Sunday Quickie 2

A last minute item for those interested in theatre blogging and criticism.

Monday, 1 December, 18:00- 20:00 GMT
at The Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London

A panel discussion considers the emerging role of blogging in opening up critical dialogue about theatre and in creating new career avenues for critical writers. With the rise of online content and the blogosphere, is the role of the daily newspaper critic becoming obsolete?

The panel includes:
Charles Spencer, lead theatre critic for The Daily Telegraph; Andrew Dickson, arts editor for guardian.co.uk, Judith Dimant, producer of Complicite, and leading bloggers and theatre professionals.

Sunday Quickie

"How did the choreographer and director Martha Clarke describe the harrowing process of reviving her dance masterwork “Garden of Earthly Delights”?

She got down on all fours with a napkin in her hand and began scrubbing the square floor tiles."

I think that I will have to keep this some place in plain view so that every time I think I have it tough with a show I can take a look and can just set myself straight.

in the pen case

As some of you may know I collect fountain pens. {Brief pause for the inevitable laughter to stop}. I won't bore you with the minutiae but sufficeth to say that if you ever get a check, note, or ask to borrow a pen then you will inevitably be handed a fountain pen of some description or it will be written by a fountain pen.
There is for me great satisfaction in pairing up various pens to ink and following the impulse of the moment as to which will be used. It is an in the moment piece of art that allows for random expression.
So from time to time I will post what pens I currently have in my pen case. They may reflect some inner clue as to how things are or maybe they will just, like much of what I believe is theatre, be an opportunity to be surprised.

So from left to right are this weeks current crop. Filcao Atlantica {ink: Private Reserve Plum}, Parker Duofold {ink: Aurora Black}, Cleo Scribent Chiffre 2000 {ink: Private Reserve Fiesta Red}, across the top a Parker Lady Patricia Pencil in Onyx {part of a set with a matching Ladies pen}

I seem to be heavily into red inks these days. I wonder what that invokes.

Alison Croggon

Alison Croggon, a theatre blogger from Australia writes in her post "Hope and so on"

"Culture isn’t the same as art. Culture is the contract, however defined, between an artist and his or her public. Culture is the lively communal yeast that makes everything rise. It’s the air that lets art breathe, the space where it can swing its arms, the multiple influences that flavour it.

If our theatre culture is deeply impoverished, it’s not because there are not committed and skilful artists, or that there aren’t audiences – even enthusiastic audiences – for what they do. It’s because something crucial is missing in between, in that implicit contract between the creation and reception of art. Whatever the causes – and they are manifold, historical and difficult to track – the effects are plain."

This is a huge post that is, in it's references, quite Australian. However I think that we here in Canada could make the necessary substitutions. This is a post well worth reading all the way through.

The front page of her blog, theatre notes, is here. And I will be adding her to the blogroll as I find her a fascinating read.