Up the Garden Path

The side of the house, and the seesaw! A definite area for some action, though I don't know if the seesaw would support anyone's weight...

Up the hallway

The hallway. The house is very simple, a box divided into boxes coming off the central hallway. At the end of the hallway, the lounge, kitchen and laundry.

I find myself quite excited now about moving in. We have the keys in 10 days, but need to leave the furniture at the old house while until it sells.

Blue Room

Here is the Blue Room. This is my favourite of the 3 square bedrooms, so I think we will sleep in here and not use it for devising. I love the way it has been painted. Of course, if you could see it close-up, you'd see that all the paint is totally cracked.

The Kitchen

Another photo, this is of the kitchen. Probably my favourite room in the house, an definitely the sunniest.

Photos of the House!!!

Here are the photos I have taken this morning (a lovely sunny day) with my beautiful new digital camera. I'm very impressed with it. A Canon A530. If only it was as easy to upload the photos to this blog as it is to take them! I've tried three times now and they don't seem to upload!

Things are moving along in a relaxed way. I have been reading a lot of books, and have been thinking about beginning to write some poetry, and have one lead on a third male actor.

I have talked today to Patrick Duffy about doing some designs for the set (by which I mean painting the walls) - something along the lines of Ralph Hotere's "Song Cycle", which incorporates words and was made as a backdrop for a touring poetry performance.

I am halfway through a fantastic book by Jill Tweedie called "In the Name of Love, A History of Sexual Desire". I've also enjoyed Angela Carter's book "Love," and William Nicholson's "The Trial of True Love" - a great read.

Obsessive Love

Well, I have many books out of the library and the theme of the week seems to be obsessive love (which seems to be the same thing as "love at first sight"). I am at the same time both enlightened and confused... enlightened about events in my own life and behaviours I have acquired and confused about, well, what to do about it. And what application does it all have to the development of the piece?

I have been obsessed once in my life, and it was an extraordinary experience. Very very painful. This is the thought that is following me today: very often, the higher and more intense the passion, the more pain and confusion, the more 'wrong-ness' of the love affair. But at the same time I am not quite ready to allow that falling passionately in love is a terrible idea, bad for your health and ultimately destructive of everything good in your life.

I have also been on the receiving end of an obsession. This was not so painful for me, but certainly uncomfortable.

Is it really true that most occurrences of "falling in love" are unreciprocated? Is it everybody's experience that life is full of triangles, love missing its target? How often do two people fall in love with one another? I think this has happened to me once in my life, despite many loving relationships and many, many experiences of falling in love. And is my conception that I can expect at some point in my life to be fallen in love with by the person I am in love with and have an amazing soul connection and long-lasting relationship just a cultural construct, a myth that most people in western society have been brought up with and choose to believe?

Intimacy

I have two actors, a man and a woman. I'm looking for another man. The piece is to be an exploration of intimate relationships. The dream seemed to point the way. Looking at what happens in our reality, our fantasy, our anxiety, around love and relationships. I think this is totally appropriate to working in a house too.

We move into the house on the 1st August, at least we will start paying and have the keys from then. We can start rehearsing then too. I only hope my house sells quickly! It is very cold at the moment, so I think we will continue living here until the house sells.

I have bought a digital camera, so there will be photos to post soon.

I have written some text and plan to work with a mixture of my visions for scenes or part of scenes, maybe some scripts (Pinter's "The Lover" for example), and some very open exercises to see what comes from the actors.

The dream I had last night.

I was in bed with James. I was aware that I hadn't seen him for a long time. He was quite skinny, and I felt his back and bottom with my hand.
Then I wondered what had happened to Milton. I went out to look for him and found him asleep in a very uncomfortable position on the stairs. I invited him to come back to bed with me. I felt sorry for him, apologetic, and guilty, like I wanted or needed to make it up to him because it was his rightful place (in my bed) and I had let someone usurp him. But he wasn't angry (or didn't show it). Then, when he came back to the bedroom, James was very angry. He and a male friend of his who was suddenly also there acted like I'd misled them, making them believe they were welcome in my bed and could slip back into a relationship with me and have it exactly how they wanted it.
James had by now become quite fat and sick-looking. I felt unjustly accused and just wanted to get rid of these 2 demanding men who were encroaching on my personal space and my life.

Searching for the house 1: 42 Winchester St. Lyttelton

Have just been to see this house. It has 4 bedrooms and a seesaw in the garden!! It is between two churches on Winchester St. right where the bus stops.

It is very old and completely falling down. The owner has bought it to knock it down and build 2 2-storey townhouses there. He plans to do this "in a year or two."

The good things about this house:

• big rooms
• weird factor (or "character")
• garden/yard (small)
• in Lyttelton
• near bus stop
• cheap (they're asking $235/week but I think it could definitely be less)
• we could do anything we want to it - paint, pull up carpets, whatever

The bad things abut this house:

• only available for a limited period
• very hard to heat and cold and miserable in winter

I can imagine having a plan to test this whole project out on this house and then find out

a) whether I really want to own the house that becomes Laverne Laverne

b) whether this is really want I want to do

c) if Lyttelton is the right place

I would take the house from September 1st (the date I have in mind to begin the whole Laverne project), for $200/week, until May next year (with a guarantee that he won't ask us to leave before then). I would make one or two pieces in the house, not amass too much stuff (further costumes, wardrobes, lights etc.).

It is very attractive because of the sieze and price (and the fact that we can do what we want), but I think I will take a look around at some others.

The New Laverne Project - Christchurch City New Zealand

Laverne is a new art space project, to be located in a house in Christchurch city or port of Lyttelton.

The goals of the project are to make art - primarily performance to begin with - without the need for public funding or ticket sales. Information about performances will be disseminated by email and through this blog.

For more information, contact Laverne at oilnutcrusher@yahoo.co.nz