What drove you to make Me And My Bee?
Apparently, Albert Einstein said that without the bees, humans have 4 years left to live. We rely on bees to pollinate one third of the crops we use as food. That could become a serious problem… We wanted to use what we do (theatre), to raise awareness. We thought we’d start by letting people know it’s happening, giving out seeds and hoping that they will go out and spread the message further. On a bigger scale, the show is about climate change and the environment. It’s about cause and effect. It’s about taking better care of the planet before it’s too late. Who is Me And My Bee for? Anyone and everyone. We always wanted Me & My Bee to be a family show - for children AND adults. It’s a huge subject! What challenges did you face making a show about global warming? There are so many things NOT helping the bees it all gets a bit much. Climate change is massive, urbanisation is growing at an alarming rate and we aren’t going to pretend we can take on a huge pesticide company with a load of scientific proof we don’t personally have, but, there ARE things we can do. One seed at a time… Plant wildflowers. Flowers are essentially bee food. Everyone needs food fuel. That was the main challenge - finding something positive the audience could do themselves rather than just showing them the problem and leaving everyone feeling down about the state of the world! If you had to make a new show, what CURRENT news story would you like to make a show about? We are making two new shows! UNCONDITIONAL is a show I am making with my mum (my real mum). She is a theatre maker too. We’re making a show about facing the monsters! It is going to be previewing 3rd-5th July 2018 at Battersea Arts Centre. dressed. Is a collaboration between ThisEgg and Made My Wardrobe. Made My Wardrobe is a project and blog my friend Lydia started in 2016. After being stripped and sexually assaulted at gun point, Lydia set out to redress herself with a new healing set of armour. We are working with 2 more of our best mates from school (one is now a dancer and one a singer). It is about making something beautiful out of something dark and traumatic. It is a celebration of female performance and friendship. And… whilst on tour, we bee lovers are doing lots of research for another family comedy, this one is about sex education, so do watch out for that one… What theatre ‘turn offs’ do you have? I love that theatre is a live event. When it doesn’t seem like actors are with us in the room (even if their doing your classic ‘fourth wall’ drama) I switch off completely. For example when something has so obviously gone wrong and it’s not acknowledged! Hehehe What was the last show that moved you to action? Goggles. The coverage of mental illness in the media got Gemma and I thinking about what it takes to be happy. We thought about what we needed from each other to make each other happy. Then our own hopes and fears started developing - the fear of not finding ‘love’ while our friends do. Can friendship be enough? (We hope it can.) And are people, whoever they are, born to be together? Then loneliness came into it, and even more strongly, the fear of being alone. We opened that one in Edinburgh 2016 and it’s been popping up over the country since! What shows at VAULT are you looking forward to? One Hundred Words For Snow -- Gemma is tackling that one with another company and from what I’ve heard it sounds amazing. Me and My Bee is on at VAULT from 3-4 March! Comments are closed.
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