Hue and Colour...

What colour is a play?  It's alright, I'm not going to go off on one about colour in a weird arty way.  But the mood of a play, the nature of a play does have an effect... at least on the colour of the cover of the book of the script.
Let me back track a little.
I've just cut a character from The Natural History of Trolls.  The demise of Al has been coming some time - I just haven't got around to doing it.  Partly because I wasn't quite sure how.  I've not made many changes to the text for a month now, letting the show settle down a bit before shaking it up in the air again.  We're holding auditions, the first show is in July and so there is little time left for the shaking of bits into the air. 
But I knew I needed to cut this character and I just didn't know how.  The way to the cut came about randomly - there was a mention of something on the radio and BAM!  A complete reshuffle of motivations occured in my head.  The events of the story remain the same, the reasons for them all do a little dance and a character becomes unimportant enough to go.  Depressingly the thing that made it all click in place was in reference to the royal wedding - so I have to thank Will and Kate for that one. 
But why do I mention colour I hear you cry?  Well, prior to the rewrite the show was not a little gloomy.  A little too gloomy.  There wasn't enough joy.  So when I came to design the book cover it looked like this.

This is how the show looked to me at the time - cold and clogged with gloom.

It is, I'm sure you'll agree, the product of a diseased mind. 

The cover could have still been used even after the rewrite (it does still depict an element of the story - albeit abstractly) if it wasn't that it doesn't feel like the show as it now stands.  The show is much more positive - it has a different feel and, most importantly, a different colour. 

Orange.

Orange: the colour of this very pleasant Easter we've had in Britain, the colour of my days of working outside in the sun, the colour of... well, I'm sure the new book cover (below - rough) will tell you that. 

The show is now much happier - though happiness must battle through patches of cloud cover and occasional showers.


But there is so much more to write about, beyond book covers.

The posters and flyers for the first Storyteller show of the year arrived - I know it's silly to get excited about such things, but it always gives one a happy feeling.  And the online auditions have produced some very interesting results.  Lots of people applying, lots of good auditions whizzing into my inbox.  There's still a few weeks to go so do apply.  Full details in the last blog. 

We're also a few weeks away from the launch of our first audio book - featuring the stories Bink! and Teaching Gods.  I spent the day uploading them and sending out the order (whilst painting the odd orange Penguin) and now cross my fingers they will arrive before the launch show - Teaching Gods: The Ultimate Selection on Sunday 22nd May at the Barons Court Theatre at 7pm. 
I'd be a bit miffed if it got to show night and they hadn't arrived.

I'll try and post again this week, as I haven't been as regular with the postings as I'd like.  More soon.
Robx