I’m getting excited about Bristol Jam.  It’s a new improvisation festival set up by Tom Morris, the new Artistic Director at Bristol Old Vic, and I’m working on the marketing for it this year.  There’s a huge range of work, and there are shows being added daily.  Here are some of the highlights so far

Beardyman’s Complete and Utter Shambles (beatboxing, jazz, theatre)
Phil Kay: Winging It (crazy comedy impro)
Portico Quartet and Sweet Billy Pilgrim
Improvised versions of Hamlet and The Seagull by The Factory

Join the Bristol Jam ning to find out more and get show updates as they are announced…

Hello everyone,

Here’s the full programme for the Residence event this weekend at the Tobacco Factory.

Friday 11 and Saturday 12 September 2009
Tiobacco Factory Theatre
Raleigh Road
Bristol, BS3 1TF

Booking: 01179020344
Tickets: Pay what you can (minimum £5 for both days)
if you’d like to attend breakfast or dinner please email residencemail@gmail.com

FULL PROGRAMME

Friday 11 September
7:30pm: Doors
7:30pm – 10:30pm: Search Party one-to-one
8:00pm: Welcome and introduction
8:15pm: Muddled State performance
9:30pm: Tom Marshman performance
12:00am: Close

Saturday 12 September
11:00am: Breakfast
12:00pm: Discussion about artist-led initiatives chaired by Theatre Bristol
1:00pm – 7:00pm: Tinned Fingers installation + Jo Bannon performance
2:00pm: Edward Rapley performance
3:00pm: NWN talk
3:10pm: New Work discussion
5:00pm: Tom Wainwright performance
6:00pm: Tiny Ideas (works-in-progress from non-Residence members)
8pm: Dinner
9:30pm: Party starts (Simon Cassidy playing records)
10:30pm: Action Hero party piece
10:45pm: Tom Marshman party piece

Residence are taking over The Tobacco Factory next weekend.  It’s our first properly public event, and is a chance to find out a bit more about what we do, why we do it and what we’re planning for the future.

There’ll be discussions about artist-led organisations and ‘new ways for new work’, performances from Tom Marshman, Edward Rapley, Tom Wainwright, Muddled State, Jo Bannon, Search Party and Tinned Fingers, food and drink, a party and a special Tiny Ideas (our pre-scratch event where artists can test out tiny little germs of ideas in front of a supportive audience).  The weekend is being organised in collaboration with Theatre Bristol, New Work Network and the Tobacco Factory, and we’ve also invited lots of interesting people to come and talk.  It’s an absolute bargain at £5 a ticket and you can book on 0117 902 0344.

Here’s the eflyer, and you can find out more on www.residence.org.uk

Check out the Bristol Jam network here.  Bristol Jam is the UK’s first festival of improvised performance, and runs at Bristol Old Vic between 16th and 24th October.

This should be very lovely. Here’s the eflyer:

Bristol JAM – call for Bristol based improvisers From the 16th to the 24th October, Bristol Old Vic will throw open its doors for a maverick week of improvised performance in all forms (music, dance, theatre, comedy – you name it) by extraordinary artists from all over the land.

Bristol JAM will be the UK’s first festival of improvised performance, and promises to be a riot of spontaneity for audiences of all ages…

If you are a Bristol based artist and you’d like to be involved, then send us a short proposal – no more than 300 words – with your idea for an improvised show or event to bristoljam@bristol-old-vic.co.uk.

We’re interested in performance across all disciplines – be it an established format or just a space to ‘Jam’. Let us know what you’d like to do. Please get your proposals to us by 10th September and we will let you know if you have a slot to perform at the Bristol Old Vic by Friday 18th September.

Thanks
Bristol JAM

Some great reviews for SUS at Bridewell Island are out.  Four stars in Metro, Five in Venue Magazine and a good review in The Guardian.

Here’s that Venue Magazine in full:

Fuck me, but this is good: 90 minutes of sleeves-up, no-nonsense drama set on the eve of Thatcher’s 1979 electoral landslide and bristling with cruelty, violence and indignation. Pulled in on ‘sus’(picion), Leon Delroy is being interrogated by two Jurassic-era cops who make those ‘Life on Mars’ jokers look like implausible imaginary boys. That’s about it for storyline but, despite being a claustrophobic three-hander, Barrie Keefe’s ‘instant political’ script (written in the aftermath of Thatch’s victory and based on a true story) creates a state-of-the-nation snapshot that’s both ugly and compelling. Delroy just happens to be black and unemployed, and his Big Sister-idolising interrogators gloat over the blue-suited one’s imminent ascent to Number 10 when, they believe, they’ll be able to treat the likes of their suspect with contempt and impunity, their xenophobia officially sanctioned from on high.

Directed by Katharine Rogers, Splice Productions’ revival stages all this in the round (no mean feat when beatings are involved) and, given that Britain now has BNP MEPS in Brussels, it couldn’t be more timely. As Delroy, Huss Garbiya is magnificently understated, his geezerish chirpiness slowly but surely eroded under pressure, while newby BOV Theatre School graduate Jack Wharrier makes an impressive debut as the meat-headed, dog-mourning Wilby and Bob Gwilym prowls the stage as boss man Karn with the confidence and presence of a psychotic Sean Connery. That this is in Bridewell, only yards from where similar interrogations may have taken place, gives it an added edge, but even if it was being performed in a leafy garden, you’d be hard-pressed to find fault. (Tom Phillips) *****

A heads up about Wales Millennium Centre’s Blysh Festival which runs between 17 and 26 July and which I’m doing some work for.  It looks brilliant, and marks a new strand of programming for the Centre – cabaret, carnival and circus.

You can see the full programme here. You can also download the rather lovely brochure from that page too.

My highlights are definitely Bourgeoise and Maurice,  Camille O’Sullivan and The Secret Carnival.  There’s also loads of free stuff happnening in around the Centre.

Residence, the artist-led organisation I’m part of, has been upping it’s game recently.  That game, incidentally, is to provide social, rehearsal and office space for us as artists making theatre, live art and performance.  At the moment, we share a cruddy office space in central Bristol.  We’re in the CID unit of the old Bridewell Police Station in Broadmead.  It’s dark, damp and cold, and we’ve realised that if we don’t up sticks soon the whole organisation could fold. So we’re on the lookout for a new space.  We’ve looked at a couple of spaces, and the prospects are exciting.

And as part of this new lease of life, we’re also holding our first public event at the Tobacco Factory this autumn. From Friday 11th to Saturday 12th September, Residence will be moving in to the Tobacco Factory and calling it home. We’ll be hosting drinks, dinner and then a breakfast to recover the morning after the night before. Between the food and the friendly chat there will be discussion and debate about theatre, work-in-progress showings, open rehearsals and the opportunity to meet other theatre-makers and audiences.  So this is just an advance warning that that’s coming up.  There’s loads of other stuff happening that weekend, including Lone Twin’s Speeches project in Bath, commissioned by ICIA, and Take Art’s Made in Somerset.

Having provided me with two of my all time theatre highs over the last twelve months in Once and for All We’re Going to Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen and The Smile Off Your Face, I’m looking forward to Ontroerend Goed’s new show Under the Influence, commissioned by the Drum in Plymouth.  I’m going to see it tomorrow night, despite Lyn Gardner’s not-so-great review in The Guardian.