Happy Christmas

In the spirit of the season christmas season I have decided to write again. Watch this space please.

Street theatre?

I made it into my local newpaper in Cornwall, England. Read all about it. Click on the title please.

Fell among thieves

I was directing a play in Tokyo when one night a reliable actor never appeared. He rang me later and apologised with, 'I fell among thieves.' It is an excuse I have used often myself since that night. However, I have found a formidable web site. The British Library has an archive as you can see. Within it are collections of interviews with a host of theatre people. A wondrous source for research material. Please take a look. Everyone from playwrights to back stage people are questioned. Just click on Fell among Thieves. I found it via a Chinese British playwright. www.benjaminyeoh.com

Places seen and been

create your own visited countries map Just click on the title above the atlas to set your map up. Can you beat me? I think I have been to over 50 countries. But I still have not visited Greece, the very birthplace of THEATRE. Shame on me.

Hidden faces

Today the 9th grade were putting the finishing touches to their Mask work. This week is the last for some of them. They may never have a drama class again. In 10th grade it is an option at IGCSE. Anyway, these four calm girls are quietly getting on with it. And it is looking impressive. They begin with the mask under their chair. They put it on but we do not see a lot. We are left to wonder. Then they pull out a sketch book and look at a church? One of them does not. She seems to be furiously finishing her drawing. What does it all mean? It is simple, harmonious, still and mysterious. I like it.

From the Tanner

These are the five IB students who keep me going on Monday and Wednesday. They had been out in the park and on the roof assessing the potential for Promenade theatre. They came up with some good plans and locations. But when I suggested a real performance they remembered something about Chatroom [http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/?lid=12951] which I do not think is a vehicle for promenading. And then I talked about a performance of Roger Salmon Cornish Detective; Site - Specific, Geevor Tin Mine by Kneehigh Theatre [www.kneehigh.co.uk] that I saw in 2001. All this of course prevents me from progressing from the last entry about my Malaysian play.

Remain Standing

Before I came to live in Japan I lived in Malaysia. It allowed me to do a lot of theatre. The main product of this was a Trilogy of plays which I called, 'Bending towards the East'. The photo shows four of the women in the first play, 'Remain Standing'. It was a great success and sold out for three weeks. Last week I read parts of it to a Japanese audience and it lived again. I will say more about its origins and outcomes in the next entry.

I bought a painting

Some fifteen years ago I saw a painting in a gallery in Manila. It was an acrylic image of a native women and I fell in love with it. However, the thought of transporting her and paying so much for it stopped me committing a life time to her. But every time I went to Manila we met; it seemed that no one else wanted her either. Then upon one visit she was gone. And I wanted her more than ever. I have never seen her again. But I did discover other paintings by Mario de Rivera. I now own five to make up for my silly mistake. As my mother once said, 'Silly idiot. Let so many women slip though his fingers.' This painting is the fifth and is called Bosque Marurugi. I was fortunate, this Christmas, in dining at Mario's house with him & his family. Bosque [forest] was one of his new works on the wall. And I am now used to carrying paintings on planes. It has everything I like about Mario's work: textiles, weaving, women seen before, colonial faces, gold foliage, distant hills, butterflies and one or two annoying rocks to remind us that nature is not all beauty. It is so crowded that one can discover things later. I still search for her. And don't you see a piece of theatre here about lost love and weaving?

Happy New Year

This photograph is one of my better shots taken with my Ricoh in December on a glorious sunny day. The view reminds me a little of my home county of Cornwall. And its composition owes something to my theatre experience. Have something in the foreground to justify the background. That knife and fork suggest that the visual meal is there to be taken. This is some 40 minutes from Yokohama and is a special place.