Antenna

On Wednesday 21st March I performed part of my long poem '1969' at Antenna in Nottingham, as part of Nottingham Writers' Studio's 'Word of Mouth' event (which happens three or four times a year).  The local actor Gary Keane played the part of Neil Armstrong (not Louis Armstrong, as the compere Robin Vaughan-Williams indvertently said).  Gary did a great job of forcing me to shake the rug of the text, getting the dust off something I've been seeing as 'just text' for a good few years now.  We woke it up.  Plus, if I'd played Neil (or Louis) my American accent would have glided strangely into Cornish or Australian...  So a big, big thank you to him.  A YouTube video of the 1969 moonlanding was screened behind us, while 'Approaching Silence', an ambient piece by David Sylvian was played simultaneously as we spoke.  I chose it because it's unobtrusive yet has an uncanny way of evoking space and weightlessness.  I love Sylvian's work.  This was my first forray into a multimedia performance and I think it worked well - I felt captivated as I spoke.  Lost in it.  Just hope the audience (at least 50 people) was too - though the video footage, shortly to be uploaded onto YouTube, shows me reassuringly in charge and professional.  But I don't want my performance to be an extension of my teacherly abilities.  I think being OUT of control, within preconceived parameters, might be a damn sight more interesting...  I've got a taste for this now.  I wish I could do the whole of '1969' in a similar way... with actors, images, sound.  It's not a poem I could ever bring alive on my own.