Theatre503 Announces 2020 Programming
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Dec. 10, 2019
Artistic Director Lisa Spirling today announces an entire year of programming for 2020 at the home of new writers, including the news that all four remaining finalists of the 2018 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award will be staged at the venue by November 2020. This follows on from the success of Award winner Out of Sorts by Danusia Samal premiering in October 2019. In February, the search for the best debut and emerging writers in the world will begin again as the 2020 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award opens for submissions.
The 2020 line-up is led by award finalists: Meat by Gillian Greer, directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson; In That Short Space by Joel MacCormack, directed by Nathan Curry; Before Evening Comes by Philana Imade Omorotionmwan, directed by Theatre503's Carne Associate Director Anastasia Osei-Kuffour; Milk and Gall by Mathilde Dratwa, directed by Lisa Spirling.
Other 2020 highlights include Andrew Rosendorf's debut play Paper Cut, directed by Scott Hurran, which was shortlisted (top 30) for the Award, and Foxes by Dexter Flanders, directed by James Hillier, discovered and developed by the Theatre503 Literary Team from its unsolicited script reading service.
The 2020 season opens with shorter runs of The Edit by Sarah Gordon, The Violence Series from The Other Room, Fragments of A Complicated Mind by Damilola DK Fashola, How To Save A Life by Stephanie Silver, and a weeklong festival inspired by Oberon Books' Hear Me Now Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour, curated by Titiloa Dawudu.
Business Development and Strategic Consultant Zena Tuitt also joins the Theatre503 board.
Lisa Spirling, Artistic Director:
"2019 was an incredible year for Theatre503. As well as the success of Danusia's beautiful play Out of Sorts, we had two of the Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award nominees, Yasmin Joseph (for J'Ouvert) and Ross Willis (who was also nominated for a Stage Debut Award, Writers' Guild Award, and multiple Off West End Theatre Awards for Wolfie). We also celebrated 10 years of Rapid Write Response - an initiative that has propelled many writers into great careers, including this year's Bruntwood Prize Winner Phoebe Eclair Powell, and its Judges Award winner Stuart Slade.
We follow this outstanding year by stepping up our ambition even further. We are thrilled to announce that every single remaining finalist of our 2018 International Playwriting Award will receive its world premiere on our stage by the end of 2020, unprecedented for any playwriting award. Theatre503 prides itself on matchmaking incredible writers with brilliant artists to bring their words to life and we can't wait to shine a light on these brilliant new voices exploring stories we haven't heard before on the UK stage."
7 January - 11 January 2020
The Edit
By Sarah Gordon, Directed by Joe Hufton
Produced by Kathryn Bilyard in association with Theatre503
"We're not a movie. We're not a sitcom. We're very real. I've never felt realer than when I was with you."
Five years ago Nick and Elena fell desperately in love. Two years ago they fell out of it. Now they're questioning whether they could, or should, take a chance on each other again. Together they were glorious. Together they were a disaster. It just depends on how you see it. The Edit has recently toured the UK.
15 January - 18 January 2020
The Violence Series:
Hela
By Mari Izzard, Directed by Dan Jones
The Story
By Tess Berry-Hart, Directed by David Mercatali
The American Nightmare
By Matthew Bulgo, Directed by
Produced by The Other Room in association with Theatre503
"It's chaos out there. Not that I'm complaining. Lotta profit in chaos."
The Violence Series is a trio of dystopian dramas set in a world that is familiar but on fire. Each play explores the themes that divide us and asks profound questions about the darker side of humanity. When does an act become violent? Should we really fight fire with fire? And how far would you go to avoid it?
21 January - 1 February 2020
Fragments of a Complicated Mind
By Damilola DK Fashola, Directed by Wofai
Produced by Initiative.dkf in association with Theatre503
"Being woke is no longer a taboo, it's a trend."
Expect belly laughs, uncomfortable truths and razor sharp switches from direct address, to sketches, through to full on dance and poetry. This darkly funny and masterfully crafted combination is steeped in witty word play and playful fearlessness. A scathing mix of shade and satire.
4 February - 9 February 2020
Hear Me Now presents LoveSexIdentityAmbition
Curated by Titiloa Dawudu
Produced by BlackFest, Theatre503 and in association with Tamasha Theatre
"I am proud to share this space with others who are changing how things are being done and creating legacies; I believe there is room for us all, we just have to hear each other. Now."
LoveSexIdentityAmbition is a weeklong festival of monologues taken from the book Hear Me Now Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour, co-created and edited with Tamasha, and published by Oberon. Each night the audience is invited to participate in discussions by a dynamic, high-energy host around what stories for women of colour are being told in the theatre, and how many more stories there's still left to tell. Writers in the festival include Femi Keeling (2017 BBC Writers' Room alumna and member of the Orange Tree Writers Collective), Rabuah Hussain (whose 4-star debut play Spun is being adapted as a TV series for Wall to Wall) and Guleraana Mir (Offie nominated playwright and one half of The Thelmas).
11 February - 15 February 2020
How To Save A Life
By Stephanie Silver, Directed by Stephanie Silver
Produced by Glass Half Full Theatre in association with Theatre503
"Sometimes you forget, that in life, sometimes, the littlest things are the nicest."
Melissa wakes up after collapsing at her Cancer party. And she can't tell you if she's dead or alive but she can tell you the story of her life. Join Melissa in this hilarious and heart-wrenching story of one women, one party and a cancer diagnosis.
19 February - 14 March 2020 (press night: Tuesday 25 February)
Meat
By Gillian Greer, Directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson
Produced by 45 North and Theatre503
"This is more about empowerment
about
reaching out to let others know
they're not alone, ya know?"
Two ex-lovers meet for a night of food, drink and reminiscing about old times, when a revelation sets them on a collision course like no other. As conversations about sexual assault become all the more prevalent in Irish society and beyond, two people desperately try to make sense of one bad night, seven years ago. Meat explores the complexities of consent in a relationship with humanity and heart.
18 March - 11 April 2020 (press night: Tuesday 24 March)
Paper Cut
By Andrew Rosendorf, Directed by Scott Hurran
Produced by Ecclesia in association with Theatre503
"It's the end of the Earth. And if I'm gonna f-ing die, at least want to die knowing I loved."
A young gay American soldier, Kyle, returns from Afghanistan after being injured in an IED blast. Only a paper cut. Or that's what he wants his friends, family, and a potential new love to believe. Paper Cut is a raw exploration of the physical and emotional toll of returning soldiers and how they navigate their way through another minefield of returning home. A love story through the prism of a soldier.
22 April - 16 May 2020 (press night: Tuesday 28 April)
Foxes
By Dexter Flanders, Directed by James Hillier
Produced by Defibrillator and Theatre503
"When you kissed me, I felt like I was flying!"
Foxes explores masculinity and identity within London's Caribbean Community and black street culture. The story follows Daniel, a young black man trying to keep up with his life, which is moving fast. When his relationship with best friend Leon brings an unexpected change it creates turmoil, bringing a taboo into his family home that has the power to tear the closest and most loving relationships apart.
20 May - 13 June 2020 (press night: Tuesday 25 May )
In That Short Space
By Joel MacCormack, Directed by Nathan Curry
Produced by Firehouse Creative Productions and Theatre503
"Maybe I'll learn for this to be enough. I'll do the living and he'll, he'll come and go."
It's Adam's Birthday and his fiancée Kayleigh is trying to remember him. She doesn't need to think hard to find the laughs, joy and love. But it's complicated. Eighteen months ago Adam took his own life and she is struggling. 2018 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award finalist Joel MacCormack explores the trauma of suicide (still the most likely cause of death for men under the age of 50) and its sustained impact on those left behind.
9 September - 3 October 2020 (press night: Tuesday 15 September)
Before Evening Comes
By Philana Imade Omorotionmwan, Directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour
Produced by Wrested Veil and Theatre503
"The Chaco Lizards would change the color of their skin. If only that were something that I could or that you would be able to do."
Before Evening Comes explores a future where the perceived threat that young boys of colour pose has finally been eliminated. The government mandates that once a boy turns thirteen, his right leg is to be amputated just above the knee. Before Evening Comes is a devastating and terrifying allegory for a future that no longer seems as far-fetched as we can imagine, potently written with poetry and dance.
14 October - 7 November 2020 (press night: Tuesday 19 October)
Milk and Gall
By Mathilde Dratwa, Directed by Lisa Spirling
Produced by Theatre503
"I used to be a person In Focus. Now I'm blurred. I'm just floating."
Giving birth the same night America brought forth its 45th and most divisive President, Vera is trapped in a world of diapers, breast pumps and padsicles while everyone else she knows is out marching. The personal and the political collide in this funny, surrealist play exploring the terror of the mundane. Milk and Gall holds up a microscope to the experience of being a new mother under Trump.
Tickets for Theatre503's 2020 Season will go on sale to the public on 10 December 2019. As part of the venue's continuing Share the Drama scheme a range of ticket offers are available, including:
For 4 week shows:
- 5 x £5 tickets every evening after opening night (also available for 1-2 weeks)
- £10 preview tickets (£5 for writers)
- £10 Parent & Baby Matinees
- Relaxed evening and captioned performances
- Pay What You Can Saturday Matinees (and 1-2 weeks)
- 2 x £2 tickets for first time SW11 residents (£10 thereafter)
BIOGRAPHIES
Sarah Gordon
Sarah is a graduate of the National Film and Television School and now writes for both stage and screen. She is currently under commission for the Stephen Joseph Theatre and is developing an original series with Big Talk Productions.
Tess Berry-Hart
Tess is a playwright and activist living in Wales, and was recently shortlisted for the inaugural BBC Wales/NTW Writer in Residence 2019 award. Tess's theatre credits include Cargo (Arcola) a play about refugees travelling in a cargo container, which has been translated into Turkish and toured by the Turkish National Theatre and two verbatim plays, Someone To Blame about a miscarriage of justice (King's Head) and Sochi about the anti-gay propaganda laws in Russia (Hope /Edinburgh Festival). Tess is also a founder member of refugee charities Calais Action and the Citizens of the World Choir and has volunteered in Northern France, Lesvos and Athens.
Mari grew up in Bridgend, South Wales and then trained as an actor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where she first started her writing journey as part of the training on the course. Since graduating she has worked as an actor for The National Theatre of Wales, Theatr Clwyd, Royal Shakespeare Company, Regents Park Open Air Theatre, S4C's Gwaith/Cartref and most recently Lord of the Flies for Sherman Theatre and Theatr Clwyd. Mari was inspired to write again after the passing of Victoria Wood, one of her many idols. This slowly snowballed into gaining one of Theatr Clwyd and Paines Plough's Writers in Residency positions as part of their TYFU/GROW scheme, where her confidence as a writer was nurtured further.
Matthew trained at LAMDA and works as an actor, playwright, dramaturg and tutor. He was the recipient of the Best Playwright award at the Wales Theatre Awards 2015 for his debut play Last Christmas and received the accolade again in 2017 for Constellation Street, which also picked up the award for Best Production. He is an Associate Director of Dirty Protest.
Titilola Dawudu
Titilola is a writer, producer and editor. She is a trustee for Theatre Centre and is an Associate Writer for Beyond Face, Plymouth. Titilola was the Learning and Participation Manager at Ovalhouse and is currently Programme Manager for Young People and Youthfulness for Coventry City of Culture. Her work has been performed at Theatre Royal Plymouth, Theatre Royal Arojah, Nigeria, Soho Theatre, The Bush, and Arcola, with a recent commission with Theatre Peckham. Titilola is part of the Black Women in Theatre team behind the iconic #WeAreVisible photoshoot of over 250 black women at The Globe Theatre in July.
Stephanie is the Artistic Director of Glass Half Full Theatre, new writing producer for campaign Actor Awareness and a proud working class artist. She wrote auto-biographical The Monologues of a Tired Nurse and her play C'est La Vie won an open submission and was produced by Owl and Cat Theatre in Melbourne, Australia. Stephanie also wrote, produced and assisted directed Our Big Love Story (Hope Theatre) which was nominated for Best of Fringe at The International Youth Arts Festival 2017. How to Save a Life was nominated for the SIT UP Awards 2019 and was part of Soho Rising 2019. Stephanie is also a registered children's nurse.
Gillian Greer
Gillian is a playwright and dramaturg from Dublin who has seen her work performed in The Abbey, Dublin, The Traverse, Edinburgh and all manner of London fringe venues, including Theatre503. Her debut play Petals was nominated for the Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play in 2015 and was recently adapted for radio. As a dramaturg, she has worked at The National Theatre, VAULT Festival, Clean Break theatre company, The Mercury Theatre and many more. Gillian was recently appointed Literary Manager of Soho Theatre.
Andrew Rosendorf
Andrew's work has been produced or developed at La Jolla, MCC, KC Rep, Signature Theatre, the National New Play Network, American Theater Company, Nashville Rep, City Theatre, Geva Theatre, Actor's Express, and Local Theater Company. He is an alumna of NNPN's Playwright-in-Residence program, the Ingram New Works program, terraNOVA Collective's Groundbreakers Playwrights Group, and has been a SPACE on Ryder Farm, Tofte Lake Center, VCCA, and MacDowell Colony Fellow. Andrew was a previous McKnight and Jerome Fellow at The Playwrights' Center. His play Cottontail was a runner-up for the Yale Drama Series Award. MFA: The New School for Drama, Playwriting.
Dexter trained RADA as an actor, upon graduation in 2017 his writing career took shape as his debut play Foxes was shortlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award 2018. He also was chosen to participate in The Royal Court Theatre's Introduction to Playwriting Group 2019. Foxes is Dexter's debut play.
Joel is a writer and actor from London and In That Short Space is his debut play. He was a member of National Youth Theatre's Write to Shine writers' group for which he co-wrote Our Days of Rage for the Old Vic Tunnels. His short plays include 90s Kid (Camden Fringe), Washed (Brighton Fringe) Sexy Buffting (Cockpit Theatre) and What We Are (Etcetera Theatre). Joel trained as an actor at RADA and has won a UK Theatre Award and Ian Charleson commendation for his work on stage.
Philana Imade Omorotionmwan
Philana is originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Her writing frequently considers how the processes by which people are othered can often lead to our bodies feeling like prisons. A 2018-19 Playwrights' Center Jerome Fellow, she has been a semi-finalist for the 2017 Relentless Award, a two-time Heideman Award finalist, and a finalist for the Princess Grace Playwriting Fellowship and the Playwrights Realm's Scratchpad Series. Philana earned a BA in English at Stanford University and completed an MFA in Playwriting at OU in 2018.
Mathilde Dratwa
Originally from Belgium, Mathilde lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Her plays, which include Milk and Gall, Dirty Laundry and A Play about David Mamet Writing a Play about Harvey Weinstein, have been developed and/or presented by the Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Rattlestick, LAByrinth Theater Company, the Great Plains Theater Conference, the Playwrights' Center, and the Young Vic. Mathilde is a member of Dorset Theater Festival's Women Artists Writing Group, a member of the Orchard Project's Greenhouse and a two-time Pulitzer Center grant recipient. Recently, she was a Dramatist Guild Foundation Playwriting Fellow, a member of New York Foundation for the Arts' Immigrant Artist Program and a co-leader of the FilmShop collective.
Zena Tuitt - new Theatre503 board member
Alongside a 14 year global career at Ernst & Young in business development, marketing and management consulting, Zena has worked with creatives over the last 20 years to create strategies to take their ideas from the page to the screen or stage by providing micro-funding, coaching, project management support and access to global networks. As an University of Sussex graduate in Media Studies, she started her career at The Voice Newspaper in 1992, followed by diversity and talent development roles at Channel 5, Channel 4 and the Edinburgh International TV Festival, later working in marketing and theatrical sales roles at Universal Video, Warner Bros. and Buena Vista and volunteering for the Bermuda International Film Festival.
Theatre503
Theatre503 is an award-winning theatre which supports and stages more debut and emerging writers than any other theatre in the country. Under the leadership of Lisa Spirling and Andrew Shepherd, the heart of this commitment is a belief that the most important element in a writers' development is to see their work on a stage, in front of an audience, performed to the highest professional standard. In the last year alone 121 debut and emerging writers had their work staged by over 1,000 artists in 76 productions, seen by 13,810 audience members at 397 performances. We received and reviewed 1,279 unsolicited scripts, 1,012 programming submissions and production invitations, 228 Rapid Write Response submissions and 413 applications for our 2019/20 503Five writers residency. Careers started at 503 include Tom Morton-Smith (Oppenheimer), Anna Jordan (Yen), Katori Hall (Mountaintop), Jon Brittain (Rotterdam) - the last two productions started at 503 and won Olivier Awards. Doctor Who, The Crown, Killing Eve and Succession are just a few of the programmes 503 alumni have written for this year, as well as productions in theatres all around the country and across the pond, proving we truly are a launchpad for debut and emerging writers into the industry.
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