Laboratories

A bilingual phone call with Denise Namura. She's very keen to come and do a workshop in the Laboratory, though she'd like to bring her partner with her (they always work together - he's the one with the Wuppertal background). We'll be able to do this if we get the ALG funding we asked for - and we should hear any day.

I seem to be spending much of my time waiting at the moment. The key to the whole year is the London venue for Dis-Orientations, and though we've been talking since October, we still don't have confirmation. The second we do, all hell will be let loose. Till then: thumbs are metaphorically twiddled.

Meet Phill Ward, Michael Gieleta from Cherub and Manoj from Collage to talk about a possible expansion of the Laboratory. Phill's idea is that the Karamel Club at Chocolate Factory 2 could be an ideal space for workshops of the kind we're running, plus development work on scripts and the like. This would be a bouncing-off point to develop a central admin function within the building, which our two companies, and two others tba, could be part of. Manoj agrees to fund the post in its initial stages, as an investment in company and community development. Very promising.... Collage has some fantastic spaces in that building: I've been to see the training rooms, complete with video editing space.

More emails to and from Ghana. There's interest from the university's drama department, and Ama Ata Aidoo sends me her schedule for the year. If I'm to meet her, I think I'll have to go in late July. Not ideal for university terms, I suspect - but I think she's the crucial contact.

Time to go and phone venues again.