Tim blogs...

Dear Friends,

Too long has past since last I posted here! Things have been busy, and that is healthy. I'm co-ordinating the monthly story-round meet in Sheffield's Old Queen's Head at the moment, organising the mailing lists and such. If you're in the city or surround area, and would like to hear what we've got going on, then let me know and I'll be sure you get the details!

I put on a night last week, at the Fat Cat on Kelham Island. It's a wonderful pub attached to the brewery in amongst the former steel works. The surrounds are a confusion; tangled vines burst from long abandoned factories whilst swish new apartment blocks grow just as vigorously alongside. What better place to put on an evening of Urban Fairytales? Ancient stories in modern settings. We filled the room
until every chair, every patch of floor, and then every armpit had a listener therein. It was incredibly positive, the evening served as a sort of litmus test for me on whether or not we could put such events on in Sheffield. A hat was passed and it came back heavy. If we can do that once every couple of months then we can think about guests, and so on and so forth, the future is ours to shape.

It was also a good learning activity. More and more of late I've realised how eager people are to laugh. That if something is funny now and again, then that carries a lot of the emotional intensity. It's an idea I'm going to take to extremes in my next big project:

In October, I'm looking to put on a night of classic absurd pieces, featuring Kafka's Metamorphosis and Gogol's The Nose. I will be joined onstage by a large, cuddly woodlouse. It will be hilarious, sad, and folly of the purest kind.

'til then
Tim