It's Monday morning. Enough said.
I had a good week last week starting with a workshop last week at the Oval House Theatre run by Michael Atavar, called Art as a business. It was very informative and there were a good group of people who attended from a variety of discipline's. The message I took away with me was one of building support structures through networks. I'm still a newcomer to the Arts World so I'm slowly getting my head around how it's funded, just as the whole industry seem's to embarking on great change, what with the budget cuts and general recession. With more people working together, therefore resources will be pooled together and work will not only continue to be made,. but will also see a lot more interesting collaborations between people and organisations whom, under the old structure's, may not have ever been presented with these sort's of opportunities.
Feeling optimistic, on Saturday I attended the first ever Poets and Promoters Forum in Wheatley, which happens to be a nice little village outside Oxford. The event was put on by Tonge In Chic which is run by Milton Keynes based Poet Mark Neil, who I first met a year or so ago at a Farrago event. Since then he has travelled the country winning slams left right and centre. I travelled to Oxford from London with fellow Rubix member Talia Randal. There were talks from various different promoters and event organisers, an opportunity to "speed date" and an open discussion at the end. There were representativeness from Apples and Snakes, Hammer and Tounge, Utter to name but a few. A real worthwhile leaning experience for me.
Both these events made to reflect on how networking in general has helped me in my craft. Before I was fortunate enough to become involved with both BAC and the Roundhouse I was mostly on my own. Having attend Poetry Unplugged at the Poetry Cafe a few times and got to know some people I was still quite shy and un-confident. Not only did these probably reflect on my performances but also on what I was writing. I only tended to stick to subjects or pieces that I thought would make people laugh, and that anything else wasn't even worth me mentioning, as my Dad has said to me before "Who want's to listen to the backstreets of my mind"?. An example of the type of stuff I used to write is evident in these 2 video's, 1 from Bang Said The Gun and the second from Poetry Unplugged>
Either way, after joining BAC and the Roundhouse and began building my own network, I found it helped me improve 10 fold, not only in the way I could write and perform but also in the opportunities that began to arise. Power to the people.
I mentioned last week of a gig I did with Theatre De-Cunt well here's a live video filmed of it, enjoy!
This week should be quite busy, today I'm off to the studio with Conrad Murray and Dani Marshal, tommorow is more music with a track I'm working on with a wicked singer / songwriter Nick Evans, the launch of BAC HOMEGOWN on Thursday then Millwall vs Barsnley on Friday.
All the best
Paul
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