We enjoyed a brief outing to the Authoring Theatre conference at Central School of Speech and Drama earlier this month where we found out about shifts and changes in landscape of theatre and performance. Then most of July’s activity has been focused on meetings of one kind of another including de-briefs following Elephant in the Room.

Northern Creative are part of a scheme called ‘Incubator’ which is run by the University of Leeds to help establish emerging theatre companies in the region. One of the features of the scheme is mentoring and Northern Creative are very excited to be working with Cathy Naden and Eileen Evans from Forced Entertainment on this basis.

Preparations are underway for the next Northern Creative project which will begin with a series of workshops in September. Details will be released shortly.

Enjoy your summer holidays!

June has been a busy month with members attending artistic directors’ and producers’ fora at  the Independent Theatre Council. Here we’ve made new friends and contacts and we’ve discussed current issues affecting the industry as well as sharing best practice.

We’ve also been attending Emerge which is a festival of new work taking place in Leeds. There have been some fantastic workshops with top theatre practitioners as well as an openspace event where we had some very galvanising conversation. There are details of one of the conversations we had here on the blog.

We’re very pleased to announce a new team member. Siddique Akbar has joined Northern Creative as producer. We’re enjoying his sunshiney positive energies. Hello to Sid!

One last thing! Congratulations to Harriet (who plays Jean in Elephant in the Room) and Simon Judd who were married earlier this month.

This month, our Elephant in the Room has enjoyed visits from two of our favourite theatre people, Forced Entertainment’s Cathy Naden and Red Ladder’s Rod Dixon.

Thanks to Cathy and Rod for providing us with loads of interesting and insightful feedback on our rehearsals, and particularly for their thoughts on our new avenues of exploration – which have produced some surprising and exciting results…

On 21 May, we took the Elephant on its first road trip, performing at The Roundhouse in London as part ofThe Accidental Festival.  As the headline act at the festival’s Studio Sessions, the show went down very well and we received some great comments, including this from the compere:
“Clearly a madly inventive company making heartfelt, intricate work that challenges the audience in all the right ways. Brilliant.”
- Dizraeli (BBC Poetry Slam Champion) 

 For tickets please follow this link

Duncan Marwick as Arnold

Following a period of refinement and the introduction of a new cast member, April saw Elephant in the Room performed as work in progress as part of New Stages Festival at Stage@Leeds.

Some of our favourite audience feedback included : ‘Beckettian’, ‘hilarious and human’ and ‘disturbing yet tender’.

Photo by Mike Wallis

Citizen Clown by Sarah Wallis featured as part of Midget Gems at the Carriageworks later on in the month where it was very well received.

Mike Wallis photographed Dean Murray in performance. Here are some of his fantastic shots.

Photo by Mike Wallis

After a busy few months Northern Creative are having a little Easter break before preparation begins for a showing of Elephant in the Room at the Accidental Festival . We’re performing at The Roundhouse  in Camden as a part of the festival on Saturday 21st May. If you’d like to attend this showing please book a ticket for ’Studio Sessions’ which begins at 14.30. Here’s a link to buy tickets : www.roundhouse.org.uk/whats-on/productions/the-studio-sessions

Development work on Elephant in the Room continues in advance of a performance at Stage@leeds on 1st & 2nd April at 6.00pm.  This performance is part of New Stages 2011. Box Office : 0113 343 8730 (tickets bargain price of only £2.50)

We have two new team members. Duncan Marwick who has taken over the role of Arnold and Peter Restrick who is helping with sound and technical aspects. Great to have them on board. We’re really enjoying their contribution.

Duncan Marwick

We’re also rehearsing Citizen Clown by Sarah Wallis which will be performed on 9th April at 8.00pm at Carriageworks in Leeds (as part of Midget Gems event).  Box office 0113 224 3801

See current for further details about Citizen Clown.

Is this news enough? Seems like plenty for now…

Hope to see you on 1st or 2nd April and on the 9th. Right…back to rehearsal!

In performance

Elephant in the Room at Bradford Theatre in the Mill was a really positive experience for us. Thanks to the staff at The Mill for their support and encouragement.

While we were working there we generated fifteen minutes worth of new material, combined these with the original material and shared with an audience. Then we had a really useful feedback session which will feed in to the next phase of work on the show. You can read all about the process we went through on Joanne Hartley’sblog.

For those of you who couldn’t make it to Bradford, we’ll be showing Elephant in the Room again at Stage@leeds on 1st and 2nd April at 6.00 pm. Box Office : 0113 343 8730