SPIN at the Lyric
Thursday, March 25, 2010, 04:50 PM



With the gorgeous Breis.

WHEN: Saturday 27 March @ 11am & 1pm
WHERE: Lyric Hammersmith, Lyric Square, King Street, London, W6 0QL
TICKETS: Special offer children £5 & adults free, ring box office and quote "Apple Offer"
BOOK: 0871 22 117 22 / www.lyric.co.uk
www.applesandsnakes.org
Me and A F Harrold
Monday, March 22, 2010, 10:05 AM
We are doing two gigs together this week. I'm thinking of asking A F if he wants to work out a little something for the second one. We won't have much time to rehearse and I'm really lazy, morally and intellectually but kind of average physically, so rather than anything involving words, it could be an interpretive dance happening during each other's sets. Could be worth a look?


Rhythm and Muse: Featuring Francesca Beard & A F Harrold

Thursday 25 March, 8.30pm
Studio, Rose Theatre, 24-26 High Street,
Kingston KT1 1


Rhythm and Muse, a platform for new, upcoming and established musicians
and poets will be making its first appearance in Kingston in the Studio at the Rose Theatre. Come along and be inspired!

Tickets: £6, concessions £5
On the door or online
www.kingston.gov.uk
www.rhythmandmuse.org



BEARD, BIRD, HARVEY & HARROLD - A Poetry Show
Saturday, March 27 at 7:00pm
Jacqueline Du Pre, Cowley Place, off The Plain, OXFORD

Surely the pinnacle of performance poetry at this year’s Oxfringe. George Chopping will introduce four of the UK’s finest poets, both on page and stage. Opening the evening will be AF Harrold, offering “subversive humour that is quite brilliant” (Brian Patten) shortly followed by “the spine tingling” (The Independent) Francesca Beard. In the second half, Julia Bird, will be reading from her debut collection “Hannah & the Monk” (Salt, 2008) before the night is rounded of perfectly by the dulcet wit of Radio 4 regular and Guardian poet, Matt Harvey.

£12 (£2.40 per poet)/£10 concs. ONLY 45 concession tickets left. Anyone/everyone is entitled to a concs ticket, first come first served! Tickets will be available on the door OR in advance from www.wegottickets.com TEL: 08708033475
Apples & Snakes at Soho Theatre
Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 08:30 PM
I'm supporting the lovely Ian McMillan tomorrow night (Wednesday 24th Feb) partly through the medium of spoken word but mainly by going on last and so allowing him to catch the last train home.

It's an Apples and Snakes gig too. So. Good.


WHEN: Wednesday 24 February @ 8pm
WHERE: Soho Theatre, 21 Dean Street, London, W1D 3NE
TICKETS: £8 / £6
BOOK: 020 7478 0100 / www.sohotheatre.com
www.applesandsnakes.org

I
Heart
Apples
&
Snakes
MIGHTILY


Animal Olympics @Watermans
Friday, February 12, 2010, 11:23 AM
If you have kids and/or an emotional age of 4 - 11, please come down to Watermans in Brentford on the 14th February at 3pm, where me and the plush toys will be performing 'Animal Olympics'.

Alternatively, if you are looking for a wackily alternative/weirdly inappropriate Valentine's Day date, this could be the very thing.

"Celebrate the Chinese New Year - the year of the Tiger with Animal Olympics by Francesca Beard. This is a storytelling show featuring all the animals from the Chinese Zodiac in an Olympics talent show..."

Box Office 020 8232 1010
Watermans 40 High Street Brentford TW8 0DS


Oh and it's the first day of the New Year, year of the Golden Tiger.




Horror, then Sublimity
Friday, February 12, 2010, 11:00 AM
On Thursday afternoon, I got savaged by a teacher. It's an occupational hazard of working in schools. Most times, most times, the teachers I get to work with a remarkable human beings, emotionally intelligent, generous, collaborative, adventurous. But there's always one, mad as a snake, sometimes superficially friendly who'll out of nowhere, pulls a Lady Macbeth in the middle of a mid-term evaluation.

Even at Primary school level, there's a huge amount of box-ticking regarding the curriculum that teachers feel pressurised to do. From what I understand, the Government introduced the National Curriculum to ensure that all children would receive a structured and sound education in order to protect against sub-par teachers. These measures keep teachers in line with a set of goals that need to be achieved at set times.

If you are a talented teacher with a sensitive awareness of your class as individuals and as a group, the National Curriculum severely limits the possibility of creative teaching. One of the ways of getting round this is to invite artists into the classroom, ideally for an extended period of time. Agencies like Apples & Snakes, Eastside Educational Trust, AND and Creative Partnerships specialise in these residencies which allow teachers to create some space in their classrooms for play, taking risks, making mistakes and experimenting - all things that are helpful to learning.

But often in these residencies, you work with more than that one teacher who really gets it. And even though the other teachers appreciate the principle of the exercise, they can often find the process really destabilising.

It's totally understandable. Once the artist swans out of the classroom where they magically appear like a pixie of chaos for one lesson a week, it's the teacher who has to get the class back on the literacy, numeracy, box-ticking track. Which is why it takes a significant amount of communication and trust for it to work. And why it sometimes doesn't.

And when it doesn't, it's hideous. Oh, the drama. The bitchery. The froideur of the staffroom. Like Heathers meets a Government Health and Safety Campaign.

And the bad news is that it's only half-term. But the kids, the kids are unusually lovely. And so is the main teacher. And the other artist. And the creative producer. So. Well then.

And the sublimity? I had the joy of performing with John Hegley and Michael Rosen at the Queen Elizabeth Hall yesterday. I've learnt so much from both of them over the years and every time I see them perform, I learn more.

John went on first as he had a thing in Edinburgh later. He asked the audience to welcome me onto the stage as cats.(there is backstory but it's too random) A whole QEH-worth basket of kittens, though. I can still hear the mewing. It'll be with me for ever. In the darkest moments (further installments coming soon, see above) I will reach to my memories and wrap that sound around me, a warm blanket of miaow.

Michael did a new poem about how your parents love your brother more than you. It started light, funny, then got honest, sad, fierce, a moment of pure angst and then, a three-quarter way twist that spun the whole thing to delight without taking any of the darkness away. Genius.

I saw Michael do a set for grown-ups at an Apples gig in Cargo and he was brilliant, it was a revelation. I wish he'd do more adult performances (always sounds dirty, don't it?) but he says people always bring their kids along and he doesn't mind really.

Here's a random pic of some Vietnamese deities.




Back Next