Armed with a ring binder containing an old radio script covered in red felt tipped annotations and redaction, I met up with a couple of people this evening about the proposed radio play of A Christmas Carol. I've known Emma a few years on and off, she is a woman of many talents including writing, singing, acting and theatrical makeup. She introduced me to a guy called Adam who is an actor and performer with the additional quirk that he loves Christmas so was enthusiastic about this idea. The way that the script is adapted for 'radio' performance means that there are certain scenes are cut out without making too much difference, we can also use one actor to play two parts providing that the two characters are not in the same scene. This turned out to be a productive little meeting (little in the sense that it was rather quick as we all had other places to be) in which a few issues of my own were ironed out and things that I hadn't even thought of were thrown in the ring too. The best example is the appearance of the cast, I hadn't given this any thought as the finished result is to be a purely audio item. However, the idea of the cast being decked out in Victorian outfits cropped up and I agreed it would look better than if we were just there in our normal clothes. It would also look good if we did any publicity photos for the event. Notes were took and later on I typed them up and emailed them out to all involved. There isn't a lot of time to get this sorted out properly but it is something that means such a lot to me that I want to get it staged if it kills me. Before I can give it the 100% it deserves I have the small matter of the Hockley Hustle to get through and the cassette launch gig at the end of November. As we're launching the cassette, I still need to find the time to actually compile the tracks for it and produce the thing.
This radio play idea is something that has been met with enthusiasm from everyone I have mentioned it to though, and is an idea I want to expand on. Hopefully if I can assemble a cast as enthusiastic as Emma and Adam then I might be able to stick to a 'repertory company' format for future shows in the same format. Doing them in front of a live audience is another fun twist (especially as it'll be a paying audience allowing me to pay performers and technical folk, and justifying releasing the end result as a free download), rather than in a studio. If this works then there will be a non-Christmassy show in the middle of the year and certainly another Christmas show next year. There's a possibility that I might start filming them too, but I'm not totally bothered about that as I want it to be as radio-like as I can. Chances are I will film it for my own archive but not for public consumption unless there's enough money in the pot to do it properly and not release the finished product at the same time as the audio download.
I'd better get this shit together!
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