Finborough Theatre Kicks Off VIBRANT 2013 Festival Today
By: BWW News Desk Oct. 06, 2013
Now in its fifth consecutive year, the multi-award-winning Finborough Theatre - the coalface of British Theatre - presents Vibrant 2013 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights, its annual explosion of new writing, running between today, 6-25 October 2013.
This year's festival features 17 staged readings of new works by 18 UK and international playwrights, discovered, developed or championed by the Finborough Theatre, including a musical, a translation of a verbatim theatre piece, work from two of our new Playwrights on Attachment Steven Hevey and Louise Monaghan, as well as a unique opportunity to see for the first time in Europe the controversial play that led to the prosecution and deportation of its producer from Uganda.
Concentrated solely on full length works for the stage, Vibrant 2013 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights continues to introduce you to some of the fascinating diverse vibrant voices we have nurtured. A unique opportunity to see behind the scenes at one of the UK's most exciting theatres as we continue to discover and develop tomorrow's plays today, brought to life by some of the UK's most talented actors and directors.
Since the first festival in 2009, our Vibrant festivals have included 62 new plays, 15 of which have gone on to be produced in full productions at the Finborough Theatre including Mirror Teeth by Nick Gill, The Man by James Graham, And I And Silence by Naomi Wallace, Black Jesus by Anders Lustgarten as well as the forthcoming Carthage by Chris Thompson, and Craig Adams and Nona Shepphard's musical version of Thérèse Raquin. Plays that went on to be produced by other theatres included Bull by Mike Bartlett at the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield; The Stock Da'Wa by David Eldridge at The Hampstead Theatre Downstairs; and City Love by Simon Vinnicombe, shortly to open at The Bussey Building, Peckham.
With a success rate that is the envy of many UK theatres, the Finborough Theatre has an unparalleled track record of discovering new playwrights who go on to become leading voices in British theatre. Under Artistic Director Neil McPherson, it has discovered some of the UK's most exciting new playwrights including James Graham, Laura Wade, Mike Bartlett, Sarah Grochala, Jack Thorne, Joy Wilkinson, Simon Vinnicombe, Alexandra Wood, Al Smith, Nicholas de Jongh and Anders Lustgarten.
It is the only theatre without public funding to be awarded the prestigious Pearson Playwriting Award bursary for writers Chris Lee in 2000, Laura Wade in 2005 (who also went on to win the Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright, the George Devine Award and an Olivier Award nomination), James Graham in 2006 (also subsequently nominated for an Olivier Award), Al Smith in 2007, Anders Lustgarten in 2009, Simon Vinnicombe in 2010 and Shamser Sinha in 2012. Three bursary holders (Laura Wade, James Graham and Anders Lustgarten) have also won the Catherine Johnson Award for Best Play written by a bursary holder. Artistic Director Neil McPherson won The Writers' Guild Award for the Encouragement of New Writing in 2010, and has twice won the OffWestEnd Award for Best Artistic Director.
Sunday, 6 October 2013 at 7.30pm
Death in Whitbridge by Alexi Kaye Campbell. Directed by Alexi Kaye Campbell.
In the suburban town of Whitbridge, there have been a number of horrific murders recently and people have been finding body parts in their gardens. Fred is visiting his Mum and Dad to introduce them to his new Muslim girlfriend who's just a little shy. And then a man who thinks he's Jesus shows up. Alexi Kaye Campbell's first play is a black comedy about violence, fear and Sexual Reassignment surgery.
Playwright Alexi Kaye Campbell's plays include The Pride, Apologia, The Faith Machine andBracken Moor. Death in Whitbridge was the first play he ever wrote.
Monday, 7 October 2013 at 7.30pm
Then I Realised I'd Been Murdered by Nicholas de Jongh. Directed by Phil Willmott.
Inspired by the 2012 discovery of a trance of letters and diaries that reveal the great gay Spanish poet-playwright Federico García Lorca had a last, young lover who was to play an unwitting role in precipitating his murder by fascists supporters in the opening days of the Spanish Civil War, Then I realised I'd been murdered retraces the final, fearful days of the writer's life. Meanwhile the British government, diplomatic and intelligence services are casting sympathetic eyes on General Franco, the Nationalist eager to bring down the Republican government.
Playwright Nicholas de Jongh's previous work seen in Vibrant - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights festivals includes To Keep the Ghost Awake (2010) and There Goes My Future(2011). His Plague Over England received its world premiere at the Finborough Theatre in 2008. It was produced in the West End in 2009 by Bill Kenwright and the Ambassador Theatre Group and was optioned for film production. The script is published by Samuel French Limited. Nicholas was theatre critic of The Evening Standard from 1991 to 2009 and was previously Arts Correspondent and Deputy Theatre Critic for The Guardian. His books include Not in Front of the Audience , a history of homosexuality on stage, and Politics, Pruderies and Perversions, a history of theatr e censorship in the UK, which won the Society of Theatre Research Prize in 2001. He wrote a dramatisation of the twentieth century history of this censorship which was given a performance at The Royal Court Theatre during their fiftieth anniversary season. He also contributed a one act play about AIDS to the Royal Court's May Days season in 1991.
Director Phil Willmott is Artistic Director of The Steam Industry incorporating the Finborough Theatre (under Artistic Director Neil McPherson) and the West End's open-air Scoop amphitheatre on London's South Bank. He has staged more productions at the venue than any other director including acclaimed revivals of Rodney Ackland's version of Crime and Punishment (1998), Frank Galati's adaptation of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath (2000), Arthur Wing Pinero's Trelawny of the 'Wells' (2005) and Country Magic (2009), John Galsworthy's Loyalties (2006), his new adaptation of Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths (2007) and published by Oberon Books, the sell-out F**king Men (2008) which transferred to the West End, and Tennessee Williams' version of Anton Chekhov's The Seagull, The Notebook of Trigorin (2010) and The American Clock (2011). He is a recipient of a TMA Award for outstanding direction of a musical, a Peter Brook Award for his outdoor classical productions and family shows, WhatsOnStage award nominations for best regional and Off West End productions, a Broadway World nomination for Best Musical in the UK, a Brooks Atkinson/Royal Court award in New York for Playwriting and four Spirit of Broadway awards.
Tuesday, 8 October 2013 at 9.00pm - Black Jesus Post Show Discussion.
Wednesday, 9 October 2013 at 9.00pm
Home Free by Sarah Grochala. Directed by Stasi Schaeffer.
Generation-renters Edie and Angus missed their chance to get on the property ladder and now that the baby boomers have pulled the ladder up after them, Edie and Angus's dream of owning their own home is fading fast. When Edie's estranged mother suddenly dies, leaving Edie an old crumbling terrace house in one of the most desirable parts of town, it finally seems like all their grand designs are within their grasp. But with rising damp in the walls, a skeleton in every cupboard and property developers circling like vultures, are bricks and mortar really worth the high price that must be paid to secure them?
Playwright Sarah Grochala returns to the Finborough Theatre where her play S-27 received its world premiere in 2009 and where The Martyrs of Warsaw, Part I was seen as part of Vibrant 2010and Sihanoukville as part of Vibrant 2011.
S-27 won the 2007 Protect the Human Playwriting Competition and was also shortlisted for the King's Cross Award and the Leah Ryan Award for Emerging Women Writers. It has since been produced internationally by the Griffin Theatre, Sydney, Australia, and by Intersection Theatre in Toronto, Canada. Sarah studied on the MPhil in Playwriting Studies at Birmingham University. Before turning to writing, she worked as an actress for many years, playing roles in the West End and in television drama. Sarah was the winner the OffWestEnd Adopt a Playwright Award forSmolensk. Her other plays include Waiting For Romeo (Pleasance London and Edinburgh Festival) and Open Ground (Theatro Technis). Sarah has written short plays for The Miniaturists, Theatre503 and Agent 160. She is currently an Associate Artist with Headlong and on attachment at The National Theatre Studio. She was recently appointed Lecturer in Writing for Theatre at the Central School of Speech and Drama.Director Stasi Schaeffer holds a MA in Classical and Contemporary Text-Directing from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, a BFA from Boston University and was a participant in Lincoln Center's Directors Lab West. Directing includes Butterfly Kiss , Loyalty/Operation Phantom Fury, Serov's People (Òran Mór), co-director of The Fragmented Life of Dorothy Lawrence (RCS, Cockpit Theatre and the Trav erse Theatre, Edinburgh), Lessons with Chopin (Edinburgh Festival),Dead Man's Cell Phone (The Arches, Glasgow), God of Soho (Tron The atre, Glasgow, Hampstead Theatre and Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh), A Midsummer's Night Dream (The Arches, Glasgow), Marriage a la Mode (The Arches, Glasgow), Odysseus Swims for It (New York premiere),Topdog/Underdog, The Rocky Horror Show (MI). Staff Direction includes La Traviata (Scottish Opera). This autumn, Stasi is Assistant Director for Don Giovanni (Scottish Opera), which she will revive for Boston Lyric Opera in 2015.
Thursday, 10 October 2013 at 9.00pm
Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body by Stuart Slade. Directed by Dan Pick.
A cellar in Afghanistan. Two soldiers and a TV news journalist have been taken hostage by Al-Qaeda. How do you face the obscene reality of your own imminent execution? There are three basic possibilities: total psychological collapse, pragmatic resignation, or chin up, move on, make the best of it, have a laugh. How do you kill time until the time you're killed?
Playwright Stuart Slade is the creative director of a film company. He has worked with the Tricycle Theatre on several films (including one broadcast on BBC1), as well as with the Vaudeville Theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket and the Royal Shakespeare Company; and has directed commercials for Hovis, French Connection, BT, Barclays, Fedex, Accenture and others. Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body is Stuart's first full length play. His first short play, The World's More Full of Weeping, was performed at a Rapid Write Response Night at Theatre503 earlier this year, also directed by Dan Pick.
Director Dan Pick was Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre on attachment from the MFA in Theatre Directing at Birkbeck, University of London, during 2012-13 where he assisted on Hindle Wakes, Khadija is 18, Vibrant 2012, Everyday Maps for Everyday Use and Facts. He has directed for Theatre503, for Invertigo at Hightide and has written and directed two pieces of new work for Writer's Bloc at the Old Red Lion Theatre. Dan has recently directed a documentary in India for Ivanov Films, and is a Resident Filmmaker at The National Theatre.
Friday, 11 October 2013 at 9.00pm
The Pavilion by Chris Dunkley. Directed by Chris New.
Ed has moved into a rented flat under a pseudonym. Temporarily, until the reality of splitting from his wife hits and events catch up with him, he is anonymous, untraceable... lost. Julia has left her husband. After a year in which their son became ill and her father in law died, her husband turned to religion for comfort. Being entirely at odds with the atheism they once shared, this is a change too far for Julia - a path she cannot follow him down. Her choice to leave is also temporary. Ed's exile takes place across several months. Julia's across three days. Their paths cross briefly in an intimate, excoriating encounter between two restless and disorientated individuals.
Playwright Chris Dunkley's previous productions at the Finborough Theatre include Mirita (2001) which was named Time Out Critics' Choice (and transferred Off Broadway to the Cherry Lane Theatre, New York City, alongside his short play Lisa Says), and the world premieres of The Soft of Her Palm (2012) and The Precariat (2013), both seen in previous Vibrant festivals. Other theatre includes Smallholding (Nuffield Theatre, Southa mpton, and High Tide Festival), Almost Blue (Riverside Studios), How to Tell the Truth (Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough), Luc y is a Minger (Spinney Hill Theatre, Northampton) and The Festival (Wimbledon Studio Theatre). Radio includes The All Colour Vegetarian Cookbook and The Architects, both for the BBC. Chris has been Writer in Residence at Royal and DernGate Theatres, Northampton, and Writer on Attachment at The Royal Court Theatre. He was the 2002 winner of the International Student Playscript Competition and winner of the PMA Writers' Award in 2001.
Director Chris New returns to the Finborough Theatre where he recently directed the world premiere of Chris Dunkley's The Precariat (2013). Trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. As an actor, theatre includes Lingua Franca (Finborough Theatre), The Pitchfork Disney (Arcola Theatre), Pictures from an Exhibition (Sadler's Wells), Prick Up Your Ears (Com edy Theatre), Edward II , Hay Fever ( Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester), The Comedy of Er rors , Twelfth Night (Roy al Shakespeare Company), The Reporter (National Theatre) and Bent (Trafalgar Studios) for which he was nominated for an Evening Standard Award for Outstanding Newcomer and the WhatsOnStage Theatregoers' Choice Award for London Newcomer of the Year. Film includes the multi-award winning Weekend for which he was named one of The New York Times' 'Faces to Watch' and was nominated for Best British Newcomer at the BFI London Film Festival. As a writer and/or director, his work includes the short-film Ticking , which premiered at the Nashville Film Festival in April 2013, and the feature film Chicken.
Saturday, 12 October 2013 at 9.00pm
100 Men by John AD Fraser. Directed by Eleanor Rhode.
Edinburgh, 1915. Desperate for celebrities to boost the city's recruitment effort for the First World War, George McCrae targets The Players of Heart of Midlothian, one of the leading teams of the newly-professional game of football. McCrae finds that faith in the empire means trusting the faceless, and that the toughest enemies aren't always across the wire. Inspired by a true story of sacrifice, gallus spirit and a small nation with a reputation for being up for the fight.
Scottish born and Australian based playwright John AD Fraser's Rock, Paper, Scissors appeared in Vibrant 2010 and was first produced in Sydney by Tamarama Rock Surfers, which also brought to the stage The Last Great Roadhouse in Paradise and his latest play, All the Rage. John is a graduate of NIDA's Playwrights Studio. His short play Catch a Falling Knife has been performed in the UK and Australia, winning several awards.
Director Eleanor Rhode is a former Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre where she has directed the London premiere of The Drawer Boy by Michael Healey, both sell-out runs ofGenerous by Michael Healey, A Life by Hugh Leonard, The December Man (L'homme de décembre) for Vibrant 2009, Barrow Hill for Vibrant 2010 and Sihano ukville for Vibrant 2011. She wa s also Assistant Director on Trying and S-27. Eleanor graduated from Mountview in 2008. She went on to train at The National Theatre Studio in 2009 and is a former Staff Director at The National Theatre. Other directing includes Thark (Park Theatre), The Gypsy Thread (National Theatre Studio), The Error of Their Ways (Cockpit Theatre), A Number (Cam den People's Theatre), This Lime Tree Bower (Edinburgh Festival), and s taged readings of The Geese of Beverly Road (Theatre 503) and Photos of Y ou Sleeping (Hampstead Theatre). As Associate Director, she has worked on the London transfer of Lie of The Land (Arcola Theatre). Eleanor is the Artistic Director of Snapdragon Productions.
Sunday, 13 October 2013 at 7.30pm
The Most Unsatisfied Town by Amy Evans. Directed by Purni Morell.
Since his arrival in Germany, Laurence has done everything right. He applied for asylum, waited patiently for his papers, and found the kind of job no German would ever care to do. He is friendly to his neighbours, even the ones who tease his children in school, and cooperates with the police when they ask for his help. He's found the formula for survival, or so he thinks, until one day his closest friend mysteriously disappears. When the body turns up charred beyond recognition, Laurence is forced to take a closer look at the town he was so desperate to call home. Based on the true story of Oury Jalloh.
Playwright Amy Evans returns to the Finborough Theatre where her award-winning first play Achidi J's Final Hours premiered in 2004 to critical acclaim. She is a Brooklyn-based playwright whose work explores the impact of borders and loss on the human spirit. Other plays include Many Men's Wife (Tricycle Theatre), The Next Question (HB Playwrights Foundation), Unstoned (Soho Theatre), The Big Nickel (Soho Theatre) and The Champion, a ne w play inspired by the life of Nina Simone. She is an alumnus of the Instit ute of Cultural Inquiry Kulturlabor in Berlin, Hedgebrook Women Writers' Residency, BRICStudio Performing Arts Residency and the Tricycle Theatre Writers' Group. Amy's plays and poetry have appeared in several publications including Velocity: The Best of Apples and Snakes and Mythen, Masken, Subjekte: Kritische Weißseinforschung in Deutschland. She holds an MA in Theatre Arts from Goldsmiths College and is currently at work on a new play about biotechnology and the artificial enhancement of the human body in professional athletics. www.scriptingrage.com
Director Purni Morell is the Artistic Director of the Unicorn, the UK's leading theatre for audiences under 21. She also works as a freelance director and translator, with work to date produced by Speeltheater Holland, Seattle Children's Theatre, Muziektheater Transparant, 't Arsenaal and Vlaamse Opera, Gent. Purni began her career in stage management, working for Stephen Daldry and Annie Castledine among others, before going to read History at the University of Glasgow. After graduating she worked as Literary Assistant at The National Theatre, London, with particular responsibility for foreign and classic plays, and then became Literary Manager at Berkeley Repertory Theater, California, from 1998-2000. She took a break from theatre and worked for a while in environmental sustainability and development in Latin America and then at Shelter in Scotland, before becoming a producer, first with Suspect Culture in Glasgow, then running her own Production Company, gryllus, which provided creative and logistical support to freelance Scottish artists including Colette Sadler and Stewart Laing among others. She was Head of Studio at The National Theatre, London, from 2007-2011.
Monday, 14 October 2013 at 7.30pm
The River and the Mountain by Beau Hopkins. Directed by Andrew Keates.
The River and the Mountain tackles the controversial interaction of religion, politics and sexuality in contemporary Uganda. It tells the story of Sampson, a westernised young executive at a cooking oil company, and Olu, his best friend and would-be pastor. When Sampson's peaceful resolution of a strike by his workers leads to promotion and public prestige, he confesses to Olu that he's gay. But his plans begin to unravel as the forces of ambition and greed unleash a ferocious homophobic campaign in the media, and Olu must choose between his own friendship and the tidal currents of popularism and power....
The River and the Mountain was staged in Kampala, Uganda, in 2012. It was the first play ever performed in Uganda to address the issue of homosexuality. It was censored from appearing at the Ugandan National Theatre, but ran for two weeks in different venues. The play was then banned by the Ugandan censors, and its producer prosecuted and deported. This is the play's first UK reading.
Playwright and poet Beau Hopkins lived for six months in Kampala in 2012, where he wrote and produced The River and the Mountain. He is currently studying for a PhD in late modernist British poetry at the University of East Anglia.
Director Andrew Keates returns to the Finborough Theatre where he has directed last year's sell-out production of Passing By by Martin Sherman, shortly to transfer to the Tristan Bates Theatre, the musical ROOMS - A Rock Romance and William M. Hoffman's As Is (both 2013). He directed and developed the award-winning professional world premiere of A Winter's Tale, written by Howard Goodall, Nick Stimson and himself. Andrew first came to attention after his acclaimed production of Bent in 2010 at the Landor Theatre, which then transferred to the Tabard Theatre for a further run. Recent productions include The Thing About Men and The Hired Man (both at the Landor Theatre), Conjugal Rites (Courtyard Theatre) and Just So (Tabard Theatre). His work has received many award nominations, including Best Director for Bent , Best Director for Just So , Best Entertainment for Just So and most recently, winning Best New Musical for A Winter's Tale and Best Musical Production for The Hired Man in the OffWestEnd Awards. Andrew is the founder and artistic di rector of Arion Productions Ltd.
Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 9.00pm - Black Jesus Post Show Discussion.
Wednesday, 16 October 2013 at 9.00pm
We Know Where You Live by Steven Hevey. Directed by Sam Yates.
Having traipsed from one borough to the next, young professionals Ben and Asma have finally come across a part of London they can call their home. With its lively character and village feel, it isn't long before this back water town soon becomes the prime destination for every other young professional in the city. Triggering a brutal wave of gentrification, the many charms that had attracted Ben and Asma to the area slowly start to disappear. As they reach out to the resident community for support in protecting not only the surrounding history but their very home, the local wildlife have other ideas about what they think should be done to protect it.
Playwright Steven Hevey is a Playwright on Attachment at the Finborough Theatre. His plays include Pay As You Go (Cock Tavern Theatre) and In My Name (Old Red Lion and Trafalgar Studios 2). Short plays include Short Plays by Steven Hevey (Soho Theatre), An Education (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith), Dark Matter (Hampstead Theatre), Millennium (Old Vic New Voices and the Vineyard Theatre, New York City), Every Bit Of My Love (Old Vic New Voices), My Little Prince (Bush Theatre), London Belongs To M e (Shakespeare's Globe), Wish You Were Here(O valhouse), Big, Big Monkey Man (Trafalgar Studios 2) and Baggage (Soho Theatre). A recipient of several Peggy Ramsay Foundation awards, he was the winner of Old Vic New Voices Time Warner Ignite 6 competition and was also selected for their T.S. Eliot U.S/UK Exchange Programme in 2011. He is a graduate of Paines Plough's Future Perfect '08, Soho Theatre and The Royal Court Theatre Young Writers Programmes - where his first ever play Time For Another? was shortlisted for the Royal Court Young Writers Festival.
Director Sam Yates returns to the Finborough Theatre where he has directed Mixed Marriage by St John Ervine (2011), Cornelius by J. B. Priestley (and subsequent New York transfer) (2012), and two plays by Nicholas de Jongh for previous Vibrant festivals - To Keep the Ghost Awake (2010) and There Goes My Future (2011). He is Associate Artist at Ro yal and DernGate Theatres, Northampton, under Laurie Sansom. Direction includes Lights (National Theatre Studio), Mrs P.(Workshop for Mercury Musical Developments), Electra and Oedipus (Garrick Theatre, Stockport),Clever by Sally Woodco ck (RADA reading), Oleanna (Hong Kong Arts Centre), The Turke (Arcola Theatre), The Tempest and Macbeth (ADC Theatre, Cambridge) and Yeats' Purgatory(Edinburgh Festival). Yates trained as Associate Director to Jamie Lloyd on She Stoops To Conquer (National Theatre), Salome (Headlong) and The Little Dog Laughed (Garrick Theatre), Michael Grandage on Hamlet (Donmar Warehouse at Wyndham's Theatre, Elsinore, Broadway), and Madame De Sade (Donmar Warehouse at Wyndham's Theatre), Trevor Nunn on Birdsong(Comedy Theatre), and as Assistant Director to Josie Rourke on How To Curse (Bush Theatre) andBurying Your Brother in the Pavement (National Theatre), Paul Raffield on Hysteria (Birmingham Rep), Rachel Kavanaugh on Uncle Vanya (Birmingham Rep) and Phyllida Lloyd on Wise Children (National Theatre Studio).
Thursday, 17 October 2013 at 9.00pm
A Long and Happy Life by Bekah Brunstetter. Directed by Blythe Stewart.
When a tragic freak accident disrupts the promising life of the blissful Cass, the results travel like a shockwave through the halls of her renovaTEd Brownstone and the NYC high school where she volunteers. Suddenly Cass is forced to confront her fate and the scope of her fears while struggling to maintain relationships with both her new husband and her students. In this lively and thought-provoking tale of a seemingly perfect life suddenly confronted with reality, no one is safe from the randomness and chaos inherent in our world.
Playwright Bekah Brunstetter is a Playwright in Residence at the Finborough Theatre, and the only playwright whose work has appeared in every annual Vibrant festival since the beginning with Green (2009), Mine (2010), Hey Brother (2011) and No thing is The End of The World (Except For The End of the World) (2012). Full productions of her plays at the Finborough Theatre include the European premieres of Oohrah! (2009), You May Go Now - A Marriage Play (2010), Miss Lilly Gets Boned (2010) and Nothing is The End of the World... (2013). Her plays include Cut ie and Bear (Roundabout Theater), A Long and Happy Life (Naked Angels), Be a Good Little Widow(Ars Nova, and Collaboraction, Chicago), House of Home (Williamstown Theater Festival), Oohrah!(Atlantic Theater and Steppenwolf Garage) and Miss Lilly Gets Boned (Lark Playwrights Week). She is a New York New Voices Fellow through the Lark Play Development Center, member of The Primary Stages Writer's Group and the Naked Radio writing team. She is an alumni of the Women's Project Writer's Lab, the Ars Nova Play Group and the Playwright's Realm. She has twice won the Samuel French Short Play Festival, and twice won the New York Innovative Theater Award for Best New Play. She is currently working on an EST Sloan commission, and writing for Underemployed, a new MTV series, created by Craig Wright. She holds a BA from UNC Chapel Hill and a MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama.
Director Blythe Stewart's previous productions include Julie and Paul (LOST Theatre One Act Festival), Game (Ovalhouse, 33% Festival), There's No Place Like Home (Etcetera Theatre), the UK premiere of Kerrigan and Lowdermilk's musical Party Worth Crashing (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), the European premiere of Tallgrass Gothic (Site-Specific, TheatreInHeights) Blythe worked as an assistant director to Andrea Brooks and Anthony Clark on Oh What A Lovely War(East 15 50th Anniversary), Audrey Dwyer on The Aftermath (Nightwood Theatre, Toronto), Simon Usher on Miss Reardon Drinks a Little (Tristan Bates Theatre) and Leon Rubin on Enter A Gentleman by Elizabeth Kuti (National Portrait Gallery). She is a recipient of the Amelia Hall Gold Medal Scholarship, and has studied and worked internationally from Toronto to London to Moscow as a director and writer. She has a Masters in Theatre Directing from East 15 Acting School and studied Meyerhold's Biomechanics at the National Academy of Dramatic Arts (GITIS) in Moscow.
Friday, 18 October 2013 at 9.00pm
Hate Radio by Milo Rau. Translated by John Neilan. Directed by Jennifer Bakst.
In the midst of the Rwandan genocide, four radio presenters at Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines try to broadcast their regularly scheduled programme. As these likeable professionals play the newest hits, drink beer, joke around - they casually promote one of the worst genocides in history. A verbatim piece consisting entirely of materials collected from inside Rwanda during the genocide.
Playwright Milo Rau is a Swiss director and author living in Berlin. He also works as journalist, lecturer, essayist and political activist. He founded the International Institute of Political Murder (IIPM). Hate Radio was first performed at the Nachwuchsregie-Festival in Munich, as well as at the Berliner Theatertreffen. Rau's previous work includes Die Letzten Tage der Ceausescus (Festival D'Avignon), Out of Focus (Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin), Montana (Theaterhaus Gessnerallee, Zurich), City of Change (Theater St. Gallen, Switzerland) and You Will Not Like What Comes After America (Theatherdiscounter, Berlin). His latest work Moscow Trials attracted much press attention when opening at the Sakharov Museum earlier this year. He has also worked as a director at the Maxim Gorki Theater, HAU and Sophiensaele in Berlin, as well as the Staatsschauspiel Dresden and the Theaterhaus Gessnerallee Zurich. Translator John Neilan is a freelance German-to English translator, based in Berlin.
Director Jennifer Bakst was Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough Theatre in 2013, where she has assisted on I Didn't Always Live Here , Rooms: A Rock Romance and Nothing Is the End of the World (Except for the End of the World), and directed Colleen Murphy's new playArmstron g's War (2013). Trained at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, her directing includes The Collectors (Courtyard Theatre), Bash (Etcetera Theatre), Tiny Dynamite (Cockpit Theatre),Precious Little Talent (KaraMel Club) and Fallen Angels (Theatro Technis). Assistant Direction includes Samson et Dalila (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Albert Herring (Leipziger Musikhochschule) andA Midsummer Night's Dream (Theatre in Education Tour). Jennifer also produced Letters, Signs and Songs (Shakespeare's Globe), a charity gala performance for and about Gaza.
Saturday, 19 October 2013 at 9.00pm
17 by Dameon Garnett. Directed by Emma Faulkner.
At seventeen years old, Scott is facing a future that is as uncertain as his past. The death of his adopted mother throws his life into chaos, and now he finds himself having to fit in with a new middle-class family, and the birth-mother he never knew. Class differences soon reach fever pitch, and guilt has the winning hand. Whoever thought change would be this difficult, and what is Scott hiding under the bed?
Liverpool playwright Dameon Garnett has had two plays receive their world premieres at the Finborough Theatre - the Time Out Critics' Choice Break Away (2005) which starred Tina Malone of Shameless, and Follow (2008). His first play, New Year's Day, was performed at the Royal Court Young Writers' Festival, starring Michael Angelis. He also received a playwriting bursary from the Soho Theatre. This year, he was invited to become a member of the Studio Group at The Royal Court Theatre, where he is working on a new play.
Director Emma Faulkner returns to the Finborough Theatre where she directed Sam Thompson's Northern Irish classic Over the Bridge (2013), and where she will direct St John Ervine's John Ferguson in 2014. She received the 2010 Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme bursary in association with The Young Vic. Directing includes London 2012: Glasgow (Theatre Uncut at the Bussey Building), Christmas The Musical (Battersea Mess and Music Hall), The Scared Ritual of the Nymphs of Natterjack, part of Bush Bazaar (Bush Theatre), Different is Dangerous (Tamasha),After the End (Dundee Rep and Pleasance, Edinburgh), The Miracle (Dundee Rep), Forfeit, What Love Is (Òran Mór and Dundee Rep), The Ruffian on the Stair, Making Good, Absolute Return(Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond) and Knives in Hens (St Mary's at BAC). Associate Direction includes Sunshine on Leith (National Tour). As Assistant Director, she has assisted Alan Ayckbourn on Taking Steps as well as Sleeping Beauty and A Doll's House (Dundee Rep), and Alison's House, Spring Shakespeare, The Lady or th e Tiger and The Ring of Truth (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond).
Sunday, 20 October 2013 at 7.30pm
An Evening With Dame Diana Rigg
A special one night fundraising performance
Monday, 21 October 2013 at 7.30pm
Defect - An alternate reality musical.
Music by Craig Adams. Book and Lyrics by Craig Adams and Clare Prenton. Based on an original idea by Craig Adams and Ian Watson. Originally developed by Perfect Pitch.
The times are politically volatile. Nightwalkers, a like-human species that live by the night, live segregated, as outcasts beyond the wall of the city. In this divided and volatile city, a human boy falls for a girl from the wrong side of the wall. A dangerous romance begins. These star crossed lovers were born in the wrong age. Society fails them. And an innocent community is threatened with extinction. Can love ever survive hate when the police absent themselves, the Church is passive and rioters and looters take to the streets? A cautionary tale set in a world we must hope to never see...
Craig Adams (Music and Lyrics) is a composer, lyricist, musical director and arranger. He was Cameron Mackintosh Resident Composer at the Finborough Theatre, facilitated by Mercury Musical Developments and Musical Theatre Network UK, where his musical Thérèse Raquin was performed in Vibrant 2012 and will return in a full production in 2014. Craig's first musical Lift, developed in association with Perfect Pitch, received its world premiere at Soho Theatre earlier this year and is now being licenced around the world with a Off-Broadway run slated for November. Other writing includes Ghosts Of The Past '(YMT:UK), Ballet People (The Place), Battlements (Vanbrugh Theatre), The Watchers'(YMT:UK), Let Him Have Justice (Cochrane Theatre), Spell, The Frog Prince(Wimbledon Studio Theatre and Edinburgh Festival), Alice in Wonderland (Edinburgh Festival and tour), So ho Story (commissioned ballet), Notebook (a song cycle), Beyond The Gate (Gate Theatre), Soho Song Cycle (Soho Theatre) and The Olympic Revue (London and Los Angeles).
Clare Prenton (Book and Lyrics) has over thirteen years' experience as a director in theatre, musical theatre and opera. Clare is also a book writer and lyricist. She is an associate of Mercury Musical Developments, and a creative associate of YMT:UK and formerly National Youth Music Theatre. She has written and directed two teenage vampire musicals entitled The Watchers (Bradford Playhouse) and Ghosts of the Past (Aberdeen International Youth Arts Festival at Aberdeen Arts Centre) with Craig Adams. She was an Associate of 'C' Theatre writing for the sell-out Edinburgh Festival production Shakespeare for Breakfast for three years, as well as writing and directing Romeo and Juliet - The Panto!, Macbeth - The Panto! and the spoof musical The Lost Musicals of William Sh akespeare. She studied at the Universities of Leeds and Hull before training on The National Theatre Young Directors Course, and has been a staff director for the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park, and English Touring Opera.
Director and Choreographer Steven Paling directed LIFT the Musical (Soho Theatre), Kerry Ellis and Friends (London Palladium), West End Anthems (Glow), Mamma Mia! (South Africa, where it was nominated for Best Direction and Best Production), two one-woman shows for Kerry Ellis - On The Edge and The Great British Songbook, as well as the original Perfect Pitch private workshop ofDefect. He was Resident Director for the London production of Mamma Mia! (Prince of Wales Theatre and Novello Theatre), Chicago (Adelphi Theatre) and Associate Director for Batman Live - World Arena Tour (Warner Brothers and WaterLane Productions) and Mamma Mia! (International Tour). He was Assistant Director and Choreographer for Chicago (National Tour), and Choreographer for Anthems, starring Kerry Ellis and Brian May (Royal Albert Hall), The Night of 1000 Voices (Royal Albert Hall), West End Comes East (Kenneth More Theatre, Ilford) and Born In A Trunk starring Sally Ann Triplett (Pizza On the Park, London). Assistant Choreography includesThe Mask, The Magic of the Musicals (UK and European tours), Grease is the Word (ITV) andMusicality (Channel 4).
Perfect Pitch has been developing new and original musicals since 2006 and is a non-profit organisation part-funded by Arts Council England. Productions of shows they have developed to date include The Go-Between by Richard Taylor and David Wood (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Derby Live and Royal and DernGate Theatres, Northampton), Lift by Craig Adams and Ian Watson (Soho Theatre) and From Up Here by Aaron Lee Lambert (South Hill Park). Two further shows -Flipped Out! by Lesley Ross and John-Victor and Pieces of String by Gus Gowland - have recently been optioned for professional productions, whilst shows are being regularly licensed for production through the in-house licensing department. www.perfectpitchmusicals.com.
Tuesday, 22 October 2013 at 9.00pm
Avow by Bill C. Davis. Directed by Max Pappenheim.
Brian and Tom are gay and want to be married in church. They are Catholic - that is what shaped, inspired and damaged them. Tom increasingly takes to heart the official teaching of the church and responds to personal pressure from their much admired priest, Fr. Raymond. Brian wants to shape the thing that has shaped him, while Tom is haunted by the virtue of obedience. Tom's and Brian's catalytic request creates five separate and linked spiritual journeys, each seeking to balance passion and faith.
Playwright Bill C. Davis is the author of Mass Appeal which received its first UK revival at the Finborough Theatre in 2006. Mass Appeal premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club and transferred to Broadway where it won the Outer Critics' Circle Award. It was subsequently made into a movie starring Jack Lemmon, and was named one of the ten best films of the year by The National Board of Review. It has also been seen in Paris - where it received a Molière Award - as well as in Poland, Brazil, Argentina, Sweden, South Africa, Rome, Australia, Germany and Mexico. One of Bill's latest plays, Coming2Terms, premiered at Vineyard Playhouse in Martha's Vineyard in 2011. His other plays include Dancing in the End-Zone which has played on Broadway, Miami and LA with Elaine Stritch, Pat Carroll and Lois Nettleton; Wrestlers, premiered in Los Angeles with Mr. Davis acting in it opposite Mark Harmon, was named Critics' Choice in The LA Times, and has also been seen in both New York City and Belgium; Spine, produced in Los Angeles, New Jersey and New York City; and Avow, originally premiered Off-Broadway at the Century Center for the Performing Arts under the direction of Jack Hofsiss after being presented in workshop at George Street Playhouse and the Director's Company. It has also been translated into German and French. Bill C. Davis has also written book and lyrics for two musicals, and adapted a novel The Secret Pathfor CBS television which starred Ossie Davis. He was Playwright Mentor at Carnegie Mellon University in 2008-09, and Playwright-in-Residence at Brooklyn College in 2011-12.www.billcdavis.com
Director Max Pappenheim returns to the Finborough Theatre where he was Resident Assistant Director and directed Perchance to Dream (2011) and Nothing is The End of The World (Except For The End of the World) as part of Vibrant 2012 and again in a full production in 2013. Directing includes San Giuda (Southwark Cathedral), The Charmed Life (King's Head Theatre), Finchley Road (LOST Theatre), Siegfried (Fulham Opera) and Quid Pro Quo (Riverside Studios).
Wednesday, 23 October 2013 at 9.00pm
The Anthropophaga by Al Smith. Directed by Bethan Dear.
Chryssie is the only female partner at a City employment law firm. Ash is a junior associate she has never noticed. Discovering that sickness has forced him to leave her firm, she has invited him over to her home for dinner. Their discussion centres upon how her fellow partners have skirted flagrant sexism with their expert manipulation of employment law. Telling the story of her attempt to stem that disempowerment by reconsidering the nature of justice, The Anthropophaga is a conversation about how one might mete out justice when the law seems to have lost its teeth.
Playwright Al Smith is a former Pearson Playwright in Residence at the Finborough Theatre. Theatre includes Enola (Underbelly, Edinburgh), Radio (Soho Theatre and 59E59 Theatres, New York), The Astronaut Wives Club (National Youth Theatre at the Soho Theatre), The Bird(Underbelly, Edinburgh, and the Arcola Theatre) and Harrogate (Hightide). He has been a participant of Paines Plough's Channel 4 F uture Perfect scheme, and is currently under commission to the Gate Theatre. For BBC Radio 4, his plays include Life in the Freezer, The Postman of Good Hope, Radio and OK Computer. He is currently writing his first feature, HalfLife,for which he won the 2012 BFI Wellcome Trust Screenwriting Prize.
Director Bethan Dear returns to the Finborough Theatre where she directed Hindle Wakes (2012), The Goodnight Bird (2011), and was Resident Assistant Director at the Finborough The atre in 2010 where she assisted Blanche McIntyre and Adam Lenson. Trained at Middlesex University. Directing includes What Will Survive of Us (National Theatre Platform), Count Down To The Happy Day (Tristan Bates Theatre), Autumn in Arcadia (The Castle Theatre and Arts Centre, Wellingborough) and They May Not Mean To But They Do (The Lio n). Assistant Direction includesFestival of the Dead (Nabakov at BAC) and The Shepard Tone for theatre company; Tangled Feet. Bethan has also worked extensively in British and interNational Youth Theatre including productions for Islington Community Youth Theatre, as well as companies in both Namibia and Uganda.
Thursday, 24 October 2013 at 9.00pm
Excess Life by Shamser Sinha. Directed by Vik Sivalingam.
Sophie is a Black, British, middle-aged midwife, jaded by overwork and the tragic consequences that working in an under-siege London maternity ward can have. On the same ward, her colleague Ygrette is a refugee - a young student midwife from Congo with a passion for her profession. When Sophie's daughter gets together with Ygrette's friend Cedric, both women are faced with dilemmas about what life and death mean and what to fight for. Framed against the backdrop of multicultural London, the under-resourcing of maternity services, and the mass devaluation of the poor, Excess Life asks urgent personal questions about politics, survival and what it means to be alive.
Director Vik Sivalingam has directed Little Shop of Horrors (WKC Theatre), Age of Arousal (Patrick Centre, Birmingham Hippodrome), Radio Serenade (Medicine Show Theatre, New York City), The Glass Menagerie (Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham), Home (The Last Refuge), Ed Reid- Living The Dream which he also wrote and which won Best Fringe Show in the Radio Forth Awards 2012 (Edinburgh Festival and Scottish Tour), The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Old Rep Theatre, Birmingham), Bus Stop, How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found (Arts Educational Schools), Circles (Arcola and Tricycle Theatre), Roll On The Day (Etcetera Theatre), A Chaste Maid In Cheapside (Corbett Theatre), Cinderella, Aladdin - The Rock and Roll Panto (City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds), Invisible Man (Royal Shakespeare Company at the Park Avenue Armory, New York City), The Bullet (Royal Shakespeare Company at Hampstead Theatre), Once On This Island(Cockpit Theatre), Caucasian Chalk Circle (BSA), Writing On Your Feet Playlets (Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Swan Theatre, Stratford-on-Avon), Platform (Old Vic New Voices), The Death of Tintagel (Peoples Show Theatre), Uncle Vanya (Sturdy Beggars Theatre Company), Stuf f(Tristan Bates Theatre), Or Nearest Offer (Almeida Theatre), Jack and The Beanstalk (Gatehouse Theatre, Stafford) and Blue/Orange (New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich). Vik is a graduate of Birkbeck, University of London's MFA in Theatre Directing programme and holds a postgraduate award in Teaching Shakespeare from Warwick University. He is an Education Associate Practitioner with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and a Trustee of Headlong Theatre.
Friday, 25 October 2013 at 9.00pm
Adult Male Category A by Louise Monaghan. Directed by Kate Wasserberg.
Katie's eleven. She lives with her grandparents, likes watching the telly, playing daft games with her granddad and hanging out with Sophie after school. But something bad happened in the past and now that Katie's growing up, she wants proper answers to her questions. There's only one person who can give them to her, but he's still in prison...
Playwright Louise Monaghan is a Playwright on Attachment at the Finborough Theatre. She was the winner of the Papatango New Writing Prize in partnership with the Finborough Theatre 2012 with her play Pack. Her first radio play Alone In The Garden With You, directed and produced by former Finborough Theatre Artistic Director Jessica Dromgoole, was broadcast as Drama of The Week on BBC Radio 4 in 2012, and has been nominated for the Richard Imison Award. Her new play My Space premiered at 24:7 Festival Manchester in July 2013. Louise is a past winner of a Bruntwood Prize Judges' Award for Shadow Play, and was a finalist for both the London Fringe Festival's Theatre Writing Award and Little Brother Productions Big Opportunity with her play Aurora. She recently participated in Invertigo Theatre's Hightide Takeover as one of the writers for Senses.
Director Kate Wasserberg is a former Associate Director of the Finborough Theatre where she directed two main runs as part of previous Vibrant festivals - Mirror Teeth by Nick Gill (2011) andThe Man by James Graham (which went on to a regional tour) (2010). She also directed the world premieres of James Graham's Sons of York (2008) and Little Madam (2007), as well as The New Morality (2005), I Wish to Die Singing (2005), and The Representative (2006). She is an Associate Director of Clwyd Theatr Cymru, and the director of the New Plays programme. At Clwyd Theatr Cymru, she has directed Salt, Root and Roe, Glengarry Glen Ross, Bruised, Roots, Gaslight, Dancing at Lughnasa, Pieces (also Brits Off Broadway in New York), The Glass Menagerie (also on tour) and A History of Falling Things (also at Sherman Cymru). Other directing includes Last Christmas (Dirty Protest/Sherman Cymru/CTC), The Knowledge/1 Hour 45 Minutes (Royal Court),2007 Schools Festival (The Young Vic), Switzerland by Nick Payne (Hightide), Doing Lines(Pleasance London) and Blue Velvet (Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh). As an Assistant Director, Kate has worked at the Barbican, The Abbey Theatre Dublin, The Young Vic, Shakespeare's Globe and the Theatre Royal Bath.
Vibrant 2013 - A Festival of Finborough Playwrights (Listings)
Finborough Theatre, The Finborough, 118 Finborough Road, London SW10 9ED
Box Office 0844 847 1652 Book online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk
Sunday, 6 October - Friday, 25 October 2013
Sunday and Monday evenings at 7.30pm. Tuesday to Saturday evenings at 9.00pm.
Tickets £4 all seats.
(For An Audience with Dame Diana Rigg - £45 all seats)
Week One - 6-12 October 2013
Sunday, 6 October 2013 at 7.30pm - Death in Whitbridge by Alexi Kaye Campbell. Directed by Alexi Kaye Campbell.
Monday, 7 October 2013 at 7.30pm - Then I Realised I'd Been Murdered by Nicholas de Jongh. Directed by Phil Willmott.
Tuesday, 8 October 2013 at 9.00pm - Black Jesus Post Show Discussion.
Wednesday, 9 October 2013 at 9.00pm - Home Free by Sarah Grochala. Directed by Stasi Schaeffer.
Thursday, 10 October 2013 at 9.00pm - Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body by Stuart Slade. Directed by Dan Pick.
Friday, 11 October 2013 at 9.00pm - The Pavilion by Chris Dunkley. Directed by Chris New.
Saturday, 12 October 2013 at 9.00pm - 100 Men by John AD Fraser. Directed by Eleanor Rhode.
Week Two - 13-19 October 2013
Sunday, 13 October 2013 at 7.30pm - The Most Unsatisfied Town by Amy Evans. Directed by Purni Morell.
Monday, 14 October 2013 at 7.30pm - The River and the Mountain by Beau Hopkins. Directed by Andrew Keates.
Tuesday, 15 October 2013 at 9.00pm - Black Jesus Post Show Discussion.
Wednesday, 16 October 2013 at 9.00pm - We Know Where You Live by Steven Hevey. Directed by Sam Yates.
Thursday, 17 October 2013 at 9.00pm - A Long and Happy Life by Bekah Brunstetter. Directed by Blythe Stewart.
Friday, 18 October 2013 at 9.00pm - Hate Radio by Milo Rau. Translated by John Neilan. Directed by Jennifer Bakst.
Saturday, 19 October 2013 at 9.00pm - 17 by Dameon Garnett. Directed by Emma Faulkner.
Week Three - 20-25 October 2013
Sunday, 20 October 2013 at 7.30pm - An Evening with Dame Diana Rigg.
Monday,
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