July 22nd, 2010 by lozkaye
Loz has just completed his residency at the North West Sound Archives. The project culminated in a sound installation at Clitheroe Castle, with sounds echoing over to Pendle Hill. Quite a spectacular setting. There are a couple of extracts on the project soundcloud site, along with fascinating snippets from the archives.
Also, he has just undertaken a week’s masterclass at Horse and Bamboo theatre, as well as a workshops at Accrington Academy and the Bolton Octagon. After moving on from Salford University, he will be a visiting teacher at Liverpool’s prestigious LIPA. He is now signing out for a month over summer to recharge creative batteries ready for new creative challenges….
Tags: Clitheroe, Horse + Bamboo, LIPA, NWSA
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June 21st, 2010 by lozkaye
Loz has been appointed Artist in Residence at the North West Sound Archives, which are based at Clitheroe Castle Museum. The archives are the largest UK collection of recordings outside of London, some 140 thousand items in all, encompassing music, radio programmes, oral history… and a very comprehensive group of lawnmower sounds.
Loz will be carrying out a project throughout June and July, researching in the archives, sharing recordings with the local community and creating a new piece of sound art. He will be in Clitheroe town centre on Saturday 26th June to share treasures from NWSA in a performance he calls ‘The Sound Archive One Man Band’. He will be in the Atrium Cafe at Clitheroe Museum 11-5 on the 3rd of July to share food related snippets of oral history. This will include advice on how ot catch a greased pig…
For more on the development of the project see the NWSA project blog.
Tags: Clitheroe, North West Sound Archive
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March 30th, 2010 by lozkaye
I am going to be running a professional training course along with puppeteer Mark Whitaker at Horse + Bamboo – here’s the information.
Loz teaching on a professional development week at Horse + Bamboo.
TAKING THE LEAP…
A Horse + Bamboo Masterclass exploring ‘Little Leap Forward’
This is a rare opportunity to train with Horse + Bamboo’s Associate Artists Loz Kaye and Mark Whitaker. This intensive week course will introduce participants to Horse + Bamboo’s current working practices and give a unique behind the scenes look at how the show ‘Little Leap Forward’ was put together. You will come away with a raft of new tools for creating your own work or teaching, and a healthy dose of inspiration from what Jane Horrocks describes as ‘this must see company’.
The work will have three focuses – mask, puppetry and space. We will explore techniques for Horse + Bamboo’s characteristic helmet masks- physical characterisation, the reveal, energy, tempo, internal monologue. ‘Little Leap Forward’ has a rich variety of puppetry techniques which we will work with- multiple person operated table top puppets, chinese style hand puppets and whole body shadow puppetry which we developed at our base at the Boo. We will also get to grips with some of the fundamental principles of object theatre, the relationship of the puppeteer to the object and the notion of animation and transfer of energy.
Finally, we will introduce the latest techniques Horse + Bamboo have been developing in shows like ‘Deep Time Cabaret’. This is the idea that the animation of the whole performing space is a type of puppetry. We will look at how objects, light, sound and video become an extension of performance rhythm, and how changes of physical scale can become a playful part of storytelling.
The masterclass will take one of the current shows from the repertoire: ‘Little Leap Forward’ as its focus. This moving account of the true story of Guo Yue’s childhood in Cultural Revolution Beijing gained 4 stars in Lyn Gardner’s Guardian review…
We will use this as a way of showing how technique can be put in to practice. There will also be a chance to meet the show’s director Alison Duddle, and gain insight in to Horse + Bamboo’s working process, and how we transformed this book in to a stage work.
So, take the leap in to the fascinating theatrical universe of Horse + Bamboo.
July 12th-16th 2010, 10-5.30 each day. Taking place at the Boo, Waterfoot, Rossendale. Cost £250. To book contact alison@horseandbamboo.org .
Tags: Horse + Bamboo, Little Leap Forward, Mark Whitaker, Masterclass, Workshop
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March 23rd, 2010 by lozkaye
Oh dear I haven’t been keeping up with surfing the virtual zeitgeist recently. Or that is to say I have been tweeting and working away on a beta version of lozkaye.com , but neglecting the blog. Maybe in one of my favourite workshop phrases, ‘your silence lends you dignity’.
Actually that is mostly why the Isle hasn’t been so full of noises- I have been focussing on teaching rather than creating work recently. I don’t like to blog about the workshop side of things, I don’t think it’s very fair. Although I will say this much, I have had a great time at the residencies at the Conway Centre in Wales this year. Great staff and students, and most inspiring. It looks as if I am to become an Associate Artist there. Watch this space for develpments.
The next show is calling though. It is the retour of Horse + Bamboo’s show ‘Little Leap Forward’, which I wrote music for in 2009. This had a very successful run in ‘09, opening at the Royal Exchange Studio Manchester, gaining a 4 star review by Lyn Gardner in the Guardian. Like a number of Horse + Bamboo shows it is based on a life story, but unusually it follows the structure of an existing book of the same name. And the protaganist, noted Chinese flute player Guo Yue, is still alive. Yue provided some of his extraordinary bamboo flute playing for the sound track, and recording with him has to be one of the best days in my musical life…
‘Little Leap Forward’ opens again in May at the Dukes Theatre and Lancaster, and tours the UK. We want to make a few changes for the sake of clarity and focus, so I’ll let you in to the process of that as we go.
The Making of Little Leap Forward on YouTube
Tags: Conway Centre, Horse + Bamboo, Little Leap Forward
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February 24th, 2010 by lozkaye
So, blinking in to the light of day once more out of the theatre and rehearsal rooms. Actually not so much light of day as the UK still seems gripped by temperatures more suited to FB&TV’s ‘Hypothermia’ (see previous posts with the tag thingummy).
The show has had its first outing now, venturing up to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough. This place is something of a theatrical legend, being the site of many an Alan Ayckbourn premiere. Be that as it may, I made a few tweaks to the ‘Hypothermia’ sound score responding to the run at the Lawrence Batley. The chief difference being some atmospheric sound at the end of the interval to get people back in to the mood after their gin and tonics.
Took the chance to escape to my parents for a few days as it has been something of a full on beginning to the year. So now the batteries are recharged for teaching and workshops. It’ll be a few weeks before the next show starts making its presence felt- next up, the retour of Horse + Bamboo’s ‘Little Leap Forward…’
Tags: FBTV, Horse + Bamboo, Hypothermia
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February 5th, 2010 by lozkaye
Another month and it must be another show. Trouble with being this busy is that the blogging suffers a bit. This week I have been getting in at one in the morning, so the desire to spend any time in front of the computer screen has been minimal. Still, Full Body and the Voice’s ‘Hypothermia’ (see previous posts) is now released in to the wild starting its run at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield.
Rehearsals for Hypothermia. OSKAR and LISA dance while DR KATSCHER looks on.
In the time I have been in Denmark the piece has progressed well, bringing out the nuance of Vanessa’s writing. One of the challenges and exitements for me of production week was dealing with the staging concept Vanessa has conceived for her play. It is in the round with the audience close, almost implicated in the drama. And for the Lawrence Batley the whole was set up on the stage itself. I plotted in 4 speakers so the audience is entirely envelopped in the sound world. The experience of the show starts as soon as you step in to the auditorium, the house lights are dim, there is the strange dislocation of finding your seat on stage, in a world frozen by the sounds of harsh wind and distant bells… I very much enjoyed working with the designer and lighting designer to craft something I think is very special. Certainly the audience responses have been very positive, if the atmosphere has soemetimes been almost unbearably tense! Off to the Stephen Joseph Theatre Scarborough with it next.
Tags: Hypothermia
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January 19th, 2010 by lozkaye
I have spent the last few days in rehearsal for Thalias Tjenere’s ‘Race Dog’. Now we are on the second round of research and development, aiming towards some work in progress previews on the 21st and 22nd of January. We are just at that difficult stage in mask/visual theatre where the blocking is basically there, but there seems to be an awful amount of stuff to be struggled with. It is not made any easier by the fact there seems to be about 20 different characters in a show 45 minutes long. Everything fights back, puppets don’t want to cooperate with the set, shoes don’t want to go on, frocks insist on tucking in to pants.
But it’s all there, the show is stuffed full of humour, visual surprises and thrills. Stephan’s masks for the all dog characters in the piece are wonderful. He has managed to balance capturing a whole range of breeds (pugs, greyhounds, an alsation and a poodle amongst others) with making them emotionally expressive in a way that humans can relate to. Linda playing the pug heroine manages to conjour expressions that are adorable, worried, thrilled and terrified out of the same mask. A true joy to behold.
The music is also in essence ready, but much work is going to be needed next week on fine tuning of timings. I am leaving them high and dry in silence a little too often now, and we need to sharpen up cueing and articulation. Often it is a case of seconds. Something that is interesting for 15 seconds is deadly dull after 20. A missed cue or emphasis is the difference between a slickly oiled theatre machine and Acorn Antiques.
Tags: Denmark, Pug, Race Dog, Thalias Tjenere
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January 14th, 2010 by lozkaye
Hypothermia
We got underway with rehearsals for ‘Hypothermia’ at FB&TV on the 11th of January. It was as if Vanessa had ordered the weather especially for method acting purposes, snow and ice covering the streets of Huddersfield. Very exciting to meet the all the actors, and some perfect casting- they all looked exactly as I had pictured the characters. We had an on the feet readthrough in the morning, good to see the piece coming to life already on the first day. In the afternoon it was the turn of Kevin the designer and myself to present our work, and some of the thinking behind it. We couldn’t help observing to each other that this can be the most nervewracking part in the whole process for us. It can be like a performance in itself. However everyone seemed very enthusiastic about the design and music. Altogether an excellent start.
It might seem a little self reflexive to blog about a blog- but Vanessa is writing an account of rehearsals from the director’s viewpoint over on the Lawrence Batley theatre website.
Other Hypothermia net news- I have put up one of the tracks on ‘Soundcloud’. I have named it ‘Procedure Must Be Followed’, one of the lines from the play. I don’t wish to give too much away about the plot, but I will say that it evokes the inexorable beaurocratic machine of Nazism that provides the backdrop for the show.
Where the trains and planes come in is that after finishing at Huddersfield (well, taking in a couple of pints with the cast) I had to get to Århus Denmark for rehearsals on…
Race Dog
… the latest show I am working on with Danish mask group Thalias Tjenere. Actually, I nearly fell at the first hurdle it took me 3/4 of an hour to get a train out of Huddersfield because of the snow and ice. The knock on effect on my travel plans could well have left me stranded somewhere between Yorkshire and Jutland. As it was everything worked out fine and I am blogging to you from the fair town of Århus, whose slogan is ‘The city of the smile’. We shall see.
Tags: FBTV, Hypothermia, Race Dog, Rehearsal, Snow, Thalias Tjenere, Trains
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January 6th, 2010 by lozkaye
So I surface once more. Or rather, I am still at home composing and recording. Unlike much of the UK I have no excuse not to get on with it.
This year’s work was ushered in with a meeting with director Andrew Kim at Manchester airport, catching him on his way over to Århus. It was a chance to catch him up with my current thinking about ‘Race Dog’ (see previous post) and hand over a rehearsal CD. Suddenly I had visions being detained as he would have had to answer yes to the question ‘Has anyone given you something to take on board?’. Still, he seems to have made it OK to Denmark, and rehearsals are underway. I have been rearranging the dance number. Yes, of course there is a dog dance duet, in the style of Cole Porter. I have enjoyed writing some suitably suggestive lyrics, coded in canine metaphor.
Hopefully I should be meeting up with H+B’s artistic director Bob Frith (one of iPM’s nominations for person of the year) tomorrow. If he can battle through the icy wastes.
Tags: Airports, Horse + Bamboo, Race Dog
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December 21st, 2009 by lozkaye
Well, I have been rather taken up with getting work out of the way so I can have a bit of a break. ‘Tis done now, the keyboard has been firmly packed away and the mixing desk is out of sight. Much as I love music, sometimes it’s necessary to give it a rest.
After sending the rehearsal version of the Hypothermia soundtrack off to Vanessa at Full Body, the last thing I have had to make some headway with is ‘Race Dog’. This is a new project I am working on with Thalias Tjenere, Denmark’s only professional mask theatre company. I have been creating scores for this group for a few years now, dating back to the years in the noughties where I was based in Århus, Denmark. They create wonderfully engaging shows full of humour and wonderful imagery.
Thalia's 'Den Store Bastian' in Horsens, Denmark.
‘Race Dog’ is going to be a new outdoor show, a kind of zany Romeo and Juliet of the canine world. Ralph is a greyhound down on his luck thrown out of the race track because of his weakness for peeing on firehydrants. Bolette is a pug beauty, promised to the bombastic Oberon. But, Bolette falls for Ralph…
We have already had some exploratory work on ‘Race Dog’, and I return to Denmark in January for the next round. So I had better have something to show…! To be honest, this all comes as a bit of a relief after some rather more intense and dark universes I have been exploring this year. Yet strangely, for all its glorious goofiness of our canine capers, it struck me today that there is a shared theme with ‘Hypothermia’. Andrew Kim of Thingumajig Theatre is directing the piece and was very keen to penetrate to a heart of something that was important to say in the midst of the siliness. And it is also about the figure that is not quite good enough, the character that does not fit in to the perfect genetically engineered world order. Just in this case, it is played out in the world of the dog show.
Still, enough for now. A merry whatever you celebrate to you all.
Tags: Denmark, Race Dog, Thalias Tjenere
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