Grey and Gay

A tale of breasts, lesbians, wool, etc.

An ordinary woman in extraordinary circumstances.

Dear Leonard present a story about a woman called Ellen and her journey through life from the monotonous and repressive to the exciting and unexpected.

Explored through our eyes, this performance will take the audience on a journey through the life of a woman whose story might not otherwise be told through the use of game and play.

A story you don't want to miss, for it might not ever be repeated.

Monday 3rd December

6.30pm at the Lumley, University of Kent*

Tickets £3 available from Jarman Reception, University of Kent

*If you wish to reserve tickets please contact dearleonard.theatre@gmail.com and state your name and the number of tickets you wish to reserve.

Let the hectic times begin...!

Greetings to you all...

So you might have noticed it has been a little while since we posted last and that is because we have had a very hectic past couple of weeks and this is sure to continue! But it is all getting very exciting!

The first thing to report is that we had our very first (private) performance two weeks ago which was a work in progress display of what we had developed so far...

The feedback we got for this was all incredibly helpful and has really helped us to step up to get ready for our final performance which will be on the 3rd Dec at 6.30pm in The Lumley, University of Kent. This will be a ticketed event so details will soon be emerging for how to get your hands on them! You will also soon be seeing our brand new posters floating around for our final performance and we can't wait for you to see them!

So first things first, we know you all love a nice little glimpse into our rehearsal process, so here are some of the photos from just before our work in progress (and we will also soon upload some of our actual work in progress photos up too!):

It was such an enjoyable experience and we were really pleased with the results but we still have a long way to go!

Speaking of which our performance has now developed quite significantly from this earlier work and we are now beginning to focus on a much more specific story that we hope you will all be very intrigued by! We are currently using the basis of a unique and ahead of her time woman for our performance whose story we think might otherwise not be told... More details of this brilliant new theme will be emerging shortly when our publicity starts to hit the streets for our final performance! Until then though, we hope this will intrigue you!

And so it is with that we shall leave you, but a new blog post will definitely be up pretty soon to give you all the information you need to know about how to see us perform!

Live long and prosper guys...

Hours, days, weeks...

And so the hours have rolled into days and the days into weeks and it is finally time for a new blog post to reveal to you all some of our new and exciting plans.. But obviously it is in our very nature to keep some secrets from you too. And perhaps we will start to titillate your taste buds a little with this intriguing list...

Kisses
Photographs
Buckets
Water
Lip stick
Cling film
Trinny and Suzannah
Marker pen
Teapots
Squirty cream
Bonnie Tyler.

And no more shall be said about that.

It has been pretty hectic since we last posted and there has been so much development with our piece, it is all getting a little bit too exciting. So exciting we might wet ourselves... In some sense.

There have been some brilliant developments with our work and we are finally starting to see all the hard work, long hours and mental head scratching pay off. We've been experimenting with a huge amount of material, from surreal to comical to absolutely upsetting and each thread lies close to our chests... We are so excited to reveal work to you all but we don't want to give away too much for now! Just know that everyone should learn how to survive and it is always good to turn around bright eyes if you think you hear a bicycle.

For now that shall be all you are left with. Unless you choose to visit our webpage which may, sometime soon, feature a new video...


And with that we leave you, but not without our infamous sign off photo. This week we give you one of the world's best tree houses, because everyone needs some playtime.

Love Dear Leonard...

P.s. that was a terribly un-amusing sign off, so here is a picture of a disappointed rabbit. Please note this rabbit is very disappointed in all who have not decided to follow is on twitter yet especially. Or facebook. Click the links to do so to make the rabbit happy again: facebook & twitter

We're back...

So it may have seemed like we have disappeared off the face of the planet for a little while, but what Dear Leonard... have actually been doing is working on some great new material and rehearsing like crazy to get our ideas together!

To our twitter followers, we gave you a sneak peek behind the scenes at us seemingly messing around with some coat hangers, but in actual fact what we were doing in that session was creating the fabulous Gloria, a quickly, simply made puppet to work with in our rehearsal process. The creation of Gloria was thanks to our resident puppeteer Lucy and we think she turned out pretty well to say she was made out of some coat hangers, sellotape and clothing!

So what else have we been doing I hear you cry? Well as previously mentioned, this past week has been a pretty busy one for Dear Leonard... We had our first official 'day trip' as a company up to London to do a little bit of an improvised performance at Tate Modern and to see some Contemporary Ballet at Sadler's Wells (Ceder Lake). Two of our company members even got interviewed for Canadian Television! Sadly they weren't spreading the word about Dear Leonard... however, just talking about the Olympics:

We also had a great little social at two of our company members houses (which included a rabbit named Lionel)...

And we caused a bit of a stir in the Templeman Library and the Darwin Residences....

However, it hasn't all been fun and games... We have been putting our heads together to develop some great new scenes, sequences and also a great new framework for our piece, but we shall have to keep you in the dark a little longer about that....

We have had some brilliant workshop sessions too though, and here are a few photos from this week's rehearsals:

And so, until next week.... In the words of Mr Bruce Forsythe:

Keeeeeeeeeeeep dancing!

A little treat...

Well here we go! Rehearsal photos just for your viewing pleasure! (And these are just the beginning!)

But first, a giant welcome from our group...

(From Left to right: Marie, Marina, Lucy, Alexandra, Catherine and Chanelle)

So here you are, a sneak preview of the inner crazy workings of Dear Leonard... 

These photos come from our very first five minute 'etude', a little bit of a homage to the Stepford wives.... There was cheese grating, lipstick smearing, water chugging madness and we loved every second. Grotesque and surreal were definite themes and we reckon there will be quite a lot of this in the near future too! 

Stay tuned because there are a lot more crazy antics to come, these are just a little bit of a teaser to wet your appetites...

And finally, because we reckon it is becoming a bit of a signature theme, a photo to lighten up the pre-Monday blues...

Who doesn't love a cute monkey eh?

Namaste,

Sneaky P.S.... Keep a cheeky eye out for the launch of our brand new website, coming to you in the next 24 hours... Keep checking back here as the link will soon appear...

And so the adventure begins...

Dear Leonard... have been working hard in rehearsals and soon to come will be some brand new photos straight from the rehearsal room! We have games, we have trunks and we have blue teeth... All in all it has been a pretty busy week for us, but we still have a heck of a lot more to come! Stay tuned for the latest, all new photos coming soon!

In the mean time please enjoy this picture.

                                             
                                                  The Ballerina Dog by Ron Schmidt*

Until next time friends,

Welcome!

So welcome to Dear Leonard Theatre Company's Brand new blog!

Here you will be able to catch up with all the latest information with regards to our performances, see behind the scenes rehearsal photos and more!