Parrot {in the} Tank

22/01/2012 6:32pm

Joe’s music video for the Band of Skulls is finally out! For those of you who haven’t caught the Facebook trending wave (that’s right!), Joe directed a music video for their hot and eagerly awaited track Bruises. Parrot was on the shoot and got the feathers dirty with all kinds of things – Sam Smith on lighting, Anisha on art directing and Eva and Sam Bailey got roped being in front of the camera, as a slutty slush puppy waitress and a bowler, respectively.

Scoring thousands of views already and referred to by Promo News as “a bit Big Lebowski”, you can check it out here. He is a very clever man, indeed. Parrot is looking forward to more of these fun things flown our way.

08/01/2012 @ 4:57pm

So we hear the happy new year 2012 should be the last one. End of the world, anyone? It could be a good thing. It means that our new year resolutions should be unlike any other ones we’ve made before. But first we thought we’d share our very own 10 highlights of 2011.

1) Anisha conquering her record of sleep deprivation. 3 months on 4h a day sleep were clearly worth it for a Scottish feature film.

2) Eva teaching business to young festival producers at Central and the festival at the Roundhouse making profit for the first time. (Otherwise it would have been a bit embarrassing.)

3) Picking up a Bush Theatre show flyer in a random pub in central London to find ”Sound design: Tom Gibbons” in the credits.

4) Shooting a Co-op advert in Kenya where Joe and Sam’s cultural highlights included eating bollocks and having their tea with milk direct from cow’s udders.

5) Getting an Arts Council grant.

6) Making friends with Inspector Sands Theatre and finding out that Lucinka and Eva can speak Czech and Slovak together.

7) Eating cheese and salami while devising in a huge theatre day and night at a Slovak residency.

8 ) Joe having actual champagne breakfast at the Cannes Festival. Where, to his horror and awe, champagne was the only drink to complement the breakfast.

9) Eva finding a job at the Hebbel am Ufer Theater in Berlin to find a new parrot nest.

10) Still liking each other having done the show. And wanting to do it again.

Happy new year resolutions-making!

08/12/2011@ 8:11pm

It was a tough job getting up this morning. Last night we celebrated our humble five years of being {in the} tank. Somehow we have managed to flee the nest and come back together regularly over the years; a thing that has made Parrot look more like an open ended marriage, but a marriage nevertheless.

We often discuss how come we are still together. We  never intended to stay. We never placed expectations on each other so it puzzles us in a funny kid of way. How come we are still playing games in rehearsal long past the drama school years? The only conclusion we’ve come to is that there’s still fun to be dug out.

There’s something quite healthy about the freedom of being able to go away and work on other projects (though it was quite tough having Neesha communicate very much via a pigeon when she was in the remote corner of Scotland, cut off from any modern communication). It gives you time to test yourself against different criteria. It also makes you appreciate and critically assess what you have ‘in the nest’. “Can we make things better or more efficiently because that company actually does this and that could work for us…” Yes please.

While growing skills, networks and experiences working with other people, it’s nice to bring these back to a ‘hub’ and share them with others who can benefit; the people who somewhat know how to finish your sentence when you start yours but will also fight against your words for a good reason. We move apart, but tend to gravitate back towards each other in a zig-zag style.

There’s a sense that values, the heart strings of Parrot haven’t moved since 2006. There’s something fragile and gem-like to protect and until it’s there we will probably continue protecting it.

Following Lyn Gardner’s recent article on how companies manage to survive together, you might ask: What’s your tips on longevity in a theatre company? (not that five years has been a long time, but hey…) A wise man once told us: “Expectation reduces joy.” We think that if you found that thing that can keep you awake at night and can get you out of bed in the morning (though it was pretty tough today), cherish it with pleasure and without unnecessary pressure. You will have to let go of people at some point. But if you do but leave the front door open with a note that says “Welcome back home, bud”, it’s likely that they will bring not only their selves back, but also a bag of gifts from their journeys. Happy freelancing!

19/11/2011 @ 12:03pm

Sunday morning, breakfast show over and we’re on the road today. A mystery plan has been hatched and we are now spending some quality time at flea markets and carboot sales. All will be explained, but for now – this is the most amazing Parrot-themed picnic basket we picked up for a fiver. Possibly the best spent fiver of our entire career.

Chatting to artsdepot last Thursday was hugely encouraging. Looks like we haven’t let them down and we spoke of our artist association continuing in the months and hopefully years to come. Together and jointly looking for funding to take us to Edinburgh, stirring teas and eating cupcakes while discussing the criticisms, ocassionally bursting out with laughter.  Arts Council report is almost there and we are sealing an envelope filled with writing, the flyer and feathers. Fly report, fly.

We have collated feedback from audiences to see where our next stage of development should lead and the winner is…. WRITING! Looks like we will retreat back to Bedfordshire for a little bit, lock Alan in with us and spend evenings watching films with useful narrative arcs and crying at how beautiful they are.  If you haven’t sent us what you thought about Champagne Breakfast yet, please do, we’d love to hear from you. (Pat on the back is nice to hear, but what you found errr, weaker is far more productive.)  Vent your frustrations, express your anger and say what you didn’t understand. It will all be processed to make the show as pleasing an experience as it possibly can be, for all the right reasons.

07/11/2011 @ 10:08am

What are we up to these days? A muffin-filled morning and we are at the Centre for Creative Collaboration typing away. Now that the thoughts on Champagne Breakfast have settled down a bit (we are still collating audience feedback), and in the light of Eva teaching enterprise to MA and BA students at Central, we have decided to get to grips with the company monster and how to feed him next. What do we do now? The time between working on shows often feels like going to back to square one. I guess that’s the beauty of each project too; it builds up over step-by-step, then explodes up in the sky only for your heart to go pitter-patter for a split moment, at a certain time and in a certain place.

We are talking big this afternoon. Sustainability. Commercial strand. Selling postcards (Neesha can draw very well). Directing adverts (Joe is already doing it). Making events (we’ve done them before). All at once. Either way. The good thing is that we all want to continue developing Champagne Breakfast until we, as we say, can smash it. That’s never happened before. Not that we’ve never smashed anything, but that we would still be ridiculously, blindly excited about a potential of something we nearly killed half a year ago, is a brand new collective feeling. The fact is that Eva will be in Berlin for the first 3 months of the next year, Neesha will be on the Isle of Man and Joe will probably be filming a crazy band in New York. Fun times ahead of us, but in our minds, we will be having Champagne Breakfast every morning. Edinburgh 2012, you are on our cards.

21/10/2011 @ 8:35pm

It’s the week after the opening night of Champagne Breakfast and the first show will have just finished. Would you believe it if we said we went to see a scratch show at BAC last night about… darts? Yep. If theatres continue supporting darts at this rate, they should become clubs a bit like Morty’s.  A special bonus was Neesha bumping into a bunch of darts players on the tube on the way home – all dressed in their darts shirts.

How are things going? We haven’t really had a chance to unwind and realise what’s happened. Eva jumped straight into teaching on the new MA in Creative Producing at Central, Neesha is back with Mobius catching up with PR workload and Joe went straight up to Manchester to meet with his production company and ad producer after 1.5 months with Parrot.

How did it all go? The show went very well indeed. We were almost sold out on Saturday and got some very useful feedback from friends, theatre colleagues, locals and students. The plan is to take it to Edinburgh Fringe in 2012 and tour it beforehand, but we need to think of a cunning way of doing it, because we are pretty tech-heavy. Did we mention the tech took  2.5 days and there were about 150 LX and sound cues in the show? One of our actors almost fainted when we said that’s how long techs normally take in Parrot.

Next steps? We are planning a few types of debrief – one with artsdepot about the future plan (very excited!), one with Inspector Sands about the story and one with audiences like you – the more criticism you can give us, the better the show will eventually be.  Think some food, drinks, parrots, woolly jumpers and somewhere more central than artsdepot. Would you be up for it? Yes? Then we’ll propose some dates next week – keep your eyes peeled on twitter/facebook and ears on… to people saying they’re going too.

15/10/2011 @ 5:17pm

One night of Champagne and hearty Breakfast down – and another one coming up in just a couple of hours. Ticket sales are looking good at the moment (thank you all, we know artsdepot is far away) and we’re hoping more people will jump on the handy 82 bus on the way from Central.

Rob Watts from the National Theatre came to see Champagne Breakfast last night and really enjoyed it. We are officially his Favourite Friday folks on Twitter, what a legend. Other very special guests came last night including the whole technical support department from Central (including Paddy in his very own darts shirt). Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

PS Special thanks to Blind Summit who have written about us in superlatives in their October newsletter - we owe you a favour.

12/10/2011 @ 4:01pm

Greetings live from a little Parrot corner at the artsdepot office. We’ve been teching for the 2nd day and as always, there’s a LOT of lights. And a lot of sound cues. And cool tricks. So it’s been taking absolute ages. But! It’s going to be fully worth it,  so get booking to this special 10^th Anniversary Commemorative Event in Celebration of the All Too Short Yet Stellar Career of The Great Norman Younger. Please help keep us sane by buying your ticket here.

Have we mentioned tickets are £5 for all Central students? That’s how much we care about the finances of emerging artists – we’ve been there before!

And for more frequent news and pictures direct from the studio, get stalking on twitter @parrotinthetank.

10/10/2011 @ 11:08am

The legendary darts commentator, Sid Waddell, who has made listening to darts sound more theatrical and epic than Shakespeare and Brecht could have ever managed together, has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. Get well, Sid – here’s some of our favourite quotes we heard you say:

“The atmosphere is so tense, if Elvis walked in with a portion of chips, you could hear the vinegar sizzle on them”

“That’s the greatest comeback since Lazarus.”

“He looks about as happy as a penguin in a microwave.”

“That’s like giving Dracula the keys to the blood bank.”

“There hasn’t been this much excitement since the Romans fed the Christians to the Lions.”

“When Alexander of Macedonia was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer….. Bristow’s only 27.”

“Eat your heart out Harold Pinter, we’ve got drama with a capital D in Essex.”

09/10/2011 @ 3.27pm

It’s Sunday and we’re enjoying a day off for once. Seems like it would be easier to pitch a few tents on the artsdepot stage than to travel back and forth every day. Long days are ahead of us – we’re getting ready for the mighty production week with the show up on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th Oct.

Can’t make those? There will be an open dress rehearsal on Thursday 13th at 5.30pm and you are very welcome to come along and give us any feedback.

What is new production wise? We’ve finally come to the point of rehearsing rather than devising, lovingly yet firmly pushed by Tom, our sound designer cum stage manager - we need to get teching very soon. Jay, Parrot’s technical manager (who makes the magic tricks work) is coming onboard on Monday and will be with us the entire week. Gabriella is busy making 80s costumes at home with one eye while keeping the other on her 1.5 year old Valentina.

Exit flyering schedule is in place and we’ve left some footprints (flyers) all over Central now that the term has started. Eva’s students from MA Creative Producing are coming down to the show - it will either definitely help or definitely not help her teaching for the term ahead.

If you like what we do, help us spread our wings by spreading the love of Champagne Breakfast - infect your mates/acquaintances/lovers with this Facebook event link. Much love and warm feathers to you all.

06/10/2011 @ 12.43am

It’s actually 8 days. *GOOSE BUMPS*

06/10/2011  @ 12.25am

It’s very late and Parrot is still typing away. Press pitches, teaser editing, plot writing, props lists, lights hire and budget updating. All happening in flats of Parrot across London. By the way, if you fancy 2x free tickets to Champagne Breakfast - as of now, you should stand a chance to win them via Run Riot. Check your inbox!

We’ve spent two days working with our project mentors Inspector Sands. (Calum was very confused by Inspector Sands while we kept shouting General Wash! at the technician in the studio. “Who on earth are these people?” One learns something new every day.) Here’s a list of emotions we’ve gone through in the last 48 hours:

Excited
Unsure
Awkward
AWKWARD
Nervous
Sheer panic

That was the first morning. We’ve gone a long way since then and we’re back on track telling what has been described as EPIC. We created quite fun layers and 3D emotional shapes (does that make sense?) to our characters. They are finally sailing away on their big psychological journey in the life of Champagne Breakfast. The big lesson? Never underestimate the inherent wisdom of the outside eye. Eyes. There’s never enough of them. Unless they hate you.

Speaking of eyes. Play more with your eyes. Less with your body. Keep it small. Keep it clean. Some great Inspector Sands tips have been collected and locked safely in the directing bank.

We’ve also got a sofa on wheels (stage travel), have revisited the red cape from the scratch (and how) and drove Mortimer to tears of sheer desperation yesterday (character exercise).

Dear God. 9 days to go.

01/10/2011 @ 2:08pm

We hope you read this in the evening - meaning you’ve spent the day in the glorious sunshine cut off from any technological contraptions.

Speaking of technological contraptions, Champagne Breakfast (as all Parrot shows) will too feature some. Phones have become quite standard, but we’re delighted to have found a MIDI-style keyboard tune played by a mouse-like pseudo-artist in Mortimer’s Club.

Norman and Walter actors corpsed themselves to the floor with laughter yesterday, following 2x inappropriate high-pitched laughing fits by the directors. Alas. The thought of Youngaerobics was never going to be an easy  impro job.

28/09/2011 @ 11:31pm

Quick sum of the day. Alan Fielden came in to help us solidify the story – as the best and worst thing about working collaboratively is putting a cap on where the boundaries of storytelling stop. We’ve now created a document that we treat as the Champagne Breakfast Bible – the words are saintly!

We urgently need to find a hideous 80s sofa. And a shell suit.

We have, after careful consideration, also cast our Norman (someone we didn’t think about and yet it was so obvious from the start!) – we’ll keep this one a secret for now just to see if you’ll be surprised and how the decision will go down.

23/09/2011 @ 5.17pm

Rehearsals are in full swing at artsdepot and Central back in London town. We are very excited to say that the award-winning Inspector Sands will be mentoring us to make sure we squeeze the most humour and tragedy out of the material (and actors) we’ve got.

Walter, Norman’s brother, is shaping up quite nicely too. A lovable clown type, the poor chap mixes up his turn of phrases. Our personal favourite is “Norman, if we do that, we can totally kill two birds with two stones.”

Thanks to Anisha and her smart Mobius network, you can now also follow us on twitter via @parrotinthetank, if you fancy news direct from rehearsal room. It may take us some time to get the hang of it. Following people… what?

18/09/2011 @ 6:47pm

Woop! We devised a show 1h 15min long, so we are in a good place to edit and polish it into a dynamic and fun-packed one-hour event.

Here’s a couple of sneaky preview photos. Ladies and gentlemen, we are pleased to introduce *dramatic strings* Mortimer and Norman.

They will be the main players of our little Faust vs. Mephistopheles struggle. Keep warm, parakeets.

15/09/2011 @ 9.27pm

A call to the arms of Parrot {in the} Tank! We are looking to audition male actors in their thirties to play Norman Younger. 3x weeks of rehearsals including 2x show starting on 26th September 2011. Paid opportunity, Arts Council supported project. Please get in touch for more info or search for the job on Casting Call Pro.

Things you should have heard of if you want to apply: devising, physical theatre, visual comedy, clowning, Lecoq, LISPA, John Wright, object animation, Kneehigh Theatre, etc.

We are really busy, it’s showtime tomorrow, wish us luck!

By the way – Gibbons did arrive.

13/09/2011 @ 8.31pm

It looks like what was initially meant to be a presentation of work/scratch performance will now be a real show at the end of the week. Tom Gibbons should have landed just a minute ago in Bratislava - him and his sound library will soon join us in completing the audiovisual experiences.

God bless his ears and fingers with his superheroically quick ability to dish out the most amazing sounds.

10/09/2011 @ 7.30pm

The weather is proving to be quite a challenge to rehearse in these days. We had no idea the blue skies and 30 degrees would last the entire week. Some members of Parrot are genuinely longing for rain. (We listed the different types of rain at lunchtime today. The total was about 16.)

We changed our rehearsal schedule to work afternoons and nights, which we wish we could do in London too. It seems we are on a more surreal creative wavelength late in the day, possibly due to the fact that the theatre seems a bit spooky past midnight and there’s also cellars which Excursions (the horror edition) would fit amazingly into.

06/09/2011 @ 11.05am

We saw a gig last night in the gardens of the theatre by Vrbovski Vitazi (the only ‘industrial folk’ band around). They play makeshift instruments made mainly of toilet tubing (though they also have a spade guitar)  and sing exculusively about health and safety at work. We couldn’t get enough of them. Our favourite moment was parcel tape rhythmically pulled and ripped in front of the microphone.

The best thing? The lead singer will be in London on 17th October (what a shame he’ll miss Champagne Breakfast) and he’s game for meeting up with Parrot in the old British capital. We love strange and wonderful things.

04/09/2011 @ 4.14pm

Day 2 at the residency in Divadlo Poton in Batovce and we are having an awesome time living and working in the venue. It’s in the middle of nowhere, so our social life is conveniently limited, but the space we have to ourselves really serves the work purpose - there’s a huge theatre, a 10mx5m beautifully done up studio, a costume store we are free to use and boxes of lighting and sound equipment for Sam and Tom to play with while devising. Did we mention we took breaks sitting in the blazing sunshine?

More little stories and photos can be found on Parrot’s facebook page.

23/08/2011 @ 10:51am

Mikey Brett who starred in the award-winning Warhorse is booked on to the Parrot Jet en route to Slovakia. Mikey - a graduate of Acting in Collaborative and Devised Theatre - will be working with us for two weeks alongside Calum Witney who co-devised a show created for the British Pavilion – World Expo 2010.  The Parrot-working-with-trained-actors thing is actually happening.

09/08/2011 @ 9:04pm

London. Manchester. Edinburgh. Berlin. We are all running in different directions this month. It’s as if Parrot exploded and its feathers scattered all over.

If you are in Edinburgh, we recommend The Table by Blind Summit featuring our friend Sarah Calver. Lyn Gardner tweeted it as “deliciously witty.” You can’t go wrong with that one, clearly. Also up and worth suggesting are 1927 with their “Animals and Children Took to the Streets”, Inspector Sands with “If That’s All There Is” and “Sold” directed by Catherine Alexander (Complicite) and devised by Central actors from the collaborative and devised theatre strand.

30/07/2011 @ 11:37am

We are oh so very happy to announce that we’ve got our first Arts Council grant to fund the show. Loud sighs of relief were audible across Parrot today as we can now immerse ourselves in creating the show for the next few months. Loud expressions of happiness are expected to be audible throughout the evening. This may just be the best Friday of Parrot’s 4.5 year life.

Oh and a public salute and thank you to Mikey Brett, Dan Kent and Ben Van der Velde for helping us workshop in the last couple of weeks and who contributed to the creation of brothers Norman (he’s the darts star) and Walter (his merchandiser and manager) Younger.

22/07/2011 @ 5.38pm

Parrot invites all actors with a love for surreal comedy seasoned with clowning to join us in our improvisation/devising sessions that would help us explore the characters of Champagne Breakfast. The workshops are drop-in based and kick start next Monday at Central.

Get in touch for more info.

11/07/2011 @1:36pm

Parrot’s won a small residency grant to support our research & development at Divadlo Poton in Batovce, so we can start looking at more than found production materials, ask for a potentially endless list of technical equipment and maybe bring back some carrot. For the bank. To have more carrot {in the} bank.

Thank you Slovakia, we knew you were a land of generous people!

05/07/2011 @ 11.16am

Inspector Sands are now working with Ignite – the youth theatre company at artsdepot – devising a show about making a show. We’ve handed over our Gargantuan experiences and recommendations and wished them luck (and if it’s going to be a large group, handfuls of patience).

They are actually looking for a sound designer – please let us know if you know anyone.

24/06/2011 @ 3.38pm

The Prague Quadrennial 2011 is slowly coming to an end – Parrot’s visit marks 4 years since our first production Freeman Gallop had been performed in a theatre made up of cardboard boxes. We recommend a Hungarian collective Kretakor – they’ve been added to our list of companies to follow. Their Big Brother type performance/exhibition/film took place in the massive publishing building of the Czech newspaper Rude Pravo which will soon be demolished.

17/06/2011 @ 6.13pm

Eva is back from the conference on Creative Producing in the regions which she attended on behalf of Parrot and MA Creative Producing at Central. Her question on how to train producers to be risk-takers, challengers and budget managers while on ‘practical’ internships was never fully answered. Looks like producing apprenticeships are still more in the region of administration placements.

10/06/2011 @ 10.15pm

Joe’s super8 short about poker-playing clowns has been accepted into Cannes Lions – short film festival. This time next week he’ll be walking down the red carpet and having Champagne Breakfast. A sign perhaps?

04/06/2011 @ 3:13pm

Slovak residency is now confirmed – we will be living and working in Divadlo Poton in September. Hello land of smoked cheese!

29/05/2011 @ 1:50pm

Sam Bailey wins (*trumpets*) the IdeasTap short film competition. Again! Watch out for it when you hear of a pantomime horse race.

23/05/2011 @ 11:04am

It’s official – the Accidental Festival made profit for the first time in its 6 year history. We like to think Eva’s teaching on business development had something to do with it.  Well done to amazingly entrepreneurial BA Performance Arts students at Central, Steve Jobs would be proud.

19/05/2011 @ 15:05

The Accidental Festival – produced and managed by the team Eva’s mentored - kicks off today with a discussion on the future of arts education with guest including the Arts Council Executive Director, Artistic Director of the Roundhouse and HEFC. We are on it!

14/05/2011 @ 16:31

Anisha is momentarily back from Scotland - Eva and herself are driving up to Norfolk to check out Artichoke’s new theatrical/dining experience set in Elsing Hall’s gardens – Dining with Alice. We’ve been promised a Victorian-inspired banquet and we hope we’ll get to touch the White Rabbit.

27/04/2011 @ 11:15

Parrot is looking for a creative nest for the first two weeks of September in Slovakia, following a funding offer from the land of smoked cheese and sausages (still Slovakia). If you can help, please get in touch.

19/04/2011 @ 17:14

Following heavy-duty celebrations, Gargantua is finally over and the kids pulled it out of the bag! The stage ended up covered in paper shreds, confetti and sheets of paper as the world came to a glorious end thanks to nuclear missiles.

16/04/2011 @ 12:53

Gargantua directed by Parrot {in the} Tank is on at artsdepot this evening – come along for a double-bill of new writing for young people organised by the National Theatre Connections.

12/04/2011 @17:32

Parrot is back from a weekend in sunny Bedfordshire and we can announce that the story of Champagne Breakfast has been born. Now we don’t want to give much away, but we can tell you there will be darts, fictional heart condition, death, jenga and a story of brothers. Watch this space!

07/04/2011 @ 21:54

Joe is currently shooting a short film for the Cannes Film Festival – it’s about clowns playing imaginary poker. Well. It’s imaginary until they catch one of them cheating…

30/03/2011 @ 12:05 pm

A week to go until Champagne Breakfast R&D trip with writer Alan Fielden – Parrot is sharpening the pencils and the thoughts in sheer delight. We hope he is, too.

17/03/2011 @ 5:11 pm

London Walks culminated in a showcase in Performance Studio 1 at central – works included a Soho-based water pump (discovery of cholera), the execution of Robert Hubert (self-declared hero who started the Fire of London), curry made Tshirts, the invisible man – a coat operated puppet, Frankenstein-like operation and many more.  Well done BATPs!

13/03/2011 @ 10:23 pm

Parrot has been approached by Watermans Arts Centre in West London to run workshops and projects for young people at their venue. Thanks to Rhiannon Wilkins for recommending us!

08/03/2011 @ 2:49 pm

Sam Bailey has left to Sweden to record an album with his band Francobollo. We reckon he will pass for a Swede. Lycka till [in Swedish] Sam!

03/03/2011 @ 10:01 am

Eva and Anisha will be performing in The Trip – a theatrical club night extravaganza at Islington Metal Works next Friday. We are currently devising a one-on-one experience taking place in a lost property office  run by two middle-aged unmarried sisters – you guessed it. Played by them.

01/03/2011 @ 6.34 pm

Joe has been a very busy man since the turn of the year.  He’s been halfway round the world directing adverts for The Co-Operative.  He directed 9 Adverts in 2 weeks spending time in places as interesting and far away as Kenya.

He has now been commissioned to direct the Jack Daniels Sets for Channel 4.

28/02/2011 @ 03:17 pm

Anisha is finally back from Scotland!  She has been working with Scottish artists Transgressive North up in Dumfries and Galloway, collaborating on a short film that documents the poetic culture and social changes that have shaped small towns and villages in the area.

The film serves as a research project for a full length fiction feature due to be shot in early summer, which Anisha will be working as the production designer for.

17/02/2011 @ 10:17 pm

Dates now confirmed: Champagne Breakfast will premiere at artsdepot on 7th & 8th October 2011. Thank you to artsdepot who have secured support to make this happen for the next stage of development!

31/01/2011 @ 02:54 pm

Parrot attended Improbable Theatre’s annual Devoted & Disgruntled debating weekend and got involved particularly in the discussions ‘Why isn’t theatre cool?’, ‘Let’s make a website advising on European theatre touring and exchange!’ and ‘In the dark times, will there be laughing?’ Yes!

23/01/2011 @ 10:06 pm

Sam Smith is currently working on the Isle of Wight completing the first stage of R&D on his new pop-up book project with writer Alan Fielden and actor James Lindsay. The story follows a man looking into the fading face of Alzheimer’s. As he trawls through a lifetime’s posessions, his imagination fills and colours the giant pop-up book that opens around him.

This project will be made in association with Parrot {in the} Tank and the Central School of Speech and Drama.

19/01/2011 @ 09:46 pm

Parrot starts mentoring London Walks at Central again with a new group of first year BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students.

14/12/2010 @ 11:03 pm

Parrot has just been approached by the New Diorama Theatre to produce an interactive piece of technology-driven performance, which will help the public explore the building and its stories.

We hear there are tunnels under the venue… This project calls for some dark underground Excursions.

19/11/2010 @ 09:12 am

Champagne Breakfast scratch performance starts at 2pm at artsdepot’s Studio. There will be Q&A with the company afterwards to gather feedback and comments for the next development stage of the project.

If you have something to say, please say it to us now!

09/11/2010 @ 09:23 pm

Parrot has been busy working on a new show based on the world of British Darts during the mid 90s.

Champagne Breakfast tells the story of Norman Younger, a one-time world champion darts player struck down by a rare heart condition. The cure: a machine that forces him to keep his heart rate as low as possible. The downfall: it has a limited number of heart beats.

By leading a dull and joy free life, Norman could elongate his life span by making the most out of the clicks left. But where’s the fun in that… Tempted back with the chance to defend his title and ultimately go out as a hero, he now faces the toughest decision of his life.

22/10/2010 @ 5:16 pm

New Connections’s script has been confirmed - Parrot is directing Gargantua written by Carl Grose who has also been an actor with Kneehigh Theatre. The script tells a story of a giant baby born into a quiet village of Skankton Marsh and how the mania around it brings the world to an apocalypse. The show will be epic in a true gargantuan sense.

17/10/2010 @ 08:38 pm

Sam Bailey started working in the creative department of the Viral Factory production company working on mad viral videos and short films. Last time we heard, he was sending helium balloons to space.

06/10/2010 @ 4:07 pm

Parrot was a speaker at a young people’s Cultural Industries Conference at artsdepot talking about what it’s like to work in the theatre. We particularly enjoyed the young people’s direct questions – “So… how much do guys you earn?”

27/09/2010 @ 6:03 pm

Eva has been approached by Jessica Bowles (Artistic Director of Scenofest) to co-write a new MA in Creative Producing opening in October 2011 at the Central School of Speech and Drama. They are currently spending a lot of time in a room with large sheets of paper and marker pens, dreaming up Central’s take on The Apprentice and talking about the Experience Economy.

21/09/2010 @ 08:51 pm

Following the success of Excursions as part of Ignite in April 2010, Parrot has been commissioned by artsdepot education to direct a play with their young people’s company as part of the National Theatre’s New Connections festival, which will premiere in April 2011. Watch this space for the confirmed script. Woop!

18/08/2010 @ 7:03 pm

Parrot has flown to exotic places for some quality R&R…

23/07/2010 @ 11:17 am

Eva is back from China where she directed a devised production The Comedy Games, a collaboration between Chinese and British actors. The show was performed at the UK Pavilion and European Stage of Shanghai’s World Expo 2010 in the first two weeks of July and was supposedly seen by over 10,000 visitors. She very much misses the street barbecues and other amazing food she came across.

Eva also spent some time working with MA students from the Shanghai Institute of Visual Art. The project was funded by the British Council as part of the UK-China Employment & Entrepreneurship initiative, which Eva co-produced on behalf of Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design.

17/06/2010 @ 1:17 pm

Parrot has finished working with first year BA (Hons) Performance Arts students at Central, which culminated in a series of ingenious site-specific devised projects created in collaboration with Station House Opera – taking place in a shop at the Brixton Market.

18/05/2010 @ 09:35 am

Parrot is back from a R&D trip on the Isle of Wight. We solidified the concept for the  new show on the beach of Woody Bay while Tom recorded waves crashing on the shore. We can reveal that there will be darts, 90s fashion and a story of failed sportsman.

We also created a short film Again! starring our multi-talented design member - in respectable, complete nude.

14/03/2010 @ 5:15 pm

Hello one and all to the new nesting ground of Parrot {in the} Tank!

We have plenty to fill you in on and this is place for us to do it. You are free to leisurely peruse any recent news at any time of the night or day. From here you can discover more on our up and coming projects, shows, collaborations, workshops and more… Marvellous.

October 2009 marked a landmark for Parrot as we became artistic associates of the artsdepot in North Finchley, celebrating our inauguration by developing a piece for their fifth birthday that involved a huge indoor hot air balloon.

We are also excited about running a community project as part of Ignite, artsdepot’s Education & Outreach programme, which will put the Excursions to the test in front of young people exploring media in performance.

Parrot has just finished our second term teaching at the Central School of Speech and Drama, most recently mentoring first year BA (Hons) Theatre Practice students on their devised London Walks performance projects.

And finally, Parrot is currently working on a brand new show to premiere at artsdepot in the near future. Watch this space for more information!