Voices of Dissent Flyer 2008

And the prize for rubbishest blogger in the world goes to...

Me!
My last post began 'so much has happened since my last post I don't know where to start...' And now, so much has happened since my last post I don't know where to start!
Well basically, to get a very long and pretty dull story short, I got the funding from the Arts Council (thanks Arts Council), and am currently furiously chipping away at the final version of the script, ready to start rehearsing on the 10th April.
Unfortunately, Dawn Walton had to pull out of directing the show as she was offered a job at the Royal Court which was a guaranteed pay cheque, whereas I was still waiting for confirmation for funding. However, the fantastic Leo Kay, who worked with me on my R&D phase has stepped in, so I'm looking forward to working with him. He co-directed I Hear Voices, a spoken word theatre piece we've just finished touring, so I know it'll be hard work physically (Leo's background is in dance and physical theatre) but I think that's what I, and the show, need.
For this stage of the show we're piloting the feasibility of touring the show by bike also, as we are taking the show from Contact, Manchester up to The Brewery, Kendal, and I have miraculously managed to find a technician, Dan Steele, who is also a cyclist and up for coming on the road with me. As well as a technician and cyclist Dan is primarily a great sound designer and worked on I Hear Voices with us, which means he'll also be bringing his audio skills to the project, adding a much needed extra dimension to make up for what we miss in lighting the show by pedal power (although I'm currently looking into having him on some sort of contraption to control the sound in the same way as the lights are controlled by my bike...).
Finally I have Sumit Sarkar in charge of Art & Design. He's designed a beautiful flyer/poster for the shows (see above) and will be directing any other design elements such as set, costume etc (though these are looking pretty minimal right now so I'm roping him into making me a website!)
Though I have my work cut out getting the final script ready, I'm going to try and post on this blog as much as possible from now on because I want people to be able to discuss issues arising from the show when it comes up, so I need to start discussing them amongst myself first I suppose!
While things have been changing and developing rapidly in my world, events have been moving even faster in the wider national and global world of environmentalism (I know that was a terrible sentence but I'm tired, please bear with me!) There's been the UK Govt Climate Change Bill, The Stern Report, The Bali conference, announcement of this year's Climate Camp at Kingsnorth power station to name but a few. Too much to go into now, but I'll try and make comment on them and new matters arising in the weeks to come...
Meanwhile, check out my lovely flyer, and book your tickets!