by Kerry Murdock on March 5th, 2010.
Birmingham playwright, Helen Kelly’s has just finished a first draft of her new play “Catchment Christians”.
This play is an interesting look at what’s in the news this very week – getting children into the right schools!
Friction Theatre’s Kerry Murdock is going to be running a one day workshop on this play on March 21st at AE Harris (Stan’s Cafe’s place). The writer will be in attendance all day.
We’ll be breaking the script up and working on individual scenes in groups. What do these characters want and how can we get the audience to care? What would you do if you were cast in one of the characters? How would you play him/her?
There will be some direction of the scenes which is why we’re looking for actors.
We’re looking for actors who are:
- interesting in new writing
- able to think on their feet
- opinionated
The workshop is free and lunch will be provided.
The day will run from 10am-5pm with lunch at 1pm. If you’re interested, please email Kerry Murdock with your playing age. (See Contacts page for the email address).
by Kerry Murdock on March 4th, 2010.
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by Kerry Murdock on February 26th, 2010.
I read this poem for the second time today. It made me want to weep as much as the first time – so I thought I’d share it with you. There’s something quite special about making friends who share your creative visions. It’s something really hard to find and very hard to describe.
The Friends
The war separated
Me, the writer of plays, from my friend the stage designer.
The cities where he worked are no longer there.
When I walk through the cities that still are
At times I say: that blue piece of washing
My friend would have placed it better.
by Kerry Murdock on December 5th, 2009.
Fear Itself from Friction Theatre participated in First Bite last month, it was a thoroughly entertaining and varied night.
We prepared an under-10 minute ‘taster’ of our show, Fear Itself. (We were one of only three shows to actually stick to the under-10-minute rule, but we’re not going to mention that. Ahem.)
The plan was to give the audience the flavour of our idea. In this modern world of tabloid and lazy journalism facts are rarely checked and the word is deliberately sensationalised. Statistics are misleading and the net result is that the general populace lives in fear of ridiculousness.
Your children are more likely to be poisoned in their own home than abducted in a playground. You’re more likely to be struct by lightning than suffer the result of a terrorist attack.
Fear Itself plans to present the work of fear behind a backdrop of honest-normality.
Anyway…
Unfortunately we didn’t get a commission but that’s not going to stop us from making it happen! The two that did get commission were genuinely our favourites of the evening, so we’re not too disappointed. The lucky comissionees were: Al Bowlly’s Croon Manifesto by Untied Artists and You’re not like the other girls Chrissy by Caroline Horton.
We had a range of feedback comments, some very positive and some rather negative. But, as Bill Cosby says, “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
by Kerry Murdock on October 23rd, 2009.
A brand new showcase event from the team that brought you The Bite Size Festival in 2008. Come to @AE Harris to experience an evening of exciting, eclectic, extracts and ideas from some of the regions most daring theatre makers. This is your chance to help mould new work as it develops…Two of the pieces seen at the 2009 First Bite Festival will be selected for commission by mac and Warwick Arts Centre, all of them will be shaped by your feedback. Come and tell us, and them, what you think…
by Graeme Braidwood on October 21st, 2009.
Mother Courage and Her Children is all over now. A total of 600 people came to see the show over four days. We had wonderful feedback from the audience. Many thanks to all who supported the show. It’s not quite over yet – we are now touring with Brecht school’s workshops – and we still have some dates available. See our contact page for more information.
The Mother Courage Cast
by Kerry Murdock on October 6th, 2009.
Today we tech’ed and dressed in just one day! It was an incredibly tight fit to squeeeze it all in, but thanks to a fabulous lighting designer(Pete Watts) and two really wonderful people at the Old Rep: Adrian Littlejohns (Technical manager) and Andy we just about managed it.
Not to mention the poor old cast who had to stay concentrated for hours and practice their scene changes…
Graeme Braidwood also came and did his usual awesome job of taking photographs.
Tomorrow it all starts for real.
But to whet your appetite here are a few pictures from Graeme:
