Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 42

In with the new...

Hello Folks,

I know I've been a bit quiet on the blog front lately, that is because I've taken a bit of a break from performing to spend time on writing and various efforts in self improvement. So here is a quick update for you...

I got myself a new motto...



Other new things:

1. New hair. I got bangs. I like them.



2. New job. I've been appointed as Editor at Parthian Books. I am super pleased about this and looking forward to working with our authors on splendid lists in 2013 and 2014.

3. Mr Man got a lot of brownie points this week. Not only did he take me out for champagne on hearing that I got the job, he also sent me flowers. He's a keeper. Which is a good job because...




4. We've signed up for another year on our house.



5. In my bid to learn something new every month... I started yoga in January, and begin crochet next week. My plans to learn to bake have been delayed slightly, but I get to do my OMB class in March and have been making flat breads regularly in the meantime.

I have also been writing lots (ready to submit a bunch of new work left, right and centre) and working on another interesting project, to be announced later in the year.

You should be hearing from me a bit more now. Cardiff Literary Salon restarts next month at Sherman, and I will be running the literary programme of Do Not Go Gentle festival in Swansea in November. We've also been having some good funding chats about xx 2013, and are busy plotting this year's festival. I have a couple of gigs of my own on the way too, so shall pop the flyers up as and when they come in.

Hope you are having a good 2013.

Susie Q x

Five things you have to try in Swansea's live music venues

I ♥ Swansea. You should too. I wrote a little Top 5 music venues snippet for @visitwales ...



"There’s stacks to see and do in Swansea. And it’s no surprise that lots of local people are busy writing stuff about them: places to eat and drink, spots for shopping, sights and sounds and more. So we put this page together to showcase the best. It’s a guide written by people who love where they live. We hope you find it as inspiring as we do…"

http://www.visitwales.co.uk/short-breaks/city-breaks/swansea/

THE STAGE | Panto Round Up 2012

The rest of those The Stage panto reviews...


Sleeping Beauty
Published Friday 14 December 2012 at 10:58 by Susie Wild

"As usual the New Theatre bang out the bling and special effects in their big budget, long-running pantomime. This season’s festive fairytale Sleeping Beauty is packed full of fireworks, twinkle-twinkle starry nights, flying bicycles, tarzan-rope swinging, curtain-clinging, Batman and Robin and four can-canning penguins."



Babes in the Wood Published Friday 14 December 2012 at 11:02 by Susie Wild
"Babes in the Wood meets Robin Hood in this traditional, touring Owen Money panto vehicle. Based on an old English ballad, the story sees the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham plot to have his niece Samantha and nephew Simon killed, resulting in the two children being abandoned deep within Sherwood Forest where the Big Bad Wolf lives. But all is not doom and gloom as slapstick comedy, bad Christmas cracker jokes, considered costumes and strong songs ensure the kids are kept laughing."

Robin Hood
Published Friday 14 December 2012 at 11:04 by Susie Wild

"Robin Hood (Torchwood’s Daniel Llewelyn-Williams) and his band of merry men and women arrive in Newport for a tolerable panto season turn of duels, campfire sing songs and forest romance. Last year’s Buttons (Keiron Self) plays the likeable Much, inviting us all to join his fantastic gang."



Cinderella
Published Monday 17 December 2012 at 12:33 by Susie Wild

"Swansea Grand Theatre is celebrating its 100th pantomime this year, and a glance around its Arts Wing exhibition of posters and photographs through the decades shows some top household names playing villains, dames and fairytale princesses - worth a look."

The Snow Tiger
Published Monday 17 December 2012 at 10:32 by Susie Wild

"In a small village beside a frozen lake lives a little boy called Usko who loves to be told his favourite story about the snow tiger, who lives on the mountain, and his daughter Little Bear - the loveliest, happiest little tiger that ever there was."

THE STAGE REVIEW | PETER PAN

Peter PanPublished Thursday 6 December 2012 at 14:51 by Susie WildSherman’s modernised story focuses on the experience of Wendy, a teenage girl growing up painfully fast. Rebecca Newham makes a confident stage debut complimented by a well-voiced cast and original songs with a Disney film feel.
A scene from Peter Pan at the Sherman Cymru, CardiffPhoto: Farrows CreativeTaunted by her brothers for owning her first bra, Wendy is left alone on Christmas Eve while her dad sneaks off to the pub. Feeling old enough to begin to understand the bigger questions in life but given none of the answers at home, she is whisked away to Neverland by mischeivous charmer Peter Pan (Joshua Considine). There she shifts identity from sweet mother homemaker for Adam Ant and the Lost Boys in part one, to rock chick pirate Black Heart, fighting out her teenage angst as the Captain’s right hook woman in part two.Stereotypes are subverted to good effect at the start, as Michael (Meilir Rhys Williams) is overjoyed to have a male fairy for their tree, and Tink is described as androdgenous. Lucy Osborne’s ribbon forest is a delight, as are the multimedia effects which have us ‘flying’ with Peter and Wendy over cities, and through constellations. A charming - if rather dark and adult - show which could do with more humour throughout to keep the youngest viewers enthralled.
Production informationSherman Cymru, Cardiff, December 5-January 5Author:Rob EvansDirector:Rois�n McBrinnProducer:Sherman CymruCast includes:Joshua Considine, Russell Gomer, Rebecca Newman, Meilir Rhys Williams, Daniel Graham, Adam Scales, Kyle ReesRunning time:2hr 20minsProduction information can change over the run of the show.

Read the review on The Stage website: http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/rev...

THE STAGE REVIEW | ALADDIN, ABERDARE

I am going to seven pantomimes and festive shows for The Stage this year. Here is my review of Pantomime Number One

AladdinPublished Monday 3 December 2012 at 11:37 by Susie WildAberdare’s Aladdin combines Eastern magic, mummies and genies with plenty of rub-a-dub-dub. Last year’s ugly sister Frank Vickers once again dames up wonderfully as Widow Twankey, with more costume changes than the Oscars - highlights including a camel and ingenious variations on rotary washing lines thanks to the BA (Hons) costume staff and students from Coleg Morgannwg.Also trying to have a rub, but this time of the magic lamp, not the royal laundry, is Baker Boys’ Richard Corgan, making his evil panto debut by playing Abanazar as a Shakespearean villain - cue lots of silly jokes based on mispronouncing his name - ‘Av a banana’, ‘Abergavenny’ and so on.Lower budget than the big city pantos, this production’s sets are less flashy, but a stronger adaptation of the script to localise the plot provides plenty of laughs, while stage fireworks and a flying magic carpet ensure there is much to entertain small kids and their big kid parents.Eye candy for mums and grans comes in the boy band forms of Tom Richards - a former X Factor contestant who plays the glittery-chested Genie of the Lamp - and Maxwell James (The Adventures of Sancho Panza) as Aladdin, who both prove more than competent on vocals.Natalie Morgan’s bossy Princess Jasmine provides lovely vocals some of the time, while Amy Coombes slightly over-eggs the Genie of the Ring. Zoe Davies and Richie Gooding are tongue-in-cheek comic caricatures as the police double act PC Ping and PC Pong, and Gavin Nelson jests as Wishee Washee with some hit-and-miss b-boy interludes.



See it on The Stage website: http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/rev...

Cardiff Literary Salon | 11 December 2012 | Carrie Etter & Bob Walton

Cardiff Literary Salon Returns on 11th December 2012
Sherman Cymru have got their alphabet blocks out in anticipation...
Sherman Cymru plays host to the Cardiff Literary SalonTuesday 11 December  - 7.30pmSpecial Guest: Carrie EtterAmerican expat Carrie Etter has published two collections, The Tethers (winner, London New Poetry Award; Seren, 2009) and Divining for Starters (Shearsman, 2011), and edited Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets (Shearsman, 2010). Her poems have recently appeared in New Welsh Review, Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, and The Rialto, among other journals.
Sian Lile-Pastore drew me a lovely poster in festive December hues too:


 For more information on the event visit the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/26986...

You should also join the Facebook Group for Cardiff Literary Salon: https://www.facebook.com/groups/19918...

CLICK ON WALES | A WELSH REALITY TV CAR CRASH

A Welsh reality TV car crashSusie Wild says an emotional void has taken Wales out of the ValleysNovember 8th, 2012
Read the article in full on Click on Wales: http://www.clickonwales.org/2012/11/a-welsh-reality-tv-car-crash/

BBC WALES ARTS BLOG | Do Not Go Gentle festival designed with Dylan Thomas in mind

Thursday 1 November 2012, 15:44Laura Chamberlain56ShareFacebookTwitterCOMMENTSTagged with:arts and culture, festivals, music, literatureOrganisers of the inaugural Do Not Go Gentle festival, which takes place in Swansea this weekend, have kept one of the city's most famous sons firmly in mind during its planning.The new festival celebrates the life and work of Dylan Thomas. As the website says, it aims "to be a festival Dylan might have liked, and yes that involves beer, but it also involves cosy and atmospheric venues, great acts and the lovely people of Swansea who first inspired him to write all those years ago."Writers involved in the weekend include the inaugural winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize, Rachel Trezise; poet Rhian Edwards, who was the winner of the 2012 John Tripp Award for Spoken Poetry; writer and co-organiser of the recent xx minifest of women's writing, Susie Wild; plus comic poet and performer Mab Jones.
Uplands Literary Salon w/ Rachel Trezise, Sat 3rd November 4-5pm, Upstairs, Noah's Yard

I'll also be reading a few poems before the excellent Rhian Edwards in Mozart's, Sat 3rd November 6-7pm

Read the BBC blog in full: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/posts/do-not-go-gentle-festival-planned-with-dylan-thomas-in-mind

NWR Blog | xx Minifest of Women's Writing

BLOG Gwen Davies NWR Issue 97 xx Minifestest of Women's Writing"Had a good time on Saturday at this new festival for the writing of women from Wales and beyond. It was excellently organised (despite a concurrent beer festival at Chapter) and publicised by the team of Penny Thomas, Carole Burns, Amy Wack and Susie Wild. The audiences were large and the evening 'Salon', featuring the short story with Roshi Fernando and Rachel Trezise, sold out. The main delight for me was chatting in the bookfair section to Roshi about balancing international gigs publicising Bloomsbury's edition of her integrated short fiction collection, Homesick, Read about it in NWR's Online Interview, Roshi Fernando, with developing her debut novel, The Elephant's Wife, an excerpt from which appeared last year in NWR 92, The Elephant's Wife Extract. "

Read the blog in full: http://www.newwelshreview.com/article.php?id=380

BBC Arts Blog: Women's writing celebrated at the xx minifest

Women's writing celebrated at the xx minifestFriday 26 October 2012, 12:04Laura ChamberlainShareFacebookTwitterCOMMENTSTagged with:arts and culture, writing, poetryWriting by and for women will be celebrated this weekend as the xx minifest of women’s writing 2012 takes place in Cardiff.This inaugural festival will take residence at Chapter Arts Centre this Saturday, 27 October. It aims to publicise the range and diversity of writing by women from Wales in the English language, and encourages both men and women to attend and take part.This one day minifest will act as a "taster session", as a more extensive literary programme is already being planned for 2013.I put a few questions about the festival to Susie Wild, one of the co-organisers of the xx minifest. Wild is a writer, an editor at Parthian Books and she also organises the Cardiff Literary Salon, and will be holding a special edition of the literary gathering for the festival.Read the article in full: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/wales/posts/womens-writing-celebrated-at-the-xx-minifest