Sadly, my head is full of rape and incest. We have completed a week of interviews and 75 % -at least - have been stories that end in violent abuse. Some harrowing tales. Some thanking the interviewer for allowing them a chance to tell of an experience they have not been able to tell for many years. One girl said that she had not told her parents of a narrow escape she had had because she knew if she did, they would stop her going out.

This is the difficulty; there is, as mentioned in the first post, little point in putting out a total tale of woe; what does it achieve? so we have latched on to a story that one of the actors told , as we discussed the interviews, from his own life and his struggle to stay engaged with his own teenage daughter. He told of how his daughter was sitting plaiting the hair of a boy in their yard. Grandparents were shocked; inviting a boy they did not know, into their yard; how could the father allow his daughter such freedom? He must put a stop to it!

When the boy left he asked his daughter who he was .'...a friend ,Daddy', she said and walked away. The actor said he couldn't ask anything else because if he got heavy, she would be cross and become distant so that maybe when she really did need to be able to talk to him , she wouldn't feel free to do so. And that has become the superstructure of the piece as I write; how do parents and daughters keep communication lines open and remain safe but free in a town which if the interviews are to be believed girls have little protection even, on occasions, in the presence of pastors, teachers and uncles who should provide it.

Well trying to blog again. LP 4 finished 20 weeks of filming in December. LP3 finished viewing late December and seems to have been the most popular to date. As I acted in it quite a bit I  finally know what it's like to be a recognised face in the street. Everyone has stories about LP. One evening late December I was walking the dog at the top of the hill and on my way back to the car. Three gentlemen looked at me quite seriously and said CID are looking for you. I thought maybe they'd been to the house and someone had told them I was out walking so I was a little nervous, wondering what I'd done wrong. Then they all start laughing and the penny drops; they're referring to Harry the character I play in Love Patrol.

So now its back to community oriented stage work. 12 of the group are researching a piece on Sexual Harrassment. When you look at figures for inmates at correctional services, sexual offences far outnumber all others. A recent survey of attitudes by Chris King for Correctional services highlighted many beliefs that might contribute to this;  beliefs about the way women dress; about women who go to nightclubs being therefore available for sex etc. So we've started with a week of discussing our own attitudes and things we might be ashamed of in our past. Now the actors are out recording anonymous interviews as we try a 'verbatim theatre' approach  to the topic. We hope to end up with several little playlets, some of which might be interactive and open to forum work.  One issue in trying this approach out for ourselves with stories the actors have provided, is that all of them have ended in rape. Yet whilst no one in the group would put up their hand to say they had raped someone, all, all of us  males at any rate, admitted to having committed  some form of sexual harrassment. If all the plays end up as rape then is it easier for an audience, though feeling sorry for what they have witnessed , not to see themselves as challenged? Hopefully some of these questions will become clearer in the next week or two.

In March we start work on Jo's latest 2 hour script which will be looking at politics; not only the misuse of power by politicians but also the community's role in indulging politicians misuses of power. Beru has built a beautiful bamboo screen backdrop in anticipation of this piece. I was keen to avoid calico backdrops for something more flexible; bamboo can suggest local housing for a village or a sort of plush background for a restaurant or meeting room. Plus it just looks nice!