Wednesday, May 28, 2008

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The Globoswing
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Spencer Tunick

Spencer Tunick and Maria at press photo call today
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Spencer Tunick press call

With Spencer and Maria at the Spencer Tunick photo call today
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Sensazione - the Globoswing

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Friday, May 23, 2008

Sensazione

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Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Braakland and Sensazione

We've loads of great theatre taking place outdoors in this year's festival. As well as Corcadorca's The Hairy Ape we've got a great show from Holland called Braakland. It takes place in an industrial wasteland in a secret location and we take the audience there by bus. I saw it at a festival in Spain last year and it was one of the best pieces of theatre I saw all year. We are going on a final site visit this afternoon to finalise the arrangements for the 'secret location'. Presenting work in unusual locations takes up a huge part of our production team's time but it's really worth it. It's much more fun for us and more of an adventure for the audience.

Sensazione is the award-winning theatrical fairground from Belgium. We are presenting it in Youghal during the first week of the festival and then it comes to Cork city in Mardyke fields (where we presented No Fit State circus in 2006). This is a great show for anyone 12 years and over because it really brings people together of all ages and from all walks of life. It plays 3 times each night so you can combine it with Corcadorca, or Taste of Cork, or a show in the Spiegeltent. I'm off to see it again at a festival in London this weekend and will post some more photos of it.

The Fall and Faust

The box office has been open for nearly a week now and The Fall and Faust have been selling like hot cakes. I have just finished reading Mark E. Smith's autobiography Renegade. I can't recommend it highly enough. You get a real feel for the man and it's also very funny. There are some very interesting insights into how he works as a song-writer. He's very much of the 'you just have to get on with it' school of thought which is really reflected in how productive The Fall have been over the years. I saw them live at the Carling Academy in London in 2005 before I moved to Cork and I was completely blown away by how electrifying he is as a performer.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Box office, Merchant's Quay Shopping Centre opposite Laura Ashley

The box office opened for business this morning at 10am. The box office has moved this year to the Merchant's Quay Shopping Centre, just at the top of Patrick Street. It's opposite Laura Ashley. On-line booking started this afternoon.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Festival Launch

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Festival Launch

David Hoyle and Miss Cherry Ripe
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Festival Brochures

Day of the Launch

It's Wednesday morning. The day of the launch. I can't believe it's really a whole year since the last festival. It's gone so quickly. The office is piled high with bales of brochures ready to be distributed. Last minute touches are being made to the box office in Merchant's Quay shopping centre - tickets go on sale tomorrow morning at 10am. This year's festival is much bigger than last year's - 3 weeks long. There is a bigger variety of events than we've done previously and things are spread out a bit more so you can see 3 or 4 things each day. The team has worked really hard and at the moment final preparations are being made for this evening's launch at the Bodega. At last year's launch I abseiled down the wall of the Bodega as a stunt - so I've had to think of something for this year too. So, I'm dressing as Marilyn Monroe and doing a duet with David Hoyle, the host of our late night Spiegeltent show The Last Resort. David is an extraordinary comedian and cabaret artist who shot to prominence in the late 1990s with his own late night Channel 4 show The Divine David Presents. He played the Dave Stewart character in Nathan Barley and was also in the cult film Velvet Goldmine. He is very funny and very controversial and I was so excited when he agreed to host The Last Resort - he's really going to take Cork by storm! Anyway, enough blogging - must go and work on my speech now, as well as practicing my song (and walking around in high heels), for tonight ...