A holy trinity

Salutations!

I'm VERY pleased to announce not only one but THREE new fundraising events in aid of Postcards from God ~ The Sister Wendy Musical!

Art for Art’s Sake

THE CLOSING PARTY

Wednesday 29^th November 6-10pm

The B Lo Basement

Marchmont Street/Tavistock Place

London WC1N 1AG

Nearest Tubes – Russell Sq / Euston

WWW.THEGROUNDFLOORGROUP.CO.UK

On Wednesday November 29th, The Ground Floor Group present the closing party of ART FOR ART'S SAKE at Bar B Lo, 76 Marchmont Street, London WC1N 1AG.

A great time was had by all at the opening on Thursday, buyers got to speak to artists, people met new people and made new friends, old friends discussed their views on the art and everything else besides too. Several bargains were snapped up by buyers who saw their chance to make an offer and come away with something really great at a very good price via the ‘make me an offer’ style sales. The bar loved the work so much it’s now staying up all week and we’re having closing party on Wednesday! There’s still pieces to sell and quite possibly some new acquisitions joining the existing exhibition so grab your cheque book and come down!

Sunday December 3rd brings us Christmas Cards from God - The Sister Wendy Christmas Party, which will feature an array of exciting happenings including seasonal cake and music, exclusive screenings of the video for Second to None (courtesy of Dulwich Picture Gallery), Christmas card making, a Prize Quiz and a live "nunplugged" set of songs from the show. The party is from 2 - 5 pm at Retro Bar, George Court, off The Strand, London. Entry is £3.50, or £3.00 if you bring a pound shop present to put under the tree.

The following night on Monday December 4th, Lorna McGinty will be hosting A Party Like Nun Other from 8 - 11 pm at Belfry Bar, Digby Stuart College, Roehampton University, Roehampton Lane, London, SW15. There will be a live band, DJ, a cake stall, best dressed nun competition, nun racing and a raffle. Entry is FREE!

Email postcards@reevescorner.co.uk for more information on any of these events and I hope to see you at one or more of them!

Blessings,

Marcus

Help fund a musical like nun other through PAYPAL:

Awards for All funding success!

Salutations!

I'm very pleased to announce that we have received a grant from Awards for All for the grand sum of £10,000! This has of course made our upcoming production all the more possible.
But we still have a lot more fundraising to do! Stay tuned for our next madcap scheme.

Blessings,

Marcus

A Leap of Faith - Sponsored skydive - Saturday 29th July

Salutations!

Things went slightly quiet on the Postcards from God fundraising front over the summer - but then came one of our events that was certainly the most celestial and dramatic so far.

Taking a tip from Sister Bertrille and - to quote Westlife – I went “flying without wings” on Saturday July 29^th as I performed a sponsored skydive to raise funds for our upcoming production of:

Postcards from God ~ The Sister Wendy Musical

My friend Rachel and I went all the way to leafy Norfolk (the home of the one and only Sister Wendy herself) for the jump and I must say the area is most picturesque and pleasant, though there weren’t any petrol stations anywhere – rather perilous when you run out of the stuff!

On the Friday we went on a little pilgrimage to the monastery at Quidenham, where Sister Wendy lives. We had a look at their card shop (one of their sources of income) and bought enough cards to send to half of London, along with a lovely Russian-looking icon for Rachel’s loo. Thus inspired, we found the chapel open and sat for a while. I found it really very moving to be in the place I had read so much about in Sister Wendy’s books and articles and tried to imagine her sitting in the belfry away from the other nuns during mass as she describes. We left, rather overwhelmed, and went down the pub.

First thing in the morning I sat on the village green in my pyjamas and did an interview for BBC Radio Norfolk, where I talked about the show and my jump and also spent about ten minutes explaining what Myspace was!

We rang ahead to check we could go to the airfield at Old Buckenham and unfortunately there was a delay as the planes had no petrol (a common theme was developing!). We went over anyway and watched the other jumpers go up (and come down again). The delay was actually really useful as it meant that I saw about four flights before mine and by the time I went up, I wasn’t nervous at all.

That was until we actually jumped out of the plane – the ground looked so far away that it was as if I would never land, that I could fall and fall forever and never stop. Strapped to a burly ex-squaddie, I hurtled toward the earth and really did think I was going to die, or rather the thought that sped through my mind was “MAKE THIS STOP BEFORE I DIE!!!”

But then the parachute opened and the next few minutes were truly beautiful. The sensation of floating above the earth and seeing the countryside from the sky really is like none other and a moment I will keep in my mind for a long time. I saw Quidenham in the distance and even gave Wendy a wave on the way down.

I would recommend skydiving to anyone and would love to do it again, but first I’d like to try something the landlady of the pub where we stayed recommended – WING WALKING!

Blessings,

Marcus

NUN FUN CHURCH SEARCH ~ A holy stroll...

Salutations!

It was with great pleasure that I hosted and led the NUN FUN CHURCH SEARCH on Sunday March 26th.

Nearly thirty people braved the rain (and the bells) to come on my guided

walk of selected city churches and a few surprise venues and between us we raised - drum roll please - £160.05! A HUGE thank you to all those who came, especially Sr. Jaye for coming all the way from Leeds, the yummy mummies and Gareth Williams for capturing the day on camera.

A good time was had by all (even if I do say so myself) and as we all retired to the sanctuary of The Retro Bar where the appopriately named landlady Wendy had laid on a generous feast of hot cross buns, I resolved that there will be another Church Search later in the year, hopefully with an added dash of summer sun. But there's much more to look forward to til then!

Blessings,

Marcus

Help spread the word...

Salutations!

I was chatting with my good friend Sister Jaye the other day. Sister Jaye was one of the first Sisters to join my merry band; we worked together on some shows at BAC a few years back and she was at the top of my list of people I wanted to work with when the whole strange saga began. She performed in the original Postcards from God scratch performances and my Singing Sisters project which we took to Duckie and then back to BAC for their BURST festival and TILT nights.

Sister Jaye now lives in Leeds and is devoted to the holy work of marketing. In fact, she's my unofficial marketing guru, bestowing wisdom from afar by telepathy and email (OK, the telepathy bit is a fib). We were having a little brainstorm about ways to spread the word of the Wend and she suggested I ask people to show their support in email form.

How, you say? Well, you know when you send an email you can add a personal signature at the end? You can actually put anything you want there, so she suggested I ask you lovely people to put in the following text: (NB it looks odd here but should be OK if you simply cut and paste!)

Postcards from God ~ The Sister Wendy Musical at Jermyn St. Theatre from January 8th 2007

Now also on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/sisterwendymusical

Help fund a musical like nun other: http://bluecaravan.blogspot.com

The link will lead people back to this blog, where they can find out about the next fundraising scheme and take part. To quote Hedwig and The Angry Inch, it's a simple cut-and-paste job, one that will only take a couple of minutes but might help fill the coffers just a little bit more. So please get clicking!

Blessings,

Marcus

NUN FUN SUNDAY ~ Fundraising Launch

Salutations!

Firstly, welcome to my blog. I've been meaning to keep one of these for ages now but somehow never got round to it. I do have a good reason this time though so fingers crossed! What's that good reason you ask?

Well, for about eighteen months I've been writing a new show, called Postcards from God ~ The Sister Wendy Musical. I'll elaborate more on what it is and how it came together as time goes on, but right now I'm at the beginning of approaching the "F" word. No - not that one... FUNDRAISING!

It's been a huge learning curve so far and I now have a lot more respect for people who put on shows - even for a fringe production like mine, the budget is not inconsiderable. So I've devised quite a few schemes to make some cash for my Sisters. The first being NUN FUN SUNDAY on January 29th.

I've performed at cocktail lounge Kinky Mambo a few times as part of Scottee's regular Sunday social nights so I was really pleased when they said I could hold NUN FUN SUNDAY there. Joanna who runs Kinky Mambo even came up with some especially tasty themed cocktails for the night, which went down very nicely.

I invited a lot of my friends to perform and in the end we had quite an impressive line-up,starting with the acoustic stylings of Zeff, Finn Bonel (and his Thai Pin) Steve McCusker, then the lovely Keith Anderson (left). Miss King (below) was up next.

I love her songs - she's like a cross between Kate Bush and Siouxsie Sioux, punky but kinda wistful.

Mackenzie Taylor came next with his own brand of irreverent stand-up comedy, with an appropriately religious bent.

Speaking of bent, my Dad said that my skills as a compere reminded him of Graham Norton, which I'm sure was meant to be a compliment of sorts. To prove the point, here's a picture of me sitting on a pouffe (left).

Tallulah (right) came next, dressed as a mermaid, to tell us the sad tale of a whale who got lost and ended up in the Thames. Entertaining as well as topical! Scottee performed a mime piece called Silent Movie, where he came to a rather sticky end, then Tallulah returned to tell us of her love for the modern dandies. She got so hot she lost her wig.

Jonaflid (right) descended from the gilt staircase to show us his own brand of electro-punk. Bless him, I think he was really worried that he was a bit too aggro for the assembled masses, who had been lulled into a stupor by the cocktails and chilled out cabaret. But his performance certainly went with a bang, all the boys and girls enjoying his topless punk stomp-romp in equal amounts.

My own Mother Superior supplied a batch of cup cakes to mark my birthday and everyone tucked in as DJ Dan delighted our eardrums. I was pleased to see all the cakes go, partly to avoid adding to my expanding girth, but also as Mama Reeves had tried about eight different recipes and was sick of the sight of them!

Performance artist and poet Richard Dedomenici (left) was the penultimate act, with his whimsical observations on modern life and politics. But the stars of the evening were undoubtedly Afterworks (below), a nine piece a cappella group, who sang some of their own compositions, ending with Oh Maria from Sister Act and a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday which brought a tear to my eye.

After the cabaret, I dashed off to give a secret performance in the bar upstairs and then the drunken stragglers (including myself) danced the night away to DJ sets from Dogdriller, Ian H Le Pouf Celebre and Junklady, climaxing with an impromptu karaoke session where I did my best Pete Burns impression - "Yow are everthing that is repoolsive to may..." etc.

A big thank you to Kinky Mambo, to all those who performed and to the very friendly crowd who came to show their support. Between us we raised the tidy sum of £500.00, which is a great kick-start to the fundraising effort, but more importantly everyone seemed to have a great time.

All the pictures on this post were taken by Michelle Brooks and a big thank you to her too for capturing a great day.

I'll be back soon with details of the next fundraising scheme which will hit the streets of London (literally) on the last Sunday of March.

Stay tuned!

Blessings,

Marcus