James Pentney and the Alien Factory

A message from James Pentney:

I've tried to explain a bit more about The Alien Factory although it remains something of a mystery until we've done it on the 16th. I am finding the process interesting and creative if also on the edge.

What follows is written in the form of the opening scene of a play introducing characters J, C and K. It is also reportage on the conception of a performance / drama workshop that will take place this month with the Allsorts youth club in Stroud

THE ALIEN FACTORY (Episode One … true so far)

Youth club hub-ub, kids mulling, eating crisps

J    (late middle aged, balding, bearded, beside a pool table)

“Hello everyone, can we turn the music off for a minute please

I’ve just popped in to ask if anyone would like to try to do a show after Christmas.

You know there’s pantomimes and things so I thought we might do something in the hall here;

maybe make up a story

How about Aladdin or Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin and the Beanstalk, Jack’s Cat …”

C (teenage girl)  “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory”

K (boy)   “How about aliens?”

C “Charlie and the Alien Factory”

K  “Just The Alien Factory”

J “We’ll need a bit of a script to follow”

C “I’ll do that”

J “Fine I’ll come back next time then”

As good as her word, two weeks later C produced her pencilled pages

C “… so the founder of the factory is Jimmy Zonka, that’s you (J)

J “ Does the factory make aliens or do aliens work in the factory?

C  Yes and Jimmy Zonka has an idea for a competition for kids to make something new so there are tickets and there’s a nerd kid who has a ticket, that’s you (K) and I have a ticket and I come up with the new thing

K So you’re like the hero

C And the aliens are free to go home to their own planet

J Sounds like you’re a new Doctor Who. Let’s do it.

(to be continued following the performance workshop on 16 January that will involve set construction, music, dance, storytelling and shadow puppetry for alien production)