This is a pretty unique description of a Lucky Dogs meeting- it's written by the play...
A lucky dog.By Qfwfq. Filed in 'Qfwfq'
Last night I attended what might be bizzarly described as a panoptican of interpretation.
It was a writer’s group, with actors and actresses in attendance, eager to get their teeth into a fleshy script.
The evening started with the tooing-and-froing of witty marital banter, sharply decanting the subtle insecurities displayed in otherwise entirely ‘average’ conversation; punctuated by the lyrical spewing of a sleep deprived woman, chastising the human race for claiming everything for their own (Orion’s Belt, for example, stars recklessly named after a human invention to keep trousers around hips), and considering a sort of ‘philosophical dialectic’ in; “Caterpillar for eternity – butterfly for ten minutes…?” ["The Other Side of Everything" by Sally Beaumont]
Clearly, by this point, I was feeling nervous. I know it’s a cliche… but that was a tough act to follow; all the eager eyes in the room to immanently fall upon my laxidasical drivel, with the embryonic beauty of a well measured playscript fresh in their minds.
I explained myself, as a preface – or perhaps erecting a preemptive defense – to my unsuspecting predators:
the first bombshell; ‘There are no characters!’
The second; “Everyone can read, [who wants to read?]” – to which I received some anxious glances
another; “I am not a play”
“nor do I have structure, plot, linear-narrative”
…and I’m sure there were more, but by this point I was probably hyperventilating.
They performed me in the round, for ease of reading and to avoid (much) confusion. There were eleven of them; they took their time over the large portions and negotiated the staccato with consideration and attended to each of my facets without washing over any one moment.
They read parts of me that I have never heard, or in ways I had not expected; the numbers, for example, of the recipe (even when the actual recipe ceases, and the numbers protrude into other segments of text); the jumbled page where I recount the incident at the cash machine was read from top to bottom, rigorously, disregarding any column formation.
I have noticed that, particularly with actors, when a line is read incorrectly, or a word mispronnounced, as a matter of principle (or strict self-correction), the performer goes back, and tries again – often with an apology to accompany. And so I have become observant of precisely when this doesn’t happen – where self-correction doesn’t occurr, there is a good chance the performer has not noticed their error...
To read more about Aleastory visit http://www.aleastory.co.uk/
Many thanks to Will Wade for sharing Aleastory with us- all the Lucky Dogs wish you the best!
Monday, 18 January 2010
Write-up on Aleastory
Thursday, 29 October 2009
4 Star Review!!!
Review of Pint, Plate, Performance
"Food for body and soul"by Simon Dale for remotegoat on 02/10/09
Pint, Plate Performance at Central Station, King's Cross - all for £7? Surely not.
Three Person'd God, a monologue written by Craig Jordan Baker and performed by Sophie Talbot kicked off the evening. It was a philosophical examination of a woman, an actress, playing three roles - an activist, a barren woman (her label, not mine) and an actress - which increasingly bleed into one another so that she (and we) are left increasingly uncertain as to who the real person is, where one role stops and another begins: which is reality, which is performance.
Set in an unnamed dystopia, it also raises questions of state versus individual and the struggle of the human spirit in the face of sweeping state tyranny.
Performed with passion and fluency, Sophie Talbot's portrayal of the woman came alive most in the third section as she shifted from the stage to the wings of the audience and delivered her third role in which all roles blurred into one, evoking a powerful sense of personal dislocation and isolation.
Next up was Sally Beaumont with her piece The Other Side of Everything which, as with Craig Jordan Baker's short play, delighted in and revered the richness of language. The play mused upon language and communication, with particular focus on the inadequacy of language within relationships.
Sally Beaumont's character wrestles with the heights to which imagination and language can soar, and the very different reality when you let another into one's life or try to express oneself through words. Her monologue is punctuated by what we assume to be her memories - brought to life life with gusto by Helen Jessica Liggat and Matthew Betteridge whose humour and energy inhabited and gave crackle to the prosaic domestic exchanges, the type that happen regularly in most relationships (think woman talking, trying to engage the man in conversation, the man replying in monosyllables while he tries to read the paper), which were all too familiar to most couples in the audience! They were nice vignettes and a deft depiction of the divide between (in this case) genders and more widely, humans. Language can be as much a barrier as a tool for understanding.
Sally Beaumont delivered a strong and varied performance, wholly believable as a creative, impassioned individual struggling to bridge the gap between inner and outer life, oneself and one's different self in the context of a relationship and society.
Neither play offered a traditional narrative structure or conclusion, though this was deliberate rather than the result of fudgy writing or direction. Sometimes, though, you can be too esoteric at the expense of narrative, too wedded to the search for assonance, alliteration and rhyme, or reclaiming oft-neglected words; it can become to laboured, too self-conscious, weighing the writing down rather than letting it take flight. This wasn't the case here, but there was the odd moment I felt it was in danger of reaching that tipping point.
An elderly gentleman next to me confided that it wasn't his cup of tea, though he went on to say that he had thought it was drag act night at Central Station. I took his point, however, which was, as he explained, that he wanted something a bit more immediate, less intellectual. Unlike a previous incarnation of the evening I have seen from this company, Tuesday night was more experimental, less easy entertainment that the outright comedy I had seen before. His point was that in a pub atmosphere, a little background noise from surrounding venues now and then rearing its head, belly-laugh comedy is a more natural fit. I think there's room for both.So the evening gave food for thought and then some rousing traditional celtic folk music from The Northern Celts to round off the night.I didn't sample the actual food, as I had a dodgy tum (which didn't stop me sampling the pint, which I can report was very satisfactory), but judging from the empty plates around me it seemed to go down well. £7 for a pint, a plate and an evening of entertainment - hard to beat.
Keep your eyes out for more from the team, as Pint, Plate and Performance is set to become a monthly event - and one you should get yourself along to.The writers are part of The Lucky Dogs playwrights' collective.
Monday, 28 September 2009
Pint, Plate, Performance!
I'm delighted to announce the latest Lucky Dogs adventure: Pint, Plate, Performance!
Sophie Talbot has produced this fantastic evening of theatre, music and food at the Central Station in King's Cross- a unique venue for a unique evening.
Lucky Dogs Craig Jordon-Baker and Sally Beaumont have written two short plays, starring Sophie Talbot, Sally Beaumont, Helen Jessica Liggat and Mat Betteridge. The evening will be rounded off by the Northern Celts.
Our listing pages:
http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/event_view.php?uid=87774
(you’ll find links to our performers profiles here)
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=127705371828&ref=share
The blurb:
Pint, Plate, Performance
Tuesday 29th September, 7.30pm
The Central Station, King’s Cross, N1 9SD.
This monthly event brings together great new theatre, performance, music, beer and food into a cultural stew that will satisfy the stomach, eyes, ears and brain.A pint, a plate and three performances all for just £7!
This is a chance to see brand new short plays written by some of the UK's best new writers: the Lucky Dogs Collective. The Dogs were formed via the Royal Court's Young Writers' Programme and support each other to further develop their writing.
The on-the-door ticket price of £7 covers three performances, a feast of either carnivorous speciality or vegan delight and a pint of guesting real ale.
Sophie Talbot will be on stage in the first short play by Craig Jordan-Baker, playing a woman with three roles, trying to reconcile them all.
The second short play is written and performed by Sally Beaumont, up and coming coordinator of the Lucky Dogs and is a snappy, scrappy look at narcissism and self-help. It also features Helen Jessica Liggat and Mat Betteridge tearing each other to pieces…emotionally speaking.
The evening will be rounded off by a fantastic rootsy folk set from local band the Northern Celts.
Thursday, 2 April 2009
What We're All Upto...
After a break from our regular meetings, we're back and we're busy!
Huge congratulations go to our co-founder Kevin Kautzman:
For an application including Then Waves he has been named a 2009-10 Jerome Fellow at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis.
Then Waves has also been named a finalist for this year’s Yale Drama Series. Judging this year’s contest is Sir David Hare.
Then Waves has also been named a semi-finalist for Id Theater’s Seven Devils Playwrights Conference.
Kevin's website http://www.kevinkautzman.com/
Gem Carmella has been on our screens three times in quick succession with roles in The Bill, Holby City and Silent Witness.
Edward Llewlyn is off on a national tour. http://www.edwardllewelyn.co.uk/
Tim Macavoy has been writing Finlay Finds Himself for FYI Radio.
Tim's site http://timacavoy.googlepages.com/
Claude Starling has a reading of Under the L of Hollywood at the Tristam Bates Theatre on the 9th April.
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Remote Goat Review and Photos
"6 Inspiring new short plays" by Lisa Williams for remotegoat
(photos by Sally Beaumont)
No, '666' wasn't a satanic theatrical gathering, but rather 6 new short plays, directed by 6 different directors and performed by 6 actors as a script-in-hand performance at the Tristan Bates Theatre. The Lucky Dogs, a playwrights' collective based in London is doing a sterling job of creating and developing new performance work.
Whenever you get the chance to see new work, especially staged readings, I strongly encourage that you check it out. So quickly in today's society do we dismiss things that do not satisfy us immediately, expecting and wanting immediate gratification. The beauty of seeing new work, in this case staged readings, is that it is in progress. It isn't claiming to be a perfect polished production. It's a chance for the writers to see their words come to life on stage, some for the first time, for actors to work with original scripts and for directors to see who is up and coming on the writer's circuit. And for audience members, it's an opportunity to be a part of the process of a play you may very well see staged professionally in the future.
The strongest scripts of the six were 'Black Dog Day' by Sharon Kanolik and 'The Other Side of Everything' by Sally Beaumont, both exploring themes of identity - how people really feel about themselves despite what they project to the world and leaving the audience with something to think about after the lights fade down. I found some of the other scripts to be a bit challenging as an audience member - it was great to see writers playing with variations of story structure, but this sometimes led to a lack of clarity in the story itself. There is often just as much strength in simplicity and well-crafted characters, which script in hand performances such as these can greatly assist writers to achieve. Of the performers of the evening, Kate Walsh was the stand out - convincing and engaging in both roles.
Overall, an inspiring evening of new talent and an artistic collective with a great deal of talent. For more info about The Lucky Dogs, visit www.theluckydogs.net .
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
In February: 666
www.TheLuckyDogs.net
Black Dog Day
Written by Sharon Kanolik
Blue Bag Head Man
Written by Kevin Anthony Kautzman
Blue Bag Head Man played by Tim Macavoy
Written by Nicholas Alpe
Written by Yasmine Van Wilt
Flies played by Anola Chase
Black and White, Red 'Fore Morn
Written by Jon Cooper
Andrew played by Paul Etuka
The Other Side of Everything
“I think if everyone were dying it would be very educational. But impractical…”
Written by Sally Beaumont
Hanffe played by Anola Chase
Viloma played by Paul Etuka
Benet’s previous professional productions include revivals of Edmond, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, The Maintenance Man, Popcorn, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, The Shawl, Shopping and F***ing and Speed-the-Plow and the musical Closer than Ever; the new plays A Handful of Rain (New End), The Fury, The Geezer, I Really Must Be Getting Off, Next Big Thing (OVNV), Sikhs in the City (UK Tour, America, DVD), Soul Sikher (UK Tour) Still Waiting for Everything (Tour) Whatever! (Soho) and Wildwood Park (Bridewell); the new musicals City Lights (Old Vic), Mata Hari (Central School), Enchanted (Leeds) Toys (Musical Theatre Matters) and Circus A Go-Go (New End) as well as Ghetto, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, A View from the Bridge, Chess, Sweeney Todd, Sweet Charity and The Wiz for amateur or student companies, The Roald Dahl Project for Arts Educational (which he also wrote), workshop stagings of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, F Scott Fitzgerald's Porcelain and Pink, O'Neill's Thirst (Kings Head) and several corporate films. As a writer his plays include All Talk, Nothing Personal and an adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel I’m the King of the Castle. www.benetcatty.com
Lavinia Hollands (Blue Bag Head Man)
Lavinia is director of recently established Theatre Reel. Her previous work includes The Woolgatherer by William Maestrosimone, Vancouver, Canada, Make Me A Man by Melissa Harris, Victoria, Canada and Assistant Director to Aurora Theatre Director Tom Bentley, San Francisco. Lavinia's work engages her extensive training in physical Theatre, playwriting and the work of Yat Malmgren. She is excited to be directing, The Typographers Dream by Adam Block for the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Dale Heinen (Signal Failure)
Dale is a director and dramaturg specialising in new writing. Credits include the award winning Caravaggio (Silk Road Theatre, Chicago), Peasant (Chashama on 42nd St. and the Zipper, New York), Hadley's Experiment (national tour, England), To the Moon (Arches Award recipient, Glasgow), Pan and Boone (Camden Peoples Theatre), On Sundays (Union Theatre), Salome, Antigone, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, My Sister in This House, And Baby Makes Seven, and Heroine (all for Footsteps Theatre, Chicago) and A Woman Alone (Mary-Archie Theatre, Chicago). Dale has directed staged readings at Tricycle, Theatre 503 and Soho Theatre and has taught workshops about new writing at various London venues including Soho Theatre and Central School of Speech and Drama.
Charlotte Bennett (Waiting for Smythe)
Trained at the University of Hull (Drama BA Hons). Directing credits whilst at Hull University include; The Ash Girl, Breathing Corpses (Donald Roy Theatre), How Love is Spelt, Under the Blue Sky, Daytrips and Spoonface Steinberg (Gulbenkian studio).
Assisting credits since University include; Much Ado About Nothing (Sprite Productions dir.Lucy Kerbel), Moonwalking in Chinatown (Soho Theatre dir. Suzanne Gorman), Burnt Butterflies (Old Vic Productions (performed at Trafalgar Studios) dir. Des Kennedy), Happy Here (Old Vic Productions (performed at Trafalgar Studios) dir. Sophie Motley) and Dido Queen of Carthage (Angels in the Architecture dir. Rebecca McCutcheon). Various directing shadow placements also undertaken at English Touring Theatre, The Royal Court Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse and York Theatre Royal.
James Bounds (Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)
James is the Artistic Director of Open Plan Productions. With Open Plan, he has directed Touch,
After Ashley and Quake (all Finborough); Desdemona: a play about a handkerchief (White Bear); Hidden Light (Barons Court & Oxford Playhouse); Kid-Simple: a radio play in the flesh (Edinburgh Fringe); Peaches en Regalia, Find Me a Primitive Man and The M Word (all Etcetera). Other directing credits include subVERSE (503) and How I Learned to Drive (Edinburgh Fringe). As assistant director his credits include Future Me (503, dir. Guy Retallack) and Diamond (King's Head, dir Christopher Sandford). James has been short listed for the 2008 JMK Award.
jamesbounds@gmail.com www.openplanproductions.co.uk
Nadia Latif (The Other Side of Everything)
The Writers
Sharon Kanolik (Black Dog Day)
Sharon Kanolik hales from Wimborne in Dorset and is fairly new to playwriting. She studied American Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where two of her plays were performed. She recently took the Young Writer's Programme at the Royal Court Theatre. Sharon also enjoys writing poetry and prose and occasionally dabbles with acting. You can contact her at sharon.kanolik@gmail.com
Kevin Anthony Kautzman (Blue Bag Head Man)
Kevin Anthony Kautzman is an American playwright and poet. He holds a degree in history and philosophy from the University of Minnesota. He came to study dramatic writing at the Royal Court and Soho theatres in 2006 and 2007 and has since returned to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he hones an acute distaste for picturesque, snowy winters that last five months. His work has been seen in London (Soho Theatre Studio, the Dogstar, the King’s Head) and New York (Abingdon Arts Center), and he is currently engaged with Zealots & Mystics, a Twin Cities theatre company, on writing projects for the coming season. He is online at www.kevinkautzman.com
Nicholas Alpe (Signal Failure)
Nicholas is currently studying Drama, Applied Theatre and Education at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He began writing at sixteen taking playwriting courses at college, local arts organisations and university. Extracts of his Essex comedy Pink and Blue have been performed at Palmer's College and The Thameside Theatre. He has also had extracts of his short comedy Clockwork performed at Palmer's College and the Central School of Speech and Drama. Nicholas taught Creative Writing at Palmer's College and has been a reader for the Royal Court Young Writer's Programme. He is currently a reader for the Metamorphosis08 Playwriting Competition at the Churchill Theatre. He enjoys writing for competitions and has had several plays short-listed. Nicholas is currently developing his latest short play Hero.
Yasmine Van Wilt (Waiting for Smythe)
A writer-actor, singer-songwriter, Yasmine's first passion is playwriting. Originally from Canada, the bulk of Yasmine's work has been shown on stage in North America. The only undergraduate winner to date of the International WordBridge Playwriting competition in 2001 for her play Subway Connection, Yasmine went on to win 4 consecutive SouthEastern Theatre Conference titles for best writer for Still Life, her first full-length play. Also during her undergraduate time, she won the NCTE collegiate national aware for Best Young Writer. In 2006, she came to the UK where she earned an M.A. Distinction in Playwriting from the University of Exeter. During that year her play Helen debuted at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter and Since My Last Confession premiered at the Hens and Chickens where it opened for Russell Brand. She has gone on to become A Soho Young Writer, a B.B.C. free-lance radio writer, and she has also earned awards in North America for her radio play, White Feather. This year Yasmine has had plays on at the Etcetera Theatre with First Draft Theatre.
Jon Cooper (Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)
Jon is co-founder of the Silent Collective, a company with which he is developing and producing the fast paced comedy radio and stage show Silence in C Minor. Also part of the Old Vic New Voices Company he is currently working with theatres to develop his latest full length play For Once I was...
Raised in the tiny back hole that is Waltham Chase he became a writer with his first commissioned youth theatre play Fever. Since then he has been produced on both radio and stage from the University of Kent's theatre, The Gulbenkian to London's Old Vic. He also experiments with cross media storytelling (ARGs).
Sally Beaumont (The Other Side of Everything)
Sally was trained in playwriting at the University of Exeter by Phil Smith and James MacDonald with additional lectures by Kaite O’Reilly, Abi Morgan, David Eldridge, Tony Robinson and Jennifer Saunders. Her first play, A Prod in the Right Direction was inspired by her French training in Commedia dell’Arte and had a two-week sell out run at the Alma Tavern, Bristol. From there she joined the Young Writers Programme at the Royal Court and produced The Scene, a love story set to the backdrop of sado-masochism. A Prod in the Right Direction had a second production by Fleshpot Theatre in October 2007, receiving a 4-star review from remotegoat.co.uk "The play is written with an edge, as a rejoinder to the helpless heroine…A Prod in the Right Direction is simply very good fun". You can see another of Sally’s short plays on the 1st of April at the Cockpit Theatre, and there are several more productions in the pipeline- visit Sally’s website to find out more.
07814 199016 info@SallyBeaumont.com www.SallyBeaumont.com
Anola Chase (Black Dog Day, Waiting for Smythe, The Other Side of Everything)
Anola Chase is an actress and singer haling from Croydon in South London, starting her career at Croydon Youth Theatre (CYTO) then going on to train with The National Youth Theatre. She also trained at The Albany Theatre and The City Lit. She has performed in a wide range of theatre and film productions including Claire and Louise in Road, Catherine in A View From The Bridge, Princess Taiyan in Children Of the Revolution and The Maid in The House of Bernada Alba. She has also performed in cabaret where she enjoys signing jazz standards and show tunes. Anola recently performed in Bacchaefull, a modern adaptation of The Bacchae by Eurides, with Dirty Market Theatre Company. This part original script, part devised piece was performed at Area 10 project space in Peckham- a former saw mill -and Bacchaefull was critics choice of the week in Time Out magazine. Anola is also a writer and is currently working on a play provisionally entitled Bully. atchaseuk@yahoo.co.uk
Paul Etuka (Black Dog Day, Signal Failure, Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn, The Other Side of Everything)
Paul’s credits include performance and production across Theatre, Film, TV and Radio. More recently, he has portrayed a number of Britain’s most significant historical figures that influenced the country’s final Abolition of The Slave Trade. Paul trained at the City Lit, where he took a Post Graduate Diploma in Performance in 2006, and where he is also an Associate Member of the Rep. Company. Ahead of this, he was actively involved in the Actors Studio, under the prized tutelage of Petina Hapgood. Some of his recent Theatre credits include; James Watkins, in This Accursed Thing, (Manchester Museum of Natural History & Mayor’s Office, Manchester), Olaudah Equiano in a solo performance (The National Archives), William, American GI – D-Day Landings, (RAF Duxford), Cap'n Watkin Tench, Caesar, Aborigine, Our Country’s Good (City Lit Rep.Co.), Sam Nash, Plaza Suite (City Lit. Rep.Co), Agamemnon, Iphigenia, John Lydon Studio Theatre.
Anthony James Berowne (Blue Bag Head Man, Waiting for Smythe, Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)
Anthony graduated from ALRA in 2003, and has since played a wide variety of film, TV and theatre roles. Film credits include: Alexander, Blood and Always Crashing in the Same Car. On television, Anthony has appeared in Waking the Dead (BBC) and Focus North (Channel Four), and has recently filmed two productions for the BBC – Electric Proms (Bad is as Bad Does) and G.I. Jonny. He also starred in the first downloadable short for mobile phones for Siemens (Dog & Bone). Theatre includes: Four Nights in Knaresborough (Becket and Wigmore), Much Ado about Nothing (Dogberry), and Cries of London (New London Writers’ Collective at the Tabard Theatre). He also worked with Sally Beaumont at the Royal Court on a rehearsed reading of her play, The Scene in 2007. Although now based in London, Anthony is originally from Yorkshire and began acting at drama workshops at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, with Michael Birch and went on to perform in Spend! Spend! Spend!, the Mystery Plays, and Don Carlos.
Gem Carmella (Blue Bag Head Man, Signal Failure, Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)
Gem has worked as both an actor and writer since graduating from the University of Exeter in 2003. During this time her work has been split between comedy and new writing projects. Her performance work has included TV roles for BBC 3, Sky 1 and she will soon be appearing in Silent Witness for BBC 1. Her theatre work includes Tamburlaine Must Die, Notre Dame of Paris, Cabaret Auschwitz and also the Being Alive poetry tour, in association with Warwick arts centre and Bloodaxe books. In 2006 she became a founder of sketch comedy group Paper Monkeys, who received critical acclaim for their show Legends at the 2007 Edinburgh fringe festival.
Tim Macavoy (Blue Bag Head Man, Signal Failure, Waiting for Smythe, Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)
Tim studied BA Drama and MFA Staging Shakespeare at Exeter University. He has since worked as an actor in classics and new writing, including a current tour of Club Class. His recent writing credits include the premiere adaptation of Louise Welsh's Tamburlaine Must Die, Edinburgh Fringe's controversial Cabaret Auschwitz and Wise Enough to Play the Fool (Commended Best New Writing API Solo Festival). Tim also works on the comedy circuit after co-founding sketch group Paper Monkeys.
http://timacavoy.googlepages.com
Kate Walsh (Signal Failure, The Other Side of Everything)
Kate is a native Lancastrian who started out her performing life as a singer whilst still at university. Kate’s distinctive voice soon led to a career as a voice over artist, narrating shows and commercials as well as audio books for the RNIB, utilising her arsenal of accents which ranges from Aberdeen to Devon. More recently Kate has stepped out from behind the microphone, appearing in several short films and staged plays. She will be appearing at Teatro Technis as Sister Helena in The fabulous Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in February, and can be heard daily on Discovery Channel UK, as the regular daytime continuity announcer. You can see further details on Kate’s Spotlight page: 0279-1204-3976
