Application “key” words
University of Hertfordshire has done some research and come up with the top words to use in university application forms see below and here).
I guess you could call these “key” words. My dislike for the word key in this context is growing. It’s beginning to become one of those meaningless words, following the path of proactive.
Still, we do use them as they serve a purpose. The listener/reader most often knows what you are talking about but some times they don’t as the meaning has dissipated.
As a writer, I find words fascinating. Words and their use can embody people and particularly theatre characters. I’ve been struck by the great vernacular used by the black [before we get on to “blackness” this has encompassed Nigerian slang, Caribbean argot, and South-London] writers in my Talawa group.
Maybe language really does define who we are?
However, if all you want is a better a career just use these words….
The top 10 words to include on an application form are:
Achievement
Active
Developed
Evidence
Experience
Impact
Individual
Involved
Planning
Transferable skills
The 10 words to avoid:
Always
Awful
Bad
Fault
Hate
Mistake
Never
Nothing
Panic
Problems
Rehearsals
I was in rehearsals for my new short play, On the Eve of the Collapse [Soho theatre ths Thursday, do come!] that Talawa are producing.
Rehearsals are both immensely exciting and also a bit nervy. Actors ask you all these questions:
Why did you write the play?
Is the character based on anyone?
What does this mean?
Have you any experience of this…?
And then you have the director:
Can we cut this?
For the purposes of this reading, can we do this…
and the arguments between everyone; rhythmn, pacing, intention, meaning… thankfully everyone wants to serve the work in its best possible light, in which case although there may be disagreements, generally everything works out.
We only had about 3 hours, which is hardly enough to get the play read a couple of times and get some basic understanding done. Still it’s amazing hearing the words and characters come to life.
Teaching
This idea by Dave Eggers (can any thing stop the creativity of this man?) sounds brilliant.
It is a drop in tutorial centre for children. A place where they can do homework, get extra help, be creative… I would be so up for helping with one.
What do others think?
“The real business here is words. Set up three years ago by the writer Dave Eggers and some friends, 826 Valencia in San Francisco’s Mission district is a drop-in centre for schoolchildren looking for extra help with homework, a bit of peace and quiet, or a chance to listen to a good story.
The place has been so successful that it has spawned imitators: New York City has one in Brooklyn (the front is a superhero supplies shop, where the aerodynamic qualities of capes can be tested using an industrial fan), Los Angeles and Michigan have them, and others are imminent in Chicago and Seattle. Massachusetts and Cincinnati have centres modelled on 826.
But that is only part of the story. Eggers, along with two colleagues, has also edited an oral history book, Teachers Have It Easy. It describes, with sometimes startling explicitness, their daily lives. Sure, there’s the teaching, the long days, the constant pressure of being on the job. But other things truly shock: the teachers who mow lawns at weekends or paint houses to make ends meet. The teacher who works in a bar to buy books for his class. If you want an easy life, the book explains in an easy-to-follow chart, become a pharmaceuticals salesman, not a teacher.”
Pinter is 75
Alan Bennett made a cheeky suggestion, on the occasion of Pinter’s 50th birthday, that the best way to commemorate it would be with a two-minute silence. [He is most famous for his pregnant pauses in his plays.]
For his 75th, Pinter is being celebrated in Dublin with performances of Old Times and performances of plays, poetry and prose. Michael Gambon is coming from New York, Jeremy Irons is from Budapest. Other participants include Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Stephen Rea and Penelope Wilton. Playwrights Tom Stoppard, Frank McGuinness and Conor McPherson are the guests at a Sunday night dinner at the Unicorn.
On Monday night, BBC Radio 3 premieres a new work, Voices: a collaborative venture between Pinter and composer James Clarke that deals with man’s inhumanity to man.
An article by Michael Billington here with a gripe on why he isn’t being celebrated in London.
August Wilson has died
Sadly, August Wilson has died. Obit.
I mentioned he was suffering from cancer in an earlier post.
Kwame Kwei-Armah writes in the Guardian and quotes:
In his eulogy for John Osborne, David Hare wrote:
“Of all human freedoms the most contentious is the freedom not to fear what people will think of you.”
Wilson, himself said in the New York Times in 2000:
“I wanted to place this culture onstage in all its richness and fullness, and to demonstrate its ability to sustain us in all areas of human life and endeavour, and through profound moments of our history in which the larger society has thought less of us than we have thought of ourselves”
If Cassandra and Eurythmy
I went to see If Cassandra at the Riverside Studios. I can’t say I comprehended it very well.
The blurb goes: Three women meet, wanting to spend a pleasant evening together. Despite their best efforts, noise, music and unexpected events repeatedly disturb the meal and the women are forced make repeated new beginnings: a process full of frustrations but also fresh possibilities. A poetic and tragi-comic composition of sounds, images and situations…
I have some experience of dance theatre and also pf the physical, visual spectrum and this piece fitted in to that.
I found some images intriguing, some particularly towards the end quite powerful. I also found some of the language of the movement towards the end quite absorbing.
However, the structure of the repetition of the meal left me a little cold, particularly the start which felt very awkward particularly compared to some of the physicality in the last quarter.
But, I must confess to knowing little about eurythmy, which I think was a core process used in this piece.
I learnt this about eurythmy here, and see below. I now think I don’t have the language to understand the process fully, but wonder about how many of the gestures were feelings being made visual.
Eurythmy is a movement art initiated by Rudolf Steiner in 1912, as the art of visible speech and visible song. Originally conceived as a performance art, eurythmy has unlimited possibilities in the field of experiencing spirituality through movement. It bears relationship to the ancient forms of sacred dance, yet it is wholly secular in its character. Eurythmy is used in medical, pedagogical and sociological fields. It is an essential part of Waldorf education, providing the somatic component of the multi-modal learning experience unique to the Waldorf curriculum.
The sounds of speech can all be experienced as particular feelings, with specific sculptural components that are then made visible through gesture movements. The dynamics, rhythms and meaning of language offer the components of the choreography of eurythmy forms. Similarly, the beat, rhythm, pitch, tones and intervals of music can be experienced somatically and brought into visual expression.
Director’s reply to critics
As I mentioned, I hope Tim Supple would be allowed to reply to Lyn Gardner’s review of What We did to Weinstein at the Menier.
And he has, here.
Supple makes some valid points about appraising what a play is trying to do and the evaluating it, although I guess a critic is also giving a personal opinion as well.
Certainly, I enjoyed the play much more than Gardner, though I note her point about drifting into possible cliches.
Still, it’s one of the resaons I think blogs (maybe like mine!) will become more important as a form of criticism going forward.
National studio
Much great work goes on at the studio. A place where many writers and directors, especially less-established ones, get to work with brilliant people. Also a place to experiment and workshop.
I’m hoping to perhaps a workshop there one day. All my friends who have been through have had an amazing experience.
Here’s a recent Guardian article on what goes on there.
Auditions for my play
In case you know or know of someone who wants a chance to audition:
SIRIUS ARTS in association with Yellow Earth Theatre will be staging YELLOW GENTLEMEN by Benjamin Yeoh at the Oval House, directed by Bronwyn Lim, in mid Feb – early March 2006 with 3 weeks rehearsal period from end of January, exact time to be confirmed.
It is the story of three East Asian men coming to terms with decisions they have made, and life choices they have yet to make, whilst living in London. [This wouldn't quite be my summary, but it's probably more accurate.]
Three East Asian, male actors, capable of sustaining RP, are required for the following roles. Man 1 – playing age around 60; Man 2 – playing age around 40; Man 3 – playing age around 20. All roles require the actors to be comfortable with naturalistic and heightened styles of stage acting. Please note that Man 1 has extended monologues. Equity rates.
Directed by Bronwyn Lim. Please send CVs and Spotlight/web links (no photos) to bron@twometres.com or CVs and photos to Bronwyn Lim, 75 Village Way, Pinner, Middlesex, HA5 5AA. Initial auditions to be held Friday 7th October at Oval House in Central London.
Mozart’s sister
A friend, Alison Bauld, has started a blog to promote her new book, Mozart’s sister. The world of new books is tough out there, so I thought I’d draw it to your intention.
Check out the blog or the book
In 1770, Mozart wrote to his sister from Rome to praise her composition, urging her to send him more. A M Bauld has included one of her own songs in homage. This book follows Nannerl Mozart’s life through marriage, children, widowhood and death in conversations with her nephew, Franz Xaver, Mozart’s younger son.
Ian Rickson leaving Royal Court
Ian Rickson is to leave his post as Artistic Director of the Royal Court in December next year, supposedly his contract was due to expire in April of this year, with an optional twelve month extension. However the theatre’s board asked him to stay until the end of the fiftieth season and he agreed.
Advertising for his successor begins next week. I wonder who will be up for the job? Current associates will be favourites but maybe someone from outside the Court?
Interviews with Ian Rickson at British Theatre Guide, Indepedent and Guardian.
What We did to Weinstein
This has split the critics.
Well, I’ve only read two reviews but Benedict Nightingale of the Times gives it 4 stars and Lyn Gardner of the Guardian gives it 1 star and a very scathing review.
They both make valid points. Lyn argues Ryan Craig is writing “inept string of cliches, stereotypes and bad Jewish jokes” although concedes “There is potential here, but Craig’s play is complicated rather than complex and treats both Jews and Muslims as tabloid stereotypes rather than real characters”
Benedict argues Craig is is using “intelligent exploration” and is writing about the here-and-now
“A dramatist can’t do anything more here-and-now than write a piece in which an Israeli soldier called Josh captures a suspected suicide bomber, and a Muslim fanatic called Tariq asks his sister, who is afraid of taking the Tube, why she “bleeds for a handful of white people” and leaves London for jihad training.”
I have sympathy for both points of view. The issue tackled, the crisis of faith, religious conflict and Israel-Palestine are complex. The extrememist battle, I think is one of the three major problems facing the world, which won’t go away [rich-poor gap and global migration my other two] as it’s a cycle which now has no end, an ill-defined beginning and an unending string of possible (mis)intrepretations.
It’s important that Craig explores these arguments as personified by his characters. Josh who leaves England to become an Israeli and fight and Sara, who wrties and argues against the use of Israeli force.
But, they do often stray into well-rehearsed arguments that have the touch of the sterotype about them. So I can see why Lyn would get so annoyed.
Still, the play does provke thinking, the relationship between the older actors is quite touching, and the directing is paced well.
I think people will bring their own biases to the play and will either be stimulated by the debate or feel it’s been too stereotyped.
Lyn points to Mike Leigh’s new play (see earlier post) as being a much better investigation into the crisis of faith. David Hare’s Via Dolorosa is a much more personal perspective on the Israel-Palestine conflict. But this play, even with its well-rehearsed arguments has a place too.
I’d be really interested to know what Tim Supple and Ryan Craig would reply to Lyn Gardner with.
At the Menier Chocolate Factory, until Nov 12 : 020 7907 7060
Talawa Unzipped details
Here’s the programme for the whole of Unzipped. Come along and see something!
The timetable:
Thursday 13th October
Panel Discussion: 5pm – 6pm
Panellists: Kwame Kwei-Armah, Topher Campbell, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and Femi Elufowoju Jr.
Play Readings:
6.15pm Batty Man by Troy Andrew Fairclough
6.50pm On the Eve of the Collapse by Ben Yeoh
7.25pm The Coming of Beauty by Kofi Agyemang
Friday 14th October
Panel Discussion: 5pm – 6pm
Panellists: Karena Johnson, Steven Luckie & special guests
Play Readings:
6.15pm Fujimatic by Oladipo Agbolujae
6.50pm The Uniform by Funke Oyebanjo
Saturday 15th October
Panel Discussion: 5pm – 6pm
Panellists: Don Warrington, Tameka Empson & special guests
Play Readings:
6.15pm Partners by Patricia Cumper
6.50pm The Waiting by Geoffrey Aymer
*Programmes may be subject to change. For more information email hq@talawa.com or call 020 7251 6644.
No more Shakespeare?
Miranda Sawyer wants to ban Shakespaereare for a bit:
“…We should be brave enough to go a year without Shakespeare: to ban him from our theatres for just 365 days, just to see what else is out there, what other plays are worth digging up, or commissioning, or reinterpreting. While we’re at it, let’s ban Jane Austen, the Brontes and the Tudors. Let’s see who we are without relying on our old props. Even if we don’t come up with anything, if all that happens is a year’s relief from all that ‘theat-ah’ overacting, or those crinny-pinny TV dramas, that’ll be all right by me…”
Strangely, this casting out of old plays is similar to what the Monsterists would like (see earlier posts). They ask for as many new plays as old plays and for new plays to be given the same resource and respect…
Davd Farr vs Michael Billington
David Farr replies to Billington.
In the Guardian on September 8, Michael Billington Re: David Farr’s Julius Caesar, at the Lyric Hammersmith (where he is now artistic director)felt that the use of modern dress ignored “the play’s roots in Elizabethan politics”, and that comparing Caesar’s world to that of an ex-Soviet republic was a “shaky parallel”.
He has a nice riposte:
“…In approaching a Shakespeare play I immerse myself in its language, and move towards an imaginative world that might best express my interpretation of that story. I have set Shakespeare in 1950s America, Samurai Japan, a crumbling English country house and now in an ex-Soviet republic. The aim, in each case, is to illuminate the play, to render it clear, urgent and exciting.
Billington finds a director’s obsession with using the modern world tiresome. For me, by contrast, the really cliched safety zone of Shakespearean production is that which sets the play somewhere in the early 20th century, preferably in England with vaguely “period” costumes. This type of production lacks specificity, encourages woolly acting and smacks of what I can only call “theatrey-ness”. It instils in me a quiet longing for death…”
Tricycle Season
A resident company of black actors will perform a four-month African-American season of plays at the Tricycle.
The run will start with the British premier of Abram Hill’s Walk Hard, directed by the Tricycle’s artistic director Nicolas Kent.
[Given Talawa doesn't look like it will be getting its permanent home] this is likely to be one of the bigger events in black theatre this year.
On the Eve of the Collapse
A reading of my new play is on Thursday, October 13 at the Soho Theatre. It’s one of three plays in the Talawa Unzipped season.
The readings start at 6.15pm [mine is second probably 6.50pm start] and there’s a panel discussion starting at 5pm with some great people, if you can make it for then.
Do come. Let me know if you are and I’ll come and say hello.
Richard Bean comments on critics
Bean comments on Harvest criticism here.
I think it is hard for writers not to be affected by critics to some extent and it’s good to know, very good and important writers have the jitters about it too.
Critics have pointed to an “unbalanced” last scene. From my view, it may be argued that itis unbalanced in the context of the pace of the whole play but I think that is to look at it wrongly.
The play spans the decades, and each scene to some extent reflects the decade it represents. To the slow start in the first scene, which is pre-war and where life is a slower paced beast. To the last scene, which some view as “sensationalist” but to me is just a better reflection of the times we live in. 2005 is a faster paced, more sensationalist and in some ways more extreme year/decade than the previous decades. The characters also show a bit of nostalgia. But I think so would you if you’ve been a pig farmer or dreamed of pigs for almost 100 years.
I’m not sure the critics have thought hard enough about the play in the context of today’s world and I believe Bean is right to have the last scene as he does.
Harvest
I really enjoyed Harvest at the Royal Court. It has many elements of great theatre. I guess from Bean’s point of view, the only things he might have liked more is a bigger stage (see my previous posts on Monsterism).
It had scale and humour. Billington would like it for its “big ideas”. Good story, great main characters, even interesting secondary characters [we don't have the time or space nowadays to produce many good supporting character roles]. Performances, direction and design are all also all strong.
It takes the life of a Yorkshire pig farm from its beginnings in 1914 to 2005, and all the characters and family that live with it. On the way you learn about pig farming, country life, pre-war, post-war farming edicts, the battles between gentry and farmer and the love of a way of life.
If you can make it to the Court to see it. I say go.
August Wilson is dying
I read some sad news. August Wilson only has a few months to live due to liver cancer.
He is a great playwright and my thoughts go out to him and his loved ones.
He recently said:
“It’s not like poker, you can’t throw your hand. I’ve lived a blessed life. I’m ready.”
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About me
I'm a playwright and investment analyst. I have a broad range of interests: food, gardening, innovation & intellectual property, sustainability, architecture & design, writing and the arts. I sit on the board of Talawa Theatre Company and advise a CIS investment trust on socially responsible investments.
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Recent Work
Recent plays include, for theatre: Nakamitsu, Yellow Gentlemen, Lost in Peru, Lemon Love. For radio: Places in Between (R4), Patent Breaking Life Saving (WS).
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Nakamitsu
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Yellow Gentlemen
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