Nicola Matthews's Blog

It's all happening. The script is completed. The barn at Beaumont is booked, with thanks to Jules Woods who generously offered the venue to us. It will take place on the 14th&15th September, which is perfect because the play itself opens at Mabon; the September celebration which took place in the farming communities in Kitty's time.

We are so looking forward to welcoming audiences to Beaumont House Barn, which will be transformed into Kitty's world.

This whole project has had its ups and downs. That is the nature of such artistic endeavour. It is sometimes difficult to hold on to a project that is not concrete, which of course, theatre at the beginning rarely is. But for us it is even more so. We began with no script, no venue and no actors. The script took longer than we had envisaged which was frustrating at time. If you have read my previous blogs, you will know something of the challenges of adapting a novel into a play; having to say goodbye to characters you love, then only to re-introduce them down the line; avoiding the trap of reducing a story to a naff Jane Austin pastiche.

However, we are there. It was so exciting to finish our recent read through with a corporate, 'Yes! we have a play'. And, dare I say, a pretty good one. My husband, Seymour, who was an actor all his working life, agrees.

If you'd like to support us pop over to my website: nicolamwrites.com

where you will find a gofundme link.

May you have pleasure in all your endeavours.

What a fabulous gang we had at the workshop. A great mix of professional actors and enthusiasts. I have never worked with a mixed cast before. So glad we are doing so, each brought something different to add in. So much creativity in the room. It was amazing how quickly everyone entered into the process and contected with others to create some lovely work. We are now really getting flesh on the bones.

We started by reading a portion of the script, which was very helpful in exposing the clunky bits that need a bit of work. But also it was good to see that we are indeed capturing the heartbeat of the book as we transpose it into a play.

Jane led a short, but sweet physical warm up which helped us get in touch with our bodies. Do try patting yourself all over, it was so invigorating! Something that was fascinating was to see how, when the group walked the room as if it was spring, they walked tall. As soon as Jane said it was the heat of summer, the whole room sank in height. Fascinating (I expect we are all walking a bit taller now spring is finally upon us).

Then the actors worked in groups to denote a particular change in time and place. For instance, summer on the farm to autumn at the market. My goodness, again I can only say thank you to all our delegates, they were fab and worked things out in different ways, giving us, as a team, much inspiration.

We had many laughs, pushed our boundaries and generally had a great time.

What's next? I'm on to the second act. But first, we have to seriously look at funding. With the a boost in confidence we will set forth. I'll keep you posted.

Blessings in all your endeavors.

Our final draft of the script is well on the way and we have our first sponsor, Lifehouse in Thorpe-le-Soken, the villiage in which Kitty lived. Spring is on the way and we are so looking forward our first workshop. If you'd like to meet the team, head over to

the Production page. At the workshop we are looking to create a cohesive ensemble who will actively move through the peice guiding us through the seasons and locations. We will also need technicians, carpenters, people that sew, folk musicians etc. So do please pass on the info. We can be contacted at nicolamwrites@gmail.com if anyone is interested.

The Adaptation

The adaptation has certainly been a learning curve. In writing her story, we chose what we thought was most relevant, cutting a number of characters, but we still found we had enough for a six part TV drama! So we went back to the drawing board. We had to consider what the heart of the story is, what we really want to leave the audience with, which characters were non negotiable. It has certainly needed all our creative output and a braveness of heart. Then there were the practical things like how many actors we could use; how we'd denote the passing of the seasons; in what kind of location should the play be produced. For instance, open air theatre would be wonderful for the sweeping country scenes but the more intimate and oftentimes tragic scenes would be better expressed in a theatrical environment. As it happens, as it is now looking like a production in the autumn, so that particular question is pretty much answered. Though we still have to nail the venue.

We now have our blueprint for the script and the adaptation is well under way. As you can see we feel it is time to bring others in and are looking forward to the workshop, which will no doubt be punctuated with much laughter!

May all your own endeavors go well.

Our final draft of the script is well on the way and we have our first sponsor, Lifehouse in Thorpe-le-Soken, the villiage in which Kitty lived. Spring is on the way and we are so looking forward our first workshop. We are looking to create a cohesive ensemble who will actively move through the peice guiding us through the seasons and locations. We will also need technicians, carpenters, people that sew, folk musicians etc. So do please pass on the info. We can be contacted at nicolamwrites@gmail.com if anyone is interested.

The Adaptation

The adaptation has certainly been a learning curve. In writing her story, we chose what we thought was most relevant, cutting a number of characters, but we still found we had enough for a six part TV drama! So we went back to the drawing board. We had to consider what the heart of the story is, what we really want to leave the audience with, which characters were non negotiable. It has certainly needed all our creative output and a braveness of heart. Then there were the practical things like how many actors we could use; how we'd denote the passing of the seasons; in what kind of location should the play be produced. For instance, open air theatre would be wonderful for the sweeping country scenes but the more intimate and oftentimes tragic scenes would be better expressed in a theatrical environment. As it happens, as it is now looking like a production in the autumn, so that particular question is pretty much answered. Though we still have to nail the venue.

We now have our blueprint for the script and the adaptation is well under way. As you can see we feel it is time to bring others in and are looking forward to the workshop. Unfortunately, you will need to look 18 for this first workshop due to the insurance lifehouse holds, but in the future that restiction will not be in place!

May all your own endeavors go well.

With a wonderful bunch of volunteers, (Thanks everyone). We had a great day reading through the first draft of the script of Kitty Canham. It was such fun, not that it looks it here! This is the hard work bit. You dont see the cakes and yummies that were involved. It was great to hear the characters given life. We had three renditions of Kitty, so we could hear her in different voices which was very helpful.

As I mentioned on a previous blog, when turning a book into a play, major cuts have to be made. For those who have read the book, Tom and Albert have already gone. I know, it seems mad, but we found it made space for another relationship to develop. We discovered that Sarah, Kitty's friend, was less important than previously thought and a much lesser character more so. It's as if in adaptation, the characters shift and move until they find their places in the new genre in which they find themselves. Fascinating.

The team suggested I simply write without overthinking, which I did. So it was very long. My husband came in at the end and said 'it's longer than Hamlet!' You need to be Shakespeare to hold an audience for that long and I aint no shakespeare! So, there is still much to do. The challenge of telling Kitty's story for stage whilst holding the heartbeat of the novel continues. But we are getting there, thoroughly enjoying the process and feel even more confident of it's outcome.

May you have success in all your venture.

It is now almost three months since I last posted. That was the beginning of our journey towards a theatrical production of Kitty Canham. Who knew the adaptation would take so long? I know... you did!

Since then we have had many laughs and not a few stressful moments as we work together on the adaptation.

It turns out that telling a story on stage is so very different to telling a story in a novel. I knew this, having worked in theatre for a number of years, but I hadn't realised quite how challenging the process would be! Thank God for the team. Jackie Morton-Hart. Jane Baynes and Emily Woods. (Got to get head shots and biogs then you will get to know them better!)

The Adaptation.

In facing the challanges mentioned in the last post; far fewer characters. (we can't afford a cast of twenty!); placing the characters in the landscape without tiresome reportage; how to denote time passing without the pythonesque clock, I have found that that is when our creative juices really get flowing!

We are finding creative ways of solving the problems we face to distill what would be more easily told in a six part drama into a couple hours. It will be intense, but hopefully an involving production where the audience is seemlessly taken on Kitty's journey.

I have found the importance of a team paramount. As the writer of the novel, I am too close to it. I needed the objectivity of the team and their creativity to find a way forward. At times I have become completely stuck, but when we thrash out the problems with the team, I find I am able to forge ahead.

Next month we are having a Research and Development day to take the script to the next level. We hope to have some idea of venues by then and most importantly, to have found an excellent admin person. We, being a creative lot, are great at solving problems, but not so great at remembering the nuts and bolts.

I'll keep you posted... I've updated my website if you fancy a look.

Thanks for reading, may you find joy in all your endeavours.

Well, adapting a book into a play is an interesting and bemusing process. Script writing is not something I'm unfamiliar with. Scripts are part of my heritage. But there are so many problems to solve.

Firstly, when you take a novel which moves through time, you have to find a way to signify time passing without resorting to characters saying things like, 'What a difficult two years we've had. I'm glad this is a better harvest'. How naff. (Amusingly, while writing this, I remembered a line that is not too dissimilar. Must go back and change it!) We could go for a Monty Pythonesque massive clock, but not sure it would fit. So we are looking at denoting time through action and music.

Secondly, the novel was written in a way that firmly puts the characters in the landscape. However, on stage, landscape needs to be suggested in conversation and the way a character engages with the space, rather than a character pointing things out. This has been a challenge.

Thirdly, we are hoping to stage an open air production, but the question then is, how do we make the most of intimate scenes without lighting. Or if we do use lighting, we would need to change our timeline and produce the play later in the year when we have enough darkeness to warrant it. And technically, it takes us into a whole new realm.

These are just a few of the challenges. But, as always, I like a challenge, as do our wonderful team, who I will be introducing properly in my next post.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

We are having our first Research and Development day next week, when we will mark out the play so far and see if it works and consider more what direction we will take it in. We'd like to do an opening performance here in Thorpe or Beaumont, right in the heart of where Kitty lived and then take it on a small East Anglian tour. In the autumn we will run a professional R&D day, where we will use actors, musicians, technicians etc. to work on what we have developed, so that we might marry practical needs with our vision and involve other professionals in the development process! Hopefully the script will be in its first complete draft stage by then.

FUNDING

Jane is doing sterling work on applying for Arts Council funding for the professional R&D day. We have yet to access funding elsewhere, so if any of you have any ideas of whom we may approach, do let me know.

COMMUNITY

We are hoping to have a company of professionals who will hold the core of the story, but who will work alongside the community in which it is to be performed. Together we will create to an exciting and uplifting event. So many people love theatre and taking part. In a time of such uncertainty on the world stage, it does us good to come back to the heart of our own communities as we work together in creative endeavour.

Thanks for taking this journey with me. Next time I will introduce you to our team and maybe even include a short video... maybe. Until then, enjoy the beautiful long evenings.

DOMAIN NAME

I have changed my domain name. Yes, a strange and perhaps bold thing to do. I was told when I started to write that everything I did had to say who I am. If I wanted be successful I could not simply write a book, I would have to behave like a writer. So that's what I did, as best I could. It worked and I am still so grateful to my publicist, Hannah Hargrave, You can find her here I highly recommend her. BUT... I know in my heart of hearts that I am a creative and have an ecclectic interest. So, I've changed my name from nicolamwrites to nicolamcreates. (At least I think I have if I've done it correctly.) I am still a writer; I write poems, short stories, I've written a novel and now... I'm writing Kitty Canham into a Theatrical Production (more in the following paragraph). But beside all that, I've taken up painting again, as you can see from the small image above. In the next little while I will be opening a page for my art work, so you can see how, and if, it develops.

THE PRODUCTION

How it came about

A friend has a friend (sounds like a joke right?)... A friend has a freind who is an actor. She said that she'd like to put on a production locally. First friend suggested I tranform the story of Kitty into a play. I started out as an actor, was involved in the production of weekly rep at Frinton-on-sea, and have produced a number of community productions. So.. it whetted my appetite.

I wrote the first scene, set at the Harvest home, where Sarah and Nathaniel are becoming betrothed and where Kitty realises how much life is about to change. Our small team of three became five and we gathered to read it through. The excitement in the room was tangible. We could see how we could create a production using a small band of professional actors, alongside members of the community who'd take part in the big scenes, like the Harvest Home.

At this point we were more enthusiastic than strategic. However, we met with Neil Darcy Jones of The Packing Shed Company and our vision became a possibility. He not only gave us lots of great info, he imparted confidence. Thank you Neil. Do look out for his productions. They are fab.

We are now thinking funding, venues, timeline etc. etc. And, I will be writing. I'll let you know more about the challenges of turning a novel into a script in the next blog.

IN THE MEANTIME...

We are in the early stages, but, I will keep you posted on progress. I will continue to paint, to write, and enjoy my new office, an old Hymer motorhome!

I wish you all well in your own endeavours.

As soon as I saw this gif, I recognised it as a reflection of my mind, and sometimes I love it. Other times, not so much. It's great when you are drifting and smelling the flowers, but if you are meant to be administrating accounts or even making order in the day ahead... it can be a pain.

I am hijacking this blog to bring in a mention of ADHD. If you are an adminstrator, we are the ones who drive you mad; who you have to contact three times until we get the date and time right; who turn up late, even though we left early; who fill in the form wrong. It is not laziness or stupidity, we just weren't made with those abilities. However, we have many other wonderful abilities. We can think on our feet, solve problems, work out what's needed quickly in an emergency, in fact, there may not be much of an ambulance service without us. We love all that leaping into action. Though, I personally couldn't have done it. For me, bodily fluids should stay inside the body at all times, if they escape I will not be attending them!

Anyway, I'll leave you with a little ditty I use when giving talks. It is not high poetry, just a bit of silliness aimed to give you a flavour of my life's acheivements

I'm Not Yet Dead

I’ve been Actor

Waitress,

Toy maker,

Dance teacher

Director

Producer

Set designer and painter

Night club dancer

Believe it or not

I even gave the cold meat counter

A shot

Cleaner at the coop

And for lovely old dears,

But it was the Doc’s reception

That ended in tears.

Sales assistant

Student at last

Sculptor - Art teacher

Now all in the past.

Funeral celebrant

And bar staff

Property developer.

But that didn’t last.

Then covid came

And we all went mad

So I sat and wrote a story

In the home work fad.

Through lockdowns

I travelled far and wide

In the eighteenth century

Through Kitty’s eyes.

Whatever else I do

I am a story teller

And who knows, my book

Could become a best seller.

I became an author

It could be said,

But I wouldn’t hold your breath

Because I’m not yet dead!

Hi, it's so good to be back; good to be with you again, sharing something of this strange and incredible journey that we call life. I took a break in December, declaring I'd be returning in January. Ok, so it's now March and though I'm finally back blogging, I'm not sure that I have returned to the same shore. Time is relentless in its forward motion and we so often find that in going back, we have actually moved forward. The situation we came from, although it may look the same, will have changed... we will have changed. I have certainly found it so as I've sought to return to writing after a break. I had a kind of epiphany during my time away. I realised that I am finally through ten years of M.E./Chronic fatigue. It is a strange and wonderful feeling.

I started the little painting above when in the grips of the illness. The longing to fly away from the weight of my exhausted body is evident; not to fly away just anywhere, but far away to a new adventure. I have thought about finishing the painting, but whenever I consider doing so, I realise the moment has passed. However much we want it, going back is never really an option. Time ticks on. Looking at the painting now, I am amused at the disconcerted look on the woman's face in the image. Perhaps I always knew that when this day came, when I returned to health, I would find myself poised over some creative output, staring into an uncertain future and feeling quite disconcerted.

What a wonderful, daunting, and exciting journey life is. Time moves on and so do we. As surely as winter becomes spring, and spring, summer, new life blooms in us and in the people and circumstance we left behind us. When we take the return journey, we find we are not the same. Perhaps it is the brave ones that neither cling to the past, nor strain toward the future, but who hold fast, determined to ride the wave as it takes us toward familiar, yet altered shores.

I hear you asking where all this is leading. Isn't this a writer's blog? Yup... kinda. But I suppose, at present, it is more of a 'me' blog. I find that cannot give you a version of my progress that would work well in a promotion or that would sell my work. That's the stuff that got me stressed and I'm just not that person. All I can give you is my own journey, however ragged and wayward it is, and hope that you glean something of use from it.

So... moving forward... here are my thoughts.

In my last newsletter, I mentioned a sequel to Kitty Canham in which Sarah's son returns. The spidergraph plotting out the new novel is rolled in the corner of my room, sometimes calling, sometimes accusing. However, before I set too on it, I have other ideas forming that I want to explore. Writing Kitty Canham gave me so much. I loved telling her story. I loved the writing of it. I did not love the technical side of publishing or getting it out there. I do want to continue to write, but I have also remembered my love of the visual Arts and poetry.

Poetry and visual Arts share the extraordinary ability to bring you to a moment that opens you to something that is so much bigger than itself, which I find incredibly exciting. Don't panic, I will unpack this idea at a later date! So, I want to spend some time working with these genres once more. At present I am playing, which is always the best way to start any creative pursuit. I am writing a little, sketching a little, thinking a lot, and letting my imagination take me wherever it leads.

If you are interested in taking that journey with me, do pop onto my mailing list here You'll receive a link to my blog and newsletter, but I wont bombard you! And please do leave comments and let me know of your own experiences of 'going back'.

I'll leave you with a poem. It was written when I began my journey back from constant exhaustion towards a more normal kind of life.

RECOVERY, with thanks to Shakespeare

I stand... toes curled over the edge.

To walk or not to walk

that is the question.

To turn back is to

un-live,

But to walk into

the virtual space of tomorrow

when the unmade bed of yesterday still haunts?

So I stand betwixt and

between,

I know this place

this place knows me,

it's discomfort

comforting.

To return is no option

as time and age

dictate.

But to walk?

to live?

I barely remember

to live,

it is a phantom

so deep

hiding in the dark

of unborn.

It wakes and sighs

unearthing questions,

un-answers

that bleed the soul.

So... to live

to walk?

to be?

Ah... to be

or not to be

that IS the question.

Go Well,

Nicola