Here We Go.

Time to go. And I'm glad of it.

We've spent the past few months exploring ideas, testing practices and cutting out shapes in our arts and crafts sessions - and here we are. Ready to start forming the story which we want to tell. Themes and ideas are all well and good but eventually you need to start forming a cohesive piece - maybe not for the audience but at the very least for yourself. And that's where we're at.

We've loved our study of film and romance, it's yielded some great stuff and it's time to genuinely start creating our own. Currently, we've created a 30 minute or so piece of theatre filled with dialogues and animation following various themes and thoughts. As a company we 'get it'. But it's not theatre yet. If we performed it now, all we'd receive is a lot of curious grunts and confused faces. It's our work, and now we need to take our ideas and make them accessible, challenging and entertaining (So far, all we've got down is the challenging bit - and that's far from formed).

Tomorrow, Me, Leo and Jon C are locking ourselves away in the Sticky-Tape office and getting all of this down.

One of the toughest points when creating any new piece of theatre has to be asked where we are now. 'Do we give it a narrative?'. In the past, we've generally focused on theatre which focuses around a loose coalition of scenes - tied together by a faint background story but a strong theme. So, for the first time, we're going to give it a go. And I don't know how it's going to turn out. We're hoping that our 3 months of research will pay off in not letting a horribly weak plot-line come through.

This has been the second of two relatively short posts here, but I'm hoping the next one will have a lot to say.

Intermission 2011

I'd like to think that as 'artists' never stop making art in our own little way, but it's hard to spin this in any way other than we have had a brief break towards the end of 2010 from our Sticky-Tape pursuits. We slowed down greatly a few weeks ago when faced with piles of G4A Arts Council England forms which needed filling in. Budgets needed planning, proposals needed writing and ideas needed forming - on paper anyway. Genuinely, it's a hypothetical exercise. We're planning out how to best create these applications for later in the year, when we will be scouring the country for grants, bursarys and other ways of affording a way to make the dream that is Sticky-Tape flourish without us having to commint 95% of our time to Bar jobs and 'flipping burgers'... In a way.

Then, before we knew it, Christmas was here, the country shuts down to give presents and everyone eats too much, drinks too much and generally sits around doing as little as possible. But that's all behind us now, it's a new year and we'll be back to the rehearsal spaces very soon with new ideas. I can't wait. Frankly, the last three weeks of doing very little in the way of our work has killed me and I'm glad to know that we'll all be in the same city in no time. Ready to get back to it.

Thanks to everyone who has stuck with us so far - we couldn't have done anything without the help of others. It's 2011 and there's plenty of time left to go.