LAVENDER - a new play by H Fitzpatrick

Aim

A play about growing up queer in the South West, a project to celebrate LGBTQ+ creativity. Help us bring this vibrant Sapphic to life!

Video credits

Overview

Lavender is a new play by Holly Fitzpatrick about growing up queer in the South West, and we need your help to share this vibrant Sapphic in Devon and London. After the cancellation of London VAULT 2022 we have now been programmed at The Omnibus Theatre in Clapham instead as part of their VAULT Festival Transfer Season!

After positive responses performing at Exeter Fringe Festival we are developing Lavender, sharing queer creativity and telling an authentic queer female story. The project includes: 

• Workshops at Exeter Library for LGBTQ+ youth
• A work-in-progress sharing for queer artists at Theatre Royal Plymouth
• A premiere and panel discussion at Exeter Phoenix
• A London VAULT programmed show, we are now performing at The Omnibus Theatre in Clapham

"An important, vibrant and moving piece of queer theatre emerging from the fabric of Exeter” - Alex Jackson ( Co-Founder and Director of Exeter Fringe Festival)

Summary

A butch Marxist trainwreck that works in the cereal aisle. A Christian with an engagement ring and the voice of an angel. Devon. Surrounding them is fifteen years of history. Amongst the rubble of polyester thongs, dolls and skipping ropes, and without a future, Nancy and Lucy have no option but to go back to where it all began: sharpening pencils and plucking wings off flies, seven-years-old. Lavender is a crude, chaotic, and radical evolution of two women as they navigate queer love, politics, and growing up in a crisis-ridden, heteronormative world.

“Beautifully written, performed, staged, and produced” - Professor Jana Funke (Associate Professor of English and Sexuality Studies, University of Exeter)

For more regular updates on our production, please like and follow us on our Instagram and Twitter:

• @play_lavender
• @play.lavender
• Website: https://www.lavenderplay.co.uk/ 

Why Lavender Is Important

Lavender is an essential project. Our Key Aims are:

• Stage Queer Female stories: there is a gaping absence of authentic LGBTQ+ female narratives in the regional creative landscape. We want to challenge this intersection of sexism and homophobia and provide a vibrant, empowering, realistic representation of queer women onstage.
• Connect queer creative people in the SW: our workshops and panel discussion will celebrate queer creative expression in Exeter and Plymouth, connecting young people with academics, artists, and LGBTQ+ community members to create networks that do not currently exist.
• Chart a pathway for SW queer artists to cultivate high-quality work and share it nationally: Lavender amplifies underrepresented voices in the South West, showing emerging artists that the area need not be hostile to their career ambitions. Our project will help ensure the SW remains vibrant with new work.
• Showcase the potential of the SW: Performing Lavender in London allows quality work from the South West to reach new audiences, critics and collaborators, and raise the profile of this region’s artistic work.

"A beautiful, human quality” - Donald Craigie (Exeter based Theatre Artist)

Partners

We are partnering with several venues to help achieve these aims:

• Exeter Library for our workshop activity 
• Theatre Royal Plymouth and Exeter Phoenix for Devon based rehearsal spaces and performance spaces. Theatre Royal Plymouth is a leading producing house in the South West. Exeter Phoenix is a vibrant, world-class multi-artform venue in the heart of Exeter.
• New Diorama Broadgate for London rehearsal space. NDT Broadgate is a large rehearsal and artist development complex, a revolutionary civic space for freelance artists.
• VAULT Festival was the platform for sharing our work in London, and we will continue to collaborate with them to secure artist support as we look for performance alternatives. VAULT Festival is the UK’s leading independent showcase of live performance and artistic talent; featuring thousands of sensational performances across Theatre, Comedy, & Live Entertainment, made by the most exciting and boldest artists of our time.
• The Omnibus Theatre is where Lavender will now be showing in London as part of the venues VAULT Transfer Season. Omnibus Theatre is a multi-award-winning independent theatre in Clapham, South London. We provide a platform for new writing and interdisciplinary work, aiming to give voice to the underrepresented and challenge perceptions. We believe in affordable tickets and theatre for all.

How You Can Help

Any contribution you can give will make all the difference to us achieving our aims and will be essential in bringing Lavender to life. We have received In Kind rehearsal and performance spaces ensuring we can see this project to completion. We are thankful to have been awarded funding from Arts Council England - South West. Their support allows us to pay our team, share our practice with young people through free workshops, and invest in a queer theatre community in Exeter and Plymouth.

Therefore, all of the money you donate will be used to fund the production costs and elevate Lavender to be a high-quality piece of work.

In order to be as transparent as possible, we have included a breakdown of the projected production costs:

Our Thank You

Any support you can give us is incredible, and we would appreciate any donation no matter how big or small. We want to show our gratitude for your support in putting on our production of Lavender, so we have a collection of rewards as a Thank You for your generosity. Take a look below at what we have to offer!

About The Team

We are a collective of queer theatre makers with extensive experience of developing new work:

• Holly Fitzpatrick is a South West playwright, facilitator and theatre maker that is driven by feminist rage and making political theatre accessible to young people. Recently she facilitated musical theatre devising workshops for young people in Doorstep Art’s ‘Climate Change AHRC Project’. Twitter - @hmfitzpatrick
• Sophie Leydon is a director and theatre maker whose practice centres staging LGBTQIA+ experience through interdisciplinary forms. She is the recipient of a Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from the Arts Council, and in 2020 was invited to participate in Mountview’s inaugural Director’s Studio. Her work has previously been supported by funding from ACE and Thrive London, and has been nominated for the Sit Up Award for ‘groundbreaking work that platforms social issues’.
• Susannah Bramwell is a Creative Producer passionate about making socially driven female led theatre. She Executive Produced EUTCo’s production of ‘The Amber Trap’ by Tabitha Mortiboy that had a successful tour in Devon and Surrey in August, and collaborated with Exeter Maketank to create the inaugural Kinder Exeter Festival. Instagram - @suzebramwell.theatre
• Finlay Carroll is a producer specialising in creative work with queer/ecological themes. He has worked extensively with Exeter Decolonising Network to explore anti-racist practice in the arts. Finlay facilitated Opening Up Exeter, a movement for queer creative spaces, and coordinated marketing for Exeter Fringe Festival 2021. Twitter - @spreadtoofinlay
• Ruby Woods is an Autistic theatre maker and disability practitioner. She is interested in strong identity pieces and work that provides authentic representation to underrepresented communities. She is Artistic Director of Animate Theatre CIC and works through-out community based theatre in the South West. Instagram - @rubywoodswork 
• Emma Horne is an early career Production Manager keen to explore female led work. Her most recent work includes Production Manager of ‘Anna Karenina’ directed by Derek Bond at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
  
• Amy Fawcett is a dramaturg specifically interested in female and queer led theatre. Amy recently was the dramaturg for 4 shows for Theatre Royal Plymouth's 'Labstonbury' festival, and also co-directed Isabel Flynn's 'Who cares Now?' for Exeter Fringe Festival. Instagram - @ _amyfawcett_  
• Adie Currie is a lighting designer and technician. They recently lit JENNY, a queer sci-fi revenge fantasy by RODENT and Alicia Jane Turner, performed at Spill Festival 2021; and Julius Caesar, directed by Anna Morrissey and performed at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Instagram - @lighting_adi
• Grace Duff is a theatre practitioner, and will be Sound Designing for Lavender. She recently video designed for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama's production of Julius Caesar, and is due to Production Manage their upcoming plays Intimate Apparel and Road. Instagram - @graceduff_production

Want to know more?

If you have any questions about our crowdfunding campaign, the production, or any of the team, please do not hesitate to get in touch. You can contact us via email, [email protected], or through our Twitter Page.

This project successfully funded on 24th January 2022