In the winter, during the residency in the Little Blue Hut in Tankerton, we were given chance to think and play, to stop and just be. The result was productivity; it is funny that when you stop you somehow get more done. I receive daily emails from a meditation website, Fragrant Heart, guiding me to do just this. it's a tough lesson to learn but genuinely it works. So from the quiet times came this idea...
Have you ever had one of those weeks of coincidences?
A word that follows you around, a stranger’s face you keep seeing?
One week this happened to me...I kept being made to look UP. It started in Folkestone, a group of enthusiasts in anoraks all focused on the sky. They were looking for something, maybe a bird. The thing that was odd was the place; outside B&Q on the commercial estate. Not your typical location for bird watching or discovering some rare species. But it looked important and as I drove past I strained to see. I looked UP
A few days later I noticed two people stopped in their car pointing at the sky. What had they seen? I never found out as the traffic moved on but through other people’s gestures I had once again been made to look UP.
Then on Canterbury high-street I remembered an old sign ‘... miles to...’ It meant that this was once a road with traffic, a main route through the city. I had discovered my own UP moment of curiosity and discovery that I could share, but with whom?
So for a time the idea just sat there as a page in my typewriter, waiting to be returned to. When along came the yearly submissions for the the MAD (Marlowe Artist Development) Project Bursary Scheme. We jumped at the chance and wrote our proposal for a piece of street theatre based on looking up.
We were invited to audition and set about researching all things up. I started to look into clouds and stumbled across a fantastic organisation, The Cloud Appreciation Society. What I found was brilliant, a whole community of people worldwide, who are united by a love of clouds. It was perfect, what better thing to look up at than the clouds!
After a rehearsal Kim and Amelia came into being. Two normal characters with an extraordinary passion for the clouds. They stop at nothing to promote their love for the white fluffy giants that float silently above us.
So we auditioned (in a room without clouds) and we really didn't expect to get it but we did!
So now UP is in progress and we are busy creating and researching. Our intention...
