Mastering stillness and calm in our relentless day and age can quite understandably be a challenging feat to accomplish, our digital age continually keeping us connected to the outside world. Meditation a vital practise in helping to achieve a sense of living in the present and shutting off from distractions. Finding that a meditative environment was a byproduct of the creation of new piece IV, Bodyworker, Mixed Media Artist and Performer SERAFINE1369 (Jamila Johnson-Small) was able to achieve this in part due to sound designer Josh Anio Grigg’s score, amongst other factors. The show bringing together bodies in movement and stillness, in light and in darkness, and a speaking clock, to create a series of tableaux and moments of dancing with complete abandonment. Incorporating loose dancing emerging through tight structure, a system of movement and stillness – IV is a meditative play between instinctive rhythms and strict timing. Ahead of the show, to take place the from 25th to 28th April as part of the NOW23 Festival at The Yard, SERAFINE1369 tells us more about what to expect!
Manchester 18th April: Warner Bros. Discovery Access and WBD’s award-winning production company Wall to Wall North have partnered with the Royal Exchange Theatre to launch a 2023 Writers Access Programme, Supporting Powerful Storytelling. The aim of the programme is to help emerging theatre writers from under-represented backgrounds in the North of England who are looking to break into television. The Supporting Powerful Storytelling programme is now open for applications.
Courtesy of Eva Roefs.
It can often feel that we need to have a clear, decisive view of the world in order to thrive and survive, that strong opinions equate to your standing in the world. In a time where cultural wars are prevalent, not picking a side in itself could be seen as a rebellious act. Drawing on this further with current show Commitment Phobe to show at the Yard Theatre’s NOW23 Festival, writer and performer Ira Brand explores doubt in a world that values certainty. A live, physical and performative experiment, Commitment Phobe is dedicated to observing what it means to not pick a side in today’s inconsistent society. Ahead of the show, taking place from 2nd to 6th May, Ira tells us more about what to expect!
Hi Ira, you’ll be presenting your show Commitment Phobe as part of Yard Theatre’s NOW23 Festival from 2nd-6th May. How are you feeling ahead of the show?
Supporting an extraordinary six shows with £50,000 direct investment at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the 2023 Charlie Hartill winners have been announced by the Pleasance Theatre Trust. As Pleasance’s flagship fund offering unique and unparalleled support to theatre makers and comedians across the UK, these long-standing accolades provide a unique package of direct investment and mentoring support available across the Fringe. The fund seeks to remove financial risk for companies and allow creativity to take centre stage. Usually offering four opportunities for artists, one for emerging comedians, one for emerging theatre companies and two for UK-based Black, Asian and Global Majority-led theatre shows, this year the fund is supporting an unprecedented six shows due to the overwhelming quality of talent presented.
Sex and sexuality can often be tricky topics to openly navigate. These two worlds incredibly complex and personal, with experiences differing dependent on one’s perspective and life journey. Topics that are usually greeted with judgement and surrounded by stigma dictated by societal norms and cultural contexts, creating much needed safe spaces to explore and discuss these facets of humanity is becoming increasingly important in our day and age. Writer Mojisola Adebayo delves deeper into these realities with upcoming production STARS: An Afrofuturistic Space Odyssey, a play following protagonist Mrs– an old lady who goes into outer space in search of her own orgasm, her quest sparked by three encounters: a young neighbour who discloses a secret; an old friend who reveals she is intersex; and a would-be lesbian lover in a launderette who offers Mrs two drops of her own pressed lavender and a smile that says ‘I handle delicates with care’. Ahead of the production’s premiere at the Institute of Contemporary Arts from 18th April to 4th May, Mojisola tells us more about what to expect from the show! Continue reading
A figure not as well known to us here in the UK, Zejneba Hardaga, alongside the Hardaga family risked their lives to save the lives of Jews who faced the prospect of prosecution from the Nazis during WWII in Bosnia. An Islamic household, the gesture greatly showed the strength of community – the Hardaga family’s heroism seeing them rewarded with the ‘Righteous Among the Nations’ title post war, bestowed onto non-Jewish individuals who risked their lives to save others during the holocaust. Inspired by the efforts of this extraordinary family, writer and director Sabina Zejneba presents Sevap/Mitzvah, a film 50 years post war, where the tables have now turned and it’s now Zejneba’s turn to be protected from being hunted. Having recently taken part in this year’s Cleveland Film Festival, Sabina tells us more about the film. Continue reading
The Young Vic Theatre is delighted to announce director Taio Lawson as the 2023 Genesis Fellow / Associate Director, a two-year programme for experienced directors and theatremakers to develop their craft in directing, programming and artistic planning, made possible with support from the Genesis Foundation.
The tour of the Academy Award winning film An Irish Goodbye continues and this time the beautiful BAFTA and Academy award-winning film will play in the capital. Tom Berkeley and Ross White took home the Academy Award last month in Hollywood for this special live-action short which stars James Martin, the first actor with Down syndrome to star in an Academy award-winning film.
Following development work by the English National Opera (ENO), Arts Council England has set a budget of up to £24million investment for 2024-26. The company will now start the process of making an application to the Arts Council for an award up to this amount. ENO’s developing plans are based on a reimagined artistic and business model with a primary base out of London, whilst continuing to own, manage and put on work at the London Coliseum.
Owning who you are is a complex process, one that takes time to fully realise. Our teenage years a time where we start to consciously make some sort of sense of this – a time where we awaken and rebel. Sisterhoods a vital support system outside of our own families that further define our journeys. Initially premiering at the 2020 edition of the VAULT Festival, Joel Samuels and Lilly Pollard’s punk rock musical Sugar Coat returns to the Southwark Playhouse stage with its unapologetic observation of a young woman’s journey from adolescence through to early adulthood.
Courtesy of Ali Wright.