The Obligatory New Year Round Up 2017

It's been an odd year - despite the high work load (as per) I don't feel as though I really got anything done in 2017.  I wrote two plays - one adaptation of The Time Machine which was staged mostly to my satisfaction (the projections had to be abandoned) and another which has been sent into the ether.  If it doesn't get picked up anywhere in the next few months I will produce an audio version and share it with the world.

I've produced a fair old amount of audio this year, though a lot of this has been audio versions of older work - I've just about got on top of archiving what I can of my old plays and stories, though there are still a few which are stuck because I don't quite have the budget to make them happen.
Minor successes for me have been The Other Day stories, which I've enjoyed creating, though I suspect there are not many more in the tank before I run out of genuinely interesting ways to be killed.


I did a little bit of work on the early drama side of things - the production of Duke Moraud being a surprise success.  It was only a short run and not many people saw it, but it was genuinely funny and not horribly self indulgent, which it could have easily been.  Audio material is archived below.



2018 is sort of planned out - though how things will fit together I cannot say.  Simon Nader and myself are producing a comedy show, with hopefully a roster of special guests, which we want to tour and generally have fun with throughout the year.  It's The Tat Roadshow, based loosely on the podcast series, The Museum of Tat.  More on that soon.  I'm also planning on producing a one off follow up to Metal Harvest, about maps in the First World War.  This will be a live show, probably appearing at the end of the year... somewhere.
In terms of new writing and audio, I'm not going to say more.  I will write at least one new play to go out to the usual suspects, and will write lots of short pieces for audio.  I'm producing at least one new thing to go out each week, so there's a steady workload of storytelling going on.  Please support this work - it really does make a difference.  Everything that I've created so far thanks to patreon can be heard below.  This wouldn't have happened without my patrons on and off patreon. Thank you.


Finally, I want to write a 'radio' serial.  I've mentioned this before, and I will do it eventually.  In an ideal world I'd have more time and money and get it produced asap.  The more patrons I get, the more likely this is to happen.  (Hint, hint.)
Happy New Year!

Question or Nominate

Nominate us - go on! Please, please, please...
If you could, take a moment to nominate an audio play I'm rather pleased with - it's a solo play The Project After and features two great performers, but we're hoping for a general production nomination.  Below are the details - it takes literally thirty seconds if you're a fast typer. Obviously, I wouldn't want you to nominate something without listening to it first, so here it is in the player below.  If you like it then follow the instructions underneath.  Any questions, tweet me @RobertCrighton


How to nominate us...
1. Go to - www.audioverseawards.net/site/nominate
2. Enter your name/details
3. Enter nomination for PRODUCTION
4. Click next
5. Add the show name - The Project After
6. Put in the full link - https://audioboom.com/posts/6144050-the-project-after-by-robert-crighton
7. Submit for one lonely episode
8. That it's over twenty minutes
9. That there are no more than 6 actors
10. That it's a Drama
11. And that, Yes, it's new

The Project After - New Audio Version

I've finally finished editing and producing the last audio version of Fantasy Terrorist plays, The Project After.  The previous two plays were online the other year, but the last has taken longer, partly because I wanted to get the original cast together, but also because there was another version online and that took any sense of urgency out of the equation.
I am now working on creating a whole new sequence of works that will play around the world of the War on Terror, so finishing this trilogy seemed important.  Each play can be listened to separately, or together, they exist on their own, but there are little links between each.  Ideally start with Fantasy Terrorist League, then Keynote Speaker and then The Project After acts as a little coda.
Thanks to the original cast, Keith Hill and Simon Nader, for recording this on location one very windy day this spring.

The Project After by Robert Crighton
With Keith Hill as Mark and Simon Nader as Art

Fantasy Terrorist League - written and performed by Robert Crighton


Keynote Speaker - written by Robert Crighton
With Simon Nader as Sir John Spencer


The Project After - by Robert Crighton
Alternative version by Frequency Theatre (External Link) - http://www.frequencytheatre.co.uk/play/the-project-after/

A Little Learning - by Robert Crighton

Final Summoning

It's been nearly five years in the making, but at last I'm bringing my much acclaimed version of The Summoning of Everyman to London.  I had a go with a one off a few years ago, but it didn't come off.  This time I'm doing a short run and I've got a new bonus feature for the show - after Everyman, and a short interval, we're doing a reconstruction of a lost play Dux Moraud.  Or Duke Moraud - another morality play, but one that is somewhat more... insane.  Or it will be by the time we finish with it.  The Duke will be played by my good friend Mr Simon Nader, whilst I will fill in the gaps of the rest of the story.  It's going to be a great show.  More details to follow soon...

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...

The Summoning of Everyman

Adapted and performed by Robert Crighton with Simon Nader

Everyman has been summoned by Death to meet his maker - and he doesn't want to go.  This interactive performance brings his struggle directly to the audience, asking them to become part of the story, to stand in the footsteps of Fellowship, Good Deeds and even Death himself.  Will you help Everyman make his peace?

Previous audiences have said of the show:  “A one man tour de force... gripped from start to finish... a mix of pathos and humour all done with a light touch... a real privilege and honour being there... having volunteered, with no acting experience whatsoever, was guided expertly throughout by Robert... an hour very well spent...  I’ve come to see it again!  What more do I need to say?  In awe of the intensity!”

The Bread and Roses Theatre, Clapham

Tuesday 8th to Saturday 12th August at 7.30pm

Tickets available here - www.breadandrosestheatre.co.uk/everyman

Fifteen Years

It's fifteen years since the World Trade Center was attacked on September 11th 2001.  I find it hard to believe it was so long ago.  Could it really be so long since the world took that turn, a turn largely for the worse?
In the aftermath of the attacks it became very clear, very quickly, that a knee jerk reaction of violence and aggression was the worst possible course of action, and that this was precisely where the world was headed.  The wars that followed 9/11, and the wars that have fed off them, seem no nearer to burning out.
Since 9/11, intolerance of different cultures has increased, terrorism has got worse, religious fundamentalism in its many guises has retrenched, and millions of people are on the road possibly never to return home.  In my home country there have been many attacks on our way of life, both physically and in legislation - especially in terms of civil liberties that in some places are in open rout.
Within a day of the attacks I'd started to write about them - mostly not very well.  My first effort was presented a year after the events and was truly awful.  I feel quite ashamed of it, but I was only twenty at the time.  It took me a few years to find what I needed to write about - and, since 2005, our failed response to terror as a society has been a major part of my work.
On this anniversary of those attacks I'm releasing as radio dramas two short plays I wrote around ten years ago - both are about how terror is a catch all excuse to take our rights away.  The first is Fantasy Terrorist League, which is about the abuse of detainees, torture and internment.  The follow up, Keynote Speaker, was a comic variation to the original story - about a man who wants to get interned so that he could sue the government for compensation.  I had hoped these two plays would cease to be relevant after a few years, but both keep popping up.  They are available to listen for free, for the first time, see below.

I have recorded a number of variations on this theme - a related but slightly different story is The Project After which another company recorded a few years ago and is linked below.  It's a short comedy about censorship, often self censorship, in the modern world - I presented it with the first two plays as The Fantasy Terrorist Variations in 2012.
Lastly, there's the short drama, A Little Learning, based on accounts of the kidnapped school children in Nigeria, but which has been a repeated troupe throughout history.  Whilst all the plays below have their moments, that is the only piece I would class as requiring a trigger warning - loath them though I do.

Despite the generally depressing nature of these events in the world, there is hope.  Hope that if we treat people with decency and don't club innocents in with genuine 'evil doers', then we might get through the next few decades with our humanity intact.  I'm currently planning a large scale account of the post 9/11 world.  I fervently hope it will become swiftly irrelevant and that the audiences wonder what the fuss is about.

Fantasy Terrorist League - written and performed by Robert Crighton


Keynote Speaker - written by Robert Crighton
With Simon Nader as Sir John Spencer


The Project After - by Robert Crighton
External Link - http://www.frequencytheatre.co.uk/play/the-project-after/

A Little Learning - by Robert Crighton

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?"

Pictures of the Fantasy League

Usual plea, buy tickets, etc...
And now some pictures... I haven't done any work to them - there are a couple that will need adjusting... but I'm rushing around at the moment so here they are.  All photos (bar one) from The Fantasy Terrorist Variations.

Keith Hill in Fantasy Terrorist League

Keith again, in The Project After

Robert Crighton... mucking about with camera

Simon Nader in Keynote Speaker

Simon Nader in The Project After - sans trousers

Keith and Simon in The Project After

GhoStoryteller: Meet the Cast 7

Todays blog is brought to you in association with the letters B, Y, T.  B. stands for BUY.  Y. stands for YOUR and T. stands for TICKETS.  Put together they can be put into such sentences as 'buy your tickets for Trolls, there's only six more performances left'.  
But back to the new show - and todays featured guest artist is Simon Nader, who appeared with us at the New Wimbledon Studio in July and many, many previous shows before.  I've only got him for one night as he keeps flying abroad to appear in big budget TV shows that he's not allowed to talk about.  Boring.  Oh, and he also has another iron in the fire which he does talk about - see below.  He joins us for GhoStoryteller on the 30th December 2011.

Simon Nader

Simon Nader is a core member of Milk Bottle having played Teiresias in BLIND SPOTS, Treplev in THE ALTERNATIVE SEAGULL and several solo pieces including KEYNOTE SPEAKER. He trained at London’s Academy Drama School. Previous stage work includes: Billy, BILLY BLISTER’S CIRCUS (Watford Palace Theatre); George, OF MICE AND MEN (National tour); Colin/Policeman, MAGGIE’S END (Shaw Theatre); All the male roles, THE OTHER SIDE (Gilded Balloon Edinburgh); Otto, CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF (Union Theatre); Gary, THE REVENGERS (Barons Court Theatre) and many others. Feature Film work includes forthcoming horror THE DEAD INSIDE as Wayne Andrews; Guildenstern in HAMLET (Fodor’s 2006); Horst in FUR MEINEN VATER and as a voice actor on IRONCLAD. He recently played The Journalist in BBC Radio 4’s THE CHESS GIRLS and Claudio in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING for Rooftop Theatre in St Albans.

Milk Bottle Productions Presents...
GhoStoryteller

Written and Performed by Robert Crighton - plus Special Guests

Tuesday 27^th December 2011 to Friday 30^th December and Tuesday 3^rd to Sunday 8^th January 2012 (No performances 31^st Dec, 1^st or 2^nd Jan)

Two weeks of real ghost stories collected during our autumn tour.  From the ghosts of empty houses, to the personal ghosts we carry around us, this collection is a mixture of the fantastic and the “real”.  Do you have your own ghost stories?  Let us know and we might add it to the show.  Send to contact@milkbottleproductions.co.uk 

Tickets £12 / £10 concessions

Tuesday to Saturday starts at 7.30pm – doors open 7.15pm.  Sunday at 7pm, doors open 6.45pm.

Box Office: 020 8932 4747

Barons Court Theatre, “The Curtain’s Up”, 28A Comeragh Road W14

Nearest Tube:  Barons Court (Piccadilly/District Lines)

***
And now a word from Simon...

***

Hi there! If you need someone professionally trained and experienced to help you with the presentation of a monologue for an audition; if you are having a crisis of confidence; if you feel that you just need an acting check up: help is at hand!

My students usually contact me because they want help preparing for an audition for drama schools, theatre companies or just to improve their general skills and confidence. Many of my previous students have gone on to train at accredited drama schools including RADA, DSL and BSA amongst many others, or attacked their next audition with a new approach and confidence.

My own acting career has evolved through many years of stage, feature film, television, radio and voice work. As a theatre director, I have worked on many professional productions at venues as diverse as the Southbank Centre and small fringe theatres to foreign tours. I also have many years experience directing and working with young people and consequently hold an advanced CRB certificate.

Rates

I charge very competitive rates with some room for negotiation depending on the number of lessons you would like to have and what you are seeking to accomplish.

Base rate for a one-hour session is £25

A two-hour session is discounted to £40

I can provide a tailored quote according to your needs, please get in touch to discuss.

My new studio is an intimate space on the Old Kent Road near to Elephant & Castle and South Bermondsey which is easily accessible from all parts of London by bus, rail and tube connections.

I look forward to working with you!

Simon Nader

t: 07976 399 825

e: sayhello@simonnader.com