WoWmcr... november with a bang

Reeling as I am after my little trip-ette to Newcastle for Wunderbar yesterday, here's the, frankly bonkers, list of things happening in the next week - I'm almost more exhausted trying to work out how to get to things than I would be if I was doing them!

First off, the very wonderful Julia Griffin (VOIDANCE) presents a special dance video installation created with third years from Edgehill University in Victoria Baths tonight (Friday 4 Nov)Die Praxis der Liebe (The Practice of Love) or for more dance in Leeds there's Live Bites at Yorkshire Dance.  Tomorrow, for bonfire night with a difference try,  David Hoyle’s Northern Lights featuring Ryan Styles, Zero Symphony & Lowri Evans at Platt Chapel.

Next week sees Reckless Sleeper's Schrödinger at http://www.axisartscentre.org.uk/whats_on/listing.php?page=performance_events..." target="_blank">Axis Arts, Crewe on Tuesday and at the https://www.liveatlica.org/whats-on/reckless-sleepers-schrodinger" target="_blank">Nuffield Theatre/Live at LICA on Thursday.  At Axis on Thursday is Vincent Cacialano/Things fall into places unknown and at the Carriageworks in Leeds, Ellie Harrison's Etiquette of Grief.

If there's one 'don't miss' live art event of the month, it's In Remembrance.  Marking the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the eleventh year 11.11.11 In Remembrance is curated by Michael Mayhew and features pieces by Nicola Canavan, Alistair MacLennan, Lisa Newman Kris Canavan, Nina Whiteman, Victoria Gray, Bean, Leo Devlin, Martin O'Brien, Mark Greenwood.

The weekend carries on in mad busy mode - with the ongoing Homotopia in Liverpool, featuring Tranny Hotel at the Adelphi and, also in Liverpool on Saturday is Giving in to Gift (from 2pm, info from The Bluecoat).  

Saturday in Salford and Manchester, see two of the thriving artists cooperatives both with key weekends:

Future Artists present Bring the Noise - a full day of workshops and discussions at their very own Black Lion pub.

And Blank Media Collective celebrate their fifth birthday with the thrilling climax and announcement of the winner of the Title Art Prize at BLANKSPACE.

WoWmcr...last minute additions for tonight + friday: Hallowe'en at Islington Mill and dance in Victoria Baths!

These have just landed in my inbox... not in time for a mailer, but thought they might be of interest nonetheless...!

TONIGHT (31 October) Eggs Collective's Halloween Eggs-travaganza

'an immersive theatrical Halloween experience in and around the famously haunted Islington Mill'
Fancy dress is encouraged. Entry is free - doors 8.30 for 9pm

Friday, November 4th 7.30pm Victoria Baths Hathersage Road, Manchester

Die Praxis der Liebe (The Practice of Love) - a dance video installation by Julia Griffin (VOIDANCE) with 3rd Year Dance & Drama Students in the atmospheric Victoria Baths.

WoWmcr: as the days get darker...

Still reeling a bit from last week's Up the Wall, I'm beginning to think that hibernation or a holiday might be advisable... but those who know me will also know how likely that is...

So, to the week ahead - those who haven't already caught Little Bulb's Operation Greenfield have a final opportunity at the Carriageworks in Leeds tonight (Friday 28th Oct).  On Sunday (30th) Mother's Ruin hold their Fall Ball at Taurus on Canal St, and Action Hero's Frontman makes its first visit to the region at Axis Arts Centre, Crewe.   Then on bonfire night, Platt Chapel plays host to David Hoyle’s Northern Lights featuring Ryan Styles, Zero Symphony & Lowri Evans.

Meanwhile it's a big dance week with two shows by The Featherstonehaughs at the Nuffield (Live at Lica) - Edits and Egon Schiele and a range of interesting work coming to Liverpool as part of Homotopia - including Joseph Mercier's Cruising, Clubbing and Fucking and a Homotopia Dance Triple Bill  both at the Unity, Liverpool.

And, once more, if, like me, you can face straying a bit further afield, Wunderbar Festival takes places all week (31 Oct - 7 Nov) in Newcastle.

As a final word - if anyone knows of an event that they think fits in this mailer and blog please do let me know... I do my best but my telepathy ain't what it once was! I won't necessarily think everything fits, but it's good to know about things, and I realised, too late this week, that there were a couple of things slipping under everyone's radar!

best

 

Tamsin

 

WoWmcr... live from Chester Castle...

Ok, so I'm fibbing - this is coming to you in a rare moment of internet and computer access from the comfort of my flat - strangely 12th Century towers don't afford great wi-fi!  The weather is certainly not the heatwave we had for emergency accommodation but, so far the elements have restrained themselves, everything is up and running and Up the Wall carries on undaunted whatever! 

Tonight (Friday 21) and tomorrow (Saturday 22), 6.30-9pm (free but booking necessary) - 15 new pieces of work in the extraordinary settings of Chester Castle - possibly your one and only opportunity to see the castle Chester doesn't know it has!  After spending two nights of tech, it's definitely looking exciting - I can't begin to sum it up in words, so please do come and check it out!

Follow me @hazardmcr - I'm trying to keep random snippets of the (more) bizarre end of proceedings!

If you're looking to follow that up with some indoor activity - Axis, Crewe and Contact are playing host to Little Bullb's Operation Greenfield on Tuesday 25th and Thursday 27th respectively. Thursday is a busy day as Axis also has Jean Abreu's Inside and Unity, Liverpool has Invisible Thread (formerly Faulty Optic).

Having bumped into a couple of fellow Mancs at Hatch in Leicester on Sunday, I know I'm not the only one prepared to go the distance - so If, you're game for travelling that bit further, the Wunderbar festival is on in Newcastle all the following week.

And in a final word - for more musings on the extraordinary and the random check out doodlebug's weekly friday morning nugget at 8.30am on All FM radio... doodlebug mixcloud archive

Hope to see you in Chester!

 

Tamsin

 

 

WoWmcr: Up the Wall special

Friday 21 + Saturday 22 October, 2011, 6.30-9pm 

Chester Castle, CH1 2DN

Free - booking required.

Chester Castle perches between City and Wall, its 12th Century tower keeping a watchful eye over the border with a neighbouring nation. Once military base, mint and prison, its architecture has been reinvented along with its role.  Now, almost forgotten and undisturbed by the tourist swarms, it sleeps, still waiting and watching over unfamiliar lands.

For two nights only, join Up the Wall in unlocking the hidden secrets of this ancient watch-keeper as artists local, national and international explore borderland terrain, to draw the maps of our identities and the borders of our culture; physical, linguistic and spiritual.

A semaphore conversation between English and Welsh,  a weighty progression from Ireland to the outpost of England, a footballing story of a split identity stadium and an echoing flight from a towering vantage point...

Through image, movement, light and sound, a glimpse of the Castle as never before.

Photo: Denis Buckley

Participating Artists:

Andrew Binkley  - Camilla Brueton - Denis Buckley - Emma Thackham  - Frajul Systems  - Helen Thomas and Kirstin Sillitoe - Julia Heslop, Martin Heslop and Lindsay Rodden  - Katherine Johnson and Stacey Allen  - Laura Cooper - Marcus Orlandi  - Question your Teaspoons  - Shona Harrison - The Lab Collective - Two Destination Language

Produced by Chester Performs, in partnership with hÅb

WoWmcr - the week ahead...

Firstly - we now have new domain names:  www.wordofwarning.org and www.wowmcr.org - either works!

Unbelievably it's that time of the week already, so while I gear up for Up the Wall in Chester next Friday 21 and Saturday 22 October, I wanted to just wish all those participating in Lancaster in Proto-Type Theater's Fortnight, a very enjoyable couple of weeks. Lancaster is insanely busy next week with Franko B's Someone to Love, taking over the Peter Scott Gallery and Company Chameleon and Quarantine in the Nuffield.

Leeds Met Studio is busy too - with Burrows & Fargion, and Invisible Thread (formerly Faulty Optic)

And the very wonderful Michael Pinchbeck's The End comes to Axis Arts Centre, Crewe.

I meanwhile, will, no doubt, be haunting Chester Castle, as some Scooby Doo style dusty curatorial antiquity leaping out on unsuspecting visitors!!  Please don't let that put you off, and book fast for Up the Wall (Free - but reservation necessary - 1200 people have already booked!)

best

 

Tamsin

 

 

This week's WordofWarning - WoWmcr...

A big thank you to everyone who came along and helped us make emergency accommodation a really successful, if hectic, day!  The sight of the 'pirate charge' down Hulme St led by two half-naked fools in a bath will stay with me for some while! Photos from the day here!

Busy week, this week if you are looking to get out and about! Kicking off with David Hoyle, Darren Pritchard & Womb - Northern Lights at Kraak on Saturday 8th.  Then a reminder that the Zion 100 finale Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Society takes place from 2pm this Sunday 9th - make sure to book a slot fast - the 'inside word' (ok, so I spend too much time with technicians) promises it will be something really quite epic and special! Also at the Zion next week is 20 Stories High's Blackberry Troutface on Thursday 13th.

Further afield, Leeds Met Studio plays host to Action Hero's Frontman (also coming to Axis, Crewe and the Nuffield, Lancaster in November) and Forced Entertainment's Void Story makes its first visit to the North West at Unity, Liverpool. (Also coming to Contact and LBT, Huddersfield in November.)

For those with a penchant for physical theatre, Foolsproof's It's Uniformation Day is at Unity on Tuesday 11th and Penny Dreadful's  The Etherdome is at the Lowry on Thursday 13th.  For dance, maybe check out Darshan Singh Buller's Caravaggio at Carriageworks, Leeds.

I, meanwhile, will be gearing up for the impending Up the Wall at Chester Castle - of which you will certainly hear more shortly - but as a heads-up, this year it is a pre-bookable free event, and is booking very fast...

emergency accommodation and this week's Word of Warning

So, from the heady whirl of emergency accommodation preparations (so far I've been a doorstop, traffic warden shield, booze shopper and general factotum, such glamour), here is this week's rapid WordofWarning!

Big tips for the week coming: on Wednesday 5th and Thursday 6th are Third Angel's What I heard about the world at Leeds Met Studio and the Zion 100 Finale - Pleasant Sunday Afternoon Society strangely enough, on Sunday (9th). Also, well worth a trip down to Axis Arts Centre in Crewe for New Art Club's Big Bang of Boom.

Back to doing something terribly important and promoter-ly - like buying paper plates and water - or tweeting unfortunate images of the beknighted tech team wheeling unfeasibly large objects down the street!

One last plug for emergency accommodation - 30 pieces of live work across two buildings and the street inbetween, topped off with a secret finale hosted by Doodlebug - tomorrow, Saturday 1 October, BLANKSPACE & IABF, Hulme St, Manchester,(M1/M15) 12-9pm FREE. Somebody described BLANKSPACE as a 'maze of performance' yesterday, which is pretty much what it is!

We have much of the greenroom team re-united to pull off this first legacy project - the missing, vital piece is the greenroom audience, so please come and join us.

WordofWarning: things to see and do...emergency accommodation special.

Forgive this week's WordofWarning being just a touch biased... emergency accommodation (Saturday 1 October, 12-9pm) isn't obsessing my every waking moment at all!  As the first, post-closure attempt to do a greenroom-style event, it is a little terrifying, and we're really hoping lots of people will turn out to support, what we think, is a genuinely really exciting programme.   Participating artists come from all over the UK, including some names familiar from past programmes like Krissi Musiol, Angel Club (north), Wayne Steven Jackson and Chris Fitzsimmons plus, from the wider national picture: GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN, Nicola Canavan and Julieann O'Malley coming to Manchester for the first time.

The full draft schedule is up on the site now! I'll be attempting to tweet updates, pictures and videos all week from the preparations and the event itself so follow me @HazardMcr

I realise that only my world is stopping due to emergency accommodation - and there are definitely other things to see and do.  As a last burst of activity before I go into show-mode, I'll be racing to Mother's Ruin  tonight,  Seven Sites at the Lowry Mall tomorrow  and then (by way of Birmingham... don't ask!),  Pledge, Pitch, Play, Party at the Black Lion tomorrow evening.

Next week - if I had <i>any </i> time free, I would be heading to Leeds for David Hughes's Last Orders on Tuesday and on Thursday, to either, Michael Jenkins's Democratic Parade at the Bluecoat or Invisible Flock's Bring the Happy at Leeds Met Studio Theatre. Maybe fortunately, I'm saved the invidious choice between the two, as I'll inevitably be up to my neck in artists and Asda food orders at that point in time!

Hope to see you all at emergency accommodation