Paines Plough Blog

Woo Whoo! I’ve been asked to write today’s blog and today’s topics will be:

“impenetrable bubbles of life outside time and space, multiple-personality disorders, and the merits of a non-human audience.”

Views from Grosnez

What a week it has been so far. There is something quite incredible about the clarity gained by going somewhere else to write, away from the clutches of daily life and its need to pull your attention away from the work. Being within the same space as other wonderful writers; Hannah, James, Stacey, Ben, Sam, Colin, Robin, Martha, and Matt, to name, well, all of them really, as well as Paines Plough Artistic Directors James and George, could be likened (possibly) to being in the X-Factor house. A buzz of creative energy. Fortunately without an annoying one constantly singing when people just want a bit of peace and quiet. And with the fabulous and eagerly anticipated (by everyone except perhaps the participating writers), COME TO WHERE I’M FROM performance on Saturday at the Jersey Opera House Studio, the X-Factor link is still valid (just) as we have our very own live show.

As one of the “Jersey Five”, invited to spend our days up here in these luxurious surroundings, with these great people and the incredible views of St Aubin’s Bay, I am shocked at how much work I am actually managing to get done. Proof I think of how important it is to be able to remove yourself, for just a little while, from the world and spend time in an impenetrable bubble outside time and space (I knew I’d get it in somewhere) and just write. OK, so it’s not really impenetrable. But it is a space without too many distractions, and I think it’s proving massively beneficial for all of us here.

My only worry is that at some point my urge to read out-loud will overcome me and give away my dark secret. I have a habit of performing my plays to myself, and to my cat when she’s available. I don’t get much more than a strange look and a grumble from her when I stand there reciting my work in a myriad of different voices and accents (which all sound very much like my own), but this is the way I usually write. Is this normal? Some writers are mostly working in their rooms’, so I’m hoping, possibly in vain, that this is a sign that I’m not alone in my habit.

Also, I’m wondering if there are any other kinds of non-human that make a better audience than my cat?

Tomorrow is the last day of the residency, so almost everyone is out for a walk along the coast; it would be a shame to come over here and not see how beautiful and inspiring this island really is.

Sam, James, Matt and Stacey take a cobweb-clearing stroll

As for me, I’m starting to consider how sound-proof the lavatory might be; as I think I might have to give in to my urge to read out-loud. Even without the cat here to give feedback.

This update is coming to you from the pool house. That’s right, I said it: The Pool house. Three days in I’m still getting my head round it. I won’t bang on about how luxurious and grand the Eulah is because that’s just showing off, but staring round my OBSCENELY large and luxurious room, it’s got me thinking about whether or not the location/ environment we write in affects the way/ what we write.

Matt Hartley (L) and James Graham (R) depicted in graffiti form

The five of us all came with different ideas about how we wanted to use the time at our disposal. For some it was finishing off plays, for others it was redrafting and for a couple of us it was to start something from scratch. I was in the start from scratch category. In the last few days we’ve got good at summarising what our plays are about in as few words as possible. So here is what the group are writing about:

Me: Baby stealing.

Sam: Monkeys.

Stacey: Biotechnology.

James: Gypsies.

Robin: Not sure yet.

I’m fascinated to know if this will have changed by the end of the week.

And this is why:

Looking out of my window I am spoilt for views. The sea, the Eulah’s beautiful grounds, the pool, James and Sam typing away in their respective bay windows, and perhaps it’s for these reasons that I’m finding it hard to get into the mindset of people who steal babies. Perhaps if I was looking out of my window back home, at the fence burglars recently broke when ransacking my house [ if anyone has recently been offered a great deal on a Black 58” frame, 24 gear, 2011 Specialized Allez road bike, please let me know ] I would find it easier to write. Is the tone of my piece changing because I am in luxurious surroundings, am I too relaxed to be writing? I look back at plays of mine from the past and I can’t help but notice how my environment at the time affected the plays: a play about siblings when I was living with my brother, a play about coke fueled city kids when I was working in a trendy bar in Angel.

Have I chosen the right play to write whilst I’m here? I don’t know. Time will tell. One thing I can safely say though, is that it won’t be the same play I thought it would be at the start of this week. I would  love to hear from people about whether they think their writing changes when they are in different environments.  Do you go somewhere different to write a certain type of play than you would to others? Do you have to be in control of your environment? Do plays become funny, tender, tougher, larger, smaller etc when you change where you’re working? All thoughts, queries, advice will be greatly appreciated…

Writers writing (electronically)

Anyway, I must crack on as I have a pool party to plan. That’s right George and I [the other pool house resident] are hosting a pool party on Friday night in true Paines Plough style. So far we have Mojito’s, Hip Hop and bathrobes on our list. Are we missing anything? What makes the ultimate pool party? I would say answers on a postcard but Tweet, @painesplough, instead. Ta.

Pool and pool-house - eat your heart out Fresh Prince

It's like this in Jersey even in December, apparently

Next week George and I are packing our bags and heading to the beautiful island of Jersey, accompanied by some of the best of British playwrighting talent.

We’ve been invited by The Jersey Arts Trust and we’re taking writers Robin French, James Graham, Stacey Gregg, Matt Hartley and Samantha Holcroft with us for a week-long residency.

The writers will be writing away under their own steam whilst George and I run some workshops for Jersey actors and writers.

Most excitingly, five playwrights from Jersey will be joining us on the residency, which culminates in our final PP show of 2011 – COME TO WHERE I’M FROM at The Jersey Opera House on Saturday 3 December at 8pm.

Ben Evans, Leon Fleming, Martha MacDonald, Hannah Patterson and Colin Scott will perform their work themselves live on stage.

Last year, we commissioned 61 playwrights to write plays about their home towns in everywhere from Bristol to Belfast, Cardiff to Coventry and Nottingham to Newcastle. Many of those plays are available as free-to-listen podcasts on our website.

We’re delighted to be producing COME TO WHERE I’M FROM in St Helier next week, and we’re hoping to podcast the plays too for those who can’t be there in person. Look out for more COME TO WHERE I’M FROM dates in 2012.

It’s incredibly exciting to be extending our relationship with The Jersey Arts Trust and theatre artists on the Island. Last March, Mike Bartlett and I spent a brilliant weekend working with actors and writers in St Helier and were blown away by the depth of talent we encountered.

We’ve created the residency to forge stronger links between the playwriting communities separated by the Channel. We’re inviting Ben, Leon, Martha, Hannah and Colin over to our gaff every evening to sink some wine, and we’re very much looking forward to lots of dicussions and debates and new friendships.

Rather stupidly George and I have offered to cook for all ten playwrights every night. Any good recipes or large numbers very gratefully received. Any any Jersey tourist tips welcome too.

We’ll keep you posted on our progress from Monday.

Dublin's fair city

As recently reported, team PP spent some time up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August, where we were lucky enough to see an abundance of brilliant work. You can imagine my delight therefore when last week our joint AD James extended to me an invitation to the ABSOLUT Fringe Festival in Dublin, courtesy of the very lovely people at the Irish Theatre Institute. One week later,  I’m taking two days off from booking our spring tour of Kate Tempest’s WASTED, and boarding an Aer Lingus flight from London Gatwick, to see what Irish theatre has in store. Very excited indeed.

As Ireland’s largest multi-disciplinary arts festival, over 16 days the ABSOLUT Fringe Festival stages up to 525 events in over 40 venues, and is a platform for the best new, emerging Irish arts companies and a showcase for the best contemporary theatre. While I’m there, I’ll have the pleasure of attending the ITI’s Information Toolbox and Show in a Bag initiative, a platform for new small-scale artist led shows which promise to be daring and invigorating.

Historically, PP has enjoyed a great relationship with the Irish, and we’re always on the lookout for new writers to work with, and venues to tour to. You may remember our A Play, A Pie and A Pint season last year toured all five plays to Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, one of the venues at this year’s ABSOLUT Fringe. Artistic Director of Bewley’s, David Horan, directed IN THE PIPELINE by Gary Owen, and Belfast born Marie Jones wrote FLY ME TO THE MOON. We were also thrilled to take Mike Bartlett’s LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to this year’s Galway Arts Festival, and delving into our archive, you’ll see that we have recently produced plays by ace Irish playwrights Enda Walsh, Sebastian Barry and Hilary Fannin.

With a jam-packed schedule of new writing, Information Toolbox and Show in a Bag, I’ll report back fully next week on my Dublin adventure… if I ever make it out of the Guinness Factory, where I have been instructed by James to find time to have a pint. Yes boss!

Our Artistic Director James gave an interview to Galway Arts Festival TV when we were over in Ireland with LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. It includes some footage of the cast rehearsing in the Town Hall Theatre prior to our sold-out week long run.

We haven’t been able to embed the video, but you can watch it here.

The stunning Galway Bay

So here we are in beautiful Galway on the West Coast of Ireland for The Galway Arts Festival.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE opens tonight at The Town Hall Theatre, a lovely two-tiered 393 seat proscenium arch theatre in Galway City. The show runs until Saturday and virtually every ticket has been sold, so we’re looking forward to a great week.

The get-in underway at Galway's Town Hall Theatre

Although there’s not much time to see the city or the rest of the festival with a get-in and rehearsals underway, we were fortunate enough to catch the opening performance of MISTERMAN by Paines Plough alumni Enda Walsh last night, with Cillian Murphy in world-class form on stage. And then we managed a couple of pints of Guinness in the festival club. Just to acclimatise, you understand.

Ben Addis next to a poster of... Ben Addis

Now we’re off to the theatre for tech / dress and then curtain up tonight at 8pm. Wish us luck.

The Big Apple by night

After a tranquil week developing work in the mountain village of Hunter, James and I immediately threw ourselves in to the whirlwind of New York City. We had two fantastic days dashing around town seeing shows and meeting some brilliant and inspiring theatre companies.

We started off by catching up with Annie McRae and Stephen Willems, Literary Managers of Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) and Manhattan Class Company (MCC) respectively. We have been in touch with both Annie and Stephen for a few years now, and were thrilled to see that their passion, knowledge and championing of British playwrights remains undimmed. We dropped in on Peter Tear and Elizabeth Kleinhans at 59East59 Theaters, where we took Dennis Kelly’s After The End in 2006. Then we had the great honour of attending the opening night of 4,000 MILES by our good friend Amy Herzog. Amy is an incredibly exciting young American playwright – an opinion clearly widely held in New York – who we had the pleasure of meeting at the Orchard Project in 2010. Amy’s play is being produced by the Lincoln Centre at an off-Broadway theatre just off Times Square and received this glowing review from the New York Times.

4000 Miles by Amy Herzog at LCT3

Tuesday brought first visits to the extraordinary St.Ann’s Warehouse, the NYC home to Blackwatch and Enda Walsh’s Walworth Farce, and where Susan Feldman and her team are in the process of moving to a new space. From there it was a subway ride back to Manhattan to see Patrick Daly and Mirella Cheeseman in the office of Jean Doumanian, one of the driving forces behind BOOK OF MORMON, which we were incredibly fortunate to see that night. The show came down just in time for us to nip east to one of my favourite places in New York – Bluesmoke.

A fist-full of scripts from Soho Rep

Before flying back to Blighty we managed to find time to talk about all things Paines Plough with three more facinating companies; Soho Rep, Atlantic Theater Company and Naked Angels. Raphael from Soho Rep (who used to work at both The Gate and The Bush) talked us through the success of recent productions of Sarah Kane’s BLASTED and Debbie Tucker Green’s BORN BAD at their miniature, 74-seat powerhouse of a theatre. Just up the road we saw Christian Parker, Associate Artistic Director at Atlantic, who later in the summer is producing Simon Stephens‘ long-overdue New York premiere in the shape of BLUEBIRD, starring Simon Russell Beale. Finally we caught up with Alex and Andy at Naked Angels, a company not dissimilar to Paines Plough. Naked Angels produced last year’s Off-Broadway hit THIS WIDE NIGHT by Chloe Moss. One of the things we were excited to talk with them about is their use of podcasts through Naked Radio – an interesting comparison to our own podcasting of Come To Where I’m From last year.

Then there was just enough time to squeeze in a few Brooklyn lagers and a burger from Shakeshack before the flight – they’re good for you, after all.

Brooklyn Lager is good for you

As previously reported, we have just spent seven glorious days in the Catskill Mountains supporting Kate Tempest, Katie Douglas and Che Walker in writing their Paines Plough commissions. By the end of the week, Che and Kate both had exceptional rehearsal drafts, with both plays in production this month. Meanwhile Katie, whose play rehearses in September, completed a brilliant first draft.

Welcome to Hunter

As well as sunny skies, creek swims and bear hunts, we were treated to a fire-side Kate Tempest gig, with intimate renditions of RENEGADE, LIFE OF A SCRIBE and BEST INTENTIONS. In a Paines Plough exclusive, you can listen to a bootleg recording of Kate performing the three tracks below.

Listen to Part One here: RENEGADE and the first half of LIFE OF A SCRIBE.

Listen to Part Two here: The second half of LIFE OF A SCRIBE and BEST INTENTIONS.

If you like what you hear, you can find out how to buy a copy of Kate’s band’s début album here.

Another terrifying face-to-face encounter with a bear.

We were also able to piece together a first go at The 8^th, albeit very roughly. We had a copy of Paul’s first draft of the track, over the top of which Reg read Che’s final draft of the script. Here’s a sneak preview of what you can expect when we open the show on 7^th July for the Manchester International Festival.

On our final day we ventured out to the one local pub – Mac Gregors – where I was thrilled to learn something I had long suspected was the case, but until now had lacked the necessary evidence to confirm:

Hello England, from Hunter NY!

George and I are here at The Orchard Project with Katie Douglas, Kate Tempest and Che Walker. They’ve been working on their respective commissions for Paines Plough against the stunning backdrop of the Catskill Mountains.

Yesterday we held a reading of Kate T’s play. It’s a lyrical firecracker that fizzes through the offices and parks and cafes and parties of South London evoking the sights and sounds and smells and rhythms of inner city life.

Then as Kate headed down to Manhattan for a one-off gig, we welcomed Reg E Cathey to Hunter. Reg is starring in Che’s play THE 8TH which he’s creating with Paul Heaton to premiere in less than a month’s time at The Manchester International Festival.

Reg lives in New York and so has made the 3 hour trip north to spend a couple of days with Che and director George working on the show. Last night, in Hunter’s quaint little cinema, Reg gave a first reading of Che’s darkly soulful sermon.

Meanwhile Katie D has just finished the first draft of her play for our A PLAY, A PIE AND A PINT season in the Autumn. With great excitement, we’re going to read it today.

Che and Katie outside our house on Maine Street, Hunter

One of the great things about The Orchard Project is that you get to meet and see the work of other companies from around the world who are staying here. Yesterday we saw a work-in-progress performance by the multi-award winning New York company The Talking Band.

The Talking Band performing at The Orchard Project

With Kate T heading back from the city, it’s our turn to share some of our work, so tonight we’re going to host an impromptu gig in the cinema featuring extracts of the plays and an exclusive Kate Tempest set. We’ll video some of it to share on the blog.

Aside from work, we’ve mainly been hoping to see a bear. There’s a veritable menagerie living under our beautiful wooden house overlooking Scoharie Creek and Hunter Mountain, including groundhogs, chipmunks and a slightly sinister looking orange snake. But we’re yet to come face-to-face with a grizzly.

A terrifying face-to-face encounter with a bear

In the evenings, it’s camp fires by the creek, cold cans of Milwauke Be(a)st, and stunning light shows courtesy of the fireflies. There can be few better places to create work than here.

The stunning Scoharie Creek