Work with us NEXT SHOWS - Tues 21st - Thurs 23rd February 2012 at 7.30pm
At THE DOGSTAR IN BRIXTON
389 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, London, SW9 8LQ
All tickets £6
(of which 40p goes to Dementia UK)
To book tickets, email histahugh_yahoo.co.uk
Theme: PATRIOTISM
BLUE DOT
by Duncan Gates
'I don't believe in the Orion-Sigma network, I believe in Berkshire.'
Enjoying your private planetoid can be tricky where there's a laser cannon blocking the view - but not as difficult as getting it taken away...
Cast: Lynette Creane and Sadie Hurley
Director: Katharine Armitage
MODEST STILLNESS AND HUMILITY
by Maev Mac Coille
Maggie Sinclair's speech to the 1982 under-18 synchronised swimming team didn't go exactly to plan.
Cast: Maxine Howard
Director: Sam Conway
For blank pages:
Artistic Director: Hugh Allison
Associate Creative: Eva Maler
In-house Technician: Martin Brady
In-house Photographer (and Flyer Designer): Elena Nevzorova
STIGMA 
PAST SHOW - NOVEMBER 2011
(Theme: Censorship)
No Signal
by Antony Dunford
Cast : Lynne Austin and Joan Plunkett
Director: Daryl Wild
Two old school friends who haven’t seen each other for more than thirty years meet by chance on a cruise in the Greek islands. Their reminiscences show them how much they’ have remembered and forgotten about their childhood, and force them to confront some uncomfortable memories.
Artistic Directors: Hugh Allison and Perdie Brown
Flyer Designer: Lucy Fenton
Technical Director: Martin Brady
Associate Creative: Eva Maler
The performances raised £22.20 for TACT - The Actors' Charitable Trust.
(Dedicated to the memory of Kit Blyth, 1921-2011)
GREED PAST SHOWS - FEBRUARY 2011
(Theme: Greed)
To have or not To have
(A fictionalisation based on the life of Leila Ben Ali)
by C S Flint
Cast: Lydia Hourihan
Director: Perdie Brown
Coming from an impoverished family of 12, the wife of the President of a Muslim Republic made it to power and riches with her natural abilities. Can she be blamed for amassing a fortune at any cost?
Do the means justify the aim? Does she deserve the consequences?
seems I've got too much of it since
by Chris Bennion
Cast: Joan Plunkett and Vicky Trower
Director: Kimberley Sykes
Liz is a freelance documentary maker in need of a subject. Jenny is a freelance celebrity in need of a camera.
It's going to be great television.
Artistic Director: Hugh Allison
Flyer Designer: Lucy Fenton
Technical Director: Daryl Wild
The performances raised £34 for Amnesty International.
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PAST SHOWS - MAY 2011
(Theme: Stigma)
Transactions
by Peter Norgate
Cast: Joan Plunkett & David Savage
Director: Dan Skili
Roasting in the Durban heat, Emerald and J lie sunning themselves beside a luxury villa's pool. A perfect place for the perfect couple, only the heat is starting to make their skin peel. The cracks are opening, but no-one's brave enough to let their darkest secrets leak out into the light.
Common Ground
by Katy Darby
Cast: Chandrika Chevli, Claire Lacey, Maxine Howard & Iben Rohde-Jensen
Director: Bethany Pitts
Set in a teachers' staff room, “Common Ground” explores the tension and stigma surrounding a teacher accused of physically abusing one of her students. What do Deborah's withdrawal, silence and bleeding hands signify? And who - if anyone - is responsible?
(There was no show in August 2011)
Artistic Director: Hugh Allison
Flyer Designer: Lucy Fenton
Technical Director: Bethany Pitts
The shows raised £68 for Terrence Higgins Trust.
CONFINEMENT PAST SHOWS - NOVEMBER 2010
(Theme: Confinement)
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Light Fittings
by Alice Birch
Cast: Eloise Dale, Daniel Griffiths and David Savage
Director: Claire Robbin
Have you ever forgotten a face? Ever blanked out the past? Peter and Charlotte see their evening turn from reminiscence to regret. Shouldn't you contact that person to tell them you care, however long it's been?
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The Woman Who
by Maev Mac Coille
Cast: Joan Plunkett
Director: Hugh Allison
What might have been? What is the cost of making the right choice, and is it ever worth it? The scope for tragedy in an ordinary life is uncovered as one lady explores her own past.
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Artistic Directors: Hugh Allison and Claire Robbin
Flyer Designer: Hugh Allison
Technical Director: Claire Robbin
The performances raised £63 for the RSPCA.
World Without Men PAST SHOWS - AUGUST 2010
(Theme: World Without Men)
Ferry Lights
by Claudia Ward
Cast: Eloise Dale and Jodie Raven
Director: Claire Robbin
A wild cockney motormouth meets a middle-class therapist on a ferry crossing to the Isle of Wight, in this comedy about class and sexuality.
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Tomorrow We Build Our Jerusalem
by Michael Ross
Cast: Eloise Dale and Jayne Tarbuck
Director: Hugh Allison
During rehearsals for a play to celebrate the centenary of the worlds first all-female nation state, fissures in the actresses relationship are opened up by their differing attitudes to history.
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Artistic Directors: Hugh Allison and Claire Robbin
Flyer Designer: Alan Sutcliffe
Technical Director: Claire Robbin
The performances raised £72 for Great Ormond Street Hospital.
Ferry Lights has been adapted for radio by HuRica Productions.
First Draft workers People who worked with the company under the name First Draft
Actors: Daisy Aitkens, Nadia Aldridge, Lucy Atkinson, Lynne Austin, Zina Badran, Katy Balfour, Alison Bennett, Sally Best, Rachael Black, Holly Blair, Ben Bela Boehm, Emma Bowles, Catherine Brichto, Sue Broberg, Alexa Brown, Nikki Brown, Theresa Brunskill, Heather Cairns, Naomi Campbell, Natasha Campbell, Gem Carmella, Madeline Carrick, Natalie Cave, Antonia Christy, Andrew Cleaver, Carrie Cohen, Martin Coles, Gary Colman, Ed Cooke, Jon Cooper, Tamara Cowan, Aimi Cree, Clareine Cronin, Laura Curnick, Liane Curtis, Fiona Cuskelly, Eloise Dale, Leandro d'Andrea, Mandy Dassa, Charley Delaney, Justin Donaldson, James Donnelly, Paul Downey, Devon Dudgeon, Caroline Duffy, Fanny Dulin, Sam Dunham, Rhiannon Eagles, Suzanne Enoch, Paul Ginika Etuka, Nichola Evans, Francis Exell, James G Fain, Danielle Fenmore, Tamara Gatward, Jack Barry Gavin, Katherine Gibbons, John Gilligan, Marc Gordon, Leah Grayson, Tamsyn Greenwood, James Groom, Atli Gunnarson, Nina Hatchwell, Simon Hemingway, Miranda Hennessy, Megan Hockley, Elizabeth Holmes, Graham Hornsby, Maxine Howard, Georgiana James, Ruth James, Rea Johnston, Daniel Kannber, Jennifer Karen, Aisha Karr, Mark Kavanagh, Wendy Killian, Laura King, Natalie Knill, Aurelie Koran, Mark Landau, Ali Lane, Caroline Langston, Linda Large, Eleanor Lawrence, Keeley Lawrence, Gemma Layton, Libby Liburd, Helen Jessica Liggat, Cariad Lloyd, Joe Lombardelli, Natalie Louka, Abigail Lumb, Lindesay Mace, MaAlisdair MacEwan, Hannah MacInnes, Julia Main, Rosie Mainwaring, Vanessa Mallinson, Nigel Mattison, Kate McCann, Rory McCullum, James McNeill, Meg Meagher, Helen Millar, David Millard, Hayley Morson, Emily Murphy, Shaun Nethercott, Emer O'Connor, Juliet Oldfield, Claire Louise Oliver, Beth Packer, Alex Parker, Kate Parker-Frost, Sarah Pemberton, Penelope Peters, Adam Piercy, Natalie Radford, Peter Rae, Tom Railton, Nicola Randall, Jodie Raven, Kathryn Redwood, Matt Rix, Jack Roth, Edward Rowland, Matthew Rowlands-Roberts, Catherine Rowney, Catherine Rowntree, Sarah Ben Saoud, Oliver Scofield, Jane Scott, Ninka Scott, Kim Seybold, Sylvia Seymour, Matt Sheahan, Carly Sheppard, Rachel Sternberg, Robina Stewart, Graeme Stirling, Gill Stoker, Debra Suming, Jayne Tarbuck, Matthew Thornton-Field, Peter Tilly, Matthew Trevanion, David Trevaskis, Rachel Turner, Vicky Virgo, Suzanna Walters, Jane Wareham, Geoff White, Alex Willmott, Kate Willoughby, Graeme Winchester, Melissa Woodbridge, Tim Wyatt, Doris Zajer
Directors: Hugh Allison, Joe Austin, Peter Barton, Honour Bayes, Matthew Blacklock, Russell Bolam, Ruth Brock, Poppy Burton-Morgan, Alice Butler, Linda Campbell, Dimitar Dimitrov, Ceyda Erdemli, Ariella Eshed, Alistair Evans, Nick Ewans, James Farrell, Matthew Hahn, Anna Holmfield, Steve Hubbard, Maggie Inchley, Dan James, Kurban Kussam, Sayam Kent, Alison King, Tom King, Ewelina Kolaczek, Diana Laurie, Biba Lille-West, Anna Lindgren, Michael Longhurst, Tim Macavoy, Lydia Maxwell, Sam Miller, Arnaud Mugglestone, Shaun Nethercott, Adam Piercey, Hannah Price, Adam Quayle, Francesca Seeley, Vic Sivalingam, Roland Smith, Monique Stirling, Alex Summers, Sian Thomas, David Trevaskis, Joanna Turner, Hannah Tyrell Pinder, Lucy Van Den Heede, Ben Webb, David Weinberg, Kirrie Wratten, Daniel York
Writers : Michael Ayres, Sally Beaumont, Francis Beckett, Dougie Blaxland, Frank Brawmell, Chris Brandon, Mark Brown, Sean Burn, Tom Campion, David Campton, Mike Carter, Jason Charles, Gary Colman, Katy Darby, William Drew, Suzy Enoch, Tom Green, Steve Hubbard, Daniel James, Gareth Jandrell, Heather Johnston, Rea Johnston, Anna Jordan, Alice Josephs, Debbie Kent, Angela Lord, Ian McGlynn, Tom McKennan, Daniel McLeod, Sam Miller, Dominic Mitchell, Heather O'Shea, Sophie Olivia, Kaiser Phobos, Jo Romero, Gina Scanlon, Pete Stephenson, Stephen Todd, Zia Trench, Sean Tyler, Yasmine Van Wilt, Jack Williams, James Woolf
First Draft plays Shows performed under the name of First Draft
2006
Mar: Operation New Life / Underground Resistance
Apr: A Modern Mumming Play / Paper Flesh
May: Big Brother - Final Destination / Casting Off
Jun: Hide The Front Page / Since My Last Confession
Jul: A Public Kind of Privacy / Single Fare to Zuric h
Aug: Digital / Tequila Mocking Birds
Sep: Eclipsed / Tough Luck
Oct: A Place In The Sun / Wheel of Fortune
Nov: A Degree of Compulsion / Immoral Acts / Please Find Attached
2007
Jan: As It Seems / Finding Isaac / Upon Julia's Breast
Feb: Ramblin' Man / Sheep Wolf / Thick Blood, Loose Love
Apr: Rupture / Three Women, Two Chairs ... And One MP
May: An Act of Twisting / For Ed / Less
Jun: Getting Scrap Value / In The Shadows
Jul: The Better Deal / Here's Tommy / Life Support
Sep: How Low / Upstaged Right / Zygosity
Oct: Happily Ever After / LD50 / Watch It Happen
Nov: The Recruiting Sergeant / Standing Up / Zygosity
2008
Jan: Temp / Terrors
Feb: Olympia / Paper Thin
Mar: Legends of The Tube / Now I Wonder What You Are
Apr: Ball of Light / Presently
May: The Crunch / The Other Side of Everything
Jul: Absolute Zero / Thorney Island
Sep: CeleBritney / For The Public Good
2009
Jan: Ache / Colin's Fish
Artistic Directors for First Draft
Suzy Enoch and Tamara Lucas (Mar 2006 - Oct 2007)
Yvonne Enoch (Nov 2007 - Sep 2008)
Sarah Bell and Claire Robbin (Oct 2008 - Jun 2010)
Artistic Directors for blank pages
Hugh Allison and Claire Robbin (Jul 2010 - Nov 2010)
Hugh Allison (Dec 2010 - Jun 2011)
Hugh Allison and Perdie Brown (July 2011 - Nov 2011)
Hugh Allison (Dec 2011 - ???)
Process PROCESS:
blank pages put on performances in February, May, August and November of every year. These take place on a consequetive Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, starting at 7.30pm, in the Dogstar in Brixton. Generally, each performance is made up of two separate shows, each with a different writer, director and cast.
Approximately one month before each performance period both sets of actors meet their respective writer and director. The writer and director will have met each other by this point, but will not have met their cast, nor will they know cast-size or gender breakdown etc. Nothing yet will have been written.
We have an ever-growing pool of actors, who can perform in as many or as few performances as they wish.
At this point a theme is given to those assembled, which is then discussed or workshopped, led by the director. The theme is often vaguely topical, and is a way to link the two shows within the performance period.
A week later, the writer will present the cast with a script for them to read. This is the first time the actors will have seen it, and it may change after this point.
Rehearsals will get more frequent now, with the actors off-book by their third week, the writers still polishing the text and the directors thinking about publicity, images and sound.
The actors will get to see each others' shows on the day of the tech rehearsal, when the running order is confirmed.
After the last performance, the takings are split with everyone involved getting an equal share. The same percentage will also go to the venue, the company and a specified charity.
WHO WE ARE:
Artistic Director: Hugh Allison
Associate Creative: Eva Maler
In-house Technician: Martin Brady
Flyer Design: Lucy Fenton
Associate Technician: Daryl Wild
In-house photographer: Elena Nevzorova
Contact CONTACT US
If you are contacting us with regards to working with us in any way, please include an up-to-date cv and a paragraph about why you wish to work with blank pages.
If you want to act for us, please also include a headshot. Auditions take place periodically, and take place in the form of a four hour workshop.
If you wish to write for us, please include a short minimalistic stage play written by yourself. Writers and directors will be interviewed informally.
Applications without all of the above will be deleted. We only respond to people who we are interested in seeing; these responses are rarely immediate.
Email: contactblankpages_gmail.com
Post: 89 Birchanger Lane, Birchanger, Bishop Stortford, Herts, CM23 5QF
Twitter: _blankpagestc
Facebook: www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=132852900069177&ref=ts
WEBSITE CREDITS:
Website created by Hugh Allison.
blank pages logo designed by Alan Sutcliffe.
FUTURE SHOWS
Tues 21st - Thurs 23rd February 2012
Directors: Katharine Armitage and Sam Conway
Writers: Duncan Gates and Maev Mac Coille
Tues 22nd - Thurs 24th May 2012
Directors: Amy Mellor and Asia Osborne
Writers: Katy Darby and Chris Sivewright
Tues 21st - Thurs 23rd August 2012
Directors: Kanika Clayton and Ben Mills
Writers: Eva Maler and Ian Orrick
Tues 20th - Thurs 22nd November 2012
Directors: Jonathan Crewe and Chryssanthi Kouri
Writers: Mark Mitchell and Lee Thomson
