Susie Wild's Blog: Wildlife, page 60

A FACE FOR RADIO

TUNE IN TO The Arts Programme on Radio Tircoed 106.5fm Friday 25th March Live @ 11am with music in conversation with the Writer, Poet and Critic Susie Wild ... on the wild side
www.radiotircoed.com

BUZZ: FILM INTERVIEW | RICHARD AYOADE

FILM INTERVIEW | RICHARD AYOADEBY SUSIE WILD ⋅ MARCH 20, 2011 ⋅ POST A COMMENTFILED UNDER  FILM, JOE DUNTHORNE, RICHARD AYOADE, SUBMARINE, SWANSEA, WARP FILMSSubmarine, the film based on Joe Dunthorne's Swansea coming of age novel of the same name, is out now. Buzz caught up with Writer and Director Richard Ayoade at the Welsh premiere.WORDS: SUSIE WILDWith his afro and geek-gangly height Ayoade is instantly recognisable off screen. It is not especially surprising that the 33-year-old got mobbed by fans when filming the school scenes of Submarine in Swansea. As a comic actor he has starred in a string of hit TV comedies including The IT Crowd, The Mighty Boosh, and Nathan Barley. A chance meeting with Warp Films saw him directing music videos for the Artic Monkeys, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Super Furry Animals, Kasabian and Vampire Weekend and then taking on Submarine, his first feature film. The story sees 15-year-old protagonist Oliver Tate trying to cure his father's depression, save his parent's marriage and seduce his pyromaniac girlfriend. What first attracted Ayoade to the Curtis Brown Prize-winning novel Submarine?'I liked Joe's book. I thought it was funny and I liked the tone of it and the character of Oliver. I was going to do a tank film, kinda just mainly tanks. It was going to be about two tanks, you know like  Herbie Goes Bananas , but with tanks. Disaster struck, we couldn't get the tanks. That week I got Joe's book, because I was obviously down as the tank film hadn't worked out, so to cheer me up I read Submarine. I was initially disappointed about the lack of tanks in it. My first drafts of the script were tank heavy.'Despite being named by Variety as one of 10 Directors to Watch in 2011 Ayoade speaks in an awkward, nervous deadpan shot with self-deprecating remarks and an occasional slip-up of sincerity. I ask him about his experiences of Swansea.'I've done stand up here, to massive acclaim, it was very popular, it changed the way stand up was done across the globe from then on. . . Is this the opportunity for me to make a casually racist remark that is repeated in an Ann Robinson way? I'm known for my casual racism so hopefully it'll just slip out naturally at some stage. No, it was great filming in Swansea, and Barry. South Wales is really quite a beautiful place, a good place to film, and everything looks interesting and the light is very good – not too harsh, soft clouds.'What films influenced the way he shot Submarine?'Badlands, Taxi Driver, The Graduate, Rushmore, The Squid and the Whale and Flirting, which is a great film.'Acting, writing, directing – Ayoade has tried his hand at all three, but which one does he enjoy the most?'I like directing and writing, but I probably like writing best because everything is possible when you are writing something and then you slowly encounter the crushing jaws of reality. I guess the reason that I prefer writing is that there is something pleasing about the solitary nature of it. And then directing. And then acting because I'm just not very good at acting.'But you've won awards….?'Oh those? They weren't for my acting ability, more for loudness.'Ayoade's next film is going to be an adaptation of Dostoevsky's doppelgänger novella The Double set in contemporary America. The story is in a similar vein to Black Swan, and sees government clerk Yakov Petrovitch Golyadkin's mental deterioration as his exact double enters his life and begins to take over.'I'm adapting The Double with another writer, Avi Korine. It is not going to be a very faithful adaptation, as the book is very hard to adapt, so we'll circumnavigate that by not doing it properly, but Dostoevsky is a great writer. It is hard to do a particularly accurate adaptation of anything, as you just end up with very long films. I'm just about to start looking at it really.'So your first two films are both adaptations, are you planning on writing any of your own features from scratch?'No, I'll just be ripping other people off, ideally. Yeah. Passing other people's stuff off as things I've done. I mean if everything I did was an adaptation I wouldn't feel all bad about it. Perhaps I will only make films out of Joe's books from now on. Hopefully he can write ten more quite quickly.If they are anything like Submarine that won't be a bad thing. Submarine is at cinemas now. Watch it. More here: warp.net/films/submarine

Right Here, Right Now

I've put the majority of my archive of blogs from Mslexia, Buzz, Guardian Cardiff, the Bright Young Things, Artrocker and The Raconteur all in one place, i.e. here. I'll try and keep cross posting from now on.

Follow me on twitter: @soozerama to ensure you keep completely in the loop.

Thanks for reading

Susie Q x

Author's notes: Susie Wild

Author's notes: Susie WildWestern MailMar 5 20110ShareAdd a commentRecommend

Susie Wild, author
Swansea writer and journalist Susie Wild's first book won Fiction Book of the Year in the Welsh Icons Awards 2010. Her next will be the first Kindle Single from WalesIn April my novella Arrivals will be released as an e-book – a Kindle Single to be precise. I will be the first Kindle Single writer from Wales.I'm not sure yet how much of a claim to fame this but my writing will be distributed globally, out there in the e-world, it won't even be on paper, it'll be on a screen. Exciting times.I started writing Arrivals while studying for my MA in Creative Writing at Swansea University between 2006 and 2008.It unfolds slowly, revealing a mother and daughter in opposite corners of the planet, London and LA, and both experiencing their own personal revelation.Arrivals started life as my dissertation in longer fiction. Initially it was a struggle to get past the short story length. I am used to stricter word counts and deadlines as a journalist.Freedom to run off with my ideas scared me and probably scared my friends.A change of scene fixed the problem for all of us. I flew to LA, which I hated, and then San Francisco, which I loved and had always wanted to visit.I traded poems for drinks and trailed The Beats – a two-week solo trip in which I explored, took photos and filled notebooks.Travel has always been a creative catalyst for me, poems strike me when walking in the rain, story ideas come flooding when I set foot in new cities, new countries. Motion and a sense of difference is often all the inspiration I need. Oh, and the odd song lyric.When I got back to Swansea I simply threaded the sections together and edited, and then edited some more. I had intended the piece to become my first novel.The week that I handed it in to be marked I also posted a copy to Parthian. Their editor had been encouraging me to submit my stories, after reading a film review I had written for Red Handed magazine.At the Hay Festival a couple of months later the publisher told me that they wanted to take on the book, but not exactly as I had envisaged it.They offered me a contract for a short story collection, of which my mother and daughter story (now Arrivals) would be a major part; a novella all the more poignant for being stripped back and contained in a more concise form. I was pleased.I have always been a big fan of the short story form, but in the UK it is less common for first-time writers to win a publishing contract for one. Luckily for me, Parthian don't share this policy, and much like American publishers, they believe a short story collection can showcase a new writer's breadth of style.It was why I had chosen them as my first-choice publisher, I had already devoured their fantastic award-winning collections by Rachel Trezise and Jo Mazelis.The collection became The Art of Contraception, released in September of last year. I wanted the stories to link thematically, and they do. They all have a basis in the quirks of human relationships whether familial, sexual or romantic.They cover unrequited lusts and uncertain encounters, and, as the title suggests, sex and secrets.They are set in nightclubs and on beaches, in cafes and in institutions. Most are urban.Some are darkly comic, others are just plain bleak. I am not a nice mother to my characters. I watch them destroy their lives, and yet sometimes I let them piece themselves back together.The book really was written in snatches. The zig-zagging geography of the collection interests me. I like to map out where I travelled to, where I was living, and where I wrote the stories. Many don't name their homes but you can feel them.A friend of mine recently gleefully read the book in the exact San Francisco bars that I wrote Arrivals which makes me happy.She gained exclusive 'extra scenes' In Real Life. Many are loosely set in Swansea. Thailand, Cornwall and Bristol also feature.The stories I wrote last are my favourites, Pocillovy is in many ways gentler and less quirky than the rest, telling of the search for a missing eggcup. It is one of my Bristol stories written while I spent nine months living there following my MA.The deranged cravings of a mum-to-be which leads to the accidental poisoning of her co-worker in Pica is a result of my former office-based work life.The last piece I wrote, Flap, Flap, I sneaked into the collection at the last minute, swapping it for an old story that didn't seem quite right and that I still can't finish.Flap, Flap is an odd little piece full of butterflies and set in a psychiatric ward, somewhere I have never had the pleasure of staying, although mental health and illness has always been a huge interest of mine (Psychology Degree, obsessions with Cracker and books and films like Girl, Interrupted, Fight Club, Donnie Darko, Prozac Nation and Black Swan). Pleasantly the collection won Fiction Book of the Year in the Welsh Icons Awards 2010.I have now returned to writing My First Novel.As history has shown, it may well not be a novel when I have finished with it, but it will be a book, digital or otherwise. Now where did I put my passport?Arrivals is released as a Kindle Single in April. The Art of Contraception is published by Parthian. Susie will be reading at the Laugharne Weekend (April 14-16)

Read Morehttp://www.walesonline.co.uk/showbiz-and-lifestyle/books-in-wales/book-of-the-year/book-of-the-year-news/2011/03/05/author-s-notes-susie-wild-91466-28274380/#ixzz1Gr00Jfsf

BUZZ: ART REVIEW | ONE-ZERO PRESENTS "DE-FEET-ED"

BY SUSIE WILD ⋅ MARCH 10, 2011 ⋅ POST A COMMENT DAN MCCABE & JACK KIRTLEY****Monkey's downstairs private party bar has become a lo-fi gallery for local creative enterprise One-Zero. First up, a humorous joint exhibition between young local artists Dan McCabe (Framework) and Jack Kirtley. The exhibition features new drawings by the pair whilst the well-attended opening blessed revellers with old whiskey, fresh cake, desirable buyables and sweet piano by M.M.B.K. Jack Kirtley's work, which can be seen on his blog, offers an amusing slant on modern life. His simple, Shrigley-esque (but much funnier) pen drawings taking aim at the media (The Sun* [*Don't look at it]) and society in general from sinister happenings in the playground: 'The slide is quieter since the arrival of the hole' to glimmers of hope as a drawing of a lighthouse proclaims: 'A shining beacon of hope guides us in and saves our lives.' Kirtley had a sample book mocked up and for sale. I'd be surprised if a publishers weren't fighting to publish it themselves pretty damn soon. Dan McCabe drew a marvellous world in miniature, cubic metropolises rising up out of the hillsides, or lying in triptych with mathematical equations and terraced streets. The latter snapped up on opening night. More of this sort of thing.One Zero also hosted a table tennis tournament in Uplands on Sunday. I was unable to attend but from the photos it looks top banana. This one day event was an opportunity to initiate a creative exchange between organizer Tom o'Sullivan, Dave Philips, Dan McCabe and the public. . .They played table tennis, and then played with cardboard boxes. See for yourselves:

The exhibition runs until 21 March 2011 at Monkey Café, Swansea. Entrance is free. 

BUZZ: ARTS ROUND UP | SWANSEA

BY SUSIE WILD ⋅ MARCH 3, 2011 ⋅ POST A COMMENTFILED UNDER  ARTAWE, ATTIC, CARL CHAPPLE, CELFI GALLERY, CERI RICHARDS GALLERY, ELYSIUM, GLYNN VIVIAN, MAD SWANSEA, ORIEL BACH,SUPERSAURUS, SWANSEA, TALIESINSusie Wild rounds up the latest arts news and events in Swansea…[image error]Morwenna 11 - Carl ChappleCARL CHAPPLE @CELFI GALLERYCarl Chapple is having a productive year.  First the WMC solo show in Cardiff Bay, and now this. His new exhibition of paintings opened at the delightful Celfi Gallery in Swansea on Monday and features portraits on canvas and panel all created in the the past year or so. After many years of working on the nude,Chapple has now developed a greater focus on portraiture. I recommend you go and see his show featuring the wonderful portrayal of Morwenna (right), complete with bandaged finger.The show will run until 18 MarchLUCY  READ – HOUSE OF THE LOVELY DARK SUMMERS OF MY CHILDHOOD @ ELYSIUM GALLERY [image error] 'The Bread House' which houses Lucy's Film installation is the talk of the city. The Hansel and Gretel Wendy House is built from loaves of bread used as bricks whilst the roof is tiled in toast. Lucy Read is a young emerging artist from Somerset and graduated from Swansea Metropolitan University in 2009. Over the time of the exhibition the sculpture will undertake a transformative process, with mould serving as a metonym for the cyclic nature of life and death within self, family or society.Over the time of the exhibition the sculpture will undertake a transformative process. Any growth of mould will indicate a breakdown of materials and become a metonym for the cyclic nature of life and death within self, family or society. Even the pigeons love it. The show runs until 12 March.
SUPERSAURUS OPENSSupersaurus is a new artist group based in a collective studio space in Swansea. The group balances individual practice with a parallel focus on collaborative work which can take the form of interventions, text and image based work, participatory and social events as well as podcasts which encompass interviews, discussions, experimental sound recordings and themed radio broadcasts.Members are Adele Vye, Aled Simons, Fern Thomas, Lewis Watkins and Owen Griffiths.The group will be hosting monthly artist residencies at the Supersaurus Studio and showcasing current artist practice in the Project Space. Artists interested in this opportunity should email contact.supersaurus@gmail.com for deadlines and more information. Supersaurus will be open to the public every Wednesday and Saturday from 11 – 3pm.The first artist to make use of the Project Space is Bella Kerr. Participants are asked to create and submit a red ball to the studio installation. Bella Kerr will be in the space and available to talk about the work this Wednesday from 12pm. The studio is open until 3pm.Supersaurus Studio is at Madison House, 34 Orchard Street, Swansea SA1 5AWGALLERY TALKSWant some creative, cultured chat for free? Get along to these:1. Artawe Talk at the Glynn Vivian: Artawe was set up in 2010 in order to create a better awareness of the arts in Swansea and its immediate surrounding areas. It offers opportunities for listings, promotion and networking, all for FREE. Author Susie Wild (yes this is a shameless plug) and artist Rosie Scribblah will talk the talk about the Mighty Artawe at the Glyn Vivian. What is Artawe? Why is Artawe? What links the Mighty Artawe to Jack the Ripper? How will the Mighty Artawe benefit YOU? All these questions and more will be answered at the Glyn Vivian, lunchtime on March 4th. Bring your sandwiches and sketchbooks, have a scribble with Rosie and listen to Susie's awesome prose. It will be the best 45 minutes you will spend that Friday. Probably. Friday 4 March | 1:00pm – 2:00pm | Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Alexandra Road, Swansea | Admission Free.2. Osi Rhys Osmond in conversation with Sally Moss at Mission Gallery. Osi will be discussing his current Mission Gallery show Hawk and Helicopter. 1pm Saturday 5 March 2011 | All welcome | Admission free | Mission Gallery, Gloucester Place, Maritime Quarter, Swansea SA1 1TY | 01792 652016 | open daily 11am – 5pm
OTHER NEW SHOWSDE-FEET-ED: One-Zero presents "De-feet-ed". Coming to Monkey Café tonight: New Drawings. New Videos. Old Whiskey. Fresh Cake. Desirable Buyables and Sweet Piano by M.M.B.K. Dan McCabe, Jack Kirtley. Monkey Cafe, Swansea | Thursday 3 March | 7:00pm – 10:00pmORIEL BACH: The new show Mumbles Old Master opened on Monday and features works by Dr Roger Dunstan, Terry Blaber and Bilbow, who Oriel Bach have dubbed the 'three masters of Mumbles'. The exhibition showcases their traditional oil and acrylic paintings of scenic view in and around Mumbles.FFILM 3: The last in the series of the Glynn Vivian's film shows presenting a wide range of recent film and video in various spaces throughout the gallery opened on Friday and includes artists from Wales and the UK. It will run until April 2011. The works have been selected from collections and commissioning organisations across the UK including, amongst others, the British Council, Film and Video Umbrella, The Arts Council Collection and the Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales.IAN STEVENSON: The Land & Seascapes of South Wales exhibition continues at Taliesin's Ceri Richards Gallery until Saturday 19 March. This exhibition features a wide selection Ian's paintings and limited edition prints, ranging from early watercolour sketches through to recent large studio watercolours.LAST CHANCE TO SEE: The latest exhibition at The Brunswick closes on Saturday 12 March, as does The Winter Group Exhibition atSwansea's Attic Gallery.GOING, GOING NOT QUITE GONE: For those of you who missed the delightful exhibition of the work of the Young Volunteers Project at Swansea Print Workshop there is a lovely little blog about it, so you can feel like you were there anyway.THE MAD SHOP: The MAD shop and gallery project has now come to an end. MAD have acquired a film and sound studio space on Swansea High Street, which is available for community groups. They are also curating an exhibition at Tapestri which opens on Thursday 10 March.

BYT: 'Incredible' and 'breathlessly readable'. The Bright Young Things novels in New Welsh Review (91)

'Incredible' and 'breathlessly readable'. The Bright Young Things novels in New Welsh Review (91) Thu, 2011-03-03 11:20 |   Susie WildThe latest pink issue of New Welsh Review (No. 91) reviews Fireball by Tyler Keevil and Hereditation by JP Smythe. The reviewers liked both books muchly. They said:Tyler Keevil/ Fireball: 'As one of only four select books in Parthian's pioneering Bright Young Things series, designed to champion exceptional literary talent, Fireball pushes beyond the bounds of its genre, capturing the dynamics of friendship, seduction, and loss to impressive effect.... [a] breathlessly readable and confident debut.'JP Smythe/ Hereditation: 'Hereditation comes with a weighty accolade. J.P.Smythe is one of four debut authors whose work make up Parthian's new series Bright Young Things. It's a fair amount of pressure for a first-time novelist but Smythe more than justifies inclusion: Hereditation is an incredible book.'In other news...The fifth book in the Bright Young Things series, an anthology of talented young poets, is due out in May 2011. Ten of the Best features the poets M.A.Oliver, S.T.Owen, Anna Lewis, Mab Jones and Alan Kellermann: innovators and artists. Follow them on twitter: @TenoftheBestM.A.Oliver and Mab Jones from Ten of the Best and Susie Wild also all have poems in Parthian's forthcoming anthology of new writing talent  Nu2: Memorable Firsts  which also launches in May 2011.The RaconteurSusie has a new blog up on The Raconteur, all about Kindle Singles. Her own Kindle Single Arrivals is out at the end of April 2011.BYT Live Dates...Susie Wild is in conversation with Niall Griffiths at the Uplands Literary Salon @Noah's Yard, swansea on Wednesday 13 April. Entry £3, 7pm - close.
Tyler Keevil is the main feature at The Crunch in Swansea @Mozart's, Walter Road on Thursday April 14. Free entry,  8.30pm til late.Tyler Keevil and Susie Wild are both reading at the Laugharne Weekend on Friday 15 April, time and venue TBC. Susie will also be interviewing a most interesting guest on stage at the festival. Susie is also looking after the festival twitter account, tweeting from @Laugharne2011.
More dates TBC soon.Thanks for reading and Happy World Book Day!
Susie Q x

THE RACONTEUR: I'M SO KINDLE SINGLE

  [image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error][image error] I'm So Kindle Single

I am preparing to be the first Kindle Single writer launched to a global audience from dear old Wales. Arrivals, my first Kindle Single – that's an Amazon ebook, Nanny, a digital book, a bit like a 45, hence the name – is the novella from my debut collection of short stories The Art of Contraception. It launches at the end of April, closely followed by nine other titles, old and new from Parthian's back catalogue.

Amazon describes their Kindle Single as an ebook that's 'twice the length of a New Yorker feature or as much as a few chapters of a typical book' The l0,000 to 30,000 word digital pamphlets will be produced by writers, scientists, business leaders, historians, politicians, publishers and other big thinkers. In fact, in their announcement of the Kindle Single launch Amazon wrote that the size of these ebooks offers the 'perfect, natural length to lay out a single killer idea, well researched, well argued and well illustrated—whether it's a business lesson, a political point of view, a scientific argument, or a beautifully crafted essay on a current event.'

22 Kindle Singles were launched at the start, but numbers are sure to shoot up everywhere from Academia to quack 'health' guides. Most interesting though, is the potential that the medium offers to independent publishers and authors. As such the publishers of small magazines like this one should be pricking up their ears. The idea could fill the gaping hole in the market caused by the loss of Borders as a distributor of good specialised periodicals of small circulations. With high street book stores like Waterstone's closing more and more stores publishing has been looking bleak and money-poor. The Kindle Single provides a way in to the digital publishing market for new writers and harried thinkers lacking the time or money to release longer works. Although it remains to be seen how well it will work in practise, from what I have read publishing a Kindle Single should be relatively painless process for such new writers too. Amazon says that 'Any rights holder can use the already popular Kindle Digital Text Platform (DTP) to self-publish work in the Kindle Store, and this include Kindle Singles.'

DIY publishing and fanzines now have a whole new platform at their easy disposal. In fact Rolling Stone[http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/blogs/gear-up/new-kindle-singles-may-rewrite-rules-of-publishing-20110127] predicts a bright and inspired future for digital publishing: 'Should users take to the format, there's no reason undiscovered essayists idly scribbling away in the off-hours couldn't become the next John Updike or upstart indie publishing houses flourish by tackling niche topics. Theoretically, the platform could even birth a new breed of ultra-prolific author, including social media-savvy scribes propelled to fame through constant release of new material inspired by fan request or topical issues. Potentially letting anyone publish without a literary agent or expensive print run, the service may let young talent thrive by selling bite-sized, value-priced manuscripts to a small, but loyal fan base.'

Kindle Singles have their own section in the Kindle Store, and prices are generally much less than a typical book, which means they could potentially attract big global audiences. They also prove far more digestible on the Kindle App (available on Android, iPhone, iPad, and BlackBerry for starters), especially at the shortest lengths. Amazon has also released Kindle for the Web, which enables people to read and share digital book samples in their browsers without the need to install or download anything, widening the audience reach even more.

In sales terms, the Kindle is already taking off, and last month Amazon was reporting that Kindle edition sales were outstripping paperbacks in the US (120 Kindle ebooks:100 paperbacks) [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/28/ebook-revolution-accelerates-sales] although UK Kindle reading audience numbers are lagging behind our US counterparts. At the recent Digital Book World conference in New York publishers were predicting that 2014 will be the year when ebooks reach parity with print for the first time.

Elsewhere the Man Booker prize is asking publishers to submit entries as both physical and digital books so that the judges have the option to read them on ereaders. As Man Booker administrator Ion Trewin told the Guardian: 'Traditionally we rely on proofs and hard copies, but it seemed to me if publishers were in a position to supply us with electronic downloads any earlier, it would help because time is of the essence. And it gives the judges an alternative. This is what the Kindle will do – it's not going to take over from print, but will offer another way of reading as well.' Other book prizes have taken the move a step further, such as the Dylan Thomas Prize's introduction of a new ebook category, as I reported in my previous blog on their Sony Reader Award.[http://www.the-raconteur.com/theRaconteur/Susie_Wild/Entries/2010/12/7_The_Sony_Reader_Award.html]

Right, so physical books are over then? Right? Wrong. Much like Vinyl is still around, so too will books in paper form still be available albeit in special collector's editions with shiny covers for this shiny new age, or retro covers for the nostalgic bookworms. The romance is not so much fading as being shoved out, another casualty 'of the demands of sales and publicity?' like line-by-line editing? [http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/11/lost-art-editing-books-publishing] Or a natural part of a modern world where a fucked up ConDemned notion of The Big Society will see libraries closed or taken over by private American companies [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/camerons-big-society-relaunch-runs-into-big-trouble-2215053.html] and further supported by in-house Starbucks-et-al franchises. There are other worries; digital books can be at risk of the remote rewriting of both books and history, a panic of censorship, another step closer to the loss of liberties and the power of the potential police state. Or for the writer with a block, or an unstoppable flow a la Grady Tripp in Wonder Boys, the fear that we will never, ever finish, not just the novel but the extended scenes, the apps, and the alternate endings. When is The End really The End?

The End.

Further Reading:

Apple has confirmed that it wants a cut of Amazon's Kindle sales made via its iPad and iPhone apps.
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/apple-confirms-rule-change-over-e-book-apps.html

Which is best? Kindle or Ipad?
http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2010/06/14/the-kindles-single-biggest-advantage-over-the-ipad.aspx

Information Overload. For those who find all these screens too much.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/feb/14/information-overload-research

GUARDIAN CARDIFF: Preview: Fresh Apples (small bites)

Preview: Fresh Apples (small bites)Fresh Apples is a new theatre production based on short stories from Rachel Tresize and will be previewed at two free shows this weekend. Susie Wild catches up with the Cardiff-based director Julie Barclay in this interview[http://www.guardian.co.uk/cardiff/2011/feb/25/fresh-apples-small-bites-susie-wild-tactile-bosch?INTCMP=SRCH]Fresh Apples by Rachel Trezise won the inaugural Dylan Thomas Prize in 2006 and features themes of adultery, stalking and teenage sexual experience.The 11 acerbic short stories are set in the Rhondda valleys with their characters on the brink of adulthood, the point where youth meets responsibilities. Five Years later, this award-winning, defiant collection is being adapted for the stage in Welsh and English.Julie Barclay Photograph: Claire CousinIt's a labour of love for Cardiff-based actressJulie Barclay who loved the book so much she decided to adapt it for theatre, writing and directing for the first time ever, a long with Cardiff-based director and actor, Richard Tunley. The English version will be previewed at two free shows in Cardiff this weekend. I caught up with director and Cardiff-based actor Julie Barclay to find out more.Q. What attracted you to Fresh Apples as a book to adapt for theatre?A. Firstly, it was the language that compelled me to read it out loud, because of the expertly crafted characters within it, and the beautiful raw poetry in the writing. Secondly the universality of the characters.Despite coming from the Rhondda Valleys, these stories also reflected some parts my own life growing up in London. Great writing like this has the power to transcend place and time. Finally, the book had an exciting defiant energy which I could see transferring directly to a new visceral piece of theatre.Q. This is your first attempt at writing and directing isn't it? How has the process been for you?Brilliant, chaotic and challenging. I spent along time writing a script which has almost completely changed and I have had to let go of any sense of ego about it. But it has been enjoyable, because the cast are genuinely creating work that inspires me to go back to the text and move the piece forward.As the director, I started the process wanting to provide answers, but I've realised that when you get in a rehearsal room we find those together - it's not my sole responsibility, and that spirit of collaboration, the trial and error aspect, although chaotic,is the by far the most rewarding way to work.Q. How true to the original text have you been?A. Pretty close, and whenever I have felt myself moving too far away from it I go back to the book and ask myself why I wanted to create new connections and story lines. The nature of this piece of theatre is to capture the bigger picture of the book and we have, in this first stage of development, chosen three of the stories with aspects of others weaving their way into a new piece of theatre.My co-director, Richard Tunley is working with improvisation leading to script to develop aspects of 'Fresh Apples', the title story, and I have been working with the script, mentioned earlier, combining the stories - 'But Not Really' and 'A Little Boy'.Rachel has been very encouraging and supportive. Her outside eye on my scriptwriting has been so valuable. My instinct has been to overwrite a scene and her eye on the script has helped me to pare it back leaving more for the audience to think,feel and decide for themselves. I have learnt that I don't have to say it all in the writing, some of it is there in what the actors do and,of course,what they don't say.The actors are all professionals and experienced at devising and working with new writing and include Jonny Owen (Shameless) and Shelley Rees (Pobol y Cym).Q. What can we expect on the preview nights?A. I'm so glad you asked this, because this is not a fully fledged production; ready for the red carpet and a huge press night. It is a piece of theatre in development. You can expect a tragicomic journey through the world of some of the characters. A heightened theatrical style, including aspects of projected imagery in a pretty derelict location. I have received a small amount of project funding from Arts Council Wales and National Theatre of Wales to pay the actors and production crew to provide a sense of what a bigger production could be like and to explore the potential of the book on stage. Sherman Cymru New Artists Development Initiative has also been supportive of the project by providing us with free rehearsal space in Cardiff and guidance as the piece is developed.'This weekend we are staging Fresh Apples (small bites) in the exhibition space tactileBOSCH in Llandaff North – it is a 200-year-old Victorian laundry and provides just the right location for the spirit of the piece. We are also taking the piece to Penygraig in the Rhondda Valleys to perform Fresh Apples (small bites) at The Soar Centre in March. It has also been important to me that we take the piece to the people about whom these stories are written. We are hoping to tour the piece across south Wales if we can raise more funding. Hopefully the previews will promote interest in seeing a full production later this year perhaps or into next spring 2012.We are encouraging audience members to feedback their responses to the piece in order to keep developing the work and take it forward.Q. What else in the pipeline?A. In spring and summer this year I am acting in a Frank Vickery Comedy called 'Spanish Lies' which is touring south Wales. I am also a founder member of Be:spoken Theatre. I directed A Kind of Alaska by Harold Pinter for the company last year and we are looking to commission a new piece of work for 2012.Fresh Apples (small bites) is at tactileBOSCH on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 February 2011 at 8pm. Entry is free.Today's guest blogger Susie Wild is a writer, poet, journalist and editor.

MS: So Long, Farewell

Feb15So Long, Farewell0 CommentsPosted by Susie Wild in Mslexia office





Dear readers, the time has come for me to take off  my Mslexia blogging hat. The year of blogging as self-appointed literary it-girl for Wales has flown by and now it is time for some other voices to be heard. See Sophie's exciting news entry below for details on how you could be writing rather than reading this here blog. Please don't cry. I am not going to disappear. You can follow me on twitter (@soozerama) and also read my soon to be much more regular blogs about both sexes of writer over on ace literary mag The Raconteur. I am pitching for one of those three month stints on the Mslexia blog too, so you may see me here again too, you just never know your luck. Wishing you happiness, inspiration and good literati parties. Take care all, Susie xAbout Susie:Susie Wild is a freelance journalist based in South Wales. She is one of Parthian's Bright Young Things and her debut collection of short stories, The Art of Contraception is out now. As a poet she performs regularly, and publishes here and there, including the recent Bugged book. She likes good live music, Old Man Pubs, patterned tights, hair dye and avocados. Find all posts by Susie  |  Visit Website