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Staged readings of new plays that confront modern day issues that face young people in the 21st Century. These are fundraisers to support the work of the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) in protecting young people from harm and abuse, including post show talks with the NSPCC.
Young Lives Today
Director | Prav MJ
Writer BODY & SOLD | Deborah Lake Fortson
Writer Faceless | Selina Fillinger
Writer Virtually Related | El Pilkington
Composer | José Albela
Assistant to Director | Andrew McRobb
Graphic Designer | Reinhold Mahler
Image| John Phillips
Director | Prav MJ
Prav MJ trained as a director at the ART (American Repertory Theatre) in Boston, USA and as a designer at LAMDA (London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art).
Her credits include: UK Premiere’s of Sket by Maya Sondi (The Park Theatre), The Lonely Soldier Monologues by US playwright Helen Benedict (The Cockpit Theatre), Six Rounds by US playwright John Oluwole ADEkoje (LOST theatre), Hamlet Smith by Spanish playwright Miguel Morillo, Lashings of Whipped Cream by New Zealand playwright Fiona Samuel (Nursery Festival), Fallujah by US playwright Evan Sanderson (The Cockpit) and Olives and Blood a play about Lorca by US playwright Michael Bradford (Brixton East), Pumpkin Patch & Newton’s Call by US playwright Patrick Gabridge (Chelsea Fringe Festival).
Her US credits include The Girl who Loved the Moon by Ann Marie Oliva (SLAMBoston 2007, Boston Center for the Arts) The Kiss by Mark Harvey Levine (FeverFest 2007, Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge, MA. USA)
Writer: Body and Sold | Deborah Lake Fortson
Deborah Lake Fortson is a Boston, USA based actress and award winning playwright. She trained in physical theatre with Jacques LeCoq and studied playwriting with Kate Snodgrass and Derek Walcott at Boston University.
Author of 20 plays about the actions and thoughts of women. Credits: physical theatre pieces Baggage and Mermaids (Institute for Contemporary Art, Boston, Boston Center for the Arts, Theater for New City, NYC). Surrealist feminist comedies: Her Dream Kitchen (Women’s Theatre Festival, Boston), Ah, Houdini!, Traveling Naked, Spackling (Women on Top Festival). Other credits: CRAZY JANE (Boston, Cambridge Youth Theatre & Edinburgh Festival, UK), BODY & SOLD: India (Boston). Deborah’s solo performance, BABY STEPS played in Boston, New York, San Francisco and Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
BODY & SOLD has won the Massachusetts Cultural Council award
Writer: Faceless | Selina Fillinger
Selina Fillinger is a Chicago, USA based actress and playwright. She is a recent graduate of Northwestern University, where she studied playwriting under the instruction of Laura Schellhardt.
Her original work includes The Armor Plays, Three Landings and a Fire Escape, and The Coho Salmon Pub & Grub. Selina was a two-time winning playwright in the university’s Agnes Nixon Festival. Three Landings and a Fire Escape was awarded the 2015 Judith Barlow Prize and received a reading in New York under the direction of Kathleen Chalfant. Faceless will premiere in Chicago, USA in February 2017 in Northlight Theatre’s 2016/2017 main stage season. She is one of three Chicago playwrights currently writing for Sideshow Theatre’s Freshness Initiative: her play, Something Clean, will receive a staged reading in June 2017.
Writer: Virtually Related | El Pilkington
El Pilkington is a young playwright and performance maker based in London. She performed and wrote for performance collective The Urban Foxes before beginning a Masters in Writing for Performance and Dramaturgy at Goldsmiths, from which she has recently graduated. El has developed a portfolio of work that is always asking questions and not seeking answers. Her original written work includes Antformation, Cuckoo and FRIDA and a television script written collaboratively, Black Rock. Virtually Related began as a short script which was selected by Tamasha Theatre Company to be read at their scratch night in June 2016. It was then commissioned by PMJ Productions to be developed into a full length play for Young Lives Today.
Composer | José Albela
José Albela is a London based composer, multi instrumentalist and also Acoustic Guitarist Of The Year UK nominee. As a musician and recording artist José has worked with Brian May, Adele, Kerry Ellis, Angie Brown among others. While working from his home studio in South London José also creates unique music for picture and theatre for a wide variety of clients.