Bambina Borracha Productions

Melbourne Fringe 2010

Vanessa Hughes — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 22:57:50 +0000

Sucking strawberries on a wall

Vanessa Hughes — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 20:43:55 +0000

Between rehearsals we’ve been squeezing shoots in. Looking to use more video than last time, which was audio-heavy to be sure. Editing all day yesterday and started to go stir crazy. Here’s a snippet:

Miniature stories

Vanessa Hughes — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 13:30:53 +0000

Experimenting with miniatures for the new conception of Milk Wood, continuing on from our topographical map of a set in Sidetrack with little lit houses on the floor. This video from 2005 was my first of many trials where I combined improvisation and autobiographical storytelling in a composite of miniatures.

A tasty bit for your eyes and ears

Vanessa Hughes — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 06:02:55 +0000

Here’s a teaser. Turn up your speakers!

We have music written for the show by Emily Irvine and Joseph Littlefield, which you can hear throughout the trailer.

Sunday afternoon

Vanessa Hughes — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:55:06 +0000

Long rehearsal yesterday – 14 straight hours with Zoe. Not sick of each other yet. Having a lovely Sunday off, reading the bad Sunday paper, drinking bad coffee, watching bad TV. Have been thinking about the three-year gap that would have meant not being able to produce Under Milk Wood, thanks to the Free Trade Agreement in 2005. Had it been signed in 2002, we wouldn’t have been able to experiment with Dylan Thomas’ writing until 2023 without raising considerably more funds for royalties payable to an estate.

Residency at Queen Street Studios this week

Vanessa Hughes — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:13:14 +0000

Images

Vanessa Hughes — Mon, 10 May 2010 06:11:17 +0000

Poster and other pics taken this past weekend.

Rehearsing in Sidetrack and bullet point update

Vanessa Hughes — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:05:06 +0000

Ah, first day of rehearsing in the theatre over. Remarkable early mark. Will post the photos we took for the poster soon. Emily Irvine has been whipping up tunes for the new incarnations of Thomas’ songs. Little projections being made of little men walking all over Zoe. Lamps between legs. Scaling ladders and scrambling in straight-jackets.

Natalie Hughes — Mon, 03 May 2010 04:05:10 +0000

illustrating milk wood….

much more to come but if you would like to ‘see’ milkwood (and buy your own little slice of llareggubiness) come along to the Addison rd open day on May 16….or to the Eveleigh Artisans market down at Carriageworks on June 6.

workin

Zoe Norton Lodge — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:26:03 +0000

So all 89 pages of Under Milk Wood are sloshing about in my head. In order to make room for them I have pushed out all the American state capitals, your name and my immune system. Now the great challenge of making everyone of those glorious characters lovely, in a three dimensional, ‘gosh, that mean lady is so different to the other mean lady’ way begins. I’m equally excited, terrified and manic.

Learning lines

Vanessa Hughes — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:33:28 +0000

So last week, Zoe came up to the mountains house to learn lines for three days straight. After waking up a couple of times, both of us dreaming of nothing but milk wood words, she’s pretty much got it down.

Down at Mini Ha Ha:

Polly scrubs the floor

Vanessa Hughes — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 07:03:12 +0000

The Reverend Eli Jenkins, busy on his morning calls, stops outside the Welfare Hall to hear Polly Garter as she scrubs the floors for the Mothers’ Union Dance to-night.

Listen to the audio:

http://www.vanessainminiature.com/projectwords/audio/pollyscrubs.mp3

Nogood Boyo in the Dinghy

Vanessa Hughes — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 06:48:46 +0000

Fishermen grumble to their nets. Nogood Boyo goes out in the dinghy _Zanzibar_, ships the oars, drifts slowly in the dab-filled bay, and, lying on his back in the unbaled water, among crabs’ legs and tangled lines, looks up at the spring sky.

NOGOOD BOYO (Softly, lazily)

I don’t know who’s up there and I don’t care.

Listen to the audio:

http://www.vanessainminiature.com/projectwords/audio/fishing.mp3

Natalie Hughes — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 01:10:26 +0000

Storyboarding….1st stage….abstract + intuitive

night, bible black….dreams……as the town wakes + blind captain cat…..the bustle of the town during the day…..sloe afternoon….as the town turns to dusk

Natalie Hughes — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:38:16 +0000

Cartography

This seems to be the main direction i am exploring in trying to visualise llareggub.

I am looking at mapping the town, based on the text and my own experiences in quirky sleepy little towns…starting with this…. (detail)…

On top of this i am starting to layer other maps – traditional like topography, vegetation, buildings, animals, water, cirulation + transport, movement of the sun and moon and more emotion centric maps like relationships, both fulfilled and unfulfilled, dreams and desires, ghosts, places of procreation (v important to explore Thomas’s cheeky side i think ) and even more ephemeral things like tea leaf readings and most importantly sounds.

In terms of my own project for uni i will also try and layer maps of sydney, The addison rd center and marrickville and perhaps other townships to identify hidden paths that may in time give a more unique poignancy and relevance to my understanding of this production of UMW.

more to come……

Natalie Hughes — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 23:29:14 +0000

olafur eliasson…..sensory genius

Check out this video of the water

On Beauty

Gwennie singing and kissing boys

Vanessa Hughes — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 10:57:29 +0000

Lips is a penny.

Maps for 2010

Vanessa Hughes — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:16:37 +0000

Hello 2010. It’s already February, holy crap. To welcome in the newish year, some video from our workshops. I’ve been experimenting (as you’ll know if you’ve been following along) with cartography extensively. Paintings blend with high res maps scans from old Welsh tour guides (read most bizarre and invigorating extracts below). Also been playing with dust/dusk – see below. And finally, Bessie Bighead (even though she was looking all the time) – beloved amongst her beloved cows.

homogenised

Vanessa Hughes — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:29:00 +0000

It’s been some time between posts for me. In one moment, detailed in the prior UMW post, everything’s gone on milky overload. How simple it is to swap water for milk, Nat. Creamy, sticky, sweety, pasteurised goodness. Thinking about how the elixir of life would meld (and seep) into the scabby wooden floors of our potential venue. Very well, I believe. Building the scale (and not-to-scale) model of the village Nat and I sketched out across the floor and even up the walls – Zoe meandering in and out of trees, shoreline and town pump. Lots of textures and tones coming out in my brain now. Milky water dregs and curdled cream and blue cheese. Coagulation and renin in a gullet.

In the beginning I wanted her to climb out of a pile of suffocating white ash and dust, now I’d settle for a teacup of warm milk. I’ll give you a snorkle, Zoe? Yes?

Natalie Hughes — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:16:10 +0000

Milk

it makes me sick actually but its taken up lodgement in my brain

milkwood…don’t cry over spilled milk…milk chocolate…milk a cow…breast milk…milk solids…sour milk…mother’s milk…milk tea…Land of milk and honey…the milk of human kindness…milky way…glass of milk…to milk…milkbar…milkshake…milkman…milkbottle…milk paint…powdered milk…moo juice…soy milk…milk mustache…

The Perpetual Rehearsal

Zoe Norton Lodge — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 23:49:07 +0000

Vanessa and Nat and I have now been working on UMW in earnest for about four months. We’ve blocked out scenes, we’ve made audio and visual accompaniment. We’ve modified the audio so that it flits from speaker to speaker in motion with girls chasing boys, Vanessa has painted over images of maps and cows and made them move, we have given voice and life to over 30 of the 60 odd characters, Nat has designed a set and is making a bath. I have performed a snippet for a bunch of social workers attending a highly tenuously linked seminar.

Bet we have no venue.

This isn’t a bad thing. It’s not practical that’s for sure. But it’s not bad. It’s kind of fascinating…

Working on a show with no venue, no deadlines, no impending reward is like having a deeply passionate long term affair with a hermit. Or maybe like being a pregnant elephant.

We are working on UMW because we love it and we love playing. Sooner or later someone will pour a bucket of water on our heads and our lustful glazed eyes will crystalise into clarity and pragmatism and we will get down to the other side of the business.

But for now, you can find Nat sketching on the floor and Vanessa digitalising images, both keeping a half eye on me rolling around on the bed talking to myself on any given weekend.

Layering children’s voices

Vanessa Hughes — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:09:12 +0000

A wonderful day of hardcore audio, Zoe and I channeling the delights of bullying children for Gwennie’s song and arguably the most superior narration in the work. Found old footage of mid-20th century Welsh children playing: girl with girls, boys with boys. Hop, skip and jump, rolling wheels down cobbled streets, manic dancing in circles, swinging off ropes in the town park. Will post audio soon.

Untitled

Natalie Hughes — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:35:21 +0000

hmmmm…i am really feeling Bill Viola right now, i guess you could say some of his paintings are a post-mod appropriation of Geromes’ statues coming to life…. I love the modern touches but still evoke the classicism and depth of a tradional oil

Emergence 2002 Bill Viola

His video work is also very inspirational…..particulary the use of water. Ive been trying to visualise how it will work on stage and i am warmer to the idea of a cascade, like a heavily flowing tap or a downpour…

Two Women Bill Viola

Bill Viola Passions

Last Session

Jenny Williams — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 08:57:48 +0000

We had the final writing session on Friday. Apart from the tiredness of the group, it went reasonably well, with Zoe and Ashley (another friend from school) reading the script. The new structure worked well, and people were mostly very happy with how the script had developed. There were a few extra things that need to be changed (too much narration now, still can be funnier in sections, subtler in others), but otherwise we felt that we’d done as much as we could at a writing stage, and now it really needs to get up on the rehearsal floor and play around with the playing of it. Chie-Hoon had another suggestion, that there was a scene missing, one were we see Jane in ‘full flight’, highly emotional and fighting for what she wants. I think it was difficult for me to write this scene before the creative development, because I wasn’t convinced I knew what Jane wanted, but I think, now, I do know. At least, I know what the Jane Austen I have created in this show wants, which, I think, in the end, (oh so many qualifications) is that she wants to write. I don’t think its a straightforward desire at all, and shouldn’t be played as a natural, obvious or absolute choice and I think the play shows that she could easily have gone either way, but that, for better or worse, that was the decision she made.

I also got a chance to read the play through myself with Amy (woman who is directing the show in September), which was really exciting, if not a little exhausting (even more grateful for Laura, Ash, Zoe and Missy now I’ve gone through the process of reading it out loud myself!) and the tap gallery is booked and a deposit paid. Its all go, go, go, which is exciting and utterly terrifying! But I’m doing a good job of keeping the terror at bay.

Tomorrow I head to Cairns, and it will be very interesting to see what advice people offer up there at the Interplay script festival, as they have been looking at a much earlier draft. The play could take a completely different turn to how Bambina has taken it, which could be curious… or just bloody confusing! I’m sure I’ll have fun, no matter what happens.

The creative development has, over all, been a fantastic experience. I’ve had the opportunity to play around with a few different people’s ideas on the show, solidified my own aims for the show, as well as my own ideas of what its about, and gotten much more used to having people talk about my work (as well as getting better at talking about it myself!). I’m delighted with how the work has progressed and can’t thank Bambina enough for their help.

In Between Sessions

Jenny Williams — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:12:09 +0000

Have been finding it difficult to get focused on writing. It was stressful not having much time in between writing sessions, but now I think that maybe that stress was useful because it made me write as opposed to now, when I have heaps of time, but when I sit down to write, I end up watching ‘The Making of Cranford’, instead (I justified it by saying it was also about adapting 19th century novels/writers into a dramatic piece… long straw, considering it was Elizabeth Gaskell, a huge ensemble piece, and TV).

It’s been great when I do come up with new material, though, and I think I’ve been lucky in that I had space to add stuff, rather than having to cut things out. Its much more fun, coming up with new material, instead of deciding what is really not needed/not very good. I’m hoping this weekend to print out all the sections and have a play around with the structure, following some advice from Harry and Chie-Hoon last session. I’d also really like to see if I can add in a section dealing with Cassandra’s fiancee, Tom Fowle, who died overseas. Because she never married after Tom’s death, it seems a really great contrast to the situation Jane faces in the play (a great love as opposed to an opportunistic marriage). Then again, if the relationship between her and Tom Lefroy is strong enough, maybe its not necessary.

I’m also going to look over some of the flashbacks and really clarify why they are there, as last session, Chie-Hoon asked some tough questions (as he is want to do – very beneficial for making sure you really know what you are doing and why you are doing it, instead of just putting in things because you like them) regarding some of the juvenilia that I had added.
On another note, found this encouraging Tommy Murphy opinion piece on the smh.com website this morning,

http://www.smh.com.au/news/entertainment/arts/why-the-145offbroadway146-run-is-the-playwright146sfriend/2009/07/27/1248546675525.html

Its all about how getting a play up in a variety of different Sydney spaces can be beneficial, and allow a new piece of writing to develop. Its made me feel even more strongly that I should use the Newtown Theatre’s October booking as more of a ‘see-how-it-goes’ run, rather than looking at it as the final product. I’ve been talking it over with Missy, and we both thought submitting it for the Old Fitz late sessions for next year would be a good idea, and I’ve been in contact with the Jane Austen Festivals in both Canberra and Bath (!!!), and they both seem enthusiastic about possibly having the show run during their festivals. So, that’s all incredibly exciting!

Cucumber and hooves

Vanessa Hughes — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 14:09:29 +0000

I can’t believe we’ve yet to tackle Gossamer.

SECOND VOICE

Gossamer Beynon high-heels out of school The sun hums down through the cotton flowers of her dress into the bell of her heart and buzzes in the honey there and couches and kisses, lazy-loving and boozed, in her red-berried breast. Eyes run from the trees and windows of the street, steaming ‘Gossamer,’ and strip her to the nipples and the bees. She blazes naked past the Sailors Arms, the only woman on the Dai-Adamed earth. Sinbad Sailors places on
her thighs still dewdamp from the first mangrowing cockcrow garden his reverent goat-bearded hands.

GOSSAMER BEYNON

I don’t care if he is common,

SECOND VOICE

she whispers to her salad-day deep self,

GOSSAMER BEYNON

I want to gobble him up. I don’t care if he does drop his
aitches,

SECOND VOICE

she tells the stripped and mother-of-the-world big-beamed and Eve-hipped spring of her self,

GOSSAMER BEYNON

so long as he’s all cucumber and hooves.

Untitled

Natalie Hughes — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:43:52 +0000

While the characters are what makes milkwood, visually i see the change of dark to light and back again over the course of this one day. The voices are like this collection of beautiful and sometimes ugly and funny and ridiculous bells. I thought back to this exhibition i went to at the beginning of the year, (Yayoi Kusama,MCA)and there were several rooms where you literally felt like you were stepping into infinity…in this room i imagine just lying down in the center of the water and listening to these wonderful characters…it was such an emotive enviroment, and incredibly simple really, logistically

Infinity Room

Untitled

Natalie Hughes — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 05:18:45 +0000

Its been so beautiful watching zoe rolling around and seeing these characters, who ive not caught up with for some time, come to life. Mix that in with ness’s sweet little verses that so strongly evoke the luminous Polly like nothing else and this project has suddenly become so real to me.

It seems there are a number of strong transitions between the characters and the anthropological/historical welsh tidbits and watching the physical change in zoe as well as a desire of ness’s for flour…reminded me of the rather romantic art of jean leon gerome, in particular of pygmalion bringing his statue to life

Statue brought to life

Weeks in

Vanessa Hughes — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:09:35 +0000

Breaking through to our third or fourth weeks of workshops. We have, in some form or other, tackled the primary characters that have always drawn us in, which is more or less an unrelenting challenge in a text with 60-odd characters. Trading skills and lessons, we’ve been rolling around with the cat for days in the doona-slash-ocean of the town’s dreams.

Some of the images rolling along with us are shown below, all of them stolen from the magical suitcase Zoe delivered to my bedroom.

After Second Writing Session

Jenny Williams — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 07:58:37 +0000

I’m a bit behind the times. We had a second session last Wednesday, which went really well. Laura (a friend of mine from school) read the whole play, and, with additions, and no time for music, movement etc. it came in at 45 mins, which is pretty darn good, I reckon! It was so fantastic to have the play read by someone else and get some distance from it. There were some wonderful discoveries with some of the ideas that were thrown at me in the first writing section. In particular, it was suggested that a section in which Austen was describing a previous conversation with her potential fiancee Harris Bigg-Wither (most fabulous real name ever) should be written as if it were a novel. When I was writing it, I thought it couldn’t possibly work, but after having Laura read through it, its become one of my (and the group’s) favourite sections. I’ve got another week and a half before the next writing section, but haven’t yet had a chance to write anything new (nor add to this blog), and unfortuantely, I have to run off now, but will write more when there is more to report!