Little Tales, Little Truths at Colourfest 2012

Little Tales, Little Truths

At Colourfest 2012 as part of the Sting in the Tale Storytelling Festival

"Heart asks a question, story answers"

Join our two itinerant tale-tellers as they wander through your mind and heart and search for the stories that seek to speak to you. Gather for song and sound and tales that will stay with you long after their last word has been uttered and their violin has ceased to sing.

Little Tales, Little Truths

Storytellers: Heather Cowen & Alice Flynn

Writer: Alice Flynn

‘Knitting in the Dark’ & ‘A Cloud, a Crowd and a Swarm’ by Alice Flynn, with the latter being based upon a traditional Jewish folk tale.

Music & song: Heather Cowen, Josh Elwell & Alice Flynn

Costume & make-up design: Emma Purchase

Knitted costume elements: Angel Homer

Programme design: Karolin Schnoor

With thanks to Colourfest 2012 and the team and the Sting in the Tale Storytelling Festival. Our thanks also to CPS Group  for their generous support and to all our friends and family.

The Creative Team:

Heather Cowen
Musician/performer

A musician from the outset, Heather hears a song in everything. Coming from a diverse background of experience and training, rooted in classical forms, Heather is a gifted musician who specialises in easing the barriers that exist in traditional forms and exploring the world of the artistic muses that are at play in everything.

A skilled and intuitive teacher, mentor and facilitator she guides and inspires, assisting people of all persuasions in finding the gift and ability that is inherent to all – a way of expressing themselves – through music, yes, but essentially through the heart.


Josh Elwell
Actor-musician, puppeteer

Josh Elwell is a multi-talented actor musician and puppeteer for television, film and theatre. Josh, along with his puppet, worked on the earliest outing of ‘Knitting in the Dark’ one of the stories of Little Tales, Little Truths and created the song that accompanies this story.


Alice Flynn
Writer, performer, director

Alice loves a good yarn and has enjoyed weaving together Little Tales, Little Truths from pen to paper to performance with both aspects of her work informing the other: as performer and writer the taste and texture of words are important if you’re going to put them in your mouth and let them back out.


Angel Homer
Fine artist

Angel's artwork Angel attempts to visualize and document historical events of the Victorian period. Angel loves using feminine domestic crafts such as hand knitting to create her work. “Building Bridges” 2012 is her most recent artwork,  – a feminist, site-specific piece created for Bournemouth's Victorian Lower Gardens. Members of the public from all walks of life, with varied abilities, added to its creation.

Angel works using casting processes, printmaking, painting, knitting, needlework,embroidery and rug-making skills. Angel is happy to help with any knitting projects.


Emma Purchase
Visual artist

Emma is an artist and performer whose work explores an assumed utopia of a transformed existence; constructing narrative based works, often using the symbolic animal as a carrier for human experience and situations.

Emma’s work has crossed disciplines between performing and visual arts, and has a keen interest in creating a dialogue with a variety of audiences.


Karolin Schnoor
Illustrator/Designer

Karolin Schnoor is a German freelance illustrator and designer based in London. She is available for commissions and collaborations.

South West Performer Call Out: Land of Lower Gardenia 2012

South West Performer Call Out: Land of Lower Gardenia

Presented by The Girls and Wulf Theatre

“They look happy here, don’t they? Everybody’s happy here, you know…”

Welcome to the Land of Lower Gardenia, a ‘Technicolor’ parallel dimension where the happy inhabitants greet the public with unnervingly fixed grins.

From the creators of the Grand Grotesque Parade 2011 comes a new and extraordinary piece, a special commission for the second Arts by the Sea Festival Bournemouth.

This September The Girls and Wulf Theatre will take over Bournemouth’s Lower Gardens and transform them into a parallel province, the Land of Lower Gardenia, where hopes of holidays past and present linger in a world straining to be brighter than life itself.

We’re looking for performers of all ages (18+) to fulfil a range of roles in this cross art-form piece. We are particularly interested in hearing from those with a strong dance, physical theatre and/or devising background who are happy to improvise and keen to experiment.

Please note: as this is an unpaid opportunity we’re looking for generous performers local to the Dorset/Hampshire area. Actors will be credited on our websites, food & drink will be provided for all rehearsal/performance days and local travel expenses will be paid. Longer distance travel expenses to be agreed in advance. All actors will also be invited to attend free professional development workshops in Bournemouth in autumn/winter 2012, dates TBC, led by Z Sinclair.

Roles:
Gender/Playing Age/Physical Description: Any.

Rehearsals:
Venue in Bournemouth. Some lifts can be given to / from Bournemouth station, etc, on rehearsal dates.
Tues 31st July: Initial meeting (evening only)
Tues 7th August: Initial devising session (evening only)
Sat 8th Sept: (9.30am – 2.30pm)
Sat 15th Sept: 10am - 5pm (note: 2-5pm = integrated rehearsal with choir)
Sat 29th September:  Performance Day (2pm call into performance at 7pm. Performance 7pm-8pm, Lower Gardens).

Contact:
If you would like to perform in this project please register here.

Further information:
The performance is cross-art form, mixing visual art - with an exploration of the living picture/ tableaux vivant tradition - and roaming performance. The piece is celebratory and playful in tone, with an underlying tension that offers a questioning of the gap between fantasy and reality within our identities (from personal and regional through to national), daily lives and inner dreams.
Land of Lower Gardenia draws upon quintessentially English depictions of jolly good fun, on the traditions of fun parks, holiday villages and seaside towns…and adds a hidden hysteria, the hyperreal and a tangible sense of the magic of a place born of candy floss, high hopes, lost toys and forgotten memories.

In collaboration with Ali Sharpe’s choir.

For more information on our work visit:
www.thegirls.co.uk
www.wulftheatre.com
http://tinyurl.com/7gm7xcu

Wulf Theatre and the Summer of 2012!

News: Wulf Theatre launches and bounds into her first summer season!

I’m very excited to introduce you to Wulf Theatre and to put my muddy paw up as Artistic Director.

Wulf Theatre’s focus is to create performances that are physical, playful, epic and intimate all at once. We make work that shifts and changes with each new piece, each new experiment, evolving as we do. Our edges are rough, our feet are dusty, our spirits wild and we have magic on our side. At our core: the story, our beating heart.

And so, 2012  sees Wulf Theatre collaborate with some very exciting artists and festivals to deliver two distinct performances over summer. First up, we’ll be performing Little Tales, Little Truths at Colourfest, a festival of yoga, art, music and dance in Poole, Dorset, on Saturday 25th August.  This musical and magical storytelling piece will be performed as part of Dorset’s 9th annual storytelling event The Sting in the Tale Festival. Then we’ll hot foot it over to Bournemouth where we’ll be collaborating with visual artists The Girls as part of the second Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival. With wide-eyed stares and wonky grins we’ll welcome you to the Land of Lower Gardenia, a strange and wondrous land where all is not quite as it seems... Wulf Theatre looks forward to seeing you there. And we’ll be in touch with details of our new website soon!

More...

August:

Wulf Theatre presents Little Tales, Little Truths at Colourfest as part of the Sting in the Tale Festival 2012.

Saturday 25.08.12
Colourfest, Holton Lee, Poole

7.30pm

Little Tales, Little Truths

Wulf Theatre brings you a feast of physical, lyrical storytelling and song in this original, haunting and humorous performance.

Journey along with our itinerant tale-tellers as they hunt for Big Life Questions. In exchange for your company, they’ll tell you tales that glitter and twitch, stories that breathe and snort, irresistible stories that laugh loud and long, tickling your toes as they go. And they might just answer your Big Life Questions…

Audience age: Adult stories (children 11+)

Tickets via: www.colourfest.co.uk

Special promotional price! £99 for a four-day festival pass. Day tickets also available.

Email me for the secret promo code via info@aliceflynn.org

About Colourfest

Colourfest is a vibrant four-day festival festival celebrating life through yoga, art, music and dance. Festival organisers, Rowan Cobelli and Robbie Newman, describe Colourfest as:

“A beautiful festival offering a rich and diverse program [which] opens itself to other ways to experience beauty and depth in life, whether it’s through yoga, music, art, dance, storytelling, poetry or theatre.”

With top international yoga teachers, world music, live and acoustic sessions, visual and performance artists, dance classes and much more, this festival offers a wonderful programme celebrating the many colours of life.

www.colourfest.co.uk

About the Sting in the Tale Festival

Now in its 9^th year this popular annual festival shares special stories and traditional tales in inspiring places throughout East Dorset and the surrounding areas. SITT offers: “Stories come from far and wide for families, teenagers, adults, plus interactive theatre for children and toddlers. There are also workshops to learn about the ancient skills of storytelling and the great tradition of the passing on of stories.”

http://stinginthetale.org.uk/

September:

Wulf Theatre & The Girls present Land of Lower Gardenia
At Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival 2012

Saturday 29.09.12
7pm-8pm
Bournemouth Lower Gardens
Free entry 

‘Welcome to the Land of Lower Gardenia, a ‘Technicolor’ parallel dimension where a rich cast of inhabitants greet the public with unnervingly fixed grins.’

From the creators of the Grand Grotesque Parade (2011), comes a A new commission for the second Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival,  an extraordinary site-specific piece which plays on the ‘tableau vivant’ or ‘living picture’ art tradition. Seek out mythical characters, English roses, lions and heraldic birds as you wander amongst spectacles and roaming performers. With Ali Sharpe’s choir.

www.thegirls.co.uk “Angela Carter crossed with Cindy Sherman” London Evening Standard

www.wulftheatre.com (website going live soon!).

...

Creativity on the Coast (and inland a bit)

Hello all,

It's Springtime! And as I salute the sun and budding greenery, I dust off these keys to tell you about two great creative events happening locally. One very soon (tomorrow, Sunday 11th March) and one at the end of March, Saturday 24th. Both are theatre-based, one is for young people and the other is for older people, though no less playful!

Shakespearience bring you an interactive afternoon of Shakespearean theatre, creative writing and art experiences for young people:

I met the ladies from Shakespearience a couple of months ago and their enthusiasm, research and imaginative preparation for this event was certainly inspiring. Their aim for this project is to make Shakespeare's writing   more accessible for young people.

Event numero two: from writing to writing and devising:

Professional Development: Writing for Devising with Dan Rebellato – Scriptwriters’ Doo Dah
at Salisbury Arts Centre with Angela Street.


Angela Street, Writer, Tutor and Dramaturg has coordinated this workshop which will be led by playwright Dan Rebellato (www.danrebellato.co.uk)


Writers and Actors are invited to attend this exciting workshop which will include:

• How to set up improvisations and how to use them.
• Writing for physical sequence.
• Play structures so writers/actors can start developing a common language in which to work.

When: Saturday 24th March 2012
Where: The White Room, Salisbury Arts Centre
Time: 4 hours 1pm – 5pm
Cost: £25 (£15 concs)

Free follow up session in The White Room on Saturday 31st March 1pm – 4pm for four actors and writers, who formed a partnership on the 24th and want to develop work together.

This event is supported by a grant from CEW (Theatreworks).


For more info on Angela and all she gets up to:
www.angelastreetwriter.wordpress.com
01722 322143

Enjoy!

Over and out for now.

September: spectacle and strange happenings, both on and off stage.

Where is offstage when, according to Shakespeare ‘[a]ll the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players’? This question jumped out at me, bouncing on its dot, following the opening night performance of The World Outside, a story of family and folklore – both that of the New Forest and that of the tales we tell ourselves as we grapple with our sense of identity and roots, our position in a place and the notion of home. All those ideas and queries we ask ourselves at some point in our lives, whether sat in the audience or washing the dishes at the kitchen sink.

 My friend and I sat in the audience in a small village hall, deep in the New Forest. The World Outside – commissioned by Forest Forge, directed by Kirstie Davis and written by David Lane – is set in the New Forest is rich with its stories and history. Forest Forge tours throughout Hampshire and Dorset, bringing theatre to towns and conventional theatre spaces as well as taking it to village halls and rural communities. The play explores what it means to live in the forest, to have roots, to run from your roots, to feel lost and to search for connection with – and freedom from – place and people. The superb cast (Isobel Arnett, Michael Cole, Verity Hewlett and Andrew Wheaton) were a joy to observe and work with in rehearsal, as was Kirstie Davis for whom I was assistant director. The highly skilled cast created characters full of life and truth. The actors searched out their truths in each moment, following the scent within each sentence, silence, action and stillness. They had researched, unearthed these truths over the preceding three and a half-weeks of rehearsal. During rehearsals it seemed to me that the actors were exceptional archeologists, finding motivation behind each motion, sifting through dialogue to detect every shift and subtlety, every clue to the character and their past, in order to accurately convey them in the present. At the end of the performance my friend turned to me. Impressed, he said quietly 'It's like life isn't it? We're humans watching humans playing humans: “Now, you be a woman and I'll pretend to be your brother and…”’ And so it is we humans examine what it is to be, to exist alone and alongside others, through theatre. Theatre helps us understand the world within and without.



Notions of identity are also unravelled and reshaped in Born, the companion piece to The World Outside. Born is delivered by Forest Forge's excellent youth theatre, directed in a distinctly physical way and innovative style by David Haworth and Lucy Phillips, performed by a dynamic young cast. I recommend seeing both performances if possible as David Lane has expertly crafted the pieces so that each holds secrets that belong to the other play. The shows are on tour until the 29th of October 2011 for full details and more information about the show and Forest Forge’s work, please click on this link:


http://www.forestforge.co.uk/shows/11/performances


The Grand Grotesque Parade also explored the issues of identity of place and people, in an experimental processional performance involving local artists and public participants. On the 24th September 2011 as part of Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival, hundreds of costumed characters (and the odd dressed-up dog) floated through the eras whilst moving from the pier through the gardens to the heart of the town and back to the sea. We 3, (performers Antonia Beck, Felicity Crabb and myself), were associate directors for this project, one created specifically with Bournemouth past and present in mind. Prior to this year’s event, the parade last happened in the town in 1910. Artistic directors The Girls (Zoe Sinclair and Andrea Blood) set out to re-invent this tradition by blending symbols, characters and cultural issues of the present-day seaside town with those of its past. We 3 were lucky enough to explore these ideas with an energetic, creatively generous team of local actors and dancers, devising the final performance piece working with over eleven extraordinary women in response to The Girls’ ideas, imagery and focus. Collaboration was the key to the success of the parade, with The Girls bringing in artists from all disciplines including Ali Sharpe who led the haunting, feral choir and filmmaker John Holman who captured our all-female troupe of artists on camera in a surreal short film, also directed by The Girls, that flickered on loop throughout the parade. In his essay Carnivalesque and the British Seaside, writer Bevis Fenner speaks of the Grand Grotesque Parade and The Girls work, highlighting the links between cultural events that offer release and a chance to invert social norms and the way in which ‘[…] the environment of the seaside resort facilitates a kind of alter reality’ where we adopt different behaviours and, arguably, other identities for a single night or an entire holiday. And, on the 24th September, that is exactly what we performers did.



As the sun slid from the sky and into the sea, a strange hybrid creature was birthed and she slithered through the streets: suffragettes in pink regency dresses and painted faces seemingly ‘swept their way to the future’ according to one on-looker, whilst a ghostly choir, sepia-stained, sang a strained and melancholic ode to the seaside. A luscious mermaid was served up on a deckchair, mistaken for an ice-cream by unthinking consumers, she was devoured before the crowds. Suffragettes transformed into zombie-hens on a riotous night out. Underground steampunks came out to play – as did other groups of public participants – their presence reaffirming the town’s creative identity and the importance of community involvement in such processional performances. Equally important is the desire to engage the public, to connect with them. Theatre is not theatre without an audience. The audience, as it is with the actors, also has its part to play. Perhaps during a processional performance, the lines between public and artist/participant become exceptionally blurred, particularly when the parade’s creative source and soul is the very town in which it is being performed. Where then, is offstage and onstage?



We all take on roles within our families and relationships, we perform niceties every day, we sometimes talk through a mask of grinning, gritted teeth, we put on a telephone voice, we act the fool, we entertain a fantasy in the private auditorium of our mind. We are all actors and audience at once. Acting and observing. From a yogic perspective, the whole of life is a huge play – Lila – the Divine Play. And through observing this, we need not get fully caught up in any drama. Yogic philosophy suggests we are all here for a reason, all performing our roles as best we can. Someone’s role is to be an astronaut, another’s role is to be a film star, another’s: a fish. Someone’s role is to act the ‘bad’ person in order that somebody else can fulfill their role as the ‘good’ person. Everyone plays their part. Arguably, these are all roles which we will drop come curtain call. In fact, it is often the passing of someone – a fellow player – that reminds us the oft-quoted truth that ‘life is not a dress rehearsal’. Perhaps like actors, those archeological experts who uncover the motivation and meaning behind a character’s thoughts and actions, we too can dig deeper in our art and in our daily lives. How would it be if, as humans and creatives, we were to act from this position of awareness? Whether onstage or offstage, there is fun and freedom to be found in realising we’re all simply playing a part, in order that we can focus on what is really important: connecting with the heart of others as well as unearthing, and then acting from, our core values and truths as we explore our role within this drama, seeing how the story unfolds.





For more information on Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival and a whole range of artistic treats happening right up until Saturday 15th October:
http://www.artsbournemouth.org.uk//



For images of the Grand Grotesque Parade 2011, the following Flickr accounts of Fraser Donachie and WheelzWheeler capture some striking shots:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/-phraser-/6180190549/in/photostream/


http://www.flickr.com/photos/wheelzwheeler/6185891539/in/photostream/



Eerie live footage from Many Chef’s Broth:
http://manychefsbroth.co.uk/bournemouth-arts-by-the-sea-festival-grand-grotesque-parade


Soundscape from the parade, composed by DJ Bacon: http://www.archive.org/details/GrandGrotesqueParadeBournemouthSept2011



Joseph Kent’s article about the parade via Bhbeat.com:
http://bhbeat.com/17808/bournemouth-goes-grotesque-in-first-grand-parade-for-100-years


For Bevis Fenner’s essay Carnivalesque and the British Seaside:

http://www.thegirls.co.uk/photo_8435987.html



For further details about The Girls, artistic directors of the Grand Grotesque Parade, see:
http://www.thegirls.co.uk/


And, last but certainly not least, for a full list of the amazing array of generous and talented people who also made the event possible:
http://www.thegirls.co.uk/photo_8165759.html

...

Artist Call-Out: Grand Grotesque Parade 2011.

We 3: associate artists for The Girls' Grand Grotesque Parade 2011... and we'd like you to join us!

Earlier this year as We 3, myself and performing artists Antonia Beck and Felicity Crabb were the odd and prodding guests of performance artists The Girls (http://www.thegirls.co.uk/) in their residency for Millais Off-Site Projects: 'The Paper Eaters Do Bargate'. We 3 experimented with notions of intimacy, with the public as our playmates, in 'We 3: Intimacy'. We donned tutus and different faces and with Post-it notes and knitting needles in hand we asked people to reveal what was in their heads and hearts - the results of which you can read about in earlier posts. 

We're now very excited to be working with The Girls again, this time as associate artists on their latest project for Bournemouth Arts by the Sea Festival 2011: The Grand Grotesque Parade, a cross-artform celebration of all things weird, wonderful and wonky all with an Edwardian edge.

Insert Yourself Here:

We're currently gearing up for a rehearsal day with The Girls, the space generously provided by Pavilion Dance, for the Grand Grotesque Parade and we'd like you to join us. If you're a performing artist, actor or dancer and you'd like to be involved please click on the link below for more details:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B0AUTmOVFzrIYWJiZjBmMGMtMzg5Ni00YjhjLWE2NmYtMTFiMmM1YWVjODIz&hl=en_US

If the project resonates with you please send an e-mail telling us why you're interested and details of your experience and/or a CV to dearwe3@gmail.com. Application deadline: Sunday 7th August. You can also find out more and contact us via our We 3 Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/We-3/232506710102320

Over the coming two months, we'll be  moving from the rehearsal space to the beach and streets. We'll mix our art together, turn ideas into the manifest, move from paper and pen and pictures to bodies and costumes, song and sound as we parade through to film and final performance. Looking forward to sharing it with you.

...signing out with some extra links for you:

For more information on the festival and all the events taking place over Sept and October visit:

http://www.artsbournemouth.org.uk/


And, if you're in the Dorset area, have a look at a very interesting international research, exchange and education project, HamletZar, that's coming to Pavilion Dance this month, presented by Goossun Art-illery:
http://www.paviliondance.org.uk/page/144/HamletZar-Overseas-work-in-progress/299

Time for Two Lines!

May: a month. A busy month for me. This has called for curtailing, pruning or, rather, selective choosing: just two lines a day.

This idea comes from Mari Messer's book Pencil Dancing: New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit. Here's Mari on The Two-Line Journal:

This is my favourite. I've been keeping one for over seven years [...] While it takes just a few minutes to write your thought, you search all day long for that one thing that deserves saving in your journal. It keeps your creative antennae tuned [...]  You can use the two-line journal to hold:

·     brilliant ideas you'd otherwise forget

·     short quotes and observations

·     thumbnail sketches

·     happenings of the day

·     a short rhyme [...]

·     a crisp descriptive phrase or two

[...] Knowing you'll need a line or two at the end of the day makes you more observant. Limited space makes you more succinct.*

This project has been a lot of fun. Very simple. Here's my month of May, two lines at a time:

 

1^st

I travel back to shiny times and wish upon the stars there,

pick up the path, and from the heart, I ask the stars: Where?

2^nd

Centre, better. Sea, re-see.

3^rd

Arms reach up, break the surface of the day

How strange it is to move between two worlds

4^th

I called up Love today.

And love made all the difference.

5^th

Each day a journey to the end that is the start

Without within begins.

6^th

Concrete. Walk among daisies.

7^th

Coming home to yoga

Sleep sleep sleep

8^th

Bitter ginger on the tongue

Overheard: And I shall say to Mary, ‘Why dunt she talk t’us?’

9^th

Meditation:

The power of Creation is in the act of creating.

10^th

Sellotape, Sellotape, Sellotape,

Are these really my last words?

11^th

Cakes for mistake

After, empty case, all I have is my word.

12^th

Dealing out smiles

And we all play Snap!

13^th

Mermaid tale: tin foil scales

siren singing to chip-fingers

14^th

Cough cough cardigan time,

Throat is more honest than mouth.

15^th

Bathtime reminds: embryonic state

global yolk: universal union

16^th

Green Bug, Eight Legs,

so small with much to do.

Thank you for taking time to come and visit me.

17^th

Candles throw shadows

but I would ride my Story Horse

18^th

Dolphins! Amazing!

19^th

The Dance of Drowsy Woozyness,

Loose-limbed we spin and flop.

20^th

Spellingis thair to be plaid wiθ

21^st

Today.

Hard to encapsulate.

22^nd

Grateful: I am not comatose and

I can feel my toes.

23^rd

All bedecked, a ribboned room

alive with what will come.

24^th

Light plays on the ceiling,

inviting imagination to join in.

 25^th

26^th

I forgot last night, but it remembered

to turn into today

…

Silliness is best shared

27^th

Chipfritter

Familytimes

28^th

The metaphorical overflows into simile like wine at a wedding

 

29^th

Eye of pine

all-seeing tree,

we squirrel away

our memories.

30^th

Dolphin Boy – the human spirit:

delicately indestructible.

31^st

This time, next month, yesterday.

 ...

*Messer, Mari, pp. 29-30, Pencil Dancing: New Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit, Walking Stick Press: 2001.