Brief update and News of Nomination for Award

Hi everyone,

I have been going through a lot of sadness in my personal life and so have not posted much in recent weeks. Fear not though. Plans are bubbling away beneath the surface, and I have been closely following some interesting scientists, with a view to collaboration. I am collecting a long list of people who definitely want to commission me, but currently don't have the funds. I think that's good. :/

In the realm of achievements: the Hull University project (for which I wrote a children's play and book) is being nominated for the Guardian Excellence in Widening Participation Award. Credit to Mark Lorch, who set the whole project up, advised me on the science, then went into schools and did the experiments with the children.

See you all again soon, I hope.

Pippa :)

Pippa Roberts: About Fabien Oefner - Projects that Bring Together Art and Science

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry that I have been gone for a while. I've been writing - but travelling a lot. I'm now paying Gill to type my scripts and stories, as I've suddenly realised that the brake on my work is actually the amount of time it takes me to type something. (I'm only a self taught typist, and could be much faster.) I also have Pauline, managing my admin, and work is coming in quite steadily. I think I'm the sort of person who works well as part of a team, so these arrangements suit me.

As I'm writing plays and stories with real science in them I am naturally very interested in any other projects that bring together art and science. A new TED talk has been posted today, that brings them together in the most stunning way. Photographer, Fabien Oefner, takes photos of crystals interacting with sound waves; paint mixing with magnetic liquid, and whisky catching fire - though he stops after one demo as he says a lot of people would argue he should be drinking the whisky. He's fun. :D The video is well worth watching. Have a look at:

http://on.ted.com/oefner

Now, I'd better get back to work, or maybe some serious relaxation. I had an incredibly long day yesterday - and the day before (6.30am to 8.30pm) travelling around on public transport, chasing poetry events in little villages and towns. :D) They've been a great couple of days, but I have to admit to being slightly tired!

See you all again soon,

Pippa x

Mark Lorch's Periodic Table - A Map of the Underground for Chemists :)

Hi everyone,

You may have discovered the Guardian's excellent science blogs. They cover all sorts of weird and wonderful subjects. Today the blog post was written by Mark Lorch, the scientist who worked with me on the play and novel, 'Investigation: Haunted House'.

This is the link:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/blog/2013/sep/03/underground-map-elements-periodic-table

It was devised for Mark's son, Sebastian, who is mad on trains - so it is not too complicated or 'clever' - and there is a jargon buster, to explain any difficult vocabulary.

I've tried to upload the image, but failed miserably. Do have a look at it. If there are any students of chemistry reading this - it may even help you to remember relationships and symbols.

Good luck! :)

Pippa

Canyon Found Under Greenland Ice Sheet - and thoughts of Robert Peary by Pippa Roberts

Hi everyone,

I have just seen this news from NASA:

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/icebridge/index.html#.UiEJNhukqop

It's interesting that we are still mapping the surface of our planet. I have a particular interest in Greenland and the Polar regions, as I am working on plays set in them, and I have just - virtually - finished the OU course, 'The Frozen Planet', as background for these. (just my TMA - (final paper) - still to go). I've read a huge number of books about Robert Peary's journeys in Greenland, and the exploration of this ice sheet. I wonder what he would have thought of this news? He hoped that Greenland would turn out to be a larger landmass which would allow him to trek straight to the Pole, and he even convinced himself that he could see hills in the distance.

There is so much more to this story that I am dying to tell. Look out for the play, which should be finished some time this year.

My writing workshops at the National Star College, Ullenwood Manor, Cheltenham

Hello again,

I've actually had a wonderful week, in spite of the sleep deprivation on - um - Monday? I led some writing workshops at the National Star College, at Ullenwood, Cheltenham. I'd been there before, so I was beginning to know the staff and to have an idea what to expect. The first time I went was back in December, when I was asked to do workshops around the theme of winter. I uploaded some videos of ice hotels and freezing weather onto their interactive whiteboard (which was a new skill for me), and then I guided the students through the process of writing stories, using all their senses to make the descriptions more vivid. They produced some lovely work, and I think we all enjoyed it. I didn't want to stop at the end because one student was dictating such a moving story.

The workshops this week were equally lovely. I find the whole atmosphere there very conducive to creativity. Staff have a relaxed and gentle approach. No one is ever rushed (even me :D) and the students also seem exceptional and very open to new ideas. We began with a music video on a summer theme (Bryan Adams), then went out into the beautiful gardens. I read some summer poetry to them, including one by Spike Milligan, and then they had a go at writing their own. I always feel slightly awed by this process. Every student writes something so different, and yet every one is good. I wish I'd asked for photocopies of the poems to take away, so I could have put them here. Next time I will.

Yesterday I took some time out to go shopping, but today I have been working steadily on my robot play, which I want to finish and send out. (I'm just making minor amendments after the staged reading last year, but I have a long version and a short version and am trying to untangle the bits I want to keep. Quite a task.) Tonight I finished reading the scripts of Roald Dahl's 'The Witches'. I've had this horrible fear that it might be a bit like my Hag of Horra and her cat, Humphrey, but, to my relief it's about mice and witches, not cats and witches. A boy cowers under the table at one point, and in mine the cat cowers under a table, but all similarities stop there, and all of the rest is totally different. Phew. Of course I knew this would be the case, but I was almost afraid to read it in case Roald Dahl had had the same idea. :D

I've finished a lot of books lately, but I've already written a lot about them on goodreads. I loved Oliver Sacks's 'Hallucinations' - and was fascinated to learn that hallucinations can be associated with all sorts of things, including visual problems. I remember seeing little people rather like the seven dwarfs when I'd been hitchhiking with my boyfriend in hot weather, and never knew it was a typical hallucination (though I knew it was one).

I've also read a couple of very good books on forensic techniques and anthropology. (Dead Men Do Tell Tales and Forensic Clues to Murder). Have a look at my reviews if any of this interests you, and do get in touch.

love to all,

Pippa x

PS. A gorgeous golden moth has just settled beside me. Never seen anything like it! :)

Watcha folks,

I'm back. Still a bit unsure about my posts and whether they're going to disappear again, but there's now a copy of my blog on the Fractal website, and I'm aiming to keep duplicates there. I've been having a lazy day today - catching up on reading, and sleeping a fair bit. I went to Oxford, to give a workshop on Thursday and I've been working long hours on the Fractal website, which I've moved to wordpress, as it kept disappearing - usually when I'd just applied for a job and really wanted to impress someone. :D

I've been having a bit of an administrative week altogether actually. I've acquired an author page on goodreads, and have been trying to work out how to add books to my author page (turns out I can't because I've used different names. :() They say they'll be addressing this problem soon, so I hope they do.

I've started a new children's story, about Kitch and Kitcholla, who are rather special characters. I'll post some here when I start typing it. I'm actually getting a very strong urge to try to do illustrations as well. That would be fun... (I just might, if I can work out how. Watch this space. :))

Apart from that I've just been doing restaurant reviews. I went to the Courtfield Arms on the Ross Rd a few days ago. It has a new manager, and she is doing it up, with a lovely sense of style. It's a wonderful spot, looking out over the Wye, so worth a visit.

I must go now. I want to finish a book on forensic techniques before I go to bed. :D

Good night,

Pippa :)

Theatre Centre, Skylines Showcase and Conference on Writing for Young Audiences

Theatre Centre, Skylines Showcase and Conference on Writing for Young Audiences

Ha, my blog posts have been restored! I'm so pleased about it that I'll write another one.

I want to write about the Theatre Centre London conference on new writing for young adults, which I went to last week. It started at 10 in the morning, so I had to stay in London the night before. I decided to try St Paul's Youth Hostel, which is just opposite St Paul's Cathedral. It sounded lovely, and I was quite excited, and looking forward to popping into St Paul's cathedral. Well... things didn't work out quite as planned. The day before I left I was expecting my removal men to bring me three or four boxes out of storage, and they turned up with about fifteen (all to be fitted in one room, which was pretty full already). I unpacked what I could, and shifted boxes around, and, of course, this meant that I was thoroughly exhausted when I started out for London on Wednesday. By the time I arrived at St Paul's I felt quite ill with exhaustion, and decided to skip the visit to the cathedral, and go to bed straight after dinner. There was a really lovely woman who was a teacher sharing my dorm, and she felt the same, so we settled down, hoping no one else would come in.

Hmmm. There were people coming and going all night, and the huge fire doors made a lot of noise. Not only that, but there was the sound of glass being smashed outside through most of the night. The only thing I could think it might be was a collection for recycling, but I could swear it went on for hours. Then, just to cap it all it was suffocatingly hot. I think I slept perhaps half an hour all night.

Thursday started at 6.30. I'd booked breakfast, so I had that, but I still felt unbearably hot, and uncomfortable. I'd forgotten to take soap, so I had a soapless shower, and had to manage without cleaning my teeth because I'd have woken people up. I collected all my stuff in the dark, as the curtains were still drawn for sleepers, put on my clothes from the day before because that was all I'd taken - never dreaming it would be so hot. I have rarely felt such a complete sight. Then I made my way to the Canada Water Library, where Theatre Centre had organised the conference on writing TYA. After cleaning my teeth in the ladies I felt slightly better, but not much. I went to pick up a coffee, and to my relief, was greeted by Jude, who is a member of Cheltenham Everyman Actors' Lab, and is also a gifted writer. Of course... many of you will know... I have prosopagnosia, as a result of head injuries many years ago. I had no idea who she was, but when I admitted it she was most understanding, and she helped me by spotting people I should know, and pointing them out. This was a huge relief. She kept finding me too, which I really appreciated. Although my visual recognition is improved, according to cognitive tests done at the hospital, I can only recognise people now if they look straight at me. If they turn their heads to the side I am lost. Also, I do find that, with exhaustion, I can't recognise anyone at all. Anyway... the day began with a brief address from Natalie Wilson, artistic director at Theatre Centre, followed by a speech from playwright, Bryony Laverty. This was warm, humorous, and interesting, and it was inspiring to me to see a woman who had successfully built a career for herself in writing for theatre.

After this we had a couple of workshops - both with well known playwrights: the first with Rob Evans, who got us building models of places we'd been happy in childhood, and the second with Philip Osment, who worked with us to identify the problems of creating verbatim theatre from interviews with young people. This last was very interesting, and useful, and many people liked the first, though I don't find that sort of thing very helpful (probably because I'm not much good at it. :D). I tried to create a scene from holidays in Llanstephan, when I used to try and hide in the reed beds to do my writing. The only thing vaguely resembling reeds were bamboo sticks, so I took a piece of yellow card and sat on it, holding up a few sticks and peeping through them. Rob told me I should create something to represent what was happening nearby, so I made a very messy thing, with ripped up bin bags, held together with pegs. (Don't ask. It was meant to represent my family's difficulties, with my sister in hospital in Carmarthen!) It was so horrible it spoilt my lovely, happy scene. Rob thought that was good because it had made me more conscious, but I feel I'm conscious enough, and... um... I need my springs of joy to be unsullied. Usually I make things up when asked to produce memories to work with, because I've had bad experiences like this before, but in this case I forgot. I was the only one not to like it, as far as I know. Some people built wigwams with the bamboo sticks, and the person I was paired with tried to make a path, which I thought was a boat, when asked to guess. Ah well... He thought I was in a cage! :D

In the afternoon we watched the winning entries from the Skylines competition. Skylines writers were asked to put in a 15 minute script... in two parts. For the first part writers had to put in just the first ten minutes, and the second part - the last five minutes, was to be written after receiving feedback from the judges. I have to admit that I entered this, and wasn't even highly commended. The judges praised it very highly, and said they loved my humour and wit in the first ten minutes, but I must have let myself down in the last five minutes. Mind you, I was in the middle of moving house,for the second time this year, and fighting floods of tears, when I wrote that last five minutes, so I'm not really surprised.

I really enjoyed the plays, and they were excellent. Suhayla El Bushra wrote a very moving piece, (Sehr Cool),about two teenagers, who both had huge emotional defences, being lost in a wood at night, and slowly discovering who each other really were. The teenage boy reminded me totally of my second boyfriend, who never stopped talking in funny accents, or scraps of different languages. I thought it was very authentic and really loved it.

Kellie Smith's play was about a gremlin who kept stealing a child's toys. The actress who played the gremlin (Naomi Ackie) was absolutely superb, and the whole piece was fun.

Jane Wainwright wrote 'Life Mould' about a girl running a 24 hour web stream from her bedroom.

All three plays were well worth seeing, and I was relieved to discover that I'd been beaten by such good writers. I have the scripts of the highly commended ones to read, and am looking forward to reading them in bed when I've finished this. :)

This is turning into an incredibly long blog, so I'm going to hurry a bit. The plays were followed by a debate between several eminent people in theatre... Anthony Banks, Associate Director of National Theatre Learning; Jonathan Lloyd, Artistic Director of Polka Theatre; Purni Morrell, AD of Unicorn Theatre, and Natalie Wilson, AD of Theatre Centre. After this we all, supposedly chilled over a glass of wine, and chatted to each other. My visual sense had 100% gone. Jude had to leave early for a bus, and I spent most of my time standing on the edge, staring into the crowd and trying desperately to pick out people I knew. Once I went up to someone and then thought I'd got the wrong person, and turned my back on them, just as, I think, they started to speak to me. I then went into intense worry mode, and started thinking I was offending someone I really like and admire. I left, as I left the hostel, feeling like a seed spat out by a fruit that couldn't hold me, caught a bus to Victoria, and then walked about for a while before getting the megabus home. I'm glad I went, even though it was difficult. I'm absolutely determined to learn anything I can that will make my work suitable, not just for school halls, but for big theatres. From the point of view of networking I probably offended people, and created a bad impression, but I hope that what I learned will outweigh that.

Better go,

Pippa x