Guest Author - Page 4

This October, Monique Touko will direct Roy Williams’ Days of Significance at Milton Court Studio Theatre, with Guildhall School actors in the title roles. She spoke to BroadwayWorld about bringing the play to life at Guildhall drama school.

In 2015, I happened to walk past a striking poster with an image of a African man in what appeared to be some kind of high ranking military garb with a glass of dark liquor in one hand and a cigar in the other. I recognised this man. It was the late great Seun Shote.

When I graduated from Mountview in 2015 the word neurodivergent did not exist. It just didn't. People didn't talk about being Autistic, ADHD or any other invisible condition. Casting an autistic to play an autistic was unheard of.

It feels bleak for theatre at the moment. Not just for theatre. Coming off the back of Covid and a fresh round of funding cuts, in which we lost 100% of our Arts Council funding, we were left in a pretty bleak position ourselves. The choices for a production company, even one with 30 years of history and experience are to find more funding or close.

My show LORENZO is a tribute to a remarkable man called Lorenzo, who I lived with during Lockdown, as his end-of-life carer. It tells the story of our friendship, the adventures we shared, and speaks about people taking care of each other in the messiest of times. 

When I began re-reading the original material I instantly felt drawn to a circus backdrop in terms of design and aesthetic. A troop of entertainers, from the Ringmaster to the clowns, coming together to put on a show in a worn-out tent filled with the ammunition needed to put on a touring show, travelling away from home.

Black on Black is my solo dance performance that explores queerness, Blackness and the body as an archive. I’ve always been interested in complicating the boundaries of dance and this show is a kind of audio-visual, sensory performance set within a multi-screen visual installation of archive footage.

When making a show, If someone asks how long it ‘should’ take, for example, from initial idea to press night, I think I would have absolutely no idea what to say. It would either be a very short or a very long answer and neither would finish with a quantifiable number of days, months or years. 

In 2015 our newly formed theatre company, then called ‘The Pretend Men’, debuted our first ever piece of work at The New Wolsey’s ‘Pulse Theatre Festival’ in Ipswich. ‘Pulse’ is a curated festival for artists to develop, grow and connect with audiences, something we desperately needed to do in 2015. They have a wonderful competition called ‘The Suitcase Award’ where artists can present a 20 minute work-in-progress of whatever they are currently working on

Writing is hard, it is. It takes so much to complete something – even when you have completed it, you hate it. Then you love it, then you hate it again, and then you love it (sort of). Then you send it to a friend to read, and then you wait, then you chase, and then you wait again… you get the idea.

When history repeats…and how theatre can break the cycle.

At a time when far-right movements are undergoing a resurgence across Europe and beyond- even with the possibility of a future US president governing from a prison cell, it feels timely to be directing Farewell Mr Haffmann by Jean-Phillipe-Daguerre; a play about the persecution of Jews in Nazi occupied Paris.

What did our critic think of SUITE SURRENDER at Florentine Players? SUITE SURRENDER, written by Michael McKeever and produced by the Florentine Players in arrangement with Playscripts, Inc. is directed by Sara Scheidies with assistant director/stage manager Kaitlin Maher.

We’ve just completed week four of rehearsals for Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! Or should I say re-rehearsals - as the show already had a run at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

El Teatre Gaudí de Barcelona se convirtió esta semana en sala de debate.

The first time I met my castmates in Annie Get Your Gun, we were a mere 24 hours away from our very first performance. Unusual, yes. But the brand-new Lavender Theatre, in its inaugural season, had been invited to perform at West End Live! – a huge opportunity that could not be missed.

Theatre is a magical place where we can expect, perhaps even demand, to be taken on a journey, to evoke myriad emotions within us. Whether the story is filled with mystery, wonder, intrigue, jeopardy, sadness or excitement, the best theatre leaves us feeling invigorated and inspired. The best of theatre changes us forever.

Are professional performance and community participation two separate strands of work or should they seamlessly intertwine within an artistic project, a programme and an organisation? Should funding structures be separated out into professional and community work? Should they be equal priorities for publicly funded organisations?

My play The Empress first premiered at the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC),Swan Theatre a decade ago in 2013 under the Artistic Directorship of Michael Boyd. A decade later, this play is having a revival back in the Swan Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith with a new production, a refreshed script and a different director.

Picture this: the enchanting Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London, where the summer breeze carries the whispers of pure theatrical enchantment. And here I stand, ready to embark on an exhilarating journey as Marian (not Maid Marian!) in the captivating rendition of Robin Hood directed by Melly Still.