Thursday September 24th 2009 - The Albany, Deptford, London

Lit Up 2 : Creating Live Literature

Welcome to the second in the series of three Lit Up Showcase & Conference events attended by representatives from the live literature sector - venue programmers, artists, producers and funders. Click the play button below to watch a short film of the day:

Full programme

Registration and coffee

WelcomeLobby/ Red Room
Keynote speech: Baba Israel, exciting new Artistic Director of Contact, Manchester, and internationally renowned poet, emcee, theatre artist, beatboxer, director, producer and author opens the day

Showcase 1Theatre
Polar Bear – Three months later, his second showing of The Return
A spoken screenplay about a man’s battle with where he is from, this new performance story is written and performed by Polar Bear, one of the UK’s most exciting spoken word artists.

Showcase 2Theatre
Aoife Mannix and Janie Armour present Different Words For Snow
Poet Aoife Mannix and musician Janie Armour embark on an exploration of new ways of combining spoken text with music, resulting in a gorgeous fusion of voice, accordion, piano, mandolin, trombone, percussion and bass.

Showcase 3Theatre
Stacy Makishi presents Around the World in a Lunar Day
Stacy Makishi's Around the World in a Lunar Day teases out the strangeness of everyday life and leaves one feeling less lonely. It is an upliftingly sad and elegiac tale about love, loss and moonlight.

Seminars TBA
(attend one seminar of your choice from the following two – choose on the day)

Seminar 1 - Hybridity.
A chance to explore an evolving and emerging practice that sets artists free from any perceived ghetto, a particularly live issue for live literature and spoken word. How can venue programmers and producers broker relationships between artists from different disciplines and help them find their voices in a new, shared province? What can happen when they do? Spoken word artists have, in recent years, grown in skill, confidence and notoriety by working together with, in particular, theatre directors to help them free their words and release them to a live audience. Listen to David Micklem discuss hybridity with acclaimed spoken word artist, Polar Bear, and share your own views and experiences.

OR

Seminar 2 - Creating a Live Literature Show - Something Dark.
Hear some members of the creative team from one of the most successful live literature touring shows in recent years talk about the conception, making and touring of the show. Director of Apples and Snakes, Geraldine Collinge, leads this discussion with writer and artist Lemn Sissay, Gill Lloyd of ArtsAdmin and Amanda Roberts of mac.

Lunch Cafe
with facilitated networking (gentle and optional)

Showcase 4Theatre
Lemn Sissay performs a one-off show of poems and spoken word exclusively for Lit Up

Showcase 5Theatre
Justin Coe presents Danny’s Dictionary of Dads
Justin Coe presents highlights so far from “Danny’s Dictionary of Dads”, a full length spoken word show for family audiences currently in progress  with music by composer Peter Coates.    

Showcase 6Theatre
Ross Sutherland, Tim Clare and Joe Dunthorne present an excerpt from their one hour poetry show Found in Translation about limits, translation and imagination.   

Showcase 7Theatre
Luke Wright presents The Petty Concerns of Luke Wright 
Luke Wright returns with his fourth solo show. Set against a backdrop of grotty Travelodges and open mic London Luke tells the story of his ten years on stage.  Effortlessly mixing comedy and poetry to look past his own inflated ego and find out what really matters.  

Break Cafe/Red Room
with facilitated networking (gentle and optional)

Big Discussion and Networking Event

Reception Cafe

To Intimacy and Beyond Theatre
The Live Literature Consortium and The Albany present the premiere of To Intimacy and Beyond
From feather boas to match.com, Zena Edwards invites you to join a ‘conversation’ about human connection in the 21st century using lyrics, music and VJ visuals.  To Intimacy and Beyond promises an evening of electric improvisation between MCs, poets and musicians. Special guests acclaimed saxophonists Jason Yarde and Soweto Kinch and spoken word virtuosos HKB Finn and Maxwell Golden.
 
“the excitement of the unexpected is electric…not quite song, not quite poetry, not quite jazz but the point where all three meet in conversation.”  The Guardian

The Albany and Contact present Play It Back Cafe
Director of Contact Theatre, and Maxwell Golden, Lit Up Associate Artist plus special guests from the UK
and New York