You can never be UNBORED. Ed Fringe 2014.

I know, I know. Not another blog post about Edinburgh. The rain, the crowds, the flyers piling up in the living room, irregular bowel movements and f*cked up sleeping patterns, over priced beer, discussing audience numbers, what's good, whose been in, how many stars??

OH GOOD LORD I would like a peaceful cottage in a field and food on a plate and to watch bake off and then have an early night.

Edinburgh is mad. It truly is some delicious parallel universe and I think it's ok to admit it sends you bat shit crazy too.

It's our first time in Edinburgh and our show is on at 11.30pm that is PEE EM. Late. Past your bedtime one might say. And we're living in some strange time zone of sleeping around 4am until midday. Because once the show's done we have a pint to wind down with those that came to see us. We walk home (occasionally past a kebab shop) and then have a cuppa on the sofa and try to switch off our wired post-show brains. 

But. All being said. Our audiences are being so generous for that time of evening. We are so thankful to all those coming to see us and saying nice things, tweeting them and passing on the good word to their friends. We have worked hard at getting industry in, so much so that every day we have producers and programmers in to see us. Which is.....our priority. Someone asked me that the other day..."What's your priority?" and our answer was to get as much industry in to see us for to get the ball rolling to book a tour. I had been feeling immense guilt that our poster wasn't up in enough places, that we weren't flyering enough or that we weren't getting enough press in. Guilt is a very unhelpful thing to feel. And. Let's just consider our priority as a company right? Ok our houses have been half full and word is not getting spread as much as we'd hoped. But every day we have at least two or three industry in, and we've worked hard on that. So that should be celebrated right?

Ok. I celebrated a little bit.

You can't help wanting to do just that little bit more though can you. No matter how hard we work it just doesn't seem hard enough! 

Fringe rambling over. Happy Edinburgh all. Don't feel guilt. There's over 3,000 of us companies here. Cray cray. 

Love from Alice.

The Letter Room

Awards. Dinners. Announcements.

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.

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.

We aren't sad, however, as we got to tick it off in the best possible way, by being asked back to perform at the 2014 Annual Dinner. This time we weren't on our own as we were asked to perform alongside the brilliant Tom Figgens of theatre company With Wings (you may have seen their show ‘If Room Enough’ at St Stephen’s last year.

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.

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. 

How many snacks can ye spot?

Love from,

The Letter Room

A reet FEAST of a blog entry

Well goodness me. 2014 started rather quiet and thoughtful and a little daunting. But here we are, riding the waves, and in true Pinky and the Brain style, we are going to take over the world! 

Almost. 

It sort of felt like we did anyway when we travelled around the country to Stockton, West Yorkshire Playhouse and that big old capital city they call London. Yes London baby! 

So here is a feast of updates for you, as in true organisational artistic flair we seem to have a flurry of work that doesn't stop or leave you a moment to breathe and write a blog post so we've packed it all in one for you. Lucky you. Have a tea break half way through if you like. Or just scroll down and look at the pictures. I won't tell. I (Alice) shall, like a newsreader going to it's regional correspondents hand you over to some of TLR and what they had to say about recent happenings. 

So firstly I guess we should start with our new show, let you in on what's been a brewin'...

Over to MEGHAN!:

So you may or may not know that we are currently making our new show ‘Bonenkai’, it’s our first show as an independent theatre company and we cannot tell you how excited we are for this!

A little bit about ‘Bonenkai’. The title of our new show comes from a traditional Japanese party called, you guessed it... Bonenkai (see what we did there?) and it translates as ‘Forget the year gathering’. I should probably rewind 6 months and explain how we got to this. Through a lot of talking, exploring, debating, pots of tea (of the flavoured variety - thank you to the Quilliam Brothers Tea House where we’ve become regulars) we narrowed down some ideas that we were all drawn to as a group.

We found we were all interested in the raucous underground clubs and speak-easies of the 1920’s. From this we found inspiration in Isherwoods’ Berlin Stories and Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, we were drawn to the flawed characters, the excess and the desire to leave the outside world behind. We started exploring the idea of partying to forget and that’s how we came across Bonenkai.

Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories

Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies

We then had a two week of Research and Development period, where the lovely Customs House and Live Theatre each took us in.  

We can’t thank them enough for sharing their space with us. They made us feel truly at home and we felt extremely lucky and proud to be making work in these buildings so thank you again. Through exploring many things (including tap dancing, live music and a loop pedal!) we started to find the context, characters and story for our show.

A ridiculous game of grandma's footsteps including a lap dancing obstacle.

Alex and Maria teaching us how to tap dance.

Here’s a little sneak peak:

Today is a day to forget everything. An unforgettable celebration of forgetting. And it has to be a party.

Our piece is set in Club Bonenkai and it’s a place where people go to forget, it provides a service for those with a need. Club Bonenkai is magnificent, idyllic, feral and riotous. It's inhabited by a band of Grotesques, they're part of the furniture. They're the ones who came, never left and have been forgetting ever since.

We want the show to be an event with original live music and tap dancing.

Tap dancin' feets

Over to Alex!:

So I’m guessing when you heard tap dancing and loop pedal mentioned you got very excited, and right you were to do so!

The Letter Room are always looking for new ways to tell stories as well as wanting to share our individual skills as performers with the rest of the company. So when Maria and Alex mentioned they could tap dance we just had to get it in the show. As our show is inspired by the raucous nature of the 1920’s we could not help notice the vibrancy of the dance styles of the period and we want to let this influence our movements in the piece. We also want to use tap to enhance our music with its percussion (who needs drums eh?!) and in this way give a nod to the 20’s whilst also adding our own modern TLR spin.

This brings me to the loop pedal, Meghan’s precious new toy. 

*Rousing choral music*

Now OBVIOUSLY this is one of the best things since sliced bread and is so much fun to play with; but I shan’t go on about that too much because as we know, rehearsal rooms are not for fun... The loop pedal has allowed TLR to create a new sound for Bonenkai and by layering unconventional lines of music we have already begun to assemble an album of material for the show. As you may already know, live music is a massive part of what The Letter Room do and having this nifty little device will allow us to explore this even further, we’ve still got loads of ideas and things to try with the loop pedal so we can’t wait to see how it all turns out!

Anyhoo you’ll be hearing a lot more about the show in upcoming weeks, also, expect an invitation to the first ever preview of our show later in the year, but we’ll stay hushed on that. We may already have said too much!

We then whacked some of these ideas together, put on our dancing shoes (tap shoes to be precise) and hit the road with our scratch performance.

Over to GEORGE!:

All this scratching is making me itch.

We’ve decided we love scratching. It’s really mint actually. Last month we took work from our brand spanking new show ‘Bonenkai’ to some fantastic scratch nights across the north east, to experiment with some of our new writing and to play with our shiny loop pedal. In our exciting mini-tour of scratches we performed at; 'First in three' at Northern Stage, Stockton ARC's 'Arcade Scratch' and 'The playground' at The West Yorkshire Playhouse to some fantastic audiences with lots of useful and constructive feedback.

Those creepy shadows outside WYP...that be us.

Scratching is great. If you're an emerging company with new work that your unsure about, or indeed work that your completely and utterly confident in, we highly recommend having a good old scratch. An outside eye during rehearsals can sometimes be invaluable, at scratch nights you get like twenty outside eyes for nothing, and they usually have a load of constructive feedback to offer you and everyone knows that feedback opens loads a lovely creative doors for you to peruse at your leisure. Annnnd you get to see a cacophony of other delightful works in progress, remember to share the love and give them any useful thoughts or feedback you have to offer.

So don't be shy or snobby, get yourself down to a scratch night near you and put the 'progress' into 'work in progress'. Cheeky little pun for you there.

Aaaand back to me in the Studio. So our scratchin' ended up with a very exciting end. We ventured from our beloved North...

 We headed South at the start of March to take part in the very exciting Les Enfants Terribles Award Showcase. Over 100 theatre companies applied to the award which supports new and emerging companies planning to go to the Edinburgh Fringe for the first time. Les Enfants mentor the artists and help with a little cash flow so the winning lucky lot head to The Pleasance (one of THE hubs of the festival!) and take the world by storm.* 

(*this is not a demand of the award, but inevitable, surely?)

So we were bloody chuffed to be shortlisted along with 8 other companies and were invited to share our work in progress of our new show "Bonenkai". There was some live music, some tap dancing, some swearing, an incredibly creepy bearded fella and some serious beats and dance moves. 

We departed our home, and irritated coach D of a southbound east coast HST (High Speed Train thank you) like over excited 6 year olds high on haribo and planned how we were going to pitch the show to the programmer of The Pleasance and Oli and James from Les Enfants. We spent a sunny sunday afternoon in a garden full of parakeets. Yes parakeets. Apparently years ago they escaped from Greenwich Zoo and have bred in the local area ever since.

Simon and Garfunkel

Looks so posed. Really isn't. 

Writing pitches

Writing tunes

We rehearsed, wrote some music and ate monster munch and come Monday morning we landed at The Pleasance Theatre in Islington. Greeted by some incredibly lovely staff and a labrador with short legs we were in and out to tech our 10mins of Bonenkai.

Indi the adorable pleasance lab

Holed up in a dressing room for the rest of the day we paced, ate fish finger sandwiches, rehearsed, re-rehearsed, re-directed and honed our 10 minutes of work. And then we had to wait. And then we had to watch the other companies, which was thrilling and daunting and incredibly thought provoking. Everyone was so very different, and so very talented and we got to all meet after the showcase, which for us, was what the night was all about. Being in another building, out of our comfort zone, being these unknown Northerners in a theatre foyer in North London having something to say and something to champion to a room full of artists and programmers, producers and writers, family and friends. 

We should mention, that the heart stopping moment of the night was the announcement of the winner. Which was the very well deserved Human Zoo, who presented a visceral, poetic and visually stunning 10 minute work in progress. They did some incredibly slick movement with some really cool LED frames. I think I definitely gasped and then mouthed "that is so cool". So keep an eye out for them in Edinburgh.

And that was our first London adventure together. To be on stage at The Pleasance Islington, savouring our 10 minutes of performance in front of a warm and supportive audience, and some chin scratchers, was to say the least...probably one of the most exhilarating 10 minutes yet! We had so much fun introducing people to Bonenkai. And what is absolutely joyous for us is the people we are meeting along the way who are already so supportive of us, championing the show and it's ideas and nagging us to get it to Edinburgh. And that we shall.

"selfie" documenting hysteria on arrival

So thank you to The Pleasance and LET award, for the time and the space and the words and the laughs and for believing in a band of rogues raving on a stage. 

Stay tuned for another blog feast very soon. We've lots of exciting things to announce. 

with love from

The Letter Room

The peaks and troughs...

Taken from How to Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Hello there and welcome to our first post of 2014 written by Alice! We've been a bit quiet in The Letter Room as we're making lots of plans for 2014 and 2015, and boy is there work to do!

For the past few months we have been shaping up our fundraising plans, arts council bids, writing copy, planning tours, booking space, setting dates, and most of all eating a lot of pizza, snickers and monster munch talking about our new show. 

It's now a full year since we first stepped into Northern Stage as the very first NORTH company, and have left as The Letter Room....and now there is NORTH 14 and there is some hot totty in NORTH 14, and by hot totty I mean talented, driven, hard-working all round lovely people. 

And this blog has very much detailed the highs of our first year together, and has not really documented the lows. I've been thinking a lot about the peaks and troughs we go through as makers of theatre, and perhaps we don't always talk about it enough. Although, that's not always true, people constantly tell us it's hard, it's graft, its painful, there is so much love and care that we all invest into it and a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I suppose we always knew that that would be the nature of the devising process (and we felt it) but what we are all starting to learn now is running a business has just as many peaks and troughs. We were given a wonderful head start during our residency and given so much support and advice from all corners of the world and walks of life. And if that's you reading right now, thank you. You are awesome.

Taken from How to Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Developing our new identity and being set free from the building that put so much time and energy into our development has been both exciting and terrifying. We're finding pinning down seven very hard working people with dreams to be fulfilled, rents to be paid, opportunities to be found and words like taxes, pensions and savings rearing their ugly heads, can be tricky to say the least. Over the past year, a structure for our company has started to organically emerge, and we're all working really well as individuals and meeting new people and making new relationships. We're missing the time when we had every day together, and that has now become small pockets of time when we sit for four hours in Quilliam Brothers Tea House, or one of us paws our way back into Northern Stage, or we hunch over our laptops just before bed, and skype in those working hard in other cities. 

I remember reading an article recently about the "mid-twenties crisis", the moment when you realise there's such a thing as growing up and you suddenly assess your life by the social goals set for you by society. I'm 26, I still live at home, I only graduated a year ago. I call myself and actor and theatre maker. I've had three acting jobs, and I've also worked in a cafe, as a cleaner, behind a bar, as a piano teacher, a dog walker, an admin assistant, a theatre usher, a drama worker and waitress. And that's all just in a year. Each one of us in The Letter Room can add a handful more to the list. And what we tell ourselves is, you should be buying a house, have cats, get engaged, buy fancy pans and food processors and save up for that new memory foam mattress (it'll be good for our backs dear). It's pretty ridiculous. I realise I'm being over the top here, I suppose I'm highlighting just how stupid it is to put so much pressure on ourselves to do it all. And we all work and live differently. But juggling it and justifying it can sometimes be really difficult. 

And then you read blogs from people like Bryony Kimmings about the facts and figures of being a successful artist, the amount you are pushed about and taken advantage of, things are assumed and expected and sometimes really bloody unfair. And suddenly things seem really bleak, and it can get on top of you. I remember her saying "I'm not talking about the emerging artists...poor fuckers" (apologies that may be ever so slightly paraphrased...but the sentiment is there). And are we? Poor fuckers? A lot is against us, that is for sure. The Letter Room have their ups and downs, we are facing a lot of fears, a lot of black holes and a lot of what ifs. 

HOWEVER.

We are also asking a lot of questions, we are going to people for advice and we are moving in the right direction. Albeit learning as we go, and at times it feels slow. But I suppose that has to be the way. We have to make our mistakes to carve our successes. I suppose I'm saying that it's all ok. And whoever you are reading this whether you work in the arts, or in an office, or in a bar or you are an emerging artist, or an established artist. I know that we all have the same fears, the same doubts, that one day someone is going to find out we can't actually do what we say we do. There's hiccups, theres heartbreaks, there are fractious and tense moments. But it's all worth it. And the work we make wouldn't be the work we make without it. Because then comes the audiences, the sharing of work, the meeting new people and making new friends, creating and writing, singing and dancing and all the other wonderful things happening in the rehearsal room. AND THEN WE GET TO PUT ON THE SHOW. I can't wait for that day. And then the show after that will come with new challenges, and the stuff we're finding tricky this time round will be much easier next time, and we'll learn newer and more efficient ways to do things. 

But for now, lets not force it...because it's like stalking a wild animal.

Taken from How to Steal like an Artist by Austin Kleon

Happy creating everyone, may you all have peaks and troughs.

There are no secrets, just questions to ask.

Love from The Letter Room.

Our first year together...

Well, well, well, what a year it's been for NORTH aka 'The Letter Room'... 
This time last year, whilst we were all sitting at home drinking our tea, there is no-way we could have known what this year would bring; we didn't even know each others bloody names! Yet here we are...



Just look at the pure joy on our slightly chubby faces ^^^ Now the seven of us are best mates, have made a show, formed a company officially known as 'The Letter Room' and toured to some of the biggest festivals this year.

It was about this time last year that we all wrote our applications to Northern Stage to be part of NORTH - and how lucky we all feel to have been selected. 

The three months that we spent at Northern Stage under the guidance of Mark Calvert, Kylie Lloyd and Susan Mulholland (amongst many many more wonderful people) was a truly brilliant experience. We worked our socks off, met inspiring people, learnt loads about important theatre things and also had many a night crying into our pillows (joking, sort of). 

The support that the building gave us allowed us to grow more confident in our ability in all areas from marketing to finance and feel comfortable enough to ask for help whenever we needed it. 

"Expect great things from North, surely one of the most vibrant and engaging entries into the theatre circuit in years." whatsonstage.com 

One of many highlights for us was working with the lovely Rachael Walton of Third Angel and making history by not being able to stick a simple map together. However, we got there in the end and made an interesting little piece of theatre which we performed in Stage Three - we actually stole loads of Rachael's exercises in making our final show - so thank-you very much! 

Another highlight was the Annual Dinner - The technical team did an AMAZING job transforming Stage One into a mystical forest and we were lucky enough to be asked by Jane to perform some music and a few monologues to the guests. Having only been together a few weeks, rehearsing songs on top of everything else was a big challenge, but after lots of practising we got some tunes together and had a fantastic evening. The people we met at this event were absolutely fantastic, including many Northern Stage board members who are still very supportive of the company. 
Here we all are in action... 

I shall honestly never forget the taste of Alfie's earl grey panna cotta. 

The other thing I should probably mention is, our show! 
THE MAN WHO THOUGHT THE MOON WOULD FALL OUT OF THE SKY

We actually did it. After many weeks stuck in a rehearsal room above The Peoples Theatre (many many thanks to The Hawk and all at The Peoples - we love you) we managed to get our little heads together and come up with a show. The devising process was not an easy one, for some of us we were losing our devising virginity, but luckily Mark Calvert was there to guide us (I realise that sounds weird now I've mentioned Mark, but just look past that, it's a good description). We also had Susan with us too (which makes this sound even weirder, like some sort of Northern Stage devising orgy... anyway, moving on). Susan was there as a writer and supported us in the development of the script. We also wrote lots of original music, created scenes and characters and ended up telling the story of a man called Ernest who had an obsession with the moon and a lover called She. Since our opening night at Northern Stage, we've had great fun performing it to many different crowds and have since then developed the show from its original form as we all felt that we didn't quite have time to finish it - and like any show, it may change again! 

"North, the associate company of Northern Stage, comprises recent graduates and emerging artists. You wouldn't know it, however, each performance is flawless and a credit to an energetic and creative devising process that the company so clearly enjoys." whatsonstage.com 







Creating a show that we were all so proud to be a part of was a massive achievement for us as a new theatre company - and then it got even better.
We were given an opportunity to take our show out of the North East and tour to three of the biggest festivals in the country - Latitude, Bestival and of course, St Stephens at The Edinburgh Fringe. 

The feeling of walking onto a stage, in a packed out theatre tent and performing a show with your mates is one of the best feelings that we have all experienced to date. We also had an amazing time getting drunk and watching bands - Maria almost wee'd herself at the sight of Elton John - she definitely new every single cringey word.

 

A special thank-you goes to the technical team for all of their guidance during our tour - taking two vans full of set on a ferry to an island and then straight up to Edinburgh is not an easy task, but we did it thanks to them. 
And if you were wondering, yes Chris Slater (Production Manager) is wearing glitter and yes Emma Roxburgh (Participation Facilitator) does look amazing dressed as a shark. 

"If you are a young company such as North, comprised of recent graduates and now embarking on their debut tour after a run at Northern Stage, it must be a daunting prospect [performing at Latitude].The company needn’t have worried however, as their production of The Man Who Thought The Moon Would Fall Out of the Sky launched Latitude’s 2013 theatre line up with style and kept that critical audience hanging on every word." The Public Reviews 

"It’s an accomplished début production from the young company who, based on this showing, will be a name to watch with great interest in the future."
The Public Reviews 

Our final stop was St Stephens, and what a stop it was. A huge thank-you goes out to the whole team, especially the wonderful Beckie Darlington for making it all happen and for making us feel so welcome. 

After performing our show we came back on stage to play some music. The gig was a huge success and ended on a massive audience sing-a-long to Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons. It was brilliant fun and we loved how much emphasis people put on the word 'fu**ed' when joining in after a few beers - pure joy to our ears. 

(if you'd like to book us for a wedding or a party, then please get in touch, seriously) 

During the Fringe, we were also asked to be part of the fantastic Border Ballads at St Stephens - it was amazing to feel part of the experience and sight reading a verse in front of an audience was an absolute thrill. Thank-you Lorne! 

The NORTH scheme was constructed not only to enhance the creative side of our minds, but to fill up our metaphorical producer 'tool bag' as well. We met many inspiring people like David Edmunds from Dep Arts, Annie Rigby, Nazli Tabatabai-Khatambakhsh, Dan Bye, Kate Craddock and many more.  
Since meeting these influential people, we've produced three of our own events, two fundraisers and one social night called 'North Night' all of which went down a storm and we managed to raise lots of money towards our summer tour. Through doing this, we also began to form relationships with other young theatre makers, musicians, artists and writers in the region which is something we are very keen to build on so that eventually we'll have a huge pool of young creatives that will make lots of work together and support each other on projects - it's already happening as we speak/write! 
These relationships are still growing and just last week we were very honoured to perform at the Jabberwocky Market Festival in Darlington (Stan's home town) organised by Caroline Pearce, a contact we made through NORTH - it was an absolute blast, thank-you for having us Caroline! Will this be the last time we perform our beloved show "The Man Who Thought The Moon Would Fall Out Of The Sky?"... 
Who knows? We're going to keep you guessing for now. 
Here's George having a think about it... 

We couldn't have got here without the support of wonderful people from Northern Stage and beyond. We are seven very lucky people to have been a part of this new scheme and we're sure whoever is in North 2014 will have just as fabulous experience as we did. 

We are now ready to take on the world as 'The Letter Room' and are already planning big things for 2014.. After this years experience, we're not only thinking about 'a show' we're thinking about a future. 
We're not finished for 2013 just yet though, at the moment we are curating some brilliant events for Juice Festival - a dreamy launch party and a spooky Big Read - for more information please visit the website here. It's going to be so much fun, please come along and say hello! 

We would like to say a humungous thank-you to anyone and everyone who has supported us in any way over the last year, it means so much to us. 

We hope you have enjoyed reading our little trip down memory lane. 

Love from, 
The Letter Room x