• Foursight Theatre are presenting BETTE & JOAN: THE FINAL CURTAIN at The Assembly from 3 to 29 August
• Francesca Millican-Slater is performing Me, Myself and Miss Gibbs from 19 to 29 August at Remarkable Arts’ Hill Street Theatre.

These two were previewed at the MAC the other week, following which everyone there had a bit of a chat:

many representatives of WM companies heading up to Edinburgh this month got together to find out about each other’s shows and discuss how we can co-promote our work up there

There’s now a hashtag – #WM2edin – people can lump Twitter activity around and Pippa Frith seems to be making the running in pulling together a list of folks who are travelling up.

I’m sure there’ll be other shows up there too but the only other one I’m aware of is The Other Way Works’ Avon Calling (which I’ve seen and was good). The flyer for that one’s below. If you know of any other local folks taking shows up then hit me in the comments.

Avon Calling!

‘Avon Calling’ being the name of a new show from The Other Way Works. I say ‘show’, but it is in fact “a new theatre event made for your living room”:

Invite some friends around and wait for the Avon Lady to ring on your front door and create an Avon party with a twist right in your home.

For £120 you get a bit of theatre for ten people in your living room, which isn’t half bad. I saw on Twitter yesterday that the show’s already 50% sold out, which is pretty good going, so get in there sooner rather than later if you fancy it.

(Photo by Chris Keenan)

Arts Council England West Midlands’ Digital Content Development (DCD) Programme is a three year programme of investment which aims to catalyse the creation and creative use of digital content platforms for arts organisations across the West Midlands region

The website went up recently and the map on the homepage shows some of the projects, along with how much money they received. Further information is due on the website at some point, but if you look at the page source then you can glean a little more. On the basis that you probably don’t want to ruin your eyes, here’s what I found:

• Birmingham Repertory Theatre – Towards the development of an online multi-user playwriting resource (£27,884)
• Pesky People – Development of a multiplatform approach to venue access information (£25,000)
• Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum – PostCart: creative digital access of art gallery and museum collections (£24,750)
• Library of Birmingham – Development of an Alternate Reality Game for young people (£23,750)
• Talking Birds Theatre Company – Development of The Difference Engine – a multiplatform real time access tool. Some mention of it here (£1,500 + £20,860)
• The Play House – Develop an online resource to match the company’s participatory ethos (£22,349)
• Eastside Projects and Birmingham City University – Piloting a 3D online art gallery (£22,000)
• The MAC – Playground: exploring the use of digital technologies in a new-built art centre (£20,500)
• Royal Shakespeare Company – Creation of a new digital arena for the creativity of the RSC. Pretty sure this was Such Tweet Sorrow (£20,000)
• Audiences Central – To develop a web platform and plug-in for cross regional arts marketing (£18,000)
• B Arts – Development of a new form of arts centre/collaboration (£17,380)
• Rhubarb Rhubarb – To create an online evaluation tool (£17,000)
• Shropshire County Council – Citizen Journalism (£15,612)
• Rideout – To explore the production of creative digital content engaging youth crime statistics (£15,000)
• Radio To Go – A collaboration with the British Library to pilot an online music archive. Called The Pilot Project (£13,750)
• Rosie Kay Dance Company – To create an online version of the touring production, 5 Soldiers (£12,500)
• Indigo Ltd – The development of a pilot online platform exploring new forms of crowd-source fundraising in the arts (launching soon and called Angel Shares) (£11,750)
• Wolverhampton Arts & Museums / Black Country Museums – Research and Development of a collaborative online resource for the Black Country Museums (£10,550)
• Black Country Touring – Exploration of enhancing a site specific, theatrical experience through live streaming (£10,348)
• Multistory – To create a new media platform for celebrating local stories as part of place-making (£10,235)
• Fierce Festival – Towards a Viral Online research game (£8,253)
• Birmingham Opera – Exploring new models of ownership and sales of published works (£6,737)
• Borderlines Film Festival Ltd – Experimenting with mScapes technologies (£5,600)
• Orchestra of the Swan – Research and development towards a strategic plan (£5,000)
• Capsule – To support digitally enhanced new marketing and distribution opportunities (£4,880)
• Welsh National Opera – research and development of phase one of iMaestro. To allow Welsh National Opera to research digital copyright law and the possibility of exploiting full-length opera samples under the Creative Commons license (info about that here) (£4,600)
• Ikon Gallery – Towards the development of a social media project (£3,500)
• The Other Way Works – Professional development around Augmented Reality and Transmedia (£2,575)
• Ex Cathedra – Market development, engaging an online music aggregator (£1,323)
• Dance Consortium – Exploring social media in relation to contemporary dance marketing (£1,000)
• MADE – To explore the use of digital platforms in placing making (£1,000)

As well as these projects, the programme supported a range of other activities including workshops, innovation labs and other events.

I’ve heard of one or two of these projects, but the vast majority are new to me so it’ll be interesting to hear a little more. I should probably also add that I’m involved in the Rosie Kay Dance Company project – that’ll launch next week so I’ll blab a bit more about it then.

• First Bite Festival. 12 November. AE Harris. Tickets on the door. £5 (£4 concessions).
• Taking part – The Other Way Works. Friction Theatre. Others (Update – see comment for full line-up. Thanks Katie!).
• Two of the pieces will be selected for commission by mac and Warwick Arts Centre.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) I’m taking a wander over to Warwick Arts Centre, as are a couple of Birmingham-based outfits, for It Came From Pilot:

Father and son duo, Kings of England perform Where We Live and What We Live For. In 2001 75 year old Peter Bowes had a trans-ischemic attack, a stroke. In this gentle, moving work he and his son remember and imagine the man he once was.

The Other Way Works premier Avon Calling which explores the eternal triangle of mother – daughter – and Avon Cosmetics. Drawing vividly on personal source material Louise Platt reveals an intimate and comic portrait of a woman, a mother and an Avon Lady. Ex-Avon lady.

This is part of Fierce‘s programme of stuff at WAC running from Sept-Dec (although no news of what else is upcoming just yet).

A few extras for context:

• PILOT Nights are testing grounds for short, work-in-progress pieces from ‘some of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies’. Audience feedback is encouraged
• The Other Way Works are using Avon and Me to collect people’s personal stories about Avon cosmetics. If you want to see what the show has come ‘from’ there’s a video from the March 09 PILOT Nights here
• Kings of England are based in the North West but I’m assured they’re lovely. Their blog makes for a great read too

Black Tonic is a new, unusual theatre experience from The Other Way Works, a Birmingham based theatre company formed in 2001. The production is an interactive performance staged in the bedrooms and corridors of the Radisson Hotel Birmingham.

You are invited to unravel an original detective story, where even love can be bought for the price of a cocktail. Check-in at the Hotel reception two by two and journey along the corridors and into the bedrooms to piece together the clues and uncover what makes the hotel tick.

Thursday 2nd – Sunday 5th April 2009
Thursday 9th – Sunday 12th April 2009 (Easter Weekend)
2pm*, 3pm*, 7pm, 8pm & 9pm. *Saturdays only.

Very limited audience (4 places per hour). Booking in pairs recommended.

£15 / £10 Suitable for 18+ Trailer

]]> http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/2008/06/16/links-for-june-16th/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:00:54 +0000 http://www.createdinbirmingham.com/?p=1761 [Read more...]]]>