I've been busy...

I've been so busy, that I haven't taken the time to make a blog entry. It's not through laziness. Well, okay, looking back, perhaps there is an element of the latter to it, but I really have been rather busy. Not only have I had the loving company of my daughter for the last four days, during her Easter holidays, but I have also been rather absorbed by work for the show. There has also been the small matter of taking care of my two new arrivals.

Midnight & Twilight, our kittens joined our family last weekend. Ever since they have been a bundle of joy to watch, and look after. They've settled in really well, and have gotten used to me and the flat without any problems whatsoever. They are now starting to gain confidence and realise that they can jump up onto things like the sofa, or my bed. Time will only tell just how well they get on with the sofa.

...one of Chloe's pics with her iPod Touch

Chloe and I have had a great week, getting to know the kittens, but also going out and doing things together. We went to Marwell Zoo on Tuesday, with my sister and her two boys. Fantastic day out that we wouldn't have had the chance to do if it wasn't for my sister being able to drive.  We had a brilliant day there, that for me was a little overshadowed by the determined dying of my Blackberry, leaving me without the ability to take loads of pictures like I normally would. I was though, very impressed with some of the shots that Chloe was able to get with her iPod touch.

Drama off the stage has overtaken drama on it at St Peter's. The PCC have taken what seems like the rather political step of sacking anyone on the PCC that did not agree with their view that they sell the Theatre and its land, and the church. This land-grab is supposed to be to release the capitol needed to build a new church somewhere else.

Now I'd probably upset a load of people by commenting that surely if god is omnipotent and omnipresent it doesn't matter a damn where you are when you 'give thanks', so I won't say it. I am rather angered by such a move by the PCC. I don't confess to understand the inner workings of the political machine here, but it seems to me to be callous, ungrateful and downright despicable that they get rid of all these people that have worked tirelessly for the church and the theatre all these years.

Shame on them. Shame on them.

Phoenix Players have been resident there for decades, and have literally raised tens of thousands to keep that building going. To see the potential of them being so summarily chucked out onto the street is galling. It also means that we should at least consider the reality that we may need to find somewhere else to put on the show, as a backup, just in case things get worse.

Tomorrow's the day... Mk 2

Tomorrow, is the first workshop / Improvisation session for The Fatcat And The Grafter. We are meeting at St Peters Theatre in Southsea. (Map)

Fantastically we are going to get a chance to use the theatre itself. There it is, to the left, in admittedly pixelated glory.

I'm so excited I can barely sleep. If I could sleep, I wouldn't be on the computer now, would I !

You can follow the ups and downs of the production as it gains momentum, and hopefully more of a working script, and some, er ... actors at @m27online (on twitter). We can also be joined on the facebook group.

If I keep talking about it, people will come ? Right ? When I say talk, I do mean actually in the real world. I'm not just stuck in front of a rather battle scared laptop hoping people will read my posts..... Well, ok, I am doing that, but as well as doing that I am...

OH, look, it's late. You get the point. See you there !

Save St Peter's !!!

There has been much to and fro, much setting of dates, and then the changing of them. This time. This. Is. It.

St Peters Theatre. Southsea.

I have now been able to secure a show date with St Peters Theatre.

The show, 'The Fatcat And The Grafter' will be on from June 29th - July 2nd 2011. 

We have the first read thru of part of the show on Wednesday. The clock is well and truly ticking now. By our own admissions that means that we have 19 weeks to get ready for the show. 19 weeks ! It may initially sound like a lot, but we don't actually have enough people to cast all of the roles, even assuming we are able to find the right ones for the right parts.

Ooops.

Well you have to start somewhere, and nothing focuses the mind like a deadline.

At the same time, there are murmurs that the space in which we want to put on the play, is facing closure. I can hardly decry that this doesn't make sense, if obviously does, on someone's spreadsheet. The value of the ground on which the building rests would be worth a pretty penny to both the council and the church (who, I understand own it). Not quite sure how the council are involved. 

I know in these trying times that any organisation, the church or council included are going to have to work hard to make sure that they get the most value for money wherever they can. Surely such a wonderful space, in the middle of an inner-city area can be made to make financial as well as community sense.

When I was a child we used to live over the road from it. At one point I even went to nursery school there. After the vandalism that was the destruction of the Portsmouth Arts Centre by the council in the 90s, I feel very strongly that this valuable space not be allowed to go the way of so many other community buildings in the city.

I've spent some time this morning, shouting and cursing at my printer. This has been due to my efforts, which in the end resulted in success, to print a couple of copies of what script we have ready for Wednesday night.

I hate printing at the best of times. Aside from the environmental lunacy of printing a set of scripts for everyone, when we know full well that both the script and the people are liable to change, much. There is also the issue that my printer is a right royal pain in the arse. It will merrily print along for a couple of pages, and then decides to chew up and ignore the next page. Rather than intelligently print the page that is messed up once it returns to normal, it just spits out a blank page and then carries on, as if nothing ever happens.

This means that printing anything more than 2 pages requires the patience of a saint and then some attention to detail as you are forced to go through whatever you are printing and list all the missed pages, and then reprint those. Hoping of course that the reprinted ones don't in themselves get chewed up.

Which of course, they do. Doesn't seem to matter what 'magic tricks' you try with the paper, or the printer itself, nothing seems to work. Magic tricks take various forms, such as :- blowing away any imaginary dust or paper fragments from inside the printer. - you blow them straight into your eye, whatever you do. Making sure you use non-recycled paper. For some reason, the printer is fussy on this point, and will stubbornly insist on having virgin paper. Flicking through the stack of paper, so that none of it is stuck together doesn't count for much either.

I printed three copies of the script, each of which had different pages missing. I condensed them down so that I had one complete script, and then set about printing the missing pages for the two remaining copies.

What a pain. Is it too much to ask that your printer, well, prints things ?