Our Big Love Story

Our BIG Love Story has gone from strength to strength from the May scratch night. After the recurrent Terror attacks, Stephanie Silver wrote a play to look at the effect of Terror attacks on a small group of people, including themes of faith, radicalisation and love at the centre of it all. With interest from publishers and a run at The Hope Theatre we are proud it all started at an Actor Awareness new writing night.

The Play

4 teenagers
1 Teacher
1 Terror Attack
Post July 2005

5 people’s lives intertwine in OUR BIG LOVE STORY; a tale of faith, prejudice, love and healing looking at radicalisation of young people and the struggle to keep your faith after a traumatic event.

Cast and Creatives: Written by Stephanie Silver / Directed by Calum Robshaw. Actors: Holly Ashman as Destiny, Naina Kholi as Anjum, Alex britt as Jack, Emelia Marshall Lovsey as Katie.

 

Tickets on Sale here:

The Hope Theatre 

March 20th to 7th April 2018

http://www.thehopetheatre.com/productions/big-love-story/

Follow @OurBigLoveStory on Twitter

2022 by Colleen Pendergrast

After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Colleen has worked as an actor, director, voiceover artist and teacher. Her acting credits include The Comedy of Errors (Nuffield Southampton) and The Mortal Ash (Bush Theatre). As a director, her credits include After Penelope (White Bear/Rome International Fringe Festival) and The True History of the Tragic Life and Triumphant Death of Julia Pastrana, the Ugliest Woman in the World (Hope Mill Theatre). She has narrated over a hundred audiobooks and teaches at some of London’s top drama schools, including LAMDA, E15 and the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. 

Has anything changed in the script since the first performance with us?
Well, as Actor Awareness gave us the amazing opportunity to develop it into a full-length piece, we ended up extending it to nearly an hour! It was great to develop the relationships further and bring the world of the play more into focus. Hopefully this allowed the audience to engage and identify more deeply with the characters. It was challenging to extend the running time and a relief to see that the play still held together! So although this is the original short version, I think all of the work we did on the longer piece informs this one, now we’ve come back to it. 

What have you found as your play has developed?
It’s been invaluable to have the input of the actors as its developed. I’ve been really lucky that I’ve had such committed, enthusiastic and generous people to work with. They have a lot of ideas about the characters and that was helpful in writing the extended version. It’s a little scary that so much of what I wrote as a ‘stretch’ has actually been mirrored in world events. It’s becoming more believable by the day! 

Has your play been anywhere else? is it coming up anywhere else?
Yes – in fact it’s been on at five scratch nights around London so far and is being made into a short film by the University of Bedfordshire! It’s also coming up at the Arts Theatre (9th December), the Amersham Arms in New Cross (10th December) and the Bunker Theatre on the 17th December! 

What is your next project?
I’m working on a novel and am formulating an idea for a new play. And we have plans to take the extended version of 2022 to festivals next year – watch this space! @2022play

Cast 

Colquhoun – Deborah Wastell

Gower – Richard Innocent

Selwa – Lauren Santana

Full Circle by Michelle Payne

FULL CIRCLE / Written by Michelle payne

The Play
Nicole is 21. She can’t decide if she has no mates because she’s crazy or crazy because she has no mates. So she does the only logical thing she can think of and sets up a peer support group in Essex to make friends and start talking. But Amy’s got the hump and Skye’s real name isn’t Skye. How can they go from three to a full circle without advertising to the world that they’re… well, mental

Has anything changed in the script since the first performance with us?

We’ve extended a teeny tiny bit! Added two monologues to develop the other two characters a little!

What have you found as your play has developed?

My cast have dealt with the subject matter so bravely, and have brought more to the characters which has definitely inspired me to write more!

Has your play been anywhere else? is it coming up anywhere else?

Next Full Circle will be at the Tristan Bates as part of the 12 days of Christmas festival.

What is your next project?

Extending Full Circle to a full length play! I’m also currently producing a new writing night at The Queens Theatre Hornchurch called Power which features all female cast and creatives! That will be in April!

CAST and Creatives
Amy: Kate Kelly

Nicole: Elicia Moon Murphy
Skye: Lucy Gape

Writer/Director: Michelle Payne
Movement director: Victoria Louise
With music by Tom Baynton

Actor Awareness New Writing Night

 

We are excited to host out ‘Best of 2017′ Actor Awareness New Writing Night this Monday, December 4th at Spotlight Studios, Leicester Sq at 7.30pm.

We have been striving to create a platform for new writing and over the last 2 years we have come a long way in helping writers from diverse paths to stage work.

The Line Up

‘Come Die With Me’ By Vicky Connerty

‘2022’ Written and Directed by Colleen Pendergrast 

‘Our Big Love Story’ Written by Stephanie Silver and Directed By Calum Robshaw

‘Full Circle’ Written and Directed by Michelle Payne

Our annual Best Of Scratch Night tickets are selling fast and we have our first ever industry panel!

On the panel we have:

Michael Gamarano Singleton from Mixing Networks

An agent from CAM (Creative Arts Management)

Casting Director Harriet Spenser

Anna Jordan an Award Winning Playwright

Ticket Link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/actor-awareness-best-of-night-tickets-39475474206?aff=eand

As a result of these scratch nights, Actor Awareness has helped support many new pieces of work – extended from the 15 minutes to full length productions – which have gone on to perform in the professional sector. Some of these include:

‘The Staffroom’ by Michelle Payne, Theatre N16/Queens Hornchurch and Edinburgh 2017

‘Speci-Man’ by Jayne Woodhouse. Canal café and The Fatsoma, Guildford 2017

‘The Monologues of a Tired Nurse’ by Stephanie Silver. Edinburgh 2016/Barons Court Theatre 2017/ Wandsworth and Camden Fringe 2017.

‘Our Big Love Story’ by Stephanie Silver. Next March 2018, 3 Week run at The Hope Theatre

‘Birth of a Nation’ by Dave House. SlamX 2016/Theatre N16 2016

‘Worsooz’ by Catherine kay Barons Court theatre 2017, our 1st published play

‘Come Die With Me’ by Vicky Connerty. Fizzy Sherbert/The Vaults/ Barons Court and Hollywood 2017

‘C’est La Vie’ by Stephanie Silver. Barons Court 2017/TheatreN16 2017/ The play won open submissions script Australia March 2017, opening to 4-star reviews.

New Writing Festival

Actor Awareness has also presented two new writing festivals at Theatre N16 in 2016 and Barons Court Theatre in 2017 and we are aiming to present a third next year. The festivals took 15 minute pieces chosen from our scratch nights and then each writer was given a month to prepare a one hour show. This is a great learning curve for actors to become proactive drivers of their own careers and knowledge about how to mount a production. Our festivals run over one week with two one hour shows each evening. We invite industry professionals to be present and all companies receive 100% of box office takings.

 

We are excited to announce our new sponsors and patrons

These two companies aim to help bridge the gap for the working, upcoming, struggling actor, so watch this space. If you are a company wanting to become a sponsor of our scratch nights please email tomstocks0805@gmail.com.

You can also join our mailing list by going to our website : http://www.actorawareness.co.uk/ and go to the button ‘Join us’, write you email and click and your be added to our monthly mailing list.