Upper Cut Table Read

Last week we were able to have a table read of the brand spanking new version of Upper Cut at the Invisible Dot in Kings Cross. I was also really lucky to be able to get my mentor Topher Campbell who is the Artistic Director of The Red Rooms and his comments and thoughts were really helpful to us moving forwards and we are moving forward at quite the pace. A few weeks ago I tweeted that I had received some fantastic news well here it is *drumroll please* Upper Cut is supported by The Kevin Spacey Foundation and they have very kindly offered us financial support for the next stages of our Reasearch and Development!

We are really pleased to have their support particularly as the idea for Upper Cut came from the Old Vic New Voices exchange and of course Kevin Spacey is the director of the Old Vic so it’s really nice to continue that link. We will be doing two rehearsed reading in July so keep your eye on the blog for further updates.

2:1 Presentation and Q&A

On the 31st May the third play that I’ve written will have a presentation and Q&A at TARA Theatre before it’s first performance on July 13th. A collaboration with Kansaze Dance Company 2:1 is directly influenced by the 2:1 ratio between women and men in the arts and follows the story of two recent Arts graduates Alex and Alex who have both left university with 2:1′s and are embarking on life as a graduate and the highs and lows that come with that!

I’m really proud of the piece and we have a fantastic cast and I would love some of my Blog readers to come along! So if you would like to come along please do get in touch it would be great to hear your thoughts.

Here’s a couple of snaps of the cast and work…

 

The Entire Company!

From L-R Archie Backhouse, Jessica Williams, Francesca Thakorial and Teri Ann Bobb-Baxter

 

 

And of course here’s one of me and Rachael being all writery/directory not staged at all honestly

PS. Any Apple PR people out there who just so happen to read my blog, we like Apple products a lot, we use Apple products a lot, look we are giving you free advertising. Please help some poor theatre practitioners. Thanks. LOL.

 

 

Dreams of a Scholar-Staged Reading

In my last post I spoke about my experience of joining the English Pen and Oval House writer’s group and writing my first site specific short play Spice but I also had the opportunity to submit a one-act play to be included as part of the festival, and mine was called Dreams of a Scholar.

Here’s the blurb:

“If the pen is mightier than the sword, then a blog post is a nuclear bomb”.

Aisha, Dreams of a Scholar

Aisha is serving a 3 year sentence under the UK 2000 terrorism act after her website Dreams of a Scholar led to the kidnap and murder of a 6-year-old boy. When Aisha decides to meet Lynn the mother of the 6-year-old boy a meeting is set up which changes the course of both women’s lives. Dreams of a Scholar explores freedom of speech and the responsibilities that come with it. A unique insight into the world today and the role that social media has in the way that we are all represented.

Directed by Jasmine Woodcock-StewartWritten by Emma Dennis-EdwardsCast

Amelia Prett
Daniela Pasquini
Ellie Dillon-Reams

When writing the play I was heavily inspired by the story of Samina Malik who was the first woman to be charged under the UK 2000 terrorism Act. I submitted the first two scenes of Dreams of a Scholar and I was deeply honoured when Oval decided that they wanted to stage it as a one-act play as part of the One Act Wonders, and I was really proud of what we managed to achieve in such a short space of time.

Dreams of a Scholar was programmed on the same night as Water Wings a play written by wonderful upcoming playwright Isley Lynn and it was a sell out success! What made the success of the night so poignant was the fact that it was an all female affair, both pieces had female writers, performers and directors. I honestly couldn’t have been prouder.

I was blown away by my amazing cast and director and it felt incredible to have my words spoken aloud. I can’t thank all those who came down to see Dreams of a Scholar enough and for all the feedback I’ve received. I WILL FIND SOME TIME TO RE DRAFT IT! However I will end this post with a few of the lovely comments I received below…

What Emma Did Next… wrote a Play

For a long time I’ve wanted to write something. I wrote before I acted. Short stories, Articles, Blogs (haha) well you get the picture. I was always good at English at school and was an avid reader. At one point I was considering reading English at St Andrews or Cambridge but alas it wasn’t to be and drama school called me and introduced me to plays and theatre. Now of course the two are linked but I’ve never really taken my writing seriously. I still don’t. I’m still learning, growing and developing trying to find my own voice.

Last year during my quarter life crisis I wrote down some things I wanted to achieve/do before I was thirty and one of them is to write a play. I started a writing course at City Lit and also the Lyric Writers group but both times acting jobs got in the way not allowing me to complete the process or meaning that I missed the flow of the sessions so didn’t quite get what I needed our of it.

Earlier this year I decided to join a writer’s group called Speak for Yourself, which was a collaboration with English Pen and Oval House. The main reasons I wanted to do this course is because I really like the work that English Pen does, I have done a lot of Oval House Theatre and the group was very much focused on Freedom of Speech which is something that I’ve been interested in since my Tripwires time. I finished the course last week and I must say it was the best decision that I have made. I had amazing tutors in the shape of Aves Mohammed and Mojisola Adebeyo who were not only inspirational, patient and full of helpful advice but genuinely great talented human beings.

It has been wonderful to just have a space to share ideas, test things out, discuss with like-minded people and I feel truly blessed to have such a positive and special experience.

There are lots of writers group’s about and I would recommend that any creative with ideas and passion should definitely try to join one. If you can’t find one that fits your needs then why not start your own. Create a group on Facebook find a place to meet once a week and get some creatives in a room and see what happens. What have you got to lose?

Through the writer’s group I managed to write a short play Spice which was part of the Around the House short plays which are site specific pieces of work that form part of 33% festival at Oval House Theatre. I was also lucky enough to have a short play called Dreams of a Scholar which was also part of the festival but this time in the Theatre Upstairs which completely sold out, will be blogging about that later on this week.

Day Jobs

Ironically I haven’t blogged in 3 weeks mainly due to subject in this post. Yes it is the dreaded day job post. The subject that make actors look down and fiddle and wonder why they’re not part of the 5% who making a living out of acting or the other 7% who’s parent’s fund their rest periods therefore they don’t need a day job (lucky sods).

It’s always shocking when you find out just how many actors and actresses who I would deem as succesful (regularly on TV, tweeting about projects, wearing nice clean clothes all the time, at premieres for this and that) are actually slogging away full-time in a lot of cases in various different day jobs.

The question is how do we artists find day jobs that supplement your income without wanting to throw yourself off a building? Well I’d like to start this post on a positive, for most of us our crap day jobs are temporary. We will all (hopefully) manage to make a living out of doing what we love. So that always helps.

I have had a few day jobs, I’ve also been fired from loads of day jobs.

 

I’m not good with authority and stuff so mainly I’ve freelanced at several places which has worked out well for me. My main trades since leaving drama school being Workshop Facilitation and Acting but I’ve also supplemented my income by working in Fashion and Beauty Retail, Call Centres and Arts Administration. Currently I’m working in education because luckily I have a CRB and a PG Cert so I am able to make a small living doing bits of that. My new attitude is that I’m far too over qualified to be broke and you should think that too. Actors have a bag of transferable skills that many companies need so there’s no real reason why you should struggle, make the most of your resources and go for it.

There is no correct day job, I have friends who do front of house and box office, friends who work in bars and restaurants, office temps, teaching assistants, supply teaching, magicians assistant, modelling, promotions (well paid but about as regular as acting). Personally I like working in creative environments although I’m greatly enjoying working with children at the moment but my advice is make the most of it, it’s only temporary till the next big job comes up.

Here’s a fun list of our favourite actors and actresses and some of the jobs that they did before they hit the big time!

• Johnny Depp spent some time doing Telemarketing.
• Warren Beatty worked in Pest Control.
• Life imitated Art for Channing Tatum who indeed was a stripper before hitting the big time.
• Whoopi has several before hitting the big time but the weirdest one by far is Morgue Make-up artist.

So there you have it, even the brightest stars have had to struggle to make it so keep on hustling people! That Oscar soon come

 

33% Festival

Quick Post to let you guys know my short play Spice opens at Oval House Theatre TOMORROW (O.M.G) it’ll be on as part of the 33% Festival 17th-27th you can get tickets here:

http://www.ovalhouse.com/whatson/booktickets/OneAct

More blog posts to come this week…

New Play Haul

Most bloggers do clothes or beauty hauls but I’m not like most bloggers, I’m doing a play haul post! Here’s some plays that I picked up last week…

Last week I saw a note on Facebook saying that the Royal Court was getting rid of some of their extra stock of certain published plays and that you could get done there and take plays for free, yes boys and girls you read that right FREE!!!!! I was going to the court to watch a play* anyways but as I was stuck at work** I got a friend of mine to pop in early and see what he can get from the haul. He turned up around 4pm and the giveaway had been happening since 1.30pm so he only managed to get us two plays. Aunt Dan and Lemon by Wallace Shawn which I’ve never heard of or seen and Birthday by Joe Penhall

I also picked up a copy of Rachel Del-Lahay’s The Westbridge for £3 in the bookshop which I’d wanted to read it for ages.

So all in all it’s not a bad haul. Walking away with 3 plays having paid £3 is a win win situation.

Have you read or seen any of these plays?

*said play did not make my Blog and as regular readers of this blog will know I refuse to blog anything on whatemmadidnext that I don’t like.

**being stuck at work seems to be a recurring theme on this blog that appears to be stopping me from doing fun stuff. Hmmm…