Meeting Euphemia Pennington

I am delighted to have a monologue published in Kent and Sussex Courier today. This is Euphemia Pennington and her story is told in the article featuring the Tunbridge Wells Writers Circle. The idea was conceived by our Chairwoman Karen Rollason in conjunction with and only made possible by the wonderful Paul Meyer and his Photoshoot facilities.

Organised over two weekends, we first went to visit and pick costumes. Some of us had already written our stories but others just wanted the inspiration to start within the studio. It was rather like the drama cupboard at school. Any preconceived ideas that I had were blown out of the window as the range of possible characters were there before me on hangers. originally I was going to be a survivor from the Titanic, who wore a long red dress together with a survival life jacket. We tore of our outer garments and tried on costumes. It was the games changing room of our teenage years all over again.
 'What do you think?'
' Can I carry this off?'
' What else do I need?'
 The feathers were flying literally as the accessory box was raided. Hats and gloves and floral fittings were held for a moment , then discarded as story lines were bandied about.
'You could be....'
' You could do....'
'Why don't you.....?'

Then it was a quick dash upstairs for a chat with Paul and the possible development of the story to have an idea of his requirements for lighting and background and then away for the pen to meet the page.

Well I am obviously not a Titanic survivor.All  because, I found that headdress! That was it, Titanic was thrown out of the window and the headgear won the day. I scrambled for a suitable dress , a quick chat with the wardrobe mistress and a few adjustments latter Euphemia had been created. Now I just had to write her story.

Our next session was painless. We met in smaller groups, dressed up, made up and then we were in front of the camera. Paul asked me to describe my character and talk through the story line and as I did so the camera was clicking away. How would she be feeling? What would she be doing?  I was off. Not worrying about my best side or how fat I felt. It was just a little bit of fun and I was in safe non-judgemental hands.
I was delighted with the results and in fact would love to go back for another session. I had gone with one character in my head and met another one who popped out of the dressing up box. Plus I have a range of photographs that I am proud of.

Euphemia's story can be read in Kent and Sussex Courier along with other members of the Writers Circle. We didn't know we had them in us but we are proud to present them on the page. We all live in other worlds inside our head. Paul gave us the chance to record them for a moment longer than a daydream.