I have just come back from an excellent trip to The Edinburgh Festival, gathering inspiration, ideas and new plays for Stage2 and having a lot of fun watching new and exciting theatre, dance, comedy and art pieces.
While I was there I saw Stage2 ex-member Charlie Reilly perform in Birmingham University Footnotes Disagree (in a cave) I really enjoyed the show and Charlie was excellent in a really funny great devised sketch show.
I also saw Philip Ridleys new play Dark Vanilla Jungle which is a very upsetting and brilliantly performed one woman show. Charlie, Emma, my mum and I were totally captivated throughout. We noticed parallels between this show and Towerblock Trio and it felt very special to see something else by a writer we have come to know so well.
We also saw a Steven Berkoff play An Actor's Lament, all about the acting industry. I was reminded that last time Stage2 saw a Berkoff play in Edinburgh he gave us special permission to do the premier performance of Requiem for Ground Zero. An Actors Lament is an excellent play and will definitely be sneaking in to our LAMDA and Drama School repertoire.
Finally I went to see Claire Dowie perform 2 one woman shows H to He and Why is John Lennon Wearing a Skirt? and although I have seen Claire perform both of these pieces before and know both plays well, it was great to see her performing her own words and using the audience and the text in a way that is so typical of her style and bringing such character and life to these brilliant plays. I am really looking forward to Stage2 producing Why is John Lennon Wearing a Skirt? in the spring term and can't wait for more Stage2 members to get to work with Claire when she comes in in October. I also did an excellent workshop with Colin Watkeys (Claire Dowie's Director) while in Edinburgh on An Introdution to Solo Theatre. Look out for my one woman show...
This all reminded me just how lucky we are to have Stage2, the variety of work we produce is out standing and the performers, writers, directors and practitioners your eyes are opened to is remarkable. When were you last reminded of Stage2?
I hope to go back to Edinburgh soon. Lucy Bailey-Wright
