The Zoo Story

Dave (Theatre of the Dales) Robertson warmly invites everyone to a free performance of

THE ZOO STORY

by

Edward Albee

with

 Guillaume Blanchard

and

David Robertson

First staged in 1959, shortly before he wrote Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Albee's one-act tour de force is as wry and hypnotic as ever.

Two New Yorkers strike up a conversation in Central Park. One irritates, amuses and intrigues the other with his life story, till the listener is caught up in a climax at once shocking and deeply moving.

You can catch it next weekend at the following times and venues:

On Saturday, Sept 17th, at 3pm in Dagmar Wood (opposite Dave's house) or in the nearby LS6 Cafe (often called the Clock), if it rains.

Also, at 8pm in Cafe Lento on North Lane, Headingley (where there will be a licensed bar).

On Sunday, Sept 18th, at 3pm in Dagmar Wood. (Again, in the Clock, if it rains.)

Also, at 9.30pm in the garden of 1, Grosvenor Road (Dave's place) by the light of a bonfire. (Shelter will be rigged up, if rain threatens.)

Support the LIPPfest!

Readers of this blog are sure to be interested in the LIPPfest so here's information and dates for your diaries:


The Leeds Independent Presses Poetry Festival (LIPPfest) 2011 kicks off on 24 September at the Carriageworks Theatre in Leeds with a programme of readings from twenty-one poets, six workshops, symposiums and publishing talks. An independent presses bookfair will give people the chance to browse and purchase literature from a range of literature not stocked on the shelves of your average bookshop.




LIPPfest 2011 Poetry competition


Here you can download details, rules and entry form for the inaugural LIPPfest poetry competition. The competition will open for entries on April 12th 2011.  Entries close on July 14th 2011. Winners will be announced at a special event at the festival on September 24th.


(Click this Link to download PDF)


This year’s judges are Pat Borthwick and Mike Barlow.


Prizes
• 1st Prize £ 250.00
• 2nd Prize £ 150.00
• 3rd Prize £ 100.00
• The Leeds Prize £ 50.00
• All prize/award winners will receive a poetry
book from the LIPPfest book fair.


All prize winners will also have an opportunity to read at the festival and will be invited to submit their entry for inclusion in the LIPPfest’s anthology of poetry. The competition is a great way to support the festival and help us to promote the poets and poetry of independent presses.


Any money raised will go into putting on further events and developing new ways to take poetry out to new audiences. See entry form for full details.

Read! Read! Read!

Here's an extract from a recent issue of the official newsletter of Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School in Meanwood:

The   school   was   privileged   to   stage   one   of   the   events   of   the   Headingley   LitFest when  the  celebrated  author,  Robert  Swindells  read  and   discussed   his   works   with   pupils.   Swindells   is   one   of   Britain’s   most   successful  writers  of fiction  for  young  people... 

Robert   Swindells,   who   was   born   in   Yorkshire,   has   received   numerous   awards for his books for children and young adults. Stone Cold, a favourite  with our  pupils,  won  the  Carnegie  Medal  and  has  been  adapted   for television  by the  BBC.  Generations  of  our  pupils  have  enjoyed  reading   his novels  and they  were  delighted  to  be  given  the  opportunity  to  hear  Mr   Swindells  read extracts  from  his  work.  

They   plied   him   with   questions   about   his   subjects,   his   writing   methods,   his   beliefs   and   his   income!   The   quality   and   variety   of   the   questions   asked  was   impressive.   Pupils   found   his   honest,   entertaining   and   down-to-‐earth   approach   engaging   and   many   of   them   said   that   he   made   them   believe   that  they  could  succeed  as  writers  if  they  put their  minds  to  it...  

We  were  delighted  to  welcome  pupils  and  staff  from  Allerton  High  School   to the  event.  Mr  Swindells  was  moved  and  impressed  by the interest our pupils had shown.

Radish Books attended and provided copies of Mr Swindells' work. Many purchased Stone Cold and left clutching copies which carried a personal message from the author: variants of 'Read! Read! Read!

C. Brown

 

Readathon, anyone?

Peter Spafford performed in the LitFest on 20 March in one of the house events. See the earlier posts to read the report. He has just put this message up on  Headingley Chat:

I`m organising a broadcast literature festival for East Leeds FM (www.elfm.co.uk) called WRITING ON AIR, June 13-17. 

 

For the finale, we're doing an all-night reading of Paul Auster's True Tales of American Life. We're looking for a team of 10-15 people crazy enough to camp out inside the fabulously atmospheric Seacroft Chapel and read through the night in shifts. Plenty of coffee and biscuits provided.

 

At the moment we have a hard core, but we need more! Anyone fancy it?         

  

http://www.peterspafford.co.uk/

Beechey Island

This poem was greatly admired by a number of people at the Let Me Speak event on 22 March. Campion Rollinson has now sent it, and you can read it on Headingley LitFest Originals.

Food for thought

Richard Wilcocks writes:

Food appears to be playing an increasingly important part in the LitFest. We began in a restaurant this year, compliments about the home-made cakes and dainties provided last year were commonplace, and similar praise has been drizzled upon us this time around. Perhaps we should finish in a restaurant as well. Or in a house with a good cook in residence.

This particular house event on Sunday afternoon was so successful that there had to be a repeat performance. Fortunately, the first lot through the door did not scoff everything, and there was plenty of Oyster Bay left to drink, because I was there for the second session. Lis Bertolla and Doug Sandle performed a well thought-out poetry programme, Maria Sandle sang and played guitar, and a couple called The Retrolettes sang and played the ukelele. At one point, Doug played a Jew’s Harp!

There were poems written by Lis and Doug themselves and by the likes of Geoffrey Chaucer, Jonathan Swift, John Keats, Edward Lear and Roger McGough, and occasional ventures into prose, with short extracts from Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Laurie Lee’s Cider with Rosie. Maria was particularly charming with her rendition of Junk Food Junkie, and the Retrolettes brought us Trinidadian sunshine with the Andrews Sisters’ version of Rum and Coca Cola.

The session concluded with Lis’s own beautiful poem After the Poetry Reading. Then it was time for the nosh. We’ll have to do this every Sunday afternoon now.