Meet the Cast - Part One

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...

Robert Crighton:

STORYTELLER

The writing is done - the script has gone to the printers and out to be learnt.  Now, it's time to get ready for the show.  Less than four weeks to go - tickets are available - do book now (details below...)
But who are the cast? I hear you say.  Well, I'll release the full company list of twenty-four at the end of the week, as well as these individual cast biogs every few days.

So who do we have first?  Meet the Cast... Part One.

Sophie Carmichael

Born and bred in London, Sophie studied at Exeter University before
deciding that she wanted to explore the world; once she’d done this,
an acting career was just what she was after.
Theatre credits include: The Princess Bride and The Just So Stories
(touring with Theatre Alchemists), Macbeth (MOPA Theatre Company
tour), Brits in Bits (Look Left Look Right/BAC), Last Post (Theatre
Royal, Bath), Ovid Reworked (Brixton Village Market) and Bullpen
(Theatre Delicatessen). Television credits include Search for the
Brontës and Football Focus (both BBC). Sophie is currently developing
a new piece of theatre based on a well-know children’s story, which
will hopefully be on a stage near you by the end of the year….watch
this space!
Her last story telling experience was an autobiographical one, with
Spark at the Blue Elephant Theatre, and, funnily enough, was also all
about negotiating with a penguin.





Pamela Flanagan

Originally from Dublin, Pamela graduated from The University of Glasgow before training on the Post-graduate course at the Academy Drama School.

Pamela has previously played Octavia in Antony and Cleopatra (The Rose, Bankside), Jill in Come On, Jeeves (Devonshire Park Theatre), Nancy in Dance Hall Days (Riverside Studios), Pegeen Mike in The Playboy of the Western World (Catford Broadway), Vi Gibbons in This Happy Breed (Pleasance) and Rose in I Capture The Castle (James Arnott Theatre).

Her film work includes Blood + Roses, Incubator and Eye Level. She has also recently been made into a hologram for a museum installation recreating the birth of the Irish coffee in Foynes.

 

Catherine Eccles

Originally from Newcastle, Catherine worked and trained with Newcastle’s ‘Northern Stage Ensemble’ and London’s, ‘Rough Cut Theatre’ before graduating from Middlesex University and continuing her training at The Actors Temple. 

Theatre credits include, The Ballroom of Romance (Newcastle Playhouse), A Servant of Two Masters (New End Theatre), Burlesque-esque (New Players Theatre), Crave (Trinity Buoy Wharf), The Sword in the Stone (Cambridge Arts Theatre and East Anglia Tour) and is about to embark on a tour of Germany with The Mystery of Edgar Allen Poe.  Last year she played the role of Witch Guinevere Westmorland in Children's TV series Spooked and this year will see the release of her two feature films, the psychological thriller, Greenwich Village Massacre and the vampire film, AB: Abnocto Bibere.  Catherine also performs regularly with The Kitten Club (Madame JoJos, Royal Vauxhall Tavern, Volupte), appearing as her self-devised cabaret character Vixen DeVille.

And they're all appearing in the fabulous new show Storyteller: The Natural History of Trolls.

The New Wimbledon Studio Monday 11^th, Tuesday 12^th and Wednesday 13^th July at 7.45pm

Tickets: £10

Box Office: 0844 871 7646

Groups Line: 0844 871 7696

Access Booking Line: 0844 871 7677

www.ambassadortickets.com/wimbledon

New Wimbledon Studio, the Broadway, London, SW19 1QG

Fragments from a busy week

All right - I know.  I've been neglecting the blog.  I've been busy - sorry.  Right, where was I?  Starting writing this next bit about a week ago...

- It's the little things that get you.  Little bits of sentences that just don't hang right.  The Natural History of Trolls is finished.  It is.  It could be performed tomorrow.  But it isn't perfect.  Not yet.  Just got to untangle a few knots.  And it's exhausting.
I have been slogging away at these knots all week - and got the first two thirds right where I wanted them.  But then... I just didn't like the last third.  It wasn't the words (they were nice enough) it was the physicality.  Nothing happened.  Not physically.  And it just wasn't right.  So I joked on twitter about putting in a car chase.  I didn't quite go that far, instead I changed the focus from the central character to another.  And he's having a very stressful day - so getting inside his head helps drive the story along more.  It also means there's more movement and it is less sad.  Just that little bit more upbeat.
I did drop one of my endings.  It's strange.  I seem to collect endings.  It's like Lord of the Rings sometimes - everyone you've ever met turns up to say goodbye.  This story had three.  The ending, the second ending and an epilogue - which is another kind of ending.  So one of them had to go and it was the second ending.  Didn't hurt a bit.

I wrote that over a week ago.  Next we jump to mid-week. 

- We've just finished a lengthy process of auditioning, which has just officially closed and the results are rushing out over the next couple of days.  And I still haven't quite sorted out the last third yet.  Nearly there - know exactly what needs to be changed - hundreds of notes.  Just haven't done it yet.  But I've been rehearsing the first section nicely, so I'm not behind.  Much.

And now to the present...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that the more phones people have the harder it is to contact them.  Auditioning is easy - getting the confirmations out and in again for a cast of twenty three over three days is hard work.  I'll be announcing the cast when all confirmations are in.  It has been lovely meeting new people - and I have to say the online audition process has been fairly successful.  You'd be surprised how much a close up on a dodgy webcam can show up - it's fascinating.  Not all applicants were successful via the web, but I'm pleased to have sent offers to virtual people.  Otherwise it would have been a gimic and that would have been terrible.
The only disappointment with the web based auditions was the absense of chat.  You should have said hello, talked about what you did, offered a bribe... Next time I'll ask for that - I think that'll be nice.
I'm about to send another batch of emails before running the new and improved final third for final edits.  Then this evening I'll start to format the book version. 
Lastly, I will just mention that tickets for the show are now online.  We do expect to sell well, so book now to avoid disappointment.

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...

Robert Crighton:

STORYTELLER

Written and Performed by Robert Crighton

With Special Guests: Georgina Blackledge, Catherine Eccles, Pamela Flanagan and Jessica Moore and Many, Many, Many More...

“Whatever you do, don’t think about orange Penguins!”

Multi-Awarding Winning Storyteller Robert Crighton is returning to his roots with a new collection of stories for 2011.  Featuring his trademark wit and dark humour, Storyteller will draw you into unusual worlds and introduce you to people you’d not normally meet.

This first show is the world premiere of the ‘The Natural History of Trolls’, three stories covering a hundred and fifty years of history, two Queens and their subjects in the fairy kingdom.  Midst this epic timeline is the story of an ordinary commute gone wrong, when a troll-like tramp in an Underground carriage turns out to REALLY be a Troll.

Funny, thoughtful and with occasional attempts at wisdom, let Robert Crighton and his team of storytellers lead you through a world like ours – just a little off centre. 

The New Wimbledon Studio Monday 11^th, Tuesday 12^th and Wednesday 13^th July at 7.45pm

Tickets: £10

Box Office: 0844 871 7646

Groups Line: 0844 871 7696

Access Booking Line: 0844 871 7677

www.ambassadortickets.com/wimbledon

New Wimbledon Studio, the Broadway, London, SW19 1QG

The June Newsletter - for those not on the list...

I don't normally post the newsletter on here, but thought it would be a useful catch up for anyone confused about Milk Bottle and what we do...

The Milk Bottle Newsletter: June 2011
We’re into the home straight now – the last London showing of Teaching Gods is past (Suffolk people get one last shot in June), the first CD has been launched and we’re gearing up for the first Storyteller show of the year in July.  As always it’s at these times we need your support all the more.

Your help is vital.  Please, spread the love.  If you’re on facebook please join our group Milk Bottle Productions or follow Robert Crighton: Storyteller. If you already do, then share these with your friends.  Or if you’re a twitter person @RobertCrighton.  Help spread the word about the work we do.  It really does help.

CD is here!

The first CD audio book of the stories Bink! and Teaching Gods is on sale now.  You can get it at our next shows, via our website or direct from us.  To order (or reserve) your copy send us an email at contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk with the number you want and your address and we’ll send you a paypal payment link.  It’s only £10 if collected at our next show, or £11.50 if posted. 

The Ultimate Selection in SUFFOLK

We had a lovely time at Barons Court saying goodbye to the London version of the show – now for Suffolk to get its last chance.  The Suffolk show will be at the Quay Theatre Bar on Friday 24^th June and, as it’s only a few days after his birthday, Robert will bring cake.

Along with the old favourites from Teaching Gods there'll be a completely new comic tale, "The Adventures of Shermes Hollocks" written especially for the evening.

ABSOLUTELY THE LAST CHANCE TO CATCH THIS AWARD-WINNING MATERIAL!

Friday June 24th at 8pm

Free Entry in The Quay Bar (opening at 7pm)

The Quay Theatre, Quay Lane, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10 2AN

Storyteller 2011: TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

The Natural History of Trolls cometh.  It’s a very sweet, sad and funny story about a group of people who live underground.  Final adjustments going on – see the storyteller blog [http://robertcrightonstoryteller.blogspot.com/2011/05/final-week-of-playing.html] and vlog [http://www.youtube.com/user/TheRobertCrighton]– and rehearsals are underway.  The script goes to the printers in a little over a week and the final castings will be announced soon.  The show has a regular Milk Bottle cast (Robert Crighton, Catherine Eccles, Jessica Moore and Pamela Flanagan) as the core company for the three performances, plus another 20 people cast members who are auditioning as we type.

It’s performing for three nights at the New Wimbledon Studio on the 11^th, 12^th and 13^th July at 7.45pm and tickets are all only £10.  Box office is open – book those tickets now!

New Wimbledon Studio, the Broadway, London, SW19 1QG

Box Office: 0844 871 7646

Groups Line: 0844 871 7696

Access Booking Line: 0844 871 7677

www.ambassadortickets.com/wimbledon

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...

Robert Crighton: STORYTELLER

Written and Performed by Robert Crighton – plus Special Guests

“Whatever you do, don’t think about orange penguins!”

Multi-Awarding Winning Storyteller Robert Crighton is returning to his roots with a new collection of stories for 2011.  Featuring his trademark wit and dark humour, Storyteller will draw you into unusual worlds and introduce you to people you’d not normally meet.

This first collection is called The Natural History of Trolls, three stories covering a hundred and fifty years of history, two Queens and their subjects in the fairy kingdom.  Midst this epic timeline is the story of an ordinary commute gone wrong, when a troll-like tramp in an Underground carriage turns out to REALLY be a Troll.

Funny, thoughtful and with occasional attempts at wisdom, let Robert Crighton and his team of storytellers lead you through a world like ours – just a little off centre. 

Final Week of Playing...

I’ve got a little over a week to play around with the text of The Natural History of Trolls – a little under two weeks of space work.  I’m about to decide how large a space I’m going to work with – probably about 6 foot square.  That is a nice size for one man to bustle in and will fit in most fringe theatre spaces.  It can always be enlarged but that will be the minimum size. 
The physicality of the text has been brought to my attention this last weekend.  For the first time in years I did the full Teaching Gods set – Fantasy Terrorist League, TG and the Alternative Seagull.  FTL is a static piece.  I am rooted to the spot, totally immobile from the waist down.  It focuses the mind and the viewer on the minutiae of performing.  Tiny details, movements, gestures are made huge by the static nature of the blocking.  TG is completely different.  Though a thoroughly controlled piece, blocked to within a gesture of its life, it is expansive, vast, performed for the joy of the audience.  Laughter is encouraged, connection employed – it’s a sit back and watch the fireworks kind of piece. 
And that is the template for The Natural History of Trolls.  I want the piece to be fun, for the fun to be infectious – I want it to be a joy for me to entertain you.  This will contrast well with the prologue and interlude stories (performed by the new members of the company, see below) which are more FTL in nature.  Contained, unmoving from the waist down, focusing in upon the face, the gestures, the shoulders up acting - a much harder task to pull off.
Hence the online audition approach for the show in July.  We were supposed to close the auditions this weekend and we had some lovely auditionees.  (I must say I am slightly disappointed that I didn’t get any spoof / obscene video submissions – but we can’t have it all).  Sadly however we just didn’t get enough auditionees – some of my notices in the actorly press didn’t go to the right places apparently, so a lot of people didn’t know.  So, we’re trying again over the next couple of weeks – want to give it a go?  Details in the Auditions blog - or just send me an email on contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk
In fact, since I wrote the above in draft mode this second round of auditions has been much more successful in bringing in applications.  The first set was steady,  but quiet.  This time I'm drowning in CV's - and that tends to make me uncomfortable.  Let me not really explain why in anecdote form.
Once Upon A Time I was living with random people in a slightly grubby house in Southgate.  The random people decided to go out and rent a couple of videos (that dates things) for the evening.  They went out to buy something light and fun.  They returned with Cannibal Holocaust and Audition.  Not a pair of movies to watch while eating dinner - especially over a cheese board.  And in Audition, the audition panel don't come out of the film well.  I'd like to keep my feet.
But seriously, what I hate about auditioning is the photos.  I hate photos.  They make you judge people.  Even when you request not to get any you still do, and then my brain starts judging people, even when I tell it not to.  Photos never really look like the people who come through the door, they don't tell you anything useful that cannot be gleaned from the CV and they don't walk, talk or take direction.  Photos often lie.  Hate them. 
Especially as, with storytelling, it doesn't matter what you look like, you just need to be a brilliant performer.  So that's what I'm looking for - really brilliant people.  Everything else is propaganda.

Brain goo

I'm a great believer in multi-tasking - not in the external world - in the mind.  I've got four or five projects on the boil at the moment, bubbling away in my brain.  I will have to set aside time for each - specific time to make them happen - but they all live happily enough up there.  I trust that my brain (my brain and my gut - which is part of the brain) will sort out how these projects will look.  I have two more Storyteller shows scheduled for October and November this year - but I'm not doing much on them bar nudging myself occasionally to think about them.  They're shaping up well.  Haven't written a word yet, but they're coming on well.  As is the fourth draft of Trolls, the edit of the second Mystery play and the production design for a show in the summer.  I know that when I come to schedule my sitting down to work these projects out in the real world the hard work is already done.  I just need to copy the brain goo up.  It will change in the process, naturally.  It's a bit messy up their, not wholey focused, but ready enough to start.
That's why I know that in a months time I'm going to write a play.  Not a story / monologue / one person thing, an honest to god play with people talking to each other.  I started it a while ago, left it, and now my brain is saying "WRITE ME SOON!  Not now - but soon - about a month - and heaven help you if you don't - for it you don't the play WILL DIE!"  Plays do that.  They die.  I've one or two assorted foetus's lying in drawers at home.  There's nothing to be done up with them, bar chopping out any vital organs (good lines / jokes etc) that can be reused elsewhere.  And that is enough of that simile - getting a bit morbid.
This is as close as I get to talking about the artistic muse.  If forced I can sit down and write a play anytime - but it is deeply inefficient and unsatisfactory.  There is a good chance you will come out with rubbish.  However, give me notice, give me time to figure out what the play will be like and when I sit down to write it it will be much easier, better and successful.
Except when it isn't.  Sometimes plays just die anyway, sodding things.  It all starts so well, you get so far and... oh... where did you go?  Another one gone.  NEXT!
Must dash now to run Teaching Gods again ready for the one off on Sunday.  Why do I spend so much time and energy for one night stands?  Insert punchline here.
Robx

The Rehearsal Phase

I've been a little distracted from Trolls these last few weeks - partly because I'm directing / rehearsing a few too many other projects and partly because I was deliberately stepping back a bit (see last blog).
But now the rewrites and changes are all chiming fairly well.  Whereas before I was dragging myself through rehearsals/writes with some depression, feeling that though the story functioned it didn't work, now it is full of potential.  What has changed to unleash the potential?  Well, to be frank... orange penguins.  By picking up an aside and running with it the story now has room to grow in the rehearsal room.  I have a text I can perform, rather than a text I can say.  I can now try and decide the best way to physicalise a giant orange penguin named Bernard - and the reactions of the people around him.  Though the story is serious, in many ways, there is now an element of fun - of play.  I have cast off the gloom.

Before I write about how I'm working on this story at the moment I will make everyone a promise.  This year, 2011, will be the final year of using amusing animals for comic effect.  I've done it in Teaching Gods, The Alternative Seagull, Trolls and soon in a story I'm planning for Christmas.  It is fun but I have to confess - I am now running out of comic animals.  So I'm going all out for this story and for Christmas, but 2012 onwards I will only do it if circumstances force me to - or if it's really really funny.

Back to Trolls.  Now is the time to add layers to the story.  The story is cast, the plot is clear, the characters set in stone.  Now is the time to make them more - more interesting, more vibrant, more orange.  This I am doing in two ways. 
1.  Firstly (always) in the words.  The text isn't packed with much colour, much detail, much life.  Now I remove cliche, look for different ways to express things, make up words, arrange juxtapositions and remove all workmanlike dullness and clunky phrasing.  This I will mostly do standing up whilst saying said words - then going... "ah... oh... urm... no..." then leaning against a wall/table/someones back to write a scribbled phrase as an alternative. 
2.  As I stand about doing the above I am physicalising the text - hunting for what doesn't need to be said.  The shape of the penguin, the drunken swagger of the central character, the horror of the lost child.  It will be now that I will look at props, set and sound - though these tend to fall away across the rehearsals and only one or two elements will get used.
So, now I have some time to myself again, that is what I'm doing.

The other day I was singing.  Singing for joy round the house, singing loud and hard and happy for the Teaching Gods CDs had arrived and had WORKED.  It's the first time we've done CDs for Milk Bottle and we were very behind schedule so I took a gamble and ordered a batch rather than one test copy.  If it hadn't worked I would have been very stuffed. 
It'll be on sale at our Teaching Gods one offs this month and the next - but for those around the world you can get them online at lulu.com from May 23rd. [You could then - you can't now - now you can listen on spotify or download from amazon or itunes! Rob 2014]
The next one will be out later in the year - July touch wood. [That so didn't happen. Rob 2014]

Enough for now - I'm choosing music for the Teaching Gods show in London at the moment and having trouble deciding between two tracks. 

Think for me Bagpuss - think!
Robx

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