It has been an exciting start to the year. Sioned and I are very humbled to announce that our radio version of Floating has won Best Scripted Comedy Drama at the BBC Audio Drama Awards.

It’s a real honour to receive this award. We’ve had so much fun over the last six years sharing this story with you, our audience. It’s a pleasure to have our efforts recognised in this way. And I know that my Nain, who was a major inspiration for making the piece, would be very proud.

Over the last week, in addition to performances of Story of a Rabbit, I’ve also been working down at Carriageworks in Redfern on my new project, Stories from an Invisible Town. Aled’s been playing music and we’ve been joined by two new Australian friends, Jo and Laura.

Stories from an Invisible Town – An Introduction (by Hugh Hughes by hughhughes

As people in Sydney have been so supportive to me since my first visit here in 2009, I wanted to offer audiences here the opportunity of a sneak preview of what I’ve been up to with the creation of Stories from…

And so, with the help of the lovely people at Carriageworks, we’re offering you the opportunity to join us for one of three work-in-progress sharings this Thursday, Friday and Saturday (15 to 17 Dec).

Each sharing takes place at 8pm at Carriageworks and tickets are completely free. You just need to book a space by clicking on this link.

If you’re not sure how to get to Carriageworks, you’ll find some further info here.

Aled and I and the rest of the team would be delighted to see you there. We hope you can join us!

@hughhughes: Day 33: swimming past the Batu Islands and about to do a first… Swim across the equator! 0 degrees and heading south…

@hughhughes: Day 32: starting to feel the equatorial currents changing. Arwel suggests yielding to strong flow situations. Sioned agrees.

@hughhughes: Day 30: swimming past the Mentawai Islands I saw a Malayan Sun Bear. It waved at me as I lifted my hand to say hello.

@hughhughes: Day 21: change of plans. Radical thinking. Going east rather than south. Heading ov the north of Australia rather than past Perth!

@hughhughes: Day 19: I can just about hear the people of the 10th biggest city cheering me on from the left, Jakarta looks massive!

@hughughes: Day 18: The dugong on the coast of Yogyakarta look like they are hoovering up seagrass. Amazing. Perhaps I’ll join them for breaky.

@hughhughes: Day 17: Apparently Bali is estimated to run out of water in 2015 so I’ve decided to do my ‘bit’ and splash them as I go past today

@hughhughes: Day 16: Sticking out from the land of Sumba are the peaks of the sumbanese’s huts. They are very different to my house at home!

You can read part 3 of my #Swim2Oz here.

@hughhughes: Day 62: the flow pattern consists of several eddies and meanders here in the Arabian Sea. Some say Bin Laden was buried here.

@hughhughes: Day 60: hoping not to be visited by Gonu. That cyclone is way too strong for me. Shoulders bigger than ever.

@hughhughes: Day 59: heading towards the Laccadive Sea and the Maldives. Skin adapting to water. Lungs expanding. Thought processes changing.

@hughhughes: Day 57: the Owen Fracture Zone is letting in water down on the basin around here. Maldives in my sight.

@hughhughes: Day 55: approaching the Maldives. The lowest country in the world. Anglesey is a low-lying island but these islands get on down.

@hughhughes: Day 46: been out of radar for a few days. Decided to alter my route. Heading towards Gulf of Mannar between India and Sri Lanka.

@hughhughes: Day 46: Enjoying the sea cucumbers as I drift towards Adam’s Bridge. The hard coral species are magnificent as are the dolphins.

@hughhughes: Day 45: swimming along the Palk Strait towards the Bay of Bengal. Sea turtles carrying me part of the way.

@hughhughes: Day 35: Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra is now in sight. It has been a long last week. Longer than other weeks.

@hughhughes: Day 35: small animals embedded in calcium carbonate shells are looking sparkly and inviting as the coral starts to emerge.

You can see the second part of my Swim2Oz here.
And you can see the fourth part of my Swim2Oz here.

@hughhughes: Day 84: still roaming the seas around the town of Suez waiting to enter the canal. Extraordinary Lessepsian migration occurring

@hughhughes: Day 83: Heading into the Great Bitter Lake where 14,freighters anchored for almost 8 years back in 1967.

@hughhughes: Day 83: Memories of Yellow Fleet float in The Great Bitter Lake. Phytoplankton bloom looking strong. Hypersalinity effecting skin

@hughhughes: Day 82: moving into Little Bitter Lake where the Tracked Amphibian Neptunes resided in 1947.

@hughhughes: Day 81: passing port town of Suez. Almost 500,000 people. Air temp hitting 36 degrees. Now 29.58N, 32.33E. Feeling good. Golden.

@hughhughes: written references to swimming date back to 2000 BC. One of the earliest references is Gilgamesh.

@hughhughes: Day 77: now in the Red Sea. The worlds northernmost tropical sea with over 1,000 invertebrate species and 200 soft and hard corals.

@hughhughes: Day 76: There is a Black Sea, a White Sea and A Yellow Sea, but Today I’m in the Red Sea following a cardinal direction.

@hughhughes: Day 75: there is very little sign of coral bleaching here in the Red Sea. Water surface temperature hitting 30 degrees today.

@hughhughes: Day 74: the Red Sea is a good example of a new arm of sea. Funny to think that I will be here while Floating plays on Radio 4

@hughhughes: Day 73: the twostripe cardinal and the giant seacatfish have passed by today. They were gossiping about the fringelip rockskipper.

@hughhughes: Day 72: Ottoman remnants, Arabian Gazelle and marine fauna are in on display as I slide past the Farasan Islands

@hughhughes: Day 69: In the Gate of Grief. The dangers attending it’s navigation are legendary. The Horn of Africa is magnificent.

@hughhughes: Day 69: swimming past the volcanic island of Perim. Got to decide which side of the island to go. Can measure decision in strokes

@hughhughes: Day 65: just arriving at the edge of Socotra having swam most of the Gulf of Aden underwater.

@hughhughes: Day 65: extraordinary amount of fish, turtle and lobster encountered over the last few days. Friendly and open creatures.

You can see the first part of my #Swim2Oz here.
You can see the third part of my #Swim2Oz here.

@hughhughes: Day 98: Last night’s swim along the west coast of Wales was glorious. Its great to be on this journey. Mackerel galore!

@hughhughes: Day 97: the rain makes little difference to me swimming in the sea. Rain hitting the waves is beautiful.

@hughhughes: Glad to discover that the limits of the sea are specified by the International Hydrographic Organisation.

@hughhughes: The wonderful Cuvier’s beaked whale has just been along my side talking fondly about the fine people of Gijon

@hughhughes: Day 96: just spotted a Bonelli Eagle approaching Cape St Vincent where some Nelson based controversy lies.

@hughhughes: Day 96: sighted a rock pigeon followed by a hippoboscid fly, a typical blood sucking ectoparasite of pigeons.

@hughhughes: Day 96: swimming over the submarine chimneys on the Cape of Cadiz and the mud volcanos which are seeping some methane

@hughhughes: Day 95: A Striped Dolphin in the Bay of Gibraltar swam by with marvellous pink underside and 2 black bands circling it’s eye

@hughhughes: Day 95: Port of Malaga is hectic. Almost 700,000 passengers pass here annually. Wave-back rate excellent. 31 in 33.

@hughhughes: Day 95: coincidence-Tangiers population is 700,000 which is same number of passengers passing through Port of Malaga annually

@hughhughes: Day 88: the usual temperature of the Mediterranean Sea at this time of year ranges between 22 and 27 degrees C. It hit over 30

@hughhughes: Day 88: I am joined by sunfish here in the Libyan Sea. There is a big bass sound underwater made by the Purple Bass Band.

@hughhughes: Day 88: visited the Calypso Deep. Down 5,267 feet. Saw the Creation of the Hellenic Trench.

@hughhughes: Day 88: witnessed how evaporation exceeds precipitation here and the effect of increasing salinity as I voyage eastwards.

I’m swimming to Australia to arrive in time to perform Story of a Rabbit at Sydney Opera House from 29 November. I really hope you might be able to join me there.

Tonight:

If you happen to be in Saffron Walden tonight (Friday 7 October), it would be fantastic to see you at the Words in Walden Festival where I’ll be performing Hugh Hughes in… 360.

The show starts at 7.30pm at the Dame Bradbury’s School. More info here.

Next week:

I’m really excited to be making my first trip to Oslo in Norway. Sioned’s remind me that it might be a little cold up there so to make sure I pack plenty of layers!

I’ll be performing Hugh Hughes in… 360 at the newly opened De Andre Teatret on Monday 10 October and Tuesday 11 October (when I’ll also be trying out some Stories from an Invisible Town material).

More info here.

21 and 22 October:

I’ve mentioned this before but I didn’t want you to forget that we’ll be performing Hugh Hughes in… Floating and Hugh Hughes in… 360 at London’s Roundhouse on 21 October and 22 October. It’s one show on one day and the other on the other, it that makes any sense.

Tickets are available here.

It would be fantastic to see you at any of these performances.

So I called Esther: “Hi Esther, it’s Hugh Hughes here. Do you have those videos that you edited for me?”

And Esther said: “No worries Hugh, I’ll forward them straight over so that they can go onto the Hugh Hughes website.”

And so here they are…

Aled and I are very excited to be taking Story of a Rabbit to the Sydney Opera House. We’ll be there from 29 Nov to 10 Dec and you can find more information about the performances here.

Dear Hugh Hughes fan, can you help us?

We’re looking for 12 people for an exciting opportunity to help us shape and test a new Hugh Hughes project called Stories from an Invisible Town. We want to recruit 6 of these people from social media and our mailing lists, as well as finding 6 people who are less aware of Hoipolloi and the work we make.

Who do we want?
We’re looking for 3 people aged 16-30 and 3 people aged 50+, any gender, but you must have seen at least one of Hugh Hughes’ shows, and live in or near Cambridge.

We will then ask each of the people selected to ask one other friend of a similar age, who doesn’t know Hoipolloi’s work, to also come along. This way we’re working with potential, as well as current, audience members.

You will also require access to a broadband internet connection and computer.

What will it involve?
Stories from an Invisible Town is going to be an exciting new experiment in expanding the theatrical world of Hugh Hughes online. It will be an entirely interactive way of exploring hundreds of stories from Hugh Hughes.

Volunteers at this stage will act as both focus group and testers; we want to collaborate with you on how it might work, and then invite you to test it before it is released to the public.

We don’t imagine that this will involve more than 3 group meetings, as well as limited ongoing communication and feedback. This will be equivalent to no more than a total of 5 days total over half a year.

Why do we want to work with you?
Because this project relies so much on interaction with our audiences, we wanted to develop it from the very outset with those audiences. This is a thrilling opportunity for you to shape what we hope will be a ground-breaking approach to storytelling and audience involvement in the theatre sector.

What will you get in return?
Aside from the opportunity to get unrivalled sneak previews at work not yet released to the wider public, we will be reimbursing all travel costs, offering free tickets to Hugh Hughes’ next show, and providing food and refreshments at all group meetings. Also, our gratitude!

How do I get involved?
To register your interest, please email me, Simon Bedford, at simonb@hoipolloi.org.uk. It would be great to know what work of Hugh’s you’ve seen already, your address and a contact telephone number.

At this very moment, BBC Radio 4 are broadcasting my very first venture into radio drama. I was really excited when I was told that my show, Hugh Hughes in… Floating, had been commissioned as an afternoon play and now that the broadcast day is here, it feels slightly surreal.

Me and Sioned are very excited to share the story of Floating with you. Thank you if you’ve tuned in, and a bigger thank you for checking out this website, The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes online.

I thought you might be interested in the following bits of info:

Hugh Hughes mailing list
I have a mailing list that I use for sharing my latest news and I’d be delighted if you’d like to join. You can do so by filling in your email address in the appropriate box on the right-hand column of the site.

I’m currently running a little competition. If you sign up on or before the 30 Sept, I’ll be picking 5 people at random to receive a signed DVD copy of my film, How I Got Here.

You can also follow me on Twitter (@hughhughes) and on Facebook if you’d prefer.

Come and see me, Hugh Hughes, perform live
The right-hand column also contains details of when I’m next performing live. It would be fantastic to see you at a performance if I’m somewhere near you.

If you happen to be in London, I’ll be at the Roundhouse performing Floating and 360 on 21 & 22 October. I’m performing in quite an intimate space, which is exciting, but it also means there aren’t many tickets. So I’d book early for those if you’d like to come along.