Tioraidh

The 2013 tour of Scotland with Angus - Weaver of Grass has just ended, and the company are now heading south for shows in Oxford and London.

"Exceptional piece of theatre!! Well worth watching - thought-provoking all the way through" 17.10.13

I've spent just a couple of weeks with the tour, spread over two months, so I've only experienced a small part of life on the road with the show. But everywhere I went, at least, I was astonished by the warmth of the audiences and the positive reactions to, and interest in, our show. The audiences were usually large - we've often commented that arriving at a hall stuck seemingly on its own in a remote location, with hardly a dwelling in site, it's hard at first to picture where an audience would come from, let alone have one. Then, 30 minutes before the show is advertised one or two people arrive, and these are followed by strings of cars arriving from all directions and, with 5 minutes to go, the hall has miraculously filled to capacity. 

"Totally stunning, with a richness that depicted an extraordinary life, an amazing gift, while at the same time revealing the pain of mental illness. It was also a story of a sister's love and of coming home - wonderful - breathtaking." 18.10.13

The performing team have been unfailingly impressive too. Remaining cheerful even when confronted by those moment-to-moment problems that inevitably emerge when you're trying to fit a large and complex show into a new space every few days. Touring is tough - long days and nights; unable to get home for weeks on end; surviving on a diet of macaroni cheese pies and sweeties, and so it's good to see a group making the best of it. 

"All produced in a manner, with a reflectiveness, worthy of its subject, much to ponder and much from which to take heart." 18.10.13

Thanks also to Creative Scotland and Bòrd na Gàidhlig for the support they've given us and their faith in 'Angus', and to the promoters and venues throughout Scotland that have welcomed the show to their spaces. My impression is that they were seldom left disappointed. 

"Poignant, beautiful and very emotive. A fantastic production." 18.10.13

Some brilliant news...

As everyone in the Horse + Bamboo office and workshop is beginning to wind down for our Christmas and New Year break we hear some totally brilliant news...an email this morning from Creative Scotland letting us know that they are going to support a second tour of 'Angus - Weaver of Grass' in 2013. 

What a great piece of news to send us off on our holidays....! 

Nollaig chridheil agus bliadhna mhath ùr (hope we got that right).

A full-length film

It's the 24th of the month - so it's time for an update! Actually the fact that the previous blogs were both done on that day is entirely coincidental. 

I've started editing together a full-length film of 'Angus - Weaver of Grass' from filming undertaken at the two Boo shows, and the Square Chapel performance in Halifax. I hope to complete this by the end of next week. It's a joy to watch the performances on film - and I'm quite amazed at how much I can enjoy watching the same pieces over and over while deciding on an edit. Above is our 3-minute trailer - a taster of the performance. 

The news on a future tour is that we're beginning to get bookings - there's a lot of interest in the show out there. But, as ever, there will be a need for some financial subsidy as we can't use any of our Arts Council of England support towards a Scottish tour. Esther tells me that we should know the result of our application to Creative Scotland early in January 2013.

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. 

The last piece of the jigsaw

Helen sent me a message late yesterday: 'Gaelic Board have said YES. Great news to end the wk!' Meaning that Bòrd na Gàidhlig have agreed to funding the Angus tour. It was the last piece of the funding jigsaw, and without the support of BnG Creative Scotland's grant would have had to have been re-negotiated. This part of the support will go directly to funding a Gaelic musician and the spoken Gaelic sections - as well as bilingual material for publicity and marketing. 

From Creative Scotland

"We write to inform you that the above-mentioned application was successful and your award will be confirmed once the following conditions have been received:

•     A revised budget. Clearly showing the level of rehearsal costs and the proposed size (personnel, etc) of the touring company.
•          Confirmation of all delivery partners, especially within the Gaelic Diaspora. (Note MG Alba not BBC Alba)

"A reassessment of CS Investment Level will be commensurate on the above conditions being met."

This refers, of course, to our application for support towards touring our show about Angus MacPhee. The email arrived in Helen's inbox just as she was leaving the office last night, and caused her to break our unofficial rule of not disturbing rehearsal. 

Many, many thanks to everyone who has helped us get this far. 

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....

Bad news - and good

On Monday we received a letter from Creative Scotland. Unfortunately the application that Helen had spent so long on was not able to be considered by them, as part of the application was asking for support towards physically making the production. Creative Scotland can only support applications from groups based outside of Scotland for touring and other creative work within the country; they cannot subsidise that part of the work which relates to creating the piece. Odd we didn't pick up on this, or it hadn't been made clear at the various meetings or during the many phone calls and emails that had been made as part of the process of putting the application together. 

Still, at least we didn't have to wait until March to be told this news. Helen has been on leave so it's not clear what her next step will be but clearly the door remains open for a modified application that falls within these guidelines. Over the next week or two the whole company will be discussing our future plans within the context of the radical shake up of arts funding imposed by the government; the Angus show will clearly form part of this discussion.

Then on Tuesday another letter arrived. This time from the Foyle Foundation - Helen had applied to the Foundation some time ago. For luck I put the letter in Red Riding Hood's* basket and took it upstairs to the office. Clearly the fairy-tale magic worked - PHF are offering us funding to support the development of a production about Angus McPhee. 


* Magic Red Riding Hood Funding Baskets can now be purchased by contacting the Horse + Bamboo Theatre office at info@horseandbamboo.org

A foreign land...

Organising a theatre tour of Scotland is for us, in many ways, the same as organising a tour of a foreign country. The organisations we deal with are often very different to those in England, both those agencies that might help us with the touring logistics and those that could help us with any funding. The Scottish Arts Council has also very recently been superceded by Creative Scotland, so there's a very new organisation to deal with.

Esther and Helen have began looking at all of this. I also wrote to an old friend, Jenny Wilson, who for many years was Director of Dumfries and Galloway Arts Association, and before that Director of the Crawford Arts Centre in St. Andrews. Jenny wrote back with a long list of suggestions, and that helped begin the process. Since then Esther has visited Fife to talk with Joyce Laing, and there's the plan to (very soon) travel to Inverness to meet the people involved with theatre touring in Scotland and, in particular, of the Highlands and Islands. 

The photographs here are a few more from the recent trip I made with Alison to the Uists, and show the ruined house that Angus was brought up in. The blackhouse is actually perched just above the beach, and literally five steps (and a jump down) will bring you to the high-water line. The close up (above) hints at the textures and woven components that exist even within the fabric of that home; textures that clearly meant so much  to Angus himself. Below is a shot of what's left of the interior.