scavel an gow in newlyn: steve hall, annamaria murphy, mercedes kemp, paul farmer, simon parker, pauline sheppard (obscured - apologies pauline), amanda harris
scavel an gow
I worked as a writer with kneehigh theatre company on a number of projects. a group of seven of us from the shop of stories initiative formed scavel an gow, a literary-based performance collective that enjoyed the support of arts council england and went on to have a working relationship with bbc radio drama that led to us broadcasting two seasons of stories on bbc radio 4.
I also functioned as company manager for seven years of the company’s existence.
we were often asked about the group's name. it had a double meaning - in dialect it means 'gossip', but in the kernewek language it means 'bench of lies'. this dialectic is discussed in the paper on the margins of modernity by Dr Patrick Laviolette that can be found here.
scavel an gow’s practice was based in residencies within communities, during which we would interview and interact with local people, sharing stories, memories and histories. Then we would create new work based on this, for performances within the community and further afield, and sometimes in published and broadcast form. my film birt dynely was initially conceived in this way for a project in falmouth.
I also functioned as company manager for seven years of the company’s existence.
we were often asked about the group's name. it had a double meaning - in dialect it means 'gossip', but in the kernewek language it means 'bench of lies'. this dialectic is discussed in the paper on the margins of modernity by Dr Patrick Laviolette that can be found here.
scavel an gow’s practice was based in residencies within communities, during which we would interview and interact with local people, sharing stories, memories and histories. Then we would create new work based on this, for performances within the community and further afield, and sometimes in published and broadcast form. my film birt dynely was initially conceived in this way for a project in falmouth.
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this film, shot by steve tanner, shows me performing jumlizing, a story from a very early scavel an gow project in newlyn, bags of stories. after a residency in the town we all went away and wrote stories that were published on paper bags (I'm reading from one in the film) to be given away by newlyn shops. the project was nominated for the raymond williams community publishing prize. I went to the awards ceremony in london on behalf of scavel and was both amused and bemused to hear the chair of the judges criticise the project as being outdated, because "who uses paper bags these days?" - a comment that would baffle the tens of thousands of cornish people who buy their daily lunchtime pasty in a paper bag.
what I like about this video: david kemp's amazing story boat. what I don't like: me - specifically my haircut, what I'm wearing (not my idea) and the fact that apparently I weighed about a ton in those days. |
