Kevan  Manwaring (aka The Aviator) is a writer, teacher and
storyteller who lives in Stroud. Holder of an MA in the Teaching and Practice in
Creative Writing from Cardiff University, he teaches creative writing for the
Open University and Skyros  Writers’  Lab.  He  also  runs  freelance  courses 
in  storytelling  and various aspects of the writing process  to a wide variety
of students. As a professional storyteller he has appeared in numerous shows
both solo and  with Fire Springs, both in Britain and abroad (USA, Germany,
Italy and Malta). He is the author of Turning the Wheel, The Bardic Handbook,
Lost Islands,  the  ongoing  Windsmith  books  and  his  poems  and  articles 
have appeared in several magazines and anthologies. In 2010 he was a Writer-in-
Residence at El Gouna, a resort on the Red Sea, Egypt. He is currently working
on folk tales for The History Press, as well as a screenplay or two.

www.kevanmanwaring.co.uk


Bristol-based  Singer/Songwriter Musician/Artist   James  Hollingsworth (aka The Wizard)  has a unique, complex
guitar style, reminiscent of Andalusian guitar as well as classic  rock. Constantly  touring  the  UK  as  an  inspiring  solo  singer/
songwriter/guitarist, playing to small audiences with little or no  amplification;  or  to  larger  audiences  through  his  vocal  PA,  often 
adding  to  his performances with live phrase-sampling ('Looping') of his  guitar, voice and other instruments, creating Folk-Blues 2.0 and "Psy-Trad"
(Psy-Trance with Traditional instruments). Meanwhile, James is co-producing his  latest album with  legendary  ‘Genesis’  producer  John  Burns. 

www.jameshollingsworth.com

Jonathan Hayter’s  (aka The Baron) current  explorations  are  as a  multi-media  artist,  using traditional  ways  such  as  drawing  and  painting  and  particularly,  using techniques developed from shadow puppet creating works as film, video and sculpture to develop his own ideology. Under “Figure of Speech” is  an  archive  of  work  established  over  many  years  using  his  unique approach. He also has a well-established working
relationship with schools and continues to offer Workshops using multimedia techniques under the Figure of Speech name. Jonathan has developed his own mythology using Archetypal  Symbols.    He  also  is  inspired  by  many  other  things  from Shamanism to world mythology. He is currently working closely with Jose Navarro,  a  London  based  Peruvian  Puppeteer  developing  his  ideas  still further... Jose Navarro’s current show is Children of the Sun developed with puppets made by Jonathan Hayter.

www.figureofspeech.org.uk

Based near Munich in Germany, Miriam Schäfer(aka The Whirlwind) is  an accomplished professional Oriental Belly Dancer and
has studied eclectic forms of dance and movement in her personal journey into spirituality and  artistic expression. http://www.miriamar.de/

Rob Goodman (Herr Direktor) has extensive experience in Acting for Theatre/Film/TV. Also Presenting for TV; Writing; and as a
1st Assistant. Director for FILM. His mantra is: 'Always working for perfection in my expression of acting.' He teaches on going master
classes in New York-Paris-London. Rob works mostly in film, but between filming he is always working on live performances, which he writes and stage as One Man shows in theatres. In demand for his many skills, he is the director of the show. www.robertgoodman.co.uk

GO  STEAMPUNK! Backwards into the Future

Why Steampunk?

It's the Archaic Revival, old  bean... Uncle Terence (Mckenna)  will explain...

Archaic  Revival

"History is ending 
because the dominator culture has led the human species into a blind alley, and
as the inevitable chaostrophie approaches, people look for metaphors and
answers. Every time a culture gets into trouble it casts itself back into the
past looking for the last sane moment it ever knew. And the last sane moment we
ever knew was on the plains of Africa 15,000 years ago rocked in the cradle of
the Great Horned Mushroom Goddess before history, before standing armies, before
slavery and property, before warfare and phonetic alphabets and monotheism,
before, before, before. And this is where the future is taking us because the
secret faith of the twentieth century is not modernism, the secret faith of the
twentieth century is nostalgia for the archaic, nostalgia for the paleolithic,
and that gives us body piercing, abstract expressionism, surrealism, jazz, rock-n-roll and
catastrophe theory. The 20th century mind is nostalgic for the paradise that
once existed on the mushroom dotted plains of Africa where the plant-human
symbiosis occurred that pulled us out of the animal body and into the
tool-using, culture-making, imagination-exploring creature that we are. And why
does this matter? It matters because it shows that the way out is back and that
the future is a forward escape into the past."


Read the Steampunk Manifesto here...




A Steampunk Manifesto




Of pistons and empires

built on imagination, hyperbole and

Morlock sweat

let me speak!

The future is steam, I have seen it come true -

the sky is not the limit!

Let us build railways to the stars -

cantilever bridges across the abyss.

There is nothing we cannot achieve

if we put our hundredmonkeyminds to it.

Simeon Shakespeares,

typing out the unwritten magnum opus

of the new paradigm -

minting tomorrow.




Let the presses roll -

pour your hot lead words

into my waxy ear.

Coin the phrase to unlock the people

from their mental chains.

DIY revolutionaries, tinkering

with the consensus reality -

customizing iconoclasts,

engineering difference. Throw

a spanner in the works of the status quo. Break

from the patent, mass-produced

mediocrity. A pox on your plastic paradise -

here's to the new epoch!




The future is steam,

pull the lever and live your dream.

Let us talk

of cogs and corsets,

of mole machines and airships,

naptha lamps and aethernauts.

Bombastic barons and

mechanical Mata Haris.

Show me your bling,

and I'll show you mine.

Copper epaulettes and

brass basques, finely-fitted

waistcoats and pocket compasses -

pointing in one direction -

backwards into the future!




Brush the velvet of your stiff black hat,

polish the amber lenses of your goggles,

step up to the plate

of your insane machine

and blow your whistle -

Yesterday's future is ours!




Bartholomew Copperpipe,

Christmastide, 1881






Watch some of 'Song of the Windsmith' here