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The Only Reliable Witness - initial development week

We are a creative collective - 

Flannery Cunningham, Emily Kate Groves, and Charley Miles - a composer, a poet and a playwright, working in collaboration to tell stories of the female experience in new, surprising and beautiful ways.

Our current project combines narrative with poetry in music in brand new ways, involving the audience in a ciclical exploration of fate and deception: the choices we make and the power they hold.

 

In this portfolio you will find images from our initial development week; writing, sound clips, and other scribblings.

Document
Poetry written by Emily during our initial development week.
Emily - poetry

Poetry written by Emily during our initial development week. 

Emily - poetry
Poetry

A favourite line from one of Emily's pieces of writing - from our initial development week

Poetry
Audio
BeforeYou There Was Magic

short sound clip - recording of Emily reading one of the poems she wrote during the initial development week. Before You There Was Magic - written and performed by Emily Kate Groves

BeforeYou There Was Magic
Document
Written by Charley, an initial exploration of backstory for the character of our 'mystic'.
Grams

Written by Charley, an initial exploration of backstory for the character of our 'mystic'. 

Grams
Audio
Convergence

in development for The Only Reliable Witness - by Flannery Cunningham

Convergence
Prompt

Another morning prompt - from our initial development week

Prompt
Document
Written by Charley - fining the beginnings of our characters and story.
Kate

Written by Charley - fining the beginnings of our characters and story. 

Kate
Writing poetry

Writing poetry
Prompt

In our initial development week, we wanted to use instinct and vulnerability to inspire creativity. Each evening we would write a prompt, and these would be left outside another person's bedroom. In the morning, in waking, we each collected our prompt and free wrote for a few minutes. Or for however long it took to properly wake up!

Prompt
Audio
'The Three Things' - morning prompt response

Music in development - by Flannery Cunningham. Response to a morning prompt.

'The Three Things' - morning prompt response
Pulling Quotes

Quotes pulled from all of the exercises and free writing we did on our initial development week.

Pulling Quotes
Musical mapping

Musical mapping
Audio
Planet Movement demo

music in development - by Flannery Cunningham

Planet Movement demo
Storylining pg 1

At the end if our initial development week, we spent several hours pulling together the loose thread of a story. Page 1.

Storylining pg 1
Storylining pg 2

At the end if our initial development week, we spent several hours pulling together the loose thread of a story. Page 2

Storylining pg 2
Storylining pg 3

At the end if our initial development week, we spent several hours pulling together the loose thread of a story. Page 3

Storylining pg 3
At work

At work
Prompt

Another morning prompt - taken from one of Emily's poems, written that week. - from our initial development week

Prompt
Mapping the music

The moment when Flannery came up with the zodiac mapping for our compositional element.

Mapping the music
Musical mapping

Flannery trying out her concept for the first time -  Stones representing the zodiac Microphone to record placed in the centre (to replicate the experience of an audience)  

Musical mapping
Key themes

The quotes, or points, which we found constantly at the forefront of our discussions. It was useful to keep going back to them.

Key themes
Development

Development
Story

From our initial development week - finding the beginnings of a story amongst all of our discussions and ideas.

Story
Scenes

From our initial development week - brainstorming plot points as they came to us.

Scenes
Free writing

Taken from one of the exercises undertaken on our initial development weekend ... Free writing whilst also counting backwards from 100. - from our initial development week Very challenging!

Free writing

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More projects

Musical mapping

The Only Reliable Witness - initial development week
Document
Treatment - first episode Learning to Breathe is a provoking portrayal of gender politics in the 1980's when the UK, caught up with high drama of riots, bombings and privatisation, was looking the other way. This ambitious, character-driven drama offers fresh insights into the personal politics of the 1980s and the issues which affected women on a very private level. Winter, 1981. Against the backdrop of Thatcher’s ironclad Britain, an unlikely group of women are brought together in a story of loyalty, friendship and survival. Meryl - feisty, independent and living on a shoestring - meets Anita, passive, devoted...
Holding the Baby - Screenplay

Treatment - first episode Learning to Breathe is a provoking portrayal of gender politics in the 1980's when the UK, caught up with high drama of riots, bombings and privatisation, was looking the other way. This ambitious, character-driven drama offers fresh insights into the personal politics of the 1980s and the issues which affected women on a very private level. Winter, 1981. Against the backdrop of Thatcher’s ironclad Britain, an unlikely group of women are brought together in a story of loyalty, friendship and survival. Meryl - feisty, independent and living on a shoestring - meets Anita, passive, devoted housewife, cushioned by her middle class lifestyle. Both pregnant, they meet at the new NHS antenatal classes. Jane, 'Queen of the Mother Hens', has also been dragged to the classes and leads the contingent of moneyed, conservative women who would otherwise never mix with anyone beyond their clique. In a poky classroom, amid breathing lessons and labour plans, a deeply divided society is revealed. The group's teacher Sandra, a ‘relic of the 60s’, is still pushing for women’s rights, yet men like Darren embody the suited business elite of the 80s, and women like Jane still exist to extol ‘housewifely’...
Scripts
Document
Flash Fiction: inspired by Donald Barthelme's 'The School', a woman one day finds herself with a Gorilla as a constant companion. And she can't seem to shake him.
My Gorilla

Flash Fiction: inspired by Donald Barthelme's 'The School', a woman one day finds herself with a Gorilla as a constant companion. And she can't seem to shake him.

Fiction
Follow the link to my article on selfie culture and, in particular, the #nomakeupselfie phase in PUSH for The Writing Squad. http://www.writingsquad.com/push/issues/issue-4/yourself-at-arms-length/
'At Arm's Length Yourself' for Push

Follow the link to my article on selfie culture and, in particular, the #nomakeupselfie phase in PUSH for The Writing Squad. http://www.writingsquad.com/push/issues/issue-4/yourself-at-arms-length/

Non-Fiction
Audio
Songs My Mother Sung Me- Roses in December

A collage-piece created for ELFM as part of a programme on Memory - 'Roses in December' Exploring the maternal memory through interview, creative writing, creative non-fiction, and music. To hear the whole show, including work from other members of The Writing Squad, visit www.elfm.co.uk/listen-again/writ…oses-in-december/

Radio
Document
For Context: Treatment Holding the Baby is a provoking portrayal of gender politics in the 1980's when the UK, caught up with high drama of riots, bombings and privatisation, was looking the other way. This ambitious, character-driven drama offers fresh insights into the personal politics of the 1980s and the issues which affected women on a very private level. Winter, 1981. Against the backdrop of Thatcher’s ironclad Britain, an unlikely group of women are brought together in a story of loyalty, friendship and survival. Meryl - feisty, independent and living on a shoestring - meets Anita, passive, devoted housewife...
Holding the Baby

For Context: Treatment Holding the Baby is a provoking portrayal of gender politics in the 1980's when the UK, caught up with high drama of riots, bombings and privatisation, was looking the other way. This ambitious, character-driven drama offers fresh insights into the personal politics of the 1980s and the issues which affected women on a very private level. Winter, 1981. Against the backdrop of Thatcher’s ironclad Britain, an unlikely group of women are brought together in a story of loyalty, friendship and survival. Meryl - feisty, independent and living on a shoestring - meets Anita, passive, devoted housewife, cushioned by her middle class lifestyle. Both pregnant, they meet at the new NHS antenatal classes. Jane, 'Queen of the Mother Hens', has also been dragged to the classes and leads the contingent of moneyed, conservative women who would otherwise never mix with anyone beyond their clique. In a poky classroom, amid breathing lessons and labour plans, a deeply divided society is revealed. The group's teacher Sandra, a ‘relic of the 60s’, is still pushing for women’s rights, yet men like Darren embody the suited business elite of the 80s, and women like Jane still exist to extol ‘housewifely’ virtues...
Big Picture - Writer - Materials
Document
PDF doc. of my screenplay 'Sleepwalking' - for the next round of the Short Film Fund.
Short Film Fund (Sleepwalking)

PDF doc. of my screenplay 'Sleepwalking' - for the next round of the Short Film Fund. 

Short Film Fund
Document
A review of the recent production of David Hare's 'The Judas Kiss' at the Duke of York Theatre, starring Rupert Everett.
The Judas Kiss - Review

A review of the recent production of David Hare's 'The Judas Kiss' at the Duke of York Theatre, starring Rupert Everett. 

The Gorilla, The Tortoise And Me
Barren Land

Image from Freshblood Theatre Society's (University of Warwick) production of Barren Land (Freshfest 2011).

Barren Land
Writer Profile & Bio

CV, Writer Profile, and Bio.
Video
Tequila Sunrise

Written and made by myself and two other students at the University of Warwick. This short won a competition judged by the animation duo 'The Brothers Mcleod'. Sam and Joe are no strangers to the drunken morning after, but this is a first even for them. Student film made November 2010 by students of Warwick University.

Tequila Sunrise (short film)
Document
A play which was written and directed in collaboration by Lucy Fostor and myself. Staged in the Warwick Arts Centre studio, as part of Warwick Students Arts Festival 2011.
If Only To Dream (play script)

A play which was written and directed in collaboration by Lucy Fostor and myself. Staged in the Warwick Arts Centre studio, as part of Warwick Students Arts Festival 2011. 

If Only To Dream
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