Over this summer Accidental embarked on one of our most ambitious challenges since we started the company, bringing our most recent show The Writers’ Room by Michael Shannon, to London. And at the same time we continued to develop our Belfast based work with The Biscuit Tin Readings, a new series of rehearsed readings, the second year we have run a series of readings of new plays. This was the first time the team was split between two different cities working on Accidental projects and it has been a struggle, I often feared we were on the edge of overextending ourselves but we managed to keep everything ticking over fantastically in Belfast and had an amazing time in London too.

On Wednesday 20th July specifically, at exactly the same time in Belfast and London we had performances running. In Belfast our first rehearsed reading in The Biscuit Tin Readings series, Robots in Disguise by Mike Coleman was being performed in the Ulster Hall Group Space. Whilst in London, The Writers’ Room was performing its third show in its run at the London Festival Fringe. It was really exciting sitting in London that day knowing that we such an exciting evening ahead. All due to the great work of Gayle, Emily and Teresa in Belfast and The Writers’ Room team in London.

You can check out my personal blog to see some of the things that I found particularly helpful for marketing our show in London but I must particularly thank Laura Willis, Stephen Beggs and Paula McFetridge. For all their help spreading the word about The Writers’ Room and their support of Accidental in general. There are so many others that have helped us, I practically have to thank the entire Northern Irish theatre sector for forwarding emails and telling friends about the show. We were overwhelmed by the amount of support we got both from home and from the friends we made in London.

After the success of this first foreign foray, we can only aim to outdo ourselves next time!

With opening and closing of Pick ‘n’ Mix Accidental’s year has begun in earnest! We’re very excited about the next few months for our little company and our band of stalwart theatre types. So without any preamble:

Here comes The Biscuit Tin Readings!

Following on from VI our great series of rehearsed readings last year, we are back with five more fantastic plays:

Just like our company name, there lies an interesting (probably only to us) story behind the title of our new series of readings but I’ll let Emily fill you in on that. The Biscuit Tin Readings are the second year we have run a series of readings and we’re hoping to make them a strong part of our work in the future, as it allows us to meet so many new writers and actors, it has become much more important to us than simply helping to develop plays.

Next up we have The Writers’ Room by Michael Shannon.

Monday 18th – Friday 22nd July at 6:30pm Phoenix Artists Bar, London

Tuesday 9th – Saturday 13th August at 9pm Gielgud Theatre in RADA, London

On the same week that we start The Biscuit Tin Readings we are also heading international for the first time, taking The Writers’ Room to not only the London Festival Fringe in July (Tickets available here) but also to the Camden Fringe in August (Tickets available here). We’re heading to London a lot earlier than I ever expected us to, mainly due to the fact that I’m based in there for this year, so it makes it a lot easier for us to bring work across to London than it would otherwise be if I was living in Belfast. At the moment this is as much an experiment for us as it is an adventure. One of our long term goals has been to take work from our home to outside of Northern Ireland, not just to places like London and Edinburgh. So we’ll see how this summer goes first.

We spent the beginning of this year planning what we wanted to tackle this year, some of our ideas may never leave the beer bottle covered kitchen in which they were created but we hope to come out with a fantastic variety of gorgeous treats to be consumed throughout the rest of this year and we hope to throw up a few surprises along the way too. So look out for Accidental Theatre, as we’ll be announcing another few tasty treats if or hopefully when, they’re ready.

Last time Accidental appeared at Pick ‘n’ Mix back in 2009 no one knew our name, we were brand new, unusual, an oddity and we sold out both our shows (only company to do so that year, though having a audience capacity of 60 helps). This June Pick ‘n’ Mix was back and so were we! Did people know who we were, what we do, why we do it? Probably not. But damn it was great to be back!

Pick ‘n’ Mix is special for us, the first time we applied to be a part of Pick ‘n’ Mix 2 we were turned down. I was still a student at Queen’s and they wanted to keep the Mix for the more emerged of emerging companies. We were disappointed by that but not deterred! So we applied again for Pick ‘n’ Mix 3 and this time I had a plan! A lot of established companies show works in progress, rehearsed readings so as an emerged emerging company I wanted us to put on as full a full show as we could. So we created DEATH (on a shoestring) by Dave Kinghan. A musical comical extravaganza about death, religion and political correctness. It was a lot of fun to make, and hopefully to watch, but we only had two weeks to make it and it was a little too ambitious to pull off in that time. It was a beautifully flawed production from my point of view and it did what we wanted it to. As we exposed ourselves to the Northern Irish theatre community in all our rough and flawed glory. And had a lot of fun doing it.

So now we’ve just finished Pop-Up Pick ‘n’ Mix after its one year hiatus but this time we entered it with a new plan. Again we wanted to show a full show as we did before but now we wanted to show our quality as much as our enthusiasm and ambition. We created The Writers’ Room by Michael Shannon, a compact, claustrophobic and fantastic one-act play that was not only challenging for us but also allowed us to aim for a standard of performance and production quality that we haven’t yet achieved. So we went as all out as we could afford. With a gorgeous little set, check out Emily’s blog for some of the fun she had building it, and a cohesive and dynamic performance. We tried to push ourselves with this one-act play as far as we could and we were all really excited by the resulting show.

With this Pick ‘n’ Mix more than any other I’ve attended so far there was a great feeling coming from the other emerging companies, and I got to see a brilliant range of new and varied work. Whether it was Sumaire with Little Sounds of Pain or OfftheRails with S(e)nsored in a gripping double dip session or the fantastic solo work of Mary-Frances Doherty with her A Love of Goodbyes. It was a great weekend that I wish I could have seen more at, but time and my budget held me back. Of added note was Guerilla Therapy with a reading of Almost Stockholm by Caoilfhionn Cassidy a really gripping play that I was lucky to see when I was at Queen’s. Also Feet off the Table and their performance of Sir and finally Finbar’s Private Netherland by Carol Murphy staring the legendary Fra Gunn. Those are only a few of the acts that played over the three days, only a snippet of the talent on offer and with the exception of Mary-Frances, all new to Pick ‘n’ Mix! My personal highlights were found in the seminar room from both TheatreofPluck (D.R.A.G) and Tricky Disco (Tales from a Lancashire Lad) with two very different but enthralling shows, I also loved the small intimate performance space that the seminar room offered, a really great choice of space to be included.

It was a long weekend and a very exciting one for us but our time with The Writers’ Room isn’t over yet. In fact its just begun, soon we’ll be taking it to London as our first show outside of Northern Ireland and then hopefully we’ll be coming home again to perform it towards the end of the year. With DEATH (on a shoestring) we didn’t get to perform it after Pick ‘n’ Mix, not having the resources to do it justice. So this year we wanted to make sure that our Pick ‘n’ Mix offering lived on after the weekend. With me being based in London right now it gave us the opportunity to begin to take our work outside Northern Ireland and challenge ourselves in an entirely different way and in a much larger place.

We’re only a few weeks away from the first London show, and my anticipation has been building ever since Pick ‘n’ Mix closed, by the opening show I may just be a wreck, but hopefully a happy wreck!

In June this year I was offered the chance to study theatre directing full-time, without distraction, on a challenging and amazing two year course in London, which means that I will be on a leave of absence from Accidental for the next two years.

I thought it would be good to go through everything that has led up to me taking up this course, so here is how it happened:

Last year Gayle and myself headed to the Edinburgh Festival to find out what it would entail for us to take a show there and what kind of shows do well. It was a fantastic and inspiring trip, that gave us the opportunity to not only see a lot of top notch theatre and comedy, but to also attend talks and lectures from seasoned professionals that would help us in our development as artists and as a company.

At a talk set up by Equity, director Ian Brown of West Yorkshire Playhouse, discussed theatre directing, one course in the UK was highlighted as being the best theatre directing course in the country, this course was the Birkbeck MFA in Theatre Directing. I checked it out and was impressed by its scope, structure and content. Therefore, it was very difficult to get onto, only taking at maximum of 10 people per year.

With very little hope of getting onto the course I applied in December 2009 and was declined for interview initially but was asked if I’d like to be considered again in May. Therefore, in May I resent my CV and asked them to continue to consider my initial application.

I was then amazed and very lucky to get an invitation to interview for a place. A fantastic opportunity, as out of what must be hundreds, if not thousands, of applications I had actually been given the chance to demonstrate that I was good enough to attend this course. I was very happy simply getting the interview, getting onto the course was secondary in some ways as I was happy that it was an affirmation that the work I was doing was helping me.

With a bit of optimism but very little hope, I headed to London in early June to interview for a place at Birkbeck. The interviews were spread over two days, with three interviews on the first day and a workshop and final interview on the second day. The first day was quite nerve wracking and I was sure that I had performed only average. The second day went better, it was focused on the interviewees running a workshop with actors based on a prepared script, as I really love rehearsals I was able to relax into this, even with the five interviewers, popping in and out during what limited time I had to show what I was like as a director. It was a lot of fun, and my time passed very quickly, I even wanted to continue as I was getting into it so much. After that I had one more interview, that was mainly discussing the workshop I had just given and how I felt it went. With the interviews over I headed back to Belfast, thoroughly expecting to never be accepted onto the course, though having enjoyed the trip regardless.

A week later I was offered a place and I was left with the decision of staying in Belfast to work with Accidental or leave for London for a few years to develop who I was as a director. I knew I couldn’t pass up this opportunity or I’d definitely regret it. So I decided to go.

It’s very difficult to leave the company I helped found, especially so early in our work together, but all of us at Accidental felt that the more I learn in London the better my work for the company will be upon my return.  So I have handed over the majority of my role to both Gayle and Emily and I will stay in close contact with the company all the time that I’m in London. Whilst Gayle, Emily and Chloe will do fantastically in our work to come.

I have loved the last few years with Accidental, to be able to work with my friends on projects that we love and really enjoy. To work with so many talented, writers, actors, specialists, designers and friends is a gift I will never tire of. I wish everyone that I have worked with and learnt so much from all the best I can, Northern Ireland is a small and very talented theatre community, and it will continue to grow in strength, I will miss it. It’s my home.

R

The reading itself went great, since the beginning of this series I’ve struggled with audience sight lines, partially due to the constraints of the performance space and partially due to staging. We always make sure that the performance is clear enough to understand even if you cannot see every acting nuance from every performer. This became more prevalent with this reading because of the size of the audience, in fact we ran out of chairs and people who arrived even a little late had to be turned away.

Overall I was very pleased, both the audience and the performers appeared to really enjoy it, and so did I. William had joined us for several of the rehearsal sessions earlier in the week and I very much enjoyed having him in the room with us, I hope it was as enjoyable for him; along with being helpful for the future development of the script.

With the end of this reading we now head to the final few 2010 readings, next up on Thursday 12th August we have School of Thought by Neil Edwards, a great script about comprehensive school life were the teachers must learn as much as the students.

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This reading is the third in our series of six, and marks our halfway point, as we move into the last readings in this series. Still to come we have: Some Kind of Stranger, School of Thought and The Kitchen, the Bedroom and the Grave.

With these three great readings to come, it’s going to be an exciting last few months for the readings, as the summer hots up it’s a great way to spend an early evening and then relax with a nice glass of free wine. So check out the remaining readings, only three to go.

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Find more pictures on our Media page.

This script is William’s first work of drama, as he has had great success so far with his farces. Originally from Bangor, William now lives and works in London, where he’s had several of his farces staged.

We had a great time reading this as it is a fun and deep script, complimented by a fun and energetic group of characters. As is usual for our private readings, we had a great discussion after with the cast, to get an idea of how they saw the script and to give the writer a sounding board for ideas and questions.

Some Kind of Stranger will be our fourth reading in July but on Thursday 10th June we have Ravine.

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Ravine is about two people on an adventure holiday who get stuck in a ravine with a corpse. This intense and dramatic play will be the third of our six readings, and will feature next month.

Margaret has written radio plays for both RTE and BBC but Ravine is her first stage play and I am very excited about our part in helping to develop it.

R

With every new script we decided to work with for the six rehearsed readings we have different stages of development. The private reading allows the writer, actors and ourselves a chance to hear the script out loud with life in it. It gives the writer in particular a chance to highlight areas that need development before we go into rehearsals, which for Leopoldville, start in just over a week.

Leopoldville is the second of our six readings, and it is a very different play to the first. It’s much darker and highly dramatic, with very strong language. It will be a real challenge to do it justice.

Can’t wait.

R

We have a lot of new challenges coming up and I am excited by the team we have to help develop the Company towards the future.

So welcome Chloe to the Accidental team!

R