Rina Vergano is a Bristol-based playwright and dramaturg with a background in European theatre-making, specialising in new work for younger and family audiences. For twenty years she lived and worked in Amsterdam and has translated over seventy plays into English from Dutch and Flemish.Her own creative output has brought her into contact with many theatres …
By Sarah Guthrie. Addicts of words and music who joined us at HotFest ‘21, may recall a quirky little poetry and music mash-up in the Marquee called Love, Lies and the Green-Eyed Monster. It featured Kenneth Bell, Petra Jones and esteemed local director Ben Jenkins. Ben is a pianist, musical and theatre director, who has …
Love or Mania? A Review of Philip Ridley’s Tender Napalm Read More »
By Ashley Dunn and B.T. Wine. It is coming up to the one-year anniversary of Infringed Poetry at the Bristol Fringe in Clifton Village, a monthly poetry open mic that has grown into a beautiful, energetic and supportive community of wordsmiths in such a short space of time. Performers share a somewhat frightening array of …
HotFest’s Ashley Dunn showcases fresh talent at Infringed – Introducing B.T. Wine Read More »
By Jenny Bradley. I’m in Spain for inspiration. That’s my excuse. How do we find inspiration? I’m not sure. I think often it finds us. Unexpectedly, that bolt we’ve allfelt but you need pen and paper ready. Or in my case, phone. It does happen. But I believe you can make it happen, or at …
By Ben and Tim Jowett. People sometimes comment on the unconventional mode through which locals address Hotwells,the home of our festival of words and music. We don’t use holiday brochure terminology, we usewords like ‘scruffy’, ‘tatty’, ‘congested’, ‘encumbered’. And these are not criticisms, but the fruits of our homely love language. It’s a neighbourhood ofconfluences: …
By Carola. Haiku gives structureYou see it’s five, seven, fiveSyllables per line Sophie I must admit that the first time I came across haiku poetry was not that long ago. A traditional form of Japanese poetry, typically a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count. Something that is surprisingly hard to …
An exploration into Haiku Poetry or Flirtatious exchanges with a chatbot Read More »
By Ben. The disappointment started at something called a Literary Fair near Stroud. Women in scarves andbangles (some with husbands) came up the valley like the rapture and besieged this little village ofbethels and turnpike houses. They’d come to interrogate a group of self-published, local poets, andtheir questions came on like rain: How did it …
By Ben. Planning a festival, even a small one, is a logistical nightmare. Unless, like me, you ignore the logistics, in which case planning a festival is a tidal affair. Hope and worry, trepidation and exaltation; the poetics of logic, things coming together, coming apart, falling together, falling… well, you get the idea. I’ve been …
Logistical Nightmares – How to Organise a Festival for the very First Time Read More »
By Jenny Bradley. Jenny Bradley, writer and director of ‘Lockdown Unleashed’, is a writer with a successful career in business. She is a published poet and short story writer; her radio plays have been broadcast on the BBC. Her work has been published in anthologies, websites and in the Bristol Post where she was columnist …
The Shrinks are a loose band of Bristol-based musicians who like to make, share and play music together whenever they can manage to snatch a few hours between all those things that get in the way of music – like tax returns and laundry. They are performing for us at the Hotwells Festival on Saturday Oct …
Where the mighty Mississippi meets the muddy Avon Read More »
