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New Plays By Emerging Artists
Script Accelerator 2014
FULL OF BEES
Playwright
Rick Bland
Rick started his career as an actor. Selected credits include 8 years with the Reduced Shakespeare Company on tour and at the Criterion Theatre in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged), The Complete History of America (abridged), The Bible, The Complete Word of God (abridged), originating the role of Jerry Springer in Jerry Springer the Opera (BAC, Edinburgh Fringe), writer, producer and actor in THICK (Winner Best Actor Fringe NYC, Outstanding Artistic Excellence, Brighton Fringe) Angel, Made In Heaven (Mark Bruce Company, National Tours), Generous, Strike (Finborough). Radio includes The Stone Diaries, Unless and Annabel, (BBC Radio 4). He has also worked as an animation producer with the Oscar winning company TANDEM, recently producing 78 animatics for the upcoming CBeebi es show, Bing Bunny which starts airing 9th June, 2014.
Director
Eleanor Rhode
Eleanor trained at Mountview and the National Theatre Studio, and is a former Staff Director at the National Theatre. Directing credits include A Life by Hugh Leonard and the Time Out Critics’ Choice productions of The Drawer Boy and Generous (all Finborough Theatre) and Thark (Park Theatre), The Gypsy Thread (National Theatre Studio), The Error of Their Ways (Cockpit Theatre). As Associate Director, Lie of the Land (Arcola Theatre).
Movement Director
Darren Ellis
Artistic Director of Darren Ellis Dance, Danced with Mark Bruce Dance Company, Jeremy James Dance Company, Matthew Bourne (Tony Award winning Swan Lake original cast, Cinderella, Nutcracker! and Play Without Words), Random Dance Company, Richard Alston Dance Company and Unbroken (Gate theatre). His work includes Romeo Error (for Evolution at The Place) Tempt My Better Angel (SPNM project for RADC); No More Ghosts (2008) for the Richard Alston Dance Company. Sticks and Bones, From the Waist Up (Place Prize Finalist) and After Effects. His company is currently touring Mr Boom.
HAPPY TO HELP
Playwright
Michael Ross
Michael was shortlisted for Off West End.com’s ‘Adopt A Playwright Award 2014’ and his script Hungry Heart was selected by the Writers Guild for the ‘Plays of Innocence and Experience’ script development programme at RADA in 2012. His other works include Armed Forces Day (Arcola/Riverside Studios), Saving Souls In Soho (Greenwich Theatre), Don't Ask, Don't Tell (Theatre 503), Dare Me To The Desert (Kings Head) and Rats Nests (the Old Vic Tunnels). He was twice a finalist in the REDfest New Writing Festival at the Old Red Lion and has also written the comedy web series Equality & Diversity and the short films Nothing But Mammals and Dawn Rescue (Portobello Film Festival 2012).
Director
Gemma Kerr
Gemma trained on the MFA Theatre Directing at Birkbeck, University of London, and on the National Theatre Studio Directors Course. She is an Associate Director of Omnibus Clapham and of Forward Theatre Project (an Associate Company of Paines Plough) and runs High Hearted Theatre. Credits include Airswimming (Courtyard Theatre), Hitting Town (Southwark Playhouse), Scarberia (York Theatre Royal), Cheer up, this is only the Beginning (High Hearted at Liverpool Playhouse) and This Place Means (High Hearted at Greenwich & Docklands Festival. She will be directing Macbeth at Omnibus in November 2014.
BROKEN
Devised, Written & Directed by
Arinda Alexander, Tansy Adair and Law Ballard
Upstanding Productions
True to the name Upstanding Productions produces Theatre and Film of the highest standard. Focusing on work that questions challenges and entertains, ensuring a broad and diverse audience, engaging London’s global culture. Specialising in Contemporary work that address social, political and worldwide affairs. We are dedicated to generating accessible theatre and film for all. Upstanding Productions will ensure the project reaches its full potential whilst preserving the integrity, voice and original vision of the piece.
Dramaturgy by
Cecily Boys
EVEN
Playwright & Director
J. Dulin Jones
J. Dulin Jones has written feature films for Sony, Paramount, Fox and Disney-Touchstone/Oprah Winfrey. Her original TV series Gramercy Park has been sold to Fox TV Studios. The team for the series include: directors, Mike Newell and Scott Winant plus producers Brenda Friend and David Parfitt. The series will be shot in the UK. She is currently writing, Trinitas a new play about human trafficking. Her film, What If God Were The Sun, garnered SAG, Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for the star, Gena Rowlands. She is a member of the WGA and was a WGA Nicholl Award Finalist.
NAUGHTY POUR HOMME
Writer
Leon Parris
Co-Writer
Jon Smith
Director
Jez Bond
In 1996, at the age of fifteen Leon Parris began writing his first musical. In 2000 Leon became the youngest ever winner of the Vivian Ellis Award for his musical Going Once. He also received the Really Useful Group Award for most promising writer, the Mercury Workshops Award for best lyrics, the Warner Chappell Award for best music and was awarded the Cameron Macintosh Bursary the following year. Over the next few years he composed the music to the best selling sci-fi audio trilogy Earth-search Mindwarp for Big Finish, music for Jonathan Hall’s play Hardcore and continued to write music and lyrics for multiple musicals including The Count of Monte Cristo which debuted in the Birmingham Hippodrome in 2004 and Scary Musical which enjoyed two sell out runs in the Waterfront and Belvoir Theatres in Belfast. In 2008 Leon teamed up with Russell Labey to write the music for the play Stig of the Dump. Following this they continued their collaboration and Leon wrote music and lyrics for The Famous Five musical at the Tabard Theatre London in 2009 and Wolfboy which, after two successful fringe productions in London and Edinburgh, ran for a month at The Trafalgar Studios in London’s West End in 2010.
Jon Smith is an internationally published, best-selling author of twelve books including The Bloke's Guide to Pregnancy (Hay House) and Get into bed with Google (McGraw-Hill). Writer, with Leon Parris, of two staged musicals - Monte Cristo (Birmingham Hippodrome, 2006) and Scary Musical (Belfast Waterfront, 2010) he has been writing professionally for a decade. Awarded a MA in Screenwriting from Bournemouth University, Jon is currently developing a slate of feature films, TV dramas and sitcom formats. He lives in London.
Jez Bond graduated Hull University with a BA Honours in Drama and was awarded the prestigious Channel Four Theatre Director Bursary, under which he trained at Watford Palace Theatre. In 2010 he rallied round the theatre community, garnering support from the likes of Ian McKellen, Alan Rickman, Stephen Fry and others, to found Park Theatre – leading the £3m project and taking the reins as Artistic Director when it opened, to critical acclaim, in 2013. ★★★★★ "A spanking new five-star neighbourhood theatre." Independent. Jez has been a guest speaker at the Theatres Trust Conference: Converting Spaces, the RIBA Conference: 150 years of Engineering, Bruford on the Southbank: New Build / ReBuild and The International Theatre Conference in Colombia. He was recently named in the Evening Standard’s Power 1000 (2013); a list of the thousand most influential Londoners, and in GQ magazine (2014) as one of the 100 Most Connected People in Britain. As a director his credits include; Sleeping Beauty (which he co-wrote) and Adult Supervision (both for Park Theatre), The Fame Game (Tour of Austria), Sleeping Beauty (Salisbury Playhouse), Oliver! (starring Rowan Atkinson, Oxford), I Have Been Here Before (Watford Palace Theatre), The Twits (Tour of Switzerland), Misconceptions (Hong Kong Arts Centre), Big Boys (Croydon Warehouse), Shot of Genius (Leicester Square), Canaries Sometimes Sing (Kings Head & France) and A Season in South Africa (Old Vic). As a dramaturge he has worked with writers at Soho Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Royal Court and Young Vic.