Tim Nunn

Just under a month to the start of rehearsal of ‘Hannah and Harvey’. Eek. The draft of the script for the start of rehearsal is nearly ready, artwork is coming in for the projections, welding and hammering is about to start on the set, music has been written and more auditory magic is on its way. I love this moment on any show. I’ve always maintained to students that in the course of creativity decisions are as important, if not more important, than ideas. Ideas are two-a-penny to the artist – it’s what you do with them that matters. And now is the time for many, many, decisions.

The really great thing at this very moment is that I’ve just seen who Hannah is. It’s that realisation of seeing a character taking life and coming off the page. My hope is that there is enough space for Katherine, the director, and Romana, that actor, to create a ‘Hannah’ of their own and I don’t think the words are too prescriptive. But she also has a strength and identity of her own.

Back to work. Things to do.

P.S. Have a look at the video trailer. It’s brilliant! -

I’ve been working with a group of students at Williamwood High School on the history of slavery in Scotland using photography. The students took photographs at Greenbank House in East Renfrewshire and at what is now the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, but what was once the mansion of one of the tobacco barons who supported the slave trade. These photographs were then combined with archive drawings and etchings from the slave trade era.

The object of the project was to put back the history of the slave trade at the locations where it should be most felt – at the historic homes of those who became wealthy at the cost of immense suffering.

A small selection of the incredible work done by the students is below. I am now continuing with the project to organise an exhibition and launch event at the Eastwood Park Theatre in East Renfrewshire for September 2008.

The project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

From January to June 2007 I was resident at the Mearns Castle High School, East Renfrewshire, joined in March by Katherine Morley. We ran workshops with a group of 13 year-olds to research the heritage of the area and create a permanent installation for the entrance foyer of the school. The final installation was unveiled on 3 September 2007.
Each of the small boxes was the work of a pair or an individual student. They were compositions of new and archive photographs and text. The text varied from new writing to words from research, Victorian poetry to newspaper reports. The text became part of the graphic composition.
The big box is an imaginary meeting of figures found in the local library archive together with students and teachers from Mearns Castle High School and the primary schools that feed it. The landscape they are standing in is the view from the entrance of the school.