Theatre in the Mill and West Yorkshire Playhouse

New Writing Season Week commencing 28th May

What does a good new writing season look like?

Well, it could include the premiere of a new play (Napoli), give a taster of a major new play being developed, have writers-in-residence and open scratch nights. It should help find answers to big questions:

What do writers want?

How to take big risks with little money?

How do we get more of the biggest, best and boldest plays to the stage?

It can bring together old friends and new colleagues (Emerge, Northern Bullits), artists and you, the audience, for a conversation about what kind of new writing theatre we want.

We’re still working on the details of this so if you have any thoughts do share them at www.wyp.org.uk/newwritingblog; and we’ll share ideas and plans as they develop. Look forward to seeing you there.

University of Bradford

Spring/Summer 2012www.bradford.ac.uk/theatre

“Bradford’s innovative Theatre in the Mill” Leeds Guide

we are here

Useful informationAddress: Theatre in the MillUniversity of BradfordOff Shearbridge Road BradfordBD7 1DP

Post code for sat navs – BD7 1NX(this will take you to Bombay Stores, on Shearbridge Road - we’re opposite, down a side road into the University Campus)

Box office: 01274 233200

E-mail your reservation: theatre@bradford.ac.uk

Web www.bradford.ac.uk/theatreTwitter @braduniarts Facebook find our page by searching for ‘Theatre in the Mill’

Group discounts Please contact Rachel on 01274 235495 to discuss our generous discounts for groups.

Disabled Parking & AccessTheatre in the Mill is wheelchair-accessible with a lift to the main auditorium on the first floor. We have space for two wheelchairs, a disabled toilet and an induction loop in the main theatre space. The lower floor (ticket, info and bar area) is at street level and has wide doorways. If you have specific access needs and/or need to use the wheelchair spaces in the Theatre please contact us.

We have two disabled parking spaces nearby, one immediately opposite and on a level with the Theatre, the other nearer the entrance to the lane: from here the Theatre is approximately 150m downhill. For both of these parking places please take the entrance to the lane, which is marked with a Theatre in the Mill sign, from Shearbridge Road opposite Bombay Stores.

Northern Bullits and Theatre in the Mill present

Six ShooterFriday 16th and Saturday 17th March, 7.30pm

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions/+ a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

Six writers have been loaded into Northern Bullits’ latest new writing development scheme and have created six unique fifteen-minute plays to be fired out as rehearsed readings for an evening of entertainment.

Check www.bradford.ac.uk/theatre for more information.

Word Life Vs How Do Magazinehosted and curated by Joe Kriss Friday 23rd March, 7.30pm

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions + a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

Word Life teams up with new Bradford based arts magazine ‘How Do’ to bring you some of the best spoken word and music acts from the area and beyond. Featuring Richard Tyrone Jones+ much more tbc.

Word Lifehosted and curated by Joe Kriss

Friday 20th April, 7.30pm

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions + a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

Featuring Kayo Chingonyi: Kayo Chingonyi was born in Zambia in 1987. His poems are published in City Lighthouse (Tall-Lighthouse, 2009), The Shuffle Anthology (Shuffle Press, 2009), Verbalized (British Council, 2010), Paradise By Night (Booth-Clibborn Editions 2010), Clinic II (Clinic Presents & Egg Box Publishing, 2011), The Best British Poetry 2011 (Salt Publishing, 2011) and The Salt Book of Younger Poets (Salt Publishing, 2011).

He is a Visiting Writer at Kingston University and a pamphlet of his poems, entitled Some Bright Elegance, is due out in 2012 from Salt Publishing.

+ open mic

Theatre in the Mill Commissions

Unfinished Business presents

Only Wolves and LionsWednesday 25th, Friday 27th, Saturday 28th April, 7.30pm, venue TBC

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions + a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

Unfinished Business creates performance that explores intimate, interactive experience and promotes genuine exchange between audience, performer and space.

Mixing food, performance and a good chat, Only Wolves and Lions asks some big questions about community, isolation and the state we are in!

Performed by Leo Kay and Unai Lopez de Armentia, this innovative theatrical event invites the audience to cook together, eat together and speak together. Over the course of the meal, entertaining and thought provoking performance fuel discussion.

Unfinished Business will provide all the basics for a meal: setting, utensils, herbs, spices, condiments and carbs. However, to enter the event you are required to bring one raw ingredient, enough to share in a meal for 16 people.

The performance will be developed at sites around the city of Bradford, which will be discovered by the company during their residency. Watch this piece develop and see the performance spaces selected via our website www.bradford.ac.uk/theatre.

For more information on the company visit: www.thisisunfinished.wordpress.com/about

This production has been co-commissioned by South Street Arts Centre, Reading.

“contemporary theatre at its finest.” talesfrombradistan.blogspot.com

Theatre in the Mill Commissions

Oval House Presents: Chris Goode & Company

GOD/HeADCreated with the support of Theatre in the Mill, Schtanhaus, Judith E. Wilson Drama Studio, University of Cambridge, and the Jerwood Space.

Wednesday 9th – Friday 11th May, 7.30pm

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions/+ a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

So there’s this writer.Thirtysomething, gay, lefty liberal metropolitan writer. Atheist, obviously.History of mental health problems, but those are all in the past.Sure of himself and his world view. Comfortable in his assumptions.And then one day, suddenly, without any warning...There’s God.

In this brand new piece of candid, searching documentary theatre, award-winning writer and storyteller Chris Goode explores the flipside of the familiar crisis of faith: what if there really is a God after all?

God/Head is a humane, funny, radically unsettling piece about the tensions between religion and neuroscience, and about the limits of language and the edges of desire.

‘Anyone who follows theatre will know that Chris Goode is a poet and theatre-maker who’s up there with the very best, and who – over the last ten years – has produced some of the most consistently interesting, thoughtful and occasionally startling shows and collaborations.’ The Guardian

Image credit: Malcolm Phillips

Hidden Gems productions presents

Somebody’s Son Thursday 14th June, 7.30pm

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions + a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200theatre@bradford.ac.uk

By Marcia Layne Directed by Amanda Huxtable

‘I saw the ghost of Christmas future. You, her, a double baggy and a council flat flashed in front of my eyes.’

Somebody’s Son is the latest play by award-winning writer Marcia Layne.

This is a powerful, funny and heartbreaking story about three teenaged boys Darnell, Kieran and Anthony. They make music together, play on the school teams together and are failing together. They’re tight friends until Rochelle and Angel come along, challenging everything they thought they knew about each other and themselves.

What you see isn’t always what you get in this surprising coming-of-age drama.

The piece will be suitable for ages 13+.

The performance will be followed by a post-show discussion.

Freedom Studios presents

Snapshots: new scenes for theatreThursday 8th – Friday 9th March, 7.30pm

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions/+ a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

Freedom Studios presents four snapshots of work from some of the most exciting emerging artists in the country. These ‘work in progress’ pieces are compelling slices of life asking questions about the choices we make and the consequences of our decisions.

Would you use an app to bring back the dead? Why do people disappear? How will we survive in a new Britain where the only sanctuary is a reading group?

The evening starts with bold 3D projections by moving image artist Jez Coram, setting the scene for a night of contrast and entertainment. An ensemble of talented artists use narrative, physical theatre, sound, light and digital technology to tell stories that they are passionate about and which reflect the world we live in.

Freedom Studios’ recent production, ‘The Mill – City of Dreams’, received public and critical acclaim.

Theatre in the Mill Commissions Jane Packman Company presents

A Thousand Shards Of Glass Thursday 23rd – Saturday 25th February, 7.30pm

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions/+ a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

This performance has a limited capacity so advance booking is recommended.

A Thousand Shards of Glass is an intimate performance and a story of adventure.

It’s about Lucy carrying a song across borders in a briefcase.

It’s a sonic journey inspired by the intrigue of a thriller.

It’s an excuse for a helicopter sequence.

It’s about going on a mission and getting back home again.

Jane Packman Company return to Theatre in the Mill, following the success of Treasured – A Secret Journey in 2010, with this new immersive theatre performance.

‘It’s over in a twinkling, but the effect lingers.... A deft and imaginative experience from a new company with real potential.’ Lyn Gardner, The Guardian, on Treasured – A Secret Journey

www.janepackman.co.uk Photography by Chris Keenan

DiarySpring/Summer 2012

JanuaryThursday 19th January, 4–6pm Instant Dissidence workshop

Friday 20th January, 4–5.30pm Instant Dissidence: work in progress sharing – Caramel

Saturday 21st January, 7.30pm Steven Severin: Vampyr

Tuesday 24th January, 7.30pm ellie Harrison: The etiquette of Grief

Friday 27th January, 1–10pm (performances last 40 minutes) ellie Harrison and Jaye Kearney: The Reservation (at The Midland Hotel)

Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th January, 4–8.45pm Daniel Ingram Brown, Parveen Ghir, Hannah Sibai: The Tunnel (performances last 20 minutes)

FebruarySaturday 11th February, 7.30pm Michele Panegrossi & Sophie Arstall: My Name is Sophie and I am… (Open Space)

Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th February, 6.30pm and 8.30pm, venue TBC Hannah Jane Walker and Chris Thorpe: The Oh Fuck Moment

Friday 17th February, 7.30pm Word Life: with Seiben, Ross Sutherland, Leeds Young Authors and open mic

Thursday 23rd, Friday 24th and Saturday 25th February, 7.30pm Jane Packman: A Thousand Shards of Glass

MarchThursday 8th and Friday 9th March, 7.30pm Freedom Studios: Snapshots

Friday 16th and Saturday 17th March, 7.30pm Northern Bullits: Six Shooter

Friday 23rd March, 7.30pm Word Life Vs How Do Magazine

AprilThursday 5th April, 7.30pmPLaY Theatre: We can be heroes (open space)

Friday 20th April, 7.30pm Word Life: featuring Kayo Chingonyi, open mic

Wednesday 25th, Friday 27th, Saturday 28th April 7.30pm, venue TBC Unfinished Business: Only Wolves and Lions

MayWednesday 9th – Friday 11th May, 7.30pm Chris Goode and Company: GOD/HeAD

Saturday 26th May, 7.30pm The Squires/Barker/Modarelli/Brooks/Munoz Collective: Victor Jara

Week commencing 28th May Theatre in the Mill and West Yorkshire Playhouse: New Writing Season

JuneThursday 14th June, 7.30pm Hidden Gems: Somebody’s Son

Thursday 28th June, 7.30pm Michele Panegrossi & Sophie Arstall: My Name is Sophie and I am… (Open Space)

Theatre in the Mill CommissionsInstant Dissidence presents

Caramel (work in progress sharing)

Friday 20th January, 4–5.30pmTickets: £3 From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

An opportunity for audiences to offer their thoughts on the work and to get a sneak preview before its premiere in September 2012. A hybrid of a dance, a sculpture and a stage-sized caramelised sweet, stimulating the audience’s five senses.

Caramel is a durational performance for three dancers and a cook taking place in a giant baking tray. As the intricately structured dance unravels, a cook gradually turns a giant mountain of sugar into caramel, throwing it into the performance space. As the giant baking tray fills with caramel it gradually impedes the dancers’ ability to perform. The movement slows down to the point where the dancers can no long move, and dance turns into a living sculpture. The audience is then invited to play a role in the release of the dancers from the caramel.

An unusual combination of dance, sculpture and cookery, the work will stimulate your senses of sight, sound, touch, smell and taste.

‘Such freedom to interpret is valuable and to be commended.’ Dance critic Donald Hutera

Important notes: The performance is suitable for those aged 16+. The work may contain nudity.

www.instantdissidence.co.uk

Steven Severin presents

Vampyr Saturday 21 January, 7.30pmTickets: £10 From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.ukLive in person, acclaimed solo artist and founder member of the legendary Siouxsie and the Banshees, Steven Severin presents a mesmerising synthesis of sound and image, heightening appreciation of the surreal and enigmatic nature of the original work. Vampyr, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s unsettling tale of fear and obsession, finds its aural counterpart in Severin’s suitably textured score, a synthesised, highly atmospheric soundscape drawing the viewer rhythmically into the oneiric imagery on screen.

Ellie Harrison

etiquette of Grief Tuesday 24th January, 7.30pm Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions + number of student tickets at £3 From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

‘Etiquette of Grief is a remarkable piece of work. The atmosphere was fantastic. ‘ Alex Kelly, Co-Artistic Director, Third Angel

Etiquette of Grief is a step-by-step guide for how to cope with bereavement. Thousands of people have struggled to cope with the deaths of Princess Diana, Jade Goody, Michael Jackson and even occasionally their own loved ones. Ellie knows it can be difficult to express feelings of anger, sadness and loss. She would like to provide some moral support, some Dutch courage and perhaps even a little musical accompaniment to help you at this testing time.

With inspiring messages from her digital alter-ego, Ellie’s distinctive brand of solo performance compares our personal and public responses to grief through song, filmic re-enactments and a little help from the audience.

Etiquette of Grief is supported by Arts Council England, University of Leeds through Incubator, Theatre in the Mill and Leeds Met Gallery & Studio Theatre.

Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th January, 4–8.45pm

Tickets: £6 full/£4 concessions/+ a limited number of student tickets at £2

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.ukRoll up, roll up! Enter The Tunnel. Venture through seven ages of man. Journey from birth to death in moments. Explore your part in this splendid sensory attraction. All the world’s a stage… but dare you illuminate your own entrance?

The Tunnel is an interactive installation for audience members to experience individually. Each journey will last approximately 20 minutes.

Created by: Daniel Ingram Brown, Parveen Ghir, Hannah Sibai

*Please note: strobe lighting will be used within The Tunnel. Unfortunately The Tunnel cannot accommodate wheelchairs.

Hannah Jane Walker and Chris Thorpe present

The Oh Fuck Moment Monday 13th and Tuesday 14th February, 6.30pm and 8.30pm, venue TBC

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions/+ a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

This performance has limited capacity so advance booking is recommended

You just fucked up. Now what? Sometimes, fuck-ups are so massive, there’s no way back. In this Fringe-First-winning show, poet Hannah Jane Walker and Chris Thorpe examine the poetic guts of mistakes in a bundle of words and strip lighting. Fucking up is the truest, funniest, most terrifying moment you can experience.

You will make a mistake, maybe you’ll learn from it.

The Oh Fuck Moment is a conversation around a desk for brave souls to hold their hands up and admit they fucked up, or for people to laugh at us because we did.

The Guardian ****

‘A Brilliant celebration of our mistakes.’ Lyn Gardner

Produced by Ric Watts (originally produced by Emily Coleman)

Image credit Martin Figura

Open SpaceOpen Space is a place for artists to play, explore and develop new work. A place to think, dream and make.

During the Spring/Summer season we will be hosting Michele Panegrossi and Sophie Arstall, who will be developing My Name is Sophie and I Am, a dance and digital media collaboration. Through the means of dance, sound and interactive visuals, London-based artists Michele and Sophie will draw on Steve Reich’s sense of repetition in music and Martin Arnold’s explorations into looping and augmentation to create a journey into the search for identity in our life. There will be an intimate bar-based sharing of the first phase of development on 11th February and a more realised showing of the second stage on 28th of June.

The Squires/Barker/Modarelli/Brooks/Munoz Collective – We are delighted to welcome back this Leeds-based collective of actors, musicians and film-makers who will be taking further their theatre/cabaret exploration of the life and death of Chilean activist, theatre director and musician Victor Jara – performance Saturday 26th May, 7.30pm.

PLaY Theatre will be working towards a showing of ‘We Can Be Heroes’ –“This is a show about facing your fears. This is a show about how I faced my fears and became a super hero.” This new piece that explores a growing number of ordinary members of the public who create alternative “superhero” personas and patrol the streets in their own personalized costumes, performing acts of charity or kindness. Could we be heroes too? The company’s work is based on a collaborative approach and led by Jamie Fletcher and Dick Bonham. There will be a showing of the work so far at 7.30pm, 5th April, £3.

Word LifeHosted and curated by Joe Kriss

Friday 17th February, 7.30pm

Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions/+ a limited number of student tickets at £3

From: 01274 233200/theatre@bradford.ac.uk

‘An incredibly enjoyable evening.’ The Yorkshire Post

‘One of the purveyors of the new literary night out.’ The Independent.

SeibenMatt Howden is an innovative violinist who incorporates a loop pedal into his live set, overlaying multiple violin lines, vocals and percussive sounds. Over 1000 live appearances taking place in the UK, Europe and beyond. Published by Universal.

‘Howden has created something celebratory, and something magical... and further proof of his remarkable talent.’ Tony Dickie, Compulsion

Ross SutherlandRoss Sutherland was included in The Times’s list of Top Ten Literary Stars of 2008. He has two collections of poetry, Things To Do Before You Leave Town (2009) and Twelve Nudes (2010).

‘It has a purity and power you never expect until it is there in front of you.’ Johann Hari, The Evening Standard

Leeds Young Authors + open mic This space is reserved for you. We have six five-minute slots at each event for anyone to take their turn on the mic and perform a poem, short story, or whatever you’d like. We’re also running workshops. If you’d like more info or would like to reserve a slot, email wordlifeuk@gmail.com

The Reservation will be performed at Bradford’s famous Midland Hotel. Audiences can purchase tickets through Theatre in the Mill’s box office at which point they will receive further details about the experience.

Created and performed by Leeds-based theatre-makers Ellie Harrison and Jaye Kearney, the performance lasts approximately 40 minutes and forms the second part of Ellie Harrison’s Grief Series. The Reservation was co-commissioned by Theatre in the Mill, Emerge Leeds and ARC. The Reservation has been supported by Arts Council England and was developed at The Queen’s Hotel, Leeds and the Merrion Hotel, Leeds.

Theatre in the Mill CommissionsEllie Harrison and Jaye Kearney

The ReservationFriday 27th January, 1–10pm (performances last 40 minutes)Tickets: £8 full/£6 concessions + a limited number of student tickets at £3 From: 01274 233200/ theatre@bradford.ac.ukTickets for this performance are very limited so booking is essential

Picture by Rachel Cherry. Digital manipulation by Michele Panegrossi & Sophie Arstall

Image credit Martin Figura