The first draft is currently sitting on their desk waiting to be read and when I’m further along the line with that particular project I will pester you all in coming to see it.

 

And talking of London I had a small debut with the one off performance of, “Love-Aged-Trilogy” and then I had my proper London debut with the five night run of, “Food For Thought” as part of “Cut Off” (both with fellow thespian conspirator Melissa Dunne). Equally exciting and terrifying they were, but I went and done them and now I can say that I’ve done it. It’s made me better.

 

And I met a whole lot of new Lovely people. I like them all (mostly) and maybe even secretly fancy some of them (Tom ‘Cake’ Hardy – okay, not so secret) but they’ve been a delight and a pleasure to know. There are too many of you to list here, but you’re Lovely so stay Lovely and spread the Lovely.

 

Y’see, I thought last year was extremely busy and pivotal for my career, but it seems this year has trumped that. I’ve gained a lot more understanding of what I want to do which is always handy, especially when I spend a lot of my time waiting to hear back on things. It’s not always been great I can’t deny that. There have been schemes that I’ve been shortlisted for but not obtained, there have been reserve lists for other schemes that I’ve not progressed from, there have been flat out rejections and there have also been angry tirades to particular companies… But all in all I have done a lot this year because I’ve put the hours/days/weeks/months in. And I have to say I’m extremely proud of what I’ve achieved. I can honestly look back at all the work I have produced this year (some scripts haven’t and probably won’t be performed at all) and conclude that I am a little bit closer to doing this properly.

 

So I hope this has been a productive blog for you to read… Who am I kidding, it’s just one big post-it note for me.

 

“Normal” Service Will Resume Soon December 14, 2010

 

Hallo? Hallo? Squeak.

(listen to me roar… The best I’ve sounded for a while.)

In other words I’m ill. I’m also busy. The two don’t generally gel together that well, but y’know, I try. In other news I’ve noticed that listening to Animal Collective whilst ill creates interesting hallucinations. Feel free to pass that on. And to keep you occupied till I actually do something on this blog, have a ganders at this:

 

Shakesperience October 22, 2010

In all the kerfuffle of new projects springing up all over the place in the fertile place that is MY MIND I completely forgot to mention that there is a show happening next week that I’ve had a hand in.

 

Next week on the 29th and 30th October all the students involved with Theatrix Theatre Company will be performing for your pleasure with Shakespeare in mind. There’ll be singing, dancing, acting, talking and all manner of things Shakespeare. They’ll also be performing some modern adaptations of Shakespeare segments that I’ve been tinkering with which is nice.

 

 

(I promise you if you click on the picture it suddenly becomes readable.)

 

So if you want to see the new talent do their brilliant best and see what Theatrix Theatre Company can produce come along and see. I’ll be there (obviously).

 

Link to buy tickets is here: Abbey Theatre, St. Albans