YARN Catch-Up January 16, 2012

Well apparently the audience were laughing which was a huge weight off my mind. Due to the nature of the piece I was worried it would come across as pretentious theatre clap-trap, BUT people liked it. Which was nice*. 

Below are some shots from the night kindly taken by Gemma Mitchell, the mistress at the helm of YARNfest and I’ve also added a bonus segment of the (very dark, lo-fi and altogether quite shonky) rehearsal video I managed to capture. It’s a few excerpts so don’t expect to make much sense of it, but you definitely get the beginning. Lots of appreciation and thanks go out to Poppy Corbett, James Pellow, Shamaya Blake and Trevor Murphy for their sterling work, faux sex and Lion King re-enactment. To be parry to this short rehearsal process has been a charm with the actors hitting the script perfectly and straight from that bat. Kudos to the lot of them.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
YARNfest are always up to something, so please check out their website and keep an eye on anything else that they may doing in the near future.
     
*Fast Show reference intended.

No One Writes (Them) Like That Anymore January 2, 2012

This is the name of the short play I’ve been asked to write for the YARNfest night as part of the London Short Film Festival. And the great news is that it’s been cast!   

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

The role of Terry (the half-hearted suicidal man) will be played by James Pellow, Gareth (the hen-pecked argumentative husband of Suzie) will be played by Trevor Murphy and Suzie (slightly bored housewive of Gareth) will be played by Shamaya Blake.

 

 

The film above is the piece I’ve written my response to. What I like about Alex’s visual and aural representation of the letter written by Vittorio Gassman is that we can subconsciously relate glimmers of what we see to a narrative we are being fed. It’s a psychological dot-to-dot for me and further underlines the power of the written word and how fertile the human imagination is. So I’ve approached my response in a very surreal fashion, but I’m quite proud of it. Lifting the idea of how we treat silence and noise within relationships I’ve set the piece in a grotty B&B where the walls are thin. I’ve also explored the influence of popular culture through the TV set and how we relate this to memories subconsciously. And how nobody writes letters anymore and the influence of technology having an effect on something as straightforward, such as the suicide note. As I said, it’s a whole collection of surreal ideas presented in a bizarre manner.

 

Wednesday 11th Jan

YARN presents… An Evening of Cinematic Soliloquies
Starts 7pm
£6 tickets, available in advance here

 

LSFF and YARN December 31, 2011

 

 

On the 11th of January YARN will screen films originally commissioned for the Letters Festival in Milan, interweaving them with new works inspired by the films across a range of mediums, including music, theatre and spoken word. The evening will feature work by filmmakers including Ruth Paxton, Helena Astbury, Kate Jessop, Michael Rittansberger, Alexander Taylor and Serena Corvaglia.
 

I’ve been asked to write a response to one of the films to be performed on the night as part of the London Short Film Festival. My film in question is called Vittorio Gassman by Alexander Taylor and my response is called, No One Writes (Them) Like That Anymore. More information about the event can be seen here.
 

(I’ll be honest, it’s one of the more surreal things I’ve written. It involves a re-enactment of The Lion King, bad handwriting, grotty B&Bs, sex noises and televisions that don’t work properly. Poppy Corbett is the director at the helm and I’ll blog about it later once rehearsals are underway.)
 
 

 

As you can see from the trailer above, it’s bound to be an interesting night and the festival itself is superb at highlighting the talents within the short film industry. Unfortunately I won’t be in attendance as it’s the private viewing of the Simone exhibition the same night, which I’m quite gutted about. It seems I’ve got busy once again… But go along and support the festival. These are two brilliant and unique groups of people who are extremely passionate about the work they share. If you can, go along to any of the other events that both YARN and LSFF organise. You’re bound to be in for a treat when you do. 
 

Wednesday 11th Jan

YARN presents… An Evening of Cinematic Soliloquies
Starts 7pm
£6 tickets, available in advance here