New tour; new plans

Preparations for a second tour of Angus - Weaver of Grass continue, as Esther begins to fit the itinerary jigsaw together. Roughly a month in Scotland, and a month in England, I believe. Organising the travel so the amount of criss-crossing of countries is kept to a minimum; let alone all the business with ferry time-tables. I'm told that there will be several islands on the schedule again this year - Islay and Muck were mentioned, but as yet I don't know much about the shape of things. Wise to leave it in Esther's capable hands at this point. 

The big change, sadly, will be in the cast. Frances Merriman (above, front left) isn't able to tour this year, as her academic commitments as a final year student at Aberystwyth mean she simply isn't able to tour well into October, as we require. Mairi Morrison (front right) too, has had to leave the cast due to other commitments. Both gave amazing performances last year and will be much missed. 

So the job of auditioning for replacements is also being planned. It will be a difficult job to replace such special performers, as both Fran and Mairi contributed in very distinctive and special ways. Finding people with the same, or even similar, skills won't be easy, but this isn't the first time we've been faced with the problem of recasting performers, in fact it goes with the territory. I'm optimistic that we'll have a new team in place in May - ready for rehearsals in August.

Looping and Linking

Looping and Linking is a community project by Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery. Two of my favourite places. The project is described in the brochure as focusing "upon men's wellbeing and draws inspiration from the life and work of Angus MacPhee". 

It goes on to explain how H+B commissioned Joanne B Kaar to produce copies of Angus' woven pieces to be used in our 'Angus - Weaver of Grass' production. The production was shown at Central Manchester University Hospital and this inspired a community group 'Out in the City' to work with Joanne on their own weavings. The work produced is now on display outside the Museum (above) and at the Whitworth Gallery, with weavings by Joanne.   

Today Jonny Quick and I, alongside artist Lucy Burscough and poet Tony Curry, met visitors to the Museum to talk about Angus, show masks, puppets and weavings, run workshops and demonstrations, as well as presenting a full-length film of our performance. 

The rooms were often packed, and a constant stream of visitors of all ages passed through, most of whom had never heard of Angus MacPhee or his story, but were entranced and fascinated by what they saw and learned. The exhibitions and events, subtitled "A creative response to the life and work of Angus MacPhee" continue until 26th May 2013.  

New Angus short film

In preparation for the launch of the new H+B website tomorrow - and also to help Esther sell the 2013 tour of Angus - Weaver of Grass - we asked our wonderful technician Christina Eddowes to make a short film of the Angus show (although she was told by Esther 'not to give away the big set-pieces').

This is it - hope you like it! If you bump into Esther let her know (she's in Edinburgh and Glasgow at the moment). By the way Loz Kaye, our Musical Director responsible for putting together the music for the show, created the special mash-up of music for the film. 

New website coming - slowly

We've felt the need to redesign the Horse + Bamboo website for a while now, but haven't had the money to do it. In the end I decided that I'll undertake the work myself - I last made a website quite sometime ago, and in the meantime content management systems, widgets, plug-ins, sliders and what-nots have arrived and made everything rather more complicated. But anyway I'm in the thick of it and I'm working on the Angus page. Including finding a fresh photo or two....

More than talk....

This week we received a copy of 'The Puppet Master' magazine - and in it was a well illustrated two page article and review of 'Angus - Weaver of Grass' by Michael Dixon. 

Michael had seen the show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and he noted that the 2012 festival represented 'many of Britain's best puppetry companies as well as some relatively unknowns' and he goes on to say that 'One show in particular this year which I was fortunate enough to catch on its opening performance was Angus - Weaver of Grass by the brilliant Horse + Bamboo Theatre.'

The review notes that 'Instead of extensive dialogue we are treated to a bilingual performance much of which is in Gaelic' but that 'There is minimal dialogue in the play; music, mime and song are used instead. The non-verbal nature of the their work in this instance lends another dimension and reflection on Angus's own life of silence'. It goes on to say that 'The story is often gentle and moving, but during the scenes depicting the electro-shock therapy that Angus receives in hospital it becomes harrowing and dark' and that Mairi Morrison's 'A capella singing...carries the production from one scene to another....This added to the wonderful sets, projection, recreations of Angus' weaving and the beautifully evocative masks, take us on a journey that is difficult to forget'. 

The article concludes by describing Horse + Bamboo as 'a national treasure' with Angus -Weaver of Grass being 'another memorable show to add to their repertoire of critically acclaimed performances. He says '..at the time of writing there is talk of the possibility of another tour in 2013'. As readers of the blog will know, this is more than talk - it's going to happen and our Esther is beginning the process of booking venues.

Memories - the Scots Trad Awards

Seeing the highlights of the Scots Trad Awards 2012 on BBC Alba last night brought the past year back to me in a big way. 

When I visited Berneray in 2011 friends were raving about an album that had been released a few years earlier and which they recommended as a great introduction to a singer from South Uist - Òg-Mhadainn Shamhraidh (Summer Dawn), by Kathleen MacInnes. Thinking about the way that I would use music from Uist in the show about Angus MacPhee was very much on my mind at that time and I promptly drove down to Benbecula to buy a copy. After that it remained on my car CD player for most of the next year, and Kathleen's voice and music was an inspiration throughout the period of devising 'Angus - Weaver of Grass'. So last night I was delighted to see that Kathleen's latest album Cille Bhride (Kilbride) had won the Album of the Year Award. 

Another connection that brought that period when the Angus production was in its preparatory stages back to me was seeing, at the Awards, Linda Macleod who helped me during our auditions for a Gaelic singer at the CCA in Glasgow. 

Linda was one of the co-hosts of the Alba broadcast, and she interviewed Kathleen after winning the album award. Linda was a great support for me and the Horse + Bamboo team during our audition process; helping by explaining the nuances of local Gaelic and very much at ease with all the brilliant and talented musicians we had the privilege to meet. Of course it was here that we were fortunate to meet Mairi Morrison who ultimately became such an important part in making our production a success, as well as becoming a key member of the Horse + Bamboo touring company. 

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).