Wellywood Woman

Helen Mirren's making a habit of it. When she accepted a lifetime achievement award last year at the Czech Karlovy Vary Festival she said "I don’t know how many female directors are presenting their films in this festival. I very much doubt that it’s 50%" and added that, should she return to Karlovy Vary in five years, she’d want to see at least 50% of the films at the festival being presented by women directors. Now she's done it again, at Britain's Empire Awards , after fellow award-winner Sam Mendes acknowledged a group of directors who'd influenced him, all men. Like other veteran actors – Judi Dench, Meryl Streep – she's uniquely placed to identify changes in the industry and like Meryl Streep, she's happy to speak out. The last little while I've been working on one piece about women directors in New Zealand, for the Directory of World Cinema: Australia and New Zealand and another for Women Screenwriters: An International Guide , edit

Struan Ashby & Jessica Charlton prepare to film composer Chris White This is what I've been up to, from my Throat of These Hours blog. Back to Wellywood Woman very soon, am missing it! 1. Preparation I want to take my play  Throat of These Hours to the United States, take my response to Muriel 'back home' to her place, even though her work belongs to all the world. So the Muriel Rukeyser Centenary Symposium was a great place to start and I was thrilled to have the opportunity to give a Skype presentation. And I wanted to show the work-in-progress, not just to talk about it. A filmed reading and performance of Chris White's songs was the only way. Two weeks before this morning's presentation at the symposium, I finished the second draft of the Throat of These Hours and – with my beloved writing buddy – chose three related extracts to film. Found the cast and crew, all people I love working with or wanted to work with. Made a date to film seventeen

This is where I've been . Getting ready for a Skype presentation of my play Throat of These Hours  (a work-in-progress) to the Muriel Rukeyser Centenary Symposium at the Eastern Michigan University. Scary stuff. Have never filmed actors reading scenes from a play before (doing that tomorrow with some lovely help). Or given an intro and taken part in a Q & A by Skype (Saturday). Back here soonish. Answering your email soonish, too!