Hey everybody,
It’s been too long. Though how long is up for grabs. Time is doing weird things to my head these days. I’m remembering things that felt like they happened a month ago, but when I clock it back it’s been well over a year. And then I overshoot and think it was two years. My brain has started throwing me really old stuff too, memories and places, conversations and people I haven’t thought about in years, and I’m realising that I’m actually witnessing my brain in action, searching for something to see, something to feel, in this weird void-place I seem to have been dumped.
Radio silence on our part has been a by-product of survival, juggling a new baby, school closures, work; nothing new there for many. Taking the smallest steps to get back to making work, some days so small it feels like nothing is ever going to move forward ever. But there’s that brain, throwing out images, keeping things moving.
And here’s something that’s taken me by surprise: I’m really excited about the future for performance. That’s not something I thought I’d say after the last year we’ve had. There are so many people out there making art! In these crazy conditions! I got a slot for a phone-call performance-experience, A Thousand Ways by 600 Highwaymen at this year’s Take Me Somewhere festival. It was me and another audience member on the phone, across the world, meeting each other. Simple, tender, beautiful. Take a look at what Pan Pan are doing in Ireland with Mespil Park, too.
As for Ewan and I, we’re finding our way as we both make new solos. Ewan’s is based on The Bacchae, working in collaboration with St Andrews University, Tron and Cumbernauld Theatre, with the first work sharings in Cumbernauld on 17 September. I’m working on a piece of horror theatre that will take place in the woods, an audience-led mythic descent into the darkness of Queens Park, with support from The Work Room and Surge, with sharings on Halloween weekend. And Julius Caesar, co-directed by Ewan and Brian Ferguson, will be storming its way towards you in Spring 2022. Keep your eyes open for more info….
Workshop-wise, save the date for Winter Training 2022, 4-8 January. This will be our big blow-out eleventeeth birthday since we missed the tenth anniversary last year. All fingers and toes crossed it’ll be in person.
As always, you can sign up for our newsletter here if you’d like to hear more from us. We’re trying to get our butts back on social media, but we’re a little slow these days. Thanks for sticking with us, and we can’t wait to get back to things as and when we can.
x Anna and the wolves