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Jake/India Holmes

@jakeindiaholmes

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Actor/Musician
Art account: @captainflippingscarlet
1/3 of: @theplaydes

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Service by Mostyn Jones, directed by Martyna Puciato & Joe Baker.

Great scripts scare me as much as they excite me, and our Mostyn's did both. This story and character were both incredibly alien and incredibly familiar to me at the same time. Perhaps the text observes something that has not been observed before? Our relationship to ourselves and our workplaces. In truth, I felt as though it had seen something in me that I hadn't even realised was there. Lol so yeah, scary.

Our Martyna is a truly singular director. Her rehearsal is equal parts a workshop and equal parts a psychology discussion. She layered the piece with an extremely playful yet practical method, was constantly pushing in every direction and lead all proceedings with great dignity and empathy. She is also absolutely insane (in the best way).

Our Joe set about capturing this madness in a practical yet graceful way. He has a fantastic eye for natural composition and a very efficient way of working. This provided great order and harmony to the already established rhythm our Martyna and I had found in the text.

Also shout-out to our Mostyn's boom-mic work here, as if his writing skillz weren't enough.

2022 by @jakeindiaholmes

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4 years ago

Deep Blue by Hayley Greggs, directed by Nic Behan & Kate Treadell, musically directed by Ste Reid with movement by Grace Goulding (Liverpool Everyman Theatre).

At first glance, a contemporary gig-theatre piece about adult loneliness may not read like a recipe for laughs, but this show had a strange joy to it. I think that joy grew from the rehearsal room and leaked out onto the stage in an exciting but controlled way. Everyone was making choices about everything, everyone listened to eachother and everyone felt really in-the-room (for lack of a less-wanky term). Our Nic and our Kate weren't really shaping the clay, rather allowing it to fall and form naturally in different ways and then choosing their favourites to set in the kiln.

Top tier kats in this though, everyone in the cast were grafters and the play itself gave us the energy. We each populated the central character Riley's world while simultaneously scoring our Danielle's wonderful performance of her. Riley is a character that feels isolated from society, so this separation of her from the ‘band’ as well as all other characters in the piece helped to show that. Nah but everyone was a real team player here and they all saved my arse when my guitar rig died on opening night.

I played a couple of different people, animals and instruments for this show (I even played a talking houseplant named Harry); which is, I think, testament to how much of a super-genius our Hayley is, as I feel like most playwrights often miss the opportunity of having vegetation pontificate. Deep Blue's world is thoroughly coloured-in. Our Ste's excellent music too made sense of the subtext and made everyone want to join the band (especially Riley lol).

Also I played the fucking drums on a couple of tunes for this one. Like they actually let me do that. And they paid me! Crazy.

#BrianRobertsPhotography

2022 by @jakeindiaholmes

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4 years ago

BLIP! - a cabaret/installation night hosted by Dan Chan (Unity Theatre, Liverpool).

A lovely wee cabaret to celebrate and highlight a bunch of great artists working in and around Liverpool. A whole host of skills and talent on display in this one, from lips-syncing drag artists and movement installations to singer/songwriters and baton-twirlers.

I played the guitar to accompany our Nadia's singing. A short set comprising of different western songs translated into Malay. Our Nadia had spent a lot of time on these translations, carefully selecting each word, ensuring that it wasn't just the lyrics that were translated but the overall meanings and feelings too. Some of the tunes included Jolene and Hopelessly Devoted To You.

My amp decided to blow up on the last song, creating a cloud of smoke and silence, so we had to persevere acoustically. Luckily, the audience were sympathetic and stomped along graciously upon instruction. Really must get that little Marshall fixed...

2022 by @jakeindiaholmes

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4 years ago

The Arsonists by Max Frisch, directed by Ella Grace Roberts Goulding for the Liverpool Everyman's Young Directors Festival (Liverpool Everyman Theatre Ev1 Studio).

I jumped into this one quite last-minute and joined the team to play the role of Biedermann. A lovely cast, a lovely director and oh my, what a script! Our Ella's cut whittled down this dense and hectic play into a very digestible serving, the perfect size for the Director's Festival. I feel as though the text itself is an underrated classic. Not to mention that the version which we used was translated from its original German dialect, making the fluidly translated wordplay an all the more impressive feat. A Faulty Towers-esque farce with real political meat.

Also never inhale stage-cigarettes, this has been a PSA.

2022 by @jakeindiaholmes

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4 years ago

Save The Night, directed by Chris Tomlinson, Grace Goulding and Kathryn McGurk (Liverpool Everyman Theatre).

A real nostalgia-cabaret. The final installment of YEP's post-lockdown trifecta and the first post-Rutter YEP show was an absolute smash. Centering on the idea of ‘the annex’, an all-purpose space that anyone can use to make art, socialise or simply tell stories in, the show explored how spaces like that have added to this city's cultural footprint.

Dripped in folklore, music and swagger, this partially devised/partially written piece shone a spotlight onto some of Liverpool's oldest fictional and non-fictional stories and characters. From the ‘Poison Sisters of Scotty Road’, a ‘time-travelling scally’, some underage drinkers and a ghostly compere to a beautiful speech in solidarity with the Ukrainian people's dreadful plight and an imagined conversation between Chañtelle Lunt and Laetitia Withall; this show had a pretty broad scope.

The whole show had running through-line of people unexpectedly traveling back in time through storytelling, which we referred to as entering a ‘time-slip’. Now without getting too grandiose here, I feel like connecting to one's past is an essential part of the human experience and what allows us to progress as a society. Spaces like theatres, pubs, youth clubs, libraries or even just shops that specifically sell leather-based goods in train stations enable that tradition of storytelling to continue. We should probably look after them better yenno?

Also there was a fucking brilliant live band called Tin Can Voodoo (@tincanvoodoo) backing this whole piece up with their steadfast rhythms, adding to the cabaret element of the show. And an insane amount of music and dancing in this one, all choreographed and shaped perfectly by our Grace. Tin Can's cover of What'd I Say, which opened the show, was truly a stunner.

Swipe to the end to see me being told that this is my last YEP show.

#BrianRobertsPhotography

2022 by @jakeindiaholmes

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4 years ago

Tap Tap, directed by Matt Rutter, Chris Tomlinson, Nicole Behan, Kathryn McGurk and Grace Goulding (Liverpool Playhouse Theatre).

One of the most fluid devised shows that I've ever been a part of, perhaps due to the highly relatable subject matter. Analysing our own relationships to social media and using that to inspire scenes of ever increasing absurdity.

I played an ‘influencer’ who incites the downfall of an unsuspecting young lad by removing context from a video of him confronting a predator on a train, framing him as an unprovoked aggressor for clickbait-sake. There was lots of gold in this piece though; including a BSL sign-along song, an online dating story, an absurd conspiracy theory scene and a rap about the ‘algo-rhythm’.

I think it became very quickly apparent that this was to be one of the most collaborative and free devising processes that had ever been tried with a YEP show, which resulted in a very supportive cast. A united and caring atmosphere always results in better work than a competitive one, this show proved that to me.

A right corker this one and our Matt's last one as creative director (and father) of YEP.

#BrianRobertsPhotography

2022 by @jakeindiaholmes

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4 years ago

Water Tiger, a 10 minute performance for Lunar New Year 2022 with Movema (The Blackie, Liverpool).

I made the music for Movema's beautiful celebration of endings and new beginnings. This was unlike anything I have ever made musically, as I am about as unversed as you might get with regards to traditional Eastern music.

I am however very pleased with the 10 minute score that I produced. Two different versions of the track will be available to stream shortly via whatever it is you use.

I'll keep you posted...

2022 by @jakeindiaholmes

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5 years ago

NOSE Live, an album-launch gig (Liverpool Everyman Street Café).

In spite of a coughing amp and last-minute switcheroos, we studiously played the five tracks from the NOSE album twice over for an audience of friends, contributers and curious theatre-goers.

Our Sami, our Angus, our Chloe, our Ella and our Nads were on cracking game here and all. There are some snippets of each of the tracks in my highlights bar too I believe.

2022 by @jakeindiaholmes

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5 years ago

Soapbox, directed by Matt Rutter, Chris Tomlinson, Nicole Behan, assisted by Kathryn McGurk with movement by Grace Goulding (Liverpool Everyman Theatre).

With little over a month to devise and rehearse, this show shot out of us like a bullet from Clint Eastwood's right hand. The simple premise of the soapbox (saying what you want to say, aloud for all to hear) kind of sits at the heart of what YEP is for me. Splitting us into two teams, the show was bookended by Monday and Tuesday group's vocal and humourous speeches; the topics of which, changed from person to person.

Myself and the rest of Thursday group embarked on a 15 minute movement section that acted as the centrepiece to the show and focused on the right to protest. This proved to be a very frustrating dive into why we cannot allow the right to protest to be stripped away from us and a rather sickening reminder that it is going to be, as long as we all remain unstirred by Tory lies.

A short but sweet one, packed with content and bite. Among many highlights from the show was a perfect duologue about grief and a poem that dealt with women's ongoing need to protest which persists in spite of barriers, blockades and bloodshed.

I also briefly played a rather sexist character called ‘Stoward Hern,’ who in no way resembled any legendary real-life rock'n'roll radio hosts...

#BrianRobertsPhotography

2021 by @jakeindiaholmes

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5 years ago

Professional Liverpool Healthcare Group's: Future Of The NHS Event (The Old Hall, Cotton Exchange).

Three hours, three speakers and three different kinds of sandwich. Organising in-person events for the corporate class is only hard if you think about it. I learned that the trick is to not.

2021 by @jakeindiaholmes

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5 years ago

The writing & recording of NOSE, a short album for Nadia's LCR project with Writing On The Wall (Coastal Studios).

With the words penned beautifully by the young participants from Knowsley, it was our job to turn those words into great sounds. Each of the five tracks on the record were in the style of the writer's choosing too, making it a real mashup of genres. My main concern was on how to make it a coherent piece that flowed nicely as one whole experience.

I felt like the trick would be to make it sound like a live band, that had its own sound, trying out different genres from song to song. Now with our Sami on bass and our Angus on drums, we very quickly found our groove. This was made achievable too by the very cool and helpful folk at Coastal Studios who catered to my stubborness and enabled us to record live and without a click track in spite of time delays.

Very pleased with how this one turned out.

Contact @nadiaanim or Liverpool City Council for a copy of the record and maybe they'll let you have one...

2021 by @jakeindiaholmes

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5 years ago

Gigs in The Scholar (and also various other venues and gardens) as an unnamed acoustic duo.

These gigs were incredibly helpful and fun ways to earn money. Myself and our Suzie had our shit so tight that you couldn't even see the seams. Easy cash maybe, but it's really more about playing isn't it? This isn't like a lot of money we're talking about. So what's it all for? Who can say...

I'll accept the argument that we're exhibitionists.

2021 - 2022 by @jakeindiaholmes

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5 years ago