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Colin Watkeys – Love Your Creativity https://loveyourcreativity.com From the initial spark of a creative idea to getting your projects finished & out there! Mon, 15 Jun 2015 11:23:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.5 Love Your Creativity http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/e82cdf867f3dcf128ce9504af3a51b96.png?s=48 https://loveyourcreativity.com Copyright © LoveYourCreativity.com 2013 marysia13@googlemail.com (Marysia Trembecka Actress/Blogger/Writer & Performer of her own shows) marysia13@googlemail.com (Marysia Trembecka Actress/Blogger/Writer & Performer of her own shows) Creativity 1440 http://i1354.photobucket.com/albums/q698/M013/LYCPodcastpic_zps3e343740.png Love Your Creativity https://loveyourcreativity.com 144 144 Podcasts by Marysia Trembecka of LoveYourCreativity.com to make you smile & motivate you to create & put your art out there whether you are an artist or an actor. Interviews & advice with creatives from directors to authors + Marysia[...] Love Your Creativity.com. Interviews with creatives with their advice on keeping motivated & moving forward, whether you are a actor, painter or a musician. Plus Marysia's fun weekly newsletter & 13 minute task of the day to keep you creating. Blog is at www.loveyourcreativity.com. Twitter @MarysiaT http://www.facebook.com/Loveyourcreativity. G+ & LinkedIn Marysia Trembecka creativity, marketing, author, musician, actor, novelist, positive, thinking, interviews, tips, advice Marysia Trembecka Actress/Blogger/Writer & Performer of her own shows Marysia Trembecka Actress/Blogger/Writer & Performer of her own shows marysia13@googlemail.com no no Multi award winning playwright & performer Claire Dowie interview https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/06/15/multi-award-winning-playwright-performer-claire-dowie-interview/ https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/06/15/multi-award-winning-playwright-performer-claire-dowie-interview/#comments Mon, 15 Jun 2015 12:24:05 +0000 http://loveyourcreativity.com/?p=3469 https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/06/15/multi-award-winning-playwright-performer-claire-dowie-interview/feed/ 1 0:27:58 – ‘I just do it. ….when I say I don’t care, I mean I don’t care whether there is an audience, I don’t care whether there is any money,  it seems to just turn up, the money and the audience. I have never done anyt[...] – ‘I just do it. ….when I say I don’t care, I mean I don’t care whether there is an audience, I don’t care whether there is any money,  it seems to just turn up, the money and the audience. I have never done anything I don’t want to do… and why not? I think if you are true to yourself then it will be alright, if you are trying to be like somebody else, or trying to do like somebody else then it’s not going to work.’ Claire Dowie is a multi award winning playwright, actress, director, performer and oftentimes comic. Her plays have been translated into many different languages and her first novel Creating Chaos was published last year. Her two most famous plays ADULT CHILD DEAD CHILD is on the A level Drama British curriculum and WHY IS JOHN LENNON WEARING A SKIRT on the A level English Literature British curriculum. She is performing them alongside three other of her plays at the Festival of Solo Festival: Best Of The Fest festival from June 30th to July 12th. Colin Watkeys has directed her for over 30 years and is a well known solo theatre director and he interjects throughout the interview. Claire and I are doing a double header with her play ‘Why is John Lennon wearing a skirt?’ and my ‘The Singing Psychic’ show on July 3rd and the 8th at the White Bear Theatre, Kennington, London both plays directed by Colin. Thursday 2nd July  at 7.30pm  and Wednesday 8th July  at 7.30pmFor more details on the Face to face: festival of solo theatre and for bookings please go to http://www.solotheatrefestival.co.uk/ Hit the play in popup to play the podcast or go to the Love Your Creativity iTunes podcast In this podcast interview we cover how Claire feels about making the work, how she feels she is not an actress and how the characters dictate the plays to her. Inevitably given Adult Child Dead Child is about expectations and the John Lennon play about women growing up amid low expectations feminism, being a female comic or performer in still a very full on man’s world and how to create and work on a character. Highlights include How she feels she just sits down and reads the paper and her characters write the plays for her. This is however after she has spent a lot of time with the character, seeing how they react in certain situations How Claire feels when plays on feminism and women having a voice are still relevant according to the feedback she has been getting from the ‘younger generation’ How male reviewers assume automatically that men are funny and male playwrights are good and  yet when it comes to women, she has seen far too many men walk to the bar when a female comic comes on stage What it feels like to have other people perform your work How she always manages to write, make, produce and tour the shows: she feels the characters make her do so. How she doesn’t care about other people’s opinions when she is writing, that you must trust your own instincts and not listen to what you think other people want to hear, when you are writing a play The inspiration behind her Bob Dylan tarot cards Her advice to us all is just to get out and do it And a lot of laughter If you enjoyed this you may also like my podcast interview with Colin Watkeys about developing your own solo theatre show https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/07/04/how-to-create-a-solo-theatre-show-interview-with-colin-watkeys/ Both Claire and I are also taking shows to the Camden Fringe 2015,www.SingingPsychic.tv to book tickets for my Camden Fringe show of The Singing Psychic, Aug 17th to the 22nd 2015 at 9.15pm each night go to http://tristanbatestheatre.co.uk/whats-on/the-singing-psychic–camden-fringe-2015 or http://www.camdenfringe.com/detailact.php?acts_id=321 http://www.clairedowie.co.uk For Claire and Martin Stewart’s show http://www.camdenfringe.com/detailact.php?acts_id=179     Directors, Inspiration, Motivation, Podcast, Writers Marysia Trembecka Actress/Blogger/Writer & Performer of her own shows no no Momentum, move 1 step forward every day! https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/03/27/momentum-move-1-step-forward-every-day/ https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/03/27/momentum-move-1-step-forward-every-day/#respond Fri, 27 Mar 2015 14:00:56 +0000 http://loveyourcreativity.com/?p=3414 https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/03/27/momentum-move-1-step-forward-every-day/feed/ 0 Riding on the Rollercoaster Of A Creative Life https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/02/21/riding-on-the-rollercoaster-of-a-creative-life/ https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/02/21/riding-on-the-rollercoaster-of-a-creative-life/#respond Sat, 21 Feb 2015 14:00:39 +0000 http://loveyourcreativity.com/?p=3388 https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/02/21/riding-on-the-rollercoaster-of-a-creative-life/feed/ 0 How to be a successful creative: create in the corners of your life https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/02/06/how-to-be-a-successful-creative-create-in-the-corners-of-your-life/ https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/02/06/how-to-be-a-successful-creative-create-in-the-corners-of-your-life/#respond Fri, 06 Feb 2015 12:23:08 +0000 http://loveyourcreativity.com/?p=3370 https://loveyourcreativity.com/2015/02/06/how-to-be-a-successful-creative-create-in-the-corners-of-your-life/feed/ 0 Journal your inner critic & learn from her! https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/10/11/journal-your-inner-critic-learn-from-her/ https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/10/11/journal-your-inner-critic-learn-from-her/#respond Sat, 11 Oct 2014 19:09:12 +0000 http://loveyourcreativity.com/?p=3323 https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/10/11/journal-your-inner-critic-learn-from-her/feed/ 0 18 tips on writing a Press Release & Bios https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/10/07/16-tips-on-writing-a-press-release-bios/ https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/10/07/16-tips-on-writing-a-press-release-bios/#respond Tue, 07 Oct 2014 14:00:22 +0000 http://loveyourcreativity.com/?p=3300 https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/10/07/16-tips-on-writing-a-press-release-bios/feed/ 0 How to create a solo theatre show: interview with Colin Watkeys https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/07/04/how-to-create-a-solo-theatre-show-interview-with-colin-watkeys/ https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/07/04/how-to-create-a-solo-theatre-show-interview-with-colin-watkeys/#respond Fri, 04 Jul 2014 23:33:38 +0000 http://loveyourcreativity.com/?p=3195 https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/07/04/how-to-create-a-solo-theatre-show-interview-with-colin-watkeys/feed/ 0 0:12:11 Over  the  past  30  years,  Face  to  Face  Theatre  Festival  Director  Colin  Watkeys  has   specialised  in  producing  and  directing  solo  theatre  and  writers  who  perform  their  own   work.  He  is  now  part  of  a  world  movement  tha[...] Over  the  past  30  years,  Face  to  Face  Theatre  Festival  Director  Colin  Watkeys  has   specialised  in  producing  and  directing  solo  theatre  and  writers  who  perform  their  own   work.  He  is  now  part  of  a  world  movement  that  recognises  that  solo  performance   possesses  a  unique  quality  of  vision  in  theatre.  I am performing part of my next solo theatre show The Singing Psychic at the Lost Theatre on July 8th so I took the opportunity to interview Colin Here are some of the highlights (this is not a full transcript of the podcast interview, to listen to it press the arrow above.) I asked Colin for one piece of advice to anyone who wants to write and develop a show and he said ‘Character. Character and narrative. Narrative is the character and the character is the narrative. Don’t try to manipulate anything, don’t try to put words into their mouths. Get to know the character and their narrative and it writes itself. Claire Dowie famously said she does not remember writing any of her work. From her point of view the character does write it. The guy she plays, she taps in that person’s life, she calls it getting away with telling lies’ (her wiki) Like Picasso ‘The lies we tell to tell the truth’, but if you take on someone else’s history you become a different character, it can affect the way you move. One play that Claire did she played 4 characters in, 2 male, and a middle aged woman and an older woman, all played by herself. Someone asked afterwards, as there was a short blackout ‘I was very surprised when you put lipstick on in the blackout’ but she had not actually done so. Colin did wonder how you can act lipstick but the audience had the impression that for a middle aged, middle class woman she always had lipstick on. Thats a challenge ‘act lipstick’ but the point is when you really see all the characters in your story yourself, the audience does too. When you imagine the richness of the scenes, how you felt, where you were the audience recreates that directly themselves in a far more kaleidoscopic world than in a film. He is always fascinated with solo theatre and performers. For a while he ran the Finborough for stand ups as he was interested in their relationships with the audience. He wants theatre to be like jazz so that people get up and it just happens, not with a set, not with a script. He does like scripts as well but he likes everything to be created in the audience’s imagination and no tacky sets or effects. It is what he likes, from working with stand up comedians but then it got boring as he then was coaching them for auditions for TV pilots, most of whom have got TV series now. He enjoyed most working up with Claire Dowie who used to do what she called ‘Stand Up Theatre’ and Ken Campbell, director, writer, actor including A Fish Called Wanda imdb link here) and comic who loved creating it there and then, he called it ‘real acting’ Ken Campbell used to say ‘The script’s there for a bad day when the geezer is not there, but when the geezer is actually there you just let go, you just do it’ Ken Campbell’s obituary That is what Claire, Ken and Colin have in common, he knows it is not for everyone but when he sees a play he just wants to hone down to the one performer who has an interesting relationship with the audience, he thinks they could just do all of it. That’s what he loves. I asked about retelling Shakespeare from a solo performer perspective and I mention Patrick Stewart’s one man ‘A Christmas Carol’ where he told the whole story himself and Colin mentioned the Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead’ with the different perspectives of Hamlet and each other. I ask what Colin thinks he brings to our work as a performer. He has no idea what he brings, he just knows that it will not be better with more people, nor with a set, he is interested in the relationship between the performer and the audience. People have said what he is talking about is ju[...] Actors, Directors, Inspiration, Podcast Marysia Trembecka Actress/Blogger/Writer & Performer of her own shows no no 100 Days of being an actress: Recovery https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/05/31/100-days-of-being-an-actress-recovery/ https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/05/31/100-days-of-being-an-actress-recovery/#respond Sat, 31 May 2014 21:20:08 +0000 http://loveyourcreativity.com/?p=3087 https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/05/31/100-days-of-being-an-actress-recovery/feed/ 0 Happy Easter: Dream big and follow through https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/04/20/happy-easter-dream-big-and-follow-through/ https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/04/20/happy-easter-dream-big-and-follow-through/#respond Sun, 20 Apr 2014 14:21:43 +0000 http://loveyourcreativity.com/?p=2867 https://loveyourcreativity.com/2014/04/20/happy-easter-dream-big-and-follow-through/feed/ 0 0:01:17 Happy Easter everyone, hope you all are having a lovely and relaxing time. Just made up an Easter morning song for you all above! So many of my friends and family are spending the day eating lots of chocolate but I am filming again this weekend. How[...] Happy Easter everyone, hope you all are having a lovely and relaxing time. Just made up an Easter morning song for you all above! So many of my friends and family are spending the day eating lots of chocolate but I am filming again this weekend. However my dad has been told he can leave hospital today as he had an operation on Thursday that went much better than expected so I am feeling very grateful for that Whatever you do this weekend, it would be great for you to try and take a little time to dream about your next creative project for the next 2 months and if you have a bank holiday tomorrow maybe carve out some time around family and friends to plan your next steps to get your project moving forward. The starting is always so scary but it has to happen or our little art ‘babies’ – our poems, novels, films, exhibitions stay just dreams and that is sad not just for you but the rest of us. The world needs more art spoken from the heart. I am writing this on set over Easter weekend, in a truly bonkers (but couture so I guess that makes it acceptable) all white outfit and full 1950s makeup & hair. I went out after filming and that make-up and hair was not easily coming off so I just changed and off I went to celebrate life! (Maria Beketova did the hair and makeup on set)   I did the Sci-Fi 48 hour film challenge last weekend and had a blast as it is such a collaborative effort. Of course all filmmaking is but the sheer focus of set build, script writing, filming, editing, music and colour grading all to deliver a finished sub 5 minute film in 48 hours really means everyone has to pull their weight absolutely and get it right first time. There is no time for tantrums, second guessing or self doubt from anyone.Challenge The idea is that all entrants get a line of dialogue and a prop they have to incorporate into the film and a theme, although Sci-Fi is obviously the main theme. I have always wanted to do this but knew I needed to work with a professional crew and cast who could deal with the insane time pressure and inevitable complications without cracking. I have done enough student films to know that some people get very rude under pressure or incompetent and quite frankly I didn’t need to deal with that when I was doing effectively a free project. I was lucky as everyone was fantastic, calm and brilliant from fellow actors, to make-up to the two camera crew. I arrived Saturday on set at 3pm, we got the quickly written script at 6pm and started shooting at 7pm. We wrapped the shoot Sunday at about 7pm and I left knowing that the long overnight job of editing, music, and colour grading had to go on. Somehow the film got in in time at 1pm Monday and we have been promised an all singing, dancing 8 minute version as they had to cut a lot to make it a 4.45 minute version. I would worry I have been left languishing on the cutting room floor but as I was the one who said the all important dialogue line I figured that’d be in if nothing else! It did clarify though that being left on the cutting room floor is just about the narrative through-line, the edit has to best fit the story as the director wants to tell it. It is not about you the actor but the storyline as the director and editor feel best to tell it. It is interesting though this idea of logic and narrative as I also tried the first 8 minutes of my new solo show this week. (Yes I have been super-creative!) The director/workshop leader Colin Watkeys who runs the Solo Theatre Festival kept focusing on our need to realise what our chosen narrative is and that thus we may have to personally cut favourite lines or characters if they don’t sit in with the logic of our show. I know from all the previous solo work I have done that the critics often focus on this through-line (previous blog post here) but it is a lesson always worth reminding myself of as I now take the next steps in developing this solo show idea. Yes I got[...] Actors, Casting, Filmmakers, Gratitude, Inspiration, Writers Marysia Trembecka Actress/Blogger/Writer & Performer of her own shows no no