Thirsty?

My name is Jemma Mc Donnell and I am the artistic director of The Paper Birds theatre company. I need your help......

I am starting this blog, not because I have something that I need to share- but more, because I need you to share your stories and thoughts with me....

The Paper Birds are about to begin devising a new show under the working title of 'Thirsty'. The devising process will begin at The National Theatre’s studio in April and will continue development at venues across the UK until the productions world premiere at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2011. 

‘Thirsty’ will be a theatrical exploration into the upsurge of the binge drinking culture currently gripping the UK. A dynamic theatrical exploration beyond governmental research, ‘Thirsty’ will look past the facts and figures of binge drinking to the faces and the voices of  the men admitted A&E in the dead of the night and of the lone women sitting on pavements unable to stand. 

Thirsty will explore the stories and social repercussions of lost memories and gained traumas; the tales of bruised knees, uncontrollable laughter, unwanted pregnancies and urine stained beds...... a story that repeats itself across the UK Friday night. 

In the coming weeks/ months (aside from this blog) The Paper Birds will be sending out questionnaires, will be taking to the streets with our dictaphones and will even have a mobile number for people to ring and leave messages/ voicemail's when they are drunk.  ( Ill post the number on here as soon as we have it). 

The aim is to collate as many drunken stories and experiences from a varied groups of people as possible ( we dont want this theme to simply be associated with young people and/or club/pub culture) from which the company will piece together one night, one story- made up of all of yours! 

Thus- I need your stories, your photographs, your voicemail's and most of all your honesty! If you would rather not post your story as a comment at the bottom of this blog then please feel free to email me directly or pop your story in the post anonymously ( my contact details are below.)

Finally-  I also beg you to pass this blog address on to as many people as possible to enable us to get varied contributions.

Thank you so much in advance! I will keep you updated on how the show develops. x

Jemma Mc Donnell

The Paper Birds

Studio 18

The West Park Centre

Spen Lane

Leeds

LS16 5BE

jemma@thepaperbirds.com