ALRA : Summer 2013 programme

ALRA Summer Season 2013

THE BLUE ROOM. SENSE. THE SCHOOL MISTRESS. BE MY BABY. WOMEN OF TROY.

WELCOME These five plays mark the final work of our present third year students. There is a wide range here – Greek, Tragedy, traditional farce, contemporary British writing and contemporary European writing – each allowing the student actors to show the skills they’ve acquired over the past three years.

Your interest in reading this brochure is because you are either part of the acting industry, you are family or friends of the student actors or you are part of the local community. Whichever, you have good reason to see these shows. For the industry it’s a chance to assess these actors’ professionalism, if you are family then you can see how much more the actors have grown, and for the community, whether Wandsworth or Wigan, you will see how much the community has shaped these actors. All this with five excellent plays!

ALRA wishes all these student actors every success in their professional careers.

THE BLUE ROOM Freely Adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde by David Hare Directed by Elisa Amesbury

The Mill at the Pier – Wigan: 15th – 17th May, 7.30pm and 18th May, 3pm

This is a drama school production

ABOUT: In ‘one of the great cities of the world’ The Blue Room follows the lives and loves of ten characters, falling in and out of bed with one another it documents the darkest shades of their personalities.

Interconnected through their relationships, some of which are fleeting, some blossoming and some are crumbling; they are all fraught with tension because nobody is faithful. Each scene involves sex, the most intimate act one can do with another person, but does it bring you closer together or leave you empty and deluded? David Hare’s adaptation is a play about deceit and devotion which forces us to question whether our quest for carnal knowledge only ever leaves us more alone and confused.

Cristiana Baptista

Sarah-Jane Broderick

Danny Childs

Bethany-Jo Clews

Barney Cooper

Rachel Creamer

Steven Fowler

Stacey Leeson

Craig Mayes

Lewis Morris

SENSE

By Anja Hilling Translated by Logan Kennedy & Leonhard Unglaub Directed by Rob Drummer & AndreA Ferran (Company of Angels)

ALRA Theatre – Wandsworth: 15th – 17th May, 7pm and 18th May, 3pm Tara Arts: 21st May, 7.30pm

This is a drama school production

ABOUT: A series of stories driven by the senses,exploring the radical highs and heart-wrenching lows of teenage

love.

Five scenes thrusts the audience into a series of diverse and often challenging relationships; each an intense, poetic journey into touching, tasting, hearing, inhaling, seeing and experiencing life to the extreme.

Danielle Briers

Aidan Ellis

Tom Bovington

Joseph Rogerson

Zara-Dee Hannay

Yana Penrose

Niall Kerrigan

Olivia Marei

Lydea Perkins

James Pariera

THE SCHOOL MISTRESS

By A W Pinero Directed by Chris Monks

ALRA Theatre – Wandsworth: 5th – 7th June, 7pm and 8th June, 3pm

This is a drama school production

ABOUT: Volumnia College is a highly respectable educational establishment for young ladies; respectable enough for Admiral Rankling’s wife to enrol her love-struck daughter until the “Old Man” returns from naval duty. But Miss Dyott, proprietress of the college, is love-struck herself and has secretly married the Honourable (but expensive) Vere Queckett. And to keep him in the manner to which he is accustomed, Miss Dyott, unbeknownst to even Queckett, is moonlighting on the London stage.

Taking advantage of his wife’s absence, Queckett arranges a dinner party whilst the young ladies arrange a wedding breakfast. As worlds collide the evening becomes, literally, explosive when Queckett’s best friend Jack, a naval officer, introduces his commanding officer, Admiral Rankling, to his own daughter! Things can only get….worse!

A W Pinero’s sparkling farce is directed by Chris Monks, Artistic Director of Scarborough’s Stephen Joseph Theatre,UK’s foremost home of comedy.

Oliver Kennedy

Daniel Rhys

Ben Kernow

Daniel Ash

Jake Fitzpatrick

April Kelley

Georgia Nicholson

Maia Kirkman-Richards

Bryony Meredith

Lianne Fairey

Rosie Spivey

Katy Sage

Patric Gilbert

Christopher Sawalha

BE MY BABY

By Amanda Whittington Directed by Liz Postlethwaite

The Mill at the Pier – Wigan: 5th – 7th June, 7.30pm and 8th June, 3pm

This is a drama school production

ABOUT: Set in England in 1964, Be My Baby follows the fortunes of Mary Adams, aged 19 and seven months pregnant. Bundled off to St Saviours, a Church of England-run mother and baby home, her concerned mother has arranged for Mary’s baby to be adopted as soon as it’s born. The girls in the home find comfort in each other’s friendship and despite daily battles with a no-nonsense Matron, the girls effervescence shines through.

Performed to the uplifting sounds of 60s girl-group pop ‘Be My Baby’ follows Mary and her fellow inmates as they cling to youthful fantasies of romance and marriage but instead are drawn inexorably towards outraged, powerless adulthood.

Keely Atkinson-Strutton

Amy Drake

Laura Hateley

Taylor Holland

Gemma Percival-Jones

Susie Mandleberg

WOMEN OF TROY

By Euripides adapted by Kenneth McLeish Directed by Gareth Nicholls

ALRA Theatre – Wandsworth: 19th – 21st June, 7pm and 22nd June, 3pm Tara Arts: 26th June, 7.30pm

This is a drama school production

ABOUT: No man’s land; between the shattered walls of Troy and the tents of the victorious Greeks, Hecuba, Queen of Troy, waits to be distributed and sail away to a sorrowful destiny. While she waits she hears of her relative’s destinies and witnesses the cruelty of her captors; Troy’s men and children have been brutally slain, leaving its women to serve them like dogs.

But buried deep within the misery and grief, a ray of hope in the human spirit shines and Euripides proves that no-one wins in war!

Considered Euripides most tragic piece, Women of Troy is a dark piece of theatre with a strong anti-war message.

Manato Sekiguchi

Samantha Khar

Caoimhe Farren

Kane Headley-Cummings

Rebecca Severn

Philippa Crabb

Marcus Wilkinson

Laura Vanderbiest

Ellis Mahon

Cecillie Aclon

Juliet Chappell

Amy Higgs

HOW TO BOOK: ALRA To book industry tickets for shows at ALRA North

Visit: www.alra.co.uk Call: 020 8870 6475

Email AMY FISHER: afisher@alra.co.uk

To book industry tickets for shows at ALRA South

Email HANNAH BULGIN: hbulgin@alra.co.uk

HOW TO BOOK: TARA ARTS Visit: www.tara-arts.com Call: 020 8333 4457

For more information please contact: 020 8870 6475 info@alra.co.uk www.alra.co.uk Company Number: 4306353.

Charity Number: 1090724.

Registered in England.

Registered Office as above.