notlikecalvin news

So, what’s been happening?

We took Radio to the Brits Off Broadway festival at the lovely 59E59 theatres in New York City. It was fairly awesome. Sure, the New York Times may not have liked it that much, but they printed one of my photos so that was fairly awesome, too. NYC was a fascinating, enormous place and I’m certainly going back there some day.

The Penny Dreadfuls performed several times in the run-up to the Fringe, including shows at Latitude Festival and a very special send-off gig at the Soho Review Bar (where we learned the shocking truth behind the mechanics of pole dancing!).

Then it was onwards to Edinburgh!

This year Kandinsky presented Gavin O’Carroll’s play On Wonderland. The simple coming-of-age story of a girl who can’t believe her eyes, performed by the quite stunningly talented Kerry-Jayne Wilson, was a very moving little piece in the Baby Belly Caves, almost in the same spot that Enola occupied two years previously. My photographs are at Flickr, but I’ll add them to notlikecalvin soon.

The Dreadfuls were back with the appropriately named Aeneas Faversham Returns (we’re still arguing over the title for next year’s show). We sold out right from the get-go and became something of must-have ticket. The boys performed a variety of guest spots, from Lunch With The Hamiltons to 4 At The Fringe for the BBC, plus an extra-special appearance as Crisp-Off judges for grade-A dudes Stuckey & Murray. There are photos from the show at Flickr, but they’ll get added to my portfolio here at some point.

Sketchatron kept me busy for a couple of days in the Fringe, dealing with tech for a whole bunch of sketch acts. Aside from awakening dormant memories of Chock-A-Block, it was great to see the Sunday Defensive once again. I love those guys. Just not in creepy way.

Then the wonderful Illyria had to pull out of their prime-time slot at the Bedlam; with Tom barely back from New York there was just enough time to MacGuyver together yet another version of Radio for a couple of packed houses to enjoy. Although this was the lowest-teched iteration yet – I stole a lantern from the On Wonderland rig to make it happen on the supercheap – it all went very well, just like the good old days.

I got to see some great bits and pieces, too, although it’s never as much as I’d like. Now everybody’s licking their wounds and making plans for next summer. I’m cobbling together a round-up of this year’s reviews, but it might take a while: I’m off on tour for a couple of months with Inspector Sands‘ lovely Hysteria. I’ll be relighting Katherine Williams‘ design over a lot of different spaces – it’s a great piece of work and an honour to be involved. We’ll be all over the place so do pop along if you’ve got the time.

I’ve just uploaded a bunch of photos from Winged, the childrens’ show I lit last week at the Tristan Bates in London. It’s a modern fairytale for modern kids – everyone’s different, every snowflake is unique, big knees are cool and goblins and fairies can learn to get along. Colourful stuff, with some fantastic costume design from Gaelle and Anna.

There’s the usual portfolio here at notlikecalvin, along with larger files at the Flickr photoset, both served with a dash of Creative Commons licensing.

Last week’s adventures in Greek Tragedy all went very well, with a fantastic reception at the British Museum and a cosier but more controlled version at the Tristan Bates Theatre. A really nice production and a fantastic cast; it could certainly have a future.

I’m off up to Scotland this weekend, to be Simon’s lighting eyes for the start of the Moussa’s Castle tour at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen (Simon being distracted on a different continent). I haven’t been to the Granite City since Frozen docked there in December, but I doubt they’ll be too much time for sightseeing.

Coming up: back down to London next week for a rather magical project…

I’m back down to London today to set up for The Trojan Trilogy, David Stuttard’s recreation of Euripides’ lost plays. There’s one performance at the British Museum on Friday, then another two at the Tristan Bates Theatre next week.

An historic event, and it should be pretty interesting to boot!

Team Kandinsky got back from the National Student Drama Festival a couple of weeks ago, clutching a jugful of awards for Radio and feeling very happy. It was a lovely sunny time in Scarborough: we saw some old friends, made some new ones and fought the good fight in the name of theatre. Plus, it’s got a really nice beach.

Radio picked up a couple of well-deserved acting awards for Tom, a second Sunday Times Playwrite title for Al, the Fest-Goers public vote and the lighting design award for me. Awesome.

It really means a lot, that award does. Radio‘s a very simple, straightforward show and it would be extremely easy to overlook the contribution that lighting makes to the overall production. So it’s hugely gratifying for my work to get acknowledged in that way and I’m superhappy as a result. It’s also a real boost and wonderfully encouraging to keep plugging away at this theatre lark.

But enough about me. Radio is next to be seen in New York City as part of the Brits Off Broadway festival. We’ve got a three week run in the lovely 59E59 theatre; please come along if you happen to be in the neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, the Penny Dreadfuls are at the Canal Cafe in London all this week in the three-part tag-team Sketchatron, alongside The Sunday Defensive and Idiots Of Ants. Victorian thrills and more contemporary chuckles are guaranteed!

It’s my twenty-seventh birthday today. The years of my life have always run parallel with academic years, and so this is as good a point as any to draw a line under the official learning phase of my existance; now I’ve got a degree I should really be doing something useful with it…

I’m currently in Leeds, TSMing the Library Dances project – quite different and a lot of fun. Next week Radio has a short run at the Bedlam before showing at the Soho Theatre on October 12th and 13th. After that I’m relighting Simon Wilkinson‘s design for Frozen in Rapture Theatre’s tour of Scotland for a couple of months. And I’m sure that Aeneas Faversham might make another appearance or two.

So I’ve got some stuff to be going on with. I should mention, in passing, my freshly updated CV is only a click away: feel free to get in touch.

I was involved with four separate productions at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and they all got a decent amount of press coverage.

Aeneas Faversham, the Penny Dreadfuls‘ Victorian sketch comedy show at the Underbelly, was amazingly successful, with an awesome selection of reviews:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Edinburgh Evening News
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – British Theatre Guide
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Broadway Baby
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – ThreeWeeks
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Chortle
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Scotsman
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Skinny
★ ★ ★ ★ – one4review
And a lovely review in The Stage.

Click through for more, or check the highlights at The Penny Dreadfuls.

Radio, Kandinsky‘s production of Al Smith’s latest work, also had a fantastic reception:

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – ThreeWeeks
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – British Theatre Guide
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – The Independent
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Scotsman
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Guardian
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Skinny
Must See – The Stage

There are plans underway for more Radio in London sometime soon, so keep an eye on the Kandinsky blog for updates.

ShamWagon, the Dreadfuls‘ long-form improv show got some decent write-ups:

★ ★ ★ ★ – ThreeWeeks
★ ★ ★ ★ – The Skinny
A nice mention at ITV.com
★ – The List (although it’s hardly a review at all)

Despite being my most, erm, prestigious piece of theatre at this year’s Festival, Nutshell’s Stars at the Traverse wasn’t critically received at all well – I don’t think it met their expectations of Fringe wackyness, but there you go:

★ ★ ★ ★ – The List
★ ★ – The Scotsman
★ ★ – The Guardian
and a decent review in The Stage

This was my ninth Fringe, and the first in which I’ve devoted myself entirely to productions. Both critically and commercially it was a runaway success on several fronts, and Radio and Faversham in particular are guarenteed future appearances. More to come.