Taking the Stage 2022 - Newly Commissioned
This second Taking The Stage brought EIGHT new plays to performance as finished plays, or first style “scratch” pieces. Several had been developed from their first outing by working with a dramaturg.
Tapestry by Chloe Todd Fordham
This started as a short scratch piece reading in our first festival in September 2019. For this second outing it was developed into a full length play ninety minute play. Arts Council funding allowed Chloe to work with dramaturg Lisa Cagnacci whilst she worked on the finished play.
Lisa Cagnacci
Lisa Cagnacci - 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.
We then further developed four of our scratch “Hidden Stories “ with the help of dramaturg Andy Routledge.
These plays were:-
- Daughter of The Waves by Lisa Lovell
- The Saltiness of Time by Shirley Jones
- Now You See Me by Carly Halse
- Darlint Peidi by Rosemary Hill
Andy Routledge
Andy Routledge is a theatre director and dramaturg. His directing credits include 60 Miles By Road Or Rail (Royal & Derngate), When We Died (Vault Festival, Edinburgh Festival) and Ventoux devised with 2Magpies Theatre (Curve, Summerhall and national tour). His assistant directing credits include Neaptide (National Theatre), B!RTH (Royal Exchange, Wellcome Collection), How My Light Is Spent (Royal Exchange, Sherman Theatre, Theatre by the Lake), Twelfth Night, Sweet Charity and A Streetcar Named Desire (all at Royal Exchange). He is the founder of 60 Miles by Road or Rail - an arts, heritage and community initiative in his hometown of Northampton that brings together theatre, photography, co-creation, oral histories, seminars and film. Andy trained in Theatre Directing at Birkbeck and was the resident trainee director at Royal Exchange. He regularly develops new work and has directed multiple script readings. You can find out more about Andy on his website: www.andyroutledge.co
A further three “scratch” pieces were also showcased across the four day festival
- Echo by Subika Anwar Khan
- The Well by Poppy Corbett
- Welcome to Mine by Francis Grin
