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.

 

November Round-Up November 19, 2010

 

And dear friend, Sri, wrote a mini review-cum-nice-thing about me over on his tumblr:

Nice things about Me

 

And here are a few photographs of the written work that I did as part of the trilogy that hung on the wall. (the better) Photographs taken by Matt Farman (and the shitter ones by me).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Maybe when I have more time I’ll put the written word gubbins up on this blog…)

(Exciting for me) Katie Catch-Up November 4, 2010

 

(Exciting for me) Katie Catch Up

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Details about times/places/info of my London debut are available here where I’ve previously jabbered about them: [previous jabbering]

 

and for the more professional gunf such as the venue putting information about me on their website: [professional shout out]

 

Loving your face.

 

Oh hallo… October 5, 2010

It’s been too long. Here are some pictures of what I’ve been up to and some stuff in between. Just because I can and to prove I’ve not been doing jack-shit*.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh Hallo…

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*I realise these are flimsy bits of evidence but humour me, please. No really, please do. DON’T LEAVE ME HERE.

Royal Court On The Brain July 23, 2010

 

Royal Court On The Brain

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And because my head is in work so deep at the moment I completely forgot to mention that I’ve been asked back to the Royal Court for their Invitation Only Writing Group (again!). Which is nice and Lovely as I’m gagging to start work on the new play (of my own) and having the structure and goal of ending up with a first draft will do me in good stead. The dates are a bit hazy at the moment but I think it’s September, which just so happens to be my busiest month, but hey… I’ll be getting more work done.

 

Now on your way, nothing else to see here I’m afraid.

Hallo Miss Busy! August 31, 2009

It’s late and I have tomorrow’s day already encroaching so this will be brief. I’ve been busy with work up to my eyelashes at the moment and it’s all exciting and extremely knackering. What with my unpredictable bouts of gallbladder problems and unhealthy scoops of lethargy I seem to be either writing, scrawling, writhing or sleeping.

But I came here to tell you what I’m up to…

Come end of this week I’ll be working with a few select students alongside Theatrix to do a modern adaptation of Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s, “The Yellow Wallpaper”. We’re going to be workshopping the short story and picking out the relevant themes that the students involved want to explore. It went in my favour that I saw an adaptation of this very short whilst up in Edinburgh. It was a humble amateur production that excelled in places and limped along in others. But what it did show me was the importance of the male voice within this female representation of post-natal depression and insanity. There’s only one male figure that appears directly within the text which is that of the controlling husband. The adaption I saw seemed to gloss over the role too easily and made him appear cliche ridden and lacking depth. What I’m hoping to do is flesh the male voices (I’m going to give a voice AND face to the much mentioned brother) out and add texture to the piece allowing for relationships to jump off the stage and not be hidden in subtext. This may seem to go against the grain of subtlety but the short story is essentially a monologue but I want to turn that on its head and explore it as a multiple hander. The one thing I want to do is free it of the claustrophobic Victorian setting it currently resides in.

Movie 30

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Aside from that I’m still umming and arring over what play to chose to take along to the Arvon course in November. It’s something that I’m fretting over because I want to make sure I’m giving out a good representation of my work. I’ve got my first full length play that was written for the Royal Court as part of the Young Writers’ Programme which I should be working on to take it to a third draft stage. But I’m lacking the motivation. Then there’s the second one I wrote as part of the Invitation Only group at the Royal Court which hasn’t been touched since I handed it in earlier this year which could do with whipping into shape. I’m leaning towards the latter so I can have potentially two strong pieces but I don’t know if I’m just being lazy about the first and looking for a good excuse to leave working on it a bit longer… Ignore this rambling please, sometimes I just have to write down my inane thoughts so I can what a doofus I’m being. The other pressing factor is that I’m going to be working with Simon Stephens on the selected work so I do want to make this decision based on proper thought. I’ll leave that till later…

Since my last posting I’ve been having a fair few short pieces flung around the Internet-electronical-sphere. All exciting and confidence boosting to say the least but also because the contacts I’ve made with the sites mentioned are absolutely Lovely and keen to showcase new work so if you’ve not visited them before please go and tell them I sent you. They’re rather nice. Here’s a list of the new works up and raring to be read:

“Homecoming” over at Six Sentences

“The Horny Insomniac” over at Six Sentences

“Tidal” over at Metazen

Please feel free to wander over and rate and/or comment on them. Then go try it yourself, very good for editing skills (as I seem to keep stressing recently) and a fun experiment.

Aside from that aside I’m tinkering away on audition monologues which seem to be more interesting than anything else I should be working on, but for those that know me (or are getting to know me) I prefer to be busy. Along the way I’ve been experimenting with Hint Fiction of which details can be found here. Through the myriad of blogs and competitions I keep adding little tasks to do writing wise so if I’m not working on writing, I’m thinking about working on writing and more than often it’s not the thing I should be working on. Go figure.

This jumbled blog was brought to you by the power of Ribena and the letter 9. Out.

P.s. I realise I still haven’t blogged about Edinburgh. I apologise for my tardiness.

P.p.s. I also realise that this is written and not talky talky for you. I apologise for my… Lack of self-pimping?

Re-Introducing… Katie! August 19, 2009

Movie 27

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Jerusalem Is Making Me Anxious July 28, 2009

I have to admit I look pretty darn frazzled in this video. And yes I’m gulping down red wine at the beginning, this is because it’s my destiny. Also it’s because I finished work looking like this earlier:

But enough of that, you want to see my mouth moving with words tumbling out in the most incoherent of ways… right? Ah, you want this then:

Movie 29

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Katie’s Crashing Into Many Mediums July 17, 2009

Here I be, tired and slightly zoned out gawping at my own reflection. I present to you, The One, The Only… Katie Fluffy Head McCullough!

(Please insert your pathetic excuse of a drumroll here, possibly a whimper too)

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Completely forgot to say congratulations to Lucy Vee and Michelle Goode for getting a second reading on their CBBC scripts, you are the envy of the uninformed masses that also entered the competition. These two ladies are obviously hot stuff and I know that Michelle is going to be developing her script further so whatever these scripts turn into, good luckems to both of you.

My Lovely Boss gave me a good ol’ talking to about agents. I should be looking for one. When I find one I’ll let you know… it could be some time. Which reminds me I now have business cards courtesy of moo.com and shall be passing them out at any given opportunity in one hand whilst the other cradles a cold, cold gin. Once more for those at the back:

Brief (if I can EVER be brief) July 6, 2009

Movie 26

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Once again the video cuts of (or so I think it did). But basically I was rambling about how we all find out this Friday whose made it through the first cull of the CBBC entries for the Masterclass at the arse end of this month. Good luck to all my fellow Twitterers who have entered, wouldn’t it be great to get a healthy smattering of us in there!

Also this month I’m going to BUG at the Southbank which is an ace night dedicated to music videos and curated by the genius that is Adam Buxton. For anyone whose interested in decent, different and generally rather kickass music videos get yourself down there. It’s every other month and sells out quick but it’s well worth it. I missed the last one but this time there’s no stopping me.

Can’t remember if I mentioned it before the video cut out but Alice in Wonderland is being performed this month so if anyone has booked to come and see (or is indeed in the area) let me know so I can bob my head up and come and mumble hallo at you.

Other exciting things that have happened to me this month (well, possibly stretching back to last month seeing as we’ve taken a fresh step into a new one) have included booking tickets to go see Spiritualized, Grizzly Bear and Cinematic Orchestra. All of which make me cream myself with pure excitement. I’ve seen both Spiritualized and Cinematic Orchestra on many occasions but who cares, they’re flipping ace. Also wrote a piece about lusting after Shannyn Sossamon for a fellow Twitterer for a zine. That was extremely fun to do. Now got to crack on with my 15min play for the Offcut Festival and then I can crack on with the short story competitions I mentioned.

Can’t remember what else I had to tell you except I love it when you do that thing, yeah that thing. You look real hot when you do it. Just so you know.

Latoirs tiddleypeeps.