While You Wait

While You Wait was a series of podcasts released throughout 2013, each of which was a different meditation on the idea of waiting created by artists in collaboration with academics from King’s College London.

Installed in 4 bespoke listening stations, they were designed to delight, surprise and intrigue you while you wait. Artists were Stefan Kaegi, The Company, Rachel Mars, Chris Fittock, Victoria Melody, Paul Clark, Lewis Gibson, Caroline Horton, Dave Price, Brian Lobel, Toby Jones and Malika Booker. You could listen to the podcasts, each 10-15 minutes long, via bespoke listening stations designed by Barnaby Stone, which you could find scattered across Brighton in surprising places.

Commissioners included Unity Theatre and Dublin Theatre Festival. Funded by Arts Council England and a Wellcome Trust Arts Award.

#WhileYouWait

December’s podcast Waiting.. for the story to begin; Silkie’s Grave by Duncan Williamson is by Dave Price in collaboration with Dr Hope Wolf, former Teaching Fellow in Life Writing at King’s College London.

Dave Price is a musician, performer, composer and sound designer. Recent theatre work includes scores for From Morning to Midnight (National Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Bristol Old Vic and International tour), The Winter’s Tale (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Troilus and Cressida (RSC / The Wooster Group), and scores and sound designs for Rat’s Tales (Manchester Royal Exchange); Measure for Measure and A Soldier in Every Son (RSC / Compañía Nacional de Teatro de Mexico).

He has a longstanding association with the award-winning dance theatre company Gecko. Credits include Taylor’s Dummies (performer), The Overcoat (original score and performer) Missing (original score and sound) and their forthcoming work Institute. Dave co – founded the experimental music collective Noszferatu, whose CD Drempel (NMC) includes his composition Lee’s Game, which was short-listed for a BASCA Composers Award in 2008.

He works regularly with singer songwriter Gwyneth Herbert and co-produced her most recent album The Sea Cabinet which is the culmination of a residency at Aldeburgh Music. He worked for several years with the pop group Aqualung, recording four studio albums and touring extensively.

Of his podcast Dave writes:

I’ve been fortunate to have access to rare private archive recordings of the great Scottish traveller storyteller Duncan Williamson. Whilst many of his stories have been recorded and transcribed for publication in a number of books, as far as I know the story used in this podcast, The Silkie’s Grave, is unpublished in written form. The audio recording of his voice was made by his friend, my mother in law, the writer and storyteller Jenny Pearson.

For further reading and more of Duncan’s Silkie Tales, please look out for Land of the Seal People (Birlinn 2010), edited with a new introduction by his widow, Linda Williamson. Thanks to Mark Bousie for playing the accordion and very special thanks to Jenny for introducing me to the great man and his work, for sharing the recordings with me and for all your help and guidance.

November’s podcast Waiting… for the inevitable is by actor Toby Jones and Peter Giese, Professor of Neurobiology of Mental Health at King’s College London. To see an interview with Toby and Peter click here

Toby Jones is an actor. In the past he has written stories which he’s performed on stage and later on the radio. This is his first podcast commission www.imdb.com/name/nm0429363/

Of his podcast he writes:

“I had an idea that ” I only realise that I am waiting when the voice in my head becomes a narrator…or that ” living ” only becomes ” waiting” when you start telling your life as a story shaped by events.

I tried explaining this idea to Peter Giese. He shut his eyes and listened very carefully and patiently…..He’d never given “waiting” much thought he said. He pondered my idea and talked to me about memory, how we use memory to predict and manage the future. I talked to him about the failures of my memory. As I get older everything starts to become harder to remember because its more predictable. Predicting future events makes them more manageable, less memorable, more probable and less threatening….Peter shut his eyes again, smiled and explained the German word vorfreude  ( “pre-joy). Then we agreed that maybe…the act of anticipation somehow reduces our ability to manufacture memory…. 

Then I spent a week wandering around my flat unable to write anything. And then I wrote this”

October’s podcast: Waiting… for a loved one to die is by theatre maker Rachel Mars in collaboration with Dr Fliss Murtagh, Department of Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation at King’s College London.

September’s podcast: Waiting… are we? is by The Company, a collective of theatre artists based in Dublin, in collaboration with Dr Jonathan Reades, Lecturer, Department of Geography, King’s College London and Dr Raphael Woolf, Reader in Philosphy, King’s College London. Commissioned by Dublin Theatre Festival. This podcast was made possible thanks to the kind support from Culture Ireland.

August’s podcast: Waiting… for a cancer diagnosis by writer and performer Brian Lobel, in collaboration with Iain Perdue, a Research Worker in the Psychology Department at King’s College London.

July’s podcast: Waiting… to come home by writer and performer Caroline Horton in collaboration with Jennifer Wild.

June’s podcast: Waiting… in a hairdressers is by writer and poet Malika Booker in collaboration with Emily Butterworth

May’s podcast: Waiting… to be born is by theatre maker and sound artist Lewis Gibson in collaboration with Debra Bick and Sarah Beake. Performed by Janet Henfrey.

April’s podcast: Waiting… with Rachel and Peter is by Stefan Kaegi in collaboration with Anna Jordanous and Niki Neecke. Voices by Acapela Group.

March’s podcast: Waiting… for the late Miguel Romeo is by Liverpool based writer Chris Fittock with input from Dr Maria Alverez. Commissioned by Unity Theatre, Liverpool.

February’s podcast: Waiting… In a Queue is by visual and performing artist Victoria Melody in collaboration with Dr. Alan Latham, Professor of Urban Geography at UCL. The podcast investigates the customs of the queue essential to British culture.

January’s podcast: Waiting… Now is by Paul Clark Co-Artistic Director of Clod Ensemble in collaboration with Bill Brewer, Susan Stebbing Professor of Philosophy at King’s College London featuring Chris Allan (Cello)

Presented by Fuel, Roundhouse and King’s Cultural Institute.

Commissioners include Unity Theatre and Dublin Theatre Festival.

Funded by Arts Council England and a Wellcome Trust Arts Award.