Lucifer

I have just been told that there are 40 people buried under the chapel in which we will be based during the residency. There was also the story of Lucifer the Jackdaw who turned up on 06/06/06. He knocked on the door, so the family let him in. He then sat at the dining table for a week, refusing to move until eventually he snapped out of it and began to behave in a more civilised manner. I have no doubt we will have some difficulty in deciding which stories to tell here. I think the trick will be to reach a common theme and work from there; weaving in anecdotes and moments along the way.

The wind turbine has stopped moving. I spent the morning planting sweet peas and a bird just flew into the window.

P.S. Excuse the out-of-sync font on this post, some blogging gremlins are preventing me from towing the company style.

Sheep and opportunity..

I am writing this from a beautiful 17th century farm house in mid wales. I can safely say I have seen more sheep than people in the last weeks I have been here. The nearest town is an hour's walk away, the wind turbine is currently generating energy for the house and this afternoon I am going to be picking a huge bucket of dandelions with which to make wine. This pioneering small holding is owned by Fran and Kevin Blockley (www.oldchapelfarm.org). They are artists, archaeologists as well as small holders and a host of other things. I am volunteering here to learn about sustainable living and building a community as well as getting some perspective on London life. Well, that's what I intended to do. What has actually happened is I have ended up planning a trial residency for performance makers and mini-festival in June.

Fran and Kevin are eager for their amazing site (encompassing the farm house, an 1820s chapel with church yard, sheep fields, ponds, 16 acres of woodland, an 18th century barn, yurts, a bus with a turf roof and a tree house) to be used as a place for artists of all sorts to make work in. This lead to discussions about my interest in creating a home for performance makers; a place that people can cook together, work together, drink together in a sustainable environment and generally call 'home' at least whilst making a piece of work.

The trial will take the form of a week long residency (based in the Chapel) for up to 7 theatre makers/artists/performers from London and elsewhere in partnership with local musicians. The first day's work will begin at dawn on the Summer Solstice (21st June) and end at sunset with a sharing of what we have created. This will inspire the rest of the week's work, like a huge brainstorm of ideas feeding and electrifying the project.

The week will culminate in a one-night festival for up to 50 local people (though this number keeps growing!). Everyone will bring food and drink for Midsummer feasting and the 'resident company' will curate a night of storytelling and music all across the farm. I have no idea what form this will take (that is for the week of workshopping to decide) but what ever happens it will probably be celebratory, unique and totally chaotic.

We will document the process throughout the week here and with video blogs so stay posted for that. Really very excited about this. The opportunity to make work with some smashing people in a beautiful, welcoming space is rare and tantalising and who knows where it may lead...

Witch in the Woods update

We have just finished two days of workshopping Witch in the Woods at BAC. Exciting to get our new people all together for some concentrated time. I drew a most excellent map of the site, we thought about the rules of the game, the world of the woods and individual characters... Now we are all off to do research on everything form extremism to e-harmony. First hunt on the 1st May!!

Allegra x

Tree of Lost Things at London Word Festival

Thank you to Alex Muller who took the amazing pictures below... see more pictures from the London Word Festival on his website: http://www.alexmullerphotography.com/

Tree of Lost Things at London Word Festival

London Word Festival - Photos

Thanks to all who came and made it such an excellent night in a beautiful venue...here's a few dodgy pics taken with my sub-standard camera. We should soon have a link to the photos taken by a very talented photographer...

London Word Festival

It's a wee while away yet but best to get these things in the diary early; The Tree of Lost Things will be at The Art of Storytelling as part of The London Word Festival on the 31st March. The night will be held at Shoreditch Church with performances from Terry Saunders, Matthew Robbins and more to be announced. Hurrah.

More info here: http://www.londonwordfestival.com/?p=1278

There's lots of other lovely stuff happening during the festival so check out the rest of the programme too.