Aftermath

The pieces went really well last night. Three very different approaches. The Seal Club concocted a driving soundtrack to Jeff's amazing and disturbing lists of violence and racist acts and facts, thoughts and feelings. George's addition of balloons, was inspired. And the actors gave impassioned performances. Gave me a lot to think about, so well done that team.

Next we had in interesting scene from Eddie and Curtis, with Curtis himself appearing in drag. Which made me a bit jealous I don't mind telling you. Moving into a interview with the head of the anti Racist Movement, which was very eye opening and a then a brilliant poem by Curtis.

Our piece was expertly performed by Kevin and Sean. They had the audience up and singing and commanded the stage like the true pros they are. I've been wanting to work with them for so long and I hope I do in the future. I'm going to make it happen. It had come on so much in a day. James had really polished it all up. I was quite amazed at the progress it had made. Maria did an amazing job wither physical mastery, which took the piece to a totally new place. So much more interesting and theatrical.

I was proud of my words and the effect they had on people. I think I did some good work that I would never have done otherwise. I think it was important work. An important piece.

Well done to Suzanne for pulling the Everyword together, and Lindsey and Sofie.

Thanks Navakov for inviting me in and thank you to a great audience, who weren't afraid to sing their hearts out and make it all work.

Laurence Wilson

We made a piece of work I am very proud of. The band, the actors, George and everyone from Everyword made an amazing piece of work. I have an old friend who for terrible reasons has become a member of the BNP and I kind of wished he could have come to this...but thats a load of liberal crap I suppose because how long would it take to have all those arguments that the evening would have provoked.... I have been disturbed and challenged by making this piece but have also been .engaged in something that feels valuable. t was an exciting project. Thanks for having me!

Jeff

X 

Show time minus one hour

The last tech is complete. Present : Tense / Everyword 2009 is in one hour... good luck everyone! And if you're coming to watch, enjoy.

the last few days...

doing this project i always like to think that blogging and rehearsing are mutually exclusive. pretty tricky to blog when you're trying to make a piece of work in a week. which explains our silence from the rehearsal room.

we've had a frantic but exciting couple of days. jeff delivered a new draft. three superb actors joined our team - Mark, David and Katherine. the band doubled the amount of material for the piece. we added balloons and face paint.

what I think we have is unlike anything i have ever worked on before. part instrumental, part visual choreography, part verbal narrative part, physical narrative. i think it asks more questions that it answers. i hope it's entertaining.

tech

so.

apparently sound checking a band, and microphones, and lights, and sound, and projection in 45 mins is quite difficult.

Almost there

This has been a great experience. Such a talented team I have the pleasure to be working with. Kevin and Sean have responded well to the text and the movements that Maria has coaxed from them are incredible. And they pick it up so fast. James has been great at pulling all the fragments together and fine tuning the performances. It's a piece that has grown from three very different brains, in a way that works beautifully. I've just written the final missing piece of the jigsaw, after an idea from James last night. Just sent it.

I hope the audience enjoy it and get something unexpected.

James said that we would panic...

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhh.

So much to do, i'm not sure whether i'm looking forward to tomorrow or if i'm actually dreading it, probably both. Some bits of the show I love, some I need to work A LOT on movement wise.

A whole scene that I want to set movement for but may not get to because I have to be somewhere else for most of the rehearsal time tomorrow. Gutted.

So much I feel I haven't been able to explore/achieve. My broken toe really impeding me in everything, making me grumpy, short-tempered, tired, broke.

There's loads of movement potential in the bodies of the two actors, but I haven't had time, or perhaps haven't worked in an efficient enough manner to bring that out. I'm  tempted to give them set movements to do to try to save time but I know that this will be v hard for them to remember in time and will look naff in the end because it won't have come from their bodies. I think 'choreographer' is a problematic term for what I do because outside the contemporary dance world people expect you to teach some dance moves in a sequence and thats it, which doesn't interest me. It fascinates me to discover the individual movement vocabulary that exists in everyone and how that can work with text, sound etc to communicate ideas.

Concerned that people will be expecting 'dance' ... whatever that is.

Gutted I couldn't find any 'dancers' (whatever they are) to work with, could have whipped together some really great unison and partner work with lifts etc. at speed. Jealous of the speed and efficiency of Laurence's creation. Writing text, doesn't need space, organising other peoples schedules, hours of preparation, searching for music, doesn't have to happen in office/civil hours etc, just sits down with his great talent, writes it and hands it over to the actors. must find faster ways of working! Be prolific like Laurence!

Oh just one more week please!!!!!!!  There is an excellent duet just waiting to be made with Kevin and Shaun grappling and lifting and throwing and falling and sliding and exploding all over the stage. They are doing really well remembering movement, they are amazing portraying emotion and working it into their bodies in more abstract movement is realy exciting to me (if not to them!), just a few more days and I can make it!!

End of whinge.

Our show is incredible and will knock your socks off.

Start of whinge

And another thing, the biog I wrote for myself is crap! Mentions perhaps a 6th of my career, if that, doesn't mention that I created/curated my own festival of performance for 2 years or that i've trained and performed all around the world, I recently started a world-dance company Movema, I've taught movement/dance theatre (or whatever it is I do!) in performing arts universities at Diploma to post-grad level...

 Oh  well if I don;t get a chance to post again thanks sooooooo much Nabokov for the opportunity, to Suzanne and to my amazing collaborators Laurence, Kevin, Shaun and James.

xx

draft two sent

Just emailed the second draft to George and Seal Cub. The first draft had a lot of questions to myself in it and they've now gone. Also I used quotes from various wise men and women in the first draft - more as a safety net than anything. They've gone now. Had to trust my own thoughts on the subject rather than hiding behind the great philosophers. Meeting the others sometime today but can't remember when that is...

Rehearsing at The Playhouse

Just about to meet Laurence in advance of a full day rehearsing at The Playhouse. I'm working with the actors on Laurence's scripts this morning before Maria joins us this afternoon to continue evolving the physical language of the piece.

It feels like we have lots of exciting ideas and material. Today is about finding out how it all fits together, and how the collaboration between actors, a playwright, a director and a choreographer coalesces into what we hope will be a compelling whole rather than a series of vignettes.

We'll find out by 7pm tonight whether we're on the right track...

In rehearsal as I write

Sitting with James watching Maria put Sean through his paces. Very physical. Looks great. Sean has such a great physicality taht not all actors posses. Maria is very meticulous.
I wrote a poem for Sean today, that can be physicalized, in a sort of Berkoffy sort of way. Sean read it. Sounded very good. Look forward to seeing James work on the vocal aspect and Maria on the physical. Another new experience for all of us. Kevin is working in another piece but we'll have him back tomorrow.
Physicalized isn't a word by the way. Until now. I'm laying claim to it. It's available for rent. See my agent.

Present : Tense preview on Click Liverpool

Yes, indeed. Much as the title of this blog post succinctly suggests, Present : Tense / Everyword is featured on the Click Liverpool website.

You can read the article here.

Good meeting last night at 9pm with George and Seal Cub Clubbing Club where we talked about what works best in the text and listened to some of the music ideas which were brilliant. A great percussion pice and a beautiful vocal piece. Today I'll do re-writes and get a bit wilder with some of the sections. To an extent the first draft was me asking myself questions about my own feelings and doubts about writing about the issue of hate crime. Today I can loosen up a bit. (I hope). This is a great week though - inventive and spontaneous. The Everyman bar last night was full of people who were working on various Everyword projects and the atmosphere was brilliant. Look at me being all positive, that hardly ever happens. Back to script.

Sound start

Strange bread for an otherwise flippant band. Manipulating foot organ with hands. Bass is base, something vulgar [tribal even]. Pop group peddling cave techno and pedaled piano. An air with lone vocals. Pitched somewhere between form and substance, pop group baking up a sourdough. Yesterday we began recording, that's the way it went. Where will it go? Rehearsal with George and Jeff at the playhouse later.

Vocal warm-ups

Laurence has written some great stuff. A very funny, wickedly satirical scene and the beginnings of a monologue. Our ideas are starting to form...

If you're going to be in the audience on Saturday you might want to warm-up your vocal chords. I think there's going to be a sing-a-long!

Great actors, first draft, first rehearsal

I'm off to meet Laurence at The Everyman to read his first draft. Then tonight we meet up with Maria to see where we're all up to before she starts work with the actors.

As soon as the topic was chosen last Saturday, Laurence knew the two actors he wanted to write for, and I'm very excited to be working with two of Liverpool's very best - Kevin Harvey and Shaun Mason. They start working with Maria on movement tonight and Laurence will hand over bits of script as and when it's ready. We're aiming to rehearse a few hours a day for the next few days, then a full day Saturday in readiness for the show.

I spotted a story in the Guardian yesterday about a man who police suspected was about to launch a series of white supremacists bombings. Not being the pointiest tool in the drawer, he managed to get himself arrested for abusing a train guard, upon which Police found component parts of incendiary devices in his pockets. When they raided his home, they found masses of material on the SS.

The guy was from Reading, which got me thinking...

The first article I found on the BNP in Reading was this one, which on the face of it is a normal 'News In Brief' in a local paper. Then I scrolled down and read the comments.

Of course there's no evidence whatsoever to link the white supremacist bomber guy to the BNP, but there is clearly support for the BNP in his home town, and our topic is the correlation between support for the BNP and rising crime. So I just wonder.

Belated Bandblog

So what do you get if you cross a director, a writer, an oddball pop band and a surge in hate crime? Answer: several beers, some serious brainstorming and the vague beginnings of something almost tangible. Such was the outcome of our initial meeting as a group. This is unfamiliar territory and we, the band that is, are green here and somewhat unversed in the art of topical theatre. However, shooting from the hip with a blunderbuss of opinion, we weren't stuck for inspiration. Thankfully, sights were soon trained [not least by George and Jeff, the welcome voices of experience] and the scatter-gunning gradually gained a little focus: there was, dare I say it, an elusive glimpse of an idea.

Six days leaves little time for meditation and this work will likely be a thing of instinct. It's off to the studio tomorrow [Tues 29] to begin experimenting and hopefully developing a relevant reaction to the issue at hand. Assimilating the work of the three distinct creative elements at our disposal into one consummate performance will prove quite a challenge. 

I sent out the first draft  of the piece about the BNP at middday today then went back to work on another script about claustrophobia and do some research on a piece about the deaths in the last 18 months of 7,600 Mexican victims of cocaine trafficking. I'm having a right old laugh this week.

The BNP piece came quite quickly in its first draft mainly, I think because of the nature of collaboration with musicians. The piece has to have breathing space in it for the band to have imaginative space to work in. In other words - It's not all about me. This is healthy and so far the week has been less stressful than the last one week news story I did last year. That one was about the  victims of the heroin trade. Maybe its time to write a comedy...

Floundering around like a maniac in collapsing piles of books and papers and print offs from websites. Trying to stop four year old daughter from watching Nick Griffin on You Tube. Riddled with self doubt ' Am I qualified to write about this?' Look in the mirror - white writer in 50's with wife, child, house, steady income. Che Guevara said ' Solidarity means running the same risks.' Have never been the target of racist hate crime. Start writing about self doubt just to get it out of my system. Read Voltaire on freedom of speech. Get told by numerous philosophers in old books that hating people who hate makes me as bad as them. Start writing about the nature of hatred. Give up and start writing myself list of 20 other things I'm better qualified to write about. Watch nick griffin again and consumed with rage I dive back into the racist hate crime BNP ditch and start rattling off a script. Have promised to deliver to Seal Club Clubbing Club boys by Tuesday lunctime.

Into the abyss...

It was a funny moment in the Everyman Bistro on Saturday when Hannah announced 'the winner is the BNP' and we, a collection of liberal, arty types (no offence guys!) all cheered.

As someone who's first album was Off the Wall, first concert - Dangerous tour, whose love of dance and performance as an integral part of who I am and what I do, must have been fed in some way by Michael Jackson, I was excited to talk about the life and work of the guy who was a big part of my life for so long.
I actually choke up thinking about the guy's performances over the years, I can't really explain this... interesting.
To approach the subject as a choreographer would have been a daunting but thrilling (no pun intended) task. (All this will come as a revelation to the group as I didn't mention it at the meeting heh).

However I'm really glad that the rest of the group shared my underlying feeling that there are many stories in the news that get swept by as the media race to sell the most papers and forget their duties, even more so at times like this.

Prior to Thursday night my thoughts had been on Iran and the important lessons to be learnt from it's past and the possibilities within our power to prevent not only major violations of human rights but a major world conflict... images of US galloping to the 'rescue' on their trusty steed called 'Freedom', cue nuclear war. Arrrrrrrggggggg!!!!

If you want an artist's response to this issue, from someone well qualified to comment I suggest you watch the film 'Persepolis' by Marjane Satrapi. It's great.

So maybe we made the right decision to, like Marjane, create work about something close to home and to our hearts, the rise of the BNP in the UK and the consequent drastic rise of hate crime.

I so desperately want to do the issue justice. So much to say, it feels impossible to sum up my feelings and make useful comment on this topic...

As someone who...

I never...

What we need is...

Where words clearly fail me (never my strong point) my hope, and that of all of us, is that our performances will find a way...

The same hymn sheet

The meeting yesterday was very positive and it feels that whilst we are yet to lay down anything concrete, we are veering towards a direction that I find interesting. We are off to a studio in sunny West Kirkby tomorrow afternoon to write and record some music. Think 'Robotic Tribalism'.

John

Pub meeting Sunday night

We had a really positive meeting in the Phil. I spent about five hours today reading and writing on the subjects of hate and tolerance and violence. I also read a Nick Griffin 'essay' about white people being victims of race hate and watched him on YouTube speaking at a KKK meeting. In many ways I've had a terribly negative Sunday!

But the meeting was good and we have shared notions of how to make a piece of work over the next few days that is not a haranguing polemic but is a more oblique soundscape with spoken word and impressionistic responses to hatred. A good start.

It don't matter if you're black or white

Going into yesterday's meeting to decide the topic for Present : Tense / Everyword, I thought it would be hard to avoid Michael Jackson. And so it proved, with the late King Of Pop on every front cover of every paper on every day since Friday.

I wasn't sure quite where I stood on the story in terms of this project. On the one hand, the death of a pop star can surely never be the most important story of the moment. But on the other, the past few days have been epochal. It's not just hyperbole to say Jackson was more than just a pop star - he was. For my entire lifetime he has been one of, if not the most famous person on the planet, and so almost by default he must have represented the era and society he lived in. Many commentators have said the death of Michael Jackson ranks alongside those of John Lennon and Elvis Presley in terms of global shockwaves. And if Jackson retains a place in history like Lennon and Presley have, then how can his death not be the most important story? It will surely be one of those "Where were you when you heard" moments.

When it went to the vote last night, I wasn't sure which way it would swing, but collectively we decided that the rise of crime in BNP strongholds was a more important story. I briefly thought Michael Jackson was out of the picture.

But of course even if the story we've chosen isn't Michael Jackson, he looms large within it. It's a story about how people hate other people on the basis of the colour of their skin.

On Newsnight Review on Friday, the playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah described Jackson as "America's Frankenstein". He said Jackson's body dysmorphia was the product of America's obsession with physical perfection and propogation of the notion that perfection is white.

When I turned on the TV in aftermath of Jackson's death, the video for Black Or White was on and I was reminded what a seminal record it was, and what an important statement. Yet 18 years after Black Or White was released, the most important news story of the week in which Michael Jackson died is a story about race hate. And that seems very sad.

Off to the Phil

Heading to the Philarmonic (pub not orchestra) for a first ideas meeting... I have a thought that what we may be digging into is a story about the lack of faith in parliamentary process, freedom of speech and the urge to fight for something and against someone else being stronger than the belief in what's being fought for. There are surely thematic links with some of the other stories that came up yesterday: the Romanian exodus from South Belfast; uses of and responses to protest in Iran.

The Ugly Face of Hatred

So here begins a new journey for me. The psychic sinews of three creative brains are coming together to create a piece of theatre that will explore the Daily Mirror's piece on rising hate crime in BNP areas of the UK. Ideas are forming in the sludge at the front of my brain and a mixing with semi-ideas from the tar pits at the back and will soon start to merge with alien ideas from James and Maria. What will born? We'll soon find out.

BNP HAVE HAD IT

The BNP are definitely in for it now. Some of Liverpool's most talented creative minds have come together to take a dig at their ribs. Obviously, I'm joking, as my personal task won't be to slander THEM but to enlighten US.

I'm sure next Saturday will be a great event. I'm both excited and terrified by the opportunity.

It was really good to meet the gang. Look forward to working with Eddy and whoever else gets involved in our piece.

The ticks are tocking and ain't stopping. Better go now and get on with the task at hand.

Peace For Now!

And the P:T / Everyword 2009 topic is...

The Present : Tense / Everyword artists gathered in the Everyman Bistro this evening to rip through a pile of newsprint and select the most important news story of the moment.

Of course, there was one story that dominated the news agenda - the death of Michael Jackson. But though that story made our shortlist, along with the ongoing prostests in Iran in the wake of the murder of Neda Soltan, the artists voted the most important news story of the moment as:

Hate crimes soar in BNP areas

The artists now have just seven days to create a response to this story before their work is performed live at The Everyman next Saturday 4 July at 7:45pm.

The artists will be posting news of their progress right here on the blog throughout the week so check back for updates and be sure to book your tickets for Saturday before they're gone.

Present : Tense / Everyword 2009

The toughest creative challenge in town returns to Liverpool for a second outing at The Everyman as part of the brilliant Everyword Festival.

Following last year's debut Present : Tense / Everyword, we're delighted to be back to once again challenge Merseyside's finest artistic talent to to respond to the most important news story of the moment in just seven days. Only now with an added twist. Inspired by last year's thrilling piece The Knife, we're asking cross-disciplinary artists to collaborate.

Taking up the gauntlet are: LAURENCE WILSON and JEFF YOUNG (playwrights); JAMES GRIEVE and GEORGE PERRIN (directors), THE SEAL CUB CLUBBING CLUB (band); MARIA MALONE (choreographer); CURTIS WATT (poet / musician) and EDDY MARSHALL (film-maker). 

The artists assemble tonight - Saturday 27 June 2009 - to decide what they think is the most important story on the news agenda. They then have one week to each create a response, before their work is performed live for you the public at The Everyman next Saturday 4 July.

Throughout the week you can follow their progress and post comments right here on the present : tense blog where the artists will be posting daily updates.

Tickets for Present : Tense / Everyword are a mere £4 and you can book your place here. And keep 'em peeled on the blog for updates.

Present : Tense / Everyword
Saturday 4 July 2008 // 7:30pm
Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse // 13 Hope Street // Liverpool // L1 9BH
Tickets £4 // 0151 709 4776 or www.everymanplayhouse.com