The Royal Court Theatre Announces QUEER UPSTAIRS, An Evening Of Rehearsed Readings Of New Short Plays

The Royal Court Theatre announces Queer Upstairs, an evening of rehearsed readings of new short plays curated by Hester Chillingworth and Mark Ravenhill, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. The readings will take place in the Royal Court Jerwood Theatre Upstairs on Monday 17 June 2019, 7.30pm.

In March this year, the Royal Court invited a group of queer writers and theatre makers to share their work and ideas to put their voices centre stage.

Writers include Nick Bruckman, Hester Chillingworth, Lettie Precious, Iman Qureshi and Rachael Young. Queer Upstairs is curated by Hester Chillingworth and Mark Ravenhill.

Nick Bruckman was on the Introduction to Playwriting Group and is currently on the Invitational Group at the Royal Court. His first play Kogelvis (Theater Bellevue Amsterdam) was selected for the Dutch National Theatre Festival 2018. Its English translation Pufferfish had a production at the VAULT festival this year. He is a recipient of the Werkbijdrage Theatertekst of the Dutch Performing Arts Fund and the Dutch Literary Fund. Nick's credits as a director include Scars (Theater Utrecht) and Sister of (Arcola Theatre). As an assistant director he has worked at the Actors Touring Company, Royal Court, Staatstheater Stuttgart and Theater Utrecht.

Hester Chillingworth is a non-binary artist whose work sits at a crossroads of theatre, live art, cabaret and installation. Over the last ten years they have worked extensively with internationally renowned theatre company Forced Entertainment, as well as being Artistic Director of GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN performance company. They are currently Thinker-in-Residence focusing on Live Art, Young People and Gender, at the Live Art Development Agency, London.

Mark Ravenhill is a playwright whose plays for the Royal Court include The Cane, Shopping and f-ing (& Out of Joint), Product (& Paines Plough), Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat (& Out of Joint/Paines Plough) and Over There (& Schaubühne, Berlin).

Mark's other theatre includes Mother Clap's Mollyhouse, Citizenship (National), pool (no water) (Frantic Assembly/Lyric, Hammersmith), Life of Galileo and Candide (RSC).

Lettie Precious is a British playwright, poet, author and artist. In a short space of time after quitting their job as a nurse to concentrate on their writing, they became active within the theatre industry and won the Best New Artist Award at Museum of the Mind in 2016, as well as becoming a published author in 2018.

Lettie worked with Team Angelica Productions to produce a piece at Theatre Royal Stratford East, before producing The Wind That Sweeps Away the Dust at the Arcola in 2017. In 2018, Lettie completed a yearlong Write to Play programme with Graeae Theatre and has had works produced at Soho Theatre, Ovalhouse and the Bush in partnership with Talawa Theatre Company, as well as working with the BBC London Voices Writers Room.

Lettie is a recipient of the Royal Court & Kudos Fellowship 2019.

Iman Qureshi is an award-winning writer for stage, screen and radio. In 2018 she won the prestigious Papatango New Writing Prize with her breakout play The Funeral Director, which premiered at the Southwark Playhouse before a short UK tour. She is one of the Soho Six playwrights for 2019 and has further new commissions from Papatango, Bush, English Touring Theatre and the Royal Court. In 2019 Iman contributed a monologue to the Bunker Theatre's My White Best Friend series, curated by Rachel De-lahay and Milli Bhatia. Under commission from Tamasha and Titi Dawudu, Iman also contributed two monologues to Hear Me Now, a set of diverse monologues for diverse actors, the first of its kind, published by Oberon books. Iman is adapting The Funeral Director for television and is working on a new commission for television with Slam Films. In 2018 she was invited to participate in the writers' room for Riz Ahmed's Englistan on BBC2. She was selected by Film London for their London Calling short film slate with her short Home Girl, directed by Poonam Brah which was also selected for the 2019 BFI Flare Festival.

Rachael Young is an award-winning artist whose interdisciplinary performance exists on the boundaries between live art, dance, contemporary theatre and socially engaged practice. Her work creates spaces for intersectional realities to be explored and celebrated and for alternative narratives and forms to evolve and be heard.

Rachael's most recent shows OUT and NIGHTCLUBBING received critical acclaim; with OUT winning the 2017 South East Dance 'A Space to Dance' Brighton Fringe Award and gaining a nomination for the Total Theatre & The Place Award for Dance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. She is currently the recipient of the Eclipse Award, which will see her take NIGHTCLUBBING and OUT to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2019.

Casting to be announced.

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