An amazing weekend / Now we need your help

Wow, what an amazing weekend that was (obviously ignoring the football result!). I hope you had as much fun as I did. The weather was glorious and I took my very first trip to Anglesey to meet up with Hugh Hughes and see his homeland.

Before I talk more about the weekend, I should first explain that now Marieke has left us, I (as in Simon, Hoipolloi's Producer) will be the main voice on here for the next few weeks whilst I await the arrival of Marieke's replacements.

Anyway, back to my travels...

It's strange that since I first joined Hoipolloi in 2005, I've spent most of that time talking about Anglesey and yet I had never actually once visited the place. But this weekend that all changed and I had a special guided tour of all the places that had previously only existed in my imagination.

I crossed the now fully reconstructed Menai Bridge (after it's collapse in Floating), I went to Llangefni and saw the house that Hugh grew up in and the church where Hugh's father died (as described in Story of a Rabbit). Perhaps most excitingly, particularly for 360 fans, I also saw the river where Hugh and Gareth built their dams (as pictured here).

It was a delight to see these places and have them leap into reality, suddenly become vividly alive in my mind. It's deepened my connection to the shows and brought the world of Hugh even closer.

And now we need your help to discover our audience's experiences of the work of Hugh Hughes.

This weekend has been just one of many exciting experiences of Hugh Hughes over the past five years. And now we'd like to understand more about your experiences of Hugh.

We're currently conducting some research into our audiences and are looking for some volunteers who might be willing to offer us up to about 30mins of time to chat about what they think of Hugh Hughes and their experiences of seeing his work.

You'll need to be:

• It's last minute but you'll need to be available for a 30min conversation (probably by phone) at some point between today and this Thursday (1 July).
  
• Have seen at least one (but preferably more) of Hugh Hughes' shows - Floating, Story of a Rabbit, 360 (or indeed in development projects such as Invisible Town or In Rehearsal).

If you're interested in helping us out, please email your contact details, including a phone number, to me via this address simonb@hoipolloi.org.uk.

As I'm looking for a real cross-section of people, it would be great if you could include your age (or I'll also accept a rough age bracket if you'd prefer!).

Not quite sure how the response to this request will go but I promise I'll respond to everyone who emails in to let them know whether we'll need to talk to them or not.

I look forward to hopefully talking to some of you very soon!

Posted by Simon Bedford (Producer, Hoipolloi)

Au revoir

It seems that all good things really must come to an end, alas, and so it is time for me to bid farewell and move onwards to pastures new. It seems like just moments ago that I was sitting in the bar at the Traverse theatre in Edinburgh writing my very first blog post, and even though it was longer ago, it feels that it is mere seconds (time is funny like that) since I came to the Hoipolloi office for the very first time for my interview with Simon, Louise and David. I was extremely flustered as I'd managed to trip over on the zebra crossing on Mill Road, making a complete fool of myself and causing a number of passers by to glance over and give me a patronising 'oh dear, you silly girl' look.

Having had the traditional 'oh cripes, I'm graduating and will no longer be protected from the world by the warm and familiar embrace of education' I realised that I needed to find something to do with my life. Of course I'd given up hope of finding a 'real job' ages ago and set my little heart on a life in the theatre. Luckily Hoipolloi took me on board, otherwise who knows where I would have ended up. Probably outside the backstage door of a theatre somewhere begging for a job. Or rocking gently in a 'home' muttering 'please can I direct plays'.

This year has been super, or as Hugh would put it, 'brilliant!' (insert welsh accent, thankfully you can't hear my appalling attempt). I won't list all of the best bits, - if I do I'll start to get ridiculously nostalgic and start to cry and though I don't know much about computers (although thanks to Simon I am definitely less technologically backwards than I was when I arrived) I'm guessing floods of tears never did them any good - but there have been hundreds. In fact I don't think I'll ever be able to drink a cup of fruit or green tea again without wistfully thinking back to the halcyon days spent in Dale's Brewery. Not only have I had a lot of fun, but I've also learnt many essential life skills which should equip me for the big bad world. These include how to write a blog, printing on headed paper, what a 'hashcode' is and navigating my way around Google Analytics. With all of this knowledge I think I'm going to be just fine masquerading as a real adult. After a recent conversation with Hugh I'm also keen to find out whether painting your legs yellow would make you run faster. If you see me running around with fluorescent legs one day, you'll know why.

To prevent this cascading into a total wallow of sentimentality I'm going to start rounding things up by saying a big thank you to everyone at Hoipolloi for a wonderful year. Thank you also to anyone who has read the blog. I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it, and good luck to the new interns! I'm leaving Cambridge to train to be a director in the big bright city of London, so as I won't be terribly far away, nor leaving the theatrical world, I'm hoping that this is not 'goodbye', but merely 'au revoir'.

Thanks to Peter Kaminski for the photo

Theatre and Football

In what is my penultimate blog post (sniffle, sob) Simon has set me a challenge which should definitely earn me an 'advanced blogging' certificate (if this doesn't exist yet, it should) before I leave next week. I have been instructed to write a blog post about the World Cup. Although this may seem relatively easy considering the fact that the World Cup is happening now and everyone is talking about it, my knowledge of the Beautiful Game is limited (although at least I know that it is called the Beautiful Game, so it's not totally disasterous) and finding a way of fusing theatre and football into one beautiful combination like peanut butter and jam is not a well trodden path I fear.

Typing 'theatre and football' into Google came up with lots about football but very little about its relationship to theatre. Oh Google, you are usually so reliable but you have failed me miserably. However, I did find one little thing: a prediction that West End ticket sales will plummet by 20% during the World Cup. So clearly a fifth of people who go to West End shows are also hardcore footie fans. Who knew?

In order to increase my chances of a successful search I then tried 'plays about football'. This was even less successful than the first attempt, which let's face it wasn't successful at all, thus making this one pretty much catastrophic. This time round I was just given many instructions on how to play football. I don't really want to learn how to play thank you. After an embarrassing few years of team sports at school (turns out I can only manage solitary sporting pursuits like cross country running and swimming) I am loathe to revisit that particular kind of humiliation linked to netball skirts, muddy hockey pitches, brightly coloured airtex shirts and the like.

So on my search went and it bore very little fruit until I found out that...

The Albany theatre in Deptford - which is clearly ahead of the time - in spite of an apparent lack of enthusaism for 'theatreandfootball' across the rest of the country, is trying to bridge the gap between theatre and sport and will be screening many of the matches in the theatre. Plus they have commissioned performance poets Charlie Dark, Scroobius Pop, Kat Francois and Polarbear to present pre-match football stories. Wow.

So there you have it, at last a successful result. Let's hope England fare better in their matches than I have done in my quest...

Thanks to katie@! for the photo

My Name Is Sue (and other delights)

I'm sure that some of you will remember our passioned enthusiasm for a wonderful show called My Name Is Sue, which shared our venue in the Pleasance Courtyard at last year's Edinburgh Fringe.

David, our previous intern, even implored you to attend in a sentence written completely in capital letters (which is a very definite statement from someone who has a first in English from Cambridge University).

For those of you who missed it the first time, you'll be delighted to hear that it'll be making a visit to London's Soho Theatre this week.

So, what's the show about?

"Sue is a piano-wielding prophet who has so far kept her thoughts to herself. But now she is ready to let rip. She invites you into her lounge, where she'll sing through life from finishing school to Doomsday. Tales of schoolgirl passion and middle-aged longing, of ancient demons reawakened and of Armageddon sweeping through Cardiff town centre. Or she might just tell you what she had for lunch."

It comes most highly recommended (I've seen it at least 4 times now and still can't get enough) and this is what the papers have to say about it...

"Bizarre but brilliant... hysterically funny and beautifully played" Time Out (4stars)

"Certainly one of the most unusual, remarkable and memorable hours on the fringe" The Stage

It was also a Pick of the Week in this week's Guardian Guide.

Hopefully that's all whetted your appetite and now here's the clincher! If you go on and see the show this week (from Weds 16 to Sat 19 June), tickets are just £10!

The show runs from 16 to 26 June and tickets are available by calling 020 7478 0100 or online by clicking here.

*****

Also, for those of in Cambridge, we'd also like to recommend a visit to 3rd Ring Out.

Set inside shipping containers that become 'mobile command centres' on Parker's Piece, this is a very different sort of theatre. It's 2033 and the world has changed. Nature is taking revenge on industrial humanity and faced with a range of realistic futuristic scenarios, it’s up to you how the story develops.

I saw this intriguing piece on Saturday and it definitely made me think about what our environmental future might hold.

Performances take place on Parker's Piece from 17 to 20 June at 11am, 1.30pm, 4.30pm and 7pm each day and tickets cost £8 (£5 concessions).

Tickets are available from The Junction on 01223 511 511 or book online here.

*****

Enjoy!

Posted by Simon Bedford (Producer, Hoipolloi)

Some random photos of Hugh Hughes for you to enjoy!

There is an alternative reason for posting these online but I thought you might enjoy this blast from the past anyway. Enjoy!

Posted by Simon Bedford (Producer, Hoipolloi)