Website Ideas

I'm in the process of sending all the old, back dated website stuff sent to my designer and I thought it was time to start getting serious with it.  Because I've been looking around, and there are some very important things my website lacks.

Mission Statement:
To make stuff that's good.  I'm aiming for really good and trying to avoid shit.
(P.S. Do I get my funding now?)

Corporate:
Oh, just fuck off.

Think that covers it.
Feel free to send additional suggestions.

February in Performance

From Orson Welles rehearsals...

It's been quite a random month - juggling lots of random shows, in a way that I probably won't do again for a while.
At the top of the month I had the return of my Summoning of Everyman show for students of the University of Essex.  It's become a regular little gig, returning to this text is always interesting.  I found, for example, that I'd been saying one line completely incorrectly for about three years.  Oh well, corrected now.  I got to do the show in the theatre on campus, which was both brilliant and a bit weird - the show is designed for non theatre spaces, I bring lights and improvise with what I've got.  I got a chap throwing up light and normal theatre seats - it was lovely, but very different.  As per usual I got the audience/performers to write their good and bad deeds down - some below.

Upgrading the recording studio...

That night I was into the get in for Orson Welles: The Night We Scared America which is a show I directed for Out of Kontrol Productions.  It was a long night/following day, as there was a lot to get done in a very short period of time, but the cast were really sharp and we pulled off a small triumph, much to my delight.  The house was near as damn it sold out and the bar hummed afterwards, always a good sign that a show has gone well!  With a good tail wind the show will be touring and appearing somewhere later in the year and the next...
Then I launched my Patreon page and harangued the universe and his dog to sign up and pledge me something - this is still going on, feel free to pledge if you want here - www.patreon.com/robertcrighton

Rehearsing stuff... honest.

The point of the Patreon page is to help pay for my audio work, which I've been editing like crazy - including this new thing, Wartime Memories, based on newly discovered archive footage of recollections of a veteran of the First World War.  Episode Two will follow next week, and hopefully some other random stuff.
And finally, the first public performance of the year, and the first of my Undead Bard season of shows, at the Seagull Theatre in Lowestoft.  They were such great people, backstage, FOH and the audience, and I'm looking forward to performing my new stuff there in May!
Right, that's it, that's my little round up - I'm off to talk website...

Music and Shakespeare

Jack and the demo tracks

After the no stop posting about my patreon page and the audio universe - it's still there, still open for pledges etc - today was all about the Bard.  And delivering a boot to his crotch.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like a bit of Shakespeare - but with the 400th Anniversary of his death, people are being far too nice.  If his body hadn't completely rotted down by now, his arse would be chapped from all the officially sanctioned licking.
So, my Undead Bard shows (formally Shakespeare Undead) aim to be a little less reverent.  I've posted before about The Shakespeare Delusion and Historic Crimes - but now I'm working on a new piece, Shakespeare: The Ever Living!  I've got some great help making it happen as well.

Today I met up with Jack - Ginger Boy - Lawson, who's in charge of the music.  Yup, after Metal Harvest last year, another show with a score.  In fact, we're playing the two shows together for a couple of nights because, whilst about very different things, they are performed in a very similar style.

Shakespeare: The Ever Living! is a cabaret/stand up/1980's rock/Shakespeare mash up.  It's about a Bard who never dies and how he eats our culture, making even the most unlikely things his.  And it's going to be epic.  Jack has been working on the first demo tracks and they're going to make the show.

Jack and Nief

But not to stop there, we're already looking ahead to another show/s in the more distant future - with Nief Carroll supplying music and vocals for what I will call my Unspecified Future Project Thing.  Early days yet, but Nief is already preparing plans for the giant papier mache nose.
I haven't collaborated enough on my solo projects in the past, which I regret.  One of the most enjoyable shows I did with a team was The Natural History of Trolls back in 2011 - a format of working which I might go back to at some point.  Certainly, I'm hoping that they'll be more of these collaborations in the future.
These are the only live shows I'm planning on creating this year and (beyond a bit of acting for other people's shows) everything else will be online and patreonish.  So, if you want to see me live, book ahead - see here for dates for the diary!
Continuing thanks to everyone at the Quay Theatre for their support in making these shows happen...

I know what I'm doing... honestly!

A New Sound

New upgrades to the recording studio...

The launch weekend - a wholly artificial time sequence, as the point of Patreon is that it never ends - draws to a close.  Here's why your support is so important.
Up till now I've created sound on the hoof.  I've covered old climbing frames in duvets and climbed inside (which works, but it's BOILING!) and used sub standard equipment.  Over the years I've slowly upgraded.  I've already added acoustic tiles to my sound set up so that I can record and not boil at the same time.  I can still do better, but I don't need to at this time.  But I am going to get something new thanks to the support of you all.  A portable sound recorder.
Nothing too fancy, but a decent spec; not too expensive, but not cheap.
This is for two reasons - one. lugging around laptop, leads, microphones is a sod. This is a fairly minor reason.
Two. Because now I can change the sound universe I create.
I could create radio dramas and storytelling easily enough with the help of some friends, some time and, so long as it were just some people with scripts in front of a microphone in a dead space then that would be fine.
But that not what I want to do for Patreon.  If people are pledging, I want to give them a bigger experience.
Let me talk about a show - working title: Investigate Me?
What's Investigate Me?  It's a show about an investigation.  Think a bit little Kafka's The Trial but in reverse, mixed with Blue Jam.  Helpful?  No?  Good - the problem with telling people too much about the shows in advance is it sort of kills the point of listening to them.
Anyway, I want to record almost all the show on location.  I want to mix in ambient sounds, the noise of the everyday, with some studio stuff.  I want to create drama as documentary as drama.  And, if I do it right, it'll be amazing.
But I can't do it (or the other shows that'll need it) without something portable.  So, based on what's been pledged so far, I've made an investment.  Thank you Patrons - you've already made a difference!  Now, I just need a few more pledges to pay for some actors - otherwise, this might take a while.
If you haven't pledged then please do - it's really easy. Sign up, enter your pledge (which you can change or cancel whenever you like) and enter payment.  That's it.  No different to shopping online.  Just with rewards!

www.patreon.com/robertcrighton

A Kind of Freedom

It was a stressful launch day - partly because I had so much to do, and no where to do it. Some decorators turned up to do the landing - nothing to do with me, it was all a bit random.  But, it meant that I couldn't use my office when trying to tell the world about patreon and my page and share great audio and... Not the decorators fault - they were really good, the finish looks to be a good standard (as they say on Homes Under the Hammer).
And I wasn't expecting a busy day fielding vast take up - this is going to be a slow build, it's going to move over the year, not a weekend.  That said, I was surprised at where the total reached by the end of the day - and I had a number of additional one off contributions (thank you!) and other help offered which isn't on the patreon feed.
I couldn't relax during the evening at all. I kept fiddling and rushing about to little purpose.  It was only at the end of the day, when I shut the laptop down and stopped that it hit me.

This is freedom.
Not freedom from tyranny, not freedom from money worries, not freedom from commitments... it's freedom from me.
Let me explain.  I make a lot of work happen.  I've averaged something like 14 different shows every year when not ill.  And even then, I don't think it went below double figures.  If I keep up this work rate in the theatre then I'll probably kill myself.  I tend to only have two speeds, super fast or super slow, and super fast added to live theatre and a high turn around is not good for me.
But now I can do things differently.  I can still create at my preferred work rate, but creating an audio show instead of a live show is a whole different world of work.  One of the things that eats at my life is the learning of new monologues - especially as I rewrite them as I go along.  Now, I can make the text work over the same period of time, but not have to spend that month ramming the words into my brain.  I can just, you know, get them right.
This means that, each year, I can focus on a just a few live shows of my own and take my time making them happen.  This year I've got one new show planned for April - Shakespeare: The Ever Living! and some other long term projects ticking along.  I'm acting in maybe a couple of other peoples shows.  And creating an entire new universe in my head to beam to your ears.
This is freedom.
If I can get the patrons.
Please, support me, if only for a $1.  It's really easy to do and doesn't take more than a couple of minutes.

www.patreon.com/robertcrighton

Patreon Projects - Videos

To help you see the kind of work you're going to get - here's a selection (it will build over the day) of videos telling you all about some of the stuff I want to make for you.
You can help by pledging support on: www.patreon.com/robertcrighton
There's the introduction video, a troubleshooting guide and guides to each new thing planned at this time - or will be, by the end of the weekend!

Patreon Launched!

My Patreon page has been launched and there are already pledges!  The more people who support me, the more exciting the work gets, the bigger the casts, the bigger the worlds.  So, please share this information with the world.

www.patreon.com/robertcrighton

And, of course, pledge something.  The first audio of this new phase of my life is now online - below - a series I'll be treating you to for the rest of the month.  Full blog on it here.
If you want to pledge but are having problems then get in touch with me at: contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk
(I know that some older versions of Internet Explorer need a setting adjusted, it's not difficult or dangerous to do, just a bit of a chore - let me help you make it less of one.)

A picture of me, with a microphone, in front of which is where I'll be from now on, thanks to you...