Happy New Year
What A Year!
What a year 2024 has been for BlackStar Maniacs. Most of the year involved work around our stage play, Walk Like A Man, and the fundraiser for the show. I say “our show” because, although I wrote the words down, without the people around me it would have remained merely ink and paper.
Walk Like A Man came about because I had decided to make a 41 page earlier version of the script into a full length play. At the beginning of the year the script was 90(ish)% complete and actually doing something with it was discussed at length. Putting the play on somewhere without funding was a risk because of the money involved, but it became a dare so, sat in McDonalds with Lynn one day, we pushed the button and blindly booked the theatre, meaning we now had to make it happen.
The Free Amigos band I’d put together with Lynn, my old pals from my 80s bands, Andy Mather and Iain Thompson, and Andy’s son Michael was booked to do a gig for a local church in June. It seemed natural to use the band to form the basis for what became the WLAM fundraiser. Once again, we blindly booked the venue, with Silver’s words “build it and they will come” whispering in our ears. Thankfully, he was right and we sold the fundraiser out. With two sets from the band and some scenes from other BlackStar Maniacs projects in between, we hosted an amazing evening, which raised enough money to take the pressure off ticket sales for actual Walk Like A Man show.
The Walk Like A Man show was better than I could ever have hoped it would be. I was so lucky to have cast the most amazing actors, to have Lynn doing a fantastic job producing and doing the shit that is so time consuming, Rob Carr and his meticulous standards to direct, and never forgetting the amazing support I always get from my wife, Fiona, and our kids, particularly Charles. Thinking about such safe hands, its success should never have been in question, but as a writer, your brain doesn’t work as logically as that. I also think we’re very lucky in having Gosforth Civic Theatre as the (first) venue for WLAM. The people there were amazing, and worked with us to make the run a success, both for us and for them.
We ended the year by picking up filming on the short film WITHIN, which we’d started in 2023. Again, we seemed to have been so lucky in getting amazing actors and crew involved with the project. The scenes we completed before the end of the year look amazing and I’m sure the rest will be just as good, and hopefully make an amazing film.
2025 looks like it will be even more exciting and to have people giving as much as everyone did in 2024, will be a privilege. The very thought thrills me whilst scaring the pants off me!
From the very bottom of my heart, I’d like to thank everyone that gave so much to make 2024 such a rollercoaster of a success.
With eternal gratitude,
Steven
With Thanks To:
Lynn Huntley, Rob Carr, Luke David Martin, Heather Dowey, James Craister, Craig Pearson, John Torrance, Colin Coombs, Silver, Chantale Brown, Laura, James Froment, Fiona Lowes, Charles Lowes, Steve Cunningham, Pauline Cunningham, Andy Mather, Michael Mather, Iain Thompson, Nikki Glass, Dan Lemon, Paul Stobbs, Charlie Smith, Rob McDougall, Ian McDougall, and DJ, Jamesy Merilo, all Tyneside Irish Centre, Scott Forbes and all at Gosforth Civic Theatre, everyone that has or will be part of our WITHIN film, to anyone that I’ve overlooked, my apologies because your efforts were certainly appreciated, and lastly, and most importantly, to everyone that came to see either or both shows.