Friday, 26 June 2009

A weekly round up

I feel like I've neglected the blog this week, but luckily that translates into having plenty of material to feed it with right now.

Once again I've been super busy. On a professional level I've dropped my portfolio with Harpers magazine, then at the New Yorker. I've also been in for a chat at R/GA and with Mike Joyce of Stereotype design



RGA was a great experience, a massive company housing what seemed like thousands of buzzing creatives dashing back and forth but in reality was a mere 300+ (!) and discussing their work was really interesting. I wish I'd had something akin to the Ballers Network when I was captaining teams in the past, would have made life so much easier.

Chatting to Mike over at Stereotype was great, made even better because on route the sun came out for the first time in days! We discussed a whole range of topics and it was wonderful to indulge my love for typography in a place adorned with type based posters. I also came away with the delightful business card below (apologies for the poor photography). Thanks for your time Mike!



But I'm getting ahead of myself, right at the start of the week I went to the Inkubator Summer Series, to see a reading of Dusty and The Big Bad World one of three new plays written by women that are being shown (for free) in June. I had a chat with the co-curator at the interval, who told me that the series is driven by the fact that most new plays never get a second production, so playwrights often miss out on the chance to add new ideas to a script and see them performed, which is what this series aimed to rectify. The playwrights undertake a week long workshop to try new ideas out and develop the material before the reading of the 'new' play takes place at the end of the week, where hopefully it will be well received and possibly lead to a second production.

Dusty and The Big Bad World was fantastic; funny, emotive, sensitive and political. A brief synopsis is on the website, but I really hope this play gets a second production somewhere as it was too good not to be seen by a greater audience.

Saving the best until last and again in a theatrical context, Wednesday brought about Twelfth Night. Anyone who has seen my twitter account will know my reaction to this but for everyone else, IT WAS AMAZING.



I had seen the posters around the city and they had caught my eye because of the wonderful (as usual) design by Pentagram


and the fact that Anne Hathaway was in the show. As I was in Manhattan early on Wednesday I decided to take a chance and join the line for free tickets, yes I did say free. I got there at 9:30am, tickets were distributed at 1pm, yet the line began at 3am. That is dedication! But for the chance to see an Oscar Nominee in her professional Shakespeare debut I could understand it. The idea of bringing Shakespeare outdoors and making it so accessible (if you can stomach the wait) is such a brilliant idea and the show did not disappoint. I'm no theatre critic (despite the previous blog entries) so I'll leave the reviews to the experts: New York Times Theatre Review but I found it magical and yes I did buy a poster!

Finally it's a frivolous day today; the Gossip Girl tour. Ha. And as it's Ed Westwick's birthday tomorrow (apparently) it is a specially themed Chuck tour where all participants have to get dressed up as their favourite character. Decisions, decisions....



(images courtesy of RGA website, Mike Joyce of Stereotype Design, the NYT online photo gallery and Pentagram's website)

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