Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 47

Mslexia Blog 3 | Doubts and Dilemmas

Mar21Doubts and Dilemmas0 CommentsPosted by Susie Wild in inspiration,writing process


Following my meetings in Blog Two, I take Matt and Phil up on the challenge to finish writing a smaller chunk of my show and take it to perform on a stage. Any stage. I book a slot at a couple of open mics and get writing. I take a six-minute work-in-progress to try out, just 'finished' and therefore completely unpolished, on an unknown crowd. At the packed event a light blinds me on stage so I find it harder than usual to read off the page, but I'm still reasonably happy with my performance, and now know which sections I need to work on (there were some tongue-twisters and some flat bits that glared in the spotlight).

I even get more laughs that I expected, which is always a bonus. I hate hate hate reading sections that you know are funny, or usually crack the room up and being met with silence. Those are the times when doubt creeps in. Why am I doing this? Perhaps I'm not cut out for it? Perhaps I'm just not any good at it? Can I even write? A raging battle between stay-home-and-hide-from-your-audience writer-me and wannabe-performer-me takes place in my head. They make a mess. It feels like I have a performance hangover. I say 'I'm never doing it again. Going to get a real job. Stop all this creative malarky.' But of course, you know that's only true until someone asks me again. 'Go on, just the one!' and I groan, and make the you're-twisting-my-arm gesture, and go 'Oh okay!' striding towards the mic knowing how good that after-show-rush tastes.

7 Day Drunk
Bryony KimmingsThis next bit is not an AA admission. The recent open mic try outs of my newer material prove I am onto something but it needs a fair bit of editing, some polishing, and a lot more rehearsing. I decide to enlist an expert and enrol on a rare one day performance workshop with Bryony Kimmings, writer of hit one woman show 7 Day Drunk, which I loved when I saw at Edinburgh Fringe in August. I was attracted to see her work, and The Paper Bird's show Thirsty, when I was at the festival because the pieces that I perform also had a lot of their origins in dives and drinking – poems called 'Pub Crawl Date', 'Barmaid', and 'One For The Road Won't Hurt'. Bryony's 7 Day Drunk got 4 stars in Edinburgh, and is getting 4 stars across the London press now too. It is currently at Soho Theatre then touring (go and see it!).Unfortunately illness swiped me down and I was unable to attend the magical one day workshop in East London. I was gutted. I told Bryony this and she took pity and agreed to an interview to share her thoughts and tips instead and she encouraged me to visit her at a date on her tour. You can read the interview in full on my personal Wildlife blog. Here is a shorter extract:Your fab show 7 Day Drunk was a 4 star hit at Edinburgh, and is currently touring. Where did the idea come from?The idea came from the fact I was living with an alcoholic and they were a writer. I was also struggling with booze and creativity myself and I wanted to address the age old idea of the drunk artist and the romantic ethics of that. I also wanted to work with scientists. So we devised the experiment – it was as scientific as art can get. And we did it in a seven day controlled experiment and I made the material for the show that week then turned it into the show for Edinburgh. It was commissioned by Soho Theatre and The Junction and funded by ACE and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. The tour was also ACE funded.How long did it take to put together and rehearse?A good few weeks and meetings in planning. One week of being drunk. Three weeks in the studio after.Did you get any help from anyone?Yes from my mentor Stacy Makishi; mostly emotional support there. Nina Steiger from Soho Theatre and Kate Madden from Junction helped me with notes and ideas.For your workshop you asked people to bring a packed lunch and water – not vodka cranberry as some might have expected. If alcohol isn't the creative spark, how do you get those participating, and indeed yourself to begin to spark new ideas for a show and then run with them to make longer pieces?I give myself time and I am nice to myself. A retreat is normally in order to kick start an idea. Sometimes things just hit me or make me need to make work about them… other things need to be dug out. I kind of just feel if something is a cabaret sketch, a song or a full length piece. It's hard to quantify your own brain… so sorry to be mystical!What tips and pointers do you have for novices like me who want to put together a show to take on the road?Make something you really like. Be true to yourself about what you are trying to say and why people might be interested in that. Lots of people get websites, gigs and business cards before they really know what they have to say. Hone your craft first. Show ideas to people to see if what you think the work is doing is happening in your audience.Bryony's tour is running across the country until the end of May: bryonykimmings.com/tourdatesThanks Bryony. So I shall start looking at getting away on a short retreat to get some words down, which may go hand-in-hand with a decision on whether to apply for research and development money for the next step from Arts Council Wales – an informative session at their Funding Surgery yesterday suggests this may be my best way forward rather than the Creative Wales award, and would suit my impatience better as applications go in next month. Their guidelines have also changed considerably, and will be announced on their website from April.In the meantime I am still getting along to as much spoken word and theatre as I can. Recent highlights include John Peel's Shed at Wales Millennium Centre, where I got to meet Molly Naylor who wrote the one woman show Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You, and is currently creating fun work with Byron Vincent for Bristol's Mayfest. More on this in a later blog. Following on the drinking and performance theme, this weekend I am off to see spoken word rising star Kate Tempest's play Wasted at Sherman Cymru. Kate crops up in a rather good podcast documentary by MissMollyHowles this week: 'Bards and Beats: An Exploration of Rap and Poetry in the UK'. Recommended listening for anyone interested in the UK spoken word scene.But first: I am supporting Luke Wright at The Absurd in Mold next week. Thirty minutes of stage time. So time for me to stop blogging, finish planning my set and rehearse.

Read original blog: http://www.mslexia.co.uk/blog/2012/03/doubts-and-dilemmas/

B*tches in Bookshops (based on Jay Z and Kanye West's "N*ggas in Paris")

Friday Amusement x

One Woman Show | Interview: Bryony Kimmings

"Bryony Kimmings is NOT an alcoholic."So begins the blurb on the Soho Theatre website for Kimming's current show 7 Day Drunk. No Bryony Kimmings is not an alcoholic, she is an artist, and her own website tells us that: 'She makes performance, dance, music, spoken word, and video. Her work is haphazard, loud, dangerous, unpredictable... and above all mega-fun!' 


Kimmings is one of a number of young artists creating work linked to Britain's (and their own) rocky relationship with booze. 7 Day Drunk is part social experiment and part personal history. Through anecdote, song, dance, film and fantastical costumes Kimmings examines whether alcohol does make us more creative, and if so at what cost.

WORDS: SUSIE WILD

Your fab show 7 Day Drunk was a 4 star hit at Edinburgh, and is currently touring. Where did the idea come from?

The idea came from the fact I was living with an alcoholic and they were a writer. I was also struggling with booze and creativity myself and I wanted to address the age old idea of the drunk artist and the romantic ethics of that. I also wanted to work with scientists. So we devised the experiment - it was as scientific as art can get. And we did it in a seven day controlled experiment and I made the material for the show that week then turned it into the show for Edinburgh. It was commissioned by Soho Theatre and The Junction and funded by ACE and the Jerwood Charitable Foundation. The tour was also ACE funded.

How long did it take to put together and rehearse?

A good few weeks and meetings in planning. One week of being drunk. Three weeks in the studio after.

Did you get any help from anyone?


Yes from my mentor Stacy Makishi; mostly emotional support there. Nina Steiger from Soho Theatre and Kate Madden from Junction helped me with notes and ideas.

What have been the best and worst moments of putting it together and putting it out there?


The drinking was the best and worst. The making a show the worst - total mental block for a lot of the time. Weird how the brain can take over its own logic and freeze you up sometimes. Doing the gig and dancing with everyone at the end is the best feeling ever!

How did you go about booking your tour?


My tour booker booked the show. We booked it as soon as we were back from Edinburgh, and the tour was finalised by just before Christmas. It wasn't a hard sell as it had done well in Edinburgh and Soho backed it. People ask for the tour pack sometimes but mostly we send it to them and they then get in contact to book. We call them if we haven't heard, but we ain't too pushy!

What first attracted you to performance art, and who/what is keeping you interested in it today?


I studied it and loved Forced Entertainment, Wooster Group and the more theatrical companies we were looking at. I started making work with friends and became a company with them then I went into more clubby trash work and then I got a commission to make a solo and this all began. I love Scottee, Eat Your Heart Out, Owen Parry, Ryan Styles, Richard Dedomenici, Dan Canham, Made in China, Taylor Mac, Jonny Woo, Amy Lame, Dickie Beau and loads of comedians like Dr Brown and Neil Hamburger. I am not really into Theatre.

I heard that you hate camping, how are you going to cope with all your festivals this summer?


Haaaaaa. I hope to just get a nice tent with lots of room and make it comfy. Going for an air bed this summer, a self-inflating one. Costumes are always stored in lock ups backstage as otherwise they get nicked! Luckily you get better toilets and things if you are an artist and cheap food. Ear plugs. I always need ear plugs. I really want an airstream but can't afford it this year!

For your performance workshop you asked people to bring a packed lunch and water – not vodka cranberry as some might have expected. If alcohol isn't the creative spark, how do you get those participating, and indeed yourself to begin to spark new ideas for a show and then run with them to make longer pieces?

I give myself time and I am nice to myself. A retreat is normally in order to kick start an idea. Sometimes things just hit me or make me need to make work about them... other things need to be dug out. I kind of just feel if something is a cabaret sketch, a song or a full length piece. It's hard to quantify your own brain... so sorry to be mystical!

What tips and pointers do you have for novices like me who want to put together a show to take on the road?

Make something you really like. Be true to yourself about what you are trying to say and why people might be interested in that. Lots of people get websites, gigs and business cards before they really know what they have to say. Hone your craft first. Show ideas to people see if what you think the work is doing is happening in your audience.

From the Total Theatre award-winning creator of Sex Idiot comes a hilarious, riotous and moving one woman show investigating the historical links between artists and mind enhancing drugs. Bryony's 7 Day Drunk tour is running across the country until the end of May: bryonykimmings.com/tourdates

THE STAGE REVIEW | #NTW17 | A PROVINCIAL LIFE

I'm a big Chekhov fan, so luckily Peter Gill's A Provincial Life did not disappoint. The Stage don't give star ratings, but if they did, I'd have given it 4 stars. Here is the review, I'd have liked a bigger word count for the write up, so much there just wasn't room to go into:


Published Wednesday 7 March 2012 at 11:12 by Susie WildRenowned Welsh playwright Peter Gill directs his first play in his home city of Cardiff in his iconic 50-year career, returning home with a compelling adaptation of his 1966 work A Provincial Life at the newly refurbished Sherman Cymru. Staged only once before, at the Royal Court, National Theatre Wales has done us great service in bringing it back to our attention.Based on a story by Anton Chekhov, this tragicomic tale charts the arc of idealist Misail Alexandrovich Poloznez (Nicholas Shaw) in 1890s Russia. Misail renounces the bourgeois life he was born in to, to become a workman, before moving to the country to manage the estate of his new wife, singer Maria Victorovna Dolzhikova (Alex Clatworthy). His painful search for meaning and equality resonates in today's uncertain financial climate.Shaw adeptly portrays Misail's trajectory from sweetly naive idealism through to a solemn awareness of futility and injustice once his love leaves him. His struggle is emphasised by Alison Chitty's starkly authentic sets where the characters are dwarfed against the pale wooden backdrops. He has strong support across the cast, especially from the warm performances of Lee Haven-Jones (Boris Ivanov Blagovo), William Thomas (Andrey Ivanov) and Alex Clatworthy. The large number of scene changes are made smoothly, thanks to the well choreographed movement of the ensemble cast.Misail says that "Nothing can pass without leaving a trace and that everything we do, however small, has significance in our present and in our future." A Provincial Life is sure to leave a lasting impression upon all who view it.
Read review on The Stage website: http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/35476/a-provincial-life

I enjoyed my third night out at the theatre tonight. John Peel's Shed at Weston Studio on Mon, A Provincial Life at Sherman Cymru last night and ScriptSlam at Sherman tonight. Congratulations to darkly comic runner up Kelly Jones (my favourite) and winner Rhys Matthews who had some top visual gags.

CULTURE COLONY PIONEER 8 NEWSLETTER | Critical Thinking: Welsh Arts Critics' Development Programme

Last month I completed the Welsh Arts Critics' Development Programme with Wales Arts International and Visiting Arts. Four new critics - Lowri Hâf Cooke, Amelia Forsbrook, Dylan Moore and myself  - took part in the 6-month programme which was designed to develop coverage and critical discussion of Welsh arts.
In the beginning...It began with a two day intensive workshop with former arts journalist Linda Christmas, renowned cultural commentator Jon Gower and programme mentors Jasmine Donahaye (then editor, Planet Magazine) and Elisabeth Mahoney (theatre and radio critic, The Guardian). The workshop and subsequent bespoke programme provided an opportunity to critique work together and explore the role of the art critic. 
Each of the new critics was paired with an experienced mentor for 1:1 support over the programme. I was incredibly pleased to be paired with Elisabeth Mahoney, who has proved invaluable to me over the six month period, correcting a few of my bad habits that had slipped in over years of freelancing and teaching me the skills of powerful pitching at a national and international level. As Elisabeth has written about a broad range of arts, she was the best match for me, as I also have broader cultural interests spanning visual arts, literature, music and performance.
The scheme enabled each critic to take two overseas trips, and also gifted us with a weekend in Edinburgh for the festivals to see Welsh theatre in the British Council Showcase -- The Dark Philosophers and Llwyth -- and anything else we could cram in whilst we were there. You can see my blog about this here, and read my art reviews of Ingrid Calame and Martin Creed.
Georgia on my mindFor my first trip abroad I opted to attend a fairly new annual international visual arts festival -- Artisterium IVin Tbilisi, Georgia. I was interested in developing my understanding of the international arts scene, and also fascinated by Georgia as a place finding it's feet, culturally, post-Soviet occupation. Especially after reading these articles:The New York Times: Georgian Artists, Doing It for Themselvestheartsdesk in Tbilisi: The Dilemma over Georgian ArchitectureLois Williams and Antonia Dewhurst were representing Wales at Artisterium IV, and they were curated by Martin Barlow, former director of Oriel Mostyn. The programme covered a short trip to Tibilisi where I got to meet and chat to the artists and Martin, see the show being set up and attend the opening. I was also able to attend several of the other international exhibitions at Artisterium IV and I was introduced to a number of other Georgian artists including Wato Tsereteli who set up the Center of Contemporary Art in Tbilisi and Misha Shengelia who recently had an exhibition at Oriel Mostyn. Another reason for choosing this trip was that Oriel Mostyn had planned a group show with Georgian artists to run between March and May 2012, so I saw longevity to the relationships I was forging on the visit, and had planned to write a critical essay on the partnership. Unfortunately the Mostyn exhibition has been delayed until 2013, thus so have my plans with this. Still, when Wato Tsereteli showed me around the Center of Contemporary Art, which includes fantastic project space and an artists' resource centre, he mentioned that they were in talks with Bristol's Spike Island about forging some sort of artist in residence exchange scheme, so I am interested to see if this develops.Read my review of One Room Living  -- Lois Williams and Antonia DewhurstRead my interview with Antonia DewhurstRead my interview with Misha Shengelia
Hey hey HayFor my second trip overseas I chose to travel to India for Hay Festival Kerala, a three day literature festival featuring local and international writers. I had chosen the trip as I was interested in the The British Council's India Wales Writers Chain programme that was taking place in Kerala directly before the festival, and I have also harboured a long love of Asian fiction. As well as Hay International Fellows Jon Gower and Tiffany Murray, there were some great speakers booked to appear at the event from Germaine Greer and Simon Armitage to Jung Chang, K. Satchidanandan, Andrew Miller and Agnes Desarthe. It also offered brilliant networking opportunities, and I was able to interview Jung Chang and Simon Armitage, as well as meet Telegraphjournalists and blog for the Hay Kerala festival website.
As well as these trips, I have been interviewing and reviewing for a number of publications over the period of the programme. This includes articles for literary journal The Raconteur during my time as Associate Editor with them for the America issue, book reviews for Planet Magazine and New Welsh Review, and reviews of pantomimes, theatre, opera and dance for industry bible The Stage who I now regularly write for. I've popped most of these up as an archive on my Art Log on the Culture Colony Site.
What now?So, what next? I am continuing to review, with pieces coming up for The Stage and Sabotage this week, and my current guest blogging stint with Mslexia. I also run literary salons in Swansea and Cardiff and have some other arty projects up my sleeves. I certainly feel confident in my writing and critical ability after participating in the scheme. Where I lack confidence is in the number of professional outlets for critical writing about the arts in Wales, both within Wales and beyond our borders. And don't get me started on the 'apparent lack of women reviewers'. I have pitched good pitches to national newspapers and magazines that have elicited either no response, or rude, abrupt, negative responses. London, often, is simply not interested in what we have happening here. And so much good quality work is happening here. Within Wales we do not have a broadsheet newspaper with intelligent critical debate and coverage. Listings magazines like Buzz are, in the main, written by students, for free and generally preview rather than review work which means the bulk of the info comes from press releases not engagement. Other What's On guides are mostly made up of adverts and advertorials. Indeed I used to write for such places, also for free, but I no longer choose to do so.Somebody has to start to value words and good writing.There are other issues, including national and local publications slashing the budgets for their arts coverage, so that if you see people who aren't journalists providing content for them, you'll probably find there is some vested interest - an event being promoted, for example - that works as pay. Timings can be a pain, also. If you want an essay to run in New Welsh Review or Planet you often have to pitch it a year in advance, and their subscription numbers are far lower than they should be, which means they can only survive thanks to financial assistance from the Welsh Books Council. We are not encouraging good criticism to flourish, because there is little or no pay or place for it. Culture Colony does offer a place, of course, but from a professional perspective, it still flags up similar no-pay issues. There are also more ingrained problems where people who become experts in their fields, no longer feel they can publish critical pieces about the arts and particular artists in Wales in case they bump into them in Chapter/ the pub later that day, yet this is an issue for all arts scenes and regions, and can and should be overcome here.Is there really a demand for good criticism in Wales then? Perhaps all the above points to the fact that the readers, or at least the required number of readers to make any such project viable, are not there or are not willing to spend the cash on such writing. The latter may be true, indeed this is something that all arts criticism and journalism is struggling to address in these digital times, but I do think there is a desire for more quality critical engagement with the arts in Wales. Certainly the lack of decent criticism is something that the arts sector as a whole is feeling. Anyone who was at the New Critics Day run by National Theatre Wales and Literature Wales knows this. It probably has a lot to do with why Wales Arts International and National Theatre Wales have both set up their own critics development schemes in recent years. There may well be a case for new ways of critical dialogue, debates and dialogue occuring with theatre companies, galleries, artists and makers both during the creative process, and after it. Intimate conversations, live panel debates and podcasts. However, in the press and more broadly, training up new critics isn't the main barrier we have to tackle. There are people who can write and enter into critical debate and discourse here in Wales. What we need more of is (a) a valuing of arts criticism, (b) professional platforms where it can flourish, independently from vested interests, funding bodies and institutions, and (c) willing readers. Otherwise nothing will change.#rant
Further infoNoises off: Who can save theatre criticism?Lyn Gardner: Theatre and critics need each otherInstitutional sexism of books world needs new girls' networkIs arts criticism too London-centric?Emma Geliot's blog Writing The Future relating to New Critics Day
You can keep track of all my future work, creative and journalistic over at http://susiewild.blogspot.com/ (there are also lots of links and articles on arts criticism in the archive there) and follow me on Twitter @Soozerama 




http://www.culturecolony.com/artlogs?p=8927

I'm performing at The Absurd next month

Tuesday, March 27, 20127:00pm until 10:00pmAnother amazing line-up. Another fantastic evening of the Absurd!

One of the UK's finest comic poets, Luke Wright, brings his own unique blend of satire, biting wit and original verse to our stage. His most recent show, Cynical Ballads, completed a sold out run at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2011.
"The best young performance poet around." The Observer
"One of the funniest and most brilliant poets of his generation." Johann Hari, The Independent

Mslexia's 'Literary It Girl', writer, journalist, editor, poet and film-maker, Susie Wild is taking the Welsh literary world by storm. Amongst other things Susie hosts the Uplands and Cardiff Literary Salons, is Associate Editor of Parthian Books, and the author of The Art of Contraception: long-listed for Edge Hill Short Story Prize 2011.  

Chester-based poet, musician and troubadour Chris Ingram has a wealth of poems whose performances are enriched by a love of crafting verse. Chris has a loyal following in his home country of Scotland having toured there extensively. He is currently performing music and poetry in hospitals across the UK with his 'Music in Hospitals' project.
Clwyd Theatr Cymru
Mold, Flintshire

Open floor will run 7.30pm – 8pm. Doors open 7pm.

Tickets £6/£5 concessions.

This event is supported by Literature Wales. 

The short story gets big

'ARMINTA WALLACE
IS 2012 THE year of the short story? It certainly looks that way; as winter turns to spring, story collections are blossoming all over the place.One of the UK's biggest publishing houses, Bloomsbury, is bringing out a book of short fiction every month from now until May; at the other end of the publishing scale, the tiny Irish publisher Arlen House has a whopping six collections in its spring pipeline.Already you can find Éilis Ní Dhuibhne's Shelter of Neighbours and Adrian Kenny's Portobello Notebook in the shops. Kevin Barry's new book of stories, Dark Lies the Island , is due in April, Joseph O'Connor has a new book of stories on the way and, to top it all, the Dublin City Libraries One City: One Book choice for this year is James Joyce'sDubliners .So what's the story? Is it all just a coincidence or is something new in the literary air?'Read More: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2012/0225/1224312355471.html

MSLEXIA BLOG 2 | Meetings, meetings

I find I have been having a one step forward two steps back kind of time since blog one. Usually when I have an idea to do something, relating to events, I just go ahead and do them and then realise that I could have got funding, or pay, of free beer, or some help with setting up the stage/ sound/ lights. Useful stuff like that.The thing with help and useful stuff, is that it often takes time, and meetings and form filling and means that some of the bright ideas just would not have happened. I'm also impatient. If you tell me I could get £2000 but need to wait 18 months to do it, I think I'd rather have the pennies and do it next week.Lately, though, I've begun to wise up. I've been getting training and advice in fundraising and sponsorship (Arts & Business do a great line in that, in Wales and the rest of the UK. Speak to them). So, it follows, that with putting together my own one woman show, rather than running at Edinburgh head first and naked, screaming 'LOOK AT ME' (my back-up plan if all else fails) I've sent a bunch of emails out to people who may or may not be able to help me in some way.Meeting one..Over the past couple of weeks I've spoken to some of the people who were kind enough to email me back and say 'Yes, okay, come along and have a cuppa and a chat.' The first of these lovely people was Phil Mackenzie, Acting Head of Creative Learning at Sherman Theatre. I met up with him in the swanky foyer of the newly refurbished Sherman Cymru building in Cardiff to talk about what I wanted to do, what I needed help with and how Artist Development at Sherman Theatre may be able to help me.It turns out there are a lot of things Sherman can help me with from props and set and lighting and sound to space and support with structure and aspects of performance. The three biggest things I have to worry about is learning my lines, structuring the piece and having a rehearsal space as my garrett dosn't allow much movement or privacy. Phil says he can help with all of these, and once I've got more of the show ready to work with I can call him up and book some time in one of their rehearsal spaces. Win!After asking how much of a rush I was in to make the show: 'Are you going to try and take it to Edinburgh this year?' I replied that I wasn't sure, if it were ready and if it were good enough, but it may be that I try and do sections of it on the free fringe instead, and aim for a small initial tour in the Autumn. Phil agrees. He suggests I make contact with Arts Council Wales about project funding and also flags up the Creative Wales Award as something that I might be eligible for as I am developing and altering my practice. It is a competitive award to go for, and has a proper pot of money behind it, but it has that one drawback that might not suit impatient me, there will be a long wait. Lots of food for thought. I leave him a copy of my book, to give him an idea of my voice and writing style, and he actually reads it that very weekend and emails back with nice comments about how he really liked it. A lovely man indeed.Meeting two…Next up I have myself a Valentines Day meeting with another kindly and helpful chap, Matt Ball from Wales Lab at National Theatre Wales. I pop in for an afternoon cuppa and a chat on the sofas of their Cardiff office. It doesn't go quite as well. I am not in Sell Yourself Susie mode, I have been baking cookies (just ruined my rock and roll image there), Matt is softly spoken and lots of faces I know are quiet at their desks VERY nearby in the open plan space. I feel awkward, and try my best to give Matt a sense of what I want to do, but being a writer talking about my own work in very early progress, I'm not very good at explaining myself.Still he is patient, draws out some sort of info from me and suggests a few things. Firstly I need to get myself a short summary written up of what my show is about, a bit like a novel synopsis, the same principle. So I can do elevator pitches to venues and festivals and people like him. He also recommends making a website, and filming a very short extract of my performance of the show to use as a show reel for festivals, funding and venues. This could be used for the initial Edinburgh application, if I still decided to go for it.In terms of learning lines he suggests taking sections to open mics and spoken word events and developing them that way, seeing what does and doesn't work, and starting to learn small chunks, building it up. He is wary of beginning touring with Edinburgh, instead suggesting it might be something to build to. Or take part in the free fringe in a smaller capacity. Literature Wales can support organisations or venues wanting to book me for a tour within Wales, but they don't offer funds to individual artists for this. Matt also explains that whilst funding from bodies in Wales can't help to fund work toured outside of Wales, Arts Council England might be able to help with money for the English leg of it.Finally Matt encourages me to go and see lots of things and make use of the NTW Community, and WalesLab who offer support to new artists and new shows, and have a Pollination summer camp coming up. Details of the application process are to be revealed at the end of this month.So lots to think about and lots to do. http://www.mslexia.co.uk/blog/2012/02/meetings/

Performance Poetry and Spoken Word

I'm right on trend, me. The Guardian's Book Blog has an open thread about Performance Poetry this week that has tips for websites, places to perform and people to look out for: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/feb/21/performance-poetry-your-reviews?newsfeed=trueWho do you rate?

THE STAGE REVIEW | WNO | Beatrice and Benedict

Beatrice and BenedictPublished Monday 20 February 2012 at 10:36 by Susie WildBerliotz's last opera is an adaptation of Shakespeare's playful comedy Much Ado About Nothing and, sung in English, is perhaps one of the more accessible starter operas around. The story focuses its attentions on the bickering lovers Beatrice and Benedict. In the introduction, it was explained that Robin Tritschler (Benedict) was recovering from a head cold. However, his ill-health did not adversely affect his vocal performance.The comic opera leaves a lot to be desired dramatically, at worst becoming a farcical pantomime that loses much of the joy and sparkle of the original. As such, a lot of the things that don't work in productions of the piece are largely not the company's fault. Still, one can see aspects of the two act show that continue to give it some appeal to Welsh National Opera - the bright musical beauty of the overture, which is often performed as a stand-alone piece, and the nocturne between Hero (Laura Mitchell) and Ursula (Anna Burford) being two prime examples.For this WNO production there are some other highlights. Donald Maxwell reprises his well-judged comic cameo as baritone chorus master Somarone. His inviting performance induces many an audience guffaw thanks to topical improvised lines relating to certain television insurance advertisements. The orchestra, conducted by Michael Hofstetter, brings some warmth to proceedings as does the excellent lighting (Howard Harrison) which offers atmosphere, a big pizza-pie moon and a sense of movement to an otherwise static stage set. Unfortunately, the tepid script and largely spiritless cast flatten the rest of the proceedings.

Read my review on The Stage website: http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/35307/beatrice-and-benedict