Little Tricks – final Midsummer Night in the Garden video

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Our final posting from Midsummer Night in the Garden.

Katy Darby & Cliff Chapman introduce the song Little Tricks, with a scene from As You Like It.

Followed by Toby Hine and Rosalyn Miller singing the song written by Rachel Bellman & Elizabeth Charlesworth, accompanied on guitar by Mark Wainwright.

And so, Good Night!: Cliff signs off.

If you have enjoyed the videos of this event, you might like to sign up for our newsletter to find out when our next live readings are, or when our latest book hits the shelves.

Shakespeare’s Women

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Jennifer A McGowan reads some of her Shakespeare inspired poems at Midsummer Night in the Garden. Responding to:

Othello – Emilia

King Lear – Cordelia in Prison

A Winter’s Tale – Paulina as Pygmalion

Macbeth (Had to sort the camera out part way through this, so it’s a bit, um, weird.) Weird Sisters on the Make

Henry VI Parts 1-3 & Richard III – Margaret of Anjou

We hope to publish Jennifer’s next collection With Paper for Feet, in 2017, funding permitting.

Silence in Court! Midsummer custody battle video

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Crown versus Crown a prize-winning sketch by Carolyn Eden based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which Titania and Oberon fight for custody of the Changeling.

Titania- Carrie Cohen
Oberon- Saul Reichlin
Cobweb- Katy Darby
Robin Goodfellow- Cliff Chapman
Judge- Mike Eden

Songs for Midsummer Video Raise the Roof

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If Music be the food of love, play on…

The lovely Raise the Roof community choir brought us some songs ancient and modern to celebrate Shakespeare

Ancient: Elizabethan ‘anti-austerity songs’ a medley of songs from Shakespeare’s day about trying to have a good time with an empty purse.

Fairly Modern: Juliet Desailly’s setting of Shakespeare’s Full Fathom Five sung in public for the first time in 40 years, apparently!

Very Modern: Kirsty Martin’s setting of words from A Midsummer Night’s Dream (and Hamlet) We Intend for Your Delight written especially for the occasion.

Midsummer: Sonnet and Neighbour complaint Videos

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Our revels may be ended but we still have memories to look back upon.

We got a lot of poems in response to our Midsummer Shakespeare400 call out, here are just 2 of them!

Kim Russell sent us her Response to Sonnet 12 (read by Carrie Cohen), so we thought you should hear the actual Sonnet 12 (read by Saul Reichlin) before the response: it seemed only fair!

Sarah Lawson imagined what it was like to live Next Door to the Capulets. This poem is introduced with a little bit of Romeo & Juliet from Katy Darby & Cliff Chapman

There’s lots more to come, but my laptop is almost full, despite off loading vast quantities of files, so editing the videos is tiresome, and for some reason uploading is taking an age too. So patience will be required!

Solstice(s) and Shakespeare – reminders

Posted on 20/06/2016 by Cherry Potts

WRITERS AND MUSICIANS: you have until 23:59 tomorrow to submit your story, poem or music on the theme of Shortest Night, for This year’s Solstice Shorts Festival to be held on 21st December 2016.

EVERYBODY especially Shakespeare enthusiasts: Tomorrow is our free Midsummer Night in the Garden event. It looks like the weather will be fine so book you place via the library on 0208 314 7794 bring a picnic blanket and some insect repellant! We will be selling books, strawberries and cake, and there will be alcohol available for a donation.

Because it’s a leap year the Solstice is actually today. looking at the torrential rain I’m glad we went with the day people think is Midsummer even though it isn’t. quite.

If you want to get in a Shakespeare and Solstice mood tonight, as the actual longest day, come along to The Food of Love – a celebration of Shakespeare and Music, from Hexachordia, at the Church of St Edmund the King, Lombard Street, EC3V 9EA at 6pm.

Midsummer Night in the Garden update and BOOKING INFO!!

Posted on 16/06/2016 by Cherry Potts

Some loose ends for Midsummer Night in the Garden

The Library have had a LOT of interest and are getting anxious about fitting everyone in, and would in any case like to allocate the seats to those who genuinely need them, so please can you phone them on 0208 314 7794 to book a place. You are encouraged to bring a picnic blanket to spread on the lawn.

BY THE WAY… Manor House Library is in LEE SE13, not in Manor House north London! Just in case you were confused.

We can now confirm that wine/beer will be available for a donation, and we will also be offering tea/coffee/biscuits and strawberries, home-made cake and savoury muffins will be on sale, along with (surprise!) books.

We have confirmation of the final performers: Rosalyn Miller & Toby Hines will sing Rachel Bellman & Elizabeth Charlesworth’s Little Tricks, accompanied by Mark Wainwright on guitar.

Listen to Cherry Potts talking to Gill Manley at Croydon Radio about Midsummer Night in the Garden. Our segment is about 1h40m in.

Props!

Update on Midsummer Night…

Posted on 09/06/2016 by Cherry Potts

Keeping fingers firmly crossed for delicious weather, the banner is up and we only need to raise another £15 to be able to pay our performers, so if anyone would like to contribute to the crowd fund, the link is here. While I was looking for the link to copy, we hit our target! We could still do with more as we now have 2 more performers…

We have a late addition to the programme, Carolyn Eden (whose work we featured in Liberty Tales) has offered us an award-winning sketch based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Crown Versus Crown in which the dispute between Oberon & Titania reaches court, where arguments are put in doggerel. With very little persuasion we’ve roped in Cliff Chapman (another long-time collaborator) and Mike Eden to fill out our cast to sufficient numbers.

We are thinking about strawberries on the lawn… whatever the weather it will be a lot of fun.

Shall I compare thee to another Cat?

Posted on 30/05/2016 by Cherry Potts

Not the words of Shakespeare, nor even a very precise sonnet, but a little frivolity on the basis that it is alleged that the interweb likes cats almost as much as I do, and a great deal more than most other things, and a good way to draw attention to our funding drive to pay our performers and keep our Midsummer Shakespeare homage free to the audience.

So here is a courtly, catly entertainment.

Julian has taken the use of his image as the flattery for which it is intended, and anyone who knows him knows that every word is true – Philip Sydney reincarnate.

Shall I compare thee to another cat?
Thou art more lusty and yet the diplomat.
Rough Toms do bait my darling Kit in May,
And summer’s Queens were never quite so fat.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And then thy lustrous coat by dust is dimmed;
And even thou from hunt sometime declines,
By choice, or dinner’s changing course, untinned;
But thy eternal purring shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that heart thou own’st,
Nor shall one brag thou snoozest in his glade,
When above all felines thou art known’st.
So long as cats may breathe, or eyes may see,
So long lives this, and this gives love to thee.

I hasten to add that EVERYTHING we are doing on Midsummer’s Day is a great deal better written than this bit of silliness – is Caterall a thing?. Want to know more? (about the event, not the cat) Information here… and Crowdfund Here! We have just over a fortnight to raise the very modest £350, and so far only 2 very kind friends have proffered any assistance . So we really need your help!

(no cat was forced to dress up for this image!)

Midsummer Night in the Garden

Posted on 12/05/2016 by Cherry Potts

It cannot have escaped the notice of most people that it is 400 years since Shakespeare shuffled off this mortal coil. There’s been a lot of celebrating, and not to be outdone, we are joining in, not on his birthday, not on his death day, but at Midsummer. You know how we like a solstice.

The nice people at Lewisham Libraries are hosting us for an event on Tuesday 21st June at 7:30 on the front lawn of Manor House Library Old Road, SE13 5SY (with performances on the front steps) or inside in the Baring room if the weather is unseasonable. Please phone the library on 0208 314 7794 to book a place, and to book a seat for those who genuinely need one. You are encouraged to bring a picnic blanket to spread on the lawn. (If it rains we will be inside)
Shakespeare’s great skill was in telling an old story in a new way, so we are shamelessly tearing a leaf from his folio. We have poetry, story, and song, based on Shakespeare’s own work, the characters he invented, and his life.
Songs from Raise the Roof and from Rachel Bellman and Elizabeth Charlesworth performed by Rosalyn Miller, Toby Hine and Mark Wainwright.

Poems from Pat Tompkins, Alison Absolute, Shakespeare himself, Kim Russell, Sarah Lawson, Elinor Brooks and Jennifer A McGowan, a story from Lucy Ribchester, and from Carolyn Eden, an award-winning sketch based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

For the sketch and where the author can’t make it, we have actors: Big thanks to Katy Darby, Carrie Cohen, Saul Reichlin, Cliff Chapman and Mike Eden
Discover what’s in a name, what you get when (almost) the complete works of Mr Shakespeare are reduced to Haiku, five of Shakespeare’s women get their own poem, as does his mother, Juliet’s neighbour makes a complaint, one of Shakespeare’s sonnets gets turned on its head, the Illyria of Twelfth Night resurfaces in a story of modern-day refugees and find out where (and from whom) young Will stole his best lines. Oh and what Rosalind and Orlando’s wooing sounds like set to music.

We are crowdfunding to pay the performers. If you would like to contribute you can do so here.