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Showing posts from June, 2013

Developing 'Celia' - Week 1

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I was lucky enough to receive a wee bit of money from Creative Scotland to allow me to develop an idea I have for a show called 'Celia'. I am spending the next couple of weeks with a great wee team of actors, working on the first half of the script and seeing where the piece will go. It's a play that I have already written once, but I didn't like it. The story was strong and I liked the characters but the whole thing felt very old-fashioned and uninspiring, so it was back to the drawing board. I re-worked up a good 40 minutes worth of material to bring to rehearsal and we spent the first couple of days going through it, scene by scene, line by line. This kind of work can wear the brain down quickly (certainly my brain) but it's vital work for the success of the piece. If it ain't working on the page then no amount of tomfoolery and trickery is going to make it work on the stage! Pamela Shaw (Celia) works on a movement sequence It was great to work with t

Towards the Moon at the Citz

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I had a fantastic opportunity a couple of weeks ago that ended up being a bizarre week of fun, panic and creative juice-flowing. I'm just back from holiday so haven't had a chance to write about it yet, but here goes. Sooooo I was lucky enough to be invited to develop my musical 'Towards the Moon' at the world famous Citizen's theatre in Glasgow under the direction of the artistic director Dominic Hill.  Three musicals were to be developed that week so it was me alongside Deacon Blue frontman Ricky Ross and The Thick of It actor Paul Higgin's musical about a community choir and the fantastically talented Hilary Brooks who was creating a piece based on a 1960's film. Dominic had organised a fantastic cast for me and it was decided that we would showcase 6 or 7 of the songs with a bit of narration in-between.  The showcase would be to the ATG group who own a number of large theatres throughout Britain, they are looking for new musicals and have come up Nor