Get ready for a feast of outrageous overacting, painful puns, awe-inspiring audience participation, raucous rock'n' music all rolled into a scintillating Cinderella... (that's enough hype! ed.)

And so it is upon us once again, Panto Fever and around the English Department and, God forbid, even in classes Panto quotes are rife and students contradict each other chorally with "oh no, it isn't" -- "oh yes, it is". All this because we're headed for a four-night series of performances of this time-honoured musical play, some would say hoary old thing, a Cinderella that all those who love the fairy tale will almost recognise. (didn't say that's enough hype? ed.)

Cinderella, the Panto
performances in the
Gaskessel (www.gaskessel.ch)
Sandrainstrasse 25, 3007 Bern
7, 8 9, 10 December
Doors open at 19.00
Show starts at 19.30
admission 15.--/20.-- (bring a cushion to sit on!)

Note that "Benediction Song" can be downloaded for free.

It had to happen at some stage and now it has: what with all the possibilities for ego-mania on Web 2.0 it was probably merely a matter of time until we'd be using the marvellous possibilities of Facebook and Co and the opportunities this affords for pushing music on the unsuspecting and innocent.

For the Student Theatre Group production of As You Like It I had the pleasure to supply the music, which can now, together with a couple of other songs that represent my dabbling in song-writing and recording, be accessed by clicking on this:

It's actually quite interesting that after years of playing other folks stuff (a decent cover is always better than a mediocre composition) and of not doing very much in terms of original music, there is now a burst of this and, given time, a fair bit more soon. It was great working on the tunes for the Shakespeare and his lyrics are so easy to sing, so doing the music for them was almost too easy.

The other two songs on the site for the moment are results of a bit of pastichy dabbling, with the song "Never Change" a kind of Cohen-by-numbers. The strange things seems to be that both but this one in particular attracted a lot of favourable and completely un-ironic comment on Myspace before the account was closed down for reasons that have remained unexplained. Still, go and have a listen ... and don't fall for all the heavy-duty hard sell of having to become a fan and all that. I'm doing this for fun, not (so much) for my ego.

Poetry Workshop and Reading with Poet, Singer and All-Round Good Man Donny O'Rourke

It has been my pleasure to get to know this wonderful writer, singer and enjoyer of good company, good craic and good cheer and I take great pleasure in drawing attention to the fact that he is doing a workshop and a reading on

Thursday, 29 May, 16.15-18.00 (workshop)
and 18.15 -19.15 (reading)
at Unitobler, Room f-121

It will be great to work with Donny and even greater to see lots of people for a reading that promises to be truly memorable.

More News to Follow Soonest

There will be more news soon including some concerts with the next incarnation of the Psynchopaths and a poetry reading in Langenthal.

Andri, Franz's son, age 12, has been messing around on his Macbook, and with the tricks it affords for editing video footage. The outcome is this short film featuring Franz reading "Pets". The video, not shakey at all, actually, was taken by Amy Smearsoll of the International School of Berne, where the reading took place during a residency there. The title tune, incidentally is a rough'n'ready multitracked first effort at a recent song. Oh, yes, and the whole thing is a Cloak & Dagger Production, Andri's most recent venture.

And thusly we find ourselves again, Dick Watts and Dewi Williams now colloborating a bit more closely together with friends before being joined by the indefatigable Psynchopaths. And then, of course the second part of the evening will be devoted to the usual mix of Blues, Rock, Fun(k), Soul and touches of Jazz, although it has been rumoured that new songs have been added to the mix.

So get there for
Friday 5 October
Mappamondo
Theatersaal, Länggassstrasse 44,
3012 Bern,
starting at 19:30 hrs or at least that's when the bar opens
(see also the Download file of the concert poster)

As a small advance taster there is an amateur video from one of the practice sessions featuring Dick, Dewi and Franz out in the sunny climes (ha-bloody-ha) of Oltigen, where for once the sun shone happily on three men as they were playing music in the backgarden.

The line-up includes:

• Excons
• Dick Watts and Friends
• Dewi Williams
• Löru Becher
• Shake
• The Psynchopaths

The concert hall and bar will open at 19:00 hrs, admission comes to CHF 15.--/20.--, and all proceeds go to the following charities: SidEcole, Cecily's Fund and the Equal Education Fund.

The event will double as somebody's birthday party, but the person in question being of a modest and bashful disposition, no names shall be named. Not at this point, anyway.

The concert poster is available for your downloading pleasure in a common desktop wallpaper size (1024 x 768 px) and in PDF format.

One of the most gifted participants of a workshop for teachers some years ago, Hans-Jürg Suter, got in touch with updated versions of the two texts that were up on his page, which he asked to be put up instead of the original versions he had submitted after our meeting at the Appenberg seminar. Hans-Jürg has since worked on his writing rather seriously and been to workshops of the Arvon Foundation, where very good things happen. Clearly, I'm delighted to act on his wish to have the edited versions up there in their full glory (with many thanks to you Hans-Jürg, and yes, we must think about offering such workshops like the one in Appenberg for Teachers again!)

At the same time a former participant in the Creative Writing Workshop at the Uni of Berne, Nora Rohland, also got in touch to tell me the great news that she won the Stauffacher Short Story Competition. I have great respect for short story writers (like Matt Kimmich and Sara Probst, both previous winners of this award; I tried once and sank without trace) and remembered how Nora as a first-year student did some very impressive course work. It is great to know that she too went on and went one (or several) better. Certainly, when you read her short story, you can tell that there is an extraordinary talent at work here.

I was told once by a visitor that the material posted on the Showcase had been taken for the work of published writers; nobody would think that the majority of them aren't even first language English speakers. Nora fits into this very neatly, so thanks for so spontaneously agreeing to let us display your work in the Showcase.

This is a follow up from the yearly visits by poets to work with and to read to the children and youngsters at this school. Previous visiting poets included George Szirtes, Ian Macmillan, Benjamin Zephania and Roger McGough, who are all hard acts to follow. Still, it's nice to rub shoulders with such an illustrius bunch of predecessors, not to mention a challenge to come up with something the students will remember.

Working with children and young people always is a challenge. This is mainly because it often gives you a first shot at trying to prevent students from developing their fear of flying, which is one way to describe the unease students often have when dealing with poetry in class. Clearly, the order of the day(s) will be to make that first also the best shot...

The film uses the short play of the same name which was written during a sabbatical in Greece and presents two characters, both feeling that the time for a break has come in their relationship. They both mentally rehearse conversations that might lead up to the point where this could be mentioned, each one imagining how their counterpart might react. The dialogues focus on domestic scenes and minor conflicts as they occur between seasoned couples and are interspersed with comments by the protagonists that reflect on the nature of their relationship. Contrary to what all this might suggest, the play is a comedy. If Matt doesn't contradict, I would suggest that the film is too.

The first viewing will take place on

Wednesday, 14 June 2006,
Room f022 at 18.15

followed by an aperitive.

I've just cleared out a big steaming pile of spam and decided to close the Collaboratory to further contributions until we've got stronger spam-fighting mechanisms in place.

Meanwhile, thanks to everyone who has contributed and made the Collaboratory a fun place to visit!

Fortunately, nothing can hold Dewi down for long and so it is with great pleasure that we can announce an Evening of Songs: on Wednesday 29 March at the AliBaba / LänggassTreff on Lerchenweg 35, Bern as of 7 p.m. Dewi will be performing his songs (with yours truly doing the backing picking/vocals) and everyone is expected to join in lustily. The evening is organised by the Swiss-British Society Bern, bless their cotton socks, and should be good fun. Be there with well-oiled vocal chords...

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In the meantime Ron Withecash and his evil sidekick Izzy. A. Stinker have joined forces and plots with Malicia and her evil sidekick Slimella, because without Princess Rose Ron could finally meet his business plan of transmogrifying the Royal Palace into a Fairyworld Theme Park, whereas Malicia is promised that she can fulfill her ambition of becoming a talk show host on Fairyworld Networks. Their devious plot is that Malicia pretends to lift the curse, a message which the two unequal princes Henry (aka Hank) and Jules somewhat inadvertently communicate to the princess. With this knowledge Rose can't be held in the hotbed of social rest that is the Fairy Godmothers' cottage for a minute longer.

Her return to the castle is eagerly greeted by her father King Walter and a bit less so by his wife Queen Antonique. But all efforts fail to get Rose back to the safe haven in the forest and she is promptly ensnared by the evil Malicia, pricks her finger and falls into the deep sleep prophesised -- and with her the whole Royal Household including the amorous General Mayhem, the object of his desires, the dame Cook and Buttons, the ever hungry factotum. So who will wake her when the sleep curse hits everybody including the butch Prince Hank and his younger brother Jules, who makes up for lack of brawn with his endless supply of cheek? Will the Royal Palace really end up as the tacky centrepiece to an even tackier Fairy Hyperworld? Will Malicia's superior magic tilt the balance in her favour and will she become the talk of the town with her Malicia's Magical Moments talk show? What will General Mayhem's success be in his suit of Cook? Will Buttons survive the starvation of his long sleep? And what about Hank and Jules' infuriating mother, Queen Fluenza and her quest for a princely bride?

You can find the answer to all these questions
on February 2, 3, 4, at 19.30
and on February 5 at 15.00
at the Mappamondo Theater Saal, Länggass-Str. 44
(Bus stop Mittelstrasse or Unitobler)

Tickets will be available at the door or at Stauffacher Bookshop in Berne