Goldfish rehearsals - Week One

And we're off.

The cast and crew of Goldfish gathered at our rehearsal room on Monday for the first readthrough of the script and a look at the final model box. Having only had the text for a few days, the actors were brilliant and it went as well as these things can.

It's always a terrifying moment when you hear the script for the first time. You can never be certain that the words that worked in your head will work in other people's mouths. But the rest of the team laughed and were quiet in all the right places so that's a good start.

The rest of the week has been a refining of the text and design. I've done another four (or is it five) drafts since Monday and on Friday we had the entire the National Theatre of Scotland team in to hear the final (fingers crossed) readthrough before we lock the script next week.

My personal highlight of this first week was going to visit the pupils of St Brides Primary. Attentive and funny and curious, they gave us excellent notes on the first scene. The best question came from an 8 year old boy who looked the director straight in the eye and asked seriously: Have you got a dog?

Short stories to download

The excellent AudioGO have two of my short stories to download. Both were originally written for BBC Radio 4.

Songbirds is read by Robin Laing and is my (rather bizarre) response to the theme of Twitter.

Elvis In Prestwick is read by Laura Fraser and is a story set on the day of Presley's only visit to the UK.

Have a listen and let me know what you think.

The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish

So it's official. I am now working on the new National Theatre of Scotland production of 'The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish' by Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean. I wrote a first draft two weeks ago and this week I am working on the second. It's a(nother) quick turn around as we begin rehearsals at the end of the month. It's just a bit too exciting.

We begin previews at The Beacon in Greenock on 25 April before touring Scotland. I will post more info regarding dates when I have them.

(Pic taken from original picturebook illustrated by Dave McKean)