Here are some photos of our cross-cultural one-page play extravaganza that was Snapshots:

Following another hugely exciting and hugely succesful Nu:Write Theatre Festival, we're back on British soil and feel more than a little bereft. The festival exceeded every expectation we had, and then some. 

It's difficult to choose from so many, but our personal highlights include...

• Watching 1927's visually stunning piece The Animals and Children Took to the Streets. I believe the next stop is the National Theatre.
• Experiencing the spectacularly silly and utterly hilarious Dr Brown show, Becaves. It's heading to the Soho in the new year - don't miss out!
• Despite the language barrier, watching PLAYlist's Croatian cousin PLAYlista and understanding most of the storylines, if not the nuances. Loved the Croatian Nu:Wave live music too.
• Bringing the London Tales and Zagreb Tales and making Tales of Two Cities. Watching our work with a full Croatian audience and them loving it = priceless.
• Putting Snapshots on stage: working with an Anglo-Croat company, including festival director Marko, and staging ten one-page world premieres. Oh, and seeing actor Adam Best take on the role of a disgruntled squirrel who wanted to be a dog so he could lick his own nuts.
• Watching new work as part of the Midnight Matinees as they took over the whole theatre complex.
• Drinking vast quantities of top quality beer for less than £1.50 a pint. 
• Seeing the sites and sounds of beautiful Zagreb.
• Forming new collaborations, experiencing new work and making new friends.

In short, we couldn't have hoped for a better festival. Thank you Nu:Write! Or rather, "Hvala!"

Over and out,

Adam and Hannah x
Box of Tricks
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TALES OF TWO CITIES:

Dress Shots of LONDON TALES at Waterloo East Theatre.

Ivana Krizmanić – To Fuck Because We Want To

Ivana Krizmanić born 1976. in Zagreb. Graduated in acting from Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London. As a free artist, currently working in theatre, on television and film with a great number of Croatian artists.

Lada Bonacci – The One Who Waits

Lada Bonacci born 1982. in Split, where she was a member of City Youth Theatre Split drama studio for ten years. After high school she graduated acting in 2005. at Academy of dramatic arts in Zagreb. Three years later she graduated from the Central school of speech and drama in London, where she lived and worked for two years. In 2009. she returned to Zagreb where she currently works.

“The idea of presenting young authors, writers and actors with a help of an experienced director is commendable. I enjoy working on this project since the transfer of responsibilities from the writer to actor and director in the end is why I love theatre as an art collective.

Everyone works with their own knowledge and experience, but our goal is the same  - to combine all these ideas and worlds into something worth seeing, transferring and making. Working in such short period is a risk, but where would we be if we didn’t take chances in theatre.”

Petar Cvirn – Zagreb, Mon Amour

Born and raised on the streets of Zagreb, Petar did a BfA programe on Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb. Attended workshops/masterclasses in New York,NY. At the moment mostly playing theatre shows in Croatia/Zagreb,in several theatres, mostly lead roles, both in theatre and TV. Performed in three TV-series, couple of feature films, both short and long.

Presently enjoying Zagreb, and dreaming of Tulum, Mexico.

“I have had many impressions during this "short" process,so its hard to express the right feeling or to find the "overall" of the process, so I’ll try to put it all in this stream of random thoughts: "first draft,  confused,excitment, impatient, Franka Perkovic again, studying, drinking with the author of the text, good rehearsals, roommates, two other excellent texts, a block ,new steps, smoke ,nuts and almonds and cranberries, a vision of a possible performance, stuck, flirting with text, delusions, base, relief...

I am happy to work with the author on the "authors" text. It is a nice revelation of the fact that author texts can be extremely new, intimate, connected, in many ways. These "ways" that I mention do not need to be deciphered. It is important to have them. We are lucky to have (these) good texts.

Zagreb ,in our case, is the starting point for these three stories, which gives me another perspective of the city I  live in. I discovered how much I hate it and love it at the same time. These stories with their immediacy pull readers/listeners/audience, ergo-us, to think about ourselves, and We, We are the "City/town...",the people...

See you at Nu:Write...”

 

So here we are in sunny Zagreb. Hannah and I flew in yesterday, to be met with a warm welcome from the Nu:Write team. 

Last night we saw 1927's brilliant piece The Animals and Children took to the Streets, which opened this year's Nu:Write Theatre Festival. It was a visual feast for the eyes, fusing animation and video with a charming, playful and enchanting narrative. We absolutely loved it.

Today, we're having tecnical meetings about practicalities for Tales of Two Cities and Snapshots. We're then going to go see the Croatian PLAYlist with a live band. Hoorah!

Love from Zagreb,

Ljubav iz Zagreba,

Adam and Hannah x
Box of Tricks 

A monologue is a very particular challenge for any actor: you're up there, a one-man-band, on the stage alone, with no one to save you if you dry, and with nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. But, for the director, the 'one hander(!?!)' also provides a unique challenge. Having directed a number of monologues, what I have found is that you strike up a special relationship with your actor. You're in it together, realising the piece collaboratively, in a way that's very different to a multi-character play. You begin to use phrases like "why don't we try this" or "I think what we need to do is..." 

For this very reason, I love directing monologues. Working closely, intensely with another artist to navigate your way through a solid block of text: to find the shapes, the colours, the route through. It's a daunting but exciting journey and a challenge I relish. Sorry, we relish!

For an audience, I think the monologue offers a connection, a shared storyetelling, as each pair of eyes are invited in through direct address. As the man says in Kenneth Emson's Shove, "We can connect. Because that's important, isn't it? That we understand each other. That we experience things together."

I'm very proud of London Tales and look forward to uniting with our Croatian counterparts to stage Tales of Two Cities at Nu:Write Theatre Festival this week. The monologue is a unique art form in the world of theatre and one which I hope will continue to have a long and fulfilling life as a singleton.

Hannah and I are flying out tomorrow and we're looking forward to kick-starting the creative, collaborative process in Zagreb.

See you at Teatar &TD!

Adam Quayle, Box of Tricks
Director of David and Struck by Love/Train 

 

Waterloo East Theatre
13th-14th November 8pm
020 7928 0060 | www.waterlooeast.co.uk 

Nu:Write Theatre Festival
15th-19th November
www.nuwritefestival.com 

 

Hi. I'm Franka Perkovic and I'm directing the Croatian version of Tales of two cities. Rehearsal for the play has just ended – we are rehearsing in my house because our production is i.n.d.e.p.e.n.d.e.n.t.  We'll have first rehearsal in theatre on Thursday but without light/sound technicians because we are very i.n.d.e.p.e.n.d.e.n.t. If we are lucky, they will show up on Friday 18th. Because we are so very i.n.d.e.p.e.n.d.e.n.t. So I am a little bit worried. But never mind. I am trying to focus on positive aspects such as… Well, I'll keep trying. 

Franka Bio

I was born in Zagreb. I studied comparative literature and philosophy at the Zagreb Faculty of Arts and graduated in theatre direction from the Zagreb Academy of Theatre Art. In 2000, together with Dora Ruždjak, I founded the KUFER Theatre Company and have been its artistic director ever since. I am an assistant professor of Acting at the Zagreb Academy of Theatre Art. I have directed over thirty theatre productions and have produced over twenty.

Calling all emerging playwrights! Take courage!

If you're involved with the Nu:Write Festival, you're eligible to write a SNAPSHOTS play... Hoorah!

SNAPSHOTS is a wraparound project to Tales of Two Cities: we've been collecting photos of London and Zagreb to inspire you, the playwright, to write a one-page play. Choose an image from the London or Zagreb Snapshots at http://talesof2cities.posterous.com/pages/snapshots, write a one-page play in English by 17th November (maximum 3 characters) and send to boxoftrickstheatre@googlemail.com with the selected photo. Simple.

Your play will then be rehearsed during the festival and performed on the final night as part of Snapshots.

Happy writing!

Box of Tricks + Nu:Write

I wonder if there is anyone that has a good answer. You know, for that bit where at some party or when meeting a friend of your nan's they hear you're an actor and there's that pause. And after they look at you and realise you're not the guy from the Screwfix advert (or if you are that guy then they realise you are that guy from the Screwfix advert, I think his name's Dave). And after they've told you that they watch Eastenders 'even though it's crap' and 'you need to get yerself on that'.

And after you've thought 'why do you watch it if you think it's crap?' (I think they do like it and should stand by it, I didn't miss an episode of neighbours for 7 years and can tell you who played every major character in that time and I'm proud of it).

After all that (Lance was played by Andrew Bibby) they generally ask 'how do you remember all those lines?'...now that is at once an intuitive and stupid question. Stupid because surely it would be like me asking someone how they typed so well, but I don't ask that, instead I think 'that person can type quite well, I imagine it's a combination of practice and low level technique, I won't ask how, it's probably a conversational dead end'. Or not. Of course, 'tis more than possible that I am the idiot, as they want to engage in a debate about cognitive processes I'm just not well read enough to talk about. And anyway maybe I don't want to think about it, I heard that Derek Jacobi once started to think about what it was that actually made him remember his lines, forgot them on stage that night and left theatre for 5 years (this may be untrue I don't know, but if it is I hope he doesn't read this and it freaks him out and he forgets again).

The point is...(Harold was played by Ian Smith)...I don't really have a great answer, so when my 4 year old niece asked how to learn her lines the Screwfix man might say: 'there's only one line per shot and it's generally about DIY, I pretty much make it up as I go along' (he really is good in that ad though). And Ian Smith would say: 'get out of my house' (he's quite an angry man I've heard) I just said 'I just get to know who the character is and make it make sense to me' my niece looked blankly at me and I was asked to leave. (She could never have understood anyway, she's never even seen Jules Et Jim, she's an idiot!)

The point is this...(who played madge?) I've got a lot to say on stage in this, so if I do forget my lines, treat it more like a happening than a disappointment and let's have a debate about it!
(Susan Kennedy was played by Jackie Woodbourne)

Ross
Ross performs in Kenneth Emson's Shove 

 

Waterloo East Theatre
13th-14th November 8pm
020 7928 0060 | www.waterlooeast.co.uk 

Nu:Write Theatre Festival
15th-19th November
www.nuwritefestival.com