Taking the Stage 2022 - Debate

How can we build the future of theatre? What have we learned from the pandemic?

April De Angelis, Chloe Todd Fordham, Rosemary Hill & Polly Kemp (ERA 50:50).

Chair

April De Angelis - Playwright

April De Angelis is a British dramatist who began her career as an actress with the Monstrous Regiment theatre company in 1987.She began writing plays in 1987 and her work includes Jumpy, Breathless, Women in Lone, Wonderlust, Visitants, Ironmistress, Crux, Frankenstein, The Life and Times of Fanny Hill, Hush, Greed, Soft Vengeance, Playhouse Creature, The Positive Hour, A Warwickshire Testimony, A Laughing Matter, Headstrong, Wild East, Catch , Wuthering Heights and Gin Craze.

Chloe Todd Fordham - Playwright and dramaturg

Chloe is an award-winning writer from London. Her work explores intimate human relationships and big global stories in the same breath and calls for change by exposing broken systems with stories with heart. Her play Sound Of Silence won a Bruntwood Prize Judges Award. Her play The Next Generation was shortlisted for the Writers in Theatre Award and her play Land’s End was shortlisted for Theatre503’s Playwriting Award. Her audio play Rage was produced in 2020 by Small Truth Theatre’s Digital Caravan season, which won 3 Oncomm Awards and was an Offie Series finalist. She is co-founder of Where’s My Vagina?, an inclusive feminist theatre collective, which has created work for Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of Women of the World Festival (VAGINA LAUNCH) as well as digitally (The Unviable Cabaret). Chloe’s short plays include: Centre Ground (Kensington Karavan), The Nightclub (Hampstead Theatre; published in Women Centre Stage) and Elexion (Theatre503). She is one of Sphinx Theatre’s seed-commissioned Sphinx30 writers.

Rosemary Hill - Artistic Director The Play’s The Thing Theatre Company

Rosemary first worked as an English and Drama teacher and then trained as an actor at the Drama Studio, London. She worked briefly on the London fringe before accepting a job at the BBC as a director and producer where she worked for twelve wonderful years in radio and TV and in both drama and documentary. Her work took her all over the world, often working in challenging environments making programmes about controversial issues such as FGM, HIV and motherhood, maternal health, women’s rights and girls’ education in developing countries. She went freelance in 1999 and continues to work in the media where she has produced award winning programmes for BBC World Service and BBC Education. She has also made several short films. Her first love though is the theatre and she founded The Play’s The Thing Theatre Company in 2008. Rosemary has wide experience in directing ranging from Shakespeare, Ibsen and Chekhov to more modern classics such as Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh and of course plays by remarkable women playwrights such as Bryony Lavery, Caryl Churchill and Timberlake Wertenbaker. She has also directed new work and is passionate about creating more opportunities for women playwrights, directors and actors. Rosemary is also very interested in mental health and in 2018 she qualified as a psychotherapeutic counsellor after three years of training. She now works for Mind and YiS (Youth Counselling) part time and has a private practice. Rosemary is a member of Stage Directors UK and Equity.

Polly Kemp - Actor Co-founder of ERA 50:50 Equal rights for actresses

Polly Kemp has been an actress for 30 years with a wide ranging career in theatre, TV and Film. With friend Elizabeth Berrington, based on the collective experience of many of her colleagues, she cofounded and now runs a successful grass roots campaign for equal representation for actresses across UK theatre, Film and TV called ERA 5050. With over 7000 members, amongst the most notable supporters ERA’s badge has been worn on the red carpet by James Nesbitt, Shazad Latif, Kobna Holdbrook Smith, Olivia Colman and Phoebe Waller Bridge.

Where are we now with diversity and inclusion?

Shirley Jones, Lisa Lovell, Subika Anwar-Khan, Roshmi Lovatt

Shirley Jones - Playwright & Actor

The winner of the adjudicator’s special award for her one-act play at the All[1]England Drama Festival, Shirley Jones is a former journalist who has lived in Milton Keynes for 25 years. She currently writes commissioned pieces for special events, mystery evenings and pantomimes while also undertaking acting and directing with local community groups and for corporate clients. During lockdown she developed a series of thought-provoking monologues - Lone Voices - which can be found on You Tube and most recently contributed to developing the mini-panto “Rats!” for the Open University when a larger production had to be shelved because of Covid rules. Having taken a career detour to provide care and companionship for her frail mother she has some experience of the themes explored in The Saltiness of Time and is interested in the long term implications of an ageing population and how the right infrastructure of support might be developed.

Lisa Lovell - Poet, Actor & Playwright

Lisa is a poet and actor who has been performing for many years with various local groups. She has a love for community work, youth work and education and is passionate about theatre as education. A versatile artiste who has been fortunate to tour parts of the UK, perform at the National Theatre in Ghana and for the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Subika Anwar-Khan - Playwright & Actor

Subika Anwar-Khan studied Creative Writing and English Language at University and has since developed scripts with various theatre companies including Paines Plough, Camden People’s Theatre, Curve Theatre, Kali Theatre, Royal and Derngate, New Perspectives, Tamasha theatre, The Belgrade Theatre, Birmingham Rep, The Roundhouse, Nabokov theatre, DryWrite, Theatre Writing Partnerships. Subika also took part in The Royal Court’s writers group and was the contributing writer for a short film Soci Circle, a web series for young people, which won the Dances with Kids award in Los Angeles. Her play Stateless, produced by Kali Theatre and performed at the Tristan Bates Theatre, examined how warfare is perceived during a time of global uncertainty. Her play Princess Suffragette was performed at The Vault Festival 2016 and Subika was also the Writer and Performer of her solo show Divided, commissioned by Camden People’s Theatre and Hopscotch Asian Womens’ charity where it was performed. www.subikaanwarkhan.com

Roshmi Lovatt Integrative Arts Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor

Roshmi worked in the Arts and Health field before training as an Arts Psychotherapist. She runs a clinic offering counselling, psychotherapy, arts therapies, supervision and reflective practice. She has an interest in supporting professionals to work sustainably in jobs which induce burn out, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma. This has included work with arts practitioners, arts therapists, community artists, teachers, justice service workers, NHS staff and refuge workers. Roshmi has a trauma informed, relational, embodied, creative and social justice led model of working. She is a champion around issues of diversity and power, often giving voice to the unspoken in order to address dis-ease at individual, relational, societal and political levels. Her passion is to engage people in conversations around race, diversity, power, position and privilege in order to understand how white spaces can become more accessible and safe in relation to black and brown identities.

What share of the cake?

Lisa Cagnacci, Poppy Corbett, Francia Grin, Rosemary Hill

Chair

Lisa Cagnacci - Director & Dramaturg

Lisa Cagnacci is a director and dramaturg who has worked as Associate Artistic Director at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough; Associate Artistic Director at Theatre503, London; and Associate Director at Southwark Playhouse. As a dramaturg, she has worked with playwrights including Dawn King, Vinay Patel, Brad Birch, Jon Brittain, Milly Thomas, Janice Okoh, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Chloe Todd Fordham. Directing includes: I Am No Bird (Stephen Joseph Theatre / Bronte Parsonage Museum), Fox (Pleasance), The Nightclub, Fucking Feminists (Sphinx / Hampstead Theatre), We Wait In Joyful Hope, Animals, Dog Days (Theatre503), Billy Chickens Is A Psychopath Superstar (Theatre503 / Latitude), Anansi: An African Fairy Tale (Southwark Playhouse), Hannah_27: Valiant Adventures in Online Dating (Made From Scratch / Latitude). Lisa is Associate Director of Sphinx Theatre Company. She also teaches directing at Morley College.

Poppy Corbett - Playwright, Director & Theatre Academic

Poppy Corbett is a writer, director, and theatre academic based in London. Last year she was a playwright on the Old Vic 12 scheme, writing a contemporary farce, Fake Melania. In 2013 her play Hatchling was the winner of the Theatre Royal Haymarket’s inaugural ‘Pitch Your Play’ competition, run by their in-house charity Masterclass. Poppy has developed a special interest in writing plays that draw on historical archives. In 2019, she was Research Associate on the project ‘Creative Histories of Witchcraft’ at the University of Bristol, working collaboratively with the poet Anna Kisby, and the historian Dr Will Pooley. She is currently Lecturer in Creative Writing at Newcastle University, with a focus on teaching theatre script. She has a PhD in contemporary theatre of the real, and supervises theatre practice, applied theatre and producing students at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

Francis Grin - Playwright & Dramaturg

Francis is a playwright and dramaturg based in Margate, Kent. She is originally Dutch but has been working in the UK since 2010. She completed her MA in Writing for Performance at Goldsmiths and went on to work as the Literary Manager at the Finborough from 2012-2016. Her plays have been presented at theatres including Southwark Playhouse, The Vaults, The Space, The Bread & Roses, Soho Theatre and The Pleasance. She has been long-listed for The Papatango Prize, The BBC Writersroom Drama and The Women’s Prize for Playwriting. Francis has co-founded Mrs C’s Collective, an associate theatre company at The Space in the Isle of Dogs. The company launched a ‘Writers’ Collective’ which supported ten early career writers through a free online program throughout lockdown, as well as regular workshops, a monthly ‘Reading Room’ and a large virtual database which allows UK based creatives to easily connect.

Rosemary Hill Artistic Director The Play’s The Thing Theatre Company

Rosemary first worked as an English and Drama teacher and then trained as an actor at the Drama Studio, London. She worked briefly on the London fringe before accepting a job at the BBC as a director and producer where she worked for twelve wonderful years in radio and TV and in both drama and documentary. Her work took her all over the world, often working in challenging environments making programmes about controversial issues such as FGM, HIV and motherhood, maternal health, women’s rights and girls’ education in developing countries. She went freelance in 1999 and continues to work in the media where she has produced award winning programmes for BBC World Service and BBC Education. She has also made several short films. Her first love though is the theatre and she founded The Play’s The Thing Theatre Company in 2008. Rosemary has wide experience in directing ranging from Shakespeare, Ibsen and Chekhov to more modern classics such as Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh and of course plays by remarkable women playwrights such as Bryony Lavery, Caryl Churchill and Timberlake Wertenbaker. She has also directed new work and is passionate about creating more opportunities for women playwrights, directors and actors. Rosemary is also very interested in mental health and last year she qualified as a psychotherapeutic counsellor after three years of training. She now works for Mind and YiS (Youth Counselling) part time and has a private practice. Rosemary is a member of Stage Directors UK and Equity.

What has happened since #MeToo?How has the industry dealt with sexual harassment?

Maureen Beattie, Rosemary Hill, Carly Halse, Sarah Berger

Chair

Maureen Beattie – Equity President

Maureen graduated with the James Bridie Gold Medal from what is now The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 1974, and has been working as an actress and director ever since. In 2018 she became Equity’s second ever female President following in the footsteps of Beatrix Lehmann in 1946. In response to the revelations about bullying and harassment in the entertainment industry in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, she formed and led a working party which produced the union’s Safe Spaces campaign and its Agenda for Change. In 2018 she was named one of The Saltire Society’s Outstanding Women of Scotland and was awarded an OBE in the 2020 New Years Honours for services to the entertainment industry.

Rosemary Hill- Artistic Director The Play’s The Thing Theatre Company

Rosemary first worked as an English and Drama teacher and then trained as an actor at the Drama Studio, London. She worked briefly on the London fringe before accepting a job at the BBC as a director and producer where she worked for twelve wonderful years in radio and TV and in both drama and documentary. Her work took her all over the world, often working in challenging environments making programmes about controversial issues such as FGM, HIV and motherhood, maternal health, women’s rights and girls’ education in developing countries. She went freelance in 1999 and continues to work in the media where she has produced award winning programmes for BBC World Service and BBC Education. She has also made several short films. Her first love though is the theatre and she founded The Play’s The Thing Theatre Company in 2008. Rosemary has wide experience in directing ranging from Shakespeare, Ibsen and Chekhov to more modern classics such as Abigail’s Party by Mike Leigh and of course plays by remarkable women playwrights such as Bryony Lavery, Caryl Churchill and Timberlake Wertenbaker. She has also directed new work and is passionate about creating more opportunities for women playwrights, directors and actors. Rosemary is also very interested in mental health and last year she qualified as a psychotherapeutic counsellor after three years of training. She now works for Mind and YiS (Youth Counselling) part time and has a private practice. Rosemary is a member of Stage Directors UK and Equity.

Carly Halse – Playwright and Actor

Carly trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has a passion for devised theatre and new writing. She has also worked extensively in the performance art world, most recently with Marisa Carnesky and Duckie. Carly is an Associate Artist with The Play’s The Thing Theatre Company and is delighted to have been supported in developing Now You See Me as part of this festival. Theatre credits include: Minnie in I, Minnie Lansbury (RADA Studios); Splendour (Stantonbury Theatre); Second Movement (Barbican); The Wind in the Willows (Alban Arena); Presto and Clown (Old Fire Station, Oxford); Nora in A Doll’s House (Stantonbury Theatre); Paper Dolls (Etcetera Theatre); Carnesky’s Tarot Drome (Old Vic Tunnels); Proper Night (Roundhouse Studio); Neon Fairytale (Contact Theatre, Manchester); Your Number’s Up (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh); One Act Play Festival with The Play’s The Thing; Bare Essentials with Encompass Productions; A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet.

Sarah Berger – Actor, Director and Producer

Whilst still at drama school Sarah was cast as Abigail in the first British televised production of The Crucible. Her long career as an actress has included three seasons at The RSC, five West End Shows; playing leading roles and many national tours of playwrights ranging from Noel Coward to Alan Bleasdale. TV credits include: Murphy’s Law, New Tricks, The Green Man, The Scarlet and the Black, Doctor Who, Casualty and Holby City. Directing credits include new wrting: Last Confessions of a Scallywag, The Long Road South, Lulu 7, American Venus, The Marvellous Adventures of Mary Seacole, The Mythmakers and Love Loss and What I Wore by Nora Ephron. Other directing credits include: Theatrica Domestica, The Country Wife, The Heidi Chronicles, It must have been the Shoes, Build Lilli, Canvas, Leno. She is producing an international project, We Are Here chronicling the lives and achievements of women over 50 all over the world. She is actively seeking international collaborators for this project as she would like to hold events on every continent. Sarah has been nominated twice for the Guilder Coigney International award honouring women artists from across the world who have made a significant contribution to world theatre. In 2018 she was a finalist in the Global Women awards.