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Photo by: Marlon Hazlewood |
October 1st, 2010
Rainy and windy outside as I sit here at my desk at Farnham Maltings Arts Centre. Gavin Stride and the staff here have been wonderful in making me feel at home in this bustling multi-disciplinary centre. Everything from theatre to film to kick-boxing to dance to pottery to bridge to yoga to jazz nights go on here, providing the Farhnam community with a plethora of community spaces for getting together and being creative. Millbrook should have one of these! There are four residenct performance companies here and several other associated companies who develop work for touring and presentation. Farnham has its own productions as well. I'll be going on tour with their Christmas show in November riding around in their van in Wales I hope.
Already I've made some valuable research and theatre contacts. Today I'm hoping to speak with a director in Ipswich who has run a company called Eastern Angles for the past thirty years. That company develops and produces work about its region. Every day there's something new to learn and someone new to meet as this centre is a magnet for the regional arts community. There's even a nice cafe on the floor below this office!
Farnham is a lovely town with many old buildings and a busy high street. I've been thinking I must start taping the accents and put an audio library together!
Tomorrow I'm off to London to see a play at the Young Vic called On Ageing. Children perform monologues, taking on the personae of elderly people (subtley, I am told).
Next week I'm meeting a theatre producer, Louise Blackwell, at the Battersea Arts Centre in London and getting a tour of the facility. And I'll be going to Barnardos Uk archives in Barkingside, East London. Later in the week I'm off to the Surrey History Centre in nearby Woking to look at materials on World War One relating to my new play in development, Wounded Soldiers.
So, that's about it for now. It may not be until next Friday when I can email again. I'm sure there will be lots more to report!
Cheers,
Rob
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