TechnoTheatre

As the victim of many jokes regarding how technologically inept I am I have decided to dedicate this blog post to 'Theatre and Technology' in celebration of the fact that thanks to my time here at Hoipolloi I now know what Twitter is, can navigate Google Analytics and actually write a blog post. It really is miraculous that I haven't managed to break the blog yet.

Apart from the odd bit of 'multimedia' in productions, I had never given much thought to the role of technology in theatre. Apparently it is quite a big thing now. It has probably been a big deal for a while and I'm just being slow and finally cottoned on to the whole thing. Anyway it is all really rather intriguing.

The most exciting bit of 'techno-theatre' as I'm going to call it, is the RSC and Mudlark's 'Such Tweet Sorrow' (how much do you love what they've done there? It had me chuckling away for ages). Six RSC actors are improvising a drama based on Shakespeare's good old gem Romeo and Juliet. The 'show' will run for five weeks, with the actors posting tweets and YouTube videos throughout. Check it out at http://suchtweetsorrow.com/.

Now for many of you this will be old news, but I'm still intrigued by NT Live - live theatre broadcast to cinemas. I regrettably haven't made it to a screening yet, but I am dubious. Whenever I have watched recordings of live productions they have missed the mark. A lot. It seems that during the leap from stage to screen much of the magic is lost. But who am I to question the National. aybe I should just book myself a ticket for The Habit of Art which will be broadcast live on Aril 22nd. For more info click here.

I've got a funny feeling though that won't be ditching actually going to a theatre to see a show just yet. Perusing Twitter doesn't quite cut it for me when you can see real actors on a real set in a real theatre. In fact last night I saw Laura Wade's Posh at th Royal Court and thought it was magnificent. So if you'd like to stick to an old fashioned non techno theatre experience then I highly recommend a trip to Sloane Square. Or, there is of course Hugh Hughes in rehearsal at the Junction in Cambridge next month. It would be great to see you there.





Thanks to eurlief for the photo

Where are you now?

Posted by David Ralfe (Marketing & Admin. Assistant, Hoipolloi)

So Hugh Hughes’ week at the National Theatre Studio has come to an end. It was great to have so many new people working on the production and we made a huge amount of progress on Hugh’s new show Invisible Town. We owe a big thank you to the National Theatre Studio and their magical automated skylights.

If you haven’t already seen it, there’s a video on my last post in which Hugh and Sioned tell us what we might expect from the new show.

In the meantime, I’ll ask you a question Hugh asked all of us at the start of the week.


Where are you now?


(Give yourself a minute to think about it and try and come up with at least seven different answers.)

Videos from Hugh Hughes & Sioned

Posted by David Ralfe (Marketing & Admin. Assistant, Hoipolloi)

We've just finished another great day at the National Theatre Studio, working on Hugh Hughes' new show Invisible Town. Here's a video of Hugh and his friend Sioned (who you'll recognise if you saw Floating) talking about their week at the Studio and what we can expect from the new show!

Story Machine

Posted by David Ralfe (Marketing & Admin. Assistant, Hoipolloi)

Hugh Hughes is spending this week at the National Theatre Studio working on a new show called Invisible Town. He's brought some of his friends along, including Sioned and Aled, and we're all working really hard, trying out ideas for the show.

There's a game we play every day which I'd like to teach you. It's called Story Machine.

Hugh's Story Machine is a huge piece of paper with 100 words written on it. All Hugh's words are to do with his childhood but you can make yours about anything you like! Hugh's words include names, places, emotions, days of the week, activities, and lots more. One of us presses one of the words (which we pretend are buttons on the machine) and then Hugh has to tell us a story to do with that word. Anyone can press any other button at any time, and when they do, Hugh has to incorporate the new word into the story as quickly as he can. Sometimes the actors perform the story as Hugh is telling it, and we also like making up songs about characters in the story.

It's great fun, and if you like using your imagination, like Hugh does, you should try it out!

If you make a really good story come out of a Story Machine, send me an email (david@hoipolloi.org.uk) tell me all about it. I'll pass them on to Hugh, he'd love to hear them!