Affected by the Effects

The 'big move' is complete and the office has been officially turned upside down. Simon and I are very happy with our shiny new desk, glossy blue floor and big windows. In fact we're so happy we think we may even be working a bit harder. Although not hard enough to avoid a brief peek at what the oracle Wikipedia has to say about the effect of changing your office space...

After some extremely thorough research we are pretty convinced that we are prime examples of both the Hawthorne effect and the Pygmalion effect. "What are these?, tell us more!" I hear you cry. Well...

The term 'Hawthorne effect' was coined by Henry A. Landsberger in 1955 when he was studying some experiments held at the Hawthorne Works in Chicago in the 1920s-early 1930s.

Hawthorne Works commissioned a study to see whether their workers would work more or less productively in different levels of light. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the higher the level of light, the more productive the workers. Other changes examined included keeping work stations clean, getting rid of obstacles on the floor and moving workstations. Here at Hoipolloi HQ all these changes have taken place, and we are sure we're working harder, although maybe this is a result of the Pygmalion effect....

The Pygmalion effect refers to the phenomenon of placing a greater expectation on someone, in order to make them perform better. Perhaps we're just expecting to work harder because we've perused the world wide web and become enlightened about the Hawthorne effect, which has now smoothly taken us directly under the influence of the Pygmalion effect...

But now I'm just confused, so, moving swiftly onwards to certain territory, the really exciting news for this weekend is that...drum roll please....

Hugh Hughes will be performing his award winning show, 360, at the New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich on Sunday. If you are nearby, or fancy a jolly Sunday evening outing to Ipswich we would love to see you at the show. You can book tickets by clicking here.

Exciting days out...

"Upside down, and inside out"; it's all change here at Hoipolloi HQ as we switch the office around, moving downstairs upstairs and upstairs downstairs. We've been battling with deconstructing large pieces of Swedish furniture and carrying them down our precarious spiral staircase, discovering a hoard of old CDs which have prompted a great deal of reminiscing over school discos, and been on a couple of very glamorous days out...

In order to build the new desk for upstairs we travelled to the enormous emporium of Ridgeons where we realised that choosing which wood is good wood - for building desks - is harder than we originally anticipated. The matter was further complicated by the fact that the measurements were far from what we had expected, so we needed to ask a nice man to cut the sheets up into smaller pieces in order to fit them into the car. Other vital choices made on Tuesday included which colour wood varnish to purchase, and which colour floor paint. We went for clear satin for the former and steel blue for the latter, for those who are interested.

Today Simon and I travelled even further afield in order to dispose of the old carpet (for anyone who has any pent up frustration...ripping carpet up from the floor is very soothing by the way). We leapt into the car and motored over to the skip (somewhere near the Cambridge business park, I'm still not exactly sure where but there were some nice fields around). We only narrowly avoided disaster as we approached the gate and saw that they were locking up for the day, but fortunately Simon managed to charm the man into allowing us through and we were in! Then a mad dash to dispose of everything in the boot took place. Who knows of we got the correct skip, but we have saved ourselves from ever seeing the manky old carpet ever again.

Just as we were about to leave we noticed something tempting lurking in the paper recycling bin...a stack of old books. With only seconds to go before we were locked in and trapped in the yard until the morning, we hastily grabbed as many as we could, rescuing an armful of books from inevitable destruction.

The haul includes...

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

I'll be taking Charlotte Gray home with me for sure, but if anyone desires any of the other works, just let me know and we can see if we can re-home them.

Thanks to Jacob Whittaker for the photo

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

The first post...

We're back! Sorry about the recent silence on the blog ...poor Simon was abandoned after Edinburgh as David moved on to pastures new (Paris - very jealous), and I took a couple of weeks to recover from the Fringe, move house, attempt to fit all of my belongings into a very small new room (like a fun spatial awareness game, with less 'fun' and more 'almost crushing myself with stacks of books') and prepare to officially join the Hoipolloi team. Today is my very first day on the job and I am trying to overcome my fear of technology and learn more advanced computer skills than writing something in Word and sending the odd email. I have been given clear instructions on 'how to do a blog entry' but there is still every chance things could go a little crazy, so apologies if the entry goes a bit haywire at some point.

Aside from getting stuck into the office's fantastic array of herbal teas, I have spent most of my first day sorting through actors' cvs. This has presented plenty of exciting learning experiences: which printer to use, filing, adding people to the database, and flexing my new email address have all been tackled. I was struck by many of the actors' 'skills' sections on their CVs, and am most intrigued by 'skin work'. I have yet to discover what this is, so if anyone knows, I would be very interested to find out.

I've also been sending emails to people about our very exciting Masterclass at The Junction. It's on Saturday 12th December and will be a great way to find out about how Hoipolloi create work. Tickets cost £35 and you can book your place by ringing The Junction's box office on 01223 511 511. Hopefully see you there!

The Last Post

My last post (for now).

I spent the whole festival wanting to film Hugh's pre-show warm up but feared he may think it intrusive. Before the last show, however, I threw caution to the wind and captured this gem without Hugh knowing.

Whoever guesses what's on his iPod wins a prize.