The Spirit of my Dream

The fabulous second Rochester literature festival continues with a night at the theatre. Three of Medway's finest playwrights share with you an evening to remember

Image credit: 17%

Inspired by Byron’s poem ‘The Dream’, Maggie Drury, Sam Fentiman-Hall and Sarah Hehir, have collaborated to create an evening of new plays with a somewhat fantastical theme.

More information about the plays, the writers and the venue are available on the Rochester litfest website here

Date:Saturday, 04 October at 7pm
Venue: Chatham grammar school for boys
Tickets: available on eventbrite

17% - Bad Signal

So, the next piece I produced for 17% was called Bad Signal.

The theme for the month was International, and what triggered the story was the TV. The box opens up to different worlds, so that you don't even have to leave your sofa... so how many of us are trapped on the sofa letting life pass us by?

It got me to thinking, how do we decide to fly? What stops us, if the world is more accessible than ever before. Does travel always broaden the mind - if you have decided your opinions before your journey do you have the capacity to let what you see change your mind?

And I dare anyone to make sense of the instructions that come with any new piece of equipment (ever), they are invented to make honest fools of us all... if life came with an instruction book, who would have written it, I wonder....

Bad Signal can be viewed on youtube here

Short play - At the Beginning

So, near the end of the first Rochester literature festival I feel the need to return to a beginning. I'm not too fond of endings, but that is a story for another time.So, let me share with you my first short play given by the 17% treatment. Appropriately enough it's called...

At the beginning

Did you see what I did there? :-) The process of the piece surprised me, as it started as one thing and ended up being about something else entirely. One of the characters wouldn't be contained, and it led me to ask how free are we to express what we want? How far do we tramp down on our own thoughts, hungers, to be seen as acceptable? Hunger is still a taboo subject for some, after all.

It was originally performed on 6th July 2012 as part of the Lounge on the farm festival, and again at the Horsebridge arts centre in Whitstable on 18 July 2012.

Cheers!

Shall we skip to the main course...?

A tingle in my fingers ...: Rochester literature festival

A tingle in my fingers ...: Wordless Wednesday

I'm very excited about the programme of events coming up next month during the first ever Rochester literature festival.

Art exhibitions, poetrymon, plays, the heroes journey, poetry readings and work shops... and many more surprises to come.

International women's day

So in Medway had not one, but two events to celebrate International women's day. The first a talk with Scarlett Thomas, and the second involving a motivational speaker (Sam Hall from 17percent - a social enterprise that champions and encourages the work of female playwrights)

The theme this year was the gender agenda - maintaining momentum. My aim for the events was to give women a space to share our words and our stories, as the only way to move forward is to understand what is happening now, to record what happened to our mothers and grandmothers. Otherwise, those with an agenda will find it easier to lie to us, to our daughters.

More details are available here: www.internationalwomensday.com/medway