Gate Theatre Announces New Associates and Full Line-up for Intransit Festival Takeover

By: Jun. 13, 2017
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Following the recent announcement of her inaugural season as Artistic Director of Gate Theatre, Ellen McDougall today announces two new Associates joining the Gate - Jude Christian, and Anthony Simpson-Pike. Former Associate Director Lynette Linton also re-joins the team as Director of the Young Associates programme.

Also announced today is the full line-up of performers and participants for the theatre's takeover of InTRANSIT Festival on 17 June including Paterson Joseph, Adjoa Andoh and Ben Okri. InTRANSIT festival is an annual showcase of newly commissioned, site-specific, participatory arts and performance, taking place throughout the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The Gate is taking over the Portobello Pavilion in Powis Square for a day featuring free participatory workshops, food and performance from 10am-9pm.

ASSOCIATES

Jude Christian, who directs Falk Richter's Trust in February 2018 and previously directed I'd Rather Goya Robbed Me of My Sleep Than Some Other Arsehole for the company, is named Associate Artist, and will support Ellen McDougall on artistic planning and developing international collaborations; Anthony Simpson-Pike takes over from Lynette Linton as Associate Director - the position focusses on artistic planning, local community projects and the Jerwood Young Designers programme.

Jude Christian is a director, writer and performer. She is also Associate Artist of The Yard, Lyric Hammersmith and National Youth Theatre of Great Britain. Her directing credits include Lela & Co (Royal Court Theatre), The Darkest Corners (Transform), The Path (HighTide Theatre). She previously directed I'd Rather Goya Robbed Me of My Sleep Than Some Other Arsehole for the Gate Theatre in 2014 and directs the forthcoming Trust by Falk Richter in 2018. As an Associate Director, her work includes Aladdin and Shopping and f-ing (Lyric Hammersmith) and Carmen Disruption (Almeida Theatre). As well as directing she was Co-Artistic Director of Concert Theatre (2012 - 2016) and in 2016 she wrote and performed in Nanjing (Now '16 Festival, The Yard).

Anthony Simpson-Pike is a director and writer. His credits include Loyalty and Dissent (Tamasha Theatre, Rich Mix), Welcome to England (Royal Court, Young Court), Detox (Artistic Directors of the Future, National Theatre Clore Studio), Pandora (Peckham Pelican, Zedel, New River Studios), Coma (Southwark Playhouse), Something to Say (St James Theatre), Plunder (Fresh Direction, Young Vic), Camp (Etcetera Theatre, Bussey Building), One for the Road and New World Order (Site- specific). As an assistant director credits include Parallel Macbeth (Young Vic), Father Comes Home from the Wars, Parts 1, 2 and 3 (Royal Court) and Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe). He was also a finalist for the JMK award 2017.

Lynette Linton, whose world première production of Assata Taught Me recently finished a sell-out run at the Gate, becomes the company's first Director - Young Associates, a new role that will see her manage a company of 12 young artists - actors, directors and writers - working on a year-long programme.

Lynette Linton is a director and playwright. She previously directed Assata Taught Me for the company. She is the co-founder of Production Company Black Apron Entertainment. Her other directing credits include Indenture (Dark Horse Festival), Naked (Vault Festival 2015), Pornado (Theatre Royal Stratford East), This Wide Night (Albany Theatre), a scratch performance of Sweet Like Chocolate, Boy (Rich Mix), and she was co-director on Chicken Palace (which she also wrote, Theatre Royal Stratford East). As an Assistant Director her work for the Gate includes Image of An Unknown Young Woman and The Christians and she also worked on Torn at The Royal Court Theatre. Her writing credits include Step, Service (Boom Festival, Bush Theatre), Ergo Sum (Theatre Delicatessen) and #Hashtag Lightie (Arcola Theatre).

INTRANSIT FESTIVAL: GATE TAKEOVER

17 June, 10-9pm 2017

The Gate also today announces that, as part of the theatre's takeover of local Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea festival InTRANSIT, alumnni Paterson Joseph (previously seen at the Gate Theatre in The Emperor Jones) and Adjoa Andoh (recently acclaimed for her performance in Assata Taught Me), will perform extracts from Derek Walcott's epic poem Omeros, with Nigerian poet and novelist Ben Okri running a poetry workshop.

The InTRANSIT festival takeover is part of the Gate's involvement with The Great Together, a UK wide initiative, taking place from 16-18 June, run by the Jo Cox Foundation to commemorate the anniversary of her death.

10 am - 1pm: Future Kitchen - Workshop*

The Gate Theatre's Young Associates have been writing recipes for a more positive future for our communities. The Future Kitchen will be open from 10am, with a focused practical workshop from 12 - 1pm.

Twist the top of the bandstand to release the flavour of the music. Encourage those who have not yet found their tune to enter the bandstand and soak up the music.

In this interactive workshop, participants are invited to help cook up new ways to imagine the world. Future Kitchen is based on an idea by German installation artist Folke Köbberling.

1.30-4.30pm: Island Life - Workshop*

Led by Ben Okri (OBE), participants are invited to create a poem together entitled Island Life, in a collaborative workshop based on the Japanese tradition of Renga.

*Spaces for the workshop sessions are limited and advanced booking is advised to guarantee a place. There will also be walk up activities on the day.

5-6pm: Future Kitchen - Performance

The Gate Theatre's Young Associates share their recipes for a more positive future, in a performance based on a TV style cookery show. It's going to be a feast.

7-9pm: Omeros, by Derek Walcott - Performance and evening meal**

Paterson Joseph and Adjoa Andoh will perform extracts from Derek Walcott's epic poem Omeros, while the audience share a traditional Cameroonian meal, cooked by Notting Hill local Sissi le French.

Omeros is considered by many critics to be Sir Derek Walcott's greatest achievement. It refashions The Iliad to tell a Caribbean story, taking in the history of the Black diaspora and the middle passage.

**Please note: capacity at the evening meal is limited and not available to book. Places will be on a first come, first served basis.

Adjoa Andoh previously appeared at the Gate Theatre in Assata Taught Me. Her other recent theatre work includes Soul (Royal & Derngate, Northampton and Hackney Empire), Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Donmar Warehouse), A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes (Tricycle Theatre), Great Expectations (Bristol Old Vic), Julius Caesar (RSC), Or You Could Kiss Me, The Revenger's Tragedy, His Dark Materials and Stuff Happens (National Theatre), Joe Turner's Come and Gone and In The Red and Brown Water (Young Vic), Sugar Mummies, Breath Boom (Royal Court Theatre) and Pericles and Nights at the Circus (Lyric Hammersmith/Kneehigh). For television, she has appeared as a series regular in M.I. High, Missing, Doctor Who, Casualty and Chasing Shadows and her other recent television credits include Liar, Acceptable Risk, Line of Duty, River, Cucumber and The Life of Rock with Brian Pern; and for recent film, Brotherhood, Remainder, Invictus and Adulthood and Julius Caesar. She has also worked extensively on the radio and is the reader of the award-winning No1 Ladies Detective Agency Audiobook series.

Yasmin Hafesji is the dramaturg on this extract from Derek Walcott's Omeros. She is the Gate's Development Assistant and also provides literary support.

Paterson Joseph is a writer and performer. He previously performed at the Gate Theatre in The Emperor Jones (also National Theatre). His other theatre credits include Whale, Saint Joan, Royal Hunt for the Sun and Elmina's Kitchen (National Theatre), Julius Caesar, Don Juan, Troilus and Cressida, Love's Labour's Lost, King Lear and The Pretenders (RSC). He created, wrote and performed in Sancho: An Act of Remembrance (tour). Television credits include Timeless, Rellik, The Hollow Crown, The Leftovers, Babylon, Law and Order UK, Peep Show, Doctor Who, Hustle, No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, Safe House and You, Me and the Apocalypse.

Ben Okri OBE is a Nigerian poet and novelist. His novels include The Famished Road (winner of the Booker Prize), Songs of Enchantment, The Age of Magic, In Arcadia, Stars of The New Curfew, Astonishing the Gods and Dangerous Love. Other works include An African Elegy, A Way of Being Free and Birds of Heaven. His latest book is a collection of compressed stories called The Magic Lamp: Dreams of Our Age and will be published in September 2017. Other awards include the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Africa, the Paris Review Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, the Chianti Rufino-Antico Fattore International Literary Prize and the Premio Grinzane Cavour Prize. In addition, the University of Westminster awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Literature. He is currently one of the Vice Presidents of the English Centre of International P.E.N.

For more information, visit http://www.intransitfestival.co.uk/programme.html.

Photo credit: Manuel Harlan



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