Where have I been?

So where have I been these past few months?

I won't lie, I've been having some fun. Ant and I have been to the odd festival, found a shepherds hut or two down in Cornwall for much needed intervals in our busy lives.

Photo Anthony Jolliffe

Somersault Festival, after too much sun

Photo Anthony Jolliffe

There has been an awful lot going on in our lives. Many creative excitements and challenges and some personal ones too...

...One of my best mates Polly has been getting through Breast Cancer, she is an incredibly cool, well dressed individual and has been tackling it all head on with an incredible blog. I decided the least I could do was run the Race for Life

Photo Anthony Jolliffe

But I couldn't do it without emanating a bit of Polly's innate style. I LOVE these trainer wings, and I can't believe I got them from a joke shop. They are still on my trainers, a month on.

My human sketchpad, Al, has gone under the pen again for another nautical themed tattoo. This was a halfway through photo but I almost prefer it to the finished result as you can see the pain he is enduring for his art!

I've spent a fair bit of time in London, working on a few shows, that you will no doubt hear about soon. This incredible installation at the SouthBank Centre is all about its LOVE festival. This euphoric assault on the senses is what I think love looks like. A little too painful to start straight in the face, but if you are brave enough to do so, you will discover new hidden delights the longer you look.

Saying that, it was a bit of a grey day when I took the photo!

One of those London shows is one called Fat Man, devised by Martin Bonger and Alex Swift, produced by Little Mighty and Move to Stand. I won't give too much away but it's touching, bloody funny and will completely turn the myth of Orhpeus on its head. Find out more about the tour here

Martin is, by no stretch of the imagination, Fat, Therefore he needed a pretty pimping fat suit to get the job done. I called up Jill Molyneux and Kelly Jago at Jag Props who made an incredibly life like fat suit. I then dressed it, grubbed and sweated it up and, voila! that protruding tummy above is in fact  a prosthetic tummy on a glorious fat suit. 

My theatre company Dot and Ethel is going from strength to strength, with Heidi and I just about keeping up. We have secured Arts Council Funding for a national Tour of our christmas show the Little Match girl, now transformed into the universally seasonal 'MATCH'.

Photo Chris Collier

That scraped the surface of the past few months. The pace still hasn't let up and at times it feels like I'm keeping just out in front of the tidal wave. I'm sure many of you feel like that, but we all keep coming back for more.  I look forward to sharing all that comes with you in future posts.