New (year) ideas

A week back at Horse + Bamboo and things have moved on considerably, even after having a day at home with the seemingly inevitable cold. Alison and I spent three sessions talking through the script - which I last looked at early in September. After 4 months of it resting it was time to come at things afresh, and it was exciting just how many new ideas and possibilities emerged. The set too (the photo above was taken last summer when we were putting together a rough version) came in for reconsideration. 

The experience of working in Berneray (in July last year) with a rough set had made me feel that it was unnecessarily limited, and having reworked Alison's show Red Riding Hood this winter, which uses three wheeled frames very effectively, we both felt it might be useful to employ something similar for 'Angus', and that the use of mobile screens would give us more possibilities suggesting the various stage spaces (homes, hospitals) than relying totally on curtains on tracks. 

So next week work will start, for me, with looking at these new approached to the staging, and Alison will start planning some of the wooden puppets for the show. Christina, our technician, will soon be working closely with us - looking at how the lighting and video projections will best work within the set design. On Tuesday we're all planning to travel together to the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester to look at the 'Dark Matters' show and kick off a discussion about the use of projection technologies....