An evening of new devised theatre ideas, created by professional artists from around the West Midlands, made especially for the World Shakespeare Festival.
The Royal Shakespeare Company has teamed up with regional ‘scratch night’ PILOT to create a special evening of new theatre, offering audiences a unique insight into how brand new theatre ideas are formed and staged.
Five artists will create a new theatre work, inspired by the region’s most established artist, exploring ideas around Shakespeare’s relevance today and his legacy within everyday culture.
With the support of the RSC’s creative team, the successful artists will be developing their ideas over the coming months in preparation for showing their new pieces of theatre as ‘works in progress’ at the Courtyard Theatre in July.
The five regional artists/companies taking part in RSC PILOT night are:
Talking Birds
www.talkingbirds.co.uk
Talking Birds is based in Coventry. Since 1992 the Company has been producing performance work that is characterised by a distinctive blend of humour, music and visuals, in a diverse range of venues - from the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank, to Kilkenny Livestock Mart; from a giant underground car park in Scarborough, to a decommissioned hospital in Coventry. Their current show We Love You City will be running at the Belgrade Theatre, Coventry during May 2012.
Caroline Horton and Teasel Theatre Company
www.carolinehorton.net www.teaseltheatre.co.uk
Caroline Horton is a Birmingham based theatre maker, currently developing a new show Mess commissioned by Warwick Arts Centre, Battersea Arts Centre, London. It will premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe 2012 at the Traverse Theatre. Her first show You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy (commissioned by mac, Birmingham and Warwick Arts Centre) won Best Solo Performer in the 2010 Stage Awards at the Edinburgh Fringe and the show has since toured nationally and internationally. Caroline is an associate artist at The Bush Theatre.
Teasel Theatre Company is currently touring nationally with Grisly Tales from Tumblewater, a one-man family show.
Kindle Theatre
www.kindletheatre.co.uk
Kindle Theatre is based in Birmingham. They create projects ranging from a large scale theatrical banquet to a sweaty rock gig and often including food and live music in their performances. Their current show The Furies smashes together rock, metal and soul songs in a drastic retelling of the ancient story of Clytemnestra – presented through original music, vocal-scapes and stark imagery. The work has recently completed a four week run at The Old Vic Tunnels in London and is currently touring the UK.
Graeme Rose
www.graemerose.com
Graeme is a Birmingham based theatre-maker and co-founder of Stan's Cafe. He is an Associate Artist with Bodies in Flight, Red Shift and Australian music-theatre specialists Various People Inc. and a player with experimental music ensemble The Modified Toy Orchestra. Graeme has just returned from performing at the Adelaide Festival in Australia and will be working with Talking Birds, Stan’s Cafe, Bodies in Flight and Kindle Theatre as a performer and director over the coming months.
Lucy Ellinson
Lucy Ellinson is an actor and director and is associate artist with Third Angel and Forest Fringe. Lucy has long-term collaborations with artists including Chris Goode and Unlimited Theatre. She has toured extensively in the UK and internationally, presenting work at venues including The Barbican (BITE), National Theatre (Square2 Festival and NT Studio), Golden Mask Festival in Moscow, National Theatre of France (TNS/Strasbourg) and National Theatre Sarajevo (Future:MESS).
At the Edinburgh Fringe in 2009, she was nominated for the ‘Best Solo Performance Award’ as part of The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence for her role in Land Without Words. She is currently performing in Jane Packman’s production A Thousand Shards of Glass.
