Today marks the launch of London based theatre company, The Coterie. The organisation will champion three playwrights to create theatre that explores form, innovates and isn't afraid to take risks.
West-End Olivier Award-winning Box-Office hit The Play That Goes Wrong trips on to the Lyceum stage from Monday 13 - Saturday 18 February, as part of its new UK tour.
The Hub Theatre's THE MAGI is in many ways made for the winter holidays: it is unabashedly about love and sacrifice. Kelsey Mesa directs this two-person acoustic musical featuring impressive original songs by Eli Pafumi.
I like to write tunes. By tunes I mean real hummable melodies. Some people scoff at this as if 'that's easy' or 'not exactly art', but I thoroughly disagree. Lots of songwriters write both music and lyrics, and I've given lyrics a go, but I like to stick to the music. In my opinion, my job is to serve a lyric. A great melody can carry a poor lyric, but a good lyric sure as hell ain't gonna carry a bad tune. When you combine both a great lyric and a great melody then you've hit the jackpot.
In the sparkling new-staging revisitation of Baddies: The Musical, the antagonists are simply too bad to exist, so in order to keep doing their jobs in our beloved stories, they need some good ol' rebranding. However, the risk is colossal. In a world where there are no villains at all, how will we know who the good guys are? And most of all, who's behind the decision they're too bad?
The Hub Theatre will present a World Premiere musical, THE MAGI from critically-acclaimed and award winning playwright Helen Murray Pafumi with music by award-winning singer/songwriter Eli Pafumi.
It's been twenty years since Mark Ravenhill's notoriously titled Shopping and F**king was first staged at the Royal Court. In his foreword for the Lyric Hammersmith's anniversary production, Ravenhill describes the show's scandalous reputation - and its actual reception. 1996 audiences may have been - largely - ready to nod seriously at plays highlighting such 'issues', but this production, directed by Sean Holmes, seems aimed at a broader demographic than just the theatrical intelligentsia.
The UK premiere of punkplay by Gregory S. Moss at Southwark Playhouse is a riot of a play told at breakneck pace with a killer soundtrack, a coming-of-age story about subcultures, friendship and not-fitting-in - all on rollerskates!
The Bush Theatre has today announced two innovative initiatives that will support and accompany This Place We Know, a landmark project in the theatre's 'breaking out' season. This Place We Know will see six world premieres of specially commissioned plays produced in six borrowed, non-theatre spaces across Shepherd's Bush. Through the Westfield Community Tickets scheme, 20% of the tickets for this season will be available free of charge to residents of the local area. Alongside the programme of plays, Eileen Perrier has been commissioned to complete a photography project which will profile the faces of the local and artistic communities integral to the Bush's breaking out season.
Full casting and the creative team are announced today for the UK premiere of punkplay at Southwark Playhouse.
Phoebe Eclair-Powell began training as an actress at the Drama Centre London, but soon switched over to playwriting. She's worked with the National Youth Theatre on their Epic Stages programme, and her debut play WINK premiered at Theatre503 last year. Next up is FURY, shortlisted for the Verity Bargate Award and winner of the 2015 Soho Theatre Young Writer's Award. This modern Medea centres on a young, single mum in a Peckham council flat and opens at Soho Theatre next week, directed by Hannah Hauer-King.
Jewish Plays Project (Artistic Director, David Winitsky) is proud to announce Helen Murray Pafumi has won the 2016 Jewish Playwriting Contest for her play 'Redder Blood,' selected from a high-quality pool of 204 submission and vetted by 50 artists as well as over 450 Community members across the country. Celebrating its 5th year, the Jewish Play Contest continues to encourage a new generation of playwrights to create and develop scripts that reflect the 21st-century Jewish experience in all its complexities, and to ensure that those scripts, once fully-developed, make their way onto major stages.
The Hub Theatre announced their 2016-17 season today. Featuring a brand new play by Hub's Artistic Director, and the DC Area debut of playwright Christopher Chen. Season 9 also see's the return of Philip Dawkins, who's FAILURE: A LOVE STORY wowed audiences at The Hub in 2014.
The Bush Theatre today announced a number of ways it will demonstrate the theatre's commitment to nurturing new writing at all levels, from emerging artists to established artists seeking to try something new. Its September production THIS PLACE WE KNOW will stage six new, specially commissioned plays by April de Angelis, Kenny Emson, Nancy Harris, Sabrina Mahfouz, Barney Norris and Gbolahan Obisesan, in various venues along on and around the Uxbridge Road in Shepherd's Bush. More details will be announced in the coming weeks.
Last week, the Bush Theatre joined forces with theatre company Look Left Look Right to present devised original work THE NEIGHBOURHOOD PROJECT. Local Hammersmith & Fulham residents, who collaborated with writers Molly Taylor and Samuel Wood on the piece, performed four sold-out shows at the former BBC Television Centre building in Shepherd's Bush, attracting an audience with over a third local residents and over 15% students/under-26s.
Jewish Plays Project (Artistic Director, David Winitsky) is proud to announce Helen Murray Pafumi has won the 2016 Jewish Playwriting Contest for her play 'Redder Blood,' selected from a high-quality pool of 204 submission and vetted by 50 artists as well as over 450 Community members across the country. Celebrating its 5th year, the Jewish Play Contest continues to encourage a new generation of playwrights to create and develop scripts that reflect the 21st-century Jewish experience in all its complexities, and to ensure that those scripts, once fully-developed, make their way onto major stages.
Actor/writer Jason Lott and writer Helen Murray Pafumi collaborated on writing Wonderful Life currently onstage at the Malibu Playhouse. I caught up with both of them to see how all of this got started and what they feel they have accomplished with their Christmas play. What motivated both of you to adapt It's a Wonderful Life? JL: Honestly, it was all Helen's idea. She wanted to do a one-person holiday show at her theatre, but wasn't finding the right script. She approached me about doing the show (whatever it might turn out to be) and mentioned that she was planning to adapt It's A Wonderful Life. I asked if she'd mind if I co-wrote it with her and she was gracious enough to say 'Yes.' You could make the argument that I only asked to co-write because I knew it would be easier to memorize that way, but that's only half-true (because, honestly, it is easier for me to memorize something I've written). The other side is that I only knew a little bit about It's A Wonderful Life. I knew it was an 'American classic' and I knew that I loved Jimmy Stewart's work in other movies, but the embarrassing fact is that I'd only seen bits and pieces over the years. I'd never watched the whole thing in one sitting. Once I did, though, I fell in love with the movie and absolutely wanted to help bring that story to the stage.
The Hub Theatre brings you stories and songs from the holiday season that explore our greatest wants and needs in WISH LIST, directed by Kelsey Mesa. From hippopotamuses and snowy nights to Peace on Earth and Good Will Toward Men, there is something for everyone on this fun filled night that will have the whole family laughing and singing together.
'WONDERFUL LIFE!' - A new holiday classic, premiering benefit November 28 at the Malibu Playhouse, launches their 2015-16 season under the helm of Jeremy Skidmore, world-renowned theater director and formerly Artistic Director of Theater Alliance in Washington, D.C.
Tanya Ronder's new play F*ck The Polar Bears is just about to open at the Bush Theatre. It's a tense time.
Videos
