Magnetic North is looking for performers for a new project with the working title The Story of the Blues.
What?
Blue, in the sense of a feeling or mood rather than a colour, comes from an old English word for melancholy, dating back to at least the 16th century. It is also, of course, synonymous with a type of music which celebrates melancholy.
The Story of the Blues draws on a diversity of sources, including popular and classical music, short stories by Katherine Mansfield, Kate Chopin and Anton Chekhov, Hitchcock’s Rear Window, Bach’s cantatas, and George Perec’s Life: A User’s Manual, to explore the state of unhappiness – the blues. Songs about loneliness and longing – from Purcell’s “When I am Laid in Earth” to Al Green’s “Tired of Being Alone” – are so ubiquitous and popular that they must answer some need we have to acknowledge and understand unhappiness.
It will feature a series of short glimpses into the lives of solitary characters, threaded together around a selection of sad songs.
The Story of the Blues is being developed as both an online and a theatre performance. Its online iteration will be as a series of short episodes, which will be threaded together to create a full-length theatre performance.
Creative team:
Directors – Nicholas Bone and Marisa Zanotti
Music director – Daniel Padden
Who?
We’re looking for performers who:
- have experience of working with text-based material,
- are used to working physically,
- have excellent musical skills – instrumental and vocal – and experience of playing with other musicians
- are comfortable working in an ensemble, working with physical and musical instructions, and devising work through exercises and tasks.
When?
- Two weeks of development 15-26 November 2021 (online with some optional in- person work in Edinburgh).
- Four weeks of further development and rehearsal leading to live and online sharings 7 March-1 April 2022 (online and in person in Edinburgh).
You will need to be available for both periods – there can be some flexibility about availability during the November period.
Work will be on ITC/Equity terms at a rate of £520 per week (£3120 in total), commuting, relocation and travel costs paid in accordance with ITC rates.