Click on the image to read
Wednesday, 26 August 2009
Saturday, 22 August 2009
And the winner is...
We are delighted to announce that Laurie Brown has been nominated for a Stage Award for Acting Excellence in the category of Best Solo Performance (or best wanker as we were calling it last night, oh how we laughed.)This is a really great thing to happen for our microscopic production and we're so proud of 'im.
For those of you who haven't yet seen Dame LB in action there is still time and many a ticket to be purchased between now and Monday 31 August (except Monday 24 August when for one night only, we sleep.)
Thanks to everyone who has come to Up and supported what we think has been a great success and once again - Laurie, well doneski!
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
Up and running
The Up puns are just going to keep on coming I'm afraid.Up went up on Monday to a lovely audience who made all the right noises during and after the show. The word in the pub that night was that Laurie is pretty damn good as Robert and that people liked what they saw.
It's really exciting to have a whole run ahead of us and we're looking forward to sharing this piece with all our audiences.
I hope you enjoy the show.
James
Sunday, 9 August 2009
Get in today and Up tomorrow
This blog is well late. Sorry! It's been a bit mad at return to work HQ. Rehearsals have gone well for our small but perfectly formed team and have taken place in a range of locations from the totally free (our garden) to the highly expensive (fringe central).
We're feeling pretty good about the production, we've sold a fair few tickets and we've got journos coming to see us so we're kind of ticking lots of boxes.
Please follow us on Twitter. With all these London folks in town (renowned for the latest craze those peeps) it has become the only forum of note for the fringe so please make us look popular and follow us and I'll keep you more updated there than I do here.
UP09 on Twitter - follow - tweet - sweet!
We're feeling pretty good about the production, we've sold a fair few tickets and we've got journos coming to see us so we're kind of ticking lots of boxes.
Please follow us on Twitter. With all these London folks in town (renowned for the latest craze those peeps) it has become the only forum of note for the fringe so please make us look popular and follow us and I'll keep you more updated there than I do here.
UP09 on Twitter - follow - tweet - sweet!
Friday, 10 July 2009
Banding Room Only
The snappily titled Banding Together For Up was our final chance to raise real money for Up and we did just that. We managed to raise £250 which will definitely cover our Evian water costs during rehearsals so at least that's one thing that won't be going on the Barclaycard this festival. For those of you who came, and you can see from this photo that quite a few people did, you will be able to testify that the night was a playful event incorporating great music, great fun and great big bar bills.
I mustn't forget to mention that there were prizes as well as the great music from Sabai, Wounded Knee and HMS Ginafore. This is one of the prizes, believe it or not. At about 2am HMS Ginafore got down in the gutter and played a small set for one lucky winner. But how can one win such unique prizes?
From Mr Tombola Head of course! This is he. This erstwhile Yoga support was transformed for one night only into a tempting tombola that promised fabulous prizes like... A chocolate orange and a bottle of dessert wine and some actually good prizes that aren't quite as memorable.
And how could you resist Mark and his megaphone as he gave himself a hernia selling matches with unending, unnerving enthusiasm?
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
final fundraiser for Up
Everyone welcome to join us at The Village in Leith for one final push to raise a few pennies for our production at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Three great music acts AND a tombola - That's sounds like it would cost way more that a deep sea diver to me.
Just turn up and get tickets on the door or call and reserve a ticket if you're that way inclined.
Sunday, 7 June 2009
The story so far
Good morrow Up blog readers
How exciting that the fact that you are reading this means that there is such a thing as an Up blog reader. Having this new website and this new blog makes me even more aware of the journey this play is going on and exactly where we are on that journey. I'm mindful of the fact that hard slog, effort, anguish, fun and joy lie behind us and in front of us.
In the beginning we had an idea; I had written several fragments of work set in psychiatric hospitals. Some of these pieces of work had titles and some of them did not. Some of the titles are Ward 4 (this title is part of a line in the current script and is something of an old friend to me. Early drafts of Ward 4 date back to 2003), The Fife Finishing School for Young Psychopaths, Up and Down in Crumbling Old Buildings (This was a very very short play with a very long title that had a homoerotic public school subplot and is one of the reasons for the title of Up although don't worry, the subplot has been dropped along with the other six words in the title.)
At a meeting with a literary manager last year I was advised to put my work on myself if I really wanted to take my writing further. I decided to take this advice and I adopted the simple philosophy that I wouldn't regret doing a show at the 2009 fringe, I would only regret not doing one. I am so pleased I made this decision as I have loved this process so far and if I am knocked down by a bus tomorrow it will already have been a success.
The idea was to use all of this unfinished, un-produced work written about hospitals and create something new with it that could be performed by one actor in a small space and time slot at the fringe.
I was thrilled to get a slot at the Vault for three weeks and this increased my commitment to the project. Only at this point (in January 2009) was major script work started. As I work for 40 hours a week I had to use all my free time to write and I frequently got up at 5am to write for an hour or so before work. By the end of March I had a draft. Which Ros read and gave some great feedback from for a second draft. Ros, Rob Evans, Mark and I had a reading of the second draft and although I was quite pleased with the sound of it, this gave me huge amounts of direction for the third draft.
So now we had a script we just needed, money, an actor, a flyer, a press pack, a schedule, a set, etc, etc, etc.
We held auditions for an actor, met Laurie at one of them and we were delighted to offer him the part and for him to accept it. We've started working with Laurie on some ideas for the final production and on the final final final draft of the script.
We held a fundraising village Fete in May in Mark's and my Garden and we raised a big chunk of the budget for the show selling cakes that people donated, raffle tickets and my homemade screen printed bags with the company logo on them.
John Cooper has designed us the most amazing flyer and Eileen (our lovely upstairs neighbour) designed and built our funky website.
So that's what we've been up to... Even before rehearsals have started. And let me tell you there is so much to do between now and the 27th of July when our intensive rehearsals start and the real "fun" begins. I'll keep you UP to date on all of that when it happens and I will be posting very very soon about the next fundraising event on 26 June in The Village which will include three bands/acts, a tombola and lots more.
Please feel free to comment and make this space a bit more untidy.
Until next time.
James
How exciting that the fact that you are reading this means that there is such a thing as an Up blog reader. Having this new website and this new blog makes me even more aware of the journey this play is going on and exactly where we are on that journey. I'm mindful of the fact that hard slog, effort, anguish, fun and joy lie behind us and in front of us.
In the beginning we had an idea; I had written several fragments of work set in psychiatric hospitals. Some of these pieces of work had titles and some of them did not. Some of the titles are Ward 4 (this title is part of a line in the current script and is something of an old friend to me. Early drafts of Ward 4 date back to 2003), The Fife Finishing School for Young Psychopaths, Up and Down in Crumbling Old Buildings (This was a very very short play with a very long title that had a homoerotic public school subplot and is one of the reasons for the title of Up although don't worry, the subplot has been dropped along with the other six words in the title.)
At a meeting with a literary manager last year I was advised to put my work on myself if I really wanted to take my writing further. I decided to take this advice and I adopted the simple philosophy that I wouldn't regret doing a show at the 2009 fringe, I would only regret not doing one. I am so pleased I made this decision as I have loved this process so far and if I am knocked down by a bus tomorrow it will already have been a success.
The idea was to use all of this unfinished, un-produced work written about hospitals and create something new with it that could be performed by one actor in a small space and time slot at the fringe.
I was thrilled to get a slot at the Vault for three weeks and this increased my commitment to the project. Only at this point (in January 2009) was major script work started. As I work for 40 hours a week I had to use all my free time to write and I frequently got up at 5am to write for an hour or so before work. By the end of March I had a draft. Which Ros read and gave some great feedback from for a second draft. Ros, Rob Evans, Mark and I had a reading of the second draft and although I was quite pleased with the sound of it, this gave me huge amounts of direction for the third draft.
So now we had a script we just needed, money, an actor, a flyer, a press pack, a schedule, a set, etc, etc, etc.
We held auditions for an actor, met Laurie at one of them and we were delighted to offer him the part and for him to accept it. We've started working with Laurie on some ideas for the final production and on the final final final draft of the script.
We held a fundraising village Fete in May in Mark's and my Garden and we raised a big chunk of the budget for the show selling cakes that people donated, raffle tickets and my homemade screen printed bags with the company logo on them.
John Cooper has designed us the most amazing flyer and Eileen (our lovely upstairs neighbour) designed and built our funky website.
So that's what we've been up to... Even before rehearsals have started. And let me tell you there is so much to do between now and the 27th of July when our intensive rehearsals start and the real "fun" begins. I'll keep you UP to date on all of that when it happens and I will be posting very very soon about the next fundraising event on 26 June in The Village which will include three bands/acts, a tombola and lots more.
Please feel free to comment and make this space a bit more untidy.
Until next time.
James
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Sunday, 24 May 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)