Despite being very late to bed I managed to extricate my-self from my nest and throw my body into an athletic encounter with constitution hill.
I passed a number of revelers from the night before who looked impressed by my commitment to traveling along the sea front quite quickly. Hundreds of women in pink covered the prom. Either in preparation for, or after, the race for life. Life boats bounced across the waves and for a moment I was fooled into thinking that…
Just got back from a 10 year reunion. 10 years since my year graduated from university. Well actually 10 years since my first uni year graduated. I had an an extra special year which means that I will get to go to another reunion next year as well. I am now in my 9th year of university study. Nine years of university.... hmmmm.... how did that happen? I will have spent 11 years at uni by the time this thing is over.
Its funny how the faces of your friends change so much and…
I had missed all of Carl's emails. So by the time I spoke to him he was a a little frustrated. He had been trying to negotiate our travel plan to the next show in Cardiff, The Devil Inside Him. When I finally spoke to him on the phone at about 2pm my right eye…Continue
Added by Dr Tom Payne on May 7, 2010 at 12:30 —
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Sam and I took up residence on the side of the cliff for 30 minutes. A video camera caught our inactivity as the time lapse recording documented a minutes silence, a brief period of inactivity to contemplate the closing of the ballot.
A bat circled overhead and the cliff dropped away behind us revealing the town of Aberystwyth at night. A few feet away to our right, the rocks fell sharply towards the sea a hundred feet below.…
I sat in the far corner of Mike's office observing for the best part of 4 hours as the two Mikes, Simon and Giles, navigated their way through the production details of the Persians. I say far corner... none of the corners are actually very far from each other, so I did my best to sit as out of the way as possible. A set model sat on the far side of the room and miniature pieces of furniture moved their way around as materials and budgets were discussed.
Tomorrow I will be attending a production meeting for The Persians. Today I spoke to Roger Owen. Roger accompanied Mike on one of the early visits to the military training base in South Wales. He talked of a living hell and his expectation that somehow there would be something profound to be seen there, in this piece of land misappropriated by the military some 70 years ago. Despite his many attempts to find the profound in the remains of farmhouses, he couldn't. He described being… Continue
Added by Dr Tom Payne on May 4, 2010 at 11:30 —
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We spoke for an hour this morning. Cycling around the areas I picked out yesterday. I am looking for a way into this first case study. Does the way forward lie in exploring the relationship between the Persians and Mike's previous work with Brith Gof? Is it about the English language and it's relationship to the the Welsh tongue? I think back to my interview with Eddie Ladd, there is something at play here. Is there an angle exploring the relationship between NTW and the artists… Continue
Added by Dr Tom Payne on May 2, 2010 at 23:53 —
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Fantastic sunday lunch, all the more entertaining as a result of Poppy's insistence on punctuating the meal with musical silence. Like musical statues but with food. I came a close second to last... it seems the unspoken goal was to be the first to finish.
Tomorrow I am meeting with Mike Pearson at 9am. In his office.
I have four areas of interest that I would like him to talk about.
One of Poppy's school friends had a party at the leisure centre. I chose not to go into the pool for the first part and instead chose to sit upstairs and listen to an audio book on my ipod. I probably should have gone swimming, it has now been over a week since I got any decent exercise. She gave her friend an inflatable Barbie rubber ring and a pair of party shoes. The kind that I won't allow her to wear herself.
I was listening to a book about being organised. I…
After an evening of editing (2 minutes) and discussing with Sam, we have decided upon a new project.The Standing Man. I can't explain what it is right now, but it links into my research work with NTW. I need to arrange to go back to the old library in Swansea in order to create the first part of the project. A creative response to the place. Down in the stack. I will get in touch with Paul to see if we can do our interview as well. Just need to figure out how to get down there.
Added by Dr Tom Payne on April 30, 2010 at 12:00 —
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These first two months have been phenomenal. Coming to terms with PhD research has been a struggle at times. Teaching in an FE college in Mid-Wales was pretty straight forward, and unlike this research project, teaching, by and large, gets done simply through it's doing. There have been times in these first two months where I have felt lost without the structure that teaching provides and at other times an incredible sense of freedom.
Occasionally a day gets lost, not always through carelessness, but on this occasion I think I might have less it slip by carelessly.
Reading that doesn't go anywhere and writing that might be better never read. A late afternoon trip to the doctor in which he betrayed more than a minor intolerance to emergency appointments that turn out not to be emergencies. I am reminded of the time that I went to casualty with a head ache. The doctor in question used to be my next…
I spoke to Gary today, over lunch, his lunch not mine. I didn't eat. I just watched as he attempted to work his way through through a salad while talking about his work with Lone Twin.
We were speaking in the break between the 1st and 2nd Lone Twin Theatre Performances of the day. Alice Bell and Daniel hit by a Train. The third part of the trilogy, Festival, took us late into the evening and discussions were resumed over and Indian in the…
I spent the first part of the day shopping in Swansea. Burning up the battery on my video camera and feeling really bad about putting a book case against the hotel room door last night. I managed to work myself up into a state when I got in from the pub. I was convinced that someone was going to knock the door through and murder me. A little extreme I know. But then my experience when checking into the hotel had made me feel a little awkward. I don't know if you have seen Wolf…Continue
Added by Dr Tom Payne on April 24, 2010 at 11:30 —
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Today was most remarkable because not only was it day 55 but the code to the security lock on the front door of the hotel was 55 55. A coincidence? I'm not so sure. I haven't given anything away by telling you this because, as the landlord informed me, the code changes everyday to one more simple than the day before. So if you were to figure out which hotel it was, by now the code would be different. Though there must come a point in about 5 days where the code becomes 00 00 and beyond… Continue
Ok, it is quickly becoming clear that Aberystwyth is the last place that I should be and yet I am finding it hard to be elsewhere. This wouldn't be a problem except that there are a number of things happening in Swansea tonight and tomorrow and indeed on Saturdsay that I should go and take part in. The Assembly Project is tonight in Monkey, tomorrow is a Politics and Theatre conference and then on Saturday the Forest Fringe. This is on tomorrow as well. I have decided to get the bus at… Continue
Added by Dr Tom Payne on April 22, 2010 at 10:00 —
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I met with Eddie Ladd today, before being picked up by my house mate and driven back to Aberystwyth. We sat and drank coffee in the office above the gallery come performance space that she shares with her partner, the performance artist Andre Stitt. What does a National Theatre of Wales, dealing almost exclusively in the English language, mean to an artist whose work is rooted deeply in the Welsh language? This is not simply about translation it seems. Not simply a case of converting… Continue
Added by Dr Tom Payne on April 21, 2010 at 6:00 —
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