Ovid

Tales From Ovid: The Anatomy #1

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I was having a break between some fairly dull-but-necessary admin work for Ovid Reworked when the pull of a red pen and some scrap paper proved to be too much.

And thus the first ‘The Anatomy Of…’ was born. For if I was to draw the anatomy of The Brixton Project it might look like this:

Anatomy: #1

There’s a bigger version of it here. I think it sums up the last few weeks quite well, albeit had I been 100% true to events I would have written the word ‘SHUTTER’ all over the piece of paper because ‘Shutter Conversations’ have been many and plentiful (though, at least until we’re into the shop, pushed to one side with a solution – other than just locking everyone in and thus failing every fire safety policy there has ever been – having presented itself).

Tales From Ovid: Cold Writing

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One of the things that both Charlie and I were excited about from the beginning of The Brixton Project was the chance to get writers to write specifically for an unsual space. There’s been some wonderful responses to space from the writers who we’ve asked to do adaptations for us but we couldn’t let an opportunity pass to push the idea of writing/space/transformation even further. We’re in a market in Brixton in January and February after all! (That deserves an exclamation mark, I shall have to ration them for the rest of the year to make up for my over use in the next few weeks). And so the idea of ‘Cold Writing’ was born…

On Monday 1st February we’ll be holding a ‘Cold Writing Workshop’. Cold in the sense that we don’t want the participants to spend time working on anything before the workshop when we’ll dive in and use a couple of stories from Ovid’s Metamorphoses as starting points. Clearly it’s also cold in the sense that we’ll all most likely be wearing thermals too but there’ll be free tea and coffee (and the warmth of creativity…okay, I’m sure you get the point).

The idea is that everyone in the workshop creates a short (five to ten minute) piece that we’ll allow you to polish for a couple of days before we snatch it back, bring in some actors and dedicate the afternoon of Friday 5th to performing the pieces in the shop.

The workshop’s free and it’s a great chance to come along, write for an unsual space and (hopefully) have some fun along the way. Obviously we’re having to limit numbers on the workshop so if you want to take part send us an email to writebynumbers at gmail dot com, telling us a little bit about yourself and why you’d like to take part.

There’s a more detailed summary of the workshop here, though I do mention thermals in that too. Sorry.

Tales From Ovid: The Countdown Begins

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Today Charlie spread what seemed like fifteen pieces of paper across a table and we went through everything that needs to be done in the weeks leading up to Ovid Reworked – The Brixton Project. We’ve already got first drafts of the majority of the pieces that will be in the space, Directors lined up, a design for the shop but obviously this is the bit where it all gets a bit manic. In fact take ‘bit’ out – manic will just do.

In the spirit of what I think theatre blogging should be about I’m going to keep this blog updated more than is probably healthy in the coming weeks – the chances are that if we’re doing something you’re going to hear about it. I’m also hoping to give you a perspective other than mine to the proceedings and hopefully some of our collaborators will be contributing their thoughts too.

My one overriding hope at the moment, however, is that the weather gets a bit warmer – or else it’s thermal underwear in Brixton for us…

Tales From Ovid: The Shutter

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Today I went down to Brixton Village with our Designer Emily to try and work out what we’re going to do with our shop.

The Shutter...

When you look at that picture you’re also looking at one of the biggest ‘issues’ we’re going to have to solve. That mechanical shutter. Some of the shops in the market have proper windows and doors. Others have proper windows and doors and a shutter. Number 82, however, just has a shutter. So when the shutter’s up we’re open.

Which is nice in some ways – you can literally just stumble into our shop and I like the fact that we don’t have a physical barrier stopping people coming in.

It’s also problematic. Yes, our audience can stumble in, but then so can every other noise and distraction from the rest of the market. We want people to have the chance to watch short performances but also want to cocoon them in the world we’re creating.

So, yes, the shutter…I think this is one subject that I’ll return to.

Brixton Village Transformation

This entry was posted in Brixton Village Metamorphoses and tagged Brixton Village Empty Shops Projects Metamorphoses Ovid Spacemakers on by

If I’ve been a little quiet over here recently then it’s been for good reason. The last few weeks have had rehearsals and workshops and meetings and applications. There was even a day or two when it looked like Charlie was going to cancel Christmas.

More than all that, however, has been the fact that we’ve been waiting until we could announce our latest project and, having had confirmation of our dates today, this means I’m officially allowed to write about it on here.

From Monday 25th January until Saturday 6th February 2010 Write By Numbers will be participating in what is currently the UK’s largest empty shops project and taking over a shop in Brixton Village Market. Taking our inspiration from Ovid’s Metamorphoses we’re going to turn the shop into a grotto of live performance and interaction, staging short adaptations of and responses to Ovid’s stories of love, hope, terror and transformation.

We’re a writer-centric company but we also want to encourage writers to work in unsual ways or form unsual connections so not only will our writers have to work to the space, we’re also encouraging cross-art form collaboration and participation, with performers, spoken word artists, musicians and visual artists (to name a few) being invited to take part.

In addition we’ll be encouraging Brixton community (and indeed anyone who feels like wandering into our shop) to take part in the transformation of the space, contributing to our wall of change. We’ve also got a couple of other ideas we’re hoping will slot into place (including some workshops and the opportunity to create your own writing for performance) which we’ll announce as we finalise details.

I’ve been excited about the Brixton Village Market project since I first heard about it just over a month ago. There’s a real energy and commitment to regenerating and reimagining a space where (at present) 20 shops remain empty. And this isn’t just about a temporary plaster for the area, but a means of showing a viable, alive location with either projects proving themselves sustainable or the location becoming atttractive to other businesses.

For Write By Numbers it’s a chance to try something we wouldn’t have the resources to do elsewhere (our ‘shop’ will be open full business hours, Monday-Saturday), pulling performance outside of an auditorium and giving writers and theatre-makers the opportunity to do something completely different. Because why shouldn’t you be able to do your shopping and then pop into a ten minute performance?

The result of all of this? We’ve got seven weeks to create the project before we open our shop for the first time…