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 taken from the Co-producers’ emails in April and May 2009 – stay in touch to follow how the project has developed since then.

Thu 02/04/2009 10.16 Lemn Sissay, Artist in Residence – “Spring is here and you deserve an epic and famous poem that celebrates nature and so much more.”

Mon 06/04/2009 17.26 Specialist Aggregates “Thank you for your “Wish List” , I’m having slight palpitations over the volume of Oysters and Mussel shells we have in stock but don’t worry I will make sure you have a good selection of suitable alternatives if I don’t have these.“

Tue 07/04/2009 09.11 From Keith Khan, Site Designer – “the rough proposed plan we have of how to “circumnavigate” the RFH through the show”

Tue 07/04/2009 20.56 from Pete Flood, Bellowhead – “I have an idea of how to go about [making creaking sounds], but I’ll need to get rope, rosin and a few other bits and bobs.”

Fri 10/04/2009 13.43 From Andrew Steggall, Director – “Amazing music on the CD you gave me. The kind of pulsing chants are amazing. We should really think about using Jude Akuwudike’s native, Nigerian language with all its percussive and onomatopoeic qualities”

Fri 17/04/2009 12.28 From Andrew Steggall, Director – “Do you have an image yet? I thought a silhouette of a bird/man creature would be cool. Or a photo of one of our kids with white chalk on his face…”

Mon 20/04/2009 10.23 From Pete Flood, Bellowhead – “Apologies for the awful singing and voiceovers, the embrionic arrangements and all other shortcomings – these are just sketches…Hopefully they won’t scare the schildren too much!”

Fri 24/04/2009 17.30 From Shan Maclennan, Creative Director, Learning & Participation – “We have a strong sound world emerging through Bellowhead which can go beyond the composition of the songs and I think we should make the most of this.”

Wed 29/04/2009 17.07 From Andy Mellon, Bellowhead – “when London orchestras use things like this they hire them from a place in Acton called (ironically) “Bell Percussion”…I couldn’t see any church bells on their site, but it might be worth giving them a bell!!!”

Wed 06/05/2009 20.06 From Alexandra Brierley, Co-producer – “So you know, all shells etc are ordered and due to arrive at Wyvil by 9am on Monday. They were a bit short of oyster shells so have boosted numbers with scallop and something else. Hope that is ok.“

Wed 06/05/2009 22.05 From Andrew Steggall, Director – “would be brilliant if we could achieve with the noise machine from my point of view…That it can be climbed on to a height that is not dangerous for the children…That at least part of it can be seen across the space (so, tall I guess)…That it plays a part in our seaside, fishing village, wedding scene…”

Thu 21/05/2009 18.19 From Alexandra Brierley, Co-producer – “Trousers are a one size fit all jobby”

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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 taken from the Co-producers’ emails in March 2009 – stay in touch to follow how the project has developed since then.

Tue 10/03/2009 07.21 From Andrew Steggall, Director – “That sound is going to be vital – sending voices and words echoing around the South Bank – causing images and words to resonate all the way to the Young Vic maybe! And not by being “realised” physically but by being allowed to echo in the ears of the audience, pricking their own, active imaginations.
That the central event could be a wedding – two long tables for a hundred guests – photographers waiting for the bride and groom – posters up inviting the public to the wedding – maybe it is even advertised as a wedding! Except that it is interrupted by the Mariner who then leads the hopefully curious and intrigued public away from the wedding and into the world of the imagination…”

Tue 10/03/2009 11.03 From Alexandra Brierley, Co-producer – “the creative team have now decided that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner project this summer will not be needing to close any roads.”

Tue 10/03/2009 11.42 From Alexandra Brierley, Co-producer – The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Introduction: “Facile credo, plures esse Naturas invisibiles quam visibiles in rerum universitate.” – T. Burnet, Archaeol. Phil. P.68 (1692) Translation: “I can easily believe, that there are more invisible than visible Beings in the universe.”

Wed 11/03/2009 13.53 From Andrew Steggall, Director – “He may be silent a mime on long legs with white hair and wings.”

Thu 12/03/2009 12.33 From Alexandra Brierley, Co-producer – “a vocal animateur to teach the choral aspects of the music”

Mon 16/03/2009 12.07 From Alexandra Brierley, Co-producer – “we do hope that the children taking part in the R&D will be familiar with the story and the broad themes of the poem.”

Tues 17/03/0/2009 17.40 From Lucy Bradley, Assistant Director – “Thanks again for thinking of me for this project. It sounds great- I have been obsessed by the lines Water water everywhere but not a drop to drink since I discovered the Ancient Mariner as a child so would love to be involved in engaging more children in the piece.”

Tue 24/03/2009 11.34 From Brendan Kelly, Bellowhead – “the way we could do this is to request that every child learns and recites one line or two or even a single word from the original poem. This will spur an imagination fed by the poem and encourage reading as well as giving our sessions a spring board for imaginative ideas…The text as a whole is long winded and possibly not the easiest for a young reader. Is there a simplified version of the text which could be sent to schools which may encompass the tale in a page or two? which could be discussed in school making the story more accessible.”

Tue 24/03/2009 19.33 From Shan Maclennan, Creative Director, Learning & Participation – “sometimes just watching children as they listen or as they imagine can produce the most amazing imagery which in its ‘non-performance’ is very revealing.”

Thu 26/03/2009 21.52 From Andrew Steggall, Director – “Pete introduced us to Albanian Polyphony as a musical language which we thought was excellent and useful; we listened to a little bit of Les Choristes as an example of another type of choral, ethereal singing that the children could do; we agreed it would be good to explore the assonance and plosive, onomatopoeic quality of the words in, for example, the storm section.”

Fri 27/03/2009 20.43 From Lemn Sissay, Artist in Residence, Southbank Centre – “We should be on an Ancient mariner media alert.”

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