MCH/BLANK

Official website for Mark C. Hewitt and Blank Productions

For further details and images related to some of these projects, see Projects portfolio and Gallery

September 2008 ongoing .
Dementia Diaries. Directing project for Lewes Live Lit. Literary drama for five voices by poet Maria Jastrzebska with live incidental music for flute and cello by Peter Copley. Launched with a run of sell-out performances as rehearsed readimg at Little Polka Café, Eastbourne, as part of Eastbourne Festival, April 2009. Follow-up performance with new cast members at artisan Polish restaurant in Lewes, Sussex, September 2009. Now in a second phase of development with funding from the Wellcome Trust, developing the project in partnership with Southampton’s Nuffield Theatre and neuroclinical scientists at the Memory Assessment & Research Centre in Southampton.

July 2010.
Weight. Directing project for Lewes Live Lit. Previews in Reading and Brighton of production showcasing three short stories by writer Catherine Smith, performed by the author and actress Kathryn McGarr with incidental music by Peter Copley, lighting design by Clare O’Donoghue and sound design by John Avery.

June 2010.
Tao of Hamlet. Week-long Hamlet Residency at Jersey Arts Centre, St Helier, continuing 1157performancegroup’s latest exploration and deconstruction of Shakespeare’s revenge tragedy working with local teenagers and arts centre staff culminating in a performance involving all participants.

April 2010.
Tao of Hamlet. 1157performancegroup. Work in progress performance at The Mill, Banbury.

September – October 2009.
Floor Plan. Group exhibition. Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, Mark Hewitt collaborated with artist Rowena Easton to create an installation - a strange house my voice the walls the silence. The show featured textual fragments in charcoal on plasterboard, spatial interventions such as a very small entrance door and a river of copper sequins. The aim was to evoke the atmosphere and context of some of the dream buildings documented on the Dream Library website.

May – June 2009.
Free Speech. Developed range of, spoken word and multi-media educational projects in secondary schools in East Sussex for Lewes Live Lit’s young people’s festival, Free Speech.

May 2009.
Important Please Listen To This Tape. Audio drama for two female voices created as one of six site specific interventions for one-day-festival, Farnham Creates. Also presented at Benjamin Franklin House, London, as part of the Red Velvet Curtain Cult’s evening of installations: Kill no more pigeons than you can eat.

April – September 2009.
Dementia Diaries. Produced and directed by Mark Hewitt for Lewes Live Lit. A literary drama for five voices by poet Maria Jastrzebska exploring the effects of dementia on a dysfunctional Anglo-Polish family. Launched with a run of sell-out performances at Little Polka Café, Eastbourne, as part of Eastbourne Festival, April 2009 and performed in Artisan café in Lewes in September 2009. Touring planned for 2010.

April 2009.
Polska by the Sea. Collaboration with photographer Lisa Barnard as part of Eastbourne Festival 2009 resulting in an installation in Eastbourne Station featuring banner portraits of some of the Polish community living and working in Eastbourne and an accompanying collection of 24 postcards with images of domestic ephemera and interview texts, now available as a boxed set. A Lewes Live Lit project, supported by East Sussex Arts Partnership.

January 2009.
Untitled (exposure 1). Contribution to new writing showcase, malt(ings) extr-acts, presented by Farnham Playwrights Collective at Farnham Maltings in Surrey. One of five writers working with a director and actors to present a short extract of a new work-in-progress.

September – December 2008.
89% and Rising. One of five performers in an experimental theatre production by 1157performancegroup about HIV/AIDS and sexual morality. Devised and directed by Matthew Scott and Jo Dagless. Performances in schools/colleges, arts centres and theatres, October – December 2008.

September 2008.
The Butcher’s Tale. Brief appearance in short independent film by Turtleclub Productions playing the top half of an evil one-legged butcher, Written and directed by Drew Hewitt.

June – September 2008.
Caught in the act – Reading reading. A Blank Productions collaborative project for the National Year of Reading combining photography and text within a public art context. Photographer Anna Mitchell took photos of people engaged in the act of reading in Reading town centre while Mark Hewitt created texts rooted in interviews with readers. Linked to Reading Festival of Crime Writing, the project culminated in a town centre public art installation and an exhibition at Reading Central Library.

June 2008.
Gridshell Symphonies / The Incredible Architectural Musical Picnic. A Blank Productions commissioning project for ‘architecture08’. Families and individuals were invited into the architecturally award-winning Jerwood Gridshell Space at the Weald & Downland Open Air Museum near Chichester to picnic and witness the first performance of Gridshell Symphonies: a site specific contemporary classical music piece for four trombones and string quartet by composer Petr Copley. The afternoon included sideshows for children and additional entertainments.

June 2008.
Dream Buildings. Online Dream Library archiving personal accounts of dreams involving buildings submitted by members of the public. Launched as part of architecture08 festival in a joint event with conceptual artist and writer Rowena Easton at Aspex Gallery, Portsmouth. The material eventually formed part of a separate online Dream Library.

May/June 2008.
Ruin. Steyning Festival 2008. Second exhibition and event related to a collaboration with photographer Paul Thomas, responding to the ruins of Shoreham Cement Works. Also part of architecture08 festival.

January – March 2008.
Crea+ive Maids+one. Interviewing, editing and drafting content for a book profiling a range of arts and creative industry practitioners living and/or working in the Maidstone area alongside photos by Manuel Palomeque. Linked to a billboard project as part of Art At The Centre Maidstone.

January 2008.
Beauty in Stone. Text created in rehearsal for disability-led dance theatre company, Prefacemorn, referencing Greek mythology and exploring concepts of ideal beauty in relation to disability. First performed, Camden People’s Theatre, January 2008.

June 2007.
Ruin. A collaboration with photographer Paul Thomas responding to the ruins of Shoreham Cement Works in West Sussex. Project culminated in an exhibition – Ruin – at thirtyfive-a gallery, Brighton, and a talk with projected images at the Ropetackle Centre, Shoreham, as part of the Adur Festival and Architecture Week, South East.

December 2006 - March 2008.
AQQ. (Artists’ Quarter Quarterly). Quarterly arts publication linked to regeneration project Art At The Centre Maidstone in Kent. Editing, writing, commissioning and overseeing design.

October 2006 – October 2007.
Directing Live Literature. Linked to a Cultural Leadership Bursary awarded by NALD (National Association of Literature Development) – a professional development project exploring the role of the director within the sphere of performed literature. An accompanying development grant from Arts Council England South East allowed a period of shadowing work and mentoring in the process of developing a performance featuring Irish poet and novelist, Martina Evans.

September/October 2006.
Farming Stories. Commission from East Lindsey District Council in Lincolnshire to develop a new piece of community theatre with teenage performers based on conversations with local farmers. Led to highly successful scratch performance at the Riverhead Theatre in Louth as part of Wolds Words Festival 2006.

May – July 2006.
Embrace. Commission from Usanu Theatre Company. Theatre text based on Italian writer Frana Rame’s provocative libertarian monologues. First performed at The Pauper’s Pit, Buxton Festival Fringe, July 2006. Devised / directed by Tamara Allen-Cousins, performed by Karen Ødemark.

April – July 2006.
Body Language. Writing / performance project. Arts Council funded R&D directed by Matthew Scott of 1157performancegroup to develop a live literature show based around Mark Hewitt's life study writings, (word-sketches of the human figure). First performance in this format at Norden Farm Centre for the Arts in Maidenhead.

May 2006.
Stirrings Still. Performance by heart of Samuel Beckett’s last prose work, Stirrings Still. Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, as part of City Running.

May 2006.
City Running. Mark Hewitt was one of over 40 artists contributing to the award-winning new work extravaganza, City Running. Devised and curated by Greg Daville for Brighton Fringe Festival, the project involved practitioners working in a range of disciplines who, on different Saturdays over a five week period, set out from the Phoenix Gallery, Brighton at 11pm to absorb, record, collect, collate and reflect upon the city at night-time, returning at 2.30am to exhibit or perform work created that night, the results contributing to a cumulative exhibition.

April 2006.
Farmed Out. Commissioned by Farnham Maltings and developed by 1157performancegroup for Upstix/Pride of Place Theatre Festival 2006, Woodbridge, Suffolk. Play for one actor and film sequences exploring decline of UK farming and the poetry of industrial rural landscapes.

March / April 2006.
Funny Couple. Five minute radio story as part of a new writing series commissioned by BBC Southern Counties. Broadcast in April 2006.

September 2005.
The Temptation of St Antony – rehearsed reading of short play for one or two performers. Nightingale Theatre, Brighton.

August 2005:
Stage Fright. Contributed to research project at Aberystwyth University into managing performance anxiety.

2002.
Songs of Tenderness & Violence – a cycle for soprano and nine solo instruments. Short texts evoking contemporary scenes of dysfunction, perversity and violence written to accompany new music by composer Peter Copley.

2001/2002.
Theatre R&D. Development work on a visual theatre piece involving two large red leather wingbacked armchairs. With visual artist Lindsey McGown, photographer Magali Nougarede, actors John Cullen and Jo Howarth, assorted life models, lighting technician Martin Chandler and a furniture reupholsterer. The piece of work is still in development.

May / August 2001.
Catastrophe. Komedia Productions. Performances as actor in three of a sequence of four Samuel Beckett dramaticules (Rockaby / Ohio Impromptu / A Piece of Monologue / Catastrophe). 10 day run at Komedia, Brighton and three weeks at Edinburgh Fringe. With actors George Dillon and Denise Evans. Directed by David Lavender.

July 2000 – May 2001.
Hypnotrash. Year of the Artist residency exploring the use of hypnosis / hypnotherapy as a creative tool and culminating in temporary publication as an internet journal.

April 1998.
The Entertainers – an omnibus of contemporary writing and art. Editor and contributor. Anthology of work by writers, poets, artists, musicians and others that had contributed to the early years of the Lewes Live Literature Festival. Design work by Greg Daville.

February 1998.
Purgations. Previews at All Saints Centre, Lewes, of a collaborative performance work combining a sequence of poems by MCH with live music for string sextet by composer Peter Copley and projected images by visual artist Tom Walker.

June 1996.
Hastings in the Imagination. School writing project developed with artist / writer Greg Daville, running workshops with Year 9 students in Hastings to create epigrammatic descriptions of imagined scenarios in their hometown. The writings were displayed on advertising spaces in local buses.