shadowing

I’ve spent the last few days shadowing Sue Emmas, the Associate Artistic Director at the Young Vic. Now massively inspired and energised about running my own company better and one day, maybe, hopefully running a building. My biggest lesson – maintaining a culture of ‘Yes’. Sort of how I live my life already, but great to know that it’s a key part of how the Young Vic is run, and a huge part of why it’s such a brilliant, prolific, interesting hub of theatrical amazingness.  It’s time to step up.

So auditioning for a circus show, set in a playground, with skateboarding and apple juggling turns out to be (entirely unsurprisingly) massive massive fun.

This has been a pretty great week. And tonight I’m off the Devoted & Disgruntled Mentoring Fete at the Battersea Arts Centre. Looking forward to being even more inspired and energised…

monkeys and crocodiles

Just about to audition some actors and circus performers for some R+D that we’re doing for Monkey & Crocodile next year. Very exciting. And the weather looks clear enough that we can test their skateboarding skills outside.

Last week I managed to whack out a very rough draft of script for that, and also another draft of a little play I was writing pre Arabian Nights – only 20 minutes but would be good to get that on somewhere.

And the weekend was taken up with Metta meetings of various kinds – board meeting on the Sunday was lovely and ended, as they all do, in lunch, although we didn’t quite manage to make our own bread this time round. Fail.

And tonight I’m off to see the Michael Sheen Hamlet at the Young Vic. I’ve heard it’s good but long.

arabian nights

The rest of rehearsals went by in a trampoline filled blur, with a brief trip back to London to have a meeting at the Lyric and the Gate. Then we opened last week to packed houses and great feedback. It’s such a beautiful show – I’ll definitely have to work with the designer (Sarah Vigars) again. She’s one to watch. Now I have to write my own adaptation, or maybe adaptations… a massive version that I could do at the Lyric and a three-hander political version I could do at the Gate.

Now back in London for a little sleep…or more accurately lunch with an aerial choreographer, tea with a fellow director and dinner with a playwright and the Belarus Free Theatre. But maybe a little sleep tomorrow…

Then I should get on with writing The Monkey and the Crocodile (and coming up with a better title than that) – our site-specific family circus show – seeing as we got a little bit of Arts Council money to develop it in the new year.