Some memories are so vivid, so powerful as to remain with us for all time. Occasionally, living on beyond our own existence. Those memories involving loss go deeper, scarring our conscience and creasing the moments of recall. We are all reluctant collectors of such moments. We seek no claim of them, yet deep down we know a life without loss is like a bag of chips without salt n vinegar. Just not worth the pickle.
Read MoreA year ago tonight, Dance The Colour Blue played to its last audience. My first professionally produced play was an entirely unexpected affair…as well as something of a revelatory experience!
Read MoreSurviving an event where other people experience loss of life is likely to follow, if not define, you for the rest of your life. This was the lot of Yuri Yudin.
In January 1959, 10 experienced Soviet hikers set out on an expedition to the Ural Mountains. Part of this initiative was the attainment of the highest level of Soviet accreditation. An honour none of the party would attain. 9 hikers died on Kholat Syakhi and the sole survivor, Yuri Yudin, earlier succumbed to the recurrence of an ailment forcing him to abort his mission. Yudin became one of life’s guilty without guilt.
Read MoreThe danger of presenting the body as complete in itself is that the society which gave that body its place in a code of social relations turns on it. Sophie Scholl and her friends spent a long time pondering how an individual must act under a dictatorship. And when that dictatorship finally arrived, they were confronted with Nazis.
Read MoreThere is a poem which threads through Dance The Colour Blue, refering back to The Odyssey. A plea from Penelope to be heard. Although, thanks to Homer, we can never be sure we are hearing this enigmatic character clearly.
The poem appears here in full. The third stanza is added for completeness. It did not feature in the play.
Penelope
Once on a overcast morning, I asked the messenger Hermes
Is time a dancing boy whose legs move bright with speed?
Tenderly taking my hand, he affirmed my familiar fate
Denizens, five score men, claiming a tenure of nature that’s yours
Me; tears stain my face entering more deeply into my heart
Swiftly days pass, Odysseus, for the dark chases them away
Three years last you laid by my side, must yet I prepare for three more?
Read MoreBarfly Don didn’t much care for them…but here were the sounds on the jukebox in Dance The Colour Blue:
Home At Last - Steely Dan
Counting Backwards - Throwing Muses
I Want More - Can
Monkey Gone to Heaven - Pixies
Too Shy - Kajagoogoo
Felt Mountain - Goldfrapp
Reelin’ In The Years - Steely Dan
Dress You Up - Madonna
Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
Tom’s Diner - Suzanne Vega
Lovelight - ABBA
Read MoreLooking back on the run of Dance The Colour Blue is like recalling a dream: you’re convinced it happened, you just can’t point to or touch it. What I do know is…the production was smooth…the cast were exquisite…the audiences were appreciative… and the direction was flawless. And even though the world views everyone in its same unwavering regard, there is a change in my perspective as I look round. It was a beautiful production. A professional production. And that is…something.
Read MoreTonight was my first ‘first night’ as a writer sitting in the audience. Usually I’m part of the stage management. That’s the nature of fringe theatre. But as part of a professional production, my role is just ‘the writer’. More time. I’d say ‘more time to relax’ …but that’s stretching it! I needn’t have worried, for in the hands of director Olivia Millar-Ross, and actors Habiba Saleh, Rory Grant, Billy Mack, Dani Heron, Nicola Docherty and Kareem Nasif, the play was always in the safest of hands.
Read MoreToday we had the dress rehearsal of Dance The Colour Blue…and…
We’re ready to go!
For the last 3 weeks, director Olivia Millar-Ross has worked with the actors in order to create a world that is caught somewhere in the mid-late 90s. It was a time of optimism: a decrepit government ready for the scrapheap, a century of conflict breathing its last; and new music scenes appropriating the past. I won’t say what happened next in the real world. Best for us to remain with Nicky, Mikey, Liz, Suzy, Pete and Don in The Everlasting Arms…where the music is good, the beer flows, and the banter is better.
Read MoreA few days ago, we held another read-through of Dance The Colour Blue. I’m pleased to report that the new version of the play read well and got positive feedback from the readers. It is always satisfying (as well as something of a relief) to hear the script as you had intended it when written. A couple of edits here and there were required to tighten some dialogue…and that is now done.
Read MoreA new edit of Dance is complete. Which is great! I never take it for granted that there is another edit to be had. I considered the feedback from the last read-through and I think I have made a pretty decent fist of addressing all the points made during that session. I’m pretty pleased with the result. Naturally, I think it is the best edit to date (which is a good sign). I even wrote a document to reflect on the feedback: the points I took on board and the differences they made; and the points I did not take on board, and why not. It will act as a polaroid of my thinking at that time.
A second read-through beckons!
Read MoreThe script’s perfect! Of course it is. Why would it not be? It’s the best version of it there’s been. Until you reach the Read Through session, that is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful opportunity to have professional actors read your work, bring life and nuance to your words. And that’s when it hits you: the script is not perfect. It’s far from perfect. Pass the binoculars…we’ve some distance yet to go.
Read MoreDance The Colour Blue is a play with a strong female presence. 5 of the 8 characters are female. And of the 4 major characters, 3 are female. So, I am really delighted to announce that Olivia Ross will direct. Olivia is a theatre director and actor. She is currently assistant director of the upcoming post-punk fever dream Sugar Coat which runs 29 March - 22 April at Southwark Playhouse.
Read MoreThis week we kicked-off on the Creative Scotland project Dance The Colour Blue. A 6 month project between Acting Coach Scotland, me and a host of actors yet to be identified (hopefully alumni too) which will culminate in a performance during the 3rd week of June.
Read MoreTime appears sometimes to sit on two different planes, connected orthogonally to one another. On one, it travels so fast so as to seem wired to the energy meter. On the other, sloth-like: easy to forget we were in lockdown at the start of the year.
Every year, I try to make the most of January and February: the sleeper months where the world feels like a town called ‘Sunday’. Prepare then, and you are able to bolt from the hatches in March. By the end of February, I had completed two read-throughs of two new plays. By March, I was once again editing when I decided to do something I had not done before: apply for funding to put on a play.
Read More
