Monthly Archives: May 2013


The One Where We Make A Play

Mapping Albion

The photo above is something which simultaneously makes me excited and want to be a little bit sick. For, in those bits of paper, there is a play. A play with a beginning, a middle and an end (possibly even in the correct order). The play concerned is Beneath the Albion Sky and, in a month’s time, for the first time ever, we’re going to be performing it in its entirety to actual audiences in an actual theatre as part of an actual festival. If there’s anything that makes me want to take deep breaths into a paperbag then that sentence is it.

But – yes! – we shall be bringing walking boots and myths and legends and possibly even a tent into the BikeShed Theatre as part of Exeter’s Ignite Festival where we’ll be performing on the 4th June at 8.10pm and the 5th June at 6.30pm. And you can buy tickets here.

Having previously scratched extracts of Albion Sky with the BAC at Latitude Festival and the BikeShed’s own SCRATCH and with what Charlie and I are referring to as Draft 0.925 (snappy, right?) in hand we’re about to embark on three-and-a-bit weeks of Intense Scary Rehearsal. And, since I clearly do not have anything better to do than reveal my writerly state of panic through the use of CAPS LOCK, I’m going to be blogging the process. Even the bits where I have to go lie down in a darkened room. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.


Being a Freelancer

Life has been (voluntarily) stressful of late what with the ‘running a theatre company whilst trying to make a living with lots of freelance jobs and also trying to have a life’ sort of thing. Instead of feeling sorry for myself or repeatedly kicking myself for all the mistakes I constantly repeat, I thought I’d write (in true Joseph Mills style) 16 facts I need to come to terms with about being a freelancer:

1. I will always have a home full of clutter, from books and workshop plans to random props, balloons and bits of string.
2. I will spend 1000s of hours a year on trains.
3. I will not be paid for these hours so should spend them reading high quality fantasy.
4. I will take on too much work. ‘Well, I’m in Hammersmith til 12 so I should be able to get to Wimbledon for a workshop at 2 then back to Hampstead for a meeting at 5pm, no problem’.
5. I will underestimate the emotional impact of my work.
6. I will have a complex love-hate relationship with my smartphone. I LOVE that I can read BBC News when I’m bored, turn on spotify and search for a song on the spur of the moment in a workshop, and use google maps to find a school when I’m running late. I HATE receiving work emails on the move, rubbish battery life, and google maps’ occasional lies!
7. I will forget I have to plan each session I do/meeting I have so I have to spend aforementioned travel time planning.
8. I cannot commit to regular evening activities.
9. I will go and see lots of shows that friends/colleagues are in (sometimes for free).
10. I will sometimes remember that I AM freelance and it’s OK to take a 2hour lunch!
11. I will get invited to awesome networking events and I go as me, not representing anyone else!
12. I can have creative meetings at midnight and enjoy them (although this mostly comes with living with WBN!)
13. I will constantly forget that if I work 20 days without a break my body will rebel and make me ill.
14. I will struggle to understand the concept of ‘the weekend’ and ‘payday’.
15. At the start of each new project I will completely forget what went wrong on the last one and remain steadfastly optimistic that this new project will be THE BEST EVER!
16. Whenever I get stressed I need to remember that being a freelancer is (usually) something that makes me happy.

OK, feeling a bit better now. Onwards!