Last post!

Hello

This is probably going to be my last post on this blog as my term with Imaginate comes to an end next week. I can't quite believe it's all nearly over. However it does feel like the right time to be moving on and I'm extremely excited about starting the next chapter of my caree - backed by an incredible experience obtained throughout my residency.
Here are some highlights from the last 18 months:

- of course, Ditto. It's so amazing to have a really brilliant children's show that I'm so proud of under my belt and I look forward to developing, promoting, touring this work in the future. I've also edited the footage of the performance into this short film which you can view here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz_Y6LiIoO4

- I also produced Anmut, which while not strictly a children's show, was a great achievment during my residency. I'm currently looking into plans to develop and present this show again at several places / festivals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRQBxuJxzD8&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

- And there's Meep and Moop which I developed with my good friend Clare McGarry and TAG theatre company earlier on in my residency. This show for 3-5 year olds will hopefully be going out on tour again in the Autumn.

I've really enjoyed the experience of going to festivals throughout Europe to see some really exciting work for children and young people. My favourite festival was undoubtedly Tweetakt in Utrecht - just a huge abundance of very creative ideas / shows / performers making work that seems to be quite unique to the Netherlands and Belgium and so inspirational for my practice. Seeing shows and meeting people from companies such as Kopergietery, Theatergroep Max and Ontroerend Goed has been a great experience. Personal show highlights have been:
Unfold by Kabinet k and Kopergietery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lQaDWe2aLc

Run by Kopergietery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_mJu9UaxV8&feature=related

and Toneel by Thetaergroep Max:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60STE66hGIA

- and of course it has been a great experience working with Imaginate. Everyone that works for this company is passionate about work for children and yong people and that shines into everything they do as a company - from programming really exciting work at the festival, to developing the work of local artists, it has been a privlege to work with such a great team.

Finally I'd just like to let you know that I will probably keep up a blog on my new exciting website! While the site is still slightly under construction you can check it out here:
http://www.gregsinclair.net/
My fantastic friend, Neil Montgomery, is creating the site for me and I'm really pleased with the look and feel of the site so far.

Well I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog over the last wee while. If you want to contact me in the future you can do on my email: gregsinclair@hotmail.com or, hopefully very soon, on my website.

Cheerio! x

The end is nigh...

So it's mid-February and I'm starting to realise how quickly it's approaching the end of my residency with Imaginate. It's all very sad but I'm so elated about all that I have achieved this past year and a half; it's been a great opportunity and I've loved it. And it's also very exciting thinking about what lies ahead.

I'm going to be going from the residency straight into rehearsals for the new Scottish Opera / Visible Fictions production Clockwork. This is a new children's opera based on a short story by Philip Pullman and I will be playing the cello part. I've worked for both companies before and I know that it will be a very exciting professioanl project to be involved in. I'm also really loooking forward to performing again as I haven't been doing a lot of that recently. More information on the show can be found here:
http://www.scottishopera.org.uk/10-11/clockwork

I'm also trying to set up a tour of my show for 3-5 year-olds created with Clare McGary and TAG - Meep and Moop. We are hopeful to structure a Scottish tour of nurseries and venues in the Autumn. Watch this space! Meep and Moop is a very funny musical story about two meerkats who must overcome their fears through their friendship together. It's great fun to perform (although physically very exhausting!) and it went down really well with the young audiences when we did it before. Here's a really good review of the show from The Herald:
http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/stage-visual-arts/meep-and-moop-whiteinch-nursery-school-glasgow-1.1033241

I am applying to do a performance of Anmut (the show I did for Arches Live last year) as part of the sound festival in Aberdeen this year. It would be great to revisit this. I fel there are so many directions the work could go in and I'd love to present it to a very different audience to guage their feedback. Fingers crossed for that one too!

And finally of course there's Ditto. I will be looking into my options for developing the piece to iron out its creases and tweak into the piece that I really want it to be. Then hopefully I can try to get a tour set up.

I am also in the process of setting up my new website. Watch this space....

Ditto images

All photos credit: Neil Douglas

Ditto

I have recently completed a very successful run of my show Ditto, which I have created with support from Imaginate during my residency. The show was on at North Edinburgh Arts Centre and the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh.
The show is an exploration of silence and the spaces between sounds for children in upper primary school and features a very talented quartet of musicians:
Katy Barry - soprano
Fran Pybus - clarinet / bass clarinet
Chris Barclay - trombone
Roy Mohan Shearer - percussion
During the rehearsal week I had the fortune of working closely with the show's designer, Kate Temple and movement consultant, Chris Devaney. Each brought something very special out of the performers and performance. Chris really helped me to find moments of humour and touching emotion throughout the show and Kate really vividly brought the music alive with her bold costume and design.

My aim with Ditto was to create a show that wasn't patronising to its young audience. I wanted to create a very sophisticated artistic experience that would be richly rewarding for them, whilst being very challenging both aurally and visually. There is no narrative to the piece - this was something I had decided upon after doing the research for the project in three schools. I wanted t created various rich tableaux of sounds and images and allow the individual audience members to formulate their own ideas about the narrative of the piece. Similarly there were suggestions of character throughout the piece, without anything being too blatant. In one movement the clarinet appears to want to play a different piece of music from the rest. Eventually they join in with her but then, abruptly drop out, one by one, leaving her to finish on her own. It was a moment that could be interpreted in many ways and I really enjoyed watching the faces of the young audience members at this moment as they tried to figure out why the other instruments had seemingly rejected the clarinettist.
At other moments the musicians run towards each other as if about to hug but something stops them before they touch. This happens several times before, finally, two musicians actually do hug. This funnily prompted one wee boy in a performance to shout out, "awww a wee couple o lovebirds!"

I was pleased in the performances where children felt comfortable enough to shout out and interact with the stage action. I think this is only natural for children to want to do this and, if you let them, they feel more involved with the people on the stage. This was really important to me as I knew the material was quite challenging. And I think this allowance of audience freedom helped them through some of the trickier moments in the show. For example, at one point the clarinet plays shrieking multiphonics and the other musicians all cover their ears - this often prompted the children in the audience to copy, thus turning something quite harsh and potentially frightening into a game that they were in control of. In another moment the four musicians all unexpectedly pause for a full minute, without moving. This often created very interesting reactions from the audience, my favourite being one wee boy who stood up and shouted, "move go go gooooo!"

I was so pleased with all the great feedback I received from audience members both young and adult. Here are some of my favourites:
Children:
"It sounds like magic."
"It was like being in the jungle"
"It was about what is music and what is not."
"They were wearing colourful clothes to make their skin stand out."
"I didn't like it. I LOVED it."

Adults:
"It was like post-modernist Blue Peter."
"I've never seen anything like that before. It was so...weird."
"Spectacular."

We also received a couple of reviews. This one is great from the Edinburgh Guide:
http://www.edinburghguide.com/reviews/theatre/dittotraversetheatrereview-7408

And this one is from The Scotsman. An ok review, but doesn't really give musch insight into the piece:
http://living.scotsman.com/features/Gig-review-Ditto.6695296.jp

Composition update

I'm currently in the process of composing the music for my show Ditto which will be on in January next year. Following an exciting development week with my four musicians a couple of weeks ago I felt powered and energised about going into the composition process.Having five days with my creative team was really great because I learned about all the players' strengths in performance. I'm not going to say I learned about their weaknesses, but I did learn where some were more comfortable than others. For example, two of my musicians are very used to improvising, whereas the other two are more used to note-learning. This is a really interesting mix and will hopefully lead to quite an exciting balance of styles in the final performance.

I am inspired by many things when I'm composing this music. At the forefront of my mind is an interview I read with the British composer Rebecca Saunders. She, like myself, is very interested in silence and she talks of teasing threads of sound from the silence when starting a new piece.She looks at the blank manuscript paper and doesn't think she necessarily has to start at the top, rather she can allow the sound to organically evolve from out of the white blankness. I think this is a really poetic way of working and it's something I've been experimenting with myself.

I'm also really interested in blending various styles of music together and this is having a profound impact on the soundworld of Ditto. I had a niggling idea ages ago that there should be some Renaissance music in Ditto. I have no idea where this idea came from but I couldn't shift it so I'm just running with it! In a way I feel that it will be a great contrast to the stark, rhythmic soundworld of the rest of the piece. I also presented some Renaissance music to a group of children when they came to see some work during the November development on the piece. The children really liked the quality.

I'm inspired by contemporary composers who blur boundaries between various styles of music. Works like Asyla by Thomas Ades - with its rave-influenced heavy beats and repetitive melodies, and Ayre by Osvaldo Golijov - with its frantic switching between operatic and pop vocal styles are really exciting. I'd quite like for Ditto to take the audience by surprise - to lull them into a false sense of security with its blankent of bleak silence, only to jolt them with loud outbreaks of noise and rhythm.

Here is a link to the third movement of Thomas Ades's Asyla:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRQr33PdyiQ

Here is a link to a piece by Rebecca Saunders called Traces:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QMzcHuNmbc

And here is a link to a song from Osvaldo Golijov's Ayre:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6SZ-KGVQvI

Anmut

Take Off

Last week I attended the Take Off children's theatre festival in Darlington. The festival is the largest showcase of children's work in England so it was great to be able to attend, see some work and make new connections. The festival was only two days long but I still managed to pack in 8 shows, some discussions and plenty of networking opportunities.
In terms of shows there were two highlights for me. First was Sunflowers and Sheds by M6 Theatre Company - a really lovely tale of friendship set on an allotment. Frank is an older gentleman who has just lost his friend. He enjoys sitting in the sun at his allotment reading postcards from his daughter and grandson in Australia. A new owner of the allotment next door, Russian lady Isabella, disrupts Frank's peace however. Eventually these two strike up an unlikely friendship. I thought there was a real charm about the piece with some lovely performances and lots to think about for a young audience: friendship, apologising for mistakes, loneliness, and growing your own veg!

My second highlight was getting to see the wonderful White by Catherine Wheels once again. The show has become such a hot ticket since I saw it on its original run at the fringe. So much so that the venue was overfull and people were having to stand. The show has really matured since I saw it. The performances by Andy Manley and Ian Cameron are really slick and their chemistry has developed. The two are so funny to watch and the children in the audience were chuckling with delight. I urge anyone with wee ones to try to catch this show on tour or when it lands at macrobert for the run up to Christmas.

Ditto development week

Last week I was working in North Edinburgh Arts Centre with my creative team on Ditto. This is the show I am creating with support from Imaginate, to be staged in January next year. Myself and the four musicians (Katy Barry - voice, Fran Pybus - clarinet, Chris Barclay - trombone, and Roy Shearer - percussion) worked in studio 1 of the arts centre to explore the theme for the piece: the spaces between sounds. As you can imagine from such an abstract theme, we ended up creating some fairly wild material and worked really hard to explore possible options of how to translate the theme into sound, music and imagery. A lot of the process involved improvisation. Some of the musicians were used to working in this way while some were less used to not having notes on a page in front of them. I was keen to do a lot of improvisation this week as I knew it would take us into directions I hadn't foreseen. Sometimes this approach didn't really work, but it usually wielded some interesting debate if not great material.

The week was a steep learning curve for me and the team. I wanted to see how confidently they were prepared to move around the space (with and without instruments) and was pleased to see that they all enjoyed the freedom this gave them as musicians. I think we all learned very quickly how the team dynamic was going to work - this was really important as many of the team did not know each other. I also learned how important it is as a composer/director that, even when working with improvisation, it is important to set parameters. This will carry forward into the performance in January too. Whilst much of the music will be composed by myself, I think it's important that we also have some of the joyful spontaneity that can only come from improvisation as part of the performance too. It is therefore my role as the composer to set up how and when this can happen.

On Thursday we were lucky enough to be able to work in the theatre space. This is where the first performances of Ditto will take place so it was great for the team to be able to get used to this space. It's amazing how large it looked at first, but as soon as four musicians with music stands, instrument stands, instruments etc fill the space it became clear that the design for the show (by Kate Temple) will have to incorporate these elements - rather than hide these elements, they can become an important honest feature of the show. One early design thought Kate has had is to have lots of music stands in the space - almost like a forest, with some in their true form, others folded up in sculptural forms and some piled up at the back, as if in a music stand graveyard. I really like this idea as it seems to suggest a visual representation of the music I wish to create: this idea of sounds being created, manipulated, before being discarded for something new; an endless cycle in time and space.

We were also lucky to have some artists/colleagues attend a short sharing of material on the Thursday. This was a great opportunity to present some of the ideas for the piece. We quickly realised what could work (fights over music stands, Renaissance music as a sharp contrast to stark, abstract minimalism, music which aided each individual audience member to have their own imaginative thoughts/narratives in their head whilst listening), and what didn't work so well (an improvisation exercise with too few parameters - no parameters for duration, material which suggested character too early on as this lead the audience to believe these characters would be maintained throughout the sharing). We received some great feedback form the crowd and I hope all are excited to see how the piece progresses.

Finally on Friday we carried out another sharing, this time for a group of primary 5/6 from a local school. In this sharing we trimmed down our presented material. We also presented stuff that had definite question marks over them:

Would children understand the music stand game (where the musicians set up conflicting rules about some assembled music stands) if this was being carried out as they entered the space? Also would the children be able to settle if something active was going on?

- I was pleased that the children did settle quickly. In fact I think it helped them to get really excited about the upcoming performance. Also, the children (when later questioned) had understood what was happening. One girl said, "it's like they had fallen out and when they started playing the music they had to work together to become friends again."

The musicians then stood stationary without making sound for as long as possible. I had asked the teacher not to interfere with what the children did. This was fascinating. There were the inevitable giggles and chatting. But there were also a few shhhh's and some children looking on intently, eager to see what would happen. A few children moved about a lot, either restlessly or to get in a comfier position - it was as if they knew they were in this for the long haul so had to lie down to see how it would pan out! My favourite quote came from a wee boy as the musicians finally started to move: "I'm glad that's over so I know I'm not going crazy!" I indicated for the musicians to move on from this silence at 5" 08" - a pretty incredible time and one that pails John Cage's paltry 4' 33" into insignificance! Of course, in the performance I want to play with this prolonged silence but I think it will be a lot shorter and there will be suggestions of things to happen - small movements, isolated sounds/notes - just to keep the audience intrigued and inquisitive!

One final task that I wanted to carry out was to see whether children could be brought from the audience to conduct the musicians and whether this would still feel performative.

- This worked really well. The children were quick to learn the taught conducting moves (some children were practising in the audience). It was great as it helped to change the character of the music too. Quick stops and starts, louder and softer dynamics, and staccato (short) and legato (smooth) all helped to shape the slowly-becoming-familiar material into something new and unique each time. The great thing about all of this was that it also felt like part of the performance. I think this could be used as a unique tool to revive the audience in the inevitable period about two thirds of the way through the show when, even if it's the greatest thing they've ever seen, bums start to get a wee bit restless!

A great week and I can't wait to carry on with the composition. Roll on January!!

Autumn Exchange

Well done to all who were involved in the programming, hosting, performing and presenting at this year's Autumn Exchange. This mini festival is a showcase of work for children in Scotland and the quality of work was fantastically high. There were a good number of tour-ready shows plus some discussions and a few works-in-progress. Some personal highlights, and things to look out for in the future were:

The Monster in the Hall by TAG. Brilliant, fast-paced show for teenagers. It was funny, well performed, really slick direction and a great way to kick off the festival.

Cloud Man by Ailie Cohen. A beautiful wee show for young ones that stylishly incorporated performance, visual theatre and puppetry. Plus it had some great music.

Paperbelle by Frozen Charlotte. A wee gem of a show that started off like a blank canvas and ended up being a joyful celebration of colour.

Lots of other things to remember and be inspired by. Well done to all involved!

The Farmer's Cheese in South Africa

I am just back from a wonderful trip to South Africa where I was performing in the fantastic children's show The Farmer's Cheese. This show has music composed by Oliver Searle, especially for children who wear cochlear ear implants. We have been performing the show on/off for over a year around the UK but this was our first excursion overseas. The show is funded by Med-el, a company who produce these implants, and in South Africa we performed the show for children, many of whom were cochlear users.
The show was fantastically popular with the kids. They really responded well to the music and loved the silly antics from the two performers, Clare McGarry and Martin O' Connor. We even had to sign some books at the end of one performance which made me feel a bit like a celebrity!

And some more photos!

Some photos

Hello. I just received some fantastic photos of my show Anmut from its designer Kate Temple.
I've also just completed an application to do the show at the Sound Thought festival in February next year so fingers crossed!

After Anmut

Last week was very busy and successful due to my show at Arches Live. We began to install our technical on the Sunday, Monday was our company get-in and technical rehearsal and then we performed Anmut on the Tuesday and Wednesday.
The show was a huge success! I was quite worried during the first performance as the audience were as still and focused as Katy and I were on the stage. There was therefore no way of being able to judge how well the piece was being received. Interestingly on both nights we received a round of applause - at the end of the show the performers go back to pacing the room (as they did at the beginning of the show), the house lights come up and the door is opened for the audience to exit. In other words, there is no clear end to the show and no bow for the performers. However, I'm secretly quite happy we got applause each night as it showed that the audience really wanted to acknowledge their feelings.
I've also had great comments from colleagues, friends and family. LJ and Jackie from the arches were both really pleased with the piece and we got some great reviews from Mary Brennan in The Herald and Joyce McMillan in The Scotsman. See below:

http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment/Theatre-reviews-Coma--Anmut.6548145.jp
http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/stage-visual-arts/colourful-food-for-thought-1.1057152

It's now on to full concentration mode for Ditto for me. However, as I had such a positive response to Anmut, I'm hopeful that it won't be the end of the road for this piece. If you missed it - hopefully it will be on again very soon!

Trips, shows and workshops

Lots going on just now but I thought it would be useful to remember to fill in the blog.

I have two very different trips coming up soon. First up is South Africa! Still can't really believe I'm going somewhere I've always dreamed of going, but indeed I am in mid-October. It's with a children's show The Farmer's Cheese which I have been playing cello in for the last year. So far we have taken the show to Glasgow, Edinburgh, London and Southampton. South Africa therefore feels like a whole other kettle of fish! The show has been written for children with hearing impairments who wear cochlear implants, and it tells the story of a poor farmer who has his cheese stolen by a hungry wee mouse. The music was written by Oliver Searle and the other musicians are from the contemporary music ensemble, Symposia. The actors are Clare McGarry and Martin O' Connor. It's great fun and I can't wait!
The other trip I have coming up is to the Takeoff children's theatre festival in Darlington. I'll be heading there with Tony from Imaginate and I think it's going to be a good opportunity for me to market my upcoming show Ditto, and also myself. As my residency is approaching the latter stages (shhhhhhh!) I am beginning to think about what comes next. So this festival should give me an insight into the world of children's theatre outside Scotland.

All of next week I'm working in Bathgate as part of a local music festival. I have been contracted to provide several nursery/early primary music sessions throughout many schools in the area. I'm really looking forward to it and I always enjoy the challenge of working with such young children. They're such a brutally honest audience and you have to keep changing tempo and direction to keep them entertained. Having said that, it should be great fun. I plan to take my cello and melodica and to do some performances of songs whilst also using stories to enable group music-making.

Anmut is approaching very quickly. This is my show for Arches Live. I have been working really hard on it as there are so many elements to the piece. Although it is relatively short - 30 mins - and will have quite a stark aesthetic it is an extremely complex, technical piece. Myself and Katy (the two performers) will be singing live with pre-recorded singing. There is also live and pre-recorded spoken text, projection, lighting, up to 8 different microphones (standing, carried and hung) plus lots of design elements. However it is all coming together. I have recorded all the singing and text, we have found our costumes (after much searching!), and are rehearsing in our space, the playroom, at the weekend. I hope you can all make it.
http://www.thearches.co.uk/Greg-Sinclair-Anmut.htm

Anmut takes shape

My show for Arches Live, Anmut, is really taking shape and coming together. I had a technical meeting this morning with Will from the arches and it has really helped me to see how it will all come together. My performer Katy and designer Kate came to see the space yesterday and it got us very excited. We will be performing in the playroom space which is great as it is enclosed so it feels very intimate. It also has a black wall at the back which will be great for the projections we plan to use in the performance.

After a very long search I also today found myself a crucial item of costume for the show. Good old Mr Ben's vintage shop in Glasgow for being the only place on Earth (or so it would seem) that stocked this mystery item...!

We are still on the lookout for a few things though:

a large sheet of glass.
a skeleton (like the ones you would see in an anatomy classroom)
a tuning fork

...so if anyone reading this has one of the above please let me know!

I've almost finished the composition and text of the piece too. It's been quite a complicated thing to work on for several reasons:
1. I've had to grapple with gender politics.
2. I've had to compose both live and pre-recorded elements so the timing has been crucial.

As I'm creating a piece where the characters are known only as "the man" and "the woman", and due to the fact the piece is exploring the differences in tonal quality between male and female voices, it's been quite tricky to make sure I don't fall into gender stereotyping. Of course, by and large, male and female voices operate in much the same way. However there are some major differences and its been quite interesting to learn about these. I hope it will be an interesting experience for the audience. I think the mood of the piece will be quite odd, creepy yet beautiful and a little bit sexual!

The arches live information can be found on the arches website. Here's a link to the page about my show:
http://www.thearches.co.uk/Greg-Sinclair-Anmut.htm

D - I -T -T -O

Plans are coming together for my show Ditto. I have now secured two partner venues who will present performances. First up is North Edinburgh Arts Centre where the show will have its world premiere (!) on 18th January 2011. Yes! I plan to do 2 or 3 performances at NEAC before transferring to the Traverse, Edinburgh to do 3 more performances, 1 of which will be a public performance on Saturday 22nd. I'm so excited as both of these venues are really great spaces that will suit what I want to achieve from Ditto and the staff have all been very supportive.
On the creative side I've started shaping out the structure of the composition. I've been reviewing the footage that I shot in the 3 Edinburgh primary schools during the research stage and this has been a really useful reminder of what worked well (and what didn't work so well). I also think that now I know the spaces that Ditto will be in I can start to picture the visual aesthetic of the show.

At the same time I'm working on my show for Arches Live, Anmut. I've been doing a lot of research into the physiology of singing: exploring all the tiny physical and emotional factors involved in the body and the mind as it prepares to sing, as it's singing, and after it has stopped singing. I intend for the show to be an exploration of one tiny moment, spaced out over half an hour so that each tiny thing can be examined. I'm having to think quite poetically to get myself out of textbook language and into something more palatable and beautiful, whilst still having that sense of wonder that we get when you learn something new and fascinating. And of course there's all the notes to compose too....!

Arches Live

I'm really excited to tell you that I have been selected to take part in this year's Arches Live festival in September. My show Anmut actually began life at the Imaginate festival this year as part of the Fringe Event for Families (see post below). In that very short performance I and another performer, Katy Barry, took on the role of collectors. We told our small audiences of young folk that we liked to collect toy animals and favourite words. The piece was then a song comprised of people's favourite words. The design by Kate Temple incorporated brightly painted toy animals.
Katy and Kate will both be working with me again on this new version. It's actually not going to be too similar to the original. For starters, it's a piece for adults. However I am keen to explore some things which I will later employ in the composition and devising of my show Ditto (for 8+).
The festival runs from 16th - 26th September. Our show will be on Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd at 8.15pm. Hope to see you there!

A man and a woman pace the room, unaware of each other’s existence. An intake of breath, a slight opening of the mouth, a propulsion of air; the performers know how to begin. Their sounds coalesce and they move towards their duet. But are they able to sustain their song when the confidence of their actions spills into doubts of how they arrived at this point?

Pre-schoolers and teenagers

I have recently completed a project for BBC Radio Scotland. I was commissioned to create a "soundstory" for pre-school children (3-5 years) as a slight experiment to see whether children in this age range could listen to and understand a story that was told only though sound and music. My first thought was - of course they can! However it wasn't until I started working on the piece that I realised how tricky the task was. If you listen to the sound of something in isolation (i.e. without any visual clues as to the source or nature of the sound) then it can become very abstract. I also found it tricky to fully immerse myself in the understanding of a 3-5 year old - what sounds would I recognise or be relevant to me but wouldn't be identifiable or meaningful to a child?
I therefore set out to make a piece that was, on the surface, quite simple. Nothing too fantastical, just a story that a 3 year old could relate to or understand. I also wanted to create a piece about walking. At 3 it's not that long since you learned to walk; and at 5 I remember personal experiences where walking was so important such as walking to school for the first time. It tells the story of a day in the life of a man. He wakes up in the morning, gets ready to go for a walk in the woods. On his walk he encounters a dog and a horse and he also has to jump across a river. When he gets home he is very tired and heads off to bed.
The piece will be available soon as a podcast on the BBC website so I'll let you know when you can hear it.

During my time with Imaginate I've been focused on creating work for children up to the age of about 12. However I am really interested in work for teenagers and have been very inspired by many companies that create work for them - especially work coming from Belgium and Holland which uses teenagers to speak directly to their target audience. Companies like Ontroerend Goed, Kopergietery, Jan etc are all making really exciting work for and with young people. I've been thinking about this practice recently and was reminded of a beautiful work by the American composer Marina Rosenfeld called Teenage Lontano. Her piece is based on the famous piece Lontano by Gyorgy Ligeti - famously one of the most complex pieces of music from the 20th century due to its overlapping layers of polyphony. The original sounds like a slow-moving mass of sound; at once spiritual, haunting, ethereal, beautiful and sinister. Rosenfeld transcribed by ear all the parts of the piece - thus making a new version. She then assigned individual notes of this to solo performers - teenagers. These teenagers listen to their notes on ipods and sing what they hear. It's therefore possible for them to sing a very complex, layered piece of music withoug getting lost. The use of the ipod was very importnat to Rosenfeld as she sees it as a culturally significant marker of our times, especially for young people. Ipods are a statement to wear but they also highlight the individuality of the listener - every person listening to their own music. I think it's a significant statment about how we can view teenagers - collectively or as individuals. The results of the piece are very beautiful.

I've included video links below of the Marina Ronsefeld piece - Teenage Lontano:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_te6SpKniM
and the Gyorgy Ligeti piece - Lontano:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb6oSNSz35A&feature=related

Meep and Moop

Hi! I've been very busy for the past four weeks doing a tour of my show for 3-5 year olds, Meep and Moop. This show has been devised by myself and Clare McGarry and has been directed by Guy Hollands from TAG. The short tour has been taking in several nurseries throughout the Glasgow area including a couple of venues for public performances.
The show tells the story of two loveable meerkats who wake up in the morning and begin their usual routine of capering about! They play a game of hide and seek, have a picnic and discover their musical instruments (a cello and a flute) which they then use to play music for the young audience. All this is disrupted however by a scary bird flying over head and Meep and Moop run for cover. Eventually, after the bird has appeared several times, they realise that they have to stand up for themselves and they chase the bird away, thus conquering their fears.
The show has been great fun to do and it has been going down really well with the audiences. It's great fun to perform although very tiring as we are wearing full fur outfits and there's a lot of jumping about!
Read this review by Mary Brennan from The herald:
"http://www.heraldscotland.com/arts-ents/stage-visual-arts/meep-and-moop-whiteinch-nursery-school-glasgow-1.1033241"
We also just received a great review from Mark Brown in the Sunday Herald who praised our superb performances. Unfortunately it isn't online...