Word of Warning...
I'm writing from the topsy turvy world of Haphazard - briefing our badger, snow-leopard,tiger and wolf hosts; receiving large hula-hooped shaped parcels; awaiting a bulk delivery of ping pong balls and holding my breath to see what the Crystal-Maze-meets-It's-a-Knockout-style gameshow will land on us (literally!). It must be nearly Haphazard time (Sat 9 Feb 12-4pm FREE). Featuring Volkov Commanders, Ultra Violets, Lydia Hirst (Eggs Collective), whatsthebigmistry, Katherina Radeva, Anna Madonald, Robert Foster, Lani Irving, Rachael Nutter and Angel Club (north), drop in anytime between 12+4pm - the day promises to be as big a surprise for me as for the audience! Elsewhere Queer Contact continues with Mother's Ruin's Who's Got The Max Factor? (tonight Fri 9 Feb); and The Polari Mission (I think sold-out) and Bourgeois and Maurice on Sat 9 Feb. Our friends at Blank Media Collective also have their Winter Warmer Fundraiser on Sat 9 Feb - so pop along if Haphazard leaves you feeling warm and fuzzy! The coming week remains busy - even Sunday 10th isn't quiet as Maelstrom Dance are previewing their new work as part of And So Begins The Snow at Antwerp Mansions and Company Chameleon's The Pictures We Make premiers at The Lowry on Thu 14 Feb and Tales of Whatever is on at The Castle, on Wed 13 Feb and Embryo at Studio Salford on Fri 15 Feb. Word of Warning's breakneck run of three shows in three weeks concludes with our first collaboration of the season with Contact: Hetain Patel's Be Like Water on Thu 14 (just 2 tickets left!) and Fri 15 Feb (tickets available). Further afield imitatingthedog's 6 Degrees Below The Horizon is at Axis, Crewe on Tue 12 Feb (also coming to Contact in May) and The Zero Hour at West Yorkshire Playhouse Thu 14-Sat 16 Feb; The Gramophones End to End is at UCLAN, Preston on Fri 15 Feb and Daniel Bye's The Price of Everything at the Unity Liverpool on Sat 16 Feb Possibly mercifully, things quiet down the following week, though you can still catch Pigeon Theatre's The Smell of Envy at Axis, Crewe (also coming to Z-arts in March) and Fevered Sleep's Above Me The Wide Blue Sky at Live at LICA and for those into dance and technology, a telepresence dance exchange at Contact with Outta Place's The Dance Dialogue. I'm now off to wrangle the animals, tend to the CO2 garden and re-fuel the tiny cars - hoping to see lots of you at Haphazard! best Tamsin Next up on Word of Warning: Sat 9 Feb, 12noon-4pm. Z-arts FREE
HAPHAZARD For the curious of all ages. Thu 14 + Fri 15 Feb, 7.30pm. Contact
BE LIKE WATER Hetain Patel Fri 8 Mar, 7.30pm. Z-arts | Double Bill
THREE SISTERS | THE SMELL OF ENVY Plane Performance | Pigeon Theatre
Word of Warning...
So Word of Warning's Spring Performance Collection is well and truly up and running with the lovely Lowri Evans's The Secret Life of You and Me at the Lowry Studio. Very nice to be sold out for our first night, there may still be a tiny handful of tickets available for tonight (Fri 1 Feb, 8pm). Next week sees Queer Contact taking over - with The House of Contact on Tue 6; Art with Heart's The Secret Diaries of a Teenage Queer (only matinee tickets remaining); Mother's Ruin's Who's Got The Max Factor?; and The Polari Mission and Bourgeois and Maurice on Sat 9 Feb. Of course, for us, Saturday 9 Feb is dominated by our own (free) Haphazard from 12-4 at Z-arts (but if you plan well there's time to come along AND do Queer Contact!). Haphazard artists include Volkov Commanders, Ultra Violets, Lydia Hirst (Eggs Collective), whatsthebigmistry, Katherina Radeva and more. Ten mesmerically madcap and insanely interactive adventures all over the building - it's live art for everyone, children and adults alike. Drop-in at any time between 12 and 4; rounding off with an informal discussion on making work for inter-generational audiences at 4pm. Further afield the LBT, Huddersfield has imitating the dog's 6 Degrees Below the Horizon (Tue 6 + Wed 7 Feb). Live at LICA has Two from A Smith on Wed 7 and Unity, Liverpool has Clout Theatre's How A Man Crumbled on Thu 8 Feb. The following week is even busier - including our (Word of Warning's) first collaboration of the season with Contact with Hetain Patel's Be Like Water on Thu 14 (4 tickets JUST released, book fast!) and Fri 15 Feb (tickets available). The Royal Exchange has the I'm Spilling My Heart Out festival, The Gramophones End to End is at UCLAN, Daniel Bye is at the Unity, imitating the dog continue their two show world domination plan and the premiere of Company Chameleon's The Pictures We Make is at The Lowry. I, meanwhile, will be heading for Bristol to IBT13 - the In Between Time Festival. Having thoroughly freaked myself with how much there is to do, I'm off to plan bucket dancing, ping pong ball dropping, leaf blowing, hula-hooping and a minotaur maze... a thoroughly Haphazard way to spend the day! best Tamsin Next up on Word of Warning:TONIGHT: Fri 1 Feb, 8pm. The Lowry
THE SECRET LIFE OF YOU AND ME Lowri Evans Sat 9 Feb, 12noon-4pm. Z-arts FREE
HAPHAZARD For the curious of all ages. Thu 14 + Fri 15 Feb, 7.30pm. Contact
BE LIKE WATER Hetain Patel
Word of Warning...
Finally we seemed to have reached the point where we can't pretend it's xmas any more and it's time to get back to (show)business as usual... Of course, the event of next week is the beginning of our own, Word of Warning season with Lowri Evans's The Secret Life of You and Me at the Lowry Studio on Thu 31 Jan and Fri 1 Feb. But for those hungry for something to do on a Friday afternoon you could also try Abas Eljanabi's Game Over - a free work in progress at Contact. This Sunday, 27th, Jordan Mackenzie will be bringing his Perfect Gift to Liverpool City Centre, then
Live at LICA kicks off its season on Mon 28th with Burrows & Fargion's Counting to One Hundred and One Flute Note and, on Wed 30 + Thu 31 Imitating the Dog's The Zero Hour . Axis Arts Centre, Crewe gets going on Thu 31 with Michael Pinchbeck's The Beginning (also coming to WoW/the Lowry in March) and over at Edgehill University, on Tue 29 the Rose Theatre has Clout Theatre's How A Man Crumbled. Looking ahead to the following week, Queer Contact takes over all week, and Live at LICA, LBT Huddersfield and Unity, Liverpool are all worth checking out. From a partisan point of view, of course, the big event is our own (free) Haphazard at Z-arts on Sat 9 Feb - we'll be revealing more programme details later today but it promises to be a no-holds-barred live art takeover of the building! best Tamsin Next up on Word of Warning:Thu 31 Jan + Fri 1 Feb, 8pm. The Lowry
THE SECRET LIFE OF YOU AND ME Lowri Evans Sat 9 Feb, 12noon-4pm. Z-arts
HAPHAZARD For the curious of all ages. Thu 14 + Fri 15 Feb, 7.30pm. Contact
BE LIKE WATER Hetain Patel
Word of Warning...
Very chilly but amused at the level of hysteria snow invokes largely in the media - I expect the warm wet bowl of Manchester will insulate us from anything too dramatic... but you never know..! Not a terribly busy week next week, but things start to pick up apace the following one, so I thought I'd preview that too: In the coming week: the Library Theatre's re:play festival conitnues at The Lowry til Sat 26 Jan and our pick would be Kumaluva's Pandamonium (but it's now sold out!) following Pitch Party on Fri 25th.
That same night there's also the launch of The Swedish Dance History at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation Earlier in the week, on Weds 23rd, over in Bradford, is Northern School of Contemporary Dance double bill: The Undertakers | Instant Dissidence. This is the calm before the storm, however, as the following week (w/c 28 Jan) Live at LICA kicks off its season with Burrows & Fargion's Counting to One Hundred and One Flute Note and Imitating the Dog's The Zero Hour and Axis Arts Centre, Crewe gets going with Michael Pinchbeck's The Beginning (also coming to WoW/the Lowry in March) and over at Edgehill University, the Rose Theatre has Clout Theatre's How A Man Crumbled. Then of course, the week climaxes with the beginning of our own, Word of Warning season with Lowri Evans's The Secret Life of You and Me at the Lowry Studio on Thu 31 Jan and Fri 1 Feb (book soon, tickets are selling fast, especially for Thu 31). That's it for now - except to say that we've just revealed the full artist list for Haphazard at Z-arts on Sat 9 Feb - keep checking back as we'll fill in the details shortly! best Tamsin Next up on Word of Warning:Thu 31 Jan + Fri 1 Feb, 8pm. The Lowry
THE SECRET LIFE OF YOU AND ME Lowri Evans Sat 9 Feb, 12noon-4pm. Z-arts
HAPHAZARD For the curious of all ages. Thu 14 + Fri 15 Feb, 7.30pm. Contact
BE LIKE WATER Hetain Patel Standing reminders:
www.facebook.com/warnmcr @warnmcr
Information for artists: www.habarts.org
Word of Warning... Happy nearly-New Year... and welcome back to my regular scamper-through of the less conventional performance, theatre, live art and general arti-ness. The world is a bit post-xmas sleepy still so there's not a lot coming up in the next week - though the Library Theatre's re:play festival at The Lowry does kick-off on Mon 14 Jan. Intriguing me in the first week is Liz Postlethwaite + Monkeywood Theatre's Stars Are Fire (17-19 Jan). re:play continues til Sat 26 Jan and we'll be high-tailing it over for Kumaluva's Pandamonium (following Pitch Party) on Fri 25th. This hiatus before the full Spring onslaught gives a little opportunity for a touch of self-indulgence - ok a blatant plug - for our own Word of Warning Spring 2013 Performance Collection. I think we got a bit carried away this season - we'll be cropping up at the Lowry, Contact, the Bluecoat and, of course, Z-arts - to the extent that we've had to divide the season in two - so look out for a whole new wave after Easter. Our shiny new season website is already up and running and our even shinier new print will be gracing the leaflet racks shortly. First off is Lowri Evans' The Secret Life of You and Me at the Lowry Studio on Thu 31 Jan and Fri 1 Feb. Following her Works Ahead mini commission in 2012, Lowri invites you to join her on the night of her 30th birthday for a live scrapbook of her jumble-sale life to date. Following that we enter into brand new territory, our first 'all ages' live art event: Haphazard at Z-arts on Sat 9 Feb. A cross between Hazard and Emergency, we are inviting a range of artists to take over the building in a free day out for kids and their adults AND adults and their adults! The programme is still emerging but we suspect it will live up to its name... With seven events in just this first half of the season, I won't go on any more, except to say that we look forward to welcoming: Hetain Patel, Michael Pinchbeck, Plane Performance and Pigeon Theatre - alongside the forty or so artists who will make up 'Poolside Emergency and Turn.
Talking of which - for those looking to make some work - there's just one week to go until the deadline for Turn 2013 AND the call for 'Poolside Emergency has just opened. hÅb (Word of Warning's 'parent' company) also has a new website, with a platform planner and an invitation to join the Emergency artist e-group.
Word of Warning...
Today marks St Andrew's day and the Word of Warning's season closer at Z-arts: Made In China's We Hope That You're Happy (Why Would We Lie?), a National Theare Studio and BAC Take Out supported company. Promising quick wit, dark insight, pop music and plenty of mess, they're generating great buzz around the country and we're delighted to be the final gig on their tour. Unbelievably, today also marks the finale of the first year of Word of Warning's programme and we're celebrating that, and patron saint of performers, St Andrew, with (loosely) themed drinks and nibbles after the show, hosted by Angel Club (north)'s MacMirror Twins. We really hope you can join us! Elsewhere, at Contact, the final Mother's Ruin of the year is also tonight (Fri 30 Nov) and there's Larkin' About all over the building, tomorrow Sat 1 Dec. Also tomorrow, Sat 1 Dec, is the Economies of Generosity Symposium at the Bluecoat, Liverpool; and in Lancaster, Live at LICA has the final, very special outing of Rajni Shah's Glorious. Next week, on Tues 4 Dec at the LBT in Huddersfield, you can catch Phoenix Dance Theatre's Crossing Points. Tip for the week, if you didn't catch it in Manchester, is Katherina Radeva's Fallen Fruit at the Capstone Theatre, Liverpool Hope University on Fri 7 Dec, as part of the Cartographies of Justice event. (nb - there seems to be a problem with Captone's website - hopefully it will get resolved soon). Looking further ahead, on Weds 12 Dec in Manchester there's the Michael Mayhew curated 12-12-12 Humanity Night at Antwerp Mansions, and in Lancaster, at Ludus, LEAP's First Time - Last Time
Fri 14 Dec sees Tosh Ryan's Orchestra of Fools at the Black Lion, Salford and on Sat 15 Dec at the Whitworth Art Gallery is Afters Hours: Hockney's New York Loft Party Though I'm sorely tempted to advocate for a mass outing to see "The Hoff" in Peter Pan, I'll refrain, but I will give a quick mention to one seasonal outing, which promises not to be your usual fayre: Breaking Cycles' Pinocchio premiers at Live at LICA (8-10 Dec), then comes to our own Z-arts from 13-22 Dec. And that, to the best of my knowledge, is pretty much, that for the year... Unless something exciting comes to our attention, Word of Warning is going to take a break until early in the New Year, when we'll have news of our own Spring season and what's coming up around the region. Until then, really hope to see lots of you tonight at Z-arts for some great work and a bit of a seasonal tipple, otherwise bah humbug! and see you in the New Year! Best Tamsin
Word of Warning...
Returning to the land of plenty, prepare for another week of feast - and make the most of it, as Xmas silly season is looming suspiciously large. Next week's WoW might be the last of the year, unless you know differently - so if anyone has anything exciting happening between now and Xmas, let me know asap or I'll be condemned to doing a panto round-up! A late entry for tonight is Accompany Geddes Loom's Prelude to a Number at Cornerhouse, while Dawn Crandell's Xenophobadelica is ongoing at Contact tonight and tomorrow. Next week, on Thurs 29 Nov. Manchester Dance Consortium presents Platform 0.1 at Z-arts and Paper Cinerma's Odyssey is at Contact, as is the final Mother's Ruin of the year on Fri 30 Nov. Natural bias would of course have me tell you that the place to be on Fri 30 Nov is Z-arts where WoW is presenting Made In China's We Hope That You're Happy (Why Would We Lie?). Whilst they might not be so well known up here, everyone I know down south has got excited when I've mentioned them coming to Manchester... We're also getting a bit frisky with the after show entertainment - with a bonus extra from Angel Club (north)'s errant children the Mirror Twins - and we really hope people will join us for a touch of end of season, Word of Warning style frivolity - Xmas carols and tinsel it won't be! Further afield:
In Liverpool, the Bluecoat sees the second Giving in to Gift Festival (26-30 Nov) with a week of performances and interventions, entitled the Horse's Teeth from the likes of Richard Layzell, Mamoru Iriguchi and Jordan Mackenzie,culminating in the Economies of Generosity Symposium on Sat 1 Dec. And in Lancaster, Live at LICA has Rajni Shah's Glorious is also on Sat 1 Dec. A final random factoid... Friday 30 November is St Andrew's day. As well as being patron saint of Scotland, he spread his patronage around a bit: Ukraine, Russia, Sicily, Greece, Cyprus, Romania (amongst others) and to fishermen, fishmongers, rope-makers, golfers and performers. Don't imagine that next Friday's Word of Warning event won't exploit that bit of trivia! Best Tamsin
Word of Warning... This season really is proving to be a bit feast or famine... this week has been a brimming cornucopia (very cheesey metaphor, sorry) while next week supplies are a bit thin on the ground. Note to all of us programming stuff - we really do need to get our heads together more! A recap of tonight and tomorrow sees Dickie Beau's Blackouts: Twilights of the Idols continue at Contact, Manchester, Volcano's L.O.V.E at the Unity, Liverpool (Thurs 15- Sat 17 Nov) , Invisible Flock's Distant Threads at the LBT, Huddersfield both Fri/Sat and GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN's Big Hits at The Carriageworks, Leeds just Sat 17 Nov. Also, tonight at the Rose Theatre, Edgehill is a collaboration between Eleni Edipidi of Levantes Dance Theatre and third year students to produce Banquet. Next week Dawn Crandell's Xenophobadelica is at Contact from Thursday (22-24 Nov), Ridiculusmus's Total Football is at the Unity, Liverpool and 12˚ Degrees North Dance Company's Triple Bill comes to Live at LICA, Lancaster on Thurs 22 Nov. I guess that leaves me opportunity for a bit of a plug for Word of Warning's next and final outing of the season (yup we're there already): Made In China's We Hope That You're Happy (Why Would We Lie?) at Z-arts on Fri 30 Nov. A BAC and National Theatre Studio supported company on their first visit to Manchester - we really hope you'll come and make them feel welcome. Aside from all that it's a loud, frantic and very messy rollercoaster of a show... which may well encourage us to let the whole evening descend into some form of season-closing messiness! Best Tamsin
