Following the audience's lead

One of the constant challenges for arts organisations, especially those that tour work like Hoipolloi do, is building a relationship with an audience that can be sustained - even when work is not out 'on the road'. Talking about 'the audience' all too often means thinking about the people who experience your work as a homogenous unit, when they are anything but.

Hoipolloi has been fortunate that Hugh Hughes, who we've been working with since 2005, so readily embraces social media. This enables some degree of a continued conversation, but we also know that twitter and facebook are not everybody's cup of tea. We've also been open to exploring opportunities beyond the stage, and the recent success of Floating on Radio 4, that that earned Hugh a BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Scripted Comedy Drama, also brought us a huge audience.

We were really excited about opening up Hugh's childhood home online, because we knew this offer was a unique way to experience the magic of Hugh Hughes when and where the audience please. We know, however, that not all Hugh's fans want to experience work in this way, and even those that do have radically different approaches to the site. Some people start on the home page and work methodically through the stories as though they are actually walking through the house; some people jump straight into a story through a link they found on twitter or facebook; some people wander around the online space looking at the floorplans and Hugh's notes without listening to stories at all; some people put stories on 'in the background' whilst they do other things. With the glorious variety of Hoipolloi's audience in mind, we've continued to work with the material that we've made available online at www.invisibletownstories.co.uk in an attempt to make the experience of visiting as unique as each visitor. We've started to offer particular collections of stories, curated by people. My own collection is simply my favourites at a particular point in time that capture something of the whimsy and perspective that I think makes Hugh so compelling. Each collection has a description that will tickle particular fancies - want a flavour of the site without having to make decisions about which story to choose? We've got a single track, curated by Hugh. Or maybe you're fascinated by Hugh's love of pigeons?

Most exciting of all, perhaps, is that we listened to feedback, and have created Hugh Hughes FM. We're delighted to announce this development, which will suit both those who want to listen whilst doing other things, and those who are open to serendipity and want to be surprised. Find it at http://invisibletownstories.co.uk/radio

And a partridge in a pear tree!

Finally, we've made it to the end of the week and the end of the year! A huge thank you to everyone who's seen a Hoipolloi show this year. And if you've missed anything, you can read about it in part one, part two, part three and part four!

OCTOBER

October was the changing rooms month when we switched everything around in the office. This involved some fun day trips, including one to the dump. It was here that Simon and I rescued the following books from the paper recycling bin: Sebastian Faulks' Charlotte Gray; Industry and Empire by E.J. Hobsbawn; The Path to Genocide by Christopher R. Browning; Safe Outback Travel by Jack Absalom and The Holocaust in History by Michael R. Marrus.

NOVEMBER

Hugh toured Story of a Rabbit with Aled, and learnt to tweet. I’ve never seen anyone throw themselves into twitter with such enthusiasm. Do check out our twitter stream for Hugh’s wonderful musings.

While Hugh was obsessed with twitter, my attention was focused on Cate Blanchett’s dress and my appetite was mainly keen on cake.

Oh, and the reason I mentioned Cate Blanchett's dress was because we won another award! Floating picked up Best Live Theatre from Australia's The Age paper.

DECEMBER

The best thing to have happened so far this month has to have to been the announcement that 360 will be touring in the New Year – Sydney, Oxford and Liverpool, prepare yourselves!

If you haven't seen it already, we've prepared this little trailer for the show!




As well as getting everything sorted for the tour, Simon and I were involved in the 24 Hour Plays at the ADC, which was a lot of fun indeed. And Simon's spent several occasions this year telling our arts world colleagues about we keep up communcation with you guys via the internet.
As you can see it’s been a great year for Hoipolloi and we’d like to thank you all for reading the blog, seeing the shows, sending us emails and generally being fantastic.

And to sing out the year in good cheer, and in the absence of the Hoipolloi staff doing so, here are the muppets (with the help of John Denver) to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!





Posted by Marieke Audsley (Marketing & Admin Assistant, Hoipolloi). Thanks to G-hat for the photo.

Blankets and cake

Hurrah! Friday is here! The sun is shining and we are basking in the thrill of Hugh and Sioned’s award. For those of you who missed yesterday’s post, here is the link to the full article in The Age. What they have written about Floating really is lovely, so if you have a mo, do check it out.

I know Cate Blanchett’s award caused Simon to be befuddled by the question ‘what on earth is a blanket dress?’, so I have taken it upon myself to investigate and shed a little light on the subject... Cate wore a rather jazzy dress to a snazzy red carpet event a little while ago. I’m not quite sure how to describe it in order to do the dress justice, but I will try my best:

It really is quite unique...Imagine a crocheted blanket with different coloured squares. Now imagine more colours. And more squares. Use the power of your imagination to transform this blanket into a long sleeved dress. Now cut off one of the sleeves. Add a giant black pom-pom to the wrist of the remaining sleeve. Next add some faux fur (black) to the hem. And there you have it! It does look very snugly and warm, except for the fact that one shoulder will get rather nippy. However, paired with an extra sleeve and some UGG boots, I think this outfit would help me to keep warm in chilly and blustery Cambridge. Although I’ve done a bit of research on the designers who made Cate’s dress and I don’t think it’s in my budget. Never mind. Maybe I could achieve a similar effect by attacking my duvet with a pair of scissors and a sewing machine. ‘Bed-linen chic’ will be taking off very soon no doubt. Just remember, you heard it here first.

Other hot news from Hoipolloi HQ...There are still three more performances of Story of a Rabbit at the Curve in Leicester. Are you free tonight? Tomorrow afternoon? Or tomorrow night maybe? If so, why not grab a ticket to see Hugh. If you do already have plans, do a bit of re-shuffling and wangle your diary so that you can see Hugh after all. If you’re lucky he may even make you a cup of tea during the show. Click here to book tickets.

In fact I think that is all of the ‘exciting’ news to report. News fit only for the ‘mediocrity piles’ (there is both a literal and figurative pile; one for my dull scribblings on various scraps of paper/post it notes and one for my frequent inane thoughts) include the discovery of some rather delicious wheat free Dutch apple cake in the shop across the road. The inevitable consequence of this discovery is that I have been doing a sterling job devouring said cake. In fact I think it’s time to go and grab another slice...



Thank you to ejhogbin for the lovely photograph

Another Award

Today I received the very exciting news that we've won another award! Hugh and Sioned have been rewarded for their travels down to Melbourne with Floating by being named Best Live Theatre in The Age newspaper's inaugural M-ie Awards.

The awards were announced back on the 8 November but I've only just received word from our friends at the fantastic Arts House, who were our generous hosts during Floating's time in the city.

Sadly there is no glamorous awards ceremony to attend and I'm not even sure we'll receive any form of trophy to add to the cabinet (or the awards shelf as it actually exists as). But it's a delight to form part of the highlights of the social year in Melbourne.

And I'm really impressed by the lovely write-up it's received...

"You'd need to be lacking a heart not to have fallen in love with this teeny-tiny production from Wales. Somewhere between performance art, stand-up comedy and old-fashioned storytelling, it felt like the most thoughtful and generous gift you'd ever received. From a stranger, no less."

Also commended in this category were Jersey Boys and Ontroerend Goed's Once and For All We're Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut up and Listen. Several of us were fans of their Internal which played in Edinburgh this year, so it feels like honourable company to reside in.

The awards are a ludicrously diverse mix 0f categories from Most In-Demand Party Guest (which went to film star Eric Bana although Dannii Minogue did get a commendation) and Best Fashion Moment (going to Cate Blanchett and her blanket dress - although I have no idea what that is!) to the seemingly more sensible Best Pub/Bar (Madame Brussels - a choice that I'd definitely agree on) and Best Coffee (which the fantastic Auction Rooms missed out on, but they're definitely worth a visit if you're heading to a show at the Arts House).

You can read the full article here, although you might have to scroll down or skip to page 4 to find us!

If you're reading this in Australia, don't forget that Hugh will be returning to Sydney (although sadly not Melbourne on this occasion) for performances of 360 at the Sydney Festival (22 to 30 Jan). Tickets for that can be booked here.

Posted by Simon Bedford [Producer, Hoipolloi]

What's in a Name - The CV Awards

During the process of updating our records I came across many CVs listing fantastic show names. Too good not to share, I have created the ‘What’s in a Name?’ Award: It is with great pleasure that I announce the all time top ten show titles discovered in the Hoipolloi filing cabinet. As a new award we don’t have a sponsor yet, so sadly no prizes on offer for the moment, but there is always the glory of winning...

In no particular order we have:
Daisy and the washing up gloves; The Christmas Chimney Pot Plot; This is a Chair; Incest and plastic surgery; Captain Cholesterol and the Grannies from Mars; Princess Plimsole; Seasonal Sauce; Cowardy Custard; Quidditch Adventure; Wot No Condoms!

Runners up include:
The Uggs; Orgasm the musical; Scandalous! The musical; The Lazy Ant; Mission Possible; The Pumpkin Eater

I was also struck by the wide range of skills many of the actors who have contacted us have. These span from face painting to playing the spoons, and even having double jointed toes. I feel my single party trick (a very pathetic card trick) will no longer cut the mustard, so I am now on the hunt for something more impressive. One very endearing mix up on a CV has inspired me to attempt to play the ‘101 Dalmations’ in a show called ‘Pongo’. I better start working on my bark...

Thanks to Cliff for the photo