I threw a bit of a wobbly over Easter (it was lucky that it was just a wobbly and not a puppet or a booth to be honest). I'd had a gut full of the stupid thing and it made matters worse when I tried to run through and it felt clumsy and awkward (shit was the term I actually used to anyone who would listen). I reached breaking point and shoved the whole damn thing in the loft where it has remained since.

However, having set myself the month of April to learn the script for P and J I did continue to do so and much to my surprise I have done quite well. I know all of it except the final two Punch poems. It is no great surprise that I don't know them as I only wrote them last week! They don't feel quite right yet so no point committing them to memory if they are going to be altered.

In the learning of the poems I have recognised that just knowing them will help the flow (which is what I worried about) but not enough. I think that I will perform Judy rather than use a puppet - this will be better in terms of flow but also in terms of the facial expressions that I use when I'm rehearsing which I feel add to the comedy (Jane Seabourne and Dave Finchett made comments of this nature when I ran the poem by them and I think they were right). I feel that I can use the Judy puppet as a presence during the show to signify that she is still there watching in the same way that I am going to use Punch's coat and hat draped over a chair when he is not performing.

The blocking can begin once the script is learnt and then hopefully things will knit together better. I have decided that I am going to contact a drama tutor that I used to study with and see if he will watch a run through (for a fee) and give me feedback. I admire his knowledge of plays and trust his judgement.

I phoned the Arts Council again and left a message but nobody has called me back. I feel a bit worried and would be happier if I could speak to someone but I realise that people are busy and staff were probably off over Easter. I'm hoping the chap on reception was right about there not being a deadline for sending the evaluation forms back (should've got a name so I can blame him if he wasn't LOL).

I've got a mini-tour with The Alternative Black Country Revue which starts this Saturday. I'm doing my old 'strip poetry' routine (see events blog). It will be nice to have something new to do once I crack this Punch and Judy thing (note the optimism there).

Nearly forgot. I performed the Judy poem to an audience of about thirty at City Voices just to get some feedback and it went really well (laughs in all the right places, particularly from younger members of the audience which again makes me think it might be a performance piece that could be done for young adults in schools or youth club environments. I've done the Punch poem three times to different audiences and with the Judy poem that probably totals an audience of 120 which all adds up. I know I specified a target number of people to reach with P and J as a project. I better check how many I put down.

I have also produced a kids writing workshop based upon the characters in Punch and Judy. I used it with a group of young adults as part of the Write On project and Jonathan Davidson said that the feedback had been OK. I have adapted it slightly and I am going to use it with the young writer's group that I run in Wednesfield (as part of my residency with Wolverhampton Libraries). I will ask them to do an evaluation of the workshop which I am hoping to do with them this evening. It will be useful if I do the performance in schools to have a workshop I can offer with it.