tags_ writing

Various Short Circuits

Some subroutines I’m trying to run for my writing, whenever possible. Or whenever I remember.  Warning: contains pedantry.   1 No roles, only desires Many of my stories are about people who wouldn’t normally connect, people who come from different walks of life, having to work together. This isn’t something I’ve engineered consciously. It’s something… Read more »

Arc Of Noise #2

How being a musician affects scriptwriting and storytelling – The second in a series of short (ish) articles – WARNING: contains autobiography –   2. Craft work I’ve been thinking about a gig I went to with some friends, and the support act was your classic modular synth guy: sat on the floor, in front… Read more »

Arc Of Noise #1

How being a musician affects scriptwriting and storytelling – The first in a series of short (OK, short-ish) articles –   1. Story ghosts One of the amazing things about making digital music – especially working with laptops and sample libraries – is that you can follow a chain of thought that would have taken… Read more »

Some Cause For Hope

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 »

26 Years of Babel’s Cupid

So my play Babel’s Cupid has just been announced as one of the three runners-up for the Yale Drama Series Prize 2021. Over the moon, me. Many thanks to judge Paula Vogel and Yale Drama Series, and huge congratulations to the winner Rachel Lynnet, as well as my fellow runners-up Molly Bicks and Francisco Mendoza…. Read more »

Honestly what were you THINKING

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 »

What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Power

  [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 »

2: Interviews

Here’s two interviews with me talking about making stuff and all that. The questions were from students at Bath Spa University. 1. Interview by Connor Sullivan on sound design and site-specific theatre. – What Site-Specific Theatre Productions have you worked on?   Quite a few, but in recent years: – ‘Salt In The Sugar Jar’, a… Read more »

Uncanny Lanka

Horse God The pantheon of gods in Sri Lanka is a complex hierarchy of beings ultimately subject to the cycle of birth and rebirth in the same manner humans are; a process that in Theravada Buddhism is widely accepted to last millions of lifetimes or more, until, after much suffering, enlightenment – and therefore the… Read more »

Practice Makes Practice

One of the main drives of these Sura Medura residencies is to push and take risks with our practice. The residencies are hosted by Neil Butler, who’s got strong form in making and producing radical art, and we’re all experienced artists, so it feels like a really supportive environment for embracing that challenge. We had… Read more »