A Pint For The Ghost: The Next Stage

Now that I've had time to catch my breath after the Hotbed festival, it seems like a good time to reflect belatedly on the scratch performance of 'A Pint...' on Saturday 27th June. After a frantic day of rehearsals (and a brief escape to the Cambridge Blue to gulp down A Pint For The Writer), actor Neil Jones and I were nervously reading through our scripts in the dressing room when we heard an usher utter these fateful words:

"We're going to need some more chairs in here...the tickets have sold out."

Full house! So we invited an audience of 60 odd people (by which I mean approximately 60, not to imply that all the audience members were odd) to join us in a strange and ghostly pub for the evening. Highlights from the show included a fantastic score by Sam Genders, a brilliant performance by the landlord, Neil, and free shots of whisky for lucky members of the audience. Choose your seat wisely when the show goes on tour!

So where next for the show?

• Hot of the press, a pamphlet containing the poems for the show and a few extra ghostsly pieces has just been published by tall-lighthouse press. It will be launched soon, but you can buy your copy already from the tall-lighthouse website HERE. According to Ian McMillan, it's 'an exciting collection from a writer who knows the value of the past and how to set it against the present to illuminate them both'.

• I'm going to be doing another performance in Cambridge before the end of the summer for everyone who couldn't make it or couldn't get tickets to the scratch performance.

• I'll be applying for a touring grant from the Arts Council and, if I'm successful, hope to take the show on the road towards the autumn, starting with a launch in London.

• I've started doing some themed workshops for schools in Cambridge and will be developing these further in the coming months.

Thank you to everyone who has been such a tremendous support so far. Please do keep following the blog to keep track of 'A Pint For The Ghost' and its errant Derbyshire spirits. There'll be more to come soon!