The Arrival.

In January 2013 I was commissioned by Tamasha Theatre to run writing workshops and write a creative response to their production of Shaun Tan's The Arrival. 

The Arrival.

Here.

I am here.

Here I am.

Here is the space that I occupy.

I occupy this space.

Home.

My home is.

I am.

Home is....

When I can't go to the places I used to go to,

do the things I used to do,

eat what I used to eat,

I feel as though I'm not the same person any more.

I don't know this person

who can't read or write or speak to strangers,

who can't read labels on tins of food

or exchange money for goods.

Here.

I am here.

Here is the space that I occupy.

Here is.

Home is....

I am busy all the time with my baby.

When I think about my home I am sad.

When I think about my parents I cry.

When I am with my family I am happy.

The sun isn't warm.

The sky is a different sky, this is not my sky.

This silver-white

now mango and pretty-peach

now terracotta with fat red wine clouds

now blue charcoal shot through with pewter and gold

now light falling between clouds like arrows.

I watch the strange new sky change

And I think;

“Everything is so alien I can hardly believe that my lungs can breathe the air.”

I occupy this space.

Space is not home.

Home is not space or place.

Home is not feet planted in this earth or that.

Home is not a bed in a room in a house where I don't know how to prepare a meal or a hot drink or how to read a newspaper.

Home is in a suitcase with you.

Home is suspended in my heart's continent.

Not occupied but remembered. Relived. Replayed. Steps retraced.

I am here.

Here I am.

Here is the space that I occupy.

I occupy this space.

I have to cross the gateway to.

To....

I don't understand the sounds or the signs or the symbols.

I don't understand the food or the music.

I don't understand the hushed women or the loud boys.

I know where I am and I'm lost and I can't get back.

It's just me alone in my head.

You're here too.

I will take you everywhere by bus or boat or balloon.

He said don't worry, don't be scared, I'll show you.

I'll never forget that.

I was ashamed, embarrassed.

I don't recognize the person I used to be.

But now

much later

I start to see who I am now.

I am beginning to grow back like a seed, or a lost limb.

I have crossed the gateway now to what is from what was.

I feel that the world is here, now I don't care, wherever I am is where I belong. I think I belong everywhere.

I think I belong here. I am here. I am here and I have.

Arrived.

Publicity Material for FRAMEWORK Showcase Event

I was appointed the role of Head of Press and Publicity for my graduate showcase event, FrameWork. My duties included producing publicity material including all the press releases and any texts on the flyers and posters, liaising with staff on behalf of the group, and overseeing the production and design of the material. I also instigated a dialogue between our department and UCLAN's Fundraising and Development department in order for us to donate a percentage of our profits to the Harris Bursary Fund for disadvantaged students, in exchange for their support in contacting the local press in order to get as much coverage for the event as possible. I also took an active role in the promotion of the event at a grass-roots level by flyering on the streets of Preston before the event. 

Here are some examples of the texts I created. 

1a.

Pulling an all-nighter

Pulling your hair out

That “Eureka!” moment

That creative flash

That lightening strike in your head

Hours of research or

A moment’s inspiration

From a seed in your mind’s eye

A drunken epiphany

A five-hour conversation

An argument we’re glad we started

A challenge to ourselves

An idea scribbled on the back of a napkin

A dream we had that scared us

A joke we misheard

An early morning and a late night

A rush of endorphins

All our love

All our hate

This is everything we’ve been through in the last three years and you’ve shared it with us.

1b.

A moment’s inspiration, hours of research

A lightening storm in our heads

A five-hour conversation

A drunken epiphany

An argument we’re glad we started

A rush of endorphins

Pulling an all-nighter

Pulling your hair out

This is everything that’s happened in the last three years. How much of it has happened to you?

2a.

Three years

Eighteen modules

9215 pounds sterling

3285 cups of coffee

540 hours of research

720 hours of rehearsal

183 sleepless nights

382 of the best nights out of your life

208 hangovers

11 “Eureka” moments

5 tearful phonecalls home

351 early mornings

485 late nights

4 theatre makers

3 musicians

3 live artists

2 photographers

200 guests

1 venue

1 night

2b.

3285 cups of coffee

183 sleepless nights

213 hours on the bus

308 hours of research

19 brick walls

11 eureka moments

4 tearful phonecalls

351 early mornings

482 late nights

12 emerging artists

4 established artists

32 blackouts

200 guests

400 hands clapping

1 venue

1 night

FRAMEWORK

3a.

You will be received and attended to dazzling girls and strapping boys, and plied with delectable delicacies and the accompanying nectar of your choice, before being bedazzled by a heady concoction of the most electrifying theatre, live art, and music from the North-West’s hottest cultural hub.

4a.

CALL THE CIRCUS AND SEE IF IT’S MISSING SOME FUN.

4b.

EVERYTHING YOU’VE EVER WANTED FROM A NIGHT OUT AND MORE.

4c.

THINGS WE GOT:

-          a heady plethora of theatre, live art and music from the North-West’s hottest cultural hub.

THINGS WE DON’T GOT:

-          free money and strippers. Sorry.

5.

We all exist within a specific framework. Our occupation, social groups, even our route home is part of the fabric of our everyday lives. We are also all part of the same wider framework – if not geographically, then culturally. This has been an exciting time.

2006:

• The rise of FaceBook
• Terrorism Act made law
• Take That come back

2007:

• Wettest June on record in UK causes extensive flooding in Sheffield and South Yorkshire
• Gordon Brown elected leader of Labour Party
• The smoking ban comes into effect in the UK

2008:

• Earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale hits North West
• The price of petroleum rises to $100 per barrel
• The death of Heath Ledger

2009:

• The inauguration of President Barrack Obama
• Matt Smith is set to become youngest actor ever to play Dr Who
• The Office of National Statistics announce that the United Kingdom's economy is officially in recession for the first time since 1991

We make work which reflects who we are, and by extension, who you are. What has got you through the last three years?

Michelle – YouTube, 53, Jaffa Cakes

Rachel – Horses, Twilight, red

Laura – Dior Addict, Chinese food, Wedding

Harry – Vic and Bob, my guitar, Bovril

Kim – Summer Heights High, crisps, post-it notes

Jenni – my sewing machine, MAC make up, the We Will Rock You soundtrack,

Keily – Beyonce, Cocoa Butter, false eyelashes

Natalie – Manchester, Subway sandwiches, central heating

Andrew – Sex and the City, my cineworld card, various skinny ties

Delicia – Galaxy, Nick Smith, full fat coke

Aimee – my car, Jim Henson’s puppets, sash windows,

Kesh – Scrubber, the gym, good food.

Lisa –  McFly, trampolines, Yorkie bars

                                                               

Arran – Louis Vuitton, The Comeback TV series, Phoebe my car

Donna  - Carrie Bradshaw, Boyzone reunion, our baby

Louise – Jared Leto, Tea, hope

How to Make Domino Spirals Out of 1000 Hardback Books.

From naked bike rides to an unusual version of dominos via the mysteries of gaffa tape, arts graduate Michelle Thomas fills us in on what she's learnt from her placement at an opera company through the DCMS/Jerwood Creative Bursaries Scheme.

Eight months. Blimey.

Eight months since I arrived in London with a suitcase, a friend’s floor to sleep on and a new job: Creative Associate at The Opera Group.

Having earned my degree in Theatre Practice in 2009 and spending the following year in Bristol concentrating on my own work and collaborating with numerous companies and artists, I: a) needed a full time job – a priority I shared with some 40,000 unemployed graduates at that time; b) needed a full time job that I didn’t actively dislike (ditto); c) wanted to move to London.

Reasons why the role of Creative Associate at The Opera Group feels tailor-made for me

• I’m being paid to do something I enjoy and have previously done for free.
• I feel this role will help me continue to find creative work that I am good at and that I enjoy.
• It gives me the opportunity to make a genuine contribution to new and exciting work.
• I got to move to London! The Capital! Just around the corner from The London Eye and Big Ben and The Queen!

I have done so much in so little time. I helped produce my first opera, Save the Diva, within two months. I have toured the country twice - once with two shows simultaneously. I have been inspired, scared, thrilled, perplexed, frustrated, proud and occasionally been so busy I forgot to breathe.

Some Truths I Have Learnt

• A helium balloon must be at least 5 inches in circumference before inflation in order to float.
• It is acceptable to carry a spear on public transport as part of a Valkyrie costume as long as it is covered up and “not used in a threatening or provocative manner”.
• Microsoft Excel is a harsh mistress to the uninitiated.
• One particularly surreal day at the office involved arranging bouquets in the room next to where theatre and film director Ian Rickson was holding auditions for Ophelia. I'd hoped he’d take my being there doing what I was doing as a sign that I should be given the role. He didn’t. Fair enough.
• Due to a happy scheduling coincidence, I heroically stage-managed Save the Diva atan unusual event without giggling or crying.
• If it moves when it shouldn’t: Gaffa Tape. If it should move and doesn’t: WD40 – Techie Wisdom

How to make domino spirals out of 1,000 hardback books

“Ok folks, the books needs to be roughly equidistant, with the spines facing the audience. If the book’s even a tiny bit wobbly, get rid. It’s too big a risk, and there are plenty of spares – we’ve got the complete works of Danielle Steele back there. No, no, no – look, that gap’s far too big, that book won’t hit that book and the whole thing will just grind to a halt.

"Corners are tricky – use lots of light, thin books to minimise the risk of failure – heavy ones are harder to topple. Use the heavy ones at junctions - I favour the encyclopaedias but the big books of Scottish law are also good - but you need to make sure there’s a chunky book before it to make sure it goes.

"No, no, stay away from there, that bit of the stage is particularly springy and I’ve already built that row three times. Right, keep an eye out for five prop books. They’re the ones with singed edges. Ooh, speaking of which, when you’re building the table out of books, be careful not to block the trough where the flame paste goes. Yes, all these books have been flambarred, that’s what that chalky residue is. Make sure you wash your hands afterwards.”

More truth

During my time on this placement, I have accepted what I have known for a long time: that I need to make my own work as a theatre practitioner.

I have been inspired by watching John Fulljames, co-founder of The Opera Group and now Associate Director of Opera at theRoyal Opera House, in the rehearsal room, and in my meetings with my mentor David Harradine, Artistic Director of performance company Fevered Sleep. I showed him my work (shyly) and he has given me so much encouragement and support I feel bound to commit myself to create, make and to do.

It’s difficult for me to articulate how much I’ve benefitted from this placement – because it doesn’t feel like one. To the credit of my employers, at no point have I felt like a trainee, or a student, or anything other than an employee – a professional - at a definitive stage in her career. I am the sum of my experiences, and my time at The Opera Group has been a significant one. Personal experience informs creative endeavour, and the lessons I have learned at The Opera Group – as stage manager, a producer, and researcher – will absolutely guide me in the choices I make as a freelance practitioner.

Copy for The Opera Group's Bow Down

“There were two sisters who will die, One drowns wet and one drowns dry”

The Opera Group in association with London Sinfonietta will present Bow Down in Summer 2012. This macabre folk tale, originally devised in 1977 by Harrison Birtwistle and Tony Harrison, Bow Down is redevised by Frederic Wake-Walker in his directorial debut for The Opera Group, and brought to percussive and visceral life by nine young interdisciplinary performers.

A Blind Harpist recounts a sinister tale of thwarted desire, unnatural betrayal and violent jealousy. When the Fair Sister is courted by the Suitor, the Dark Sister commits a terrible act of betrayal. As her crime echoes through the land and through the ages, so she receives bloody retribution in the parable’s brutal conclusion.

Evocative of the narratives of Grimm, Federico Garcia Lorca and Sarah Kane in its exploration of repression, sex and death, this ancient murder ballad – of which numerous variants exist in Britain, Scandinavia and America – is reimagined for a diverse contemporary audience.

http://www.theoperagroup.co.uk/?p=1476