FoolishPeople

Storytails 2011

The wondrous Storytails returns--

Happy New Year Storytailers!! (OK - a little slow off the mark, but it is Chinese New Year today right?!)

After an extended hibernation, Storytails is BACK this month on 27th February, but with a couple of super-special differences...

FIRST - we've moved into the luscious surroundings of The Drop, below the extraordinarily lovely pub The Three Crowns, which is on the corner of Stoke Newington High St and Church St. 

SECOND - we'll now be starting at 3PM, that's THREE O'CLOCK / 15:00 / fifteen-hundred hours ... so firmly in afternoon territory

Aside from that, the set-up will be the same as ever:
- Professional and non-professional writers will be reading their short stories to you for FREE
- Stories could be about anything as there is no theme / genre / style that the writers are told to confine themselves to
- You'll get gently coerced - but not forced! - into giving some pennies to a local charity (this month will be North London Action for the Homeless)

There are still slots for a couple more stories, so if you have a tale to share, do whizz it over to [email protected] and you may also be reading on 27th
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AND IN THE MEANTIME... the fabulous YARN FESTIVAL is back this month from 19th - 23rd February!  Taking place in venues across Hoxton and Shoreditch are a variety of storytelling events including:
www.YARNfest.com
COVER WARS with Hanif Kureishi him very self judging

TEN STORIES ABOUT SMOKING where I believe you'll actually even be able to smoke inside (I know - the madness!!), but more importantly will see stories by Stuart Evers interpreted into film, music and theatre by the likes of The Strumpettes, Verity Flecknell and The Android Angel

AND a very special East End edition of Camden's regular story night THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP, with Sam Taradash, Tom Basden and friend of Storytails Jarred McGinnis appearing alongside other award-winning writers, comedians and poets

2010

It's been quite a year for FoolishPeople.

FP started off 2010 in February when we returned to the Old Abattoir with 'A Red Threatening Sky', an immersive performance that explored the earliest Gnostic traditions of Valentine's day.

Love. A vicious, bright beast and one of the most interesting forms of idea/deity we've worked with. I barely survived love's rawest essence with sanity intact.

In March I was rewarded, I married Lucy, FoolishPeople's producer and performer.

In July we held the first 'Theatre of Manifestation' workshop which explored FP's core working practice. The workshop sold out and has lead to collaborations that should touch down in 2011.

A lot of effort and time this year has been spent creating the Weaponized Imprint, extending the immersive art of FoolishPeople into the realms of publishing.

Since the offical launch in August, we've published four books. 'The Sparky Show' by Xandu Xero, 'Forum' by Richard Webb, 'Cirxus' and 'Dead Language'.

Cirxus and Dead Language were the first books to be published from FP's back catalogue of scripts, it's a misconception that the work of FP is devised. All FoolishPeople projects are developed from a script.

Weaponized has begun the task of releasing the scores and soundscapes that accompany our projects and performances created by P. Emerson Williams. We'll be releasing scores and soundscapes created for FP by Sonica Storm in 2011.

In 2010 P. Emerson Williams oversaw the creation of FoolishPeople's  Weaponized podcast, a partnership with Alterati. You can find the archive of this years shows at Alterati.

The end of the year has been our busiest period. On the 5th of November we launched Test Bed One of 'The Providence Experiments'.

'The Providence Experiments' were a unique series of workshops and events that fused experimentation, visualisation, ritual, psychological intervention and immersive game. Test subjects were thrust into bizarre events that offered participants the opportunity to undergo challenging yet positive artistic transformation. 'The Providence Experiments' concluded succesfully with the creation of Rachael Blythe's 'Lilith' performance.

In November we partnered with Secret Cinema on their presentation of Milos Forman's 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

 

FP created 'The Basement' - Ward 12, which explored the background and history of author Ken Kesey’s participation in CIA MKULTRA Mind Control experiments conducted at Stanford University on the use of psychoactive drugs such as LSD.  This in turn influenced the themes of institutionalization and mind control explored in the book and film.

On the 14th of November we celebrated the offical launch of Weaponized and the publication of 'The Sparky Show' at The Horse Hospital, a venue very important to the mythology of FoolishPeople. FP core members Xanadu Xero and P. Emerson Williams, both from the States were present in the flesh along with authors and artists such as Richard Webb, Paul Bassett Davies and Gabriella Apicella of Storytails.

There's a number of other projects we've been working on throughout 2010 that we're looking forward to sharing with you in 2011.

The form of ritual and art FoolishPeople manifest would not be possible if it wasn't for the artists and performers who join our core creative group to work with us, sometimes for just one project, all in pursuit of creating work which offers numinous truths to those that experience it. Thank you to those of you that have been a part of the journey, both past and present.

The most important element of any FoolishPeople ritual is the paricipants. Our audience. Thank you for continuing to support our work.

See you on the other side in 2011.

'Art on the Inside, Blood on the Outside'.

 

Farah Damji and Shaun Attwood at the Victoria Library

I had the pleasure of meeting Farah Damji and Shaun Attwood at the Weaponized Launch, I highly recommend attending the talk both these incredible authors are giving at the Victoria library today.

The two authors talk about their new books. 'Hard Time' by Shaun Attwood, which covers his 24 months in jail, and 'Try Me', an autobiography by ex-convict Farah Damji.

These writers have the most stunning and powerful stories to tell.