Target reached!
This will go even further towards paying the artists and team to ensure that everyon...
Small Change
London, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Peter Gill's masterpiece play 'Small Change' and its workshop programme will launch new company Both Barrels Theatre.
Both Barrels Theatre is a new not-for-profit company. Its Artistic Director George Richmond-Scott is currently the Associate Director of ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie' in the West End. Alongside his commercial work George previously directed ‘Blood Wedding’ at the Omnibus Theatre in London to great acclaim and runs projects in UK conservatoires including LAMDA and Bristol Old Vic.
Both Barrels Theatre is a member of English Touring Theatre’s FORGE scheme for 2019-20 which supports emerging companies committed to UK touring. To launch the company we will showcase a production of ‘Small Change’ at the Omnibus Theatre in London and Strode Theatre in Somerset (April-May 2020). This project will have integral opportunities for creative learning alongside the production.
The Project
Set on the east side of Cardiff in the 1950s and ‘70s, Peter Gill's luminous masterpiece centres around Gerard, a young man with depression who recalls his exuberant childhood. Somehow, he must make sense of his life and what made him the person he is in order to move on. Mental health is a key topic of our time. This play explores how people did and didn’t cope at a time when there was no clear language for talking about mental health crises.
Our Education Programme
Creative workshops with young people and adults at Strode College, Esher College, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and London Metro Centre Charity will use movement and text to explore the play’s themes. Participants will open the body, connect to the breath and the present moment. From here they will improvise to free and inspire the creative mind. They will explore a place from childhood, exercising imagination, connecting to the senses and then re-create it verbally. In doing this, these workshops aim to:
• Reduce anxiety, stress and depression
• Cultivate openness and spontaneity
• Boost creative thinking and the capacity to cope with uncertainty
Our project will thus enable people to both view and participate. Its themes will enable collective and individual reflection. For all our workshop partners we also anticipate this is either the continuation or start of a longer-term collaboration with our company.
Our Vision
Both Barrels Theatre wants to distill and reflect on what it means to be human and how we become the people we are. We will produce uplifting, provocative and insightful work that feels relevant today. Small Change's rich, poetic exploration of the human condition is the perfect piece to begin our journey.
Why are we Crowdfunding?
We will pay everyone involved in this project a fair and living wage. This costs a lot of money.
Tickets at the Omnibus Theatre are £16, £14 concs, at the Strode Theatre it's £13.50, £11.50 concs.
To cover our costs and break even through ticket sales revenue we would need to charge around £70 per ticket!
We have been saving, fundraising and applying for funding (so far we have financial support from Backstage Trust and the Golsoncott Foundation along with several kind and generous private donors and an Arts Council application pending). This is another way to help us reach our target budget and deliver a properly paid and professional project for participants and audience.
The Team
Director - George Richmond-Scott
George worked as a voice coach or 12 years including over a year at the RSC, before graduating in directing (with distinction) from Birkbeck College. His training placement at Sheffield Crucible involved working on main house plays including 'Julius Caesar' and 'Everybody’s Talking About Jamie', for which he is now Associate Director in the West End. Both productions were nominated for UK Theatre Awards, 'Jamie' winning two.
In Sheffield he directed young local actors in NT Connections play 'Musical Differences' at the Crucible Studio to very positive audience responses: “Verve, energy and great movement”. He also led and co-directed '4x15', a new writing project for local female playwrights. This enabled artists to explore how movement could be integrated into the creative process.
Since graduating he has also adapted and directed a double Offie nominated production of 'Blood Wedding' at Omnibus and led projects at LAMDA and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Consultant Producer - Jeanette Hinton
Jeanette is the dedicated freelance producer collaborating with Both Barrels Theatre on Small Change to ensure that budgets are managed effectively.
Jeanette has worked with numerous organisations including the Young Vic, Matthew Bourne’s Adventures in Motion Pictures, Living Pictures and Dance Umbrella. She has worked in commercial theatre in London’s West End and was awarded a Fellowship in Senior Dance Management from the Arts Council of England London. She has experience of managing both theatre and dance start-ups as well as production budgets for all scales of subsidised and commercial work.
Associate Producer - David Blackburn
Company director and Secretary of Both Barrels Theatre, David has been involved in theatre his whole life including work as a performer and director in both the UK and the US.
He is also a multi-award winning senior management executive with over 20 years’ experience in leading all aspects of Human Resources. A graduate of the University of Aberdeen and London Business School, David is Chief People Officer for the Financial Services Compensation Scheme; a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development; the Royal Society of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce; the Institute of Leadership and Management and a Member of the Guild of HR Professionals.
Associate Producer - Anastasia Panova
Anastasia comes from Moscow. She has a passion for theatre and performance and a wealth of experience as a fundraiser in the charity sector. She was associate producer on Blood Wedding at Omnibus in 2018 and a key facilitator of fundraising events for both Blood Wedding and Small Change.
Designer - Liam Bunster
Originally training as an Architect, Liam went onto complete a Postgraduate degree in Set and Costume Design at RADA and was recently resident Associate Designer at the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Design Credits include: Twist (Staatstheater, Mainz); Flare Path (RCSSD); Lady Macwata (Applecart Arts); Donal the Numb (Vaults Festival); Yokes Night (Stratford East); Der Freischütz (Blackheath Opera); L’elisir d’amore (Westminster Opera Company); After Miss Julie, The Beggar’s Opera (RADA). Associate Design Credits include: A Kind of People (Royal Court); Two Ladies, A German Life, A Very Very Very Dark Matter (Bridge Theatre); Death of a Salesman (Young Vic/Piccadilly Theatre); Hedda Tesman (Chichester Festival Theatre/Lowry Theatre); West Side Story (Royal Exchange); Don Juan in Soho (Wyndham’s Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare’s Globe) and Troilus and Cressida, Romeo and Juliet, A Christmas Carol, Fantastic Follies of Mrs Rich (RSC).
Lighting Designer - Josh Gadsby
"My background in designing for devised performance has led to a process that values close collaboration with theatre makers of all specialisms. I enjoy a strong focus on visual dramaturgy and interrogation throughout my process."
Josh has designer for Young Vic, New Diorama, The Yard, The Finborough, The Other Palace, Manchester Royal Exchange and Hampstead Theatre downstairs. He is currently designing for the Gate and will lighting design a rep season at Theatre by the Lake this summer.
I’m drawn to performance which actively explores it’s relationship with audiences. I’m interested in what it means to have honest interactions on stage and how one can light honestly.
Movement Director - Rachel Wise
Rachel is a Movement Director and Assistant Director based in UK and Germany, she graduated from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts with BA Hons Dance (Performing Arts). For several years she was a Teaching Assistant and Teacher at The Royal Ballet School and has since conducted movement courses at Morley College, China Central Academy of Drama and Hamburg University.
In 2017 she completed her MA in Movement Directing and Teaching, at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Rachel’s experience spans both theatre and opera with international projects including: The Kala Ghoda Arts Festival; Beijing Music Festival; Welsh National Opera; The Orange Tree Theatre, and Nevill Holt Opera.
Her current projects include Assistant Directing and Assistant Movement Directing for Britten’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ directed by Anna Morrissey for Nevill Holt Opera, and co-directing a youth adaptation of Beethoven’s ‘Fidelio’ for which Rachel co-wrote a new Libretto, ‘Fidelio’ premieres at the Shaw Theatre.
Actor - Toby Gordon
Toby trained at LAMDA and recently starred as George Wilson in the 'The Great Gatsby' touring the UK and Europe. Previous stage credits include a site specific in York Minster (York Mystery Plays) and work with director Ivo Van Hove on his 'Antigone' for the Barbican/Edinburgh International Festival.
Partner Artist - Soham De
Soham will partner with us to deliver an audience participation art project in the theatre foyer on three event nights during the play's run.
He originally trained as an architect and urban designer. His art uses a combination of media to explore the organic energy between figurative and abstract expressionism.
He says: "No specific style is sought – instead there is constant experimentation with varied techniques and media, blurring the margin between the real and abstract. Painting is a life form, I believe. It is more than a visual output or representation, rather a process which responds to a chain of events that evolve into a work of art. The chaos within us, within me, is a primal basis of such evolution. We all carry it, and hence experience the need to express it in which ever way we can. It is a truth known but rarely expressed."
This project successfully funded on 29th February 2020