Carruthers Ten Years On: February 2011

In February 2011, the Carruthers blog reached one thousand posts. The month featured more index posts, more 're-mastering' and YouTube videos of the movie, Duel.

I quite like Baked.

I took the photo for Top Floor whilst stood outside the Courtyard Theatre during the rehearsals for the Behind The Bike Shed festival. You will notice that the blaze seems to have been isolated to one flat and in the wake of Grenfell Tower disaster and the subsequent demonization of firefighters by the Conservative Party who cut their resources this seems very significant. The accompanying joke was meant to refer to the notoriously buoyant and cutthroat London property market. Now it's hard not to think about the previous residents.

Behind The Bike Shed

The first Behind The Bike Shed was held at Cafe 1001 on the 17th of March 2007 and with a repeat performance a week later.

The cast were Hilde Drevsjomoen, Raif Esendagli, Michael Everhard, Anna Sulan Masing, Verana Meneses, Joanna Strong, Sarah Wills, Nicola Young and I. All the scenes were written by Anna and myself.

Among the dozen or so sketches was Generic (the same script played three different ways as an experiment), Planet Of The Apes (now people would probably compare it unfavourably with Gogglebox), Bacon (about meaty confusion) and Jock (a riff on a Trainspotting obsession that came ten years too late).



It also included walk and faces, although sadly the links to the videos no longer work. They are probably lost forever...

The second performance was the better of the two, after we had learned how an audience might react to each scene and help push future shows in a more comedic direction. It set the pattern for later Bike Shed shows: venues other than theatres, multiple sketches and a mix of lighter and darker humour. Looking back, Anna clearly intended it be a more serious endeavour, but the scripts we were providing were only ever an attempt to make each other laugh.

Insecure Writer's Support Group #2

Has it really only been a month since the last Insecure Writers Support Group? So much has happened since then that it doesn't seem possible.

This month's support group is co-hosted by Lee Lowery, Ronel Janse van Vuuren, Jennifer Hawes, Cathrina Constantine, and Tyrean Martinson. Thank you to them.

Since last month's support group I've taken part in the twitter pitch, which was encouraging if not wholly successful for me. I'd be interested to hear how everyone else got on.

By far the biggest change since last month is my wife has gone back to work after her maternity leave and I am now taking care of our son three days a week. I'm still worrying about time to write, but now there is even less of it and no one else to take care of him. I have broken writing tasks down into a series of microtasks, so I can get something done in the few moments of down time. I'm writing this during one of his shrinking number of naps.

I'm thinking of writing something about being a stay-at-home Dad in what is definitely a Mum's world, but I'm not sure if anyone would want to read it. I think it could be pretty funny rather than just middle class white guy complaints. In the short space of time so far, I've been made both very welcome and very unwelcome.

This month's optional question is: has a single photo or work of art ever inspired a story? What was it and did you finish it?

The answer is neither a straight-forward yes or no, but more of a sort of. I was involved with a theatre group and someone chose a series of photos to act as stimuli for scripts for sketches. I selected these two photos:

And then wrote Four Doors Down and Dog Lady, but if I'm completely honest the photos reminded me of ideas that I'd already had rather than inspiring them in the first place.

For seventy-three weeks, Susan at Stony River used to run Microfiction Monday. Does anyone else remember it? She would post a photo the week before and invite everyone to respond to it with a 140 character story. It was a great writing exercise. Eventually I did them all and I really missed it when her site went down. I hope she's OK. Maybe the IWSG needs its own Microfiction Monday. Would Insecure Writers be interested in joining in?

Feet

Merry Christmas. Here's a video:

I'd forgotten all about this.

This video was part of the first Behind The Bike Shed show, also called Behind the Bike Shed) and the plates of meat on show at about 30 seconds belong to yours truly.

The others are to be found at the end of Anna Masing's legs.

Tinseltown Today

Behind The Bike Shed's Christmas show, Tinseltown, is today. Details are below.

Tinseltown

It's Christmas and Behind The Bike Shed is back and once again I've written something for it and I'm in it.


I've used this version of the logo because it looks like the pink one has got snow on.

After the Behind The Bike Shed summer festivals saw it flitting about from venue to venue to venue, the next show is at another one entirely:

Wenlock & Essex,
18-26 Essex Road,
London,
N1 8LW

And you wait six months for a Bike Shed show and then two turn up on the same day at 4pm & 6pm.

Entry is £4.

Bike Shed Film Night

Here is the line up of films from the Bike Shed Film Night, with links for your viewing pleasure where possible:

Faces
Directed by Anna Sulan Masing & Daniel Aivaliotis

Pins
Animated by Nik Corrall

Sixteen [:-)]
Written & directed by Anthony Gurner, featuring Nicola Young

The Lamp
Written & directed by Benjamin Roberts, featuring Bernadette Russell & Gareth Brierly

Pockets
Written by Gareth Brown, filmed by Benjamin Roberts, featuring David Black

Mr Carruthers Presents...Rehearsals
Directed by Jake Cardew, featuring David Black, Andy Cartwright, Mike Everhard & Gi Lewis

The Last Piece
Directed by John Dayo, written by Bola Agbaje, featuring Jason Maza, Nicholas Ruben & Abena Adofo

Sign Language
Written by Stephen Fellows, directed by Oscar Sharp, featuring Jethro Skinner

Lines
Animated by Nik Corrall

No Voice
Written by Anna Sulan Masing, filmed by Benjamin Roberts, stills by Caroline Teo, featuring the voice of Zoe Alyssa Cooper


We had a few technical issues on the night and sadly the following films went unshown. So here they are in all their glory:

Better Together
Featuring Vera Chok & Adrian Gillott

Alone is Nothing
Featuring Vera Chok & Adrian Gillott

Jilted Lover
Written by & featuring Nicola Young, directed by George Swift

Pockets

This was filmed for Behind The Bike Shed's show Hearts In The Gutter and was more recently shown as part of the Bike Shed Festival's Film Night. It was written by Gareth Brown and filmed by Benjamin Roberts. I play both Barry and the stern voiceover, although for some reason I was credited only for my 'Staring'. Maybe I stare particularly well.

My girlfriend said of Barry's accent that my attempt at a northern accent had improved since we recorded Pockets. I didn't like to point out that it wasn't that long ago that we filmed it. In my defence Barry's accent was supposed to be a bit rubbish. I'm sticking to that.

Sadly the website address http://www.stopitpockets.com/ does not exist.

Festival Fourth

The fourth and final show in Behind The Bike Shed's summer festival is tonight, but more on that later. Prior to the Bike Shed show is the preview showing of Zoe Cooper's play You Can't Go Swimming With Your Ex Husband, which we were raising funds and awareness for with Coop's Comedy Club which seemed to work.


Entry is £5, and the show starts at 2:30pm at the Electricity Showrooms over the road from us at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen. So you can see Zoe's show at 2:30pm, cross Hoxton Square, see us and at 4pm, entry is £6, tickets for our show are available on the door or here.

Two shows for £11 is not bad, but two shows and a party for £11 must be a bargain.


The Bike Shed show is followed by a party starting at 6pm, entry is £4 for just the party. The party features performances from The Hammock Brigade, Eyeful and a DJ set from Aaron Francis Walker.

So your last chance to see the Bike Shed show is also your first chance to see You Can't Go Swimming With Your Ex Husband, if you miss the latter then you'll have to head up to Edinburgh to see it.

Festival Third

Thursday's show at the Courtyard Theatre sold out and the scenes that made up Act Two were very well received. My thanks to Grace May, Iliana Flade, Louisa Chadderton & Kathryn Hall for their efforts in Four Doors Down. The most impressive response for a scene was afforded to Forfeit Time written by Marc Barnes (below).


The third show in the Behind The Bike Shed summer festival is tonight at The Slaughtered Lamb at 7.30. Entry is £4, tickets available on the door or here.


The show is followed by a collection of monologues featuring Sam Quinn, Emma Stannard & Robert Sladden, Alex Laserev, Nicholas Ruben, Charles & Miranda and I.

Festival Second

One down, three to go. The first show went well and the films were well received, I'll post links to the ones that are available on the internet when I get a chance.

More importantly, onward and onward, the second of the Behind The Bike Shed summer festival shows is tonight at the Courtyard Theatre at 7.30. Entry is £6, tickets available on the door or here.



The show is followed by a some scenes featuring work by Marc Barnes, Robert Sladden, me and others. I wrote and directed one and I'm in another.

Festival First

So rehearsals are over, Nik Corrall's set model (above) has been turned into a full size set (Nik Corrall's models of actors, also above, were well above the call of duty) and the giraffe braved the streets of Hoxton (below).


The first show in the Behind The Bike Shed Summer Festival 2010 is tonight at the Electricity Showrooms at 7.30. Entry is £4, tickets available on the door or here. I wrote a couple of scenes for it and I'm in three.



The show is followed by a selection of films by Anna Masing & Dany Aivliotis, George Swift, Vera Chok & Adrian Gillott, Nik Correll, Anthony Gurner, Benjamin Roberts, Mr Carruthers Presents... and John Dayo. I'm in three of them.

Win A Bike!

Somewhere.

There's probably somewhere out there on the internet that is giving away free bikes, but you can't win one here.

Behind The Bike Shed however are running a competition to win tickets to see the show and, oddly, the right to call yourself an executive producer.

To win tickets you have to go giraffespotting. On Saturday the 17th of July, the first person to spot a giraffe in and around the Hoxton/East London area who mentions the Summer Festival gets the free tickets.

This is a giraffe, for reference:


You can also become an executive producer, if you change your Facebook profile picture to the Summer Festival flyer and then write on the wall on their facebook page to let them know you've done it they will make you an executive producer. Quite what perks an executive producer gets is unclear.

Four Dates, Four Venues

Tickets have gone on sale for the Behind The Bike Shed festival. Actually they've been on sale for a while and I have been negligent in not putting it up on here until now.


The organisers have put their calendar online.

The four dates, four venues and two prices are below:
Monday 26th July - Electricity Showrooms, 7.30pm, entry is £4, the show is followed by a selection of films by Vera Chok & Adrian Gillott, Nik Correll, Benjamin Roberts, Anthony Gurner and more.

Thursday 29th July - Courtyard Theatre, 7.30pm, entry is £6, the show is followed by a some scenes featuring work by Marc Barnes, Robert Sladden, me and others.

Saturday 31st July - The Slaughtered Lamb, 7.30pm, entry is £4, the show is followed by a collection of monologues featuring Sam Quinn, Emma Stannard, Alex Laserev, Nicholas Ruben, me and others.

Sunday 1st August - Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, 4pm, the show is followed by a party staring at 6pm, entry is £6 for both the show and the party or £4 for the party only. The party features performances from The Hammock Brigade, Eyeful, other bands TBA and a DJ.

Bike Shed Festival

So a month from now, the folks behind Behind The Bike Shed are having a festival this summer.



Their most ambitious project yet: four shows in four venues. More details TBA, but you can follow their progress on twitter.

Four Walls Today...Again

The second Four Walls show is today at the Etcetera Theatre.


The doors open at 6:30pm
The show starts at 7:30pm
The ticket price is £6 (or £4.50 if you are an Etcetera member)

None of which matters if you haven't already bought a ticket, because apparently tonight's show is sold out.

Four Walls Today

The first Four Walls show was today at the Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen (see left), but now it's not.

It's at the Electricity Showrooms at 39a Hoxton Square instead. It's not far away, it's only the other side of the same square.

The doors still open at 3pm
The show still starts at 4pm
The ticket price is still £4

Four Walls

The latest Behind The Bike Shed show is almost upon us and this time things are a little different.

Again.

As with In The Frame, there is an exhibition before the show starts, but this time it's of other forms of artwork as well as photography.

As usual the first show is at the Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, this time on Sunday 28th March. The doors open at 3pm, the show starts at 4pm, the ticket price is £4.

As unusual the second show is at the Etcetera Theatre on Wednesday 31st March. The doors open at 6:30pm, the show starts at 7:30pm, the ticket price is £6 (or £4.50 if you are an Etcetera member).

It may seem strange that exactly the same show could have two entirely different prices, but in our defence the seats at the Etcetera are probably £2 (or 50p if you are an Etcetera member) more comfortable than those at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen.

Hearts In The Gutter Today

The streets of London play host to a show made up of monologues, scenes, sketch and songs set on the streets of London today here.

Hearts In The Gutter

Behind The Bike Shed is back.

The next show, called Hearts In The Gutter, back in the Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen at 3pm on Sunday the 29th of November, for £3.

See left.