Saturday March 6

 

All Day - Down Town Dance workshop with Thomas Lehman (Dance Studio)
Thomas Lehmen visits Leeds for the first time to lead a two-day workshop with choreographers and performers exploring a solo form of responses to the City. Lehmen is a German choreographer, dancer, performer and author based in Berlin. He works between dance, philosophy and theatre. With his pioneering work Schreibstuck, he aimed to re-define the borders between choreographer, author and dancer. The workshop continues on Sunday at the West Yorkshire Dance Centre.

 

10:00-10:30 Workshop Presentation with Lisa Blair and Eleanor While from West Yorkshire Playhouse (Alec Clegg Studio)
Since early February, Leeds University students have been participating in an intensive series of developmental workshops at West Yorkshire Playhouse, led by the Playhouse's resident assistant directors, Lisa Blair and Eleanor While. In this short demonstration of work-in-progress, the workshop team will give a presentation of two new plays by current students on the MA Writing for Performance and Publication: Allotment by David Purvis and Warped Image by Thomas Siddle.

 

10:30-11:00 Workshop Presentation of Secret Unveiled by Chao-yen Lu with Javier Stanziola (Alec Clegg Studio)

Join a journey to be involved in discovering a family secret that will pull them up from their own traps.

Emily and her mother Linda are on the move to a new house. 16-year-old Emily longs for love from Linda and freedom from her mother’s control. Linda expects Emily to be as successful as her away-from-home brother. Emily’s companion Addison prompts her to bridge up the communication between him and Linda but gets declined. Their balance breaks as Linda happens to know Emily is in a romantic relationship and possibly pregnant. As Emily decides to leave her mother, she refuses intervention from Linda. On the verge of the collapsing mother-daughter bond, Addison’s identity emerges.

Chao-yen Lu is a student in the MA Writing for Performance and Publication. Dr Javier Stanziola is Lecturer in Management and Cultural Industries at PCI and a published playwright.

11:15-1:00 Play-Structures as Training Mechanism in Contemporary Russian Theatre Laboratories led by Bryan Brown (Alec Clegg Studio)
As part of a larger HEIF awarded project, PCI doctoral candidate, Bryan Brown will facilitate a work demonstration with local actors investigating the training mechanism of play-structures made famous by Anatoli Vassiliev and elaborated upon by Petr Nemoy and his Teatrika laboratory. Expanding upon the research of Michael Chekhov and Mikhail Butkevich, play-structures is an approach to text that searches for the actions and ideas that are to come, rather than the internal, past subtext of the character’s ‘psychology’. This demonstration aims to present a basis of the play-structures approach that could be useful for directors, actors and writers. Brown spent two weeks last autumn in Russia at the School of Dramatic Art in Moscow as well as participated in training sessions and rehearsals with Teatrika in St. Petersburg. The work demonstration will be contextualized with history and video, and aims to create ample space for questions and audience feedback.

12:00 onwards In Cube by Steven Matthews (Foyer)

 

1:00-1:45 Break

 

1:45 Pout Productions, work demonstration (Alec Clegg Studio)
Pout Productions entertains and breaks through old misconceptions of what political theatre is. Producing a Pout involves a process of researching and re-interpreting public documents to produce work confronts art, theatre, film and documentaries. Pout comments on our generation’s acceptance of the information age. Pout is incendary politics. Pout is pop culture aesthetics. Pout is a beautiful nightmare.

Performers: Daniel Williamson, Emma Jackson, Craig Murray

 

2:15 Herstory by Maxine Fox (Stage One)
Herstory is an intimate exploration of one woman’s real life story. Experience four identical monologues delivered concurrently. Expect interaction, spoken word, dance, song and even a sweet or two!

Creative Director: Maxine Fox
Performers : Lucca Catterall, Isobel Rogers, Chloe Stott, Lorna Tinsley
Script Consultant: Joanne Hartley
Light Design: Peter Gray
Choreographer: Peter Laycock

Maxine Fox is primarily an actor, improviser, and performance artist. Her work is heavily influenced by her extensive grounding in feminist politics and her project work with disadvantaged women and children. She is currently undertaking an MA in Performance, Culture and Context at the University of Leeds.

2:45 A Wife of Dignity by Jan Perry (Alec Clegg Studio)
A woman reflects on forty years of marriage and concludes that appearances matter. Pride matters. More than anything.
A monologue written and directed by Jan Perry.
‘Wife’: Jan Thomas

3 onwards Ourstory by Maxine Fox (Ground Floor Cupboard)
Ourstory is a follow on one-to-one performance for specially invited guests from the Herstory audience. Share and create your mothering stories in this intimate ten-minute connection.

Creative Director and Performer: Maxine Fox
Light Design: Peter Gray
Set Design: Michaela Lesayova

 

3:15 Over the Hedge by Lee Sutton (Stage One)

A work-in-progress Script in Hand Performance

A mystery letter. A drunkard secret. A Polish farmer's demolished caravan.

When Tracey hires Lech to work on her garden as 'repayment' for wrecking his caravan, friction between mother and daughter grows as Amy feels further outcast by this stranger's arrival.

Can Tracey and Amy put their haunting past behind them or is this one garden that will never be rosy?

Lee Sutton graduated from the MA Writing for Performance & Publication in 2009. After joining the West Yorkshire Playhouse's new writing programme 'So you want to be a writer?' (May 2008), Lee has had plays performed at Contact Theatre (October 2008, April 2009) and joined Hull Trucks 'Playwrite' programme (Nov 2008 - Feb 2009). He is currently on young writing attachments with both the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse and The Royal Exchange, Manchester.

Director: Eyal Israel
Eyal Israel is the artistic director of Causality Theatre Company based in London. His recent credits include; Heroes Grave at the Old Vic, I cant even look in your eyes without shaking as part of the Old Vic 24 hour plays, The Search and Airport with Particular Theatre at the Hourglass Theatre in Exeter, and Innenfor Bortenfor in Drammen, Norway. He is currently working on his annual production of Shakespeare in the Streets which takes place on the streets of Liverpool in April, and the Causality Season taking place this summer in venues around London.

Cast
Margaret Cowen (TRACEY) - Ramblin' Boy (Live Theatre), Billy Elliot (Film), Tenants from Hell, Wire in the Blood (Television).

Steven Bellamy (LECH) - All's Well that End's Well (Theatre), Final Curtain (BBC Radio).

Victoria Holtom (AMY) - Branded (The Old Vic), Snow White (Leeds Carriageworks), Cinderella (Lyric Hammersmith).

 

4:15-4:30 Break

4:30-5:30 Elephant in the Room by Joanne Hartley (Alec Clegg Studio)

Following their success on the Midget Gems tour in 2008 and at Newstages 09, Northern Creative Theatre presents this trilogy of short plays.

The idiomatic expression ‘elephant in the room’ applies to an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed. Through three contrasting scenarios this trilogy explores the lengths we go to to avoid facing up to the uncomfortable parts of our realities, and the consequences of consistently burying our heads in the sand, refusing to face up to that which is staring right at us.

In 'Nature Nurture' we meet the dysfunctional Bagshaw family who coexist with an unspoken void between them .

Arnold – Peter Edmunds
Jean – Tanja Kane
Frank - Dean Murray

'Mother and I' explores and the nature of denial in addiction and the impact of alcoholism on family relationships.

Fiona - Sarah Louise Allison
Lucinda – Ruth Marston

'Also Pink’ acquaints us with a young woman who perpetuates her own dissatisfaction by allowing underlying issues in her marriage to go unaddressed.

Yvonne – Harriet Chandler

This project is presented as 'work in progress' and there will be an opportunity for the audience to feed back and to discuss the work after the performance. Alternatively, please email feedback to northerncreative@googlemail.com

Designed by Hannah Sibai
Sound design by Jonnie Khan and Maddie Vining
Lighting by Naomi Vandermolen

Joanne Hartley is a Leeds-based writer and director, currently undertaking an MA in Writing for Performance and Publication. Joanne is intrigued by theatrical representation/exploration of that which is unspoken.

 

5:30-6:30 Drinks reception (Foyer)

 

6:30 Green Angel by Adam Strickson (Stage One)
Green Angel is a staged performance of the first part of a new opera for young people based on Alice Hoffman’s haunting 2003 novella produced in the year after 9/11.

Left on her own when her family dies in a disaster, sixteen year old Green is haunted by loss and the past. Struggling to survive in a place where nothing grows and ashes are everywhere, she retreats into the ruins of a garden. But in destroying her feelings, she also begins to destroy herself.

Alice Hoffman is the screenwriter of ‘Independence Day’ and a best-selling American novelist. The adaptation is based on the Japanese Noh theatre form and is concerned with our contemporary relationship with nature in the face of a changing climate and international conflicts.

Green Angel is part of Adam Strickson’s PhD in Adaptation and Libretto and Lauren Redhead’s in Composition in the School of Music. It is co-produced with Opera North.

Cast
Waki: Old woman/neighbour
Shite: Green/Ash – singer/dancer: Aniko Toth: soprano

Ensemble
Singer (Chorus): Green/Ash: Jenny Daniels: soprano.
Accordion (Neighbour): Robin Bowles

Clarinet and bass clarinet (Green): Heather Roche
Cello (Ash): Emi Ergin
Percussion: Enrico Bertelli

Writer and director: Adam Strickson
Composer and musical director: Lauren Redhead
Advisory movement director: Jorge Balça
Design: Year 2 Performance Design students, PCI

Notes on the ensemble: Our ensemble is quite international. Professional musicians involved include Enrico Bertelli (York based Italian percussionist); Aniko Toth (Hungarian singer/dancer); Robin Bowles (accordion), Emi Ergin (Leeds based Swedish-Turkish cellist) and Heather Roche (rising young contemporary clarinetist based in Huddersfield). Some of the key musicians were involved in the stage@leeds July 2009 recording of sections of Red Angel, Adam and Ayanna Witter-Johnson’s full length opera based on the Sudanese Civil War.

 

7:00 Double Bill: Dog by Steven Berkoff and The Cold Calling by David Purvis and Patrick Rose (Alec Clegg Studio)

Dog by Steven Berkoff, performed by Duncan Marwick
One man and his dog - not a shepherd and his collie though, but a White Vanman and his Pitbull Terrier called Roy. First performed under the title ‘Pitbull’ by Berkoff in 1993, Dog still resonates today as football violence rearing its ugly head and the recent mauling of children by supposedly safe family dogs. Is it Roy’s ‘nature’ that makes him dangerous or is it the fact that he is ‘well trained’ by the man and the environment he lives in that makes him so?

Duncan Marwick started his training with The Scottish Youth Theatre and continued at The Welsh College of Music and Drama. He is a qualified teacher and is studying towards an M.A. in ‘Performance, Culture and Context’ at Leeds University. He is a skilled physical theatre practitioner, puppeteer, director and has worked professionally as an actor since 1996. Theatre credits include Victoria (Royal Shakespeare Company); Inconceivable, Trouble and Gluey and the Lion (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Trainspotting and MacBeth (York Theatre Royal); Sailmaker (Face to Face); The Man Of Mode (Northcott Theatre); Grave Plots (Old Red Lion). Film and Television credits include: The Young Persons Guide To Becoming A Rockstar (Channel 4), Titanic Town (BBC Films), The Royal (Yorkshire T.V.), The Creatives (BBC 2), Various Commercials. Radio and Voiceovers include: British Telecom (Scotland), Scottish Executive Public Service, General Electric (Worldwide), Colin McRae: Pedal To The Metal (Program Narration).

The Cold Calling by David Purvis and Patrick Rose

Carl has spent six years working in the same call-centre, selling novelty gnomes and trying to ignore the 24/7 exhortations to “enhance connections, entrance service-users”. His parents live on the Costa del Sol and his elusive flatmate Paul has smashed up the TV. Carl’s life has hit a dead end and he doesn’t even know it.

Actors: Edmund Digby-Jones (as Carl), Lucy Goss (as Kelly), Sophie Dixon (as Joanna) and
Duncan Marwick (as Aaron Poyles).
Director: Duncan Marwick
Sound and image design: James O'Brien
Lighting operator: Michael Burton.

David Purvis and Patrick Rose are currently studying on the MA Writing for Performance and Publication at University of Leeds. Both hope to write for radio, television, and film, and have already co-authored two plays for East Leeds FM.

8:00 The Arranged Marriage Live! (Stage One)

A collection of acerbic vignettes, dwelling in the possibility of comedic theatrical performance, The Arranged Marriage offers a sideways look at life through the prism of a complex ballet of raw emotion. Following a plaudit-laden run on Leeds Student Radio, The Arranged Marriage hits New Stages like an atom bomb on acid.

From pithy political satire to brutal knob-gags, The Arranged Marriage has something for everyone. Princess Diana’s favourite biscuits? Check. The romantic entanglements of a timorous teapot? Check. The heartwrenching tale of a prostitute struggling to maintain her stamina? Check.

Irreverent, malicious and downright stupid, The Arranged Marriage revels in the British comedic traditions of irreverence and, of course, genitalian joviality.

Not for the faint-hearted - offence may be caused. Especially if you’re a moron.

Directed and Produced by Ruth Kilner and Hannah Pidsley.
The Arranged Marriage was written by Grace Cunnington, David Purvis, Patrick Rose, James Olliver, James O'Brien and Ruth Kilner.
Cast: Victoria Ellis, James Olliver, Sarah Lawrence, Samuel G Lind, Ali Pidsley, Alex Clark, Sophie Romanik.
Set design and Costumes: James O'Brien and Esther Kilner.
Sound and Lighting: James Mulryan.