So we finally did it. It is a very strange thing to walk into the shoes of a performer who you’ve enjoyed watching closely for so many hours. It was a large leap to make and a scary one, to admit maybe there was a braver way of doing this show, that maybe it would work better if I accepted the piece as being clearly autobiographical.
With thanks to the Arts Council’s Grants for the Arts and to BAC we were able to have a go at making what we thought would be a better show. With the help of director Alex Swift, whose fresh eyes helped navigate a new approach to the material, Puffball has become the show it seems to have been destined to be. This is my first piece of autobiographical work and I feel really lucky that it has been given this space to become what it now is.
Christopher Brett Bailey (who previously performed the piece) came to see it on Saturday and gave us his important stamp of approval.
I am hugely excited to see where this show can now go. We will develop it for a run at The Yard in September and then back to BAC in the Spring.
Images from the scratch performance of PUFFBALL at BAC in June.
Photographs by Paul Blakemore.
