'Would Be Nice Though...' in Norwich!

Odd Comic (that's me and Dot Howard) are presenting three “home-coming” shows after our sell-out success at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival!

Thursday 4th October, 6pm and Friday 5th October, 1:30 and 6pm

NORWICH PLAYHOUSE: 42-58 St. George’s Street, Norwich NR3 1AB

TICKETS: £6 from the bar at Norwich Playhouse, call 01603 612580 to reserve a place.

We are excited to be performing 'Would Be Nice Though...' on our own home turf!

I am currently in Edinburgh performing 'Would Be Nice Though' with Dot Howard. Our collaboration is Odd Comic www.oddcomic.co.uk

 'Would Be Nice Though...'is a site-specific performance in a real working office, those crucial moments before THAT job interview.

“intriguing, intelligent and frequently laugh-out-loud funny” **** Independent 

 “intelligent, hilarious, charming, witty, relevant and personal and more importantly it is as a completely successful work in an area of performance that’s still being defined.” ***** Broadway Baby 

 “Without giving too much away, Holly Bodmer and Dot Howard’s show is cleverly set up, interactive in a genuinely non-scary way, and shows off their considerable talents as improvisers.” **** The List 

 'Would Be Nice Though...' is performed twice daily at 12:30 and 16:30, Essential Edinburgh, Venue 114, 139 George Street, Edinburgh. Book your tickets here www.pleasance.co.uk/edinburgh 0131 556 6550

Strayed Champions

Posters from a performance about lost pets. These were pinned on trees in Mousehold Heath back in September. Photos by Kayla St Claire.

The piece was developed for a performance at a friends of ours brilliant wedding, in the Norwich Puppet Theatre last month. See photos below taken by Matthew Rumble.























Dot and I tempting back lost pets

It has been ages since I blogged on bodders blog because I have been busy undergoing my research and development project 'Grabbing Live Art by the Horns' and updating my progress on that blog! (see link from this blog) blogs blogs blogs!

It hasn't all been going, seeing, researching. I have also been receiving some fantastic mentoring from Curious and Wendy Houstoun and as a result have all sorts of exciting things tucked up my sleeves ready to jump out in 2012... fingers crossed.

I would like to share this photo with you, of all the props that I had under my bed displayed on a table in preparation for the 'mini marathon of performances' shown to Curious artists Helen Paris and Leslie Hill.



I also want to mention two performance events that recently happened. The first was a return of other/other/other's housecall which we did a lot of in 2010. The idea is to show works to each other in someone's house so it is kind of semi-public. The work can be completely new or a revised piece but it has to take on the specifics of the house/site. In September we did 'Mousecall' located on Norwich's Mousehold Heath.

It was a great day of sharing work and being on the heath. Dot Howard and I used the opportunity to show some work in progress from a project about human relations with animals, and performed a sound piece calling after lost pets. The photo (taken by Dot Howard) shows little Apache Sunrise and Champian Heartache.


Another new endeavour! I was commissioned by artist Will Teather to devise a performance to accompany his solo exhibition showcasing a series of paintings about 'the remarkable disappearing and reappearing Maudeline Spacks' see www.willteather.com Maudeline Spacks is a vanishing artist who one night vanished forever. At 7pm on wednesday the fifth October, she re-appeared in person at the Assembly House in Norwich. A member of the audience managed to snap this glimpse before she disappeared again...

I am here and you are not!

I AM HERE AND YOU ARE NOT

a performance about writing postcards and having a pleasurable time

Sunday 10th July, 2:00pm at the end of the Pier, Southend-on-Sea

Artside Festival 2011

http://www.artside.org.uk/

Would be Nice Though...

Would be Nice Though performed at the New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich as part of the PULSE festival on Weds 1st June. It was reviewed by Glen Pearce - go to www.glenstheatreblog.com

http://www.pulsefringe.com/

A Moving Experience...Art in the Underbelly

It's a busy week for Other/ Other/ Other! Fresh after finishing last weekends A good clean run, we are performing A moving Experience in Rumsey Well's Underbelly on Thursday May 26th from 8:00 pm.

http://www.rumseywells.co.uk/art-in-the-under-belly

'A good Clean Run'

Coming Soon to the Norfolk and Norwich Festival is a public run with a twist...

'A good clean run' Starts at 12 noon on Saturday 21st May (with signs monitoring air quality installed along the route from 6th May)

Other/other/other are observing the air quality of Norwich city streets through a route mapped by specially designed banners. On the last day they will either run or walk each section of the route, depending on how bad the air is. You may join in if you wish: you will be advised on the appropriate speed as the run unfolds...

http://agoodcleanrun.wordpress.com

Eleven Homes... photos and words

Eleven Homes was a very short performance I did as part of Norwich's ShopArt Live day. It was performed against a brick wall in the upper room of a disused building that was once an estate agents. The photos (taken by Holly Rumble) show the House Tiles lined up in the building's corridor after the performance.

'Eleven Homes'

1. 38 High Street

2. 100 Scotland Road

3. 18 Hawthorn Way (woof woof)

4. 11 Hope Street (cross out the 'street', write 'for' and something else to hope)

5. 368 Cherry Hinton Road

6. D302 Filey Road

7. 35 Princess Royal Terrace

8. 11 Royal Avenue

9. 17 Station Road (woof woof)

10. 2 Leechwell Lane

11. 2 Southacre

ShopArt LIVE

If you are in Norwich on Sunday 27th March 12pm - 6pm you might want to rock along to this...ShopArt! Live

I'm doing a performance as part of this event in which Other/Other/Other artists present site-specific work in a disused building (Upper King Street) that was once an Estate Agents. This is an interesting venue and a unique LIVE ART take on Norwich's successful ShopArt (organised by Norwich Arts Centre) See below for further details:

'Since last October ShopArt! has been brightening up Norwich city centre by putting art into empty shop windows. Now for one day only on Sunday 27 March we're going further by bringing an empty shop on Upper King St alive with a day full of music, performance, workshops, poetry, films, painting and surprises, over three split level floors of the huge maze-like building'. (Norwich Arts Centre, ShopArt!)

http://www.norwichartscentre.co.uk/
http://shopartnorwich.co.uk/
http://www.otherotherother.wordpress.com/

New Year and News

Dear one and all,

Happy New Year!!

I am looking forward to going to York where I havn't been for ages! I will be performing a freshly devised version of Private Joke at York St John University on Thurs 17th February as part of a Double Bill with live artist Emma Bennet. For more info see: www.yorksj.ac.uk/arts/faculty-of-arts/events/theatre-events

Private Joke is a solo, intimate, vocal piece that jokes and despairs about falling (over, down, in, out, to, behind, again). At the core of the joke is the recalling (cringing) of an incident. An accidental and unfortunately public incident when I fell over outside marks and spencers.

A monologue that manipulates the vocal similarity between the words fall, fail and fool. Exploring meanings of language and poetic notions, the audience is presented weaved trajectories of physical and metaphorical falls. These are delivered in the manner of subtle slapstick and pursued in a performance that presents its own flaws, jokes and stumbles.

Previously performed at Fringe Arts Bath, Unit 5 Norwich, Dartington College of Arts and Elevator Gallery Hackney.

(photograph by Annelies Puddy)

Other things coming up:
- Other/Other/Other participating in the Live Art finale of Norwich's ShopArt on March 27th in Upper King Street, see this link... http://www.otherotherother.wordpress.com/

Documentation from 'Would Be Nice Though'

Photo by John Boursnell (September 2010)

Documentation from Emergency Festival

Thanks to Jordan Ahmadzadeh for this video of 'Twice Cooked'
and thanks to Margaret Sharrow for her comments

Twice Cooked, Holly Bodmer performing at emergency 2010 from Jordan Ahmadzadeh on Vimeo

http://vimeo.com/15485987

performing in manchester

If you are in Manchester or are Manchester bound on October 1st and 2nd then please come along to Emergency at the Greenroom!

There are over 40 performances happening over the weekend. I am performing Twice Cooked on Saturday 2nd at 15:30 in the IABF Cafe.

'Twice Cooked' is about the complex ways in which we give and receive nourishment. It explores the notions of hosting, forcing, surviving and the fine line between caring and over-sugaring. Expect a broad knowledge of biscuit brands, mouth to mouth resuscitation, the quintessentially english tradition of talking to a plant and the more unusual practice of digesting a shoe.

For further details check out the website www.emergencymcr.posterous.com

groovy!

now that's what we call live art

Would Be Nice Though

a new performance by Dot Howard and Holly Bodmer
at the Norwich Arts Centre on Saturday 4th September
repeated every hour between 1pm till 3.30pm

Would be nice though is about those 20 minutes before that interview. Two candidates undergo the physical effects of anxiety whilst providing an intensely self-deprecating commentary.

Part of Other/Other/Other's 'now that's what we call live art' contribution to the Norwich Arts Centre's AFTERLIVE event. See www.norwichartscentre.co.uk/afterlive-launch-event for more details

Eating my Shoe

Photos by John Boursnell

An ode to Charlie Chaplin... a few weeks ago I ate my shoe at the Norwich Arts Centre Cafe. This was the public premiere of my new performance 'Twice Cooked'.

Twice Cooked is about the complex and ritualistic means in which we partake in eating, and how we give and receive nourishment. The piece was inspired by experiences working within care, and the kinds of food related conversations and procedures I observed. In Twice Cooked, I am exploring the notions of hosting, forcing, surviving, and a fine line between caring and over-sugaring.

Twice Cooked was part of a programme of site-specific works by other/other/other artists on Saturday 3rd July's Live Art Event. Locating our works in every nook and cranny of the Norwich Arts Centre, the audience found themselves making use of the building in alternative and unusual means. We had a good audience number and I have to say they ventured into every kind of participating activity with enthusiasm. The only drunk and disorderly came from a strange and shadowy figure in the corner of the bar...the elusive, unbilled and deceased 'Jimmy Stewart' who once lived in Norwich (aka performance artist extraudinaire Rebecca Wigmore)

As usual, for more information follow this link: http://www.otherotherother.wordpress.com/

My first Exhibit!

I have much blogging catching-up to do! Above is a picture of my first bit of 'something on a wall' without a live presence. The opportunity to make something to be left in the space came from Pea and Pea Collaborations who curated the Falling/ Fooling installation at the Fringe Arts Bath Festival (May 2010). This work was exhibited throughout the two weeks of the installation, alongside the other artists pieces and my performance of Private Joke.

Pictured is a cd player that plays genuine sound footage of a music exam recorded around 1998 at my secondary school in Cambridge. It plays a long, excruciating and shambolic music practice; on an instrument that is hard to define. There are two distinct voices, one of pupil and one of teacher and their exchange is at times more embarassing then the music itself. The tape came accidentally into my hands when I wanted to record something and asked my teacher for a blank tape. Years later I put the tape into a player and curiosity led me to fast forward. This piece takes up a good 14 minutes, which I have cut down to 12 by taking out the 'candidate name and number' in order to protect their anonymity. The tape was a big inspiration for my performance piece 'Private Joke' which features a lot of failing as well as the humble determination in such situations when 'the performance must go on'...

Above the pictured cd player is some hand-drawn notation to accompany the soundtrack. Drawn in black ink are various kinds of falling figures and downward scales as well as some jolly italic instructions. Viewers must follow the pattern of the notation as they listen to the music stumbling on.

Private Joke at 'Falling/ Fooling' an exhibition at FAB Festival

A performer alone in the performance space (with a microphone and a few minimal props) begins to expose an intimate and private joke. At the core of the joke is the recalling of an incident - an accidental and (un)fortunately public incident – when she fell over.

Private Joke is a solo performance that contemplates the notion of falling. It is a predominantly vocal piece that weaves itself around both physical and metaphorical appropriations of falling. These are presented in the manner of subtle slapstick, bringing attention to the similarity between the words fall, fail and fool; and pursued in a performance that presents its own flaws, jokes, stumbles, mispronunciations and digressions from the point.

Photos of Private Joke, May 10

Photos taken by Annelies Puddy (Pea and Pea collaborations)

Conductors of Ivories - the performance

Conductors of Ivories...

is the re-creation of Beethoven's Sonata in C sharp minor, played on a Piano and several Toasters. This surreal 'Quasi una Fantasia' offers the possibility of sound through manipulation of the electrical appliance, the musical instrument and the human body. The musicians approach their instruments with delicacy and expectation, before breaking rhythm, shifting direction and feeding anticipation. They traverse domestic, poetic and organic ground as they embark on an unusual expression of musical duet.