Method Lab & SeedFund

In its last eight years, our long-running incubator has seen over thirty-five new works ranging from a bearded ballerina to a naked ensemble of women; many go on to tour, some win awards; placing greenroom and hÅb’s Method Lab firmly as the place to see the ones to watch.  With support from this year’s project mentor Peader Kirk, 2010 promises funny, touching and sometimes quite frightening meditations on life, love and loss; featuring:

You Were Saying is a bittersweet semi-autobiographical comedy written and performed by Chris Fitzsimmons - a young man with too much time on his hands.

“I was waiting and thinking

and thinking about waiting

In an empty town

where the silence was deafening.”

There are streetlights overhead as he waits patiently under the clock for someone new to arrive. He checks his mobile to see if he has received any messages and considers that he may be making one of many new mistakes. The day before yesterday he received a letter from the council about his wheelie bins. Yesterday, he argued with someone about the bible, God and the afterlife. Tonight he is thinking about lost voices, Eartha Kitt and how everything changes.

Leentje van de Cruys Belgian knitting guru and the host of the best party ever continuing her quest to fit in and be loved in a foreign country presents HORSE. HORSE is a story about a woman who thinks she is a horse. But that’s normal, because she is indeed a horse. The problem is that she thinks she is a different horse than the horse she really is; a different horse from the horse you see in front of you.

‘I once knew a rabbit who thought he was an incredibly dangerous predator. So he attacked a dog. Because he didn’t understand that he was only a rabbit. Well, I am not like that. I know very well what I look like. I know very well what you see when you look at me. It’s just that I think that how I look isn’t quite right’

Based on a short story by Dutch author Esther Gerritsen, HORSE is the new show from Leentje Van de Cruys, Belgian knitting-guru and host of previous greenroom events The Best Party Ever and Knitting to Worry About.

PLUS: Gemma Neep, a free SeedFund mini-performance from our resident commentator on Facebook stalking, Swine Flu and alienating your neighbours.

Gemma is a solo artist, making awkward comedy, who is interested in playing with the idea of introducing others as (often unknowing) fellow performers. In her current work, Gemma explains how easy it is to stalk a man using the internet - it only takes two minutes if you know what you’re doing! [ limited capacity ]

PLUS: An ongoing work from Wayne Jackson

Wayne has been devising and performing ‘Funny, baffling, mystical, absurd [and] mindbending’ work for the past five years with his company ‘Escape Theatre’. After receiving support from greenroom and Arts Council, with them he is now developing his own work. He has recently completed his Masters where his interest in the concept of liveness began and he is now exploring the fleeting moments within performance which lie somewhere in-between the live and the mediated.

His most recent project, showcased at Emergency 09, originates from an experience he had when he was three (three and a half or four) when he swallowed a pound coin. Through inter-locking and contradicting accounts he is exploring the ways in which memory can distort and alter the past and cast doubt on that which has definitely happened. Because it did definitely happen, didn’t it..? The journey is now taking him on a journey, supported by greenroom, to find the pound coin he lost twice. He will attempt to trace a pound coin around the country using its own website, which will launch as past of this years Method Lab event.

I could tell you what has happened. But what would be the point? You’re going to make your own assumptions anyway. After all, it happened to you, didn’t it? This is your story, so who else knows it better than you?

As he struggles with contradicting memories and the certainty of forgetting, he tells the story of a desire to find his lost pound coin and capture the journey it has been on. It has been over twenty-three years since he last saw his pound coin, and a lot has happened since then.

Friday 5 March:
All Dressed Up: Julia Griffin
Forum for the Pedestrians: Julia Griffin and Co3 Dance
Rain: a score from Apparently Normal: Touchdown Dance
a dancer’s heart: DawN’s MinD Dance Theatre
A Still Return: Charlotte and Tom Spencer
Pawn: Jo Ashbridge
Poolovum: Johanne Timm

Saturday 6 March:
All Dressed Up: Julia Griffin
Forum for the Pedestrians: Julia Griffin and Co3 Dance
A Time Upon Once: Jade Stubbings
Accumulation Processes: Pavlos Kountouriotis
Liquid Gold: The bodyfarm
Beam: Ceri Rimmer
Disconnected: Out of Bounds
Static Change - Manchester: Project Auske
Latin Beach!: The bodyfarm

Turn is a 3 evening event, featuring a total of 15 short dance works – from finished pieces to excerpts and works in progress in a sneak preview of the best of new North West dance. There is one small commission, ‘The Turn Prize‘ financially supported by DiGM and produced by greenroom and hÅb, to be awarded to a piece shown at Turn.

This charming story is about the moments that mean nothing and everything in life’s daily routine. Combining the mundane with the absurd, audiences are taken on a trip down memory lane as the performers recount tales of 
youth, life and love.

Blending dance, video and movement with flamboyant costume and evocative audio, Levantes’ charismatic and idiosyncratic style playfully explores the perverse aspects of the human psyche.

This fantasy voyage invites you to indulge in the delights of both ordinary and extraordinary behaviour, revealing their beauty and ultimately making you smile.

“With a kitsch aesthetic and kooky costumes ,… [they] create a space where a world of play is superimposed on the ordinary and everyday.”
Tina Jackson
Metro 2009 on Room Temperature Romance

“[They] use dance as a simple yet enlightening method of communication.”
Metro (Manchester) 2008 on Gin & Satsumas

“This show is definitely a must!”
London Dance 2009 on Room Temperature Romance

Critic’s Choice
Time Out on Room Temperature Romance

“The quirky and eccentric touches suggest the depths of emotion and even perversity that lie beneath the mundane and everyday.”
The Stage 2009 on Room Temperature Romance

The next Larkin’ About event is Sat 27 Feb starting at 6pm in the greenroom bar, wear all weather clothes as some games are played outside.

Larkin’ About is also pleased to announce it will be creating a programme for the Eurocultured Festival in May and hopes to become staple part of the people of Manchester’s playtime.

For more idea about pervasive gaming: www.ludocity.org
For more information about Larkin’ About, photos and event news:
www.facebook.com/larkinaboutmcr

Gdy Polska sie rozrywala w rozne kierunki, moj dziadek bezwiednie przeramal moje serce na dwoje.  Jego syn, moj ojciec, zlepil te pekniecia cukrem.  Klucilismy sie na temat jezyka, odrzucilismy cate ksiazki, zgubilismy cale miasta, zalowalismy konca jesieni.

Whilst Poland was tearing herself apart, my grandfather unknowingly tore my heart in two.  His son, my father, pasted together the cracks with sugar.  We argued over language, we denied whole books, we lost entire cities, we mourned the end of autumn.

Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England,

LANWest, hAb, greenroom and Proto-Type Theatre.

You are cordially invited to the housewarming party of the year! With food, drink and music all provided*, this is one event not to be missed, so come along and meet your new neighbour.

*limited food and drink.

But only when I’ve finished.

Gemma returns to greenroom later this year with a trilogy of work.

I cried.  I didn’t cry.

Tears welled and vanished and fell and disappeared.

What’s the difference whether I cried or not?

Does it make a difference?  To you?

A love story.  A death story.  In Paris.  Or somewhere like Paris.

An old rotten greying dress.  An old rotten greying man.  An expectation.