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Past & Present Projects; Proposed Pieces

Workshops
Plays For Young People
Plays for Amateur Theatre Groups
TiE Scripts
Training Films
Coming in 2009

WORKSHOPS

Workshops in a range of theatre-making skills are available to schools, colleges, youth theatres and amateur theatre groups. Workshops most often take the form of a full or half day session, and are available in:

Playwriting: An introduction to writing for performance.
Adapting: Exploring the transformation from novel to play.
Devising: Examining the techniques and pitfalls of collaborative creation.
Directing a Scene: Investigating ways of presenting the written word, in the flesh, on the stage.
Specific Texts: ‘Hope Springs’, ‘Face: The Play’ and ‘Whispers in the Graveyard: The Play’; each text offers up ways of looking at a number of dramatic conventions. All workshops can be tailored to the specific needs of the group involved. If you would like to discuss a workshop on a different subject, just get in touch.

PLAYS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
(all available for performance)

‘Hope Springs’
This play exists in two versions, dark and darker. The darker version is for older youth theatre groups and the dark version is for 11+ and is published by Heinemann. This piece has had performances across the UK & beyond, including at the Edinburgh Fringe and Birmingham Rep. The text looks at the phenomenon of privately run youth-correction facilities, and asks what might happen if there was an insurrection in one of these authoritarian institutions.

‘Face:The Play’
Adapted from Benjamin Zephaniah’s novel, this play is for KS3 age group and will suit either a drama class or a youth theatre cast. It centres on the changes a young man is presented with after a disfiguring accident.

‘Paving Paradise’
A substantial one-act play with an environmental theme - this piece can be tackled by a cast of varying sizes, any mix of gender or a single-sex cast.

‘Tectonic’
Seen through the eyes of young people in a small town, this play explores the notion that on a day to day basis life can be pretty undramatic. Throughout the text though, a young couple fall in love and sundry others share their odd and mundane thoughts with the audience

‘Wednesday's Child’
This is a mature piece which explores the situation of a sensitive older teen girl who can’t seem to filter out life’s bad stuff. She simply cares too much, almost to the point of paralysing her life.

‘On Air’
The conceit is that they are broadcasting a live radio play - so the theatre audience is implicit in the fun, but of course, not all goes well…

‘Just A Story’
A dark revenge tale seen from the perspective of some classic characters from children’s fiction…” instead of “A dark revenge tale seen from the perspective of some children’s fiction classic characters…

‘And The Award Goes To...’
More fun. This is actually only two-thirds of a full-length play - your cast can decide how to entertainingly fill the rest of it.

'Fault Lines'
When Anna's parents break up, she finds herself adrift in a sea of new feelings. To add to her confusion, it seems that she is being visited by a character from an old favourite children's story… This play examines a young life trying to find its feet in a new landscape.

PLAYS FOR AMATEUR THEATRE GROUPS

‘The Ballad of Dolly & Clive’
A piece about growing together and growing apart, this play for older actors chronicles the bitter-sweet process of a marriage falling apart. With lots of humour along the way, the text examines some of the classic tensions in a long-lasting relationship.

'Hench'
Dave gets embroiled in the world of criminal-mastermind-site-security quite by chance and ends up becoming something of a hero, alongside the suave guy in the dinner-jacket...

THEATRE IN EDUCATION (TiE) SCRIPTS

‘This Other Me’
(50 minutes for two young actors 1M, 1F)
Exploring issues around teenage pregnancy through the eyes of a young girl.

‘Pay Day’
(50 minutes, for two male actors one young, one older)
A piece about the fall-out from a past misdemeanour in a young man’s life. The play examines the legacy and impact of car crime & arson on a victim. Also…

‘Man-Child’
(two actors, one young man & one older man or woman)
More a classroom intervention than a play, this looks at teenage pregnancy from the young male perspective.

For both of these plays there are education packs and workshop designs available.

TRAINING FILMS

‘Minefields’
‘The Dream Factory’

Both titles are available on DVD with accompanying workshop plan. These films examine equality and diversity issues in the workplace with, I hope, humour and charm. Commissioned by, and available from, University of Northampton.

CURRENT CONVERSATIONS; COMING CREATIONS

Artist in Residence with Loud & Proud (Dorking) and Elmbridge Community Choir; developing participatory projects under the ‘Creative Communities’ project. www.creativecommunities.co.uk Creating four new one-act plays for young casts as part of Take Art’s ‘New Chapters’ project. ‘Whispers In The Graveyard: The Play’ published by Heinemann, adapted from Teresa Breslin’s novel. Developing ‘Everything You Ever Wanted to Know…’ for Connecting Somerset. Delivering ‘Performing Pathways’ workshops to young people for Activate Performing Arts’.

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