The Reading Room
December 10, 2010
I have been given a writing home in the famous Reading Room. It is a great space with an excellent installation designed by RSC designer Tom Piper, assisted by Lily and Helena. It is a delightful spectacle of pages exploding out of a book (The Complete Works of Shakespeare). I also share the space with the infamous Insult Chair (anytime someone sits in the chair they are subjected to one of Shakespeare's insulting quotes). It is fun hearing people's reactions to the insults and their attempts to guess the actor's voice.
The room is also next to a coffee bar and has chairs and tables to accommodate people who want to have a cup of coffee with cake and share a little conversation. It is the ideal spot for me to be during this residency. There is a wonderful fireplace and a statue of Shakespeare's face embedded in the mantle above the fireplace looking over the entire room.
There are no rules as far as this blog is concerned. The initial idea is to record, reflect and share my creative practise. It is also a way of initiating dialogue with people who have stories to share. I am sure that it will develop its own character as the project grows, but at the moment it is simply a continuation of the creative process and the investigative dialogue necessary to create the poems.
by Malika Booker
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