Full circle

Above, two scenes that became a familiar part of the first leg of our tour. Now, in a few days time, we embark on the third and final leg of taking 'Angus - Weaver of Grass' around the country. On this leg we start way up at Lyth Arts Centre, at the very top of Scotland, not far from John'o'Groats and (far nicer) Dunnet Head. From there we have a few more Scottish shows (but alas no more ferries) and then into England and a handful of shows including an interesting one organised by the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, when we perform in a lecture theatre within the Manchester Royal Infirmary as part of the Arts in Health programme. 

The tour comes to its finish at home - two nights at the Boo in Rossendale as part of the Horse + Bamboo Puppet Festival on the weekend of 22nd and 23rd September. So full circle! Tickets for all of these shows are selling well so make sure that you book seats in advance - I'm told the Lyth show is sold out already and that they could have filled a second night.

Meanwhile, I've been collating information to send to Creative Scotland, Bòrd na Gàidhlig and the Arts Council of England as part of the reporting back process. This will be done as soon as the tour is finished, and I'll be sending a report and feedback from the audiences. Doing the latter job has been quite an experience - it's amazing to read just how many people have been deeply affected by the show. 

Now, we wait

The young Angus and his horse; from our research period on Berneray.

Last week an application for financial support towards a tour of Angus was sent by Helen Jackson to Creative Scotland and a second, smaller, one to the Bòrd na Gàidhlig.

A tour would start on the Outer Islands, and then tour throughout the Highland Region in July and August 2012. Thanks to the agreement with the Arts Council of England we would also be able to undertake some shows in Lancashire. But for now, we wait....

Some positive news

Although the week for the artistic directors at Horse + Bamboo has been a rather scattered one - with work happening on several projects simultaneously - the news from the office team has been very positive for our Angus project. First, the Arts Council of England have accepted our case that their decision in March this year to fund the company only for regional work from the next financial year (2012/13) didn't allow us to make proper transition arrangements for a project like Angus that had been conceived almost a year beforehand and was already in production. Although this may seem like a minor issue in reality it makes a difference of at least £20,000 to the amount we'll need to raise in order to tour 'Angus'. It also encourages us to show it in Lancashire as well as in Scotland. 

Then Esther had a meeting with Brian O'Headhra at the Bòrd na Gàidhlig who took a very positive and understanding approach to the Gaelic language content of the show and our commitment to employing a Gaelic speaking musician to tour with the production. So we now know that the Gaelic Board support our intention to make this show directly relevant to the Gaelic speakers among our audiences. 

Meanwhile, even if we're quiet ourselves on the making front, Joanne B Kaar is busy working on a second replica of Angus's iconic jacket - this time for Joyce Laing's Art Extraordinary Gallery. These photographs are from Joanne's own excellent blog - Bakers-Botanists-Whalers - which is always worth a look.

Work continues...

Alison's work on body parts for Angus as a boy

It's been a long and difficult day for anyone involved in the arts in England. Many of our close associates, and companies we've worked with over many years, have today found that their grants have been cut. They will now have a year of Arts Council funding remaining. Inevitably a lot of people will lose their jobs.

Horse + Bamboo have been fortunate. We've seen a standstill in our funding; actually a slight cut because of other recent budget trimmings, and of course we've yet to hear about our grants from local authority funders. But at least we've survived, and our work can continue as planned. The work we're doing on Angus will be part of the continuing work...  

Fingers crossed then!

The remains of the tigh dubh, the small house by the shore at Iochdar,
South Uist, where Angus McPhee was born and lived as a young man

As work on creating a touring theatre show about Angus McPhee continues at homes and workshops in Lancashire, Caithness and on Berneray, it's worth taking a short pause to say that on Wednesday, between 7.30 and 9.30 in the morning, Horse + Bamboo Theatre will receive an email from the Arts Council of England telling us if our funding will continue – or if it will be cut.

All regularly funded arts organisations in England will be receiving similar emails, and we're told that the decision in each case will be an either/or one – i.e. no half-way houses; you're either successful or not. If unsuccessful there's still 12 months funding at current levels guaranteed, but after that Arts Council funding will finish.

How will this affect our work on the Angus McPhee show?

Well, the current work on the show is being paid for by a research and development grant from the Foyle Foundation, to whom – many, many thanks. The fees to Alison and myself are met from the current grant to Horse + Bamboo. This work will take us through to May, when we visit Berneray and Uist and the various artist partners on the project will meet and come together at Berneray Community Hall for a week. After that our making work on the show will slow right down, but Helen will continue to fund-raise for the next stages of Angus, and Esther will start selling a tour of the show. If the news next week is good, then our plans will continue precisely along these lines. If we receive bad news then no doubt our Board will want to meet and decide on an alternative plan. In theory though, there's no reason why Angus should not be available to go into rehearsal and then tour during the summer of 2012. This will be subject to raising the money (and getting bookings for the show) but that will be the case no matter what scenario unfolds on and after Wednesday, as our core funding nowadays doesn't cover the costs of creating or touring our work.

Fingers crossed then.

Thoughts as we approach New Year

My favourite Christmas present - a handmade journal/note book by Joanne B Kaar for notes and ideas on the Angus show. Thank you so much Kay!

With just a few days left until the New Year, Alison and I are busy making things in preparation for another hectic rehearsal schedule once we get back to Horse + Bamboo. We're also very aware that over the next year a lot will happen that will affect many artists and the vast majority of arts companies throughout Britain. Although the immediate subject of this blog is the future of a show provisionally entitled 'Angus', the future of Horse + Bamboo Theatre itself will depend on decisions made by Arts Council England over the next 3 months, as they begin to act on the Government's drastic cuts to public spending. So although we've had a hand up with a grant from the Foyle Foundation enabling us to start work on the project, it's by no means certain how we'll be able to sustain this and, ultimately, tour the production - probably and hopefully - in 2012.

Along with many other theatres, we have to re-apply in the next few weeks for any chance of funding beyond March 2012.  We are warned that many companies will fail in the process of doing this, and we have no illusions that the path will be a difficult one and so we've already started to re-view and re-consider all of our work. Over the next weeks Helen, Alison and I will find time to put our heads and hearts together to create the best and most eloquent funding application we can possibly devise. This blog will follow progress on all of this as intended. It is always a difficult process raising funding  for a touring show. In the future it will probably be even harder.