Friday 24 October 2008

Bits and Pieces.


Lots of bits and pieces going on this week. Matt's regular reports from South Africa are proving inspiring reading and I'm so excited that the Robben Island project is up and rolling... despite a few hiccups and surprises on the way.




I'm hoping he'll be back in the country in time to prepare some form of presentation/ rehearsed reading for our Shakespeare festival in December. Meanwhile news that The Market Theatre are prepared to host a reading out in SA has left me scrambling through dates (and my bank account) to see if it might be possible to fly out for a few days and see the work down there.


We also had some great news from Theatre for a Change that Christian Aid and the Department for International Development have agreed to fund the work in Malawi. Given current economic circumstances it's a wonderful achievement by Patrick and his team out there to secure this money. We know from the Impact assessment we carried out last May that it'll make a genuine difference.


Closer to campus The Tempest's design team went over to Ham House to reckie the great hall. Steph immediately spotted that the first floor balcony that looks down on the hall has the shape of a boat and quickly ideas of creating an underwater effect for the audience - looking up from the depths - were being chucked around. Full Fathom Five!


The height of the hall immediately suggests that we should, as the Elizabethans and Jacobeans did, think of the Universe in terms of the vertical: heavens, earth, hell and the depths. Rather than the horizontal, which the cinematic age has prioritised.


The only bad note was leaving to discover my bike had been pinched from the railings at the front the house!!!

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