Literature & Spoken Word Community | Southbank Centre

Published below is the Captain’s Blog: extracts from the day to day course of the good ship The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Today’s entries are the final installment, taken from the Co-producers’ emails in June 2009.

Mon 08/06/2009 23.46 From Jessica Curtis, Costume Designer – “As far as an alternative machine structure goes, my original idea was a skinny-er version of this stairway, with more uprights and an eccentric higgledy piggledy feel…Firemans pole anyone?”

Tues 09/06/2009 20.06 From Lucy Macnab, Co-producer – “Great meeting with Sarah and Co from Slow food today. They’d like to bring 4 stalls to trade on 4th July, still tbc exactly what but thinking
1. Oysters
2. Pork and veggie pies
3. Drinks (ale/perry/apple juice/cider)
4. something sweet and child friendly. Thanks Sue, it’s a perfect match! They’re even coming in to do a tasting session and talk about Slow Food in one of the schools that’s working on the project.“

Wed 10/06/2009 15.31 From Nikki Shaill, Participation Assistant – “Oh how I love bunting! Great idea to get local community group involved in making the bunting…”

Thu 11/06/2009 11.56 From Sarah Moore, Slow Food London – “It roughly involves me doing a short talk (a few minutes) about chocolate, lots of ‘did you know…’ touching on environmental impact of food production, nothing heavy but just establishing the link and particularly relevant to chocolate, the issue of fair trade. I will blind test them on 2 varieties, one a cheap one and one organic fair trade one. I invite the children to express their observations in the different tastes, this usually causes huge excitement!”

Thu 11/06/2009 11.55 From Lucy Macnab, Co-producer – “I’ve just spoken to Gillian Melling, the older people’s coordinator at Waterloo Action Centre. She’d be really up for bunting making, preferably on Thursday 2nd July at the centre, with the Out and About club although some people would be able to walk along to Young Vic if that’s necessary. We’d have to provide sewing machines.”

Fri 12/06/2009 09.41 From Keith Khan, Site Design – “This all looks lovely. I like the one with flowers. Don’t we need more friendly information on this? A bit of the poem, go and buy a drink? relax, the performers will be all over you, on top of you, and a bit more of a “wedding” style menu?”

Fri 12/06/2009 11.01 From Lisa Bird, Foyles Manager – “Just to confirm, we will be stocking copies of the poem as well as copies of the illustrated edition at the time of the event.”

Fri 12/06/2009 23.40 From Jessica Curtis, Costume Designer – “just to let you know that Cherish and I had a grand day at the National finding clothes for Jude, Bellowhead, Life in Death and the Albatross.”

Tues 16/06/2009 08.06 From Lucy Macnab, Co-producer – “Hi everyone, I thought you and possibly the children might like to see this – it’s a photograph from yesterday’s Guardian newspaper. It is the contents of the stomach of a dead fledgling Laysan Albatross – including cigarette lighters, a toothbrush and many plastic items – laid out as a warning about pollution. The bird was found at Kure atoli, a remote Hawaiian island.  Apologies for the bad photo…I think it just shows you so neatly the story we are telling with our performance, about how we are damaging the planet and the albatross for real. Thank you all for working so hard on this amazing poem.“

Thu 18/06/2009 11.17 From Lucy Macnab,  Co-producer – “Just to let you know that we’ll be arranging a move of the planters and chairs from SbC Square. This is to make space for our performance of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Our production crew will move them using a forklift. Can you advise on where they are normally stored during cases like this?“

Tues 23/06/09 17.58 From Anne Doyle, Assistant Producer – “Hello, and thank you for your interest in singing with the Wedding Party procession. We’re sending these few points to make your participation as enjoyable and fun as possible.”

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