Hello again.
I know. Back again. So soon!
We've got another flurry of updates. Again, I (Alice) will be returning to my newsreader role for the evening and handing you over to the regional correspondents with their various features...
Very excitingly, this week, we will be attending our very first awards ceremony! You can also read about our brief musical affair with the brilliant Tom Figgins and resurrecting the gorgeous Bloody Great Border Ballad. And there may be a cheeky wee announcement if you scroll down to the bottom.
But first...over to Stan.
So we may have pestered you quite a bit at the beginning of the year to nominate The Letter Room for the Journal Culture Awards. And by pestered, I suppose we may have hounded/insisted/mildly threatened. Well, it appears to have paid off, as it was announced in March that we've been Nominated for Newcomer of the Year. See the full list of nominees here. We are so thrilled, and we owe you all a big thank you for putting up with us, and taking the time to give us a little mention.
We now get to go to the ceremony at the stunning Sage Gateshead on April 16th.
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| Maria is very happy about it... |
We are up against some pretty fierce competition, including the brilliant Alli Davies writer of OddManOut’s Weather To Fly , and Pop Recs Ltd. Frankie and the Heartstrings mint record shop in Sunderland, but we’re delighted to find ourselves up against those names.
It’s been great to be recognised by the North East cultural scene. It’s a really exciting time to be working in the region.
Best of Luck to everyone, we shall be cheering you all.
Over to...Michael!
Being as it is April, we in The Letter Room are having to face the terrifying, but also very lovely, fact that it is a year since we left Northern Stage and the North Programme. In that year we have travelled the length and breadth of England selling our wares to all that would stay to watch. We have undertaken many scary and wonderful challenges. Now begins the time where we start to tick off the events of the past one by one, musing “Can you believe it’s been a year since that?”
One recently ticked-off event was the 2013 Annual Dinner at which, you may remember, we performed some music and put together a little taster of our writing for the assorted diners and supporters.
The Annual Dinner is held every year by Northern Stage to raise awareness of, and money for, their Northern Stage at the Edinburgh Festival project, which has been held at St Stephen’s church for the last two years. Any donations given on the night help feed and house the volunteers who keep the whole ship afloat in Edinburgh. It was great to be asked to do it and help loosen the purse strings in whatever way we could. So, yes, that was over one year ago.
After a couple of hours of jamming in dressing room six, and a handful of sandwiches in a green room packed with a thirty-strong group of volunteers from around Newcastle (who we’d met the night before to teach a song to; which we totally knew. Obviously), we joined forces to storm the dining room in between main course and dessert to perform a section of The Great Big Bloody Border Ballad, which won “Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe” award in 2013. We sang and played on the stage whilst the volunteers surrounded the tables of diners to recite the final verse before a rousing chorus.
It was spine-tingling stuff for everyone involved. We don’t get as much chance to play around Northern Stage as much as we used to, and it was lovely to be back and part of something so important! So here’s to ticking off the things we did last year in the best possible way.
And we found these beauties lurking in the bar. NORTH 14, as you all will know, are our successors and it was lovely to spend the night in "NORTH" force. Even if they are better looking than us.
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| NORTH 14 |
And back to me. So dinners and frocks and frocks again for the awards ceremony on Wednesday. It's quite an overwhelming feeling being nominated and reading our name alongside the likes of actor Joe Caffrey, musicians (who play genius tunes with crisp packets) Bridie Jackson and Arbour, the delectable Dan Bye and the team behind Wet House up for best performance. We are pinching ourselves to be listed among incredible talents and are hoping we don't make any faux pas. Which is highly likely. We'll be overexcited, clumsy and probably a little nervous.
Ok.
We're nearly at the end, thank you for staying with us but we wanted to tell you exciting things. You may have already seen on our social media that we are returning to Latitude Festival with Bonenkai. We cannot wait after having such an amazing time last year and there is some mean theatre being programmed. The RSC, Forest Fringe, Forced Entertainment and loads more.
We can also confirm that we are going to Edinburgh for a full run this summer. We'll tell you the juicy details in our next post.
But before we take on the big summer festivals, we are very proud to announce we will be part of the fantastic programme at this year's GIFT festival which is returning to Gateshead for the fourth year proving it's success is growing and growing. We are presenting some development of Bonenkai. We are naming it "Bonenkai Beats" and we'll be hosting a night of music and debauchery testing out some of the music from the show and the characters you might meet in Club Bonenkai. Rehearsals start next week!
We hope you get to catch us somewhere along the road, come see the show and please do chat to us after. We love meeting new people and hearing your thoughts.
So back to the office to get our fundraising campaign on the go. We are learning all about philanthropy and private donation...it's a minefield but we are ploughing on through and of course asking all the questions. I leave you with a picture of Michael doing our admin with Alex's dog Heidi.
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| How many snacks can ye spot? |
Love from,
The Letter Room
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