Tragic Cabinet Freakshow Twin Application Symposium and Waterloo East Busking!

Another 4 months appears to have zipped past.  They do that don’t they?

Well, in April I was being all tragic in a masked version of The Bacchae for Chris Vervain which was filmed for use in schools.  Helloooooooooooo Thebes!

In May I had another private Lois of the Lane gig and then subsequently found myself hanging out at Paul Zenon‘s cabinet of Curiosities at the Brighton Fringe:

I was generally being a helpful sailor and keeping an eye on Paul Garner‘s freakshow artwork:

June saw me freaking out with the Gawkagogo Freakshow again – this time at the Udderbelly on the Southbank as part of the Time Out Live Friday Night Freakshow.  There was pigging and a bit of Siamese Twin action:

(Lots of black wig wearing going on over the past few months!)

Also finally put in an application to the Arts Council in June, for funding to re-develop and re-vamp Super Situation.  ALL TOES ARE CROSSED.  I’ve just been on a fund raising course too, so NOTHING WILL STOP ME…

Moving on to July, last Thursday I was part of Jennifer Farmer’s 10 minute slot during the Brand writers symposium at the Southbank Centre as part of the London Literature Festival.  She presented 4 small sections of piece she is developing entitled ‘thefadingcity’ which will ultimately be a large scale immersive theatre piece.  I was doing random, absurd, interactive improvised stuff with kitchen implements, imaginary toxic ingredients and song.  Love it 🙂

Coming up…

I’m putting on Super Situation and Glitch at the (almost) newly opened Waterloo East Theatre on Brad Street next week.  Here be map.  Also on the bill is ‘Baby Rice Cakes’ by Michele Hallak; performed by Michele and the Director of Super Situation: Jamie Rocha Allan.  (We have the honour of being the first professional shows on there – whoop!)  Important details below:

Thurs 22nd and Fri 23rd of July

7:30pm – Super Situation
9pm – Baby Rice Cakes followed by Glitch

£8 for one time slot, £10 for both

Box Office: 0207 928 0060

Click here for Facebook event.

It’s part of the Best of Festivals season produced by Theatre6 which is warming up the theatre before it officially opens in September.  Looking forward to cracking on with rehearsals next week 🙂

In August I’m going to be disappearing off to the Edinburgh Fringe to do a bit of busking for just over a week.  As yet, I still have to dust off my guitar and come up with the songs, but, seemingly, I like a challenge!

The March-ing of Time

Erk – another long update hiatus. As ever, stuff’s been going down despite the radio silence.

First up, I had some marvellous new headshots taken at the end of October by Ceri Ashcroft.  They are waiting in the electronic pile of bits to upload to my website when I manage to squeeze a long overdue website updating session in.  Soon I hope!  Soon…  Here is one of ’em for now:

There are more on my Spotlight CV if yer interested.

The beady eyed of you will also notice on said CV that I have an agent!  I’m now represented by Sharon Foster Management 🙂

Over a couple of Sundays in October I also got round to recording my little song with my bruv.  It’s called ‘Really and True’ and it’s been uploaded to the site for a while now so you can listen to it here. ( For those with a more offend-able disposition than my own, there is mild ‘language’ from the start…)  It’s me on guitar, kazoo and vocal and my bro on thigh slapping, faux glockenspiel and faux accordion.  Very pleased with how it’s turned out.  There’ll be a proper link to it added during my next update session and, at some point, there’ll be a video for it too.  Raaaah!

In December, the Gawkagogo Freakshow descended upon The Lowry:

Much freakiness abounded and I got enjoy being part of the inaugural outing of the all new, literally all singing, all dancing Siamese Twin act, as well as the premier of the new Beatnik Piggy act and various other freaky gubbins.  More Freakshow news at some point in the near future…

As for Lois of the Lane, she performed at the Comedy Cabin at the end of October and has had her a private gig so far this year at the RVT, with another private gig booked for elsewhere in May.  On the Super Situation front, plans are still afoot for the next stage of the show.  STILL VERY EXCITED!

Coming up, I’m going to be involved in a film production of The Bacchae in April.  Amongst other things, it’ll be a great chance to learn a good chunk of lines again.  (So much silent performing over the past few years – which I LOVE, but speech based things do also most definitely float the boat.)  Until then though, there must be a veritable cracking on with the stuff that needs to be done.  Let me at ’em…

What a to-do

Whilst all quiet on the blog front it’s been all go in the real world…

My new show Super Situation was somehow finished in time after me spending most of the year hurtling at breakneck speed towards the ever looming deadline.  We had a great couple of previews at Theatre 503 at the end of July and then off I headed to The Bongo Club for the whole of August for this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Wearing a Super Hero outfit almost every day for a month really ain’t that bad and a great time was had by all.  You can find reviews, photos and the rather wonderful Extraordinary Watch blog here.

I managed to get a great team on board to help me with the show (you knows it) and the plan now is to develop the show further and get ourselves a nice tour booked.  Yum.  Lots of work to be done.

Lois of the Lane also made a number of cabaret outings up at the Fringe this year including Sweet Venue‘s open mic night, the Generation Crunch night at Bedlam Theatre, the MOOnlight Sessions at the Cow Cafe in the Underbelly and last, but certainly not least – the Bongo Club Cabaret.  Then, upon our return, she nipped straight off to do a gig in the teeny tiny Comedy Tent at the Offset Festival, where she ate lots of food and drank some oh-so-delicious free beer.

In Gawkagogo news, preparations are well underway for the next, re-vamped outing of the Gawkagogo Freakshow which will be rearing its beautifully ugly head on the 3rd of December at The Lowry in Manchester.  I’ve got one half of a great new character to get my teeth into and some new Piggy antics to attack.  Can’t wait.

Some photos of three of the characters from the Freakshow, including me as the Pig Faced Girl, are up on Alexandra Jasper‘s website – taken for her collaborative ‘Burlesque Grotesque’ book project.

Finally, after picking up my geetar on Sunday for the first time in ages, I wrote a silly little song which there’ll be a link to once I’ve got round to recording it.  For now though, the to-do list must be tamed and the backlog of my life must be vanquished.  Have at you!

My Super Situation

The Edinburgh preparations continue…

The show is now written, as of Tuesday last week, and it’s now onto casting the voices, putting together the soundtrack, finding more money, organising props, costume and rehearsals, putting together the flyer and press information and EVERYTHING ELSE!  Lots to do, but I’m very excited.

Unfortunately I’ve been mysteriously let down by the Producer I thought I had on board, so valuable time has been wasted on that front, but hopefully I’ll have someone else in the driving seat very, very soon (please).

Blurb deadlines have already past, so here’s what’s going in the Bongo Club brochure:

Enter the world of Extraordinary Girl, ordinary Jo turned Super Hero.

KA-BLAM!

Following exposure to a mysterious chemical at the hands of evil genius Megalomaniac Man, Extraordinary is one of the members of the Government-funded Unstoppable 5, always ready to come to the rescue (not leaving a great deal of time for much else…).

Lois Tucker’s silent comedy creation Lois of the Lane returns to Edinburgh in this new visual comedy, following the transfer of her last show ‘Glitch’ to the British Library.  Performed to a juicy soundtrack featuring great music and larger than life voice-overs.

THWACK!

along with this image:

I’m playing (almost) every day during the Festival in August at 3:30pm.  Here are the dates:

5th-6th: £4
7th-16th, 18th-22nd, 24th-30th: £6.50, (£5 conc)

(Is that the sound of you writing those in your diary?  Good, good.)

Much more news on all this soon.  Now, back to work…

WANTED! – Producer/Partner in Crime

It’s full steam ahead over here at Tucker HQ.  Preparations for my next show ‘Super Situation‘ are well underway and I’m now looking for a Producer to help me sort all the stuff out that needs to be sorted out aside from writing the show – which I really ought to be getting on with – aaaarrgggh!

I’ve just posted an ad to www.artsjobs.org.uk which should be up in the next day or so all being well.  Here it is in all its glory:

—————————————————–
Job – Producer/Partner in Crime
London, profit share, part-time, starting ASAP!

I’m a London based Actress who’s been writing her own work for several years.  I now want to step this up a gear and am well aware I can’t do this all by myself…

I’m currently writing a one-woman visual comedy show to be performed at the Bongo Club during this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.  I’m looking for someone to help me with:

• securing more funding/sponsorship
• liaising with the people I’ve got lined up to help me with Press, Marketing, Directing, Design etc.
• putting together a venue pack for organising tour dates
• researching possible venues
• publicity during the Fringe
• flyering and promotion

The show will be great fun to work on and I will provide free accommodation in a very central location for the entire Festival.

You’ll need:

• a good sense of humour
• good people skills
• a willingness to get stuck in
• experience of working at the Fringe
• a drive to make this work

I need someone who can be as excited about this project as I am and help me take it as far as it can go.  I also need you on board asap so that I can get on with writing the show!

Ultimately I’m looking for someone to work with me long term so the role would suit someone interested in getting involved in/developing a small scale Theatre Company.  Otherwise it’s simply a great opportunity to gain more experience.

More details about me and my stuff can be found here: www.loistucker.net

If you think working with me on this project would be of interest to you – please email me, detailing your previous experience and why this ridiculous venture is for you, and we can arrange to meet up over some kind of beverage and edible thing.
—————————————————

Hopefully the right person will pop up very soon and the next phase of world domination shall begin.

Apart from lots of show preparation gubbins, I managed to sneak in a little Lois of the Lane gig at the end of March at Bar Kick.  I really am totally snowed under with stuff at the moment so that might be the last one for a while.  (I am of course a sucker for punishment and this is probably all lies.)

Onwards!

All guns blazin

Ooh, the joys of Spring 🙂

First up – I had a grand time performing Glitch at the British Library during January and February.  Thanks to all who came down and made it so enjoyable!  There are more performances of the show in the pipeline which I’ll keep you up to date with when I have more information.  At some point I’ll get round to uploading the great photos that were taken during the month.

Following on from this marvellous run, I’m now putting together a new one woman show for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.  Expect a 50 minute extravaganza, in the same style as Glitch – no spoken words from me, an accompanying soundtrack with words, music and sound effects, ridiculousness etc.  I’ve got some great people on board already to help me with the project and I’m very excited to see what’s going to pop out of my brain.  I’ve already secured a fantastic venue so there’ll be more on this very soon.  Just got to find me some money from somewhere…

Lois of the Lane will be featuring in this new show, and in between me scrabbling around trying to get it all ready in time, she’ll hopefully still be venturing out every so often to do the odd gig here and there.  I took her over to Bob Slayer‘s comedy night at Dirty Dick’s a few weeks ago, which went really well, despite an initial technical panic.  Eep.

So, all go quite frankly – which is the way I like it!

Headshots and Hayfever

Yes it’s that time again.

Making it for the Spotlight deadline, almost by the skin of my teeth, I’ve had some glorious new headshots taken by Kirill Kozlov.  I’ve uploaded my favourites to the gallery page.  Sarah Costley has taken some more great pictures of me too and they have also made their way to the gallery.  I took this opportunity to do a bit of code spring cleaning so the whole page should work more smoothly.  Along with this there are some more photos in the Production Shots section.  (So many pictures of me…)

On Wednesday of this week, May the 14th, we have the last Gawkagogo Freakshow in this round of shows, in which I’ll be Pig-Faced Girl-ing and clowning around.  Here’s the latest flyer:

It’s at Vibe Live, above the Vibe Bar on Brick Lane. It’ll be a superbly wrong evening’s entertainment.  (Go on. You know you want to.)

Almost lastly – there’s a podcast on Youtube about the Wooden Swordsman test I was involved in in March.  Here it is:

More information about the project can be found here.

Definitely lastly, and by no means least-ly – I’m going to be starting work on a new show imminently.  I have no idea what it’ll be, but I’m rather excited nonetheless.  Throw some money at me!!  Updates when I have ’em.