Special Projects 1995 - 1999 - John Kirkpatrick

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Special Projects

1995 - 1999

1995
	HAMLET by William Shakespeare. The New Vic. Directed by Peter Cheeseman. Researched the specified songs and taught them to the actors. Recorded fanfares and incidental music.
	HANDS UP, FOR YOU THE WAR HAS ENDED The New Vic. Directed by Peter Cheeseman. Arranged and rehearsed Second World War songs to be played live by the company
	THE FAERY QUEEN Marlborough College. Directed by Nigel Bryant. Choreographed the dances for this school production, to Purcell's music.
	LET'S MOVE BBC Radio 4. Produced by Julie Beckett. Another term's worth of movement programmes for schools.
	WASSAIL! Folkworks Christmas Tour. Chose, arranged and rehearsed a programme of mostly traditional English Midwinter music, song and custom with a specially assembled six piece band. Commissioned to write two new pieces, the pagan 'Stir the Fire' and a new carol, arranged for five-part choir, 'Chariots'. Joined on every concert by a local choir, and team of sword-dancers.
	A CHRISTMAS MISCELLANY Walcot Hall, Shropshire. A Concert organised by Bishop's Castle Community College with JK providing Christmas and Midwinter music and song to intersperse readings by Historian and Folklorist, Charles Kightly and poet, Roger Garfitt.

1996
	WELLS MELODEON WORKSHOPS Led a series of six weekly sessions in a project organised jointly by Folk South West and Wells Cathedral School, Somerset.
	THE MYSTERIES Marlborough College. Directed by Nigel Bryant. Arranged traditional music for this school production.
	SQUEEZING ROUND THE WORLD BBC Radio 2. Produced by David Corser. A third series, this time of five programmes, chosen and presented by JK with interviews with Peter Kennedy and Nils Neilsen.
	SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER by Oliver Goldsmith. The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. Directed by Bob Eaton. Arranged authentic eighteenth Century dance tunes for live performance by the company, plus choreography.
	BEAUTY AND THE BEAST by Jan Page. The New Vic. Directed by Peter Cheeseman. Set traditional Breton music to author Jan Page's songs, arranged choreography and stylised movement and recorded incidental music, as well as teaching the cast the live singing and instrumental music
	BOUNCERS by John Godber. The New Vic. Directed by Rob Swain. Revised choreography for a third version of this production with an all-new cast.
	UPSTREAM WITH BELLAMY BBC Radio 2 Series based on the course of the River Severn, presented by naturalist David Bellamy. Produced by John Tuckey of Greenwich Village Productions. JK asked to provide a list of 72 album tracks connected with rivers! A piece of uncredited research.
	FOLK IN THE FOOTLIGHTS BBC Radio 2. Produced by David Corser. JK was one of the main contributors in Georgina Boyes' series about the use of folk music in the theatre.
	THE ARBOR TREE VIDEO FN Video Productions. JK sang 'The Arbor Tree Song' (see 1986) and played incidental music for this film about planting the new Arbor tree in Aston-on-Clun.
	HARVEST HOME The Three Tuns, Bishop's Castle. A special programme organised by Bishop's Castle Community College with JK singing harvest songs to intersperse readings by historian and folklorist, Charles Kightly.

1997
	DEEP AND CRISP AND EVEN BBC Radio 2. Produced by Nick St George. Two half-hour programmes based on the Wassail! tour material, featuring traditional English midwinter custom and song, scripted and presented by JK for Heavy Entertainment Ltd.
	SILAS MARNER by George Eliot. The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. Adapted by Bob Eaton and Sayan Kent, with songs by Sayan Kent. Directed by Mark Babych. Musical Director, arranging songs and live music performed by the cast, plus choreography.
	FOLK DANCING Spelthorne Productions for BBC TV. Directed by Ron Smedley. JK asked to assemble a five-piece ceilidh band to play for a series of programmes teaching country dancing to young children. First shown on TV April 1998 and repeated consistently since.
	SIDMOUTH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FOLK ARTS Invited by the Festival Director, Steve Heap, to be the Arena Theatre Director, thus becoming responsible for programming the biggest venue (a huge open-air amphitheatre) at Europe's biggest week-long Festival. Produced two or three concerts a day, featuring a dazzling array of dance teams and performance groups from all over Britain and all around the World, all of whom had to be drawn together into a united dancing finale!
	THE LAST YOUNG TRADITION AWARD BBC Radio 2. Produced by Jim Lloyd. Invited by Folk on Two presenter Jim Lloyd to organise the ten award winners into a band and arrange two pieces for them to play together.
	ALADDIN by Jan Page. The New Vic. Directed by Chris Martin. Composed Turkish-style melodies for Jan Page's songs and MD'd the show, arranging the music for live performance by the cast, plus choreography and stylised movement.
	TUNES FROM THE TRENCHES - THE WESTERN FRONT Bishop's Castle Community College, Shropshire. First in an annual series of events to tie in with Remembrance Day. Jeff Garner gave a lecture on one aspect of the World Wars and JK sang wartime songs to intersperse poetry readings.
	THE LAND GIRLS Commercial Feature Film. JK's melodeon very much to the fore in 'Speed the Plough', during the harvest scene of this drama set in the second World War. A recording lifted from the soundtrack of the National Theatre production of 'Larkrise to Candleford', scripted, like the film, by Keith Dewhurst.
	WASSAIL! A repeat of the 1995 tour for Folkworks. Midwinter music and song.

1998
	THE TEMPEST by William Shakespeare. The New Vic. Directed by Peter Cheeseman. Devised new settings of Shakespeare's songs with recorded synthesiser accompaniment for Peter Cheeseman's final production at the New Vic. Also created stylised choreography.
	CITY OF LONDON SINFONIA Played the concertina part on a new recording of Percy Grainger's "Shepherd's Hey"
	SIDMOUTH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF FOLK ARTS. A second year as Arena Theatre Director.
	TIME TO MOVE BBC Radio 4. Produced by Julie Beckett. Session musician for a term's worth of schools' dancing programmes.
	OLIVER TWIST by Charles Dickens, dramatised and directed by Nigel Bryant. Double cassette release of the 1994 Radio Play, on BBC Radio Collection, with JK's music.
	TUNES FROM THE TRENCHES - THE ELEVENTH HOUR Bishop's Castle Community College. The second annual Remembrance Day event, this time featuring songs from a hundred years of warfare.
	WASSAIL! A third and final tour of the Midwinter show first seen in 1995.

1999
	HOBSON'S CHOICE by Harold Brighouse. Mountview Conservertoire for the Performing Arts. Directed by Lennox Greaves. JK researched and compiled appropriate concertina recordings for use as incidental music.
	WIVES AND DAUGHTERS BBC TV Serial based on the novel by Mrs Gaskell. Played concertina in a five piece band, assembled by Paul Burgess, for the ballroom scene.
	THE CENTURY SPEAKS BBC Radio Shropshire. Chosen to be one of a hundred people interviewed in Shropshire by Chris Eldon Lee for the BBC Regional Broadcasting Millennium Oral History Project. A lengthy series of programmes were compiled from the recordings and some extracts were used in a National version.
	SHROPSHIRE'S CENTURY SPEAKS Published by Shropshire Books, edited by Genevieve Tudor. Based on the interviews described above.
	AS I ROVED OUT - A CENTURY OF FOLK MUSIC BBC Radio 2. Produced by John Leonard. One of the contributors to this history of the folk scene - sang and played with The Albion Band and was extensively interviewed.
	HOW TO PLAY THE ENGLISH MELODEON - PARTS I & II Mrs Casey Music. Wrote and presented this two volume video tutor for English Melodeon Style - the first video tutor to concentrate exclusively on traditional music from England. More details ...
	TUNES FROM THE TRENCHES - LET ME LIKE A SOLDIER FALL Bishop's Castle Community College. The third annual Remembrance Day event, with JK presenting wartime songs for the full second half.
	THOMAS TELFORD WEEKEND Ironbridge, Shropshire. JK invited by the organisers of this weekend for Industrial Archaeologists, the Dog Rose Trust, to provide an after-dinner concert programme of music and song from Shropshire and anything connected with roads and canals!
1999 - 2001	THE AMERICAN MORRIS NEWSLETTER An extended series of articles featuring JK's views on The Shropshire Bedlams, Border Morris and Morris dancing generally. Reprints of 'Bordering on the Insane' (1979), the talk at 'Border Roots and Revival' (1992), along with new interviews and correspondence. Read these here...