This Saturday (June 22nd) in Victoria Square Birmingham, from 11am – the OakMobile – our rather special (and up until this point top secret!) collaboration with the National Trust will be unveiled.

To launch the OakMobile, the National Trust is putting on a whole load of stuff for people to do in the square, with activities running all day (11-5). Yes, we know the weather forecast isn’t great, but after Taking Flight in the monsoon last week we’re ready for anything, so bring a brolly and come out to see us….!

There’s lots of interesting stuff happening around Coventry over the next week. Ludic Rooms are running another mobile phone trail around the city centre – look out for yellow dots in the windows of participating shops in the precinct and answer the questions posed by the scrolling LEDs to take part. Ludic Rooms were responsible for the rather brilliant EnactCov trail last year, so this should be fun.

Talking Birds (and its individual artists) are also involved in the festival:

For the last month, Janet has been working with Hi8us Midlands and Anne Forgan on the Think Space project, exploring with a group of young people how they can harness design and making skills to transform their living spaces in temporary accommodation. The Think Space Lab – opposite the main West Orchards/Debenhams entrance – where they’ve been working now houses an exhibition of objects made or upcycled using their newfound skills. More info on the blog.

Next Tuesday (June 11th) is Pecha Kucha Coventry’s latest event – this time curated by Ludic Rooms as part of the Mysteries (which means Janet gets to enjoy PKN as a punter instead of organising it for once, which she’s rather looking forward to!) More details here.

Meanwhile Derek has been working on Talking Birds’ official contribution to the Mysteries Festival! With Peter Cann (director of Talking Birds’ Greek space epic ‘Troy Story’) he has been crafting a series of songs inspired by the life of Coventry-born inventor of the jet engine, Frank Whittle. Containing such memorable lines as “I’m afraid you’re just too little, Mr. Whittle!”, these songs have been practised and practised by children from four Coventry schools (Sir Frank Whittle, Courthouse Green, Edgewick Park and Sacred Heart) and – along with choreography & direction by Emily Lloyd-Roberts – will be performed in Millennium Place (under the Whittle arches outside the Transport Museum) on Thursday 13th and Friday 14th June at 12.45 and 1.30pm.

For the full Mysteries Festival schedule, check out the 2013 online brochure:
http://www.coventrymysteries.com/2013-schedule/

There’s a lot going on at the moment, so this is a quick dates round up for you:

June 2nd Whale at Pulse Fringe Festival, Ipswich

June 5th We’re Only Here Today at Pulse Fringe Festival, Ipswish

June 12th-14th Taking Flight in Millennium Place, Coventry as part of Coventry Mysteries Festival

June 22nd The OakMobile will be revealed somewhere in Birmingham

June 27th-29th The Trade in Lunacy (part 1 of the Asylum Trilogy) at The Shop Front Theatre, Coventry

July 6th-7th The Whale at the Lord Mayor’s Festival in Norwich

July 9th Troy Story at Birmingham Town Hall (4.30pm)

As spring has sprung (sort of) and it’s more than a month since the last blog post, it seems timely to let you all know about some changes here at Birds HQ. We’ve appointed the formidable (french pronunciation) Philippa Cross as Talking Birds’ General Manager – throwing her in at the deep end with the Stratford performances of Troy Story a few weeks back – and Nick, who’s been with Talking Birds since the very beginning, has now left his role as Joint Artistic Director to pursue some New Voyages. (Although there are plans afoot for him to reprise his legendary role of Trevor Goose this Christmas – watch, as they say, this space…)

Nick writes:

Flying the Nest

In March 1992, while filling out the Edinburgh Fringe Festival brochure entry, it became clear that we would need to commit to the name of the show (as yet unmade), and also the name of the company that was taking it up (also fairly unmade). Someone, I think it was Dave, suggested that since the show featured some birds that talked, we should call the show Talking Birds. And in a moment of breathtaking inspiration it was then suggested that we should call the company the same thing. It didn’t seem to matter to me at the time as I was sure the whole adventure would be over by early September.

Twenty one years later and the flock is still soaring across the skies in impressive V formation, but I’ve now left the rotation and am perched quietly on a telegraph line where I will watch the skein ride the updrafts from a distance.

It’s been a blast and I’ve learned most of life’s best lessons from the journey, not least the clever deployment of words like ‘skein’, and I’m sure occasional Talking Birds brochure entries will use the Walker biro, but until that time, leading from the front will be the formidable duo Derek and Janet ably assisted by the fresh pair wings of Philippa who joins as General Manager.

To all those people I have befriended, loved, and worked with along the way (and those categories have very blurry edges), thank you for the fair wind and the beautiful skies.

Nick Walker, April 2013

TroyStory – our intergalactic opera retelling a couple of Homer’s epics – launches at Stratford Upon Avon Civic Hall on Friday – which means this week is all about the final preparations…

The orchestrated score is now with David Curtis, conductor of Orchestra of the Swan. On Tuesday it’s the last cast rehearsal in school (with the young people of Welcombe Hills, Thomas Jolyffe and Wilmcote schools). On Wednesday, the orchestra rehearse. On Thursday, we get the set and tech kit into the venue and on Friday, everyone will converge on the Civic Hall for a dress run and then the first show.

It would be great if you could join us for the show on Friday at 4.30 or Saturday at 2.30. This is what you would be letting yourself in for:

It is the year 3000 and Odysseus is at home with his wife, son, robot and electronic goldfish when he is summoned to the war on Troy, a planet on the other side of the Galaxy. He might be the cleverest of all Earth’s Generals but has he got enough horse sense to defeat the Trojans? And can he get home through hyper space – which is packed with Sirens, nine headed monsters and giant one eyed sheep farmers? And will he get back before his wife gets fed up of knitting duvet covers and marries somebody else?

All these questions and more will be answered in an intergalactic opera made by Orchestra Of the Swan and Talking Birds in collaboration with Welcombe Hills, Thomas Jolyffe and Wilmcote schools. Featuring loads of singers, a bit of fighting and a few tricks, TroyStory takes two epic yarns from ancient Greece, puts them into the future and re tells them in round about two hours, (including a stop-off for refreshments)…

TroyStory includes the Illiad-inspired prequel to, and our acclaimed Space Odyssey. Tickets are on sale here – grab them while you can!

We get a little mention in this article about empty shops (though the Fish & Chip shop bit probably more accurately refers to our very good friends Theatre Absolute).

“…The General Manager will ensure the smooth running of the company, and enable the Artistic Directors to focus on the core creative work. Key areas of activity will be: strategic planning; company management; Board support; financial management; funding applications & relationships; monitoring and evaluation; partnership development; and project/office administration.”

Interested? Please download our full job pack by clicking here [PDF Format].

We get in to mac on Monday morning to premiere our new touring show We’re Only Here Today. It’s about door to door salesmen, the consequences of a knock at the door, and what might get left on a doorstep – with a bit of warfare and Shakespeare thrown in for good measure. There are still some tickets available for the Tuesday & Wednesday night shows from mac Birmingham’s website and there’s a post-show discussion on Wednesday, er, after the show, funnily enough…

Hope to see you there – let us know what you think of the show, won’t you?

Actually, the intergalactic design team from Wilmcote School are out at a well-deserved morning break right now, since they have been working hard designing a Trojan Horse, Troy & Earth armoury and standards and a hover plough from the year 3000…

General Manager Talking Birds (part time – 2 ½ days/week)

Having celebrated our 20th year in 2012, Talking Birds is now entering an exciting period of development and change. We’re looking for an exceptional person to work 2 ½ days a week as General Manager, alongside the Artistic Directors, as we begin our second year as an Arts Council NPO, (the company’s 11th year as a revenue funded client of ACE).

Since 1992 Talking Birds has been producing thoughtful, playful, resonant, mischievous and transformative meditations on people and place. Our work, which we call Theatre of Place is characterised by a distinctive blend of humour, music and visual flair in venues both conventional and unconventional across the UK and internationally. Often our work is made collaboratively, connecting people and place in richly imaginative moments of identification and insight. We aim to design accessibility into the heart of our projects and believe in the capacity of art to effect positive change for individuals and for communities.

We’re looking for someone who really gets what we do, and who wants to be an integral part of our ongoing development. This person will be organised, strategic, flexible, rigorous, supportive, challenging, constructive – and full of energy, enthusiasm and curiosity. They’ll have five years or more experience.

The General Manager will ensure the smooth running of the company, and enable the Artistic Directors to focus on the core creative work. Key areas of activity will be: strategic planning; company management; Board support; financial management; funding applications & relationships; monitoring and evaluation; partnership development; and project/office administration.

If all of that excites and intrigues you please download our full job pack by clicking here [PDF Format].

To request it in another format please call 024 7615 8330.

Shakespeare, Homer, The Great War and the National Trust are the things that are preoccupying and occupying us at the moment. Nick’s written a version of Macbeth for Contender Charlie and China Plate which has been Triggered at Warwick Arts Centre and it opens this week (and is sold out).

King Lear and the Great War feature in the new piece we’re making: We’re Only Here Today. Early versions of it had outings at Bitesize festival and the RSC-hosted Pilot Night, we had a few development days on it last month and start rehearsals proper in a couple of weeks. The show is premiering at mac in Birmingham on March 12th & 13th and will be touring later this year.

We’re also developing the intergalactic prequel to 2011’s out-of-this-world (bdumtish) Space Odyssey, working on Homer’s Illiad with 3 Stratford schools and the rocket-powered Orchestra of the Swan. This is working up to performances of Troy Story [the Illiad AND the Odyssey] in Stratford in April and Birmingham in July.

We’ve been invited to demo the newest version of the Difference Engine at the Future Everything Digital meets Disability unconference in March.

And last weekend, jv joined a group wandering round the National Trust’s Charlecote Park at 4o’clock in the morning, taking photos for the 4am Project (that’s one of the pics, above).

So…that’s what we’re thinking about at the moment – how about you?