15th Jan 2014 In five days (the 20th) I will start my new job, my start time is 3:30 in the afternoon, but I will start my journey to work at about five o’clock on saturday the 18th! I’m traveling 3170 miles from home. That’s one hell of a commute. I’m off to Tyumen, Russia! So what am I doing traveling all this way? Well, my job title when I'm out there is ‘theatre practitioner’, but the easiest way of explaining I will be doing is directing plays, two casts every two weeks (i’m going for 90 days!), working with mostly under 18’s, who don’t necessarily speak very good english... oh yeah and the plays are in English! We will start with Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer night’s dream’, but an abridged and modernized (language) version that I have adapted my self, I will also direct an original play that I have written called ‘The whale in the bath tub’, and an adaptation of Peter Pan, and possibly I will write some more play’s while I am there. All the plays will feature original music, that I have busy working on. This is an an amazing opportunity and I can’t wait...

So why a Midsummer Nights Dream? Any one who I've ever discussed plays with, will know my mixed and sometimes lukewarm feelings about old Bill shakes’ plays. It's not that I don't like them, in fact if every one was unaware of his work, I would totally be saying 'What! People need to know about this dude.' But every body in the English speaking world can quote Shakespeare (weather they mean to or not.) And for me this is the problem, his plays are done to death, I have literally seen 'twelfth night' 12 times, and trust me after the sixth production I saw, I was getting nothing new from it. No matter how creative your production, I feel every thing that has to said about this play... Has been said. I also question the relevancy of his plays, ok, the stories are simple so all it takes is a little artist spin, and you can make some kind of comment that's socially relevant, but I think they would have more poignancy if we all took a step from them. I discussed at grate length with the artistic director (at the Oxford World Theatre) about what plays to do...

18th Jan If I could time travel, i’d go back 10 years, and say to my 12 year old self “guess what?! Your going to Russia!”. My 12 year old self would say “Good, I am please you are acutely doing something productive with your life. Are Green Day still going?” It’s just about to go 15:00 GMT, I have two hours left in burbs. Two hours before I leave the warm 10c of South West Essex for the not so toasty climate of -22c; Siberia. I honestly can’t imagine what that feels like, I couldn't feel my toes after doing a promo job for 8 hours the other week and it was only 4c, that’s hot compared to Tyumen at the moment. I feel like I should be more scared at the prospect of leaving the EU for the first time ever in my life, (and oh did mention, I'm traveling by self?) but I'm not scared, I’m so friggin excited! Ok, I am a little worried about the connecting flight at moscow, I don’t like getting on national rail from london Bridge (which let’s be honest kids, is a pain in the butt, ‘platform alteration’? why I...

It’s 10 past eight in the morning, Moscow time, although my body is telling me it the middle of the night; it’s only just four in the morning in london, it will dark. Moscow's still dark to, which is a little strange. Even on the shortest day back home the sun would be up by now. It’s -22 hear, I haven't yet been outside, but as I exited the plane even though the airport tunnel I could see my breath the moment I stepped off , I'm still wondering what that kind of cold really feel’s like, It won’t be long till I find out. It was very surreal going though passport control, I had a dream about an airport about a week ago, and maybe I had seen some pictures somewhere but it was the airport from my dream, and large dome structure surrounded by windows. it was reassuring and disconcerting at the same time. I’m suspired I managed to sleep pretty much the whole of the first flight, i’ve had insomnia on and off for at least five years, and recently, it had been rearing it’s ugly head, yet for some reason, on a plane, surrounded by...

23rd January  Jet lag is hideous! I think finally I'm over it. The worst part is, not the sleeping at the right time thing, but the food thing.  Breakfast has always been my favorite meal, but at the moment I still finding it hard to stomach, when it’s 9am hear my body still thinks it 4am can is still saying “why are you eating at this time! You haven't had any alcohol!” I kinda wish i’d had a few days to settle as, although the rehearsal are going well, I do feel I'm not quite at my best yet as I’ve still been feeling the knock on effects of 16 hours of traveling at weekend and the five hour time difference. I spent every waking hour doing prep, as I mentioned previously; ‘the curve ball’: finding out i was also directing Treasure Island 10 hours before starting. So I'm looking forward to having a really long sleep at the the weekend. I will keep you posted as to how rehearsals are going.

I’m now in my 4th week in russia! It’s gone soooooo fast! Two shows down and only a few days until the next two shows are complete! The first two shows went amazingly! The treasure island cast, I’ll be honest at times I had my doubts, some of them were painfully shy, but on show day BOOM! Actors! I think these guys also deserve a lot of credit, as they where all peers, and that can be tricky especially when you are a teenager, and maybe you have a crush on some one, or you don’t get along with that person, but they worked hard, and the final result was grate! A midsummer nights dream team. What can I say, I think this group of students are very special, so playful, energetic and so hard working, we did have a bit of panic the night before the show, as not all the lines had been learnt, but they worked together, and more than pulled it off! Performing for some people can be scary, really scary. Speaking in another language can scary. Working with a director who doesn't speak you native language can be confusing, put all of these thing...

HI! so as you can see, the Yucky peas show was a colorful and beautiful affair, and if it wasn't for the room full of parents at the show, I would have burst into tears of joy... i’ve been feeling that lot recently, the urge to bust in to tears of joy, honestly seeing young people transform over the two week rehearsal period is a feeling that feels so much than I ever could have imagined. Some of the cast had very little english and were very young (aged 7!), and as i said I DO NOT SPEAK RUSSIAN! Yet we put on a play, a really young Russian cast and an english director... oh and... no translator, that is a credit to how attentive and hard working they were, we didn't have translator but they did it! I’m aware this is really uncomprahensive pice of writing but that’s what thinking about these kids dose to me... leaves me inarticulate and speechless! They were amazing!   

On friday the 28th of February for the first time ever the whale in the bath tub was performed by cast comprised of students at 49 school in Tyumen. It was MAGICAL! SO the weeks prior to meeting my cast, I had been working with some of the younger students at 49 school, and unfortunately there where a lot of behavior problems, and they had little to no English vocabulary, so it wasn't the funest part of russian adventure, so i was a little anxious about meeting the older students. However with in minutes of meeting the whale in the bath tub cast I knew it was going to be a good show. But i had no idea just how good. Thank you so much to the amazing students at 49 school, for bringing this show to life in such a beautiful way! I couldn't be happier. For me this play is very special. It the first play that has been performed that 100% my own work. All the previous plays i have written/ directed/ composed music for in the past have been adaptions, but this wasn't. The inspiration for this play, came a week before leaving for russia...