AVAILABILITY
Commissions
I will dramatise any text for any medium - stage, radio,
film or television. I will also abridge any text for reading (radio, audiobooks),
and welcome inquiries and commissions for words-and-music programmes,
or scripts for other forms of performance. I am interested in the crossovers
between words and the other art forms - painting, sculpture, music
and dance.
Readings
I give regular readings of my own poetry and short stories. These
can involve discussions with audiences about subject matter, my particular
(but not exclusive) interest in issues of gender and fiction, and the
way in which Jewish themes are part of my work. Fees by arrangement.
Music
I give readings and talks about Salamone Rossi and his music and social
context, using a mixture of lecture, poetry and short story. Fees by arrangement.
My early music group, SIENA ENSEMBLE, currently offers three programmes for either full-length concerts with intervals, or shorter one-hour events, suitable for lunchtime or late-night performance.
1. Who Wrote Salamone Rossi?
This is a programme of music by Salamone Rossi, Jewish composer at the Gonzaga court in Mantua at the turn of the 17th century. We include a cross-section of Rossi's music: Italian two, four and five-part madrigals, trio sonatas, and some of his settings of Hebrew texts to Italianate polyphony. The group consists of two singers, two recorder players, viols, harpsichord and chitarrone. The event also includes a poem linking the musical pieces, creating a seamless, dramatic and musical mix. (See CD.) Fees by arrangement.2. Plain and Fancy
A programme based on the life and times of Benvenuto Cellini, 16th century gold-and silver-smith, braggart, musician and sculptor. The music is drawn from Italy, France and Germany, ranging from plain chansons to ornate Renaissance decoration. This programme also has an original text by me, drawing on Cellini's famous Autobiography and his Treatises on Sculpture and Metalwork. The mix of words and music is a seamless entertainment. The programme has three musicians, using voice, recorders and viol. Fees by arrangement.3. The Marriage of True Minds
A programme based on the imagined relationship between Shakespeare and the Dark Lady of the Sonnets. The music is drawn from the early 17th century, and while it includes some of the songs from the plays, is very far from being a Shakespeare 'pops' concert. The text is an original dramatic story of the relationship, puncutated and illustrated by some of the characteristically English songs and instrumental music of the time. Voice and viola da gamba. Fees by arrangement.
Teaching
I am available for Creative Writing teaching at University, college, adult
education, and sixth-form level. I am happy to take on one-off sessions,
day-long courses, weekend and longer residential courses. Fees by arrangement.
I teach poetry, playwriting and prose fiction, and am particularly interested in expanding students' grasp of form, and clarifying and exploring the critical differences between form. This is partly to help acquire craft writing skills, but also to enable people to clarify which forms they feel most comfortable in writing.
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