Julie Atherton, Vince Kidd, Andy Coxon, Sabrina Aloueche and more join Tori Allen-Martin to launch Interval Productions ‘MADE IN LDN’, A Season of New British Musical Theatre Writing at The Cockpit.
Sunday 13th March sees the launch of Interval Productions Made In Ldn season at The Cockpit. On the second Sunday of every month from March until June, Interval Productions Creative Director Tori Allen-Martin will present an evening of brand new British musical theatre writing supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Joining Tori to launch the season are Julie Atherton (Avenue Q, Sister Act), Andy Coxon (Les Miserables, Beautiful), Sabrina Aloueche (Les Miserables, We Will Rock You) and Greg Oliver (The Prodigals, Muted) who have all previously appeared in Interval Productions shows, as well as Vince Kidd (finalist on Season One of the BBC’s voice), Richard Carson (Miss Saigon), Natalie Green (Wicked), Liberty Buckland (Yarico, Bye Bye Birdie), Matthew Pennington (H.R.Haitch) and Jean Luke Worrell (Yarico), with a couple more performers still to be announced.
This exciting cast will be performing work from Aaron Lee Lambert’s ‘From Up Here’, Sam Cassidy and Matt Wills’ ‘27’, Luke Bateman and Mary Evans’ ‘H.R.Haitch’, Scott Morgan’s ‘Strange People’, Tori Allen-Martin and Tim Prottey Jones’ ‘Equally’, Sarah Henley and James Fox’s ‘The Unblinding’ and Tim Gilvin’s original pieces, plus excerpts from ‘Stay Awake Jake’.
The search for new talent in order to programme this exciting season continues and submission information appears on HIIVE as well as on the website, www.madeinldn.net. Not only will writers have their work performed at The Cockpit, a brilliant 170 seat theatre and creative hub in Central London; they will also receive mentoring, advice and feedback from multi-award nominated Interval Productions, who will be on hand from start to finish in order to help the writers shape their work into something performance ready.
All writers who apply (regardless of whether their work is picked) will have the opportunity to attend an Interval Productions Masterclass, where they will receive advice and Q&A sessions from Arts Council England and OffWestEnd.com, with more to be announced.
“It’s so hard to actually get work on, particularly in this country. There are a lot of gatekeepers who aren’t keen on change, and theatre is expensive so the risks venues and producers are prepared to take on new work is (for that reason, understandably) low. That’s why revivals, familiar names and Broadway smash hits are favoured. But, there is so much exciting new talent waiting to be discovered in this country, we just aren’t getting to hear it. When it comes to producing your own work, the costs mount up alarmingly, yet funding keeps getting cut. And that’s if you can even get a look in; even with five shows under our belt we struggle to get a simple reply from a lot of venues after constant chasing! It’s a bit of a catch 22. With all of this in mind, we appreciate how daunting it is to do it yourself, but it feels like at the moment, it may be the only way, and so we really want to help other young creatives in any way that we can and if possible, give them a heads up on some of the things we had to learn the hard way. We want to create a collaborative environment where artists can thrive, and we are especially interested in work that sounds modern and commercial and that is set in the UK today. A lot of musical theatre fits a mould, and we’re interested in seeing work that defies that. It’s all tick boxes nowadays, but so few of us in 2016 fit into one, simple box. We want to find honest, raw, work that represents all shades, shapes, sizes and sexualities. We still have a long way to go ourselves but we’re on the right path now and we want to invite some more likeminded individuals along for the ride. I’m so grateful to the Arts Council for backing this and also to the Cockpit who have always championed new work and offered us the platform to put on ours. I wish more venues and schemes would do the same, but I hope this venture will open some doors and shine a light on some of the incredible and diverse talent we have in this country, both on and off stage, particularly talent that might not look, act or sound like everybody or everything else.” Says Interval Productions founder and Creative Director Tori Allen-Martin.
Show dates will be – Sunday 13th March, Sunday 10th April, Sunday 8th May, Sunday 12th June with tickets priced at £10 early bird and £15 standard/on the door and are available now at http://www.thecockpit.org.uk/show/made_in_ldn
Where: The Cockpit, Gateforth Street, London, NW8 8EH
Website: www.madeinldn.net
