Coffee with Vera returns to the Plymouth History Festival during May, so if you haven’t had the pleasure of coffee with Vera yet, come along, it’s free. The show runs for 50 minutes and then afterwards there is the all important conversations with the coffee and, if we are lucky the kosher cake! WHEN ? Wednesday 11.5.16 @ 11am & … Read More
Homeward Bound is homeward bound
Next month we will be taking my current show Homeward Bound back to my roots. The show deals with our childhood dreams and I share the hopes of my mother and grandmother and the restrictions that were placed on them. I grew up in Bradford within a three storey household of women, three generations to be precise (one generation … Read More
Tunnelling for Stories
During the month of February I am facilitating, alongside Dr Phil Smith, the Sited Theatre module for first year students at Plymouth University and we will take them away from the safety net of the campus and into new spaces across the city. Ironically we have been based this week at the Plymouth Athenaeum which, among its many spaces, is … Read More
Great previews for Homeward Bound @BikeShedTheatre this Saturday
We have had great previews for Homeward Bound as it started the South West tour at the Brewhouse Taunton. The Western Morning News on Sunday had a lovely double page article written by Jemima Laing, which you can read here. Also Exeter Life has a great half page spread by Sue Carroll -see below and the British Baseball Federation have … Read More
Homeward Bound Autumn Tour
I’ve partnered with the South West Baseball League to create a tour of Homeward Bound, my show about my son’s love of baseball and my own Northern upbringing. From September it will be touring to all the south west towns and cities who have baseball teams that play in the south west baseball league. In receipt of a Homeward Bound … Read More
Coffee with Vera returns to the Plymouth Synagogue
When I first performed Coffee with Vera it was inside the vestry of the Plymouth Synagogue. My decision to use the vestry rather than the synagogue was twofold. The synagogue can be accessed through an appointment to view with a guided tour, conducted by the caretaker. It can be considered a performance in itself, which gives a particular reading of … Read More
Creative conversation or development discussion
When I travel from the south-west up the M5 beyond the turning for Bristol south and the airport you pass an orchard, row upon row of young apple trees in perfect straight rows at right angles to the motorway so you can see the precision of the planting. I don’t travel up with enough regularity to see the changing of … Read More
Bringing the audience into the cultural conversation
In August 2014 four women came together to research and develop the first draft of a new play The Orchard. It wasn’t even a first draft, it was two monologues for two actors. Although intended to be a dialogue playwright Natalie McGrath wanted to find the voices of the characters, she was finding one easier than the other and so … Read More
White Rabbit Red Rabbit
There’s an actor’s nightmare where you dream about being onstage but you don’t know the play you are in or any of your lines. I have had that dream many times in the past, usually when I am stressed about something that is often not related to theatre at all, but obviously, subconsciously, my greatest fear is the nightmare scenario. … Read More
Research for my @TheatreWestUK show
Believe it or not this is research for my next show. When you are there, at a baseball game, it is pure theatre. This clip is a mash up of Robert Redford in The Natural and the real life drama of the 1988 Kirk Gibson home run to win the World Series, which features in my new show Homeward Bound. … Read More