Friday 23 March 2012

Getting Physical...

'Come up you cowards and fight like men...'

You can bet your bottom dollar that of the many things that Pirates are famous for, being able to hold your own in a fight is one of them. Both Anne Bonney and Mary Read were well known for their violent tempers and ferocious fighting. So to stay true to history we enlisted the help of Fight Director, Chris Main to come into the rehearsal room and teach us how to fight with a sword and throw a punch or two. 

Here is a little snippet of what we've been learning. 




For anyone having problems viewing the footage, please link to YouTube




For anyone having problems viewing the footage, please link to YouTube




Tuesday 20 March 2012


Over the last few weeks our fantastic Set Designer, Philip Eddolls a.k.a Phleds, has been busy designing and building The Pirate Project set up in Leeds. 
Phled's has worked with Improbable on numerous projects over the years and understands  this way of working. His skillful approach to collaboration, will complement Lucy's devising process. The performers will use and respond to the set during rehearsals and the various mechanisms, objects and hidden treasures will help work towards and shape the finished show. 

The sketches below will give you a little taste of what you can expect to see on stage. 


A seemingly simple design with three gauze covered panels and a rather corporate looking speakers stand is somewhat deceptive, as it conceals a whole world that is yet to be unleashed. 



The set will go through a process of transformation throughout the show, turning the panels on their sides, revealing a concealed crows nest, and using ropes and pulleys in order to resemble a pirate ship and all of its working functions. This in combination with video projections will help to create an atmosphere of being at sea.  

Monday 19 March 2012

We began on Monday with nothing...



No show, no props, no set. 

The room was empty for a while, then some croissants arrived and then some people, in ones or twos and stood around with that first day of rehearsals kind of awkwardness. Everything has to begin somewhere so of course there is a first day but really you just want it to fast-forward to day two. That said, by 11.30 opening the space to the creative team and performers had filled an entire wall with A4 paper, suggesting enough material for about 3 shows on female pirates, which is exciting and daunting. An idea on a piece of paper is full of promise and potential but it is also 2d, unmade, and requires a commitment to some hard work to breath life into its potential.

The week, as they do, begins slowly and then gets faster and faster. The room fills with polystyrene mannequin heads, skateboards, pirate hats, a parrot (of course), and a ladder. Before we know it, it's Friday and the week has disappeared, cue more worry about how we are ever going to work fast enough if this week is anything to go by! But playing the game of doing a Friday afternoon 'run through', even though we have very little concrete material, pays off.

The performers before our eyes seem to find their pirate mojos and an excitement begins to bubble up inside me about the potential of what we really have, the 3D material already created, and the week ends with a spirit of 'aharrrrr'. 

Lucy Foster
Director

Hey Mojo!
Lucinka, Simone and Chloe 

Working with some of the props!

Pirates on skateboards - Whatever next?

Finding Your Inner Pirate!



The quest has begun...three women set sail in search of their inner pirate! 


Our three fantastic performers, Chloe Dechery, Lucinka Eisler and Simone Kenyon will be stepping into the shoes of three ancient female pirates of the past, the rarely recorded stories of these fierce swashbuckling women, who sailed the high seas, jumped aboard enemy ships, cut throats for a living and held their own in a male dominated world; will help shape the narrative of the show as it goes through a four week devising process. The performers will infuse their own tales of adventure, recalling times when they have been most Pirate like! 

This quest will aim to discover something about being a woman in 2012, considering female identity, the ambition and confidence that we do or do not possess in our contemporary lives. 

Paying particular attention to the Golden Age of Piracy, we follow the stories of Irish Pirate - Anne Bonny, Ching Shih from China and Mary Read from the shores of England, looking at how these blood thirsty damsels were able to out-sail, out-think, and out-fight every man on the high seas.

How did they do it? Could she still do it today? Has her 21st century counterpart got the guts to stick a dagger between her teeth, fire a broadside and make off with the booty?