EVOLUTION FESTIVAL to Return to Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in March

Evolution Festival will return to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre in March 2024 for its eighth year, providing a platform and career launch pad for young theatre makers producing innovative work for stage and screen. Artists from previous years have gone on to create shows at the Lyric, Royal Court Theatre, the Vaults, Bunker Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, Sheffield Theatres, and the Young Vic. They include directors Stef O'Driscoll, Alessandra Davison, Gavin Joseph, TD. Moyo, Yasmin Hafezi, Diane Page, Elin Scofield, and actor and author Nathan Bryon.

 

This year the festival runs from 25 – 28 March and includes:

• The headlining Bill Cashmore Award-winning new play Haemosporidian [He·mo·spo·rid·ian]
• Evolution: Labs, featuring 30-minute re-lensing of four classic plays – The Government Inspector, The Birds, Mine Eyes Have Seen and Candida.
• Evolution: Scratches with two nights of scratch performances created by the Lyric's SPRINGBOARD trainees.
• Evolution: Films – a collaboration between the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and the Roundhouse bringing five premiere short film screenings.

 

Rachel O'Riordan, Artistic Director at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre said: “It is fantastic to see Evolution Festival return for its eighth year, and to partner once again with the Roundhouse and Wimbledon College of Arts. Evolution Festival nurtures young artists across all disciplines, from direction, design, writing to film-making and performance, allowing them to develop exciting and experimental new work. The support of young people in pursuing the arts is a core aspect of the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre's work with the West London community, and I am proud to see the festival further this for another year.”

Rob Lehmann, Director of Young Lyric at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, said: “It is a pleasure to have Evolution Festival return to the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre, and showcase the talent of West London's young artists. This year's festival headliner and Bill Cashmore Award-winning play, Haemosporidian [He·mo·spo·rid·ian] by SPRINGBOARD alumni Sam Purkis, Wilf Walsworth and Ryan Stevens demonstrates the importance of the Bill Cashmore Award to facilitate the development of new ideas from young artists.”

 

SPRINGBOARD 2024

 

The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre is thrilled to welcome and introduce the new 2024 cohort of SPRINGBOARD trainees, the innovative training programme launched in 2022 with the aim to champion, shape, nurture, and sustain the next generation of performers from currently underrepresented groups in theatre. Successful applicants will be enrolled in the free programme, benefiting from a bursary that will support them while they take part in a wide range of development initiatives including performances, workshops, masterclasses, artist development and opportunities both on and off the stage.

 

Following auditions in December, the third cohort of 10 SPRINGBOARD trainees who join the Lyric in January 2024 are: Aneeza Ahmed, 25, from Ealing, Lumumba Diessa, 19, from Ealing, Cameron Goodchild, 22, from Wandsworth, Jade Khan, 24, from Brent, Samuel Maldwyn Glyde Rees, 24, from Wandsworth, Áine McNamara, 24, from Brent, Kevin Mesiti, 23, from Ealing, Ema Pasic, 25, from Kensington & Chelsea, Jessica Rose Saunders, 25, from Ealing and Michelle San Reis, 20, from Harrow

 

SPRINGBOARD is kindly supported by Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation whose support has helped to launch a three-year pilot of the programme for the first 30 trainees. SPRINGBOARD is a long-term commitment by the Lyric and will provide an inspiring, industry-leading model to improve access to careers in the theatre. SPRINGBOARD's ambition is to be a template for UK arts organisations to adapt or adopt, actively making the performing arts sector more inclusive with a workforce that better represents society.

 

EVOLUTION FESTIVAL 2024

 

Haemosporidian [He·mo·spo·rid·ian]

Presented by the Bill Cashmore Award and the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre
25 -28 March 2024, 8pm| Lyric Studio

 

The festival will be headlined by the Bill Cashmore Award-winning play Haemosporidian [He·mo·spo·rid·ian], created by Sam Purkis, Ryan Stevens and Wilf Walsworth, directed by Emily Aboud and designed by Emilia Mendez. Sam, Ryan and Wilf were selected as the 2023 Bill Cashmore Award winners, following scratch performances at last year's Evolution Festival. Emilia returns to the Lyric for a second year, having designed for the Evolution: Labs adaptation of The Father for the festival in 2023.

 

Headlining the 2024 Evolution Festival is Haemosporidian [He·mo·spo·rid·ian], the Bill Cashmore Award-winning play written by Sam Purkis and co-created by Ryan Stevens and Wilf Walsworth.

“Everything good's disappearing, melting or dying.”

Thin walls, damp, poisonous mold; it isn't perfect, but for best friends Callum and Henry its home. But their lives are changed forever with the arrival of a demolition notice and a well-dressed stranger.

A traditional play about untraditional people, Haemosporidian [He·mo·spo·rid·ian]  is a darkly comedic depiction of the realities of gentrification.

 

The Bill Cashmore Award enables emerging artists to transform a fledgling idea from the page to the professional stage, run in conjunction with the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. It was founded by Sasha Bates in 2018 in memory of her husband, actor, playwright, director and entrepreneur Bill Cashmore. Previous winners of the award include Chanel Fernandes and Kane Feagan for Wasted, Eve Cowley and Elin Schofield for Screwdriver; and Martha Watson Allpress and Yasmin Hafesji for Kick.

 

EVOLUTION: LABS

Presented by the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and Wimbledon College of Art

25 - 28 March, 6pm | Rehearsal Room 2

 

Evolution: Labs was set up in 2016 by Young Lyric and the BA Theatre Design course at Wimbledon College of Arts as a much-needed collaborative opportunity for early career directors and designers to meet and co-create work. This year Jordi M. Carter, Prashant Tailor, Matilda Liu and Segen Yosife will each direct re-lensed classic plays, respectively: The Government Inspector, The Birds, Mine Eyes Have Seen and Candida. These re-workings are co-created with final year BA Theatre Design students from Wimbledon College of Arts; Leonah  Alexander-Joseph, Amelia Kyriacou, Juru Chen and Dada Kim.

 

Two shows will be staged each night of the festival. On 25 and 27 March, the productions will be The Government Inspector directed by Jordi M. Carter, designed by Leonah  Alexander-Joseph, and The Birds directed by Prashant Tailor, designed by Amelia Kyriacou. On 26 and 28 March, the productions will be Mine Eyes Have Seen directed by Matilda Liu, designed by Juru Chen, and Candida directed by Segen Yosife, assistant directed by Dominique Reid and designed by Dada Kim.

 

Glen Neath, Associate Lecturer at Wimbledon College of Arts, said: “The BA Theatre Design course at Wimbledon College of Arts, UAL has worked with the Young Lyric team to create opportunities for emerging directors and designers to collaborate since 2016, and many lasting collaborations have been forged over the years. This year's 2024 Labs creatives are all incredibly talented theatre-makers and we can't wait to see how they have reworked these classics texts. We are also keen to see Haemosporidian [He·mo·spo·rid·ian], designed by 2023 BA Theatre Design graduate Emilia Mendez.”

 

EVOLUTION: SCRATCHES

Devised by SPRINGBOARD

25 - 26 March, 7pm | Lyric Film & TV Studio

 

Both the 2023 and 2024 cohort of trainees from the Lyric's SPRINGBOARD programme will present brand new 10-minute scratch performances created entirely by them. SPRINGBOARD have been working with dramaturg Molly Taylor to support and develop their ideas and skills as theatre-makers.

 

SPRINGBOARD is a ground-breaking, free training programme providing unrivalled theatre-based training and development opportunities to nurture the next generation of performers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and groups underrepresented in theatre. To find out more, visit https://lyric.co.uk/young-lyric/springboard/.

 

 

EVOLUTION: FILMS

Presented by Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and the Roundhouse

23 - 24 March, 7.30pm | Rehearsal Room 3

 

In an exciting collaboration between the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre and the Roundhouse, Evolution: Films will premiere five short films in the Lyric's Rehearsal Room 3.

Showcasing extracts from The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol, the project brings together the Lyric's SPRINGBOARD trainees and young people from the Roundhouse's Behind The Lens programme who will create modern day workings of this classic drama. Photography direction from Bani Mendy and facilitating direction and writing from Hannah Calascione.

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