Pirates, Princesses, Robbers and Monsters!

On Tuesday Hannah Whelan led more story writing workshops in schools in Peterborough with some of the NIE artists in tow. The workshops were fantastic and involved children of all different ages and backgrounds. Games were played and many stories were written. We now have lots of stories to help with the show so the next day we took a closer look at them.

On Wednesday Elisabet, Lenka, Unai, Carly, Tom and Ellie presented stories one by one to the rest of the group in promenade style performances around the Quaker House where we have been rehearsing.

Unai was a boy about to go on his first date, but he turns into a monster in the shower and can’t go. Elisabet became a young girl who buys a Princess dress for her mothers wedding but the Pirate that sells it to her rips it. But it’s ok they remain friends and get married when she’s older. Tom was a nervous young boy who had to judge a Police line up after his tictacs and water that he bought from the shop were stolen. Lenka told the story of a thief who stole chocolate from a local shop. Carly had us running around the Quaker House trying to escape from a very angry woman who’s shop we had just robbed and Ellie told us the charming story of Adam and Eve and the tale of the venue we were in. The stories were all written by children as part of the workshops. It was interesting to work with stories that follow an adult logic to an adults and it will be great to see how these stories affect the development of the show.

Then it was time for more music, out came the violin, guitar, accordion and drum (accordion case) and folk songs from Spain, Norway, Czech Republic and UK filled the corridors of the Quaker House.

Check back in the next few days for more about what we are getting up to in Peterborough.

written by Tom (Gideon) Womwell

The arrival of the New Arrivers

We have touched down in Peterborough to begin work on our exciting new site-specific show in conjunction with Eastern Angles, Arts Council and Peterborough City Council. The new show is called New Arrivers and will open in Peterborough in the Autumn of 2010.  You can find out more about the show by visiting the mini site at www.nie-peterborough.webs.com.

On Monday Alex, Cat, Tom (Gideon), Lenka, Elisabet, Carly, Hannah, Unai, Tom Anderson, Ellie, Marie and our intern Izzy descended on the Quaker House for the first day of work.

We kicked off the day by talking about the project and how we will be using stories written by school children as part of NIE workshops as inspiration for the show. The show will be performed in a disused shopping space in Peterborough city centre, therefore we have lots of stories about shops and many of them were written by children who’s first language is not English so that is interesting.

Then came everyones favourite part. LUNCH! Cat prepared a wonderful lunch which was all devoured very quickly. The afternoon saw movement work with big wooden canes and a trip up to Lincoln Road. This road is amazing, the streets are lined with shops and businesses from Czech Republic, Poland, Asia and lots of other places, it’s a real mix of cultures which is great to think about for the New Arrivers project. We ended the day with a coffee in a portugese café…. Unai had a beer.

Next up we will be holding more workshops in schools and going through the stories that have been written so far…..oh and we will be playing instruments too!

written by Tom (Gideon) Womwell

New departures / New arrivers

We have now left Norway but not without a hint of northern light. Driving back to Oslo on Thursday night after dinner at Kjell and Iva's house, the sky was green. And not some weird bluish green, proper grassy green. It didn't move, so it wasn't as spectacular as you'd expect from the Northern Lights, but to see them this far south is unusual enough for me.
So, moose and northern lights on one tour: it can't get more Norwegian...

When we left, Anna gave me this for the van:

A small guard dog.
So if you have anything you think would look cool in the cabin of our new van, please bring it along to wherever you will find us. I want to turn the van in a mini museum of our travels.

Today is the start of a new project in Peterborough. The New Arrivers have arrived there last night and I have asked Elisabet to keep us updated. I'm not there myself, as I have some extra travelling to do in order to get to Graz on time with all of our possessions - in our new van.
(Is it clear how excited I am about our new van?)

Scratch over. Year over.

We have left London. Or at least I think we all did. The scratch nights were great fun, and we now can't wait to develop this further.
But, as I've explained to many people over the last two weeks: we have quite a few more shows to make before this one opens, so at the moment we are planning to do another week in June, and then maybe we find some more time before autumn 2011. Yes, you read that right. 2011. I will try and explain to you in a next post what is happening before autumn 2011. One thing's for sure: we're not taking a sabbatical.


This is what Katchka made of the reception room where the audience came in before the show started. Our collection of maps and mad hats and costumes.



Some people grabbed the pen and marked on the map where they had been. Between you and us, we didn't cover the world. So we'll have to work harder. You have until autumn 2011 to fill in the gaps we leave in our travels. I will definitely try to make an effort to fill in those gaps no one else seems to be willing to fill in.

Nils is telling the audience just how big the world is.

On Saturday, we came in at 11am to get some extra scenes into shape to present to the next audience. BAC is an enormous listed building with a lot of windows and single glazing. It gets cold in there...

The view from the Committee Room (the Old Bar)

After lunch we came back to BAC and found a few of the cast couldn't resist the urge to play Around the World in 80 days as a West End musical. So they had a go at it.
About 5 minutes in, Alex cut them off: it was too much to handle.

What will it be?

No one knows yet. All options are still open and in the luxurious freedom of a scratch, they can stay open until the very last minute.
Will it be around the world in 80 rooms? Around the world in 80 maps?
Only time will tell.
And even then, the Friday scratch might be very different from the Saturday scratch.

On Monday Katchka and I went to Stanfords, the map shop. We bought 4 different maps there, and one is very big. We got back to BAC and mounted the biggest one on a sheet, so it would be easier to use.

On Monday night I went to see a friend who gave me two bags of costumes. Yesterday morning we tried them on.
They are very different from our usual second hand shop costumes.

Phileas Fogg and Passepartout

Everyone stayed in costume for more text research.



Then we explored the scene with Mrs Aouda, after she'd been saved from the temple. It is the start of the love story.

Love at first sight?

Mr Fix

We found out that Mr Fix adjust to his surroundings very easily...

Last night and went back to Stanfords and bought 4 more maps. I'm off to BAC now to hand them over and see how they can be used.

It's been great to be back in London. Our rehearsing and touring over the last two years hasn't really hit London. The last time we were here was when we rehearsed Everything Falls Apart at the Lyric.

Other great news: our Norwegian funding application for making The Sea Journey has been approved. Which means that next March we will start processing all of our experiences aboard the Fort St. Louis and try to mould them into a show that can hopefully show you what life on the sea is like. Or what it can be like.

End of week One - in the middle

It's the end of the first week and I thought I'd update you on some of the things we've been doing.

We've explored more of the book, analysed all chapters to lay out the stories, played around with some music and bought some funny hats.

There is no casting yet, so here are some possibilities:

Nils as Phileas Fogg, Unai as very competent storyteller. Esquire is his favourite word.





Unai as Phileas Fogg, Esq.
A true English gentleman...




A selection of instruments.



Henrik as Phileas Fogg. He has issues with his own name.



Tarek as Phileas Fogg, Unai as Passepartout.



Tarek sings the Journey-Description-Song.



Henrik Ipsen as Phileas Fogg. Tuan sings the Suez-Canal-Song.

Other than rehearsing we have had a company dinner to catch up on people's lives outside NIE, and we've attended BAC's Amnesty International Gala Night and watched 1984. We had some hot punch, which I think must have been gluh-gin, as it seemed to have a lot of gluhwein ingredients, but it had gin instead of wine. It was very strong.

I realise I haven't yet shown you what was inside the big cardboard box. I will take a picture of it tomorrow.

There is one more thing, but again: I'd like to keep it as a surprise for those who come and see the scratch performances on the 18th and 19th. I'll reveal it afterwards for those who can't make it.
All I can say is that it's very exciting.

Tomorrow I will go and buy a bigger map. We need it.

NIE goes posh

Today we went in search of the life of Phileas Fogg. We do realise he is a fictional character (something we haven't touched on much in the past years), but what if we treated him as if he were real? What was this Reform Club? He spent most of his time there, took all of his meals there, and started his journey there. So we had to go there.

Or rather: Alex found out you can book guided tours of the reform club, so he decided we should go.
Some time last week we all got an email from Tom (photo reference in previous blog post) saying we were to visit the Reform Club and there was a dress code.
Yesterday we discussed the dress code further and were clearly instructed that jeans and trainers wouldn't fly.

This morning we all met outside the Reform Club. We were not allowed to take photographs inside, but if you really want to know, you can find some here.

The tour was great, even though personally I thought they could do with some work over there at the Reform Club. Some of the furniture has seen better years. In all fairness, they were having some reconstruction done and the man who gave us the tour explained that there were some leaks in the roof that didn't seem to have any cause. It's a beautiful building with an Italian palazzo as a main entrance. But as we're not in Italy or an Italian-like climate, it is covered with a glass tiled roof.
We saw the non-smoking Smoking Room, two different dining rooms, and were told there were hotel rooms in the floors we couldn't see.
I really liked the floors we couldn't see. The guide said they were there, but there was no trace of them on the inside.

After the Reform Club we tried to count the footsteps between the club and Savile Row, where Fogg's fictional home was. But we went the wrong way, so the footsteps didn't add up.
Additionally, either they re-numbered the houses or Jules Verne got his numbers wrong. Verne mentions Fogg lives in the house were Sheridan died, Number 7 Savile Row.

This is the house where Sheridan died, but it is not number 7, it's number 14. The house that used to be on number 7 must have been bombed, as it is now a newer building. So for our purposes it is nicer to believe that it must be number 14.

We were on a roll testing out this new way of life, and carried on for high tea at Langtry's.

When the sandwiches arrived, I got slightly worried: this would not be enough lunch for me. They were tiny. And cut in a way that in my experience is only suitable for very small children. Henrik compared them to airplane food. Clearly we're not English.

But my concerns vanished when the scones arrived. I'd eaten scones before, but it had been a long time and I'd forgotten how filling they are.

At 2pm our fancy fake life had to end and we headed back to BAC for some of our own familiar world. And more fancy dress. But the kind we are very used to.

We also have this thing:
I will show you what's inside later.

Where do they go?

Yesterday we started rehearsals. We all met at BAC, met our producer there, and joined forces in our first rehearsal room. BAC has a lot of rooms and they all have different names. I know the room as Tom and Emma's old office. I think it is now called the Town's Clerk Room.
You can see Foxton's from the windows, and the first thing I noticed is how there are fewer staff at Foxton's now than there were 5 years ago.

Times change.

The first thing we decided to do after getting all the practical stuff out of the way, is draw Phileas Foggs journey on a map of the world. We discussed various versions of world maps, and how it's very hard to get a real idea of how big things are.

Henrik reinforced that idea by turning the map upside down to give us a new perspective.
But it confused us too much, so we made him turn it back the normal way up.

This is the journey from the book. We made a mistake in India, because he didn't travel straight across India, he went NE and then SE - seems like a slight waste of time to me, but he probably did it because there was no other way to cross at that time.

The team we are working with now is a new mix again, so I thought I'd introduce him.

Tarek

Iva

Cat

Tom

Katchka (I spelt this wrong, but i don't have the Czech accents on my computer, so I tried to make it phonetic)

Tuan

Alex

Unai (incognito)

David

Nils (he is very very tall, especially compared to me)

Elke (that's me - I am relatively short, but exceptionally short compared to Nils)

New show, new toys. Alex had some fun before we started and rented some costumes and this enormous bass drum. Considering he decided to hire it, we decided to also let him carry it. Alex is relatively short compared to this bass drum.

In the afternoon we changed to a different room. This room is called the New Committee Room. And I can't remember what I remember it as. It must have been someone's office.

The show that had been in there before must have been quite disturbing. The walls were covered in quotes relating to homophobic acts of violence, which luckily is quite far removed from the world we're immersing ourselves in.