Two Little Dramaturgies: Matt Abbott @ Edfringe 2017

Edinburgh Fringe 2017: Spoken Word WORLD PREMIERE

Matt Abbott Poet/Norwich Arts Centre (UK) present

MATT ABBOTT: TWO LITTLE DUCKS

Razor sharp wit, linguistic flair and storytelling in deeply personal and political show

Poet and activist Matt Abbott fuses socio-political commentary and contemporary kitchen sink realism for his second fringe show. 

Venue: Underbelly, Belly Laugh (Venue 61)

Tickets: £8 - £10 (previews 3-4 Aug £6.50)

Dates:  3-27 Aug (not 14)Venue Box Office: 03333 444 167

Time:    14.20 (60 mins) 

What was the inspiration for this performance/show?

To be completely honest, this show is more a product of circumstance, timing and experience than anything else. I first visited the Calais Jungle in April last year. My final visit was in August. Smack bang in the middle of that was the EU Referendum.

I’m from a city which voted 66% Leave, and whilst I was (and still am) passionately Remain, I can understand why so many traditionally working-class communities rebelled against the establishment and embraced Brexit. I’m fed up of them being dismissed as ignorant or racist, so I wanted to discuss that.

But at the same time, I have found the level of disdain and disregard towards refugees alarming over the last year, so I juxtaposed the Brexit content with the stories from Calais; two wildly contrasting scenes which were playing out at exactly the same time, right next to each other.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

Absolutely. The very nature of something being written for performance means that it’ll be more acute, more considered and more emotive. People will always accuse you of preaching to the converted to an extent, but there are many ways to discuss or express ideas – whether political or not – without simply preaching from a soapbox.

Social media is incredible when it comes to sharing and learning of news, ideas, opinions, etc., but it’s also quite overwhelming, and quite sensationalist. Therefore, a performance perhaps gives the ideas more breathing space.

How did you first become interested in making performance?

During Sixth Form college, I was a regular on West Yorkshire’s thriving live music scene (indie was huge at the time). I’d always fantasised about being a frontman and been obsessed with lyrics, but with no viable avenue to pursue any kind of performance.

I became obsessed with a band called Reverend & the Makers. Their frontman, Jon McClure, would recite quickfire spoken word poems during their sets. Instantly I was captivated by it, and subsequently became enamored with John Cooper Clarke. It wasn’t long before I’d penned something myself and made my way onto stages at music gigs, political events, festivals etc.

Is there any particular approach you took to the making of the show?

In a theatrical sense, no. The bones of the show arrived to be organically, because I’d written about things as I experienced them. Once I’d arrived at a concept, I decided that I want to make my points through storytelling, and personal experiences; rather than platitudes and statistics. I’ve done very little research, because I didn’t want it to be contrived.

Structurally, there are three key strands. The strands are interwoven, partly to ensure that there’s a balance and range of tones, and partly to juxtapose one another in order to achieve the show’s overall message. For want of a better phrase, I guess it’s like a poetic symphony, and whilst the three strands contrast one another, they complement each other perfectly in terms of making Two Little Ducks what it is.

Does the show fit with the style of your other productions?

This is actually my first solo production of its kind. When I did the Fringe in 2015, I essentially just tied together 45 minutes of my best material at that time. There was naturally a coherence throughout because it was all my stuff, but it was definitely more a polished gig than a show.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I want to change people’s opinions on what many perceive the average Brexiteer to be. I want to shed light on the socio/political/economic conditions which led a lot of communities to vote Brexit. And I also want to try and bring the Calais Jungle to life; it wasn’t portrayed anywhere near accurately in the mainstream media, and in fact its largely down to the mainstream media that people feel such hostility towards refugees.

It just so happens that the Leave campaign fanned the flames of xenophobia at precisely the worst moment. The entire Referendum campaign became about immigration, which – as we’re seeing now – is by no means the most significant aspect of EU membership.

So whilst on the one hand I’m expressing sympathy and empathy for the Brexit vote, I’m also utterly condemning the racist and anti-refugee sentiment which unfortunately turned the Leave vote into such an ugly and divisive campaign.

Native to a city that voted 66% leave, Wakefield-born Abbott strives to illuminate and explore the chaos behind Brexit. As his poetry strays from council estates to the Calais jungle he explores the aftermath of the Thatcher years taking in overnight pie shops and MegaBus marathons in a deeply personal, and bang up to the minute politically aware show.

Using razor sharp wit, storytelling and linguistic flair this is poetry for the underdog from one of our leading new voices, presented in an engaging, accessible style that acts as an invitation and welcome mat for those new to poetry. A visceral, warm and engaging, spoken word experience that follows the success of his 2015 Fringe début ‘Matt Abbott is Skint & Demoralised’.

Matt Abbott is one of the rising stars on the UK’s flourishing spoken word scene. He recently starred in Nationwide Building Society’s national TV ad campaign and has shared a stage with Sleaford Mods, Ken Loach, Sara Pascoe, Paul Weller and Salena Godden. He founded and runs the independent spoken word label Nymphs & Thugs.

No sloganeering ranter, Matt is also an activist and supporter of several causes. In 2016 he toured the country in support of the Labour Party and volunteered at the Calais jungle. He’s an ambassador for Trinity Homeless Projects, CRIBS International and Eureka! The National Children’s Museum and Poet-in-Residence at the National Coal Mining Museum of England. 

Slooshy Dramaturgy: Greg Byron @ Edfringe 2017

Company Gavin Robertson Presents GREG BYRON ‘SLOOSHY WORDSHOW’ Assembly Baillie Room Aug 3-28

GAVIN ROBERTSON  IS “TOO ANGRY” TO MAKE THEATRE: ​

Having created multi-appearing West End hit 'Thunderbirds F.A.B', as well as numerous other productions, including last year’s Assembly shows ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE DAY THAT TIME FORGOT! and THE SIX-SIDED MAN, international Theatre producer/writer/performer Gavin Robertson has morphed into Spoken Word poet GREG BYRON for the Edinburgh Fringe, and shows in the USA in Autumn.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

I was looking for inspiration for my 3rd solo show and had been awarded a month's residency in Florida USA to research and write. However - instead of any theatre narrative I found myself writing poetry about current events (yes, partly through outrage and politically motivated disgust) and subjects that interested me, like science and memory. So instead of fighting my instincts I decided to make a Spoken Word show, though I think my inherent theatrical/producer experience has its influence.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

That's pretty much how this show came about! It was the variance and focus of all my concerns about social issues and themes like compassion and responsibility that became the show. There's a cathartic quality for both myself and the audience in expressing/hearing the poems.

How did you become interested in making performance?

It sounds melodramatic but I discovered Bowie in the late 1970's - specifically the mime aspect of his live shows. I then studied with the same Teacher and started making work myself. It's all I've ever done and I'm lucky to have travelled globally as a result.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

I find a subject that ignites my passion then write about it. After I made a collection of poems, then it was a case of weaving them together in an order that brings highs and lows, and different emotional responses.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Not AT ALL! I have in the past read poetry live in various places and countries. I've worked on performance with poets and writers but never written my own poetry FOR me to perform in front of an audience. It's a real 'first' but the direct form of address and relationship with that audience is stimulating.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I'm writing from the heart even though I'm using a persona (Greg Byron) so I want them to relate and empathise with the subject matter. I know already some poems move them and some subjects - particularly those with a political slant -  bring the room together, so it can be both entertaining yet cathartic. It's almost like becoming a community in one hour.

Call it what you will - Spoken Word, Live Literature, Performance Poetry - it's the direct form of address that appeals. Gavin explains: "I'd made two solo shows and was looking for the third - but with everything in the world right now I was too angry to make Theatre. I went to Florida for a month and what came out was poetry about benefit cuts, Trump, Brexit, food banks, austerity, memory and science...all sorts of stuff".

So is it all ranting and anger?

"There's a wry kind of sarcasm often, a sardonic tone, but Greg has his lighter moments. Any show needs light and shade, and I'm challenging myself with the whole venture...

I wanted to distance this from my Theatre work for one - but also GREG is my Ziggy Stardust; he's the character I feel comfortable performing the lines I write. He's more brash than me, more direct".

Linear Dramaturgy : Ian Horgan and Ryan Duncan @ Edfringe 2016

Lines

Rose Bruford @ Upper Church, Summerhall

Aug 5-15 2.00pm

A devised play that uses spoken word poetry to explore the nature of contemporary public transport. The London Underground handles over four million passengers per day. Half the population of our multicultural capital scurry beneath the city to travel together. Each carriage is inhabited by cross sections of society. Combinations of class, race and opinion meet in a space in which you can barely whisper. A chorus of nine will become hundreds of passengers from all walks of life. They will create the tones, mechanisms and inhabitants of the tube as they journey through the veins of the city.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

As students with easy access to London, we have used the tube a great deal in last few years. We found ourselves constantly discussing the sociology of public transport. The forced proximity of strangers, the multicultural cross-sections of the average tube carriage. Using poetic text, we aimed to give a common voice to the countless combinations of class, race, and opinion that meet in a space in which you can barely whisper.


How did you go about gathering the team for it?
Ryan Duncan and Ian Horgan founded the company during their acting training at Rose Bruford. A drama school like Rose Bruford, brimming with eager and talented students (both technical and performative) is an abundant resource for assembling a cast and creative team. The entire company of LINES are either recent graduates or current students from Rose Bruford. We held open auditions ahead of the schools Symposium festival this year, finding a diverse ensemble from the several performance courses. Our Stage Managers, Lighting and Sound Designers as well as Scenic Artists are people we have worked with in previous Rose Bruford productions. 


How did you become interested in making performance?
Whilst training as Actors, \Ian & Ryan cultivated their respective desires to direct and write. 


Whilst studying Meisner and Stanislavsky during 1st year, Ryan became interested in the transferable nature of such techniques, helping actors to discover a performance. The actors therefore become a resource for creating material, rather than having to squeeze themselves into previously established roles. 


Ian had dabbled in writing poetry (particularly lyrics) even before Rose Bruford. When working with the ideas that Ryan had found with the ensemble, Ian became fascinated in turning authentic, bold and organic material into subtle poetry the was complementary to the scene, rather than overbearing. 


We feel that the best shows are those that authentically investigate the human condition, whilst daring to be extraordinary in terms of form.


Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
Since our first piece of new writing last year, we have been attempting to combine poetic text with the social concerns of our time, moving towards a deftness where instead of the audience being bombarded with lyricism, they are instead provided with a musical undercurrent that compliments the subject matter. 


This project is a development of our previous practise, we have been bolder with the form and more open to what our ensemble are offering. Two shows cannot really illustrate whether our process is typical, but we are definitely refining our aforementioned ideas. 


What do you hope that the audience will experience?
The play refers to the inhabitance of the underground as ‘tunnel visioned’, which is true in any large crowd. We hope our play will give people an insight into the humanity hidden in the crowded London Underground. 


We want to expose the audience up to the world around them and question their initial perceptions. To delight, or despair in them by highlighting things they overlook everyday.


The piece is very eclectic and episodic which we feel gives it mass appeal, but we would urge anyone who enjoys a multi-faceted performance, who wants to be both entertained and challenged to come along.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
The show begins by presenting the otherwise voiceless passengers of the underground and their tunnel visioned nature. We then shift perceptions of the audience by using direct address. The soliloquies of this section allow the audience to enter the inner thoughts of our characters. This theatrical form gives the audience in intimate insight into our characters motives and conflicts. 


The events and characters of the show are all based on real life underground experiences of the cast. This authenticity counter-balances the heightened poetic form. 



Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
Tradition of naturalistic theatre combined with a contemporary form of spoken word theatre but we have combined the two to create scenes which are driven by the rhythm of the poetry.


Similar to the political awareness that the actor musicianship movement was born of, Iwebelieve that this marriage of spoken word and the theatrical form could be an up-and-coming subculture of its own.

Dramaturgy Guarantees You Inner Calm: Dominic Berry @ Edfringe 2016

Playing Mortal Kombat Guarantees You Inner Calm

Silk (Venue 444)

Aug 6-7, 9-14, 16-21, 23-27 8.05pm

Multi award-winning poet Dominic Berry (seen poeting on BBC and Channel 4) returns after touring Canada and USA with his unforgettable new show about love, loss, and his quest for a cheat to quick-start tranquillity. A hilarious, but deeply moving spoken word show about what happens when you turn to video games to solve the problems you have in the real world. Dominic examines failure, escapism, and love, through poetry, comedy and music.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

My inspiration for this show was being unhappy with my previous show!

Last year I did a full month run of Up Your Game: The Downfall of a Noob, a performance poetry show about video gaming that had some good bits well received by audiences and a whole load of stuff which didn't work. 

I was lucky enough to get an arts council england grants for the arts award to employ a director to reshape it into something better.

I was just really honest in my application - I said I had done a whole run at ed fringe (and tour, I had some venues book it after august) of a thing that had big flaws and I wanted to address these flaws.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

I had worked with Kevin Dyer, the director, before on a children's poetry show I toured called When Trolls Try To Eat Your Goldfish.

I met Kevin through someone else who I met at a networking event. 

Many artists see networking as a dirty word, but all it means is having a nice chat with other people into the arts, and maybe finding people who like the same stuff as you do.

Kevin and I had really clocked making Trolls, he had worked me really hard, kept encouraging me to redraft and remake, so I knew he would do the same with this show too.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

Kevin and I got rid of about two thirds of the last show and just kept the stuff that was connecting with crowds. We looked at why we thought that stuff was working and how we could build on that to make something that was in its entirety of engaging interest to audiences.

Looking for the human themes that for me the video gaming angle represented was intense. As writers we can sometimes assume everyone has the same reference points as we do and sometimes we need to realise some stuff needs to be more explicit and other stuff more subtle but all with something really concrete that can drive the emotive force forwards.

We kept adding and taking away poems from the show and have ended up with twelve solid pieces I am really proud of.

We have already done one national tour, and also taken the poems across ten cities across south Canada, so I am in a very different position now to where I was at last year for 2015 edinburgh fringe. I feel really confident in this show and really excited to be sharing it this summer.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

all the feels!

Stand Up & Slam! Dramaturgy: Lucy Danser @ Edfringe 2016

Stand Up & Slam!

Just the Tonic at The Mash House (Venue 288)

Aug 4-14, 16-28 9.20pm

Stand-up comedy: poetry’s idiot relation, right? Performance poetry: comedy’s boring cousin, yes? Let's find out. Six phenomenal acts go head-to-head for your approval as poetry and comedy collide with hilarious results! Our resident team captains are joined by the most exciting comedians and poets from around the UK. 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Put simply, the inspiration was finding a way to bring together comedy and poetry nights in a unique and interesting way. We didn’t want to just put on a mixed bill night - we wanted to create a whole new show where the two types of performers interacted with each other and the audience. The reason we wanted to bring the two art forms together at all was because they’re perfect together but have such crazily different audience bases! My co-creator Dan Simpson was a poet and organised poetry nights. I organised comedy nights. We never went to each other’s nights. They just weren’t ‘our thing’. It sounds silly now but to me poetry was a little bit pretentious, a little dull and not a particularly exciting night out. To Dan, comedy was amusing but was quite simplistic and full of dick jokes. Eventually I went to his poetry night and vice versa and were completely blown way. He saw a ton of intelligent, hilarious poets tackling all types of subjects and I laughed and cried my way through incredibly performed, exciting poems. We both realised the overlap between these two different but similar spoken word art forms in no way correlated with peoples’ preconceptions of them. And we wanted to smash that! So we set it up as a battle: Poets Vs Comedians. The show takes place in rounds and the audience pick the winners: but really everyone is excellent!

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

The show has resident hosts representing Team Comedy and Team Poetry (you’ll get one of each per show) and then we have a core team of acts who join us for different shows and one-off guests as well. We developed the show with Dan hosting for Team Poetry and Paul Sweeney hosting for Team Poetry and had a residency at the Comedy Cafe in Shoreditch. Then Paul went to become a barber for a bit (find him at @sweencutscomedy) and we did lots of playing around to find our perfect team. For Team Comedy I wanted to work with comedians I had an existing professional relationship with and who’d bring something unique to the job. So our comedy hosts are Rich Wilson and Rob Carter. Rich is an excellent experience MC and appeals to the die-hard comedy fans. Rob is a very funny act who also does character and musical comedy so he’s always bringing something new to the show. For Team Poetry Dan is joined by Oliver Forsyth who has been involved in the show since the very start. He’s an experienced poetry performer who’s also an excellent writer and actor (his play Happy Jack is on at The Pleasance this year) so he’s got a real upfront cheeky chappie sort of persona which joins poetry and comedy fans together perfectly!

How did you become interested in making performance?

I’ve always been interested in live entertainment. I grew up in London, seeing a lot of theatre and went to study Drama at the University of Kent and Indiana University. Originally I wanted to write and act, but when I started working with comedians a whole new world of options opened up with me in terms of how to make different types of performance. I enjoy working with comedians and poets because projects can come together much more spontaneously than theatre can and make the journey from page to stage much faster.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

I suppose that depends. For theatre projects I’ll spend a lot more time alone or interviewing people to make a script come together. This was a lot more interactive. Dan and I put the format together over copious amount of coffee in various Pret a Mangers and then we threw our first show together at the Gallery Cafe in Bethnal Green without very much idea of what exactly we were doing. So I’d say that making a show this way has been a lot more interactive and has meant that we’re always developing and changing it. We brought it to the Fringe last year but return audiences will see a few changes from that show. 

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

Mostly we just want them to have fun. It’s a comedy show with a difference, but it’s comedy nonetheless! We've discovered that some people come firmly to represent one art form - so obviously in that case we’d like their preconceptions about the other quashed! Our favourite audiences are when people find their vote changing from the beginning to the end of the show - that means we’ve introduced them to something new. But, yeah, we just want them to have an excellent time, to laugh, listen, shout and go out feeling that they’ve had a great EdFringe hour! 

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We discussed different options for how the audience would vote from Ready, Steady, Cook style signs (remember the peppers and tomatoes!?) to fancy electronic applause meters. But in the end the best way has turned out to be the audience shouting and applauding and the hosts directly responding. We don’t force too much of a participatory atmosphere because you always have different audiences but we do encourage the audience to be involved as much as they want to be throughout. Our favourite shows are where we have quite a responsive audience and we found Edinburgh to be the best for that last year! Our favourite strategy that has really been developed in this year has simply been to really create the atmosphere of a battle in a much more heightened way than we have before. So although it’s clearly tongue in cheek we use music and humour to bring the audience into this idea of a high stakes battle. 

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?

It’s a pretty unique show - there isn’t anything like it at the Fringe or anywhere else we’ve come across. However it does tie into those acts who crossover the comedy/poetry art forms in their work - specifically people like Tim Key, Phil Jupitus, Rhys James, Tim Minchin and so on. 

Exactly like Dramaturgy: Lotte @ Edfringe 2016

Joe Brown and Matt Whayman present 

Exactly Like You

August 4th-28th

15:10 (1 hr)

Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)

Spoken word artist and actress Lotte Rice presents her debut one-woman show Exactly Like You, combining her gifts as a performer and a poet to present a modern story drawing on the electrifying songs of Nina Simone, directed by Fringe First Award winner Kirsty Patrick Ward (CHEF, by Sabrina Mahfouz).

A girl wakes to find a strange man in her bed and spends the day piecing together what happened the night before. Lost in a lonely city, she summons one of the twentieth century’s most inspiring figures, Nina Simone. This brand new show from Lotte Rice is driven by poetry and bubbling with wit.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Good question! There are quite a few actually. Needless to say Nina Simone was a huge influence- I have always listened to her music but got particularly absorbed by her work just before I had the idea for this piece. I wrote a short play first- a spoken word performance piece really – which is what this play is based on. But also, I came to Edinburgh in 2014 and saw so many amazing female performers. Lady Rizo was one. The most fabulous woman with the most sensational voice just DOING HER THING. Also, Jessie Cave, an incredibly honest, observant and hilarious comedian commenting so brutally on the anxieties and neurosis that so many women share. Basically, lots of women doing their thing.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

Beautiful serendipity really, and with help. My producers have been incredible at getting me into gear for making decisions, and my director has a fantastic network of brilliant creatives who she has admired or worked with before – lighting, sound and set designers.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I trained as an actor at RADA, which involved largely script based acting. Which I love! But I’d always secretly written poetry and short stories, and harboured dreams of singing and a few years ago I started tentatively putting some of my own work out. It was partly due to wanting to challenge myself. As an actor you never know how long the periods of thumb twiddling between jobs are going to last, so it became a sort of side hobby. But then when it was suggested I write a play, I thought the challenge would be a really great way of developing new skills and learning new things.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

No. As I said, I am used to working collaboratively, bouncing off of other peoples ideas. This has been a very novel experience for me, a lot of time alone with my ideas, but luckily I have some fantastic producers who have been supporting me from the start, so it hasn’t been lonely!

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope that they are uplifted and inspired. I hope that they are entertained. I hope that they are encouraged to take the time to listen to the music that they love more often!

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I’m not sure I completely understand the question, but I will answer as best as I can! I was keen to create an intimate cabaret experience blending theatre, singing and spoken word for an audience who like to be taken on a journey and entertained. 

I am working closely with a sound engineer, who is doing some fantastic work with sampling bits of music and creating effects to help the audience understand time passing and the internal life of the character.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I suppose storytelling and spoken word.

Lotte Rice graduated from RADA in 2011. She has since been taking the spoken word circuit by storm, regularly performing at scratch nights across London.

Exactly like Dramaturgy: Lotte @ Edfringe 2016

Joe Brown and Matt Whayman present 

Exactly Like You

August 4th-28th

15:10 (1 hr)

Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)

Spoken word artist and actress Lotte Rice presents her debut one-woman show Exactly Like You, combining her gifts as a performer and a poet to present a modern story drawing on the electrifying songs of Nina Simone, directed by Fringe First Award winner Kirsty Patrick Ward (CHEF, by Sabrina Mahfouz).

A girl wakes to find a strange man in her bed and spends the day piecing together what happened the night before. Lost in a lonely city, she summons one of the twentieth century’s most inspiring figures, Nina Simone. This brand new show from Lotte Rice is driven by poetry and bubbling with wit.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Good question! There are quite a few actually. Needless to say Nina Simone was a huge influence- I have always listened to her music but got particularly absorbed by her work just before I had the idea for this piece. I wrote a short play first- a spoken word performance piece really – which is what this play is based on. But also, I came to Edinburgh in 2014 and saw so many amazing female performers. Lady Rizo was one. The most fabulous woman with the most sensational voice just DOING HER THING. Also, Jessie Cave, an incredibly honest, observant and hilarious comedian commenting so brutally on the anxieties and neurosis that so many women share. Basically, lots of women doing their thing.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?

Beautiful serendipity really, and with help. My producers have been incredible at getting me into gear for making decisions, and my director has a fantastic network of brilliant creatives who she has admired or worked with before – lighting, sound and set designers.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I trained as an actor at RADA, which involved largely script based acting. Which I love! But I’d always secretly written poetry and short stories, and harboured dreams of singing and a few years ago I started tentatively putting some of my own work out. It was partly due to wanting to challenge myself. As an actor you never know how long the periods of thumb twiddling between jobs are going to last, so it became a sort of side hobby. But then when it was suggested I write a play, I thought the challenge would be a really great way of developing new skills and learning new things.

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?

No. As I said, I am used to working collaboratively, bouncing off of other peoples ideas. This has been a very novel experience for me, a lot of time alone with my ideas, but luckily I have some fantastic producers who have been supporting me from the start, so it hasn’t been lonely!

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope that they are uplifted and inspired. I hope that they are entertained. I hope that they are encouraged to take the time to listen to the music that they love more often!

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

I’m not sure I completely understand the question, but I will answer as best as I can! I was keen to create an intimate cabaret experience blending theatre, singing and spoken word for an audience who like to be taken on a journey and entertained. 

I am working closely with a sound engineer, who is doing some fantastic work with sampling bits of music and creating effects to help the audience understand time passing and the internal life of the character.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
I suppose storytelling and spoken word.

Lotte Rice graduated from RADA in 2011. She has since been taking the spoken word circuit by storm, regularly performing at scratch nights across London.

How not to Live in Dramaturgy: Annie Siddons @ Edfringe 2016

Annie Siddons presents:

How (not) to Live in Suburbia

Summerhall, Anatomy Lecture Theatre, 3 – 29 Aug 2016 (not 10 & 15 & 22), 4.50pm (6pm)

Annie Siddons takes a look at the time in her

credit Nicki Hobday

life when she found herself – performance maker, part Greek, part Egyptian, full Londoner – as a single mum living in the nuclear family haven of curtain-twitching Twickenham. Through performance and surreal film, she recalls her gauche attempts to fit in with the yummy mummies who run triathlons and the families that row and cycle at weekends in the most married place in London.
What was the inspiration for this performance?
I was extremely lonely. It was very painful and embarrrassing. I realised that I couldn’t be the only person who was and I wanted to talk about it, as it’s an extremely difficult thing to talk about. I needed to do it for myself as it was the driving force in my life at the time, and I wanted to do it for other people . 

Also, I’ve been trying to lessen the gap between me and audiences over the past few years. 4 years ago I hadn’t performed in a show for a long time. Then I made my first solo show, Raymondo, which was spoken word and had an intimate feel but was in a magic realist idiom, which I think gulled some people into thinking it wasn’t about anything in particular. Which was not in any sense true. Not everyone thought that, but some people did. 

So with this show I want to lessen the gap between me and audiences even more.

How did you go about gathering the team for it?
I’d been in Edinburgh in 2014 on Escalator East to Edinburgh, and happened to meet a whole smorgasbord of brilliant, interesting and provocative people, such as Richard de Domenici, Anthony Roberts, Jen Smethurst and Nicki Hobday. Then I wanted to continue working with some trusty collaborators that I already had, Justin, Andy and Adam.

How did you become interested in making performance?
I always have been, from as long as I can remember. 

Was your process typical of the way that you make a performance?
No. I tend to be quite hasty, I spend long fallow times gathering stuff and myself and then I tend to make things in quite a quick splurge. But with this, because we had films in it, and because I was working with Richard, who is very busy, the process was protracted and bitty and we didn’t find the live show till quite late in it.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?
I want them to feel less alone, to feel understood. Or if they know someone lonely not to judge them so harshly. And in the experience I want them to laugh, be moved, and enjoy the craft of the storytelling, performance, and films.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?
Hmmmmmmmmm. We’re still working on this one. I love dark work, and there’s a massive difference between dark work that is somehow responsible, owning its own shit, and being a grown up, and dark work that is leaky and weird and not doing those things. And I wanted to talk about difficult things openly and honestly without making audiences feel like shit. 

And so we’ve experimented with the form of the show in order to maximise that. Also, in a show about connection, we had to go down the route of exploring involving audiences in the actual physical show and in the films, but it transpires that I have a very particular set of rules around that, for myself as a performer – you have to really earn it, or be extremely skilled and charming like Jamie Wood, and so we’ve ended up not doing that. 

There was a moment where we considered working with local communities for part two of the show. I bought a van and I was going to set it up as a living room where my neighbours, whom I don't know, and me, could hang out and get to know each other. But my teenage daughters put a moratorium on that, and I was secretly relieved.

Do you see your work within any particular tradition?
Well, I’ve been working as a playwright for the past 14 years, and it’s only in the past 3 years that I’ve started making my own performance again. There’s always going to be a strong written element in my work as that’s the way I negotiate myself and the world. Same with music. 

I had a very isolated Victorian childhood reading books and gaining musical accomplishments, so those things are hard wired into me. Sometimes the tradition you end up in is based on the venues that want to programme you, so sometimes these categories can be a bit arbitrary. But it’s something like experimental theatre slash new writing, with a jus of live art, a side salad of spoken word and some stand up comedy fries. 

But to be honest, I have never woken up in the morning and thought about a tradition of work. I have people who inspire me, whom I adore, and I’ve had a patchy training of different things, and I go through phases with work. I’m still figuring it all out.





Summerhall, Anatomy Lecture Theatre, 3 – 29 Aug 2016 (not 10 & 15 & 22), 4.50pm (6pm)

Building Dramaturgy David Lee Morgan @ edfringe 2015

PBH’s Free Fringe
BUILDING GOD

UK and reigning BBC slam poetry champion, David Lee Morgan, spits over music tracks produced and mixed by CloudFistConceptz with an added track by Revolution Void.

5:10-6:00PM 
Aug 7-30 (every day except Wednesdays)
@Venue 156
The Banshee Labyrinth, Banqueting Hall

BUILDING GOD: Communism or oblivion… Now that the great revolutions of the last century have been defeated, are we doomed to bury ourselves in the slime of a money-grubbing, market-driven insane asylum, or is a bright future still possible? What can we learn from the past? What can we do for the future? 

This is a continuation of the ideas developed in Science, Love and Revolution. It reprises one essential poem from that show, “What Is To Be Done”, and then looks at the history of communist revolution in the light of the ideals expressed in that poem. 
 

The Fringe 

What inspired this production: did you begin with an idea or a script or an object?
The idea for Building God began as a continuation of the ideas developed in Science, Love and Revolution. It reprises one essential poem from that show, What Is To Be Done, and then looks at the history of communist revolution in the light of the ideals expressed in that poem. Both works came out of my engagement with the London spoken word scene, which has so many revolutionary minded poets from diverse spoken word and political traditions from all over the UK and the world. 

I found myself in a dialogue where i could express my most extreme political and philosophical thoughts and have them listened to, taken seriously, and reacted to, both in comments on the poems themselves and in poems on the same subjects written by many others. I was also struck by how many people would love my poems and ideas, but then go on to say things that seemed to me to completely contradict what i thought i had said. This spurred me on to try to express my ideas with more clarity, but also to try to hone in on the ways that i differed from the general drift of thought in the scene – not to be contrary, but to try to dig into the contradictions more deeply, understand them more deeply.

This sounds kind of abstract and general, but in application, the work has to be very concrete: “Generality is the death of art,” Arthur Miller.

Where does your piece at the fringe fit with your usual work?
 i’ve been writing all my life, songs, stories, poems, novels, plays. I spent about ten years locked in my room writing communist broadway musicals – that somehow never made it to broadway. I love writing for theatre. I especially love the “musical” form, that includes songs embedded in more realistic dialogue, a mixture of the rough and the holy that Peter Brook talked about in his book, The Empty Space. 

Those few times when i’ve been able to see the characters in my head come to life on the stage have been magic. Performing a song or a poem for an audience that’s digging it is like really good sex; seeing one of your plays come to life on the stage is like falling in love. 

But that happened so seldom for me, and a play isn’t really finished until it’s been put up on stage. I got tired of twenty year old readers telling me something wouldn’t work on stage when i knew it would. With spoken word, it gets on the stage because i take it there. And i’m in love with the music of words, so it’s a good fit.

What can the audience expect to see and feel - or even think - of your production?
I think a lot of people are depressed and angry about the world situation. The great revolutions of the past have been defeated, and many millions of the most oppressed are placing their hopes in religious fundamentalism – not just Islamic fundamentalism, we can see Christian, Jewish, Hindu and even Buddhist fundamentalism playing the same role. 

The show holds out the possibility that we can learn from the great revolutions of the past, their achievements and failures, and go beyond them to build the kind of world we all dream of, where cruelty and senseless death are not just a part of the mix, a world based cooperation and yes, love.

How would you explain the relevance - or otherwise - of dramaturgy within your work? 
A lot of times, i just want to say the words, give them their rhythm, try very hard not to perform, just let them do their work.

But in a full show, i think it’s important to think of it theatrically, pay attention to a narrative line, movement, music, visuals, all the resources available. 

I got a chance to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival this year. When i wasn’t on, i just parked myself in front of the main stage and took mental notes. I was especially impressed by Pharrell Williams' show. Not a big fan of his songs, but the show was a total production. He had clearly given a great deal of creative thought to every aspect of the stage and sound. A lot to learn from. 

What particular traditions and influences would you acknowledge on your work -  have any particular artists, or genres inspired you and do you see yourself within their tradition?
Influences: Woody Guthrie, Brecht, Heiner Müller, Gil Scot Heron, Sharon Olds, Marx-Lenin-Mao, Spinoza, Lucretius, Rogers & Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim, Suzanne Vega. Not sure I fit into any one tradition. I like the phrase, punk-latin-blues. If i were to name one artist, i guess it would be Heiner Müller for his mix of intense poetry and deep thought. 

Do you have a particular process of making that you could describe - where it begins, how you develop it, and whether there is any collaboration in the process? 
Sometimes i start with a nugget, a phrase or an idea, and then just go and go a la Kerouac or Sam Shepard. This is especially true of the more gut-wrenching personal stuff. But when i’m writing in a more political/philosophical vein, i will often spend two or three months obsessed with a single poem. 

I am a big fan of singing (not preaching) to the choir, but i hate rah-rah cheerleader stuff. i try to think deeply (he says) and challenge (not comfort) people who may mostly agree with me. 

I find that paying attention to the more formal aspects of a poem often forces me off the cliche highway into a more creative (and truer) path – but it is essential to be stubborn about never putting something in just because it rhymes, scans or whatever. 

I find collaboration difficult, because i have such definite ideas. When directing a play of mine a few years ago, i was once banned from the green room by the actors. 

But i rely very much on critical feedback from friends and strangers when i present a work for the first, second, third time... I do a lot of rewriting – and new writing – based on what i’ve learned. Over the last several years my work has been greatly enriched and deepened by my involvement in the incredibly diverse and international spoken word scene in London.

What do you feel the role of the critic is? 
To be honest, the role of the critic in my life has mostly been to ignore me. Maybe this is changing. When I did Science, Love and Revolution at the free fringe, i was astonished at how much a couple rave reviews changed my profile and opened doors for me. There are some very perceptive critics writing about spoken word now, and a lot who are well intentioned but full of shit. 

Role of the critic in general – hmmm... i suppose it ranges from making profound, insightful comments that let people see a work in a new light or even discover a whole new artist or genre...

to just letting people know what’s on and helping them guess whether they would like seeing it. Sometimes the worst critics are the best for this. I have friends who decide what to see based on what their “favourite” critic hates. 

Reviews of Science, Love and Revolution:
TIME OUT LONDON *****
I am awed by Morgan's passion, his humorous yet enraged intellectual appraisal… An energetic, clever, passionate survey of human life.

THE SCOTSMAN ****
One of those rare, passionate performances... bristling with energy and interesting ideas. If you want a bracing crash course in how to “read history… with a f***ing blowtorch,” look no further. A driving score by Michael Harding, supplemented by a smattering of saxophone solos from the poet himself, manages to complement the text without competing with it.

LITRO ARTS MAGAZINE 
He was brilliant. I’ve never seen someone transform so powerfully and fully…. He spits out the words of sacrifice, suffering and revolution, of wisdom and enlightenment. What he says is radical, is political, but it’s also wise.

David Lee Morgan has travelled the world with his saxophone, as a performance poet and street musician. He has won many poetry slams, including the 2014 BBC Edinburgh Fringe Championship, the London and UK Slam Championships. His 2013 spoken word show, Science, Love and Revolution, received rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was featured at at StAnza 2014, the international poetry festival in St. Andrews, Scotland. 

He is a longstanding member of the Writers Guild, and holds a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Newcastle University. He lives in London, grew up in the USA, was born in Berlin, and considers himself a citizen of the planet. He has been published in The Wooster Review, The Delinquent, The Human Rights Anthology, Huffington Post and Indigo. His book, Science, Love and Revolution, the text of poems from his critically acclaimed 2013 Edinburgh show, is published on Amazon.