You have until 28 June to catch the TEAM’s gut-busting soul-rock musical about American Capitalism at the National Theatre Shed.
Longer update to follow, but for now the message is: don’t miss this incredible company.
Olivier Awards 2013
Today I am helping out at the Olivier Awards as part of Katie Harper’s Team Piazza (also feat. Kat Portman, Vicky Graham, Natalie Macaluso and Sarah Brown) There will be live performances from top West End shows and two starry presenters: Michael Xavier and Claudia Winkleman. Come on down to Covent Garden to celebrate British Theatre!
After the awards ceremony we will join Team ROH (or Team Indoors), and the forces of young producers combine…
Rehearsals begin for CUDDLES @Ovalhouse
Carla Langley as EVE, image by Alex Beckett
Rehearsals began yesterday for Capital Play Award-winner Joseph Wilde’s full-length professional debut play CUDDLES, directed by Ovalhouse Artistic Director Rebecca Atkinson-Lord and produced by me on behalf of Rebecca’s company Arch 468 in a co-production with Ovalhouse.
Delighted with the smashing cast of Carla Langley and Rendah Heywood, and superb production team of Ed Lewis, James Turner, Celeste Dring, Emily Russell and Pablo Baz.
Great to be working with Ovalhouse, a theatre that genuinely supports young people and emerging artists and takes risks on interesting work.
Show runs 14 May – 1 June, only 50 seats per performance so get in there!
For more info and booking click here.
Off to IETM Dublin with Natural Shocks
Artistic Director of Natural Shocks Donnacadh O’Briain and I have landed in Dublin to attend the IETM Dublin plenary conference of European Theatre. We will be presenting in the Newsround session today on our pop-up venue PEEP, which is perfect for seasons within venues and a great addition to any festival! We’ll also be attending sessions on European Cultural Exchange and the like.
2012 with LJP
A belated 2012 round-up from Lucy Jackson Productions:
Scott Hazell. Taken by Nobby Clark
- MUDLARKS by Vickie Donoghue ran three times in three different venues and was an absolute delight of a show (see Productions page). We had a superb cast and a wonderful creative team, and everyone who worked on the show had an amazing can-do attitude and a gung-ho sense of ambition. From Amy Cook’s 4 tonnes of mud to Richard Hammarton’s surround-sound to Josh Carr’s EL wire & beautiful side-lighting, the production looked and sounded great, not to mention the magnificent performances from Scott Hazell, James Marchant and Mike Noble skilfully directed by Will Wrightson. The production was graciously supported by Arts Council East, the Arts Patrons’ Trust, the Bacon Charitable Trust, the Unity Theatre Trust and dozens of generous individuals. The playtext is published by Methuen.
Our pop-up peepshow
- PEEP launched at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, to great press attention and audience responses. The brainchild of Natural Shocks artistic Director Donnacadh O’Briain and actor Karen French, PEEP is a pop-up peepshow for plays. In 2012 we were parked round the back of the Pleasance Courtyard and featured three new short plays on the subject of sex, voyeurism and intimacy by Leo Butler, Kefi Chadwick and Pamela Carter. Our super cast was Ifan Meredith, Bella Heesom, Karen French and Brett Fancy and the fantastic creative team was Ben Ormerod, Signe Beckmann and Nick Powell, aided and abetted by Anthony Arblaster and Mark Cunningham. The whole shebang was held together by CSM Harriet Stewart, SM Philip Gainsbury and ASM Lizzie Moore, and supported by a host of amazing donors including Alan Stanmore at API and Norman Cook, who provided the sound equipment. Find out more at http://www.peep-play.com.
Bill & Dearbhla. Photo by Robert Workman.
- I line-managed Tom Holloway’s beautiful and heartbreaking play AND NO MORE SHALL WE PART for Hampstead Theatre while it ran at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. Since attending the UofE, it has been a dream to work at the Traverse and it was just as wonderful as I had hoped. Imagine an Edinburgh Fringe venuewhere there are more than three lights and they do your washing! Incredible. I had a great time with actors Bill Paterson and Dearbhla Molloy, with whom it was a privilege to work, not to mention director James Macdonald, designer Hannah Clarke and lighting designer Guy Hoare (I never met Chris Shutt but I’m sure he’s lovely). The team of Matt Noddings and Tom Nickson, with DSM Erin Murphy and TASM Cressy Klaces were utterly brilliant, not to mention the latter two being exemplary flatmates for August. Bill Paterson was awarded a Stage Award for Acting Excellence, we sold out many shows and the ushers began to hand out kleenex to the audience at the end of the performances. Job done.
- I went to New York to work with the TEAM and also intern for Jean Doumanian Productions, which was fascinating and a lot of fun. I got to see the non-profit and commercial sides of NY theatre, met a lot of interesting and lovely people and learned a lot which I will take forward with me. I am now Associate Producer with the TEAM, working primarily on their incredible musical MISSION DRIFT that will have its London Premiere at the National Theatre’s Shed in June and is a show not to be missed. MISSION DRIFT has played at the Traverse, Edinburgh, PS122 in New York, The Perth and Hong Kong Festivals and has won praise and awards like nobody’s business. I will post an update on this separately.
- Jon Brittain, Claire Turner and I presented three sell-out editions of BLAST OFF, the short play sci-fi night curated by we at Misshapen Theatre. Writers featured Afsaneh Gray, Sally Torode, Annabel Wigoder, John Luke Roberts, Josh Conkel, Simon Anderson, Gabriel Bisset-Smith, Kenneth Emson, Hannah Roger, Lucinda Burnett, Melissa Bubnic, Tom Morton-Smith, Danielle Ward and Phil Mann.
So much more happened but I think that should do it for now!
Mudlarks by Vickie Donoghue
MUDLARKS by Vickie Donoghue
A HighTide Festival Theatre/Lucy Jackson production
4-13 May 2012, Halesworth, Suffolk
Director Will Wrightson
Designer Amy Cook
Lighting Designer Josh Carr
Sound Designer Richard Hammarton
Mudlarks is a tragic, beautifully realised play about three young men trapped at the wrong end of the river. Under the sea wall in the mud of the River Thames in Essex they hide from the police after a night of recklessness. As the freezing night draws in and their options diminish two questions remain: do they have the power to determine their own fates, or are they destined to sink into the mud?
TO HELP FUND THE PROJECT, CHECK OUT OUR CROWDFUNDING PAGE: http://www.wefund.com/project/mudlarks
We are grateful for any and every bit of support we get.
Mudlarks will be one of three World Premieres performed at the HighTide Festival in Halesworth, Suffolk in May 2012 and hails the arrival of a powerful and vital new voice in UK theatre.
Photography: Alexander Henderson (www.alexander-henderson.com). Thanks to Robert Bradley and Felix Trench.
MORE HIGHTIDE INFO HERE: http://www.hightide.org.uk/event/mudlarks
Mudlarks is my first solo outing as an independent producer (ie. my name is on the top), for Will Wrightson it marks a transition from Assistant to Director, and it will be Vickie’s first professional production. It’s a project close to all our hearts, and one that has been developed closely with HighTide’s fantastic literary manager Rob Drummer through their Escalator Plays scheme, supported by Arts Council East.
We would all like to thank HighTide Festival Theatre for their support: Steven Atkinson, Francesca Clark, Rob Drummer, Philllippa Wilkinson and Mark Bixter.
Full company details can be found on the ‘productions’ page. Thank you all for your help and support, check back in for updates and look forward to seeing you at the show!
Don Juan Comes Back From the War
I’m very pleased to be producing Duncan Macmillan’s new version of ‘Don Juan Comes Back From the War’ by Ödön von Horváth for Volta Theatre.
Director Andrea Ferran is the third recipient of the Leverhulme Bursary for emerging directors, and we are working closely with the National Theatre Studio on the project.
Our superb cast includes Charlie Cameron (Riverside Studios, Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park, Brighton Theatre Royal); Laura Dos Santos (Menier Chocolate Factory, West End, Wallander, Bad Girls); Eileen Nicholas (Old Vic Theatre, Gielgud Theatre, Donmar Warehouse); Miranda Pleasence (New Tricks, Menier Chocolate Factory, Hampstead Theatre); Sarah Sweeney (Royal National Theatre, Soho Theatre, Punchdrunk); Zubin Varla (Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal National Theatre, Jesus Christ Superstar, Donmar Warehouse, Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith) and Leah Whitaker (Headlong, Royal National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, Theatre Royal Bath).
The excellent team has Ellan Parry designing, our lighting designer is Neill Brinkworth, on sound design we have Edward Lewis, dramaturgy by Deirdre McLaughlin and we’re amazingly well supported by Stage Manager Charlie Archer, who joins us on a Dingemans Bursary in association with the National Theatre, and James Turner Inman, production manager and construction manager. Our hair and make-up will be done by Francesca Jordan and Sophie Venes, and I myself am assisted by assistant producer Chris Foxon. Fight Direction is by Paul Benzing, whose fight credits are staggering, and movement by the exceptional Polly Bennett.
I’m sure I must have missed someone, so check back in for more, including images and show updates.
More exciting new coming soon…
Jonathan Brittain double bill- Theatre503
‘Fresh’ from the Edinburgh Festival, we are transferring our double bill of comedies by Jonathan Brittain for a week run in London at the lovely Theatre503. Details as follows:
THE SEXUAL AWAKENING OF PETER MAYO
Directed by Natasha Nixon
Cast: Sam Donnelly, Helen Duff, Michael Lyle
Running time: 1hr
“Brittain’s razor-sharp script keeps the audience in gales of laughter” – The Stage
Arranging one night stands with strangers on the internet is trickier than Peter expected. Then again, he did learn about the birds and the bees from an episode of Thunderbirds…
A story about no-strings-attached sex, and all the strings that come with it.
***** – ThreeWeeks
**** – Fest
PHILLIPA AND WILL ARE NOW IN A RELATIONSHIP
Directed by Ant Cule
Cast: Jack Swain, Alice White
Running time: 30minutes
“Utterly cringeworthy and brilliant”- **** FringeReview HIGHLY RECOMMENDED SHOW
Meet Phillipa and Will: an oversexed, over-sharing Romeo and Juliet for the internet age. Misshapen Theatre presents Jonathan Brittain’s funny, filthy, bittersweet romance told entirely through a Facebook wall-to-wall. Follow these indiscreet young lovers through their courtships, break-ups, tantrums and make-ups. Think you know a cringe worthy couple? Think again. And it’s all true. Sort of…
“I laughed as I winced as I cringed” – **** BroadwayBaby
“entertaining and engaging” – The Scotsman
“OMG ROFL [HEART] ” – The Financial Times
MISSHAPEN THEATRE is playwright Jonathan Brittain, producer Lucy Jackson and PR/publicity Jack Swain, and we are proud to be supported by Old Vic New Voices. Follow us on Twitter at @misshapen_arts/@thefacebookplay.
Booking Information
The Sexual Awakening of Peter Mayo // Phillipa and Will are now in a Relationship by Jonathan Brittain
7.45pm, Tuesday 11 – Saturday 15 October
Theatre503, Latchmere Pub, Battersea Park Road, SW11 3BW
Box office: 0207 978 7040 // www.theatre503.com
Tickets £12/£9
The Sexual Awakening of Peter Mayo and Phillipa and Will are now in a Relationship were presented at the Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 3-29 August 2011.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011
This year I’ll be promoting comedian Thom Tuck, producing The Sexual Awakening of Peter Mayo and Phillipa and Will are Now in a Relationship by Jonathan Brittain with Misshapen Theatre, managing Zoe Lewis’s one-woman show Like a Virgin and assistant producing White Rabbit, Red Rabbitwith Volcano Theatre Company, Wolfgang Hoffmann and Remarkable Arts.
The Sexual Awakening of Peter Mayo
Thom Tuck Goes Straight-to-DVD
Phillipa and Will are Now in a Relationship
Like A Virgin
Misshapen Theatre/Leicester Comedy Festival
Misshapen Theatre has just come back from Leicester Comedy Festival, where Jon and Ashley put Jon’s play THE WAKE through its paces for two final performances, under the direction of Ant Cule and the supervision of me and Jack Swain. It’s safe to say that the moment that coffin was deconstructed and left for the skip must have been a cathartic one for all who sailed in her since THE WAKE’s inception as Jon’s twenty minute drama degree piece that won the Judges’ Award for Comedy at the National Student Drama Festival ‘09.
It was a fantastic show, full of impressions, twists and turns, sharp wit and filthy humour and more than a little touching humanity. Having come on board as Misshapen’s producer quite recently, I feel rather sad that I arrived at the tail end of its voyage. Onwards and upwards, however, with Jon’s new play, ‘The Facebook Play’ or PHILLIPA AND WILL ARE NOW IN A RELATIONSHIP. We’re taking it to the Brighton Fringe in May, and looking forward to having fun with a comedy drama based entirely on a couple’s Facebook wall-to-wall.
The Leicester Comedy Festival itself is branching out into comic drama as well as its regular plethora of excellent stand-up and character comedians, and Misshapen were at the vanguard this year, in the company of the delightful Terry Saunders and Caroline Horton. It has its work cut out to spread the word about this development, but we hope to do our bit and bring P&W up next year, proving that theatre can be both hilarious and poignant.
Lucy Jackson 