Getting out of the theatre

Clowning is going good, have found my grotesque-psychopathic-clown that will the basis of Richard. Lines are slowly coming together.

The dissertation is going ok so far. I've been pretty organised, planning as much as I possibly can, referencing whilst writing to avoid the monotony of doing so in August.

I also have a bookchair, which means that I have another hand free to type, which is always nice.

So far, I've read Lefevbre's Writings on Cities, re-read Pearson's In Comes I and am about to finish Lights Out For The Territory by Iain Sinclair. I'm flitting from Psychogeography to Site-specific for economic reasons but also, because it allows me to make sense of the shape of the essay as I'm reading. The parallels I have already found between these books have spurred me on further and have reassurred my choice in making this line of research.

Since, the PhD proposal (By the way I got a rejection letter from Queen Mary, gutted) application, my idea of backpacking and dramatised landscape has lost its appeal. Firstly, in terms of economocs such a study would prove financially draining and secondly, it would probably overwhelm me. 

I have therefore returned to one of the first topics I happened across back in February: Psychogeography. There is only one book with that title in library - sat amongst the philosophy section - and its title alone intrigued me. It made me aware of the fact that I really needed to get out of the theatre. I've been in it for nearly 10 years now and its got a bit claustrophobic. Whether it was stifling black box 'studio' at my high school, the stuffy nearly black box 'studio' (one side was blue) at college, the windowless studios at Aber, the poor acoustics at Morlan or now the illusionary vastness of Roborough; I needed to get out. These next 3 years therefore will not only be an important part of my life in terms of career prospects, they will also mark an evolution in my dramatic learning. A friend asked me the other day where had the wannabe actor gone? 

He's gone for a walk. 

Yann The Man

The Yann Tiersen concert was simply stunning, and one of the best things I've ever witnessed. I even bumped into the guy before it started which was a bit unexpected. He's certainly gone in a different direction since Amelie moving into the rock side of things. I'm not complaining though as it was truly astonishing to see him and his band live. He's got a new album out in september called Dust Lane which I will definitely be purchasing. Luckily I had my mate Jared there to witness it also, and he seemed to like it.

Learning lines for Richard III at the moment. Quite a bit of them, and their going in bit by bit.

Trying to find a house at the moment for next year.

Also started work on the dissertation now, but I havn't got far. I just have too much energy.

Also having a crack at being a veggy for a bit as an experiement. I'm a massive meat eater and eat it everyday, so the equivalent of going cold turkey would be my version of someone quitting smoking. Should be interesting though. Went for a run the other night, expecting myself to collapse due to the pollen count, but was fine. Hopefully my hayfever is leaving me.

Meeting Jon my old housemate later. Its been a while since we spoke.

Clowning, Wedding and Presenting

Just got back from another clown workshop. I'm really getting into this. Lauren is a fantastic group leader and the group themselves are equally fantastic. Basically, what we've done so far is to first become comfortable with each other and ourselves, involving the obligatory trust exercises and children's games. We've also been trying to find our individual clowns as well, finding them physically and more recently, vocally, as well as introducing a best friend (mines an old squash bottle called Gozzo) from the magic mountain that never leaves our side. It has truly been a remarkable experience because just before you don the red nose you have no idea what your clown will do or say. Anything goes. I'm not needed next week, which means that its back into line-learning mode.

The presentation, went ok, I'm amazed I got there in the end after less than a week's work. Apparantlely it was 'concise' and 'crisp', but could have done with more visual stimuli. Oh well never mind.

The big thing however was Cat's wedding. We left saturday morning by train to Blackwater (me doing work for the presentation), we dumped our stuff at the B&B, got changed before taxiing it to Sandhurst. It was amazing. It was my first wedding so it was extra-amazing. Cat herself looked stunning and her other half looked dapper in his regimental dress. Although in a suit, I felt pretty under-dressed. Afterwards, we went to the reception at a very nice hotel owned by the army with acres of land. Two words: Free Bar. Enough said. Met some great people, one of which introduced me to a theatre company that would be relevant possibly to the dissertation: Punch Drunk. Sobered up on the way home and had a great sleep.

Currently, I am working on the performance analysis for Waiting for Godot, and am having second thoughts as to its format. It has to be in for Monday, but ideally I want it finished Sunday afternoon at the latest, because I am seeing Yann Tiersen in the evening.

Yes

Just sent this e-mail:

Dear ,

I accept the offer.

Thanks,

Kris

Its official, I'm staying in Exeter to do my PhD! Very scary!

Sad news today, Augusto Boal died. I first heard about Boal when I was working on When I'm Alone I'm Alone with C&T2 back in 2004 (However, I thought his name was pronounced bowl) where a quote of his was included in my part:

"In its most archaic sense, theatre is the capacity possessed by human beings - and not by animals - to observe themselves in the act of seeing, of thinking their emotions, of being moved by their thoughts, they can see themselves here and imagine themselves there, they can see themselves today and imagine themselves tomorrow"

Brilliant.

Am well on the way to finally documenting everything dramery I've done over the last ten years (http://www.krisdarby.exofire.net). Hopefully it'll work. 

On May 1st we had a Wicker Man night at Carey and Jareds which was fantastic. Carey introduced me to this great pen and paper game which was hysterical then we introduced Kim, Claudia, Jude and Ila to The Wicker Man. I hadn't seen it since uni and forgot how funny it was.

Also randomly bumped into Jon my old housemate at Aberystwyth in town the other day. Pretty weird. Small world though.