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Many Rivers To Cross
Posted Thursday, April 02, 2009
Many Rivers To Cross
It?s holiday time for a bit ? I?ve had a week off to do my first M.A.
retreat of the year in Lyme Regis. For those of you who have forgotten , I?m doing a screen writing course with Royal Holloway college ?it?s part time and takes place within six week long retreats that are strategically placed over a two year period ..each one arriving just as you are sobbing into your soup with despair at being abandoned. They expect you to programme 14 hours of week on your chosen project , completely unsupervised and have a very high standard. I remember smiling like my press photographs during the interview ,but I hope it was my script ideas that got me accepted. Our first year was an introductory affair of lectures up the wazoo , advice from industry professionals , endless television and movie watching and a torrent of texts . This year is more about producing the work to a standard ? we have to work through several drafts by the end of the year and come up with a budget plan for how our projects might be realised; it?s pretty brutal. We?re quite a vibey group ,I?d say and there?s tons of talent (Hi guys) within. It?s an honour for me to be there , actually?I?ve always been an ideas guy ; I love sitting in a room with people smarter than me and coming up with the stuff. This course is encouraging and teaching me how to generate , draft and polish my ideas from soup to nuts. I don?t think I had the patience to follow through to such an extent before ?I used to write one draft (ONE!) and then hand it over to someone and go ?Have a look at this, I think it?s great, you think it?s great too don?t you?? and then feel my chutzpah fall from my face in big chunks as whoever was unfortunate to be lumbered with the script in question would sit and tell me exactly why my cack handed first draft wasn?t an oscar winning masterpiece from the get-go.
So my thanks to Sue and Adam and Jonathan and John, and Mark,Sal,Wiley,Keith,Sabera,Adz,Paul,Eva,Olivia for hanging in there and being supportive to Mr ?Don?t mind me , I used to say OOOOKAAAAY on a Saturday morning on Network television?
Othello is in my mind continually ,but having a break is bizarre ? I run the play in my head every day , either the whole thing or tricky bits that I sometimes forget even with loads of rehearsal ?( the last speech , the first and second courtroom speeches?.?Had it pleased heaven? etc) in Cornwall there are cliff side walks that are fantastic for bellowing out text ? the dog?s been very impressed , I must say and cocks it?s head to one side on the odd occasion as if to say E2I?m not sure iambically you?re serving that particular line well ,daaarling?
I think I can say that WE ARE GOING TO BE IN LONDON AT THE TRAFALGAR STUDIO?S FROM MID SEPT TO MID DEC !!!
I don?t know when the tickets go on sale ,but there?s been lots of shenanigans about when ,how , what ,why etc and finally the talking was done ,deals sorted and now we?re off to the races?.so we?re transferring but not til September?we?ll probably get two weeks rehearsal to re boot and then we?ll be on ,in London?s glittering West End ?well,the Whitehall bit anyway. Traflagar studios used to be the Whitehall theatre , which is where the wife did ?When I was a girl I used to scream and shout?.
They?ve cut the theatre in two , I think, so that they can have a main room holding about 400 and then a studio down stairs that holds a smaller amount ? I?ll let you know when I find out. ENTERTAINING MR SLOANE is there at
the moment with the very fine Imelda Staunton , and I saw John Simm and the excellent ELLING there a few months ago. I?m looking forward to the whole thing. But lets get Coventry,Bath ,Newcastle under lyme , Kingston and Halifax done first and then we?ll be talking.
I always find re booting a show after a break a bit of a pisser to be honest , I don9t know how those guys at the National do it. They do shows in repertory , so they might only be on once or twice a week , or once every two weeks or something?great ,cos it means you can have a life, go see another show , see your kids etc, but horrible if you?ve only tentatively lodged the show in your head ??To be or not to be , that is ----wait---line??
Nightmare love!
I haven?t been to Coventry in an age ? When I was in the Minstrels Xmas show there all those years ago , I used to go to Mr George?s and badger Pete Waterman the local dj to play P.Funk and Funkadelic records , and I used to hang out most nights at Le Chaumiere and harass Pete Miles the DJ there to play things that I?d heard Graham ?The Fatman? Canter play at Gullivers in Mayfair. Strange times because I was , once again, the only black man in the village (The Minstrels was a famously strange show where all the white male performers in the chorus blacked up ) and was feeling increasingly antagonistic about my presence there ? but also loving being out with my friends from the cast , dancing , drinking, partying and enjoying my teens. I remember taping lots of Jingles with Pete ,things like ?Hi , this is Eddie Kendricks, thank you for dancing to Keep On Trucking? and ?Hi ,this is Tommy Cooper , you are listening to Pete Miles? or ?Hi ,this is Marcel Marceau?.bugger?
Made us laugh.
I?m loving the matinees by the way. I went into this knowing we?d have the odd afternoon performance ,but not thinking about how I?d be during the day. The matinees are not ?pretend line runs? for the cast ? they are proper balls out performances! We?ve done some fantastic shows, (I think) just because we?ve just got up, we?ve had breakfast ,we?ve warmed up and then POW! We?re on and we?re up and ready to go and it?s early and OUR BRAINS ARE WORKING!
Not like doing a variety matinee ,where people have come in from the rain and take a bit of warming up?.doing a play matinee is different ..you can?t coast and think ?Well, I?ll be better on the main show? cos THIS is the main show ,fool.! You better git yo? shit together!
I?ve not read any of the reviews ,but I know people have been very kind about the show. Thank you to everyone who has come up to me or rung up and congratulated me on the reviews-it?s almost like the reviews got good reviews too ?.
Anyhoo, I?ve got to try and write some more of my screenplay now.
It?s a mash up between, lets say Guy Ritchie Actioner /Tarantinoesque Grindhouse Gorefest and Powell and Pressburger magic realist/Richard
Curtis romcom?.I?m calling it RocknRollaBloodBlimp,Actually.
S?gonna be a big hit?
Movies : Bandit Queen ?Wow.
Groundhog day??Hilarious
Hi to Nancy Aronie on Martha's Vineyard - she runs a very lovely writers workshop there Hi to everyone at Mojo's record store and cafe in Scarborough - they do a breakfast of Justice there that has tobe seen to be believed Hi to everyone at Piranha's barber shop , with a shout out to Barberbe...Brian-where's my food man??
Hi to Di and all the staff at West Yorkshire Playhouse!!!!
Peace
Len
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