It’s been a tough year for anyone working in the performing arts, and I want to pick apart something I’m hearing more and more, especially as theatres announce their re-opening programmes and projects. In private I’m hearing an increasing number of brilliant artists – and in particular writers – saying that theatre isn’t a welcoming… Read more »
On quantum emotions Writing drama, you’re regularly asked to justify the actions of the fictional people you’re creating, to give them clear reasons for doing what they do and saying what they say. And of course this is key to a method of storytelling that seems to have done us fine for a good two… Read more »
The peeps at the Watershed Pervasive Media Studio invited me to do a lunchtime talk for them over summer. I’ve been banging on forever about how the theatre industry (and wider arts/creative worlds tbh) would be much more open and connecting if we were better at welcoming, recognising and getting excited by diverse artistic identities,… Read more »
[EDIT, 2021. This post from 2018 contains positive thoughts and reflections on the practice of Chris Goode, who at the time was horrendously abusing many people involved in his work, and beyond. Apart from this note, I’ve left this post unedited. If there were any indicators of this abuse that I might have seen,… Read more »
Last Saturday, I spent the day with our brilliant friend and collaborator Sharon Clark, and wor Tim, in the Residence space, for a day of peer mentoring / problem solving / critical reflection. I’ve done a lot of one-to-one peer mentoring, which is super useful, but I loved how this three-pointed process seemed to open… Read more »
Now Is The Time To Say Nothing By Caroline Williams and Reem Karssli At Arnolfini, Mayfest 2018 Walking out into the May sunshine after seeing Now Is The Time To Say Nothing, I knew I was going to be thinking about it for as long as I had the faculty to, that every now… Read more »
Here’s a link to our final Thought Residency thought #7: Piano Thought Thanks for listening.
Here’s a link to Thought Residency thought #5: Mainstream Thought
Here’s a link to Thought Residency thought #2: Awesome Thought
(Author’s note: I am, occasionally, a theatre critic.) Please do not use the phrase ‘self-indulgent.’ It will almost always be factually incorrect. You’re perfectly entitled to use the word ‘indulgent’, as long as you go on to clarify what is being indulged. But ‘self’-indulgent? Unless you’re very well acquainted with the creators: how the… Read more »