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I TA NS T W EN DORES AD P T E KIN PS T M IA A HA EL C
2 MARCH 7 APRIL By AMY NG Directed by ANNA LEDWICH
#HTAcceptance
WELCOME Acceptance may only be Amy Ng’s second play, but it was an automatic choice to bring the financial year 2017-18 to a close alongside Caroline, or Change upstairs. This has been a busy year for us, and though it may, of course, be the last year in which Downstairs will operate as a year-round producing theatre, it is worth celebrating with some brief statistics: In any week of the year Hampstead had an average 17.6 actors under contract; including Stage Management we employed an average 24.4 Equity members every week. That places us on a par with the busiest theatres in the UK. With the reduction in our funding it will be hard to maintain this level of activity of course, and we’ll be more dependent on your support to enable us to do so. Some facts about the casts we have employed: the gender balance of the actors appearing on our stages across the year was exactly 50/50; 41% of the actors appearing on our Main Stage were BAME; across both stages 37.5% of actors appearing were BAME; 25% of the plays premiered were written by BAME playwrights. Hampstead, then, is presenting work that largely reflects the population of contemporary London - and is doing so to capacity houses. I say “largely” because, alas, we will have underperformed when it comes to female playwrights: where 28% of the plays we receive from agents are by women, this year only 23.5% of the plays presented were female-authored. But the work we receive goes in cycles, and next year’s repertory already looks better balanced in this regard. Still, we do need your support because it obviously remains urgent that Hampstead Downstairs can continue to nurture the emerging generation: Georgia Christou, Ella Road, Fiona Doyle and, of course, tonight’s Amy Ng.
EDWARD HALL ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
CAST IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER BIRCH COFFIN MERCY JONES ANGELA CHAN BEN COHEN VOICE ACTORS
TERESA BANHAM DEBBIE KORLEY JENNIFER LEONG BO PORAJ AOSAF AFZAL JONATHAN BLAYDON ROXANE BOURGES CHARLOTTE DOWDING ANDREW GICHIGI SORAYA SPIERS MARLOW STAINFIELD NIAMH WATSON
CREATIVE TEAM WRITER DIRECTOR DESIGNER LIGHTING DESIGNER SOUND DESIGNER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR PRODUCTION MANAGER STAGE MANAGER REHEARSAL PHOTOGRAPHER PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHER COSTUME SUPERVISOR
AMY NG ANNA LEDWICH FRANKIE BRADSHAW ELLIOT GRIGGS ALEXANDRA FAYE BRAITHWAITE KAYLA FELDMAN TAMMY ROSE MICHAEL DENNIS BECKY PARIS ROBERT DAY FLORA MOYES