Just back from a very interesting day trip to Birmingham with Michael Walling, to attend the regional launch of the Africa Consortium and for a meeting at The Drum, one of the venues on the upcoming Border Crossings tour.
The Drum turns out to be a lovely building, full of activity and creativity. We were very impressed and very much hope that this is the model for the Bernie Grant Centre in Tottenham. It would be great to have a centre like this in London.
The Africa Consortium launch was at Birmingham Rep - another very impressive building but this time much more cool (temperature, not hipness) and English in feel. John Kani was performing in his new play, which we saw (see below) and he spoke at the launch. He is a marvellous speaker, inspirational. I came to the meeting with a fair amount of scepticism about this consortium, worried that this was UK Arts joining with other already well funded and powerful organisations to keep control of the African theatre scene, edging the little guys out. However, it seems I was needlessly anxious, as this actually seems like a rather wonderful scheme, giving us all access to information and somewhere to meet (both physically and virtually) which could spark off collaborative work. The upshot was that both Michael and I feel it would be a good thing to be members.
After the launch we went in to see Nothing But The Truth, John Kani's play, which was a huge disappointment. Of course his performance was great, as you would expect from one of the foremost actors of his generation, but the play was really awful. Our hearts sank as we took our seats and surveyed the set - an incredibly detailed, realistic box set of an African house with kitchen and living room on view, and doorways to the bedrooms. This immediately signalled that this was to be a traditional, realistic play, and we expected no surprises. Which was lucky, because there certainly were none - the whole thing was completely lacking in tension. Characters moved from kitchen to living room and back again, explaining themselves in minute and tedious detail at all stages and signalling the 'denoument' a long, long time before it came. It was a three hander, but the two young women were so underwritten that we never really got a glimpse of them as real people. One character, an African brought up in England was shallow, irritating and cliched - the actress did a good job with what she had, but didn't have a chance. Political comment was sort of stuck on over the domestic story, although I'm sure the intention was to show that the domestic tragedy sprang from the political situation. I'm afraid I wasn't convinced. All in all a very boring evening - 90 minutes which felt much, much longer.
Thursday 24 May 2007
Friday 18 May 2007
good news
Spent the day in The Theatre Consortium office catching up with some paperwork and finalising a funding application for RESPECT - my next Youth Theatre project. Fingers crossed that the funding comes in, as it's a really exciting project, and it would be so disappointing to cancel.
Finally managed to finalise Border Crossings' DILEMMA tour schedule with a couple of days at The Drum, Birmingham. What with that and the Barbican in Plymouth wanting us to extend the tour to include a couple of days there, we've got a pretty full tour shedule. Although if any of you blog readers out there run a venue, there are still a few days we'd like to fill in early November. However, the news from The Drum has meant that Michael and I will have a more relaxed weekend with our respective families - waiting for news has been a bit of a cliff hanger!
We're off to the launch of the Africa Consortium in Birmingham next week - will pop into The Drum to have a proper look at the space and to meet everyone there. It's a centre for promoting black and asian performance, and it would be great to tour AFTER MIKUYU there. We'll see.
Finally managed to finalise Border Crossings' DILEMMA tour schedule with a couple of days at The Drum, Birmingham. What with that and the Barbican in Plymouth wanting us to extend the tour to include a couple of days there, we've got a pretty full tour shedule. Although if any of you blog readers out there run a venue, there are still a few days we'd like to fill in early November. However, the news from The Drum has meant that Michael and I will have a more relaxed weekend with our respective families - waiting for news has been a bit of a cliff hanger!
We're off to the launch of the Africa Consortium in Birmingham next week - will pop into The Drum to have a proper look at the space and to meet everyone there. It's a centre for promoting black and asian performance, and it would be great to tour AFTER MIKUYU there. We'll see.
Wednesday 16 May 2007
old friends & colleagues
Had a surprise today - an email from Pam Brooke, who I first worked for in Malawi. She was the brains and inspiration behind Story Workshop, Malawi's only Education Media NGO. It was through Story Workshop that I made contact with the wonderful Adam Stapleton of Penal Reform International, which in turn sparked the development of Nanzikambe's Active Learning programme, now exported all over the world via PRI's paralegal training programme. It's amazing how one woman's generosity in passing the project over to me in the first place can start something which is helping to reduce the prison populations in developing countries all over the world.
It was lovely to hear from Pam, who having cut the umbilical cord to Story Workshop, is living in Washington DC and advising on radio soap operas in several African countries. It was another reminder of how Africa gets under your skin and into your blood, however hard you try to leave.
It was lovely to hear from Pam, who having cut the umbilical cord to Story Workshop, is living in Washington DC and advising on radio soap operas in several African countries. It was another reminder of how Africa gets under your skin and into your blood, however hard you try to leave.
Monday 14 May 2007
bringing it all up to date
Being rather new to this blogging lark, it's taken me an inordinate amount of time to set it all up ... but here we are at last!
It's been a rather eventful few weeks. At Easter I visited Malawi, and had some very positive meetings with various partners there. The British Council are interested in supporting AFTER MIKUYU as part of the Malawi Arts Festival I am in the first stages of organising, and I met with the other members of the Malawi Arts Festival Organising Group where we decided on the first steps. Watch this space for develoments, but if all goes well, this will be a very busy year.
As soon as I returned from Malawi, I was straight into organising Bilimankhwe Youth Arts' visit to Hampstead Theatre as part of the National Theatre's Connections Youth Festival. We were taking SCARY PLAY, with its young cast of 16, a touring set including doors set in frames on wheels, a dentists's chair, a coffin .... thanks to all the wonderful crew at Hampstead it all went smoothly. Judith Johnson, the playwright, was in the audience, and fortunately absolutely loved our production of her play. The youth theatre members were on a high for weeks.
A few days after the Hampstead show, I started to feel unwell, with chills and spiking fevers. A trip to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases confirmed what I suspected ... I had Malaria. And so did my husband Matthew, and one of my children, Freddy. So it was 5 days in hospital taking the dreadful quinine sulphate. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a much less nasty cure for the disease, but the medics want to teach us a lesson for not taking anti-malarials (naughty naughty!). Whatever, I don't recommend quinine for anyone wanting to keep hold of their stomach contents. Enough said. Next time I'm definitely taking the tablets.
I've now started work on my Theatre Consortium colleague, Michael Walling's latest production for his company, Border Crossings. Called THE DILEMMA OF A GHOST, it's written by celebrated Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo and is a co-production with the National Theatre of Ghana. Spent the week finalising and confirming the tour details - so far it's opening at Leeds University and touring to Leicester Phoenix, The Bernie Grant Centre and the South Bank before going on to Ghana. Should be wonderful - see www.bordercrossings.org.uk for more details.
It's been a rather eventful few weeks. At Easter I visited Malawi, and had some very positive meetings with various partners there. The British Council are interested in supporting AFTER MIKUYU as part of the Malawi Arts Festival I am in the first stages of organising, and I met with the other members of the Malawi Arts Festival Organising Group where we decided on the first steps. Watch this space for develoments, but if all goes well, this will be a very busy year.
As soon as I returned from Malawi, I was straight into organising Bilimankhwe Youth Arts' visit to Hampstead Theatre as part of the National Theatre's Connections Youth Festival. We were taking SCARY PLAY, with its young cast of 16, a touring set including doors set in frames on wheels, a dentists's chair, a coffin .... thanks to all the wonderful crew at Hampstead it all went smoothly. Judith Johnson, the playwright, was in the audience, and fortunately absolutely loved our production of her play. The youth theatre members were on a high for weeks.
A few days after the Hampstead show, I started to feel unwell, with chills and spiking fevers. A trip to the Hospital for Tropical Diseases confirmed what I suspected ... I had Malaria. And so did my husband Matthew, and one of my children, Freddy. So it was 5 days in hospital taking the dreadful quinine sulphate. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is a much less nasty cure for the disease, but the medics want to teach us a lesson for not taking anti-malarials (naughty naughty!). Whatever, I don't recommend quinine for anyone wanting to keep hold of their stomach contents. Enough said. Next time I'm definitely taking the tablets.
I've now started work on my Theatre Consortium colleague, Michael Walling's latest production for his company, Border Crossings. Called THE DILEMMA OF A GHOST, it's written by celebrated Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo and is a co-production with the National Theatre of Ghana. Spent the week finalising and confirming the tour details - so far it's opening at Leeds University and touring to Leicester Phoenix, The Bernie Grant Centre and the South Bank before going on to Ghana. Should be wonderful - see www.bordercrossings.org.uk for more details.
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