Selected Events from 2019
Looking back from this moment - in the 4th week of lockdown in Post-Covid Britain - the events of 2019, with the festivals and travel and shows and concerts, seems very far away - temporally, operationally, ideologically. Will gigs like these happen like this way again? Some I certainly hope so, others - flying entire shows to take part in festivals across continents for four performances - require some consideration…
Suzy Harvey’s Everybody Friendly Screenings carried on through the year. They are joyful gatherings at cinemas where people living with complex disabilities or dementia (and anyone else) can access wonderful films in a welcoming inclusive atmosphere. We screened Mama Mia, Funny Face, Showboat, On the Town, Grease and many more…
Bolder Voices choir of elders had another terrific project at Lawnfield Care Home in February: we visited the home over 6 weeks, singing with and chatting to residents. I listened to conversations about Summer, Pets, Music and Family, and composed songs for the final concert. In August we went into the studio and recorded a CD!
Summer Song
Summer’s bright sun / Warms everyone / Where did you spend your summer fun?
Summer’s bright sun / Warms everyone / Where did you spend all your summertime fun?
Michael played games with his hurling team / Eileen would camp with her family / Patrick would sneak out with Paul to the pub / And Gina and Austin under Sussex…
Summer’s bright sun / Having great fun / Soaking strange men with water guns
Their mothers made sure / They could ignore / Far away fears of the Second World War…
--- INSTRUMENTAL BREAK ---
Muriel’s summers were everywhere / Ireland, Camaroon, England fair / Even Saskatchewan, Canada / But Trinidad was best because
She had her young son / That’s when she knew / What makes a summer wonderful / It’s not where you are / That’s just a myth… / It matters who your with.
In May I worked with Jewish Care to produce a short film celebrating residents’ move from Princess Alexandra Care Home into the new premises Anita Dorfman Home. We decided to recreate scenes of change from the lives of the residents, casting other residents and staff in all the roles. It was such a wonderful ten weeks, and people showed heeps of creativity and playfulness. A lot of fun…
In June, Moving Memory Dance Theatre Company performed Tipping the Balance on a rainy windswept dock in Chatham. Weather always enhances the atmosphere on a film shoot…
In July, Frank Wurzinger’s Goodbye Gunther went to Iceland for the Reykjavik Fringe Festival. I played the incompetent technician and voice of his pet goldfish, Michelle. It was wonderful seeing my Icelandic friends Gummi, Saedis & Inga again…
August Moving Memory commissioned me to film a 20 minute documentary about the project celebrating love and dance across the generations, and it was shown in its own tent at bOing! Festival, Canterbury. It culminated in a performance on the day, too. V proud to be their Associate Artist.
End of summer I was cast a pilot for new television series by Matt Zarb and Harry Chapman. We shot pickups at the end of the year, and it’s in postproduction at the moment - delayed, like so many other projects, by the pandemic. I can’t talk about it too much, but the show has a great concept: a film school graduate from believes he should be a hollywood film director, yet finds himself making corporate training videos, so he decides to go epic - episode one is selling toilet paper a la Game of Thrones. I’m Jerry, the manufacturer who hires him to make the video, and then wants to get in the film myself, with disastrous consequences…
September brought another Scandinavian festival with Frank Wurzinger - Bergen Fringe Festival in Norway with Confetti Maker - this time I play his fed up grumpy technician. There’s a pattern there. We took a boat trip up the fjords, stunning.
In October, Beastie travelled to Denmark - Aalborg & Copenhagen. I had to leave halfway through and be replaced by previous Beastie Steve because of my mother’s illness. The shows were part of the Live Art for Children Festival hosted by Live Art Denmark, run by wonderful practitioners Ellen Friis & Henrik Vestergard.
In autumn I filmed whatsthebigmistry’s Tropical Awkward Bastard at Chisenhale Dance in London and Posh Club in Hove. Priya Mistry is a visual/dance artist and her work is lush and gorgeous to film. Tom Roden from New Art Club was the guest director for this provocative show…
At the end of the year my mother, oil painter Nancy Karper-Lampher, died in her home in Wisconsin. I was able to care for in the last weeks of her life, which was an experience that is difficult to put into typewritten words. My mother lived a wonderful life in many ways - she found love in her later years, she worked as an artist up till the last year of her life, was still exhibiting, and still creating beautiful work.