23.6.13

MicroBlog - Edinburgh Ahoy!


MiniBlog...

MicroBlog...

TinyBlog...

MidgetBlog..

We can now officially announce that, thanks to receiving Arts Council Wales funding and after confirming with C Venues our Edinburgh Fringe venue provider, we are heading up to bonny old Scotland with Dr Frankenstein's Travelling Freak Show!

We'll be doing a 14 day run from the 31st of July - 13th August at 20:35 every day at this years Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and we couldn't be happier about it.

Massive thanks to Gareth Clark who pointed us toward it and to everyone who helped us whack an application together.

That's it really.

MiniBlog...

MicroBlog...

TinyBlog...

MidgetBlog...

 
Danke Schon!
 
Mucho.
 
Jc

21.6.13

It Will Breathe Again


We waved 'Bon Voyage" to Dr Frankenstein's Travelling Freak Show! at The Riverfront, Newps, on the 29th May and since then we've popped out of igloos, collaborated on river festivals, ran Mice and Men work shops, celebrated a Birthday, talked ComedyPort and most importantly relaxed a little bit!

It's been one hell of a year so far and more and more we are seeing our company grow and flourish and that's in no small part thanks to you... Yeah you, you whose reading this with your lovely eyes. You and all the other people who turf out to come and watch our work or even just read this blog! It's thanks to you, them and strangely... Newport that we are where we are. I say strangely because for us to actually find some sense of artistic (and often; financial) stability in what is ever more becoming known as Wales Quasimodo, seems like a strange occurrence. Culturally speaking Newport is worse off now than it was only three months ago.

The galleries and libraries are gone, the mural is in the midst of destruction, the budgets of nearly (if not all) the cities arts festivals have been slashed by the council, the university merger means a lot of the arts courses will be moved to Cardiff, along with all the students, nearly all 'Empty Shop' inspired places are gone and now Halford's have decided they want to move into our enormous, beautiful, art filled home at MFI, Maesglas, so now we and Newport's biggest Artist-Collective; Artopsy, are building-less unable to continue making...

But we're really optimistic about it.

It feels like we're standing on the rubble of what once was, we can't repair it anymore, it's beyond fixing, all that's left now is to build something new on top of what was. It might feel like desperately-striving, and there is seemingly little room for hope, but we don't need hope. We need positive action, and I use the word positive in it's purest form. I know people are angry but protests fronted with angry faces and voices will do nothing good for us. The most powerful way to rid Newport of this virulence is to stick a flower down the barrel of it's gun.

In the face of everything independent venues, ventures, artists and companies are already beginning to do this, as well as funded and supported companies. Barnabas Arts House, Cinebakery and The Post Port Office can offer us our quota of alternative arts space whilst The Riverfront can house mainstream. Mr & Mrs Clark and Tin Shed call Newport home (and there is news on the wind that another theatre company is beginning to emerge!) ArtOpsy are here, let alone Urban Circle, the Maindee Festival Committee and many more.

We just have to keep going. We'll keep making stuff if you keep coming to watch it. Painters keep painting and (once we've found somewhere to f**king hang it!) we'll come and view it. Dancers keep dancing, musicians keep gigging, bus drivers keep driving, dinner ladies keep cooking and most importantly supporters/audiences/people keep supporting and something will happen.

It might seem like an airy fairy idealism not supported by a compendium of facts and statistics, ignorant of details like; money, infrastructure and obvious restrictions, but I don't care. It's how I feel. Our reward as artists shouldn't be fiscal, that should be a bi-product, our reward as makers should be a multitude of other things done well enough that cash comes to us because what we do is good, needed and appreciated.

We need negativity like we need a hole in the face (except for our mouths).

Yes, Newport is on a ventilator, but it will breathe again.




Mucho,

Danke Schön

J

P.S. Hello again... We've got loads of new Dr Frankenstein's Travelling Freak Show! stuff for your eyes and ears to see and hear. If you want to see more then you can like the group on...



J