Pop Up Theatre

A performance I saw by the Hardgraft Theatre Company called I Love Oldham, written by Mark Whitely, who also played one of the parts alongside Rayyah McCaul was a fun event. These hardworking actors greeted their audience, sorted tickets and then performed a two act play whose action is set in a charity shop and in this case, a real charity shop.

A vacant retail unit in Oldham's indoor market was transformed into a play set. To passers by it looked like a regular charity shop but it was laid out with a collection of mis-matched chairs and was a theatre for a two week run.

Vacant shops are a part of life at the moment and with a bit of planning could be put to better use. I know that pop up restaurants have been coming and going in empty shops, particularly in London. I'm aware that craft workshops and exhibitions were commissioned in Lancashire a couple of years ago. With arts funding being reduced and in some cases cut it might be an idea for small theatre groups and community projects to have a look at some of these spaces. The only rental needed is for the run of the play and with the glut of shops available and the right script the idea could work anywhere in the country.

Well done Hardgraft.

Fictional Characters. Who would You Be?

Some great characters exist in fiction and I tried to imagine which character I most resemble. I so wanted it to be someone exciting and female but the character I kept thinking of was Don Quixote....Maybe not all the time and it could have been worse. Mrs. Danvers in Daphne Du Maurier's Rebecca or a munchkin in L. Frank Baum's the Wizard of Oz.

I sometimes read poetry and books and find characteristics in people being described that remind me of myself. Perhaps we all do and thet's why we read - to find ourself reflected in the world.

If you were a character in a story or poem,


Who would you be and why?

What makes a character memorable?


What makes people love or hate characters?

Keys to Paradise and Other Locks.

Go to any museum and you'll find rusty and rotted keys from thousands of years ago, ornate and elegant keys that hung from the waists of Victorian or French housekeepers. In the drawers and cupboards of all our houses there are likely to be keys, put there for safekeeping, that belong to locks that no longer exist.

Keys take on a different form in the twenty first century. Safe combinations, swipe cards, iris and fingerprint recognition and keys smothered with bling and patterns to make them stand out.

However you look at it, everyone from the Roman Soldier to the Modern Art Teacher had or has something they want to lock up. Salt, saffron, sugar, secrets. Love letters, evidence, diamonds, people.

Make a list of everything you have locked up. Do you see the beginnings of a poem in that list? Or a story?

Look at the photo of keys above. Select one. Imagine you keep it somewhere safe. Write about the lock it opens. Tell a story about what's locked away and why. 

Write an intriguing sentence that includes the word key.

Have you any interesting stories that involve keys?

Stones in his Pockets. A play by Marie Jones

I'm re-reading Stones in his Pockets by Marie Jones. It's a play with a large cast that has traditionally been played by two actors. Set in Ireland, it looks at the effect a visiting American film crew has on a close knit community.

The dialogue is very effective. All characters come to life on the page and not a word is wasted. I'll be using this play in September when I will be running a play reading course.

It's inspiring to see what can be done with two actors, a fantastic script and no props. Somehow the essence of how powerful theatre can be is embodied in this layered and thought provoking piece. The tone is humourous but the play doesn't shy away from large and small politics.

Reading it reminds me of something I wrote. It's a play with two characters who are both played by one actor. I must get it out, blow the dust off it and see if it's any good.

Has anyone seen a production of Stones in his Pockets?

What did you think of it?

Ghost stories....what is a ghost?

I've read my book of ghost stories - a mixed bunch of tales. I enjoyed them but thought most were tenuously connected to ghosts and could have been included in several categories. Some were funny, others surreal and one or two were mysterious.

Ghost is an expression that seems to cover a range of mental as well as physical anomalies and sometimes the fantastic is just that...a bit fantastic.

I'm going to be looking at ghost stories in the September term so I'll have to read a few more, study the form and write a couple. 

The fact that none of them gave me a decent attack of the creeps was disappointing...was I asking for too much? 

What is a ghost?
Have you ever been in the presence of anything you could describe as a ghost? Write about it.
Do you think ghosts exist or that a state of mind creates them?
Are there any ghost stories in your family? Tell them!
Why do you think people like ghost stories and want to be scared?

What could you write about buttons?

Do you like buttons? I love them and know lots of people who love them too. Some of the buttons above were sold to me at a car boot sale. The woman I bought them from held them to her chest for a few moments, told me they belonged to her grandma, wrestled with some guilt I expect and then sold them to me. I've cherished them. 

When I say that I love buttons I don't mean dull things from ordinary coats or workaday trousers. I mean gorgeous buttons. Shiny, blingy, jewelled, expensive, rare, art deco, surprising, complicated and desirable.

As a tutor of textile based and craft subjects I've met people who detest buttons and feel sick at the sight of them. They can't handle buttons and choose clothing with zips, velcro, ties, hooks, press studs ....anything but buttons.

In creative writing I've used buttons to stimulate stories - what fantastic stories. I've invited people to take a button from my collection and imagine where it came from and on a few occasions people have asked to keep a button or have taken it!!
In my experience men like buttons as much as women, sometimes for different reasons.

What d'you think about buttons? 

Write a few lines about where some of the buttons in the picture came from.

Do you know the word that describes a button phobia?

If there's a button jar/box/tin in your house, have a look at it. Write a story about the person who owns it. If it's been passed down write about who it belonged to and the people who inherited it. Are the buttons workaday or fabulous? What clothes do they come from?

Stories in a tiled floor.

I can't resist tiled floors. The jazzier the better. My favourite tiled floor was black orange and cream coloured shapes that looked like many variations on a church building. It was so jolly I would liked to have rolled it up and taken it home. The junk shop where those tiles were laid was never open when I passed so I never got a good photo.

The tiles in the above picture are laid in a long room; a granny flat at the side of a house. The room has whitewashed walls, dark beams and an elaborate fireplace made of rose granite. An older lady lived in this room, alone but next to her family, for the last years of her life. The room was furnished and adorned with family photos and ornaments.

This floor looks different depending on the weather and where you stand on it. Sometimes it's a mosaic and other times a woven cloth.

Write a list of factual words that describe the floor.

Write what the floor makes you think of, or reminds you of.

Write a few phrases about the woman who lived there - it's entirely up to you who you imagine.

Once you've gathered your ideas see if you can write a poem made up of couplets with the first word of each couplet being because.

for example

Because the yellow squares

remind her of his youthful hair

Because the grey squares

remind her of her own.....

You could try to tell a story in the poem, or be descriptive, or go where the subject matter takes you.    

Let me know how you go on?

What floor coverings are interesting to you....floor coverings...interesting? You know the sort of thing...home made rugs, plush hotel carpets with fabulous patterns running along them...floorboards...