Are you lonesome tonight? Scratch.

Are you lonesome tonight? The important of scratch.

The deadline is approaching and however 'fun' it may be to be a in room running around inside my imagination, creating game structures for people to play. I need people to play them.

I did two scratches recently:

The first as part of performance festival 'Escape with Cape' hosted by Cape Theatre at the new performance venue - LIFT Ophelia in Dalston. I was performing alongside the wonderful Chris Brett Bailey.

I was nervous - this is a running theme. I had increased my 10 minutes to 30. Created the game mechanic which the show hangs on, but I had no idea if it would work, communicate anything that I wanted it to or be in anyway interesting.

The evening was busy - busy for an contemporary doesn't really fit in a box performance night - with an audience of about 35 people. The feedback was good, the game is fun and it communicates some of the things I'm aiming for and I felt much less sick afterwards. 


I then scratched again the following weekend at Who the fuck is Alice at Vogue Fabrics - Dalston, alongside Sh!t Theatre, Figs in Wigs, Lucy Hutson and Laura Dee Milnes. The night was brilliant, busy with a fantastic atmosphere. I felt very proud to be part of such a stirling line up. It is always good to scratch in such quick succession, so you can play with the structure of sections and experiment with new ideas.

Are you lonesome tonight? Research and Development

Research and Development aka pulling my brain apart and looking at the bits.

I have been undertaking a new way of working with this project. Although I have conducted research with a neuroscientist and a philosopher most of my time I spend in a room on my own - 'making' 



Some handy tips for being in a room on your own. 

Create rituals - I have some exercise I do when I get in and then I plan my time.

Have fallbacks - If I hit a wall I play elvis songs on the guitar - I also do this in the show - therefore I don't feel like I'm waisting time - i'm 'practicing'

Take breaks - and I don't mean just in between tasks - I have realised that I am not good in the studio every day consecutively - I need a day off and a day on in order to process what I have been making.

Show people - bring people in at the end of the day to look at things. Listen to their feedback, don't be defensive - you only have to take on board the bits that are relevant to you. 

It is easy to loose sight of why you are doing something - I have the what I want this performance to be post its up always - so I can remind myself.