Yes Yes Yes 'We will build Jerusalem in England' etc. ! Blake

YES , the answer is yes we got it !! A vitally important milestone has been reached - major achievement in the current financial climate . We have been notified, we will receive grant funding, from a major funder, Arts Council England, for our wonderful project. I know I have not written for awhile, due to, much anxiety (lots) , anticipation alongside a mind boggling flurry of activity. Needless to say it has not all quite sunk in but we now have the means to move very quickly and positively forward !!!!

We have in place a really fantastic creative team ( theatre, performing arts, creative artists , digitals till & moving image, multi-media MA's BA's etc) planning out with me in our regular team meetings, still and moving image shoots, the art direction , external and studio, locations and venues , extras costumes, props , hair make up and personnel . In addition to very having stimulating discussions with clear decisions emerging about creative technicalities about the visual look, colour textures, post edit treatments of the piece, across the different decades of style, throughout the narrative of the piece . We are currently recruiting a crowd of extras. All our main character/model actors have all been sourced locally and cast by me. All to generate the quality images we need for the stage production . Key project management tools are Dropbox and Google Calender-essential !!! It does feel historic, with an unstoppable positive forward momentum. We are building something that will really be very special and unique right here in the middle lands of England ..of Leicester The world awaits....

'Diunt Get Frit' - Wax In Sync With The Moon...

How to say this ,its been gloomy (but the moon is waxing) with everyone down about arts cuts. But I have with my collaborators namely Simon and Sean so far been busy bees , we are waxing marvellously along . Getting so much work done at last at last ! Development really perking up so to recap , deadline for sharing work in progress august 2012, theatre meetings for support and joy of joys (my inner geek rejoices ) getting to devise and work out a pilot creative digital platform for performance Whoopeep doo - in a digital media centre !!! Not to mention an agreement to move forward with a big arts centre to comission original contemporary acoustic and electronic music , musicians, workshops, choir to learn the music and a debut performance of the music work , plus other performance dates . There has been great help and advice and more importantly hope, now available in high places. So vital with the recent arts cuts laying waste to artists dreams and hopes - bitter anger and rage, with hardened cyncism toward goverment and funding bodies raging. I will gird my loins, but also diunt get frit (leicester slang for dont be afraid) with regard to grant funding shennigans. However it is different this time- more powerful champions, complete with their own not inconsiderable juicy resources, that the project requires YAY !. Transparency is the key, see how diverse the arts can be in these 'middle lands 'are or will be . This project clearly will be a litmus test , for clear criteria , real fairness and so forth . But most of all this project is will/ be the most groundbreaking amazing fantastic thing ever in these parts..I love it that not quite everyone has realised this yet...but they will. The fun is back now (I was dancing- working recently to work out the size of my performance platform to be built as part of the staging) we have moved so much further forward with everything !