the old electric Archives - Blackpool Social Club

26 Jan

The Old Electric showcase Blackpool’s emerging scriptwriting talent

Linda Hampton0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & PerformanceBlackpool, Blackpool and the Fylde College, blackpool arts scene, performance, the old electric, Theatre, workshops

Local actor and writer Linda Hampton was invited to take part as a reader for this live event hosted by The Old Electric, on a cold January night. Each year at the culmination of the annual scriptwriting course offered by The Old Electric performing arts organisation in Blackpool, participating writers are invited to show their work-in-progress to a live audience. Six Blackpool-based writers – George Bamber, Angela Murphy, Amanda Webster, Joshua Shaw, Lyndsey Barlow and Lydia Warrilow - have been developing their stories under the guidance of Melanie Whitehead, Artistic Director of The Old Electric. She has been helping the…

05 Jan

Props Workshop Participant’s Blog – The Old Electric

Louise Ashcroft0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & PerformanceBlackpool, Props Workshop, the old electric, Theatre

Helen Gore recently attended the Props and Parades sessions arranged by The Old Electric and wrote this blog about her experiences, which she has shared with us. Influenced by some of my favourite TV and stage shows, I have always had an interest in how the props were made in order to bring these real objects or extraordinary creatures to life. It’s in these moments of watching a rat puppet teach history or a malevolent ghost dismantle a living room on stage that inspire me to have a go at making these things myself. This interest led me to the…

02 Jan

Performing Poetry Workshop Participant’s Blog – The Old Electric

Blackpool Social Club0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken WordBlackpool, poetry, the old electric, workshop

Margaret Benson recently attended the Performing Poetry Skills sessions arranged by The Old Electric and wrote this blog about her experiences, which she has entitled, I found a leaflet and changed my life .... All my life I’ve been writing, poems, short stories, plays and even thirty thousand words of a novel and cruelly abandoned the main protagonist going round and round a roundabout trying to decide which way to go. She’s still there, just as almost everything I’ve ever written is stuffed in a drawer, or stored on a memory stick; there are even a couple of floppy discs…

21 Aug

Poetry Performance Workshops with The Old Electric

Louise Ashcroft0 CommentsLiterature & Spoken WordBlackpool, poetry, Spoken Word, the old electric, workshop

In the lead up to her upcoming workshops, local performer Liz Wilkinson shares her thoughts with us about performing poetry and how this can differ from character work in plays or singing, via her blog:- Speak the speech... trippingly on the tongue Reading your poetry aloud before an audience is terrifying. Poetry is unique in its ability to show the vulnerability of the author. In an art form where every line matters there is no space for spare words, no flannel, no obfuscation. Every single word signals your emotions and when you are brave enough to stand alone and share…

03 Oct

Theatre Review: Martha Pailing – Chat Shit, Get Hit

Mully0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & PerformanceArt, artist, blackpool art scene, community, performance, the old electric

The Blackpool-born performance artist's new show will shock and delight you, but no one will leave without realising something about themselves. Full disclosure: watching Martha Pailing’s latest work-in-progress show Chat Shit, Get Hit will be a very different experience if you’re a woman than it was for me as a man. If you are a woman going to see this startling work of spoken word and performance art, I imagine you might be wearily familiar with the ideas she explores, from the bubbling undercurrent of female rage to the reasons this rage rears its head. But if you’re a man,…

27 Feb

Theatre review: Barely Visible

David Simper0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & PerformanceBlackpool, blackpool arts scene, dance, Fylde Coast, LGBT, the old electric

I wolf down a chip supper after work and catch my usual service 3 bus for my first visit to The Old Electric venue and a radical, one-woman dance show. On entering, I had no idea what to expect. Entering the stageless auditorium, I find myself on the front row of this intimate space – as a shy person, not necessarily good for me, but hey, I try and go with it. The only scenery was a metal disk with a protruding pole. Right on cue, choreographer and performer, Rowena Gander, appears and the show is on. It consists of…