Close up acting is magic

I have watched Peter Kay in a pub, thanks to Nottingham's Just the Tonic. I have sat on the front row for David Bowie and Kenneth Branagh's Richard the Third.  I sat as Reginald D Hunter sweat on me and all I can say is, it was amazing.

I have acted in living rooms, kitchens, shops, barns, fields, boats.  I have flicked my ash on the audience and I have looked into their eyes and engaged.  It was shockingly brilliant.
So why would you want art 40, 50, 60 metres away, on a video screen?  Why would you subject your audience to cheap images, that YouTube could probably beat.

This September, two television actors with years of small screen experience will be working close up to you.

Come and see art close up, come and sit in the set and really enjoy a theatre experience.  Come and see Thick As Thieves in Oldham.

http://www.hardgraft.co.uk/

David Crowley directs Jonny Dixon and Steven Arnold

It's show time.

Been waiting to tell you this for ages....

Steven Arnold & Jonny Dixon

What would you do with a dead body?
Two Burglars, they're not Robin Hood - Prince of thieves.
They're robbin' old men - and THICK AS THIEVES
Meet Barry Ireland and Steph Aston, two hapless burglars whose life of crime is about to take an unexpected turn for the worse.

23rd Sept - 11th October 2014 @ RETail 23 Mumps Oldham OL1 3TP See Map

Tickets £9.50 (£7.50 concs)BUY TICKETS ONLINE HERE

OR CALL 0843 20 80 500

Waiting game

The hardest thing when you have news is sitting on it until everything is in place.  Today I have press releases, videos of the cast, publicity shots, but no tickets.  Quaytickets are our tickets partners for Thick As Thieves and as soon as they update their system it will be  all go, go, go.  So, whilst I wait for the phone call/email I may as well tell you about something else.

Poles Apart, in 2008 exactly 6 years ago actor Daniel Hoffmann-Gill and myself were in Poland trying to get a job. To date, this is probably my favourite show Hard Graft has produced.  The time was perfect, 600 Poles had made their way to the UK so for us to replicate and reverse was very interesting.

Publicity, publicity, publicity

Well,

Spent my entire weekend messing about with video footage from our two actors, filmed to help with publicity.  On friday we went down to Act Up North in Manchester where Corrie Shelley  did a magnificent job with our actors head shots.

I have decided not to release the actors names until later this week when everything is in place like box office, production images, promotional videos and press releases.

Photographer Corrie Shelly with Director David Crowley and our 2 pixelated actors 

If you want to be the first to see who is player Steph and Barry in Thick As Thieves then I urge you to join the mailing list here.

David Crowley filming our short comedy promos.

Thick as Thieves - the start.

I know some people find behind the scenes talk interesting, so on this job I will try and update you as much as possible.

Well, here we go again.

1st August 2014

Oldham Council has kindly given us a great deal on a retail unit in Oldham.

At the bottom of Mumps Hard Graft breathe life into this old shop.

We (well I) have now done this 3 times as resident in Nottingham, Oldham and Edinburgh and 60 odd times as a once nightly event, where we literally turned up in the afternoon and put a show on.

The interior of reTale before we start our work.

Our two main actors have both spent time in Coronation Street, so we are using short videos gags as a marketing tool.  This is me trying on my costume for one of the short films.

Celia Perkins our designer, this is how she sees the space being used.

As ever you can see the info by twitter, facebook or join our mailing list here 

Look what I'm rewriting again...

I first wrote this play in 2002 and performed with my friends Daniel Hoffmann-Gill.  Back then it was 35 minutes long, now it's 90mins (a film) and to advertise it a little I thought I'd send a little of it into the world to see what you think.

Background information - Barry and Steph have broken into an old mans room and found a dead Budgie.

BARRY
What we need is some kind of specialist. A body moving type specialist that specialises in moving dead bodies.
STEPH
A cleaner.
BARRY
Yea. A cleaner, like Harvey Keitel in Pulp Fiction.
STEPH
Do you know anyone?
BARRY
Like who?
STEPH
You must have met someone in prison that could help. I mean you were in one of the toughest open prisons in the country. Filled with notorious villains, hard men and fixers, you must have met somebody?
BARRY
I know a good driver. Shared a cell with him, have you heard of Spit Wilson? He was on "Stop, Police, Camera" or was it Camera, Police Stop! One of them programmes anyway. He nicked a BMW off a forecourt. He reckoned that it was the longest recorded police chase ever broadcast on telly. It was that good they dedicated a full-half hour special to it called "Streets of Death". They got that there, oh what's her name - consonant, vowel, consonant, you know, got the sack, you know the Countdown woman used to be ugly now she's not.
(He sings the Countdown clock tune)
STEPH
Carol Vorderman.
BARRY
Carol Vordeman, she did the voice over. Anyway he was finally caught with one of them stingers on the A614 near Bilsthorpe. He reckoned he'd of got further if it wasn't for the caravan on the back.
Do you know why they called Spit Wilson, Spit Wilson?
STEPH
No.
BARRY
Always spitting.


For more information and to book tickets (when they go on sale) look here

 

What would you do?

Just had a call from a friend who is rehearsing a play that goes out next week, a 90 minute two hander.  His leading lady gets an offer from TV to do a few episodes of a soap, which would be more lucrative than the theatre.  She wants to do the TV, but feels guilty and wants to let my friends down with help to find someone else to take her place.  What would you do, would you let her go and do TV, or hold her to her contact?  

I have made this choice lots of times and it's never easy.  The actor will probably be a friends who, like all of us is struggling with money, but all you have done is offer them a job.

What would you do?