Bob Frith's VEIL BLOG MAY 2007

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31.05

To round off the month its worth mentioning that we're still carrying on working on the few things for Veil that don't involve expense - the giant winged bull, for example, just paper and paste over recycled clay. Our interns/students Anna, Katerina and Ricardo have been fantastic, really focused on the jobs at hand. Meanwhile things elsewhere in the Centre have moved onto getting everything in place for the Puppet Festival next weekend. Bookings for Veil continue to come in, and once the festival is over we'll be working on masks again for the show (again, they cost nothing very much except our time - see picture below).

23.05

The third application for a touring grant to take Veil further is about to be submitted to the Arts Council. Meanwhile all work on the production has ground to a halt. We’ve run out of money and cannot (rule one of the grant process) spend anything in advance of the application being successful. It really has to be said that this way of funding touring is madness, so totally, totally, inefficient. Horse + Bamboo are a regular funded client (RFO) of the Arts Council, and they invest in us, primarily, because we’re a touring theatre with a long and honourable history of creating award-winning, successful touring shows, as well as now being the main creators of mask/visual/music theatre in the UK.

Yet we cannot create a touring show without going through this lottery of an application process which, if it’s turned down, slows everything down for 2 or 3 months. This has happened twice to us with Veil, and it has slowed everything down by close to 6 months. The money wasted is considerable, probably enough to fund a decent production itself. Quite separately the stopping/starting that it forces onto the creative process is highly inefficient and destructive to morale – apart from the effect it has on the many venues who are committing themselves to buying the show, only to be told that we’re having to postpone - often days before they go to print with their programmes and publicity.  

16.05

In our workshop and main space there’s a good mood! Katherina now has Katrina (Stewart – from Nottingham Trent Uni.) working with her, painting the back screen and preparing the flats. Ana and Ricardo are also either down there, working on the small studio space, or in the workshop working with Alison to model the large Assyrian Winged Bull in clay. I’m around too, figuring out how to make an Iraqi shadow-puppet cart without the budget to buy wood.  

Meanwhile in the office Helen is preparing – guess what, a new bid to the Arts Council, while Richard is trying to get venues who had pencilled in Veil for Autumn to take a late Winter/early Spring date instead. But all the time, an undercurrent of worry about ‘what if…?’

Erik dropped by yesterday, and was impressed by the size of the things we’re making. But despite the great sense of teamwork, Katherina is having to leave at the end of this week, a week or so earlier than planned, as money for materials is running out. We think it will be better if she returns later in the summer, ideally once we have some good news.

11.05

Ana Filipa and Ricardo, our interns from the EPTC Theatre School in Portugal, have turned out to be superb papier-machiers and as a result the making of masks and some of the stage objects has speeded up considerably. We’ve now modelled and cast 8 or 9 masks and two large (2m high) ‘attendant gods’, though they aren’t yet painted. Plus Katherina is bang on her schedule making staging flats and painting the back-cloth.

We had a very useful meeting today with Richard Owen, Head of Lighting at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. Richard will probably oversee the lighting design of Veil, and we (myself, Katherina, and Richard) met to establish what 'get-in' times the production would require at venues - in other words how long it will take to set the show up, which is essential information for David and Richard (Hall) who are booking and planning the practicalities of the tour.

But as the Rossendale Puppet Festival looms (9/10th June), work on Veil begins to slow down, and we’re concentrating instead on getting the building ready for the festival. Helen meanwhile is wrestling with how we should re-apply (surely for the last time) to the Arts Council for the touring grant that will enable to Veil to actually become a piece of theatre that can go out into the world. The current thinking seems to be that we should apply for three separate grants at different stages, starting with a small amount of money for ‘research and development’.

4.05

The disappointment has faded slowly, and we’re coming to terms with having to cancel the opening Autumn leg of the Veil tour. It‘s now absolutely clear that the collaboration with the Dukes in Lancaster has fallen through because of insuperable timetabling problems at their end. John, the Dukes Technical Manager, telephoned us to offer his commiserations and relayed their sense of disappointment at our promising partnership ending this way. Other theatres who have had to cancel their programmes have been clearly furious...’What does the Arts Council think its playing at?’ was one response.

Meanwhile we’re working on the set, masks and props. We’ve had to continue with this part of the programme as we had a duty to honour Katharina’s contract for May, and Loz’s ongoing work on the music score. In effect the Arts Council have forced us into taking a major financial gamble, the only alternative being to have abandoned two years creative work; reneged on our verbal agreements with creative partners (both individual artists and venues); and thrown away our reputation as a reliable company to do business with.  

Helen Jackson has started work this week as our new Chief Executive, a daunting task for anybody at any time, but coming into the company at this particular time must be doubly difficult. We’re planning to re-apply for a touring grant by the end of this month. If successful, it means we can audition in September and start the tour in February 2008.

 

 

READ AN INTERVIEW WITH BOB FRITH ABOUT VEIL HERE.

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CONTACT BOB FRITH bob@horseandbamboo.org