Annegesis
02/10/2012
September saw me scamper in a rather ungainly fashion in many directions, most memorably up here:
Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock), 604 metres above Lysefjorden and the last place I saw my lungs.
But! While I was getting lost and trialling different genres of ‘bedraggled’, two new short stories have appeared online.
‘Hang-Ups’ is up at Annexe Magazine, natty purveyors of larks! and sounds! and faces!
‘And Back Again’ has found a place with Exegesis Journal; featuring articles that examine Rumi and Richardson, book reviews and a poetic treatment of the exegetical by Debra San, Issue One can be read on-site or downloaded as a .pdf.
Lost Theatre
17/11/2011
Just a quick note.
Another chance to see ShadowStage’s Hang-Ups film based on one of my short stories, this time at the Lost Theatre as part of their 5 Minute Festival. If you’re around Lambeth-way in late November, please give it a wave of your eyelids.
Hang-Ups
10/10/2011
As the blurb runs on the ShadowStage website, why don’t you ’come and experience the joy of shadow-play for yourself at our FREE Interactive ShadowArt Installation: 8-16 October 2011, 10am-10pm’ all in the Odeon Wimbledon Foyer.
(click for more info)
With music from Todd J Hendricks and some flash editing by Charles-Antoine Hennegrave, it’s been quite a process to see my short story squirt out from hard-drive to torch-beam to full-on installation. Consider this an invitation to pop along if you’re in the SW19 area for a 4-minute view – treat yourself to a play with the enplinthed telephone and flashlights too. Popcorn nearby.
Hang-Update
30/06/2011
Some progress news with visual clues about one of my short stories – Shadow Stage have added a bit more information about the adaptation of my piece ‘Hang-Ups’ on their site.
These photos are stills taken from workshops and give a good impression of the sort of scenes and tone that’ll be involved. I can confirm that my phone and noble profile (below) will not require their individual winnebagi when Cannes rings.
Photographs courtesy of André Stefano
Bulb
08/05/2011
Yesterday I met for a workshop with ShadowStage - the UK’s only professional company dedicated to contemporary shadow theatre. Taking place near Green Park in a blacked-out basement, the company comprised of director Leon Conrad, performers Paula and Natasha and puppetmaker Scott (and his marionette Mr. Gao). Within the first hour all involved were rolling silently on the floor with adapted torches, flicking irises and thumbing pools of light. In sum: there are worse ways to spend a morning.
In the afternoon we experimented adapting my story ‘Hang-Ups’ for a short film featuring shadow theatre techniques. The possibilities afforded by the cast shadows – the silhouettes of coiled wire, giant telephone receivers blending with the human form where perspective folded into itself in strangely liquid surges – helped enliven parts of the piece that I had previously considered a little weak and brought pace and emphasis to points that lagged. Thanks to the company’s know-how and inventiveness, just by using paper, lamps and our bodies I think we have the makings of something that’ll deliver delicacy and clout in good measure without my home phone suffering too much in the process.
With a couple more workshops still to go, I’m excited to see what more I can learn about this kind of stagecraft and the whole process of juicing text into physical (let alone lambent) productions. More to come on this project soon, I hope.
UPDATE: some photos and videos of the workshop here and here.
FURTHER UPDATE: Confirmation from Odeon Wimbledon has come in regarding the ‘Hang Ups’ project, so all being well the installation is confirmed to be staged in October – ‘rrah.
Scribbles
11/04/2011
A list of some work that has appeared online, to be updated as and when the chance arrives.
Prose
- Participant in Annexe Magazine’s collaborative project ‘Singing the Necessaries’, XZ#1 (Annexe, Spring 2013)
- ‘Sprechstimme [Minutes of a Meeting], praxis (February, 2013)
- ‘And Back Again‘, Exegesis Journal (Issue 1: Exegesis, Dec 2012)
- ‘Hang-Ups’, Annexe (September, 2012)
- ‘Moonlighting’, The South Circular (Issue 1, 2012)
- ‘Rink‘, Notes from the Underground (2012)
- ‘Synaesthete, Would Like To Meet‘, Night and Day (Issue 3: States of Mind, 2011)
- ‘Concision‘, London School of Journalism’s Microfiction Competition (Autumn 2011)
- ‘Platform’ featured on Prospect magazine website as a winner in the Franco-British Council 2011 short-story prize.
- ‘Hang-Ups‘ developed for a short interactive film installation with ShadowStage theatre company
- ‘Channel Light Vessel Automatic’, featured on the audio magazine 4’33″
- London Fringe Festival Short Fiction Awards, 2010: Finalist (‘Synaesthete, Would Like To Meet’)
- ‘Memorandum’, Chemical Imbalances (Issue 6, Spring 2011)
- ‘Search Terms’, Chemical Imbalances (Issue 3, Autumn 2010).
- ‘Search Terms’ also published as hyperlinked fiction at www.searchterms.tumblr.com
- ‘Terms’, Bedford Sq. 4 anthology (John Murray, 2010)
- ‘China Shop’, ‘Stopping and Starting’ and ‘Clarity’ included in Mays 16 anthology (Varsity Publications, 2008), also available on Google Books
- ‘China Shop’ also on The Literateur literary journal
- ‘Platform’, Pi Magazine, UCL student newspaper (n.b. different to same-titled story mentioned above)
Poetry
- ‘the photographer’s gaze – castiglione legs, 2009′ featured in exhibition notes accompanying artist Yorgos Loizos’ first solo UK exhibition (2011)
- Hackney Citizen poetry competition, 2011: Winner (‘Cusp‘)
- Christopher Tower Poetry Prize, 2005: First Prize (‘Gravity’)
- ‘Writer’s Block’, The Dial (Spring, 2010)
- ‘With Hands On Wheels’ available on The Literateur literary journal
Other:
- Toddling consultant for Lee Jackson‘s Walking Dickens’ London (Shire General, 2013)
- ‘Positive Feedback’ commissioned as part of performance series Lange Nacht der Langeweile (2013)
- Awarded a PenTales Hemingway Fellowship creative residency (2013)
- Awarded Bookbinding For Artists short course certificate, Central Saint Martins College (2011)
- Article on Reuben Martin, written for the Bernie Grant Arts Centre’s Great Book of Tottenham (2011)
- Short-listed for Harper-Woods Studentship (2011)
- Short story ‘Channel Light Vessel Automatic’ was developed by composer Steven Jackson into a collaborative piece as part of the Vessel exhibition during ‘Noise of Many Waters‘, the Royal Northern College of Music’s showcase event (2011)
- Judge for Pighog Press‘ Short Story Competition for writers of children’s fiction (2010)
- ‘The Strange Case of the Giant Rat of Sumatra’, Gnome Post (Autumn 2010)
- Various reviews for The Literateur and Fiction Unlimited online journals
- Co-writer of ‘Erratically Charged’, an audio sitcom broadcast on CUR1350 radio [Series One and Series Two available online], contributing to the station being awarded ‘Student Radio Station of the Year’ at the National Student Radio Awards (2008)
- Series of sketches commissioned by Somethingelse Production Company for their show ‘Bedtime’, Edinburgh Fringe Festival (2007)
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