Milk Presents Is First Recipient of Camden People's Theatre's Home Run Commission

Theatre company Milk Presents has been announced as the first recipient of Camden People's Theatre's Home Run commission, for their new show BODIY (Working Title). The award will see the company supported with a £5,000 cash commission and free rehearsal space, as well as artistic, fundraising, marketing and business planning support, to develop their work-in-progress to a three-week run of a fully realised production in Autumn 2017.

In BODIY, mythology meets Ibsen meets gender negotiation. The piece explores our relationship to our forms and our futures to ask: can you have it all? Inspired by Ovid's Minotaur, a gender fierce ensemble of hopers and renegades try to pass, pack and blag their way out of the labyrinth.

Integral to the creation of the show are bi-weekly activism hubs: STUD SCHOOL. These will happen in London and Derby, the locations where the show is being made. STUD SCHOOL is a space for LGBTQ people, especially those who identify as gender queer/stud/butch/transmasculine, to enter into creative dialogue about gender: rant, rave, make cabaret, drag up, tear down, hang out. This will feed into a shared photography exhibition, which will ultimately tour alongside BODIY.

Milk Presents is the theatre company of Ruby Glaskin, Adam Robertson and Lucy J Skilbeck. They make theatre that is a protest and a celebration. Their work often explores the complexities and ambiguities of gender politics. Past work includes JOAN, a drag king show recounting the history of Joan of Arc; A Real Man's Guide to Sainthood, an exploration of masculinity by way of the story of St George; and Bluebeard: A Fairytale for Adults. They are a graduate company of Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.

The company was selected following an extensive period of scouting and interviews undertaken by CPT. Made possible thanks to the generous support of Jerwood Charitable Foundation, Home Run is a new scheme supporting early career artists making the transition from work-in-progress to a substantial run of a full production. Home Run will support three innovative Theatre Projects over three years (2016 - 2018). Each will be cultivated from R&D and work-in-progress programmes either at CPT or other venues, culminating in a run at CPT.

"The Home Run commission is designed to allow us to work in greater depth over longer periods of time with companies we believe are ready for a headline run of a fully realised production," said Brian Logan, Artistic Director of CPT. "We're hugely excited that we will have the chance to work with Milk Presents in this way: they're one of the most inventive theatre companies around, with political nous and an unmistakable trademark style. BoDiY promises to engage a diverse audience with a show that is theatrically innovative, inclusive and - most importantly - very entertaining. We can't wait to see what they do."

Ruby Glaskin of Milk Presents commented: "We're delighted to have received this commission. CPT is a venue we really respect and that really nurtures artists. A commission like this and an opportunity to have a proper London run is exactly what the company needs to progress and expand our artistic ambitions. This show will be our most ambitious show to date and this support will give us the best possible chance of making it happen."

Jon Opie, General Manager of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation, added: "It is a sign of the times that too many good ideas don't get out of the work in progress stage, for any number of reasons. In this project, a brave theatre, CPT, has committed to work with an equally fearless company, Milk Presents, and we are delighted to trust their judgement and dedication to see where this project might go. We can't wait to take that journey with them."

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