Despite autumn seeing us going into a second lockdown, we
have been as productive as restrictions have allowed.
Here we all are via the medium-of-no-choice:-
The summer months resulted in seven, short, socially
distanced films on the theme of “Odd”.
A three minute compilation of these was submitted to a Documental
Theatre project as “Odd Stories: New Narratives on the Trajectory of Life”. Our
first foray into the public domain! http://documentaltheatre.co.uk/
Then another opportunity.
A big thanks to Diverse Artists’ Network for providing an amazing
evening of entertainment on 16th October at the Centre of Gravity
Art Space. https://www.centreofgravity.uk/timetable. Andreea Gheorghe and myself
were delighted to be included in this. We performed extracts from the above,
including: Rebeccca Braccialarghe’s “Odd,
Odd, Odd” which perfectly
captures our ethos; Liz Cashdan’s
evocation of lockdown in her “Passover 2020, Andreea’s “Friday Night” and my “Oddly
Enough”.
It was a great evening, albeit a strange experience performing again. This
was all a bit last-minute and I know that all the other “Oddments” as Liz calls
us, would have enjoyed it as much as Andreea and I did. I felt it was so much easier to communicate
directly to a live audience rather than to a camera and I have a lot to learn in that respect.
All told though, these last few months I have been so, so grateful for the hard work undertaken by Andreea and Poppy Jermaine in pulling us all
together film and technology wise. Also Liz Cashdan for charging our creative
batteries on a regular basis with her writing exercises. And of course Liz, Louisa Fearnley and Poppy for taking on the business of Zoom hosting over the last few months. But a thank you to every one of my Odd friends for helping me keep body and soul together this year.
And we have a Facebook Page!
https://www.facebook.com/OddLotTheatreCompany. Currently this features our DAN performance and Rebecca's wonderful "Odd, Odd, Odd". All our films will be posted there shortly.
Our current work in research and development is “R.I.P.”
(working title) directed by Poppy. The
action revolves around a contentious, community mural commissioned during Covid
restrictions in a provincial town. The
message of the mural is mysteriously subverted by graffiti on a regular basis
drawing together the competing perspectives and experiences of local residents
and tradespeople. All this is likely to
be filmed rather than live performed.
I continue work on “Age Queer” – or the more likely
title - “The Queering of Age”, inevitably
to accommodate the Covid experience.
