Paines Plough Announces Programme 2019

By: Feb. 01, 2019
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Artistic Directors of Paines Plough James Grieve and George Perrin today announced the company's Programme 2019, marking the final season from the pair who will step down later this year after nearly a decade at the helm.

The programme celebrates some of the most exciting, distinctive, observant and entertaining voices in British theatre with commissioned writers including: Charley Miles, Nathan Bryon, Daf James, Sam Steiner, Zia Ahmed, Sarah Mcdonald-Hughes, Ifeyinwa Fredrick and Anna Jordan. Their brand new plays will tour across the length and breadth of the UK to city centres, seaside towns and village halls.

ROUNDABOUT will once again host an Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme and bring mini-festivals to each stop on its nationwide tour. Paines Plough will broadcast Anna Jordan's POP MUSIC live online and celebrate 10 years of COME TO WHERE I'M FROM with new live events and the CTWIF APP featuring more than 180 short audio plays available to download free from the App Store and GooglePlay. They will once again be holding open auditions as part of their pledge to actors. A new series of podcasts, INSIGHTS, offers a look at the playwright's experience of life inside the rehearsal room.

James Grieve and George Perrin said: "This programme epitomises what Paines Plough has always been about for us: urgent new plays from original new voices featuring top new talent on wide-ranging tours the length and breadth of the UK. We're hugely proud to be presenting the best of a new generation of British playwrights. We're celebrating 10 years of COME TO WHERE I'M FROM and another three years of ROUNDABOUT funding. Graduates of our Playwright Fellowship and Trainee Director Bursary headline the programme. Loyal venue partners reaffirm their commitment to the importance of new plays. Our newly launched podcast series INSIGHTS aims to make us ever more open and accessible, joining existing initiatives like OPEN AUDITIONS, our Casting Pledge and our UNSOLICITED SCRIPT policy. It's everything we think a National Theatre of new plays should be."

Paines Plough and Theatr Clwyd present

ROUNDABOUT 2019

Following another critically acclaimed season in 2018, ROUNDABOUT, Paines Plough's award-winning portable in-the-round auditorium, will return for a sixth consecutive year in 2019. The programme will include World Premieres from Charley Miles, Nathan Bryon and Daf James co-produced with Theatr Clwyd and performed in rep, directed by Stef O'Driscoll. The productions will open at Theatr Clwyd and tour to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and six partner venues across the UK.

ROUNDABOUT will also host a programme of visiting companies, comedy, music and local community events.

Full listings will be announced in due course.

Charley is a playwright from rural North Yorkshire. She is currently the Paines Plough Playwright Fellow. Her debut play, BLACKTHORN, was produced in 2016 and went on to become a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn award in New York in 2017. She was the Channel 4 Playwright in Residence at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2017, and has recently written plays for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, the Royal Court, and Leeds Playhouse. Her original television drama, IN MEMORIAM, is in development with Buccaneer Media.

Nathan is a writer and actor who is best known to viewers for his role as regular character Jamie in SOME GIRLS and BENIDORM's sunniest holiday maker, Joey Ellis. He has written for critically acclaimed CBeebies' animation RASTAMOUSE, BAFTA award winning SWASHBUCKLE and on all three series of BAFTA nominated APPLE TREE HOUSE (CBeebies) alongside BAFTA winning GIGGLEBIZ. Last Year Nathan's one-man show MIXED BRAIN a show about his mixed heritage premiered in Roundabout at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He also has a 3 picture book deal with Penguin Random House. His first book LOOK UP! will hit shelves in the US and UK in June.

Nathan has recently co-written a Sky Arts short NEW BLOOD starring Samson Kayo and Jane Horrocks. One of Nathan's passions is creating his own work about his black British experience. He created REALITY, a comedic social commentary ethnology series, which has had two solo premiers at the BFI in NFT1. REALITY has also screened and won various awards around the world at film festivals. Nathan is currently writing series 3.0. Nathan has various TV projects in development as well as a feature film.

Daf is an award-winning writer, composer and performer working across theatre, radio television and film in English and Welsh. His first full-length play LLWYTH [Tribe] was described in Contemporary Welsh Plays as 'a water-shed play that changed the landscape of Welsh language theatre forever.' Past work includes: REPUTATIONS (BBC Studios); NURSERYLAND REVOLUTION (Let's Play/National Theatre); MY MOTHER TAUGHT ME HOW TO SING (Radio 4); TIGER BAY (WMC/Capetown Opera); CITY OF THE UNEXPECTED (National Theatre Wales); ALL THAT I AM (Richard Burton Theatre Company/Gate); WONDERMAN (Gagglebabble/NTW); MOTHER COURAGE (NTW); YURI (August 012); CRACKANORY (Tiger Aspect/Dave); PSYCHOBITCHES (Tiger Aspect/Sky Arts, Rose d'Or Award Winner); HERITAGE (NT Connections); SUE: THE SECOND COMING (Soho Theatre and UK tour); TERRACE (Radio 3); GWAITH/CARTREF (10 episodes, Fiction Factory); THE VILLAGE SOCIAL (NTW); DEFFRO'R GWANWYN (Theatr Genedlaethol) and MY NAME IS SUE (Total Theatre Award Winner). Current work includes: BRITHDIR (Triongl/S4C); GANOL GAEAF NOETHLWM (Cwmni Da/S4C), MARGARET & CLIVE (Fiction Factory); THE DIANA CHRONICLES (Royal Court, Sherman Theatre and Theatr Clwyd) and TYLWYTH (Theatr Genedlaethol/Sherman Cymru). His TV pilot BEAST (Scott Free/Channel 4) was on the 2018 Brit List.

Stef is a theatre director and the Artistic Director of Nabokov Theatre who most recently directed ISLAND TOWN, STICKS AND STONES and HOW TO SPOT AN ALIEN for the Paines Plough Roundabout season, which were all well received at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018. She will direct the Roundabout season again this year and other current projects include LIT, at the Nottingham Playhouse, as well as BOX CLEVER by Monsay Whitney at the Bunker Theatre. She also directed WITH A LITTLE BIT OF LUCK for BBC Radio 1 Xtra, a celebration of UKG music and the club scene of the early noughties, with a compelling coming-of-age story woven through it and was previously the Associate Director at the Lyric Hammersmith and Paines Plough. Stef was the original director of WHEN WOMEN WEE, now the feature THE POWDER ROOM, and was selected for the Old Vic New Voices New York Exchange scheme. She was assistant director to Phyllida Lloyd on HENRY IV both the London runs & NY transfer. She trained at St Mary's University where she obtained a BA in Drama.

A Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth production
YOU STUPID DARKNESS!
by Sam Steiner
Directed by James Grieve
Design by Amy Jane Cook
Lighting Design by Peter Small
Sound Design by Dominic Kennedy
Movement by Annie-Lunette Deakin-Foster
Assistant Direction by Freddie Crossley

Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth present YOU STUPID DARKNESS!, a World Premiere from Sam Steiner (Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons; Kanye the First), directed by Paines Plough Joint Artistic Director James Grieve. Set in a call centre for Brightline helpline, four volunteers spend a few hours every Tuesday night on the phone to strangers telling them everything is going to be ok. A hopeful play about the struggle for optimism and community amid the chaos of a collapsing world. The cast includes David Carlyle, Andrew Finnigan, Becci Gemmell and Lydia Larson. The production marks the continuation of a long-standing relationship between Paines Plough and Theatre Royal Plymouth and follows the success of Love, Love, Love and The Angry Brigade.

YOU STUPID DARKNESS! runs at Theatre Royal Plymouth 7 - 23 February with an Opening Night on 12 February.

Sam is a playwright and screenwriter from Manchester. Sam's debut play, the award-winning LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS LEMONS, was produced by Walrus Theatre (a company he cofounded). It has had three sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe and toured nationally. The play has since been produced all over the world in seven different languages. Sam's second play, KANYE THE FIRST, was commissioned and produced by Hightide Theatre and premiered at the festival in September 2017. Other pieces of Sam's work have been showcased at the Royal Exchange, Soho Theatre, Southwark Playhouse, Sala Beckett in Barcelona and the Cannes and London Film Festivals. He completed an attachment at Paines Plough as their Playwright Fellowship and holds an MA in Screenwriting from the National Film and Television School. Sam is currently under commission at Paines Plough and is developing television projects with Drama Republic and Euston North.

James is Joint Artistic Director of Paines Plough.

A Paines Plough and Tamasha production
I WANNA BE YOURS
by Zia Ahmed
Direction by Anna Himali Howard

Ella is from Yorkshire. Haseeb is from London. They order a pizza. House red for Ella. Hot chocolate for Haseeb.

"I think I'm falling in love with you."

Meet in the middle. Meet the parents. Meet the friends. Meet the aunties. They say opposites attract, but can they stay together?

A tender, funny, lyrical play about finding love and holding onto it with everything you've got. I WANNA BE YOURS is the debut play from London Laureate and Roundhouse Poetry Slam Champion Zia Ahmed. In partnership with Tamasha, it will tour around the UK, directed by former Paines Plough trainee director Anna Himali Howard. Dates to be announced.

Zia is from North West London. He is a London Laureate, having been shortlisted to be the Young Poet Laureate for London 2015/16. He is a former Roundhouse Poetry Slam champion. Zia was Paines Plough's Channel 4 Playwright in Residence 2016/2017.

Anna is a director and theatremaker. She was Paines Plough's Trainee Director in 2016. She is also an Alumni Artist at The Gate Theatre and an alumnus of the Birmingham REP Foundry.

Her work as a Director includes A SMALL PLACE by Jamaica Kincaid (Gate Theatre), ALBATROSS by Isley Lynn for NEW (RWCMD/Paines Plough/Gate Theatre), LIFE IS NO LAUGHING MATTER by Demi Nandhra (Birmingham REP/mac Birmingham), 20B by Jane English (Birmingham REP/CPT). As a theatremaker work includes MAHABHARAT/A by Anna Himali Howard and Zarina Muhammad (Camden People's Theatre), THE BEANFIELD by Breach Theatre (New Diorama, National tour 2016). Anna was Associate Director on FLEABAG by Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Drywrite/Soho Theatre international tour) and Assistant Director on OTHELLO, directed by Ellen McDougall (Shakespeare's Globe) and IN THE NIGHT TIME (Before the Sun Rises) by Nina Segal, directed by Ben Kidd (Gate Theatre).

I WANNA BE YOURS was developed with support from the Channel 4 Playwrights' Scheme.

A Paines Plough, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and The Gate Theatre production
TURBINES
By Sarah McDonald-Hughes
Direction by Emily Ling Williams

Once again for 2019 Paines Plough will partner with Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and The Gate Theatre to showcase the world premiere of Sarah McDonald-Hughes's TURBINES, directed by Paines Plough former Trainee Director Emily Ling Williams. Sarah returns to Paines Plough following her award-winning play for young people HOW TO BE A KID.

Sarah is an actor and writer from Manchester. Her plays include: SHERBET (Octagon Bolton), HOW TO BE A KID (Paines Plough); BLACKOUT (Dukes Lancaster) THE MANCHESTER PROJECT (Monkeywood Theatre/HOME/National Theatre), TRIAL, MULTI STORY (Octagon Bolton/Monkeywood), WONDROUS PLACE (Northern Spirit/Liverpool Unity/Sheffield Crucible/Northern Stage/Royal Exchange), FLESH (Monkeywood Theatre/Royal Exchange), BY FAR THE GREATEST TEAM, ONCE IN A HOUSE ON FIRE, MAINE ROAD (Monkeywood Theatre), THE TREE, NIGHT TRAIN (Action Transport Theatre), OUR PALS and THE NORTH (Royal Exchange Studio). Radio includes: THE ARCHERS, BLIND SCHOOL, A ROOF OVER OUR HEADS, DAD, TAKE ME TO REDCAR, MAINE ROAD (BBC Radio 4). Television includes numerous episodes of DOCTORS for BBC1. Sarah works regularly as an actor in theatre, television and radio and is Co-Artistic director of the award winning Monkeywood Theatre. She is currently part of THE ARCHERS regular writing team. Sarah won the 2018 Writer's Guild Award for her play HOW TO BE A KID and the 2017 National Octagon Prize for her play SHERBET, co-written with Curtis Cole.

Emily was Trainee Director at Paines Plough in 2017 and is currently part of the Fresh Direction group at the Young Vic. Directing credits include LUNGS (Extract) (Young Vic). Assistant directing credits include THE MEETING (Chichester Festival Theatre) THE CHALK GARDEN (Chichester Festival Theatre), THE APOLOGY (R&D) (NT Studio), BLACK MOUNTAIN (Paines Plough), OUT OF LOVE (Paines Plough), HOW TO BE A KID (Paines Plough), THE ISLAND NATION (Arcola Theatre).

A new play by Ifeyinwa Fredrick
Co-commissioned by Paines Plough and Soho Theatre

Paines Plough are co-commissioning a new play by Ifeyinwa Fredrick, one of the 2019 Soho Six, a yearlong attachment programme for artists run by Soho Theatre. Full details to be announced.

Ifeyinwa is a writer and entrepreneur, using both writing and business as creative outlets. Writing alongside her full-time job as co-founder of Chuku's - the world's first Nigerian tapas restaurant - she has been featured in Forbes' list of 100 Women Founders in Europe. She began writing in 2016, joining Soho Theatre Writers' Lab. Supported by the programme, she wrote her debut play THE HOES which received a full production at Hampstead Theatre in 2018. The play was shortlisted for the 2017 Tony Craze Award and Character 7 Award and longlisted for the 2017 Verity Bargate Award. Her stories explore the intricacies of people and the dichotomy between how we really are and how society or we portray ourselves to be.

A Paines Plough and Birmingham Repertory Theatre production
POP MUSIC
by Anna Jordan
Direction James Grieve

Anna Jordan's POP MUSIC returns for a one-off live stream after an acclaimed national tour in 2018. Turbo charged by non-stop pop hits from the past 30 years of chart toppers, POP MUSIC is a euphoric, nostalgic, poptastic theatre party for anyone who's ever been a dick on the dancefloor. Details to be announced.

Anna won the 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting for Yen (Royal Court) after having been twice longlisted for her plays MARIANNE and CHICKEN SHOP. YEN has had productions at Manchester Royal Exchange, the Royal Court and MCC New York as well as several international productions. It was also shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize 2015-2016. Her current projects include THE UNRETURNING (Frantic Assembly / Theatre Royal Plymouth) and a new adaptation of MOTHER COURAGE (Royal Exchange / Headlong). She is also under commission to The Royal Court Theatre. Other theatre includes WE ANCHOR IN HOPE (Royal Court - Beyond the Court), A SERIOUS CASE OF THE FUCKITS (Central School of Speech and Drama) CHICKEN SHOP (Park Theatre) and FREAK (Theatre503 / Assembly Studios). She was recently part of the writers room on HBO's new series SUCCESSION, created by Jesse Armstrong, and has written episode 4. Film includes THE IVORY YEAR (LAMDA).

A Paines Plough production
COME TO WHERE I'M FROM

Since 2010, Paines Plough's nationwide project Come To Where I'm From has seen over 160 playwrights from across the pen plays about the places they call home.

Each play is performed for one-night only and then becomes part of the free Come To Where I'm From smartphone app which houses all the mini-plays that have been performed since the project began to create a vivid patchwork quilt of accents, experiences and impressions of the UK.

In 2019 Paines Plough will showcase live sessions of COME TO WHERE I'M FROM with the first taking place in Salisbury on 20 February with Wiltshire's writers Veronica Dewan, Harry Blake, Barney Norris and Hanna Treadaway.

INSIGHTS
A podcast by Paines Plough

Paines Plough's new INSIGHTS podcasts chart the writer's experience of life inside the rehearsal room.

The series will be released during the rehearsal period of Paines Plough productions, with the playwright and the director discussing the week's progress and inviting in different guests from the cast and creative team. The first series, YOU STUPID PODCAST!, is led by James Grieve and Sam Steiner and is currently available to download from Podbean.



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