Our BSL interpreters wish it to be known that this is not what they consider performance standard signing, they needed a chance to rehearse with the performers for that, but you will be able to follow the story/song.
Our thanks to Royal Observatory Greenwich and West Greenwich Library for hosting.
Ian Kennedy and Sarah Lloyd singing at Solstice Shorts Festival at the Royal Observatory again, with two more nautically influenced folk songs: we keep to our time theme however
Our BSL interpreters wish it to be known that this is not what they consider performance standard signing, they needed a chance to rehearse with the performers for that, but you will be able to follow the song.
This story is one of 16 read at the festival and featured in the book Solstice Shorts: Sixteen Stories about Time.
Our BSL interpreters wish it to be known that this is not what they consider performance standard signing, they needed a chance to rehearse with the performers for that, but you will be able to follow the story.
The magnificent Pepper & Shepherd play Build Your Heart, inspired by crying over a book, the way you do; later in the day, at The Royal Observatory Greenwich.
This story is one of 16 read at the festival and featured in the book Solstice Shorts: Sixteen Stories about Time
Our BSL interpreters wish it to be known that this is not what they consider performance standard signing, they needed a chance to rehearse with the performers for that, but you will be able to follow the story.
This story deals with family, horoscopes and finding your own way in the world. Pairing with today’s song, The Pilgrimage fromShadrack Tye. which also deals with family and making your own way.
This story is one of 16 read at the Solstice Shorts Festival and featured in the book Solstice Shorts: Sixteen Stories about Time
Our BSL interpreters wish it to be known that this is not what they consider performance standard signing, they needed a chance to rehearse with the performers for that, but you will be able to follow the Story and the Song.
The theme of Solstice Shorts writing competition was TIME, but we got a lot of entries about DEATH, and you can see why, it is logical – the end of time, toceaseupon the midnight and all that – and the fact that the competition ended on Halloween may have influenced that too. Tannith Perry‘s Death and Other Rituals was one of the liveliest ‘death’ stories, read impeccably by the talented Ms Katy Darby.
Now, then appropriate songs for this story – all that stuff about tradition and rituals leads in a very straight line to two songs from Rosemary Lippard, and two songs that ooze traditional attitudes to death.
The Unquiet Grave (which has the added bonus of the time-themed Twelve Month and a Day trope and a tune by Maz O’Connor)
You get all three of our signers today, so herewith the disclaimer: We should have let them rehearse with the performers. I thnk they all did a splendid job anyway (and yes, I do sign enough to know how accurate they are, but being professionals they wanted to be beautiful and elegant as well as accurate.)
As part of the Solstice Shorts Festival Arachne Press and Spread the Word are teaming up to bring this FREE workshop for writers to the festival.
Hosted by Paul Sherreard, Writing Dimensions looks at writing in response to Place, Time and Space. A unique opportunity to write in the Royal Observatory and explore character within a place, be inspired by both the architecture and setting but also the artifacts and concepts that the Observatory celebrates, and of course the fact that you will be writing on the shortest day of the year (and the longest nights are either side of you!)
We are running this workshop 3 times during the day, with THE MIDDLE SESSION Writing with your Ears hosted by Cherry Potts including LIVE Improvised MUSIC from IAN KENNEDY and SARAH LLOYD as an additional inspiration.
If you want to, you can come to more than one session, but you must book each individual sessions to do so.
The third in our short series of interviews with Solstice Shorts Judges. Imogen Robertson talks to Cherry Potts about the concept behind the festival, and the theme of Time in the context of writing for the competition, which closes in 2 weeks! You have until one minute to midnight (think Cinderella) on 31st October … Hallowe’en.
A celebration of National Short Story Day, of the Winter Solstice and of the narrative power of folk music, bringing together story and song on the Greenwich Meridian – on the theme of Time.
The Festival has grown in scope a bit while we’ve been thinking about it and it is now a marvellous mix of live short stories, chosen by our exquisite line-up of judges and read by actors; and folk music from leading local professional and amateur musicians, backed up with writing and singing workshops, all of which will be BSL interpreted throughout, as we’d like to make the event as inclusive as possible. We also plan to live broadcast the performances, and podcasting them for future reference. We even plan to provide breakfast for the sunrise sessions!
We have confirmed venues at the beautiful West Greenwich Library from sunrise (8.04) til 11.30, and at The Royal Observatory Greenwich, in the Astronomy Centre, from 11.00 til sunset (15.53)
We have confirmed judges for the short story competition: Alison Moore (award-winning short story writer and novelist), Imogen Robertson (writer of the acclaimed Crowther & Westerman historical crime series), Rob Shearman (Doctor Who and multiple short stories) and Anita Sethi (Journalist, reviewer and Broadcaster). Each of the judges is contributing a story to the day, and the book that will be published of the winning stories from the competition.
We have confirmed hosts: Cherry Potts, Imogen Robertson, Rob Shearman and Anita Sethi.
We have confirmed musicians: Pepper & Shepherd, Shadrack Tye, Rosemary Lippard, Summer All Year Long and Ian Kennedy & Sarah Lloyd.
The performances will all be free to attend, but we will charge a modest fee for the writing workshops, hosted by Paul Shearrard and Cherry Potts, one of which will be accompanied by live music from Ian Kennedy and Sarah Lloyd, and of course the competition is £5 to enter.
All we need is the MONEY!
To that end we have put in an application to the Arts Council, and to the Samuel Gardner Memorial Trust, and started a crowd funding campaign, which, if you like the sound of the festival and would like to support it, you can contribute to (PLEASE!). This expires on Thursday 4th September at 23:59, so don’t hang around if you would like some of our lovely rewards – some of the one-off rewards have already gone! Books, signed or otherwise, exclusively designed badges and t shirts, invitations to our next book launch, a hand lettered poem, a digital portrait, and bespoke flash fiction are all available. We will add new rewards as we think of them.
