Hang - about time too!

And, at last, Hang is available to listen for free online.  It was recorded ages ago, released as a download, and now I'm biting the bullet and just putting it out for free.  It's a shame to hide it behind a paywall and you could always become a patron if you feel you want to contribute.

Hang - A Comedy by Robert Crighton

The world is turning inside out - people are starting to turn into animals and no one knows what's normal anymore.  Even the man who wants to be a zebra can't quite fit into this brave new world.

Live Streamed on Monday 31st March 2014 at the Quay Theatre

Starring Robert Crighton,  Pamela Flanagan & Gillian Horgan

Sound Recording: Peter Morris

Post Production: Robert Crighton

Original Live Stream: Tim Regester

Online Comments from the Live Stream: “... it really stands out as something effecting the times we live in...  This is really well acted. I like the style and the humour is right up my street - and I live on really funny street...”

My work couldn't happen without the support of my patrons - if you think you could contribute to the work I create, go to www.patreon.com/robertcrighton and see if you can help.

Or if you prefer it as a video on YouTube - here you go!



And the original trailer for the show - which is very silly, but fun.

Metal Harvest Programme

Last week was quite a week - I picked a terrible week to take on additional work, as I only had the world premiere of Metal Harvest going on.  Eek!  With so much going on I failed to create a programme - not even an info sheet.  So... here we go - have an online version - with photos from the tech at the bottom!

FIRST HALF:

Metal Harvest

By Robert Crighton and Richard Fawcett

Principle dialogue by Robert Crighton
Music and German translation by Richard Fawcett

Metal Harvest was originally commissioned as part of Project 10/52 - ten shows in fifty-two weeks - in 2014.  It only took two years to finally get it to the stage.

With Thanks to:
Sonia & Jonathan Lindsey-Scripps for lending the shell casing; Gary Plumb for creating the shrapnel; Alan Scott and Sue Clark for archive material (even though we didn't use it in the end!)
John Bethell for rehearsal photography.
And Everyone at the Quay - Joe, Simon and Sharon.
I've probably missed someone out - sorry!

SECOND HALF:

The Fantasy Terrorist Variations

In 2005 I wrote a monologue about reactions to the war on terror - Fantasy Terrorist League - which sank like a stone at the Edinburgh Fringe.  In 2006 it won the award for Best New Writing at the LOST One-Act Festival and since then expanded into a number of related variations on a theme.  Whilst I had planned to do a second half based on stories uncovered during the research for Metal Harvest on other themes of WW1, these didn't quite get to the level I wanted; so instead I decided to move forward the new variations for FTV I've been writing.  Variation 6, still a work in progress, fitted the previously staged Variation 3 so well I had to show them together.  Further variations will premiere online shortly.

Variation Six: (Untitled) A Work in Progress

Written and Performed by Robert Crighton

Variation Three: The Project After by Robert Crighton

Robert Crighton as Mark

Simon Nader as Art

The Project After has also been recorded by Frequency Theatre - you can listen to the recording here!

Technical Photos:

These photographs were taken for Metal Harvest, during a very speedy tech, by the marvellous John Bethell.  The stage isn't fully set, my hair isn't slicked back and we're not properly in costume.  But we got something recorded, which is nice.  The photos haven't been fully adjusted yet - there's some cropping and colour adjustments I would normally do, but I wanted to get this post out today and so... hey.

Richard Fawcett, getting the fiddle warmed up...

In the lighting box, going over the cues.

The desk, which I didn't appreciate was so wonky...

Is the back light on... oh yes, there it is.

Still on... good.

Sitting down. In performance I am sans glasses, waistcoat and the hair...

The one real(ish) statistic used in the show.

No idea where the cat impression comes in. That's another show.

On my Fisher Price telephone.

"WHERE'S MY COFFEE!"

And now the German section - which Richard and I did in unison. A surprise hit during the show. 

"Richard, what's my next line?"

Metal Harvest

My next project is a show called Metal Harvest.  I've been working on it for over eighteen months on and off and it's starting to get there.  It was supposed to have premiered exactly a year ago, (as part of my artist residency at the Quay) on the anniversary of the entry of Britain into the First World War - but a series of complications got in the way of that.  However, the delay has not been without its advantages, it's a more developed piece than it would have been and, I suspect, a better one.
It's the story of a shell - one shell - and the effect it has on the lives it touches.  It's also about cliché and the dangers of stereotypes and the tropes that amass around something as big as the Great War.  It's very easy for a show to fall into familiar patterns, to reaffirm easy assumptions about what four years of history is.  So far I've created the first half, which is all storytelling, music and images.  The second half is going to be something quite different, but will be a secret for the time being.  To myself chiefly.
I'm working once again with Richard Fawcett who's creating and performing the music, as he has for a couple of my shows in the past.  He's being terribly patient with me, as I've delayed any kind of a detailed script for many, many months as other projects have got very much in the way.
I'm hoping that the performance at the Quay Theatre will be filmed, so that I can post it online - so even those who can't make the show (isn't solid state geography a bugger) will be able to catch something of it. Those who can catch it - booking is now open, details below.

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...

Metal Harvest

Written and performed by Robert Crighton and Richard Fawcett

“This is the story of a shell...” Throughout the First World War the armaments created passed through many hands – from those in the mines and factories who made them, to those who transported the boxes and those who fired the guns.  This is the story of one shell, the story of those who touched it and whose lives were changed by it.  Told in words, music, image and song, Metal Harvest is the latest work from award-winning theatre producer Robert Crighton, made in collaboration with musician Richard Fawcett. 

Performing on Thursday 29^th October at 7.30pm

Tickets: £9 (Friends £8)

The Quay Theatre, Sudbury

Box Office: 01787 374 745
Book Online: www.quaytheatre.org.uk

Milk Bottle Autumn Newsletter 2014

It's a busy couple of months for Milk Bottle - with several projects happening at once.  Robert is down to his last three projects of Project 10/52, with two being ticked off by October - the new audio comedy series, The Museum of Tat and a new play Historic Crimes which will be live streamed online as part of the first performance.  There's also a revival of a favourite project from earlier in the year The Juliet Inquiry which was hugely successful.  Book now, listen now, get involved.

Milk Bottle Audio Presents...
The Museum of Tat
Devised by Robert Crighton with Michael Fouldes
The Museum of Tat is the repository of all things tat. New tat, old tat, the useless, the cheap and the ugly. The first episode of this six part audio comedy is available to listen now. Just click here!You can even get involved as photo submissions to the museum are welcome. Post them on our twitter feed @MuseumofTat or facebook page The Museum of Tat. Guidelines for submission can be found here.

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...
THE JULIET INQUIRY
By Robert Crighton
Based on the story of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare 
Specially commissioned to celebrate Shakespeare's 450th Birthday

A complete re-imagining of the play where the story of Romeo and Juliet is told as a modern day public inquiry.  In this version the Montagues and the Capulets were once close families - until their children fell in love. This is the story of how love can tear apart, as well as heal, and how that love can seem when put under the public gaze.

Performing on Friday 3rd October at 7.30pm at the Lavenham Village Hall 

Performing on Saturday 4th October at 7.30pm at the Offton Village Hall

Milk Bottle Audio Presents...

Historic Crimes

World Premiere By Robert Crighton – the Quay’s Artist in Residence

What would you want to see if you could look back in time and watch famous events in history?  And what would you do if they greatly disappointed you?  Or you discovered a hidden crime?  Would you tell the world if you discovered that Shakespeare no less was guilty of the worst of crimes?  Could you ever read his plays again?  Or allow them to be staged?  World premiere of a modern morality tale about Bardolatry, sex and lies – staged as a live radio broadcast and streaming live online at www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-crighton-storyteller

Performing on Monday 13^th October at 7.30pm at the Quay Theatre, Sudbury

Tickets Pay-What-You-Want - can be reserved via the Quay Theatre Box Office

Telephone: 01787 374745 or online at www.quaytheatre.org.uk

Opening the Doors

Later today I'm going to be doing a bit of recording. The first installment of a new audio series to accompany one of my projects for the year - The Museum of Tat.  We're going to be improvising the text and, though I have some idea where I want to go, it could move in almost any direction.  Most of the material for this project will go on the sister blog - Museum of Tat - but I will talk about how the production side of things happen here.
What is the The Museum of Tat going to be about?  Well, it's about our culture, it's about how we cherish somethings and hate other - by using the word tat, we make a value judgement.  But is what we call tat something really worthless?  Some people love their tat.  They can't get enough of it.
And then there's the question - how do we define tat?  As opposed to, say, kitsch.  Where do the boundaries lie?
And then there's the other question - what is the price of tat?  Because, to give us our tat, resources are spent, workers exploited, people - literally - die to give us it.
And then there's the straightforward fun in wandering round charity shops looking for tat and just wondering - what the hell were they thinking?
So, lots of angles.  We'll see where we go.
More soon...

The Kraken Turns Off the Snooze Alarm

And I'm back in the room.  It's been a while and I can tell you've missed me.  Well, from Wednesday I will be six and a half projects down out of the ten of the year.  That will see the last episode of Lost Tribe of the Trolls release and the writing of recording of the final story of The Trolls Trilogy for release over the next few months.  That leaves three projects.  But what are they going to be?

Well, here the Seldom Plan hits again (see past posts ad nausem) - there be changes afoot.  I'm still going to be presenting the oft mentioned Historic Crimes in October - this will be a live streamed radio drama, tickets for the recording will be available from the Quay Theatre box office.

Otherwise, the last two projects are going to be more internet based and have no specific timetable.  I have already started one.  It is called The Museum of Tat - and it has a blog all of its very own.
http://themuseumoftat.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/welcome-to-museum-of-tat.html
This will be an evolving project, but in the short term it will mostly be made of photography and video pieces - which will be published online.

Then there is another work in progress I'm calling Just Say Yes (no affiliation to a rather dull Snow Patrol song, youth empowerment companies or fascist organisations etc)- which will be created at the Quay Theatre (probably) on the fifteenth of September.  Or not.  It will be a one-to-one piece, but later a video work.  Or not.  More later.

Otherwise, two of my other projects are still alive and well.  The Shakespeare Delusion is performing again in London in October, as will the very popular The Juliet Inquiry, which I might be able to stream live (details to follow.)  So, this is very much the year of my Shakespeare Trilogy - which Historic Crimes will complete - all three pieces performing in close succession.

Lateness of the Trolls

Or perhaps I should call this post, lateness of everything.  I haven't posted anything of substance for a while because I hit a crunch period.  You can tell this because my posts petered out and they started sounding a bit... depressed.  I was tired, I was worn out, I needed a rest - but I was in the middle of performing in three different shows, almost all at once, as well as all the other planning of stuff.  So, I had a bit of a reboot this weekend and am now back in the room, as the hip kids say, in some other universe.
Which brings us to Trolls.  Didn't I say there would be a new episode of Trolls, every week, on a Wednesday, without fail?
Well, two things changed that prompted a change of plan.
1. I had got to the ending quicker than planned (for Lost Tribe anyway) and...
2. Audioboo, whom host the audio stuff I do, extended the length of free boos from 3 minutes to 10.
Despite claims to the contrary on an earlier blog, the three minute length of episode was cramping my style.  It was just that little too short, ruining cliffhangers and generally being unsatisfactory.  I was also finding the strict timeline a bit frustrating at crunch moments, as I had to rush some episodes out.
So, tomorrow (touch wood) the last episode of Lost Tribe of the Trolls will be released and then I'll be releasing episodes of the next story Paper Moon Trolls in a more holistic, bi-weekly ish set of 6-10 minute long episodes.

The Post Shakespeare Post

It is frustrating that the time when I should really be blogging the most is at the time when it sooooo isn't going to happen.  Production week - when people might actually be interested in the work, when interesting things are actually happening - is dead to this blog for the most part.  I'm just too tired.  And it doesn't get any better at the end of the week (i.e. now) because I've forgotten all the interesting stuff.  It just leaked out of my brain, probably at the same time I drank all that alcohol.  Hell, there aren't even any photographs, so I can't even show you them!
So, The Shakespeare Delusion went up this week.  Version 2, that is.  Version 1 went up two years ago and then went into hiatus with my colon.  It's a leaner, meaner, shorter, punchier version - though fundamentally the same in overall shape and structure.  On Monday I performed it at the Quay Theatre as part of my residency and then on Wednesday I took it to the LOST One-Act Festival in good old London.
Both shows went well, comments were positive, money was taken, scripts sold.  I now await my fate as to whether it will win anything at LOST.  Fingers crossed.
Now, hopefully, Delusion will go on the road next year.  I'm seriously thinking of doing so kind of tour, look at doing some festivals, generally get my arse in gear.  But, then I remember the downside.  It's the same problem stand ups have.  Touring a solo show is incredibly lonely.  You finish the gig and go to the bar and then there is no one to talk to.  This isn't quite fair - there will be audience members who will want to have a natter and it can be jolly nice.  But, this isn't guaranteed.  Often, especially with a dramatic piece, rather than straight up comedy, people don't.  And you can't throw yourself at people, because then you sound a bit desperate.  Which, after going to a hotel room (if you're lucky) alone for a few days, you might very well be.  What else to do?  Sit and drink a post show pint by yourself?  Read a book?
It wasn't too bad this week, because at the Quay I knew people.  At LOST I knew the organisers, I've performed there a number of times, but I didn't know anyone in the audience.  But out on tour, gulp, that doesn't bode well for my sanity.
Which is why I prefer my home touring model.  Storytelling for parties, telling stories to real people, not audiences, and then kipping on their sofa before moving on.  It's so much more human.  Just need to get that one together as well then.
**
But that's next year, next year is next year - I've still got this year to get through.  I've now reached the halfway mark.  Delusion was the fifth of ten projects.  Well, technically I've already done one of the later ones, so I'm six down.  Except I'm only halfway through the first project, so five and a half then.  So, now I need to de-clutter and plan the rest of the year.  I've got two looming projects that need writing.  Metal Harvest which is about the First World War, and which is changing daily in my mind, and Historic Crimes which is about Shakespeare as a sex offender.  These need to be shaped, written, planned.  And now that the fog of war has faded on Delusion I can now start on them. 

The Shakespeare Delusion - Press Release

The Shakespeare Delusion – Press Release

 

New comedy drama by the Quay Theatre’s Artist in Residence Competing in London

Live Streaming Across the World

 

As part of Milk Bottle’s Shakespeare Trilogy – three plays on a theme of Shakespeare to celebrate Shakespeare’s 450^th birthday – Robert Crighton presents his mock lecture, The Shakespeare Delusion.  Not only is it premiering at the Quay Theatre on Monday 26^th May, it is also competing for the prestigious LOST One-Act Festival in London, as part of their 30^th anniversary season.  Robert is the only competitor for the festival in its history to have won three awards in three successive years – he only stopped entering when he was no longer eligible to pass the age restrictions.  The age limit has been dropped this year, so Robert is eager to win a fourth award if he can.

The play is about the so called 'Shakespeare authorship question' which is ruthlessly satirised throughout.  "It's the worst of all conspiracy theories because there is literally no evidence at all to suggest Shakespeare didn't write the plays and vast amounts of evidence to say that he did.  Some of the theories are so absurd it's almost impossible to satirise because anything you try to make up has to be crazier than that which has already been suggested."  Robert Crighton

 

Robert is also appealing for help in writing the play – looking for the worst line from all of Shakespeare.

“I need the worst line I can find – either incomprehensible, weird or just awful.  It isn’t an easy thing to find - he was generally speaking, a brilliant writer.  The winner of my favourite quote will see it featured in the play, and will also get a free copy of the published script with a thank you inside!”

Entries can be sent via tweet @RobertCrighton or email contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk

 

The play is being live streamed as well – the last play Robert streamed, Hang, was listened to around the world.

“With the advent of the world wide web, theatre need not be tied down to one location.  Now, even a small arts centre can produce, not only world class drama, but show it to anyone around the world.  We are no longer bound but the traditional ideas of what is rural theatre or cosmopolitan theatre – there is only theatre, drama, comedy – the excitement of the new.  We are just as important as any other broadcaster and can be judged, not on our location, but on our content.  That is an exciting change in the world.”  Robert Crighton

 

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...

The Shakespeare Delusion

Written and Performed by Robert Crighton

Professor Ashborn invites you to share in his latest discoveries and lead you through the terrible secrets behind the man people call Shakespeare.  Did he really write the plays?  Was he really bald?  Did he like cheese?  Using recently uncovered documentation Professor Ashborn can finally tell the true and completely true, truly true, utterly true, true story of the Shakespeare delusion!

 

To listen to the Live Stream on the night go to

www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-crighton-storyteller

Performing Live and Online on Monday 26^th May at 7.30pm at the Quay Theatre, Sudbury

Tickets: Pay-What-You-Want

Box Office: 01787 374 745

www.quaytheatre.org.uk

 

The Milk Bottle Newsletter - Spring 2014

Please, forward this email onto any friends who might be interested in listening these shows - they're either free and streamed online so anyone in the world can listen or Pay-What-You-Want.  Pass on the love, help make these shows something special...  


Only a few weeks to go before the next project of Project 10/52 is complete - the second of our trilogy of plays to celebrate 450 years of Shakespeare - The Shakespeare Delusion.  It's performing at the Quay Theatre in Suffolk, as well as at the LOST One-Act Festival in London - not only that, it's streaming live online - with a bit of luck video as well as audio, but don't hold your breath on that one!  And if that wasn't enough Shakespeare for you, Robert is starting a regular Friday radio show The Milk Bottle Radio Show with a reading of Venus and Adonis, the classic narrative poem by the bard.  That'll be available for a month after the live broadcast - so don't worry if you can't catch it live.

The Milk Bottle Radio Show
Broadcasting Friday 9th May at 3.30pm. 
The Milk Bottle Radio Show features the storytelling talents of Robert Crighton as he performs his own stories and classic works. Starting on Friday 9th May with a live performance of Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare.
To listen on the day - or anytime for one month after go to www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-crighton-storyteller

The Shakespeare Delusion

Written and Performed by Robert Crighton

Professor Ashborn invites you to share in his latest discoveries and lead you through the terrible secrets behind the man people call Shakespeare.  Did he really write the plays?  Was he really bald?  Did he like cheese?  Using recently uncovered documentation Professor Ashborn can finally tell the true and completely true, truly true, utterly true, true story of the Shakespeare delusion!

Performing at the Quay Theatre on Monday 26^th May at 7.30pm
Box Office: 01787 374 745
Or book online by clicking here.
To listen to the Live Stream on the night go to www.ustream.tv/channel/robert-crighton-storyteller
Also performing at the LOST One-Act Festival on Wednesday 28th May at 7.30pm - tickets available here.

In other news - the audio download for Hang isn't quite ready yet, but the script is available to buy now at the Milk Bottle lulu shop.  

Coming up later in the year...

Complicated Pleasures

An All New Comedy by Robert Crighton

Matthew has won the lottery, so he dumps his girlfriend because “he can do better”.  She rebounds on a single parent whose child is blackmailing him for lollipops.  Set in a not too distant future, this is a hilarious sex comedy about messy relationships, the balance of power between the sexes and the consequences of not giving a child a lollipop.

Performing at the Quay Theatre on Monday 21^st July at 7.30pm
Box Office: 01787 374 745

And finally, early news on the final project - or is that the first project of 10/52?  On the 31st December 2014 we're planning a big New Years Eve bash.  It's probably going to be based on The Trolls Trilogy (which can be heard online here) but it isn't going to be a straight performance of the stories.  It's going to be a mad, silly, funny (occasionally moving) evening of entertainment and so has a working title of GETTING TROLLIED.  Though Milk Bottle will encourage guests to drink responsibly.  
Tickets are not on sale yet (like all shows it will be Pay-What-You-What) so if you want to be put on the pre-sale guest list then email us now with a name and numbers.  It's not too early to plan where you'll be this New Years Eve.

Shit Shakespeare

I'm trying to find a shit bit of Shakespeare.  It's really difficult.  I need to find one line - one line that is irredeemably second rate.  Something that leaps off the tongue like an elephant in a swimsuit that plunges into the water of language with a booming untidy SPLASH!
It's for a one line gag in The Shakespeare Delusion which I'm performing in a little under four weeks time.  I just need one line of Shakespeare, which is obviously rubbish (or weird - I'll take weird) to punctuate the joke.  My choice of line for the first version which premiered a couple of years ago was so so - so I've asked the internet for suggestions.
So far I've had:

1. To step out of these dreary dumps
2. A maid and stuffed? Aye, there's goodly catching of cold.
3. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.
4. Betwixt Dravidian shores and linear five nine three oh one six seven point oh two, and strikes the fulsome grove of Rexel Four. Co-radiating crystal, activate!

Spot the obvious odd one out.  Some people just don't appreciate the seriousness of this mission (and this is a mission now) to find the worst lines in Shakespeare.  Google failed me - the best I got were overrated quotes - all of which were quite good.  So, come on people, we can do better!  Find me the worst lines from Shakespeare!  Bring me your clangers!  Bring me your typos!  Bring me the incomprehensible!  Find me shit Shakespeare!

The winner of my favourite shit quote will get a free copy of the published script with a thank you inside!  There, that's an incentive for you.  Either tweet me @RobertCrighton or email contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk

The Shakespeare Delusion is performing at the Quay Theatre on Monday 26th May, at the LOST One-Act Festival on Wednesday 28th May and later in the year at the Face to Face Festival. 

The Juliet Inquiry Programme

Milk Bottle Productions...

Project Four: The Juliet Inquiry

Written by Robert Crighton, with additional material by the company

Performing at the Lavenham Guildhall, Wednesday 23^rd April

Based on the story of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare

Specially commissioned to celebrate Shakespeare's 450th Birthday

CAST (in order of appearance)

CLERK OF THE COURT             –                      David Jenkins

PRESIDING QC                         –                      Robert Crighton

ROSALINE                                –                      Pamela Flanagan

LAURENCE                               –                      Michael Harding

ESCALUS                                 –                      Mark Holtom

BENVOLIO                                –                      Nick Elliott

LADY MONTAGUE                    –                      Annie Eddington

CAPULET                                 –                      Cecil Qadir

Audio Recording by Peter Morris

Website tended by Keith Atkinson

Charge! Or Not.

It's a busy day today - with The Juliet Inquiry tomorrow, but also with writing tomorrows episode of The Trolls Trilogy.  It's getting there, but I've also reached one of those crunch moments where I need to decide the precise structure of the next few episodes as we approach climax.  As it were.
But that hasn't been my biggest concern as in the last few weeks I've found myself caught in a trap of my own making.  I've set part of the story in the middle of the Crimean War.  This was established early in the story.  Sadly, the Crimean peninsula has got a bit hot over the last month and writing a section of the story set there (albeit in the fairly distant past) feels a bit wrong.  However, no one has complained and it's far too late to change now.  So, hopefully there won't be a world war and no one will notice.
Next episode tomorrow - but if you want to catch up then have a listen below.

THE TROLLS TRILOGY
PART ONE: The Natural History of Trolls

PART TWO: Lost Tribe of the Trolls

Rosaline

Following on from the last post, I've been deeply ensconced for the last 24 hours or so with writing the part of Rosaline for The Juliet Inquiry.  It's interesting to see what happens to a character as you start writing the words.  I don't think any writer really knows how they do it.  We all have different ideas about process, about structure and ideas, but we don't know how see sit down and produce a stream of words.  The process of creation has to be a kind of magic.  If you consciously think about it, the words start to fall apart in your mind, it becomes forced.  You may have very fixed ideas about how you intend to write or about how you will re-write (which is not the same thing) but the moment of creation is best left alone.  You don't want to kill it.
So, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted Rosaline to sound like, I had written notes and guidelines.  She was what I thought she would be.  Until I started writing and a different character emerged.  Stronger, perhaps; different, certainly.  And I don't know how it happened.  In the course of half an hours tinkering I had to stop, have a little look at what went before and take stock.  After a little thought, on I went, thinking my through the part to some degree, just letting it flow for the rest.
To be fair, there isn't room for a vast amount of character in the context of the inquiry.  The situation shuts down on certain behaviours, exaggerates others.  Rosaline would not be as open as she might be in another context.  Nerves and how they betray us are the most interesting mine to seam.  But, unlike other witnesses, she seems to be clear in her thinking.  A sympathetic witness even.  Though, that doesn't mean she's telling the truth - or even the half of it.
But that's for the audience to decide.
Right - back to the grindstone.

The Juliet Process

I've written a little about the process of The Juliet Inquiry in an earlier blog post, but here's a little update.  I've been rehearsing/writing with my cast for the last few weeks now and we're reaching endgame.  Three more major rehearsals with witnesses and various smaller meetings.  It is a deceptively simple play to produce.  The witnesses are guided by the senior QC (in this case me) and, because there are no scenes with more than a couple of protagonists, you rehearse quickly.  I've been working, to different degrees, with the cast to mould how each character speaks.  I presented each actor with a basic synopsis, then we read the rough 'script' a few times, looking for new questions.  Then I'd ask those questions and see what the actor would improvise.  We'd then move to a big screen television and link it to my laptop and rewrite as we went along.  Each witness has around ten minutes of evidence to give, so we can run the new script several times.  I then sent them away for a week or so and reworked their testimony based on what the others were saying.  And the process began again.
Then, last week, I realised I really needed a new character.  There were several reasons.  The story was becoming one sided, I needed someone to balance the bias.  Also, the story, being based on Shakespeare, was a bit too male (both dead and alive) and (partly because I have a policy of positive discrimination for women) I needed at least one more female voice.  I also really liked the idea of giving a voice to the unseen character Rosaline from the original play.  Just who is it that Romeo first thought he was in love with?
But this is with a week to go and though I knew exactly what I wanted to do, I did need to find someone to play the part.  Which I finally secured yesterday - so now I'm off to write Rosaline.  It'll be interesting to get to know her.
Only three days before the show goes up.  Is that cutting things a bit fine?

The Seldom Plan Strikes Again

I've written often about the Seldom Plan - how my plans seldom happen in quite the way planned - so some changes have occurred to the projects of Project 10/52 - different order, different system...
Basically, I've had to take on other work in places to help make the finances balance, so I've had to shift a fair amount of what I'm doing to different parts of the year and this means some projects from the original plan are no longer viable.

So, here goes...

Projects 1, 2, 3 & 4 are unchanged - nay, nearly complete.  After that, it's all different.

PROJECT FIVE is now...

The Shakespeare Delusion

Written and Performed by Robert Crighton

Professor Ashborn invites you to share in his latest discoveries and lead you through the terrible secrets behind the man people call Shakespeare.  Did he really write the plays?  Was he really bald?  Did he like cheese?  Using recently uncovered documentation Professor Ashborn can finally tell the true and completely true, truly true, utterly true, true story of the Shakespeare delusion!

This is performing at the Quay Theatre on Monday 26^th May at 7.30pm
Box Office: 01787 374 745

PROJECT SIX is no longer HISTORIC CRIMES though this hasn't been dropped and is now project nine and will be performing sometime in September rather than June.  This was supposed to complete a three month trilogy of Shakespeare plays to celebrate his 450th birthday, but there's another Shakespeare thing down the Quay in June (which I also happen to be in) so that's why it's now later in the year.

So PROJECT SIX is now... are you keeping up?

Complicated Pleasures

An All New Comedy by Robert Crighton

Matthew has won the lottery, so he dumps his girlfriend because “he can do better”.  She rebounds on a single parent whose child is blackmailing him for lollipops.  Set in a not too distant future, this is a hilarious sex comedy about messy relationships, the balance of power between the sexes and the consequences of not giving a child a lollipop.

Performing at the Quay Theatre on Monday 21^st July at 7.30pm
Box Office: 01787 374 745

PROJECT SEVEN is still...

ATTACK OF THE CHRISTMAS SQUIRRELS - because I couldn't be arsed to renumber it - it has essentially already happened and can happen again whenever you like.

Which means that the old PROJECT EIGHT is... (thankfully) still PROJECT EIGHT and is still METAL HARVEST and is still planned for August.

PROJECT NINE, as has been mentioned above, is the old project six, HISTORIC CRIMES.  Unless I swap it with project ten.  Not sure yet.

And then there's PROJECT TEN... well this is a bit more complicated.  Because I have a new piece I want to do which is currently titled SWITCH.  But I also have three other bumped plays fighting for inclusion in one of the slots this year.  They maybe held over till next year, but it will not be the last you hear of Beware of the Blob, The Single Source of All Filth or Shiny Medusa... 

And then there's the completion of PROJECT ONE (the year long project) - The Trolls Trilogy.  This will be an end of the year show, working title of GETTING TROLLIED, and rather than a straight performance of the Trolls Trilogy, I'm going to be creating a whole new show based on the material, with the emphasis on fun and laughter, as a New Years Eve show.  If you want to be put on the waiting list for tickets for the maddest of New Years parties then email me contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk