A new liveartshow journey has started. Following up from Manga Sister and Rhinegold and our Summerhall/tour of The Future For Beginners we’ll be premiering Marsha: A Girl Who Does Bad Things at the Arcola from August 11-15.

Following from The Future For Beginners it mixes both opera and theatre – featuring one actor (Tilly Gaunt) and four opera singers (Victoria Gray,…

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I've recently been working with Sarah Jones and Mess Up The Mess theatre on a new Forum theatre piece around the subject of anxiety issues in young people. It's been both a tough and delightful process - the toughness coming from the subject matter and the delight coming from working with such a professional group of young people who are committed to making great theatre.

I attended the first performance of the play last Friday at Y Ffwrnes in Llanelli and it was an experience…

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The Future For Beginners has been nominated for the Music Theatre Network awards and received a 5 Star review from the British Theatre Guide - well done to actor/singers Jennifer Adams and Matthew Bulgo.

The show is on at Summerhall at 3.40pm until Aug 24.

MTN Awards

British Theatre Guide

The Future For Beginners

Review by Philip…

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I’m currently sitting in a music room at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (listening to someone practising the oboe next door) and wondering what to blog about with regard the rehearsal process for liveartshow’s The Future For Beginners. As I’m a writer I’m going to write about…

The writing of the show. It's been a particularly interesting process…

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When The Opportunity of Efficiency was performed at the New National Theatre in Tokyo last year the play was written, in reality, by two people.

I was given the credit – my name on the posters outside the hulking theatre that sits near the busy Shinjuku area of Tokyo – but I was always keenly aware that the translator, Kaku Nagashima, had written the actual words spoken on stage.

Writing the play for a foreign national theatre, having it translated into Japanese and…

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A little while ago I was asked to join a Great Britain Writers Football Team but I’m wondering if there is any appetite and interest out there for a Wales Writers Football Team? 

There’s an English and Scottish equivalent and teams throughout the world but it would be great if there was a Wales side to fly the flag.

 

As I say, I was asked to be part of a GB football team to play in a Euro tournament – that didn’t come off but because of it I had made email contact with…

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I'm writing to you from the Capital Fringe Festival, Washington DC. It's been an eventful week here at the Capital Fringe; mounting a new production, interviews, workshops and seeing plenty of shows. The beauty of this festival is the eclectic mix of performers and shows - I've seen a one man performance from a local binman to a 25-strong Gospel rendition of the Nativity with leather-bound Satans. Somewhere in the middle of this is the play I've brought over, Marsha. It's a one-woman show,…

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I arrived in Tokyo last Sunday morning and, after a train ride into the city and checking into the apartment,  I went straight to rehearsals. It was weird joining the room at a late date in the process but I was made to feel more than welcome. I watched a partial run-through,  met the actors and crew before having a bite to eat with John at one of his favorite shushi haunts before crashing out.

For the following few days, I attended…

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I'll be joining John McGrath in Tokyo at the end of the month so I thought I’d share some of the process that is going on at the moment

As the writer of the play, it's been weird not being in the room for the start of rehearsals (I would normally be there for the first week, leave them alone for a bit and then rejoin later on – a bit more awkward when the play is in Tokyo).

But, of course, I’ve been in touch with John since he arrived to answer general and specific…

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CASTING BREAKDOWN

 

LIVEARTSHOW is currently casting

 

RHINEGOLD

 

a retelling

 

written by Alan Harris / composed by Harry Blake

directed by Martin Constantine / designed by Will Holt

produced by Elisa Terren

 

rehearsals: 21 May – 13 June 2012, London

performances: 13 – 30 June 2012

venue: The Yard Theatre, London…

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Hello, I've been asked to pass along the following information (see below). Basically, The Yard theatre in East London has a number of opportunities for productions this year. It's programming its main season at the moment but will also be hosting a couple of short festivals, including The Theatre of Great Britain in which they would particularly like some Welsh representation.

From a personal point of view, I wrote the libretto for a show there last year (Manga Sister with…

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CASTING BREAKDOWN

LIVEARTSHOW is currently looking for actors to be part of workshops to develop their new project... RHINEGOLD.

RHINEGOLD is the first part of liveartshow’s plan to adapt, interpret and transform Wagner’s RING CYCLE and will be performed at THE YARD this summer.

workshops: 20 – 23 February 2012 / working 10.30am – 5.30pm

venue: Hoxton and The Yard Theatre, East London, www.the-yard.co.uk

fee:…

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Hello, for those interested in submitting to the BBC, the writersroom has a good resource for example scripts. My piece, The Gold Farmer, has just been added but there's lots of scripts on here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/radio_drama.shtml

For writers it's a useful, free resource.

Alan x

Hello, I took a break from re-drafting A Good Night in the Valleys: Go As You Please to go to the panto at Blaengarw Institute tonight and it was brilliant. It was glorious and truly bonkers. It’s the first time I’ve seen a blow up doll, George W Bush and Mother Earth in a panto and it contained a hilarious version of Flash Dance. It was Jack and the Beanstalk, by the way, and me and intern Hannah stayed to do the World In Union dance at the end. Will blog a bit more about the first draft and… Continue

Hello, while researching the play for next March we (myself, director John and intern Hannah) came across a lot of stories of days out - especially to Barry Island and Porthcawl. There was lots of talk of the miners' fortnight (especially at Trecco) and it brought back memories for me of jumping on a train or bus and heading to the coast as a teenager. I remember going to a Radio One roadhsow in Porthcawl and it must have been around 1984. I can't remember much about it, who was on the bill… Continue

Well, I just thought I’d write a bit about the process that has been happening for A Good Night Out in the Valleys.

The project has been on-going for a while and started with a tour of South Wales institutes and kind of concluded with a woman in Blaengarw asking “anyone here from Ogmore? If so, would you like to make a lantern?”

It has been an eclectic, fun and largely random experience.

So, from the start, this is what we did:

Myself, John McGrath (director) and Hannah… Continue

Hello, just a reminder to say Cardboard Dad is on at the Sherman from this Thursday (Oct 15) till the end of the month. Here's the link:

http://www.shermancymru.co.uk/performance/drama/cardboard-dad/

Many thanks, Alan x