New Writing Showcase Night To Be Presented At Greenwich Theatre

A young, female-led theatre company with a self-defined remit to produce new plays received over 100 scripts from all over the world for their debut new writing showcase night, titled Voices in the Dark and taking place at Greenwich Theatre on Tuesday, April 24.

Culture Clash's Serin Ibrahim and Cassandra Hercules joined a panel of five readers to shortlist eight 20-minute scripts that will have readings on the night.

"We were overwhelmed by the response and that so many people were willing to share their work with us," said Serin. "Even fifty scripts from the UK would have been great, but to get some from America, New Zealand, Ireland and even South Korea was just wonderful.

"Choosing eight was a harder process than we anticipated due to the quality of the work we received. If the event could last all day, we could easily have showcased 12 hours of plays. But we couldn't be happier with the eight plays we have chosen. They definitely were the stand-out pieces for us and our panel of readers."

Cassandra, who met Serin on the MA Acting programme at Guildford School of Acting, explained why Culture Clash put the call out for new writing. "As a company we are committed to producing new plays," she said. "Our second play was a dystopian drama written by Cassiah Joski-Jethi, which we produced for Edinburgh, Brighton and London.

"We met Cassiah when she was shortlisted for the RED Women's Theatre Awards, which was also a night of new writing at Greenwich Theatre, and after the success of the play and that new relationship we decided to create our own writing night in the hope of finding new collaborators.

"Our aim for Voices in The Dark is to highlight the themes of gender inequality and social injustice. We hope it will be a thought-provoking evening where the audience is challenged about these issues. But it is not all earnest - there are laughs in there too!

"Not everything will take the form that people might expect from theatre either. Among the eight plays we have a monologue, a piece written in period verse as a sequel to a Shakespeare play, and a piece written as performance poetry."

Serin added: "We're extremely passionate about making theatre that can affect change. Both at a personal and professional level we'd always like to be involved in work that has an impact on society. Over the coming years we hope to be able to reach more people, not just those who already go to the theatre but people who will find a resonance in our work."

Presented by: Culture Clash Theatre Suitable for ages: 16+ Performance times: 7pm Ticket prices: £8.50, Concessions & Equity members £6 (prices include £1 per ticket booking fee)

Find out more at www.greenwichtheatre.org.uk. For tickets call the box office on 020 8858 7755.