Helooooooooooooooooooo 2011

Well its a new year, start of the 20teens... a whole world of possibilities are opening up... well actually, they were all there in the first place, but some how the sense of a new year, a clean slate is invigorating...

We At collective HQ have been biiiiiiiiiiiiizeeeeeeee... where to start...

Pablo is on the cusp of finishing his Phd... soon it'll be Dr Pablo thank you very much. Rick's been poorly and Daisy's been keeping us all together. isnt that nice...

Now i know you dont read this blog to hear about the social, medical and academic comings and going of AC but there we are, its nice to let you know.

There have also been some quite exciting happenings in the world of the company too... would you like to hear about those..? (If not you might want to skip this next bit)

Firstly, we had a nice trip up The Basement in Brighton. The folks there are helping us to continue developing our piece "Everone's looking for someone..." which began life as a scratch performance there last year.

Last week we had a day down there. We had a long chat about ideas for developing the piece....

(Fot those of you with a short term memory, or if you're new to this blog - The piece comes in two parts. Te first is a collosal game of hide and seek around a town or sity centre where two besuited figures engage with passers-by, strangers, in a bid to find one another. They leave notes around the place and ask [eople to call if they see their opposite number around. The second part entails an evening performance in a venue where the days journeying and hunting is recounted, text messages and voicemails broadcast. Lots of storytelling, sidelines into the meaning of looks and looking, losing and finding and the reasons we are all, in our own way, looking for someone ensues...)

There are a few things we're trying to iron out though...

When we scratched the event back in summer last year, the sun was shining and all the beautiful people of Brighton we eager to help... These two odd looking characters werent really defined, their aim (apartr from looking) was abit limp and seemed to develop over ther day. That was ok as it was abit of a trial. Fast forward a few months... Its January, its cold and rainy... Brighton's beautiful people ar eall tucked up in cafes, homes and wherever else they take their beautiful selves. But we're still trying to nail down the approach and aims of this search... How do we get people involved..?

Much conversation.

What if they were supposed to meet... if they have to give a presentation but they cant be there and are searching to find the other to tell them BEFORE the event starts..? What if we give them a story for people to invest in..? what if we give them a purpose people can relate to... inject a sense of urgency..?

Well... Apparently all that does is scare people.

We took this new sense of purpose and fiction onto the streets for a trial.

People are very sweet. One girl almost cried, such was her depth of feeling for this lost and desperate figure's (my) plight.

Not quite the type of engagement we were looking for. Sympathy enlists sentiments of hopefulness, charity... somehow there was some fun missing...

Back to the drawing board for that part... So we high-tailed it back to the studio for some brainwork...

I mean, really... what's it all about?

is this whole thing about human relationships? Is it about loss and memory? is it about this inate sense of incompleteness most of us feel when we are bereft of human contact..?

I hate my own company... but then i'm bloody minded, opinionated and pedantic... i manage to hide it around other people (mostly) but there's no hiding that from yourself.

Yes, there's something in the joy of other people... Even ET had the urge to phone home, right?

There's nothing so good for the soul as a heart to heart with someone, being honest and open with someone, loving someone, being appreciated by someone, just sitting with someone, sharing a joke with some one... someone, someone, someone....

So in someways our trip to Brighton was a failure (street trials didnt work...) BUT... knowing what you're thinking about iss a good starting point and we managed to spend some time working that out.



In other news....

We're still pushing on with our most ambitious project to date "i am small, the world is BIG" the big final celebratory event of which is scheduled for May... We're still on the hunt for potential ready made communities to take part in a short workshop where they get to re-imagine the world and stitch a new world map along their own whimsical lines, sao if you're in the WI, a school, youth group, The Army, The Church, work in an office... then we could come and work with you for just a couple of short hours and you'd get to be part of this exciting, Kent wide project.

The website is in process and the aesthetic and design stuff is pulling together nicely... cant wait.

There's more exciting stuff in the pipeling with Accidental Collective premiering a new and as yet un-named piece as part of "Scratch-interract" currated by Glue and to be held on the 5th of Feb at the Jarman Building on t=the Kent Unicersity campus. its between 3 and 6 and free to attend. However, some of the performances within the event are limited capacity and places are gonna be first come first served... but if you wanna get in there early then you can always book (its FREE) here.. http://scratchinteract.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/free-tickets-kent/
Its gonna be a mindblowing Saturday afternoon of interactive performance from some really amazing theatre makers! So dont miss out!!!

And finally!!!

Worldfest is here again and the Gulbenkian and University of Kent is once again playing host to all sorts of international related and themed events 23rd-26th of Feb. We'll post more info as and when we get it but Accidental Collective are performing and trying out some innovative games and entertainments in the big marquee outside the library on friday 25th between 6 and 8 and you should def come see us!!!!

ok, i bet your eyes are tired!! my fingers certainly are... mammoth post... next one will be more meat and less catch up... i promise!!