In February: 666

Tristan Bates Theatre

Friday 22nd February, 7.30pm
Saturday 23rd February, 7.30pm

6 new short plays, 6 directors, 6 actors…

1 script-in-hand performance

www.TheLuckyDogs.net

Black Dog Day

“I'm like Social Services and psychotherapy all rolled into one, I'm all ears and flesh.”
Written by Sharon Kanolik

Directed by Benet Catty

Emma played by Anola Chase

Stephen played by Paul Etuka

Blue Bag Head Man

“He never sat with me. Never. Do you know? He's there with me when the seat is empty.”
Written by Kevin Anthony Kautzman

Directed by Lavinia Hollands

Man played by Anthony James Berowne

Woman played by Gem Carmella
Blue Bag Head Man played by Tim Macavoy

Signal Failure

“The sign said next train was one minute and that's all the time I needed.”
Written by Nicholas Alpe

Directed by Dale Heinen

Vanessa played by Gem Carmella

Mike played by Tim Macavoy

Carly played by Kate Walsh

Colin played by Paul Etuka

Waiting for Smythe

“Kiss your memories of sunrise- tomorrow we'll be eating your eyes…”
Written by Yasmine Van Wilt

Directed by Charlotte Benett

Smith played by Tim Macavoy

Smythe played by Anthony James Berowne
Flies played by Anola Chase

Black and White, Red 'Fore Morn

“They're both stories; but one sells a shit load of papers.”
Written by Jon Cooper

Directed by James Bounds

Danielle played by Gem Carmella

Tacki played by Tim Macavoy
Andrew played by Paul Etuka

Rupert played by Anthony James Berowne

The Other Side of Everything
“I think if everyone were dying it would be very educational. But impractical…”
Written by Sally Beaumont

Directed by Nadia Latif
Hanffe played by Anola Chase

Anuloma played by Kate A Walsh
Viloma played by Paul Etuka

The Directors

Benet Catty (Black Dog Day)

Benet’s previous professional productions include revivals of Edmond, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, The Maintenance Man, Popcorn, Sexual Perversity in Chicago, The Shawl, Shopping and F***ing and Speed-the-Plow and the musical Closer than Ever; the new plays A Handful of Rain (New End), The Fury, The Geezer, I Really Must Be Getting Off, Next Big Thing (OVNV), Sikhs in the City (UK Tour, America, DVD), Soul Sikher (UK Tour) Still Waiting for Everything (Tour) Whatever! (Soho) and Wildwood Park (Bridewell); the new musicals City Lights (Old Vic), Mata Hari (Central School), Enchanted (Leeds) Toys (Musical Theatre Matters) and Circus A Go-Go (New End) as well as Ghetto, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, A View from the Bridge, Chess, Sweeney Todd, Sweet Charity and The Wiz for amateur or student companies, The Roald Dahl Project for Arts Educational (which he also wrote), workshop stagings of Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, F Scott Fitzgerald's Porcelain and Pink, O'Neill's Thirst (Kings Head) and several corporate films. As a writer his plays include All Talk, Nothing Personal and an adaptation of Susan Hill’s novel I’m the King of the Castle. www.benetcatty.com

Lavinia Hollands (Blue Bag Head Man)

Lavinia is director of recently established Theatre Reel. Her previous work includes The Woolgatherer by William Maestrosimone, Vancouver, Canada, Make Me A Man by Melissa Harris, Victoria, Canada and Assistant Director to Aurora Theatre Director Tom Bentley, San Francisco. Lavinia's work engages her extensive training in physical Theatre, playwriting and the work of Yat Malmgren. She is excited to be directing, The Typographers Dream by Adam Block for the 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Dale Heinen (Signal Failure)

Dale is a director and dramaturg specialising in new writing. Credits include the award winning Caravaggio (Silk Road Theatre, Chicago), Peasant (Chashama on 42nd St. and the Zipper, New York), Hadley's Experiment (national tour, England), To the Moon (Arches Award recipient, Glasgow), Pan and Boone (Camden Peoples Theatre), On Sundays (Union Theatre), Salome, Antigone, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, My Sister in This House, And Baby Makes Seven, and Heroine (all for Footsteps Theatre, Chicago) and A Woman Alone (Mary-Archie Theatre, Chicago). Dale has directed staged readings at Tricycle, Theatre 503 and Soho Theatre and has taught workshops about new writing at various London venues including Soho Theatre and Central School of Speech and Drama.

Charlotte Bennett (Waiting for Smythe)

Trained at the University of Hull (Drama BA Hons). Directing credits whilst at Hull University include; The Ash Girl, Breathing Corpses (Donald Roy Theatre), How Love is Spelt, Under the Blue Sky, Daytrips and Spoonface Steinberg (Gulbenkian studio).
Assisting credits since University include; Much Ado About Nothing (Sprite Productions dir.Lucy Kerbel), Moonwalking in Chinatown (Soho Theatre dir. Suzanne Gorman), Burnt Butterflies (Old Vic Productions (performed at Trafalgar Studios) dir. Des Kennedy), Happy Here (Old Vic Productions (performed at Trafalgar Studios) dir. Sophie Motley) and Dido Queen of Carthage (Angels in the Architecture dir. Rebecca McCutcheon). Various directing shadow placements also undertaken at English Touring Theatre, The Royal Court Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse and York Theatre Royal.

James Bounds (Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)

James is the Artistic Director of Open Plan Productions. With Open Plan, he has directed Touch,
After Ashley and Quake (all Finborough); Desdemona: a play about a handkerchief (White Bear); Hidden Light (Barons Court & Oxford Playhouse); Kid-Simple: a radio play in the flesh (Edinburgh Fringe); Peaches en Regalia, Find Me a Primitive Man and The M Word (all Etcetera). Other directing credits include subVERSE (503) and How I Learned to Drive (Edinburgh Fringe). As assistant director his credits include Future Me (503, dir. Guy Retallack) and Diamond (King's Head, dir Christopher Sandford). James has been short listed for the 2008 JMK Award.
jamesbounds@gmail.com www.openplanproductions.co.uk

Nadia Latif (The Other Side of Everything)

The Writers

Sharon Kanolik (Black Dog Day)

Sharon Kanolik hales from Wimborne in Dorset and is fairly new to playwriting. She studied American Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where two of her plays were performed. She recently took the Young Writer's Programme at the Royal Court Theatre. Sharon also enjoys writing poetry and prose and occasionally dabbles with acting. You can contact her at sharon.kanolik@gmail.com

Kevin Anthony Kautzman (Blue Bag Head Man)
Kevin Anthony Kautzman is an American playwright and poet. He holds a degree in history and philosophy from the University of Minnesota. He came to study dramatic writing at the Royal Court and Soho theatres in 2006 and 2007 and has since returned to Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he hones an acute distaste for picturesque, snowy winters that last five months. His work has been seen in London (Soho Theatre Studio, the Dogstar, the King’s Head) and New York (Abingdon Arts Center), and he is currently engaged with Zealots & Mystics, a Twin Cities theatre company, on writing projects for the coming season. He is online at www.kevinkautzman.com

Nicholas Alpe (Signal Failure)

Nicholas is currently studying Drama, Applied Theatre and Education at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He began writing at sixteen taking playwriting courses at college, local arts organisations and university. Extracts of his Essex comedy Pink and Blue have been performed at Palmer's College and The Thameside Theatre. He has also had extracts of his short comedy Clockwork performed at Palmer's College and the Central School of Speech and Drama. Nicholas taught Creative Writing at Palmer's College and has been a reader for the Royal Court Young Writer's Programme. He is currently a reader for the Metamorphosis08 Playwriting Competition at the Churchill Theatre. He enjoys writing for competitions and has had several plays short-listed. Nicholas is currently developing his latest short play Hero.

Yasmine Van Wilt (Waiting for Smythe)

A writer-actor, singer-songwriter, Yasmine's first passion is playwriting. Originally from Canada, the bulk of Yasmine's work has been shown on stage in North America. The only undergraduate winner to date of the International WordBridge Playwriting competition in 2001 for her play Subway Connection, Yasmine went on to win 4 consecutive SouthEastern Theatre Conference titles for best writer for Still Life, her first full-length play. Also during her undergraduate time, she won the NCTE collegiate national aware for Best Young Writer. In 2006, she came to the UK where she earned an M.A. Distinction in Playwriting from the University of Exeter. During that year her play Helen debuted at the Northcott Theatre in Exeter and Since My Last Confession premiered at the Hens and Chickens where it opened for Russell Brand. She has gone on to become A Soho Young Writer, a B.B.C. free-lance radio writer, and she has also earned awards in North America for her radio play, White Feather. This year Yasmine has had plays on at the Etcetera Theatre with First Draft Theatre.

Jon Cooper (Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)
Jon is co-founder of the Silent Collective, a company with which he is developing and producing the fast paced comedy radio and stage show Silence in C Minor. Also part of the Old Vic New Voices Company he is currently working with theatres to develop his latest full length play For Once I was...
Raised in the tiny back hole that is Waltham Chase he became a writer with his first commissioned youth theatre play Fever. Since then he has been produced on both radio and stage from the University of Kent's theatre, The Gulbenkian to London's Old Vic. He also experiments with cross media storytelling (ARGs).

Sally Beaumont (The Other Side of Everything)

Sally was trained in playwriting at the University of Exeter by Phil Smith and James MacDonald with additional lectures by Kaite O’Reilly, Abi Morgan, David Eldridge, Tony Robinson and Jennifer Saunders. Her first play, A Prod in the Right Direction was inspired by her French training in Commedia dell’Arte and had a two-week sell out run at the Alma Tavern, Bristol. From there she joined the Young Writers Programme at the Royal Court and produced The Scene, a love story set to the backdrop of sado-masochism. A Prod in the Right Direction had a second production by Fleshpot Theatre in October 2007, receiving a 4-star review from remotegoat.co.uk "The play is written with an edge, as a rejoinder to the helpless heroine…A Prod in the Right Direction is simply very good fun". You can see another of Sally’s short plays on the 1st of April at the Cockpit Theatre, and there are several more productions in the pipeline- visit Sally’s website to find out more.
07814 199016 info@SallyBeaumont.com www.SallyBeaumont.com

The Actors

Anola Chase (Black Dog Day, Waiting for Smythe, The Other Side of Everything)

Anola Chase is an actress and singer haling from Croydon in South London, starting her career at Croydon Youth Theatre (CYTO) then going on to train with The National Youth Theatre. She also trained at The Albany Theatre and The City Lit. She has performed in a wide range of theatre and film productions including Claire and Louise in Road, Catherine in A View From The Bridge, Princess Taiyan in Children Of the Revolution and The Maid in The House of Bernada Alba. She has also performed in cabaret where she enjoys signing jazz standards and show tunes. Anola recently performed in Bacchaefull, a modern adaptation of The Bacchae by Eurides, with Dirty Market Theatre Company. This part original script, part devised piece was performed at Area 10 project space in Peckham- a former saw mill -and Bacchaefull was critics choice of the week in Time Out magazine. Anola is also a writer and is currently working on a play provisionally entitled Bully. atchaseuk@yahoo.co.uk

Paul Etuka (Black Dog Day, Signal Failure, Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn, The Other Side of Everything)

Paul’s credits include performance and production across Theatre, Film, TV and Radio. More recently, he has portrayed a number of Britain’s most significant historical figures that influenced the country’s final Abolition of The Slave Trade. Paul trained at the City Lit, where he took a Post Graduate Diploma in Performance in 2006, and where he is also an Associate Member of the Rep. Company. Ahead of this, he was actively involved in the Actors Studio, under the prized tutelage of Petina Hapgood. Some of his recent Theatre credits include; James Watkins, in This Accursed Thing, (Manchester Museum of Natural History & Mayor’s Office, Manchester), Olaudah Equiano in a solo performance (The National Archives), William, American GI – D-Day Landings, (RAF Duxford), Cap'n Watkin Tench, Caesar, Aborigine, Our Country’s Good (City Lit Rep.Co.), Sam Nash, Plaza Suite (City Lit. Rep.Co), Agamemnon, Iphigenia, John Lydon Studio Theatre.

Anthony James Berowne (Blue Bag Head Man, Waiting for Smythe, Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)

Anthony graduated from ALRA in 2003, and has since played a wide variety of film, TV and theatre roles. Film credits include: Alexander, Blood and Always Crashing in the Same Car. On television, Anthony has appeared in Waking the Dead (BBC) and Focus North (Channel Four), and has recently filmed two productions for the BBC – Electric Proms (Bad is as Bad Does) and G.I. Jonny. He also starred in the first downloadable short for mobile phones for Siemens (Dog & Bone). Theatre includes: Four Nights in Knaresborough (Becket and Wigmore), Much Ado about Nothing (Dogberry), and Cries of London (New London Writers’ Collective at the Tabard Theatre). He also worked with Sally Beaumont at the Royal Court on a rehearsed reading of her play, The Scene in 2007. Although now based in London, Anthony is originally from Yorkshire and began acting at drama workshops at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, with Michael Birch and went on to perform in Spend! Spend! Spend!, the Mystery Plays, and Don Carlos.

Gem Carmella (Blue Bag Head Man, Signal Failure, Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)

Gem has worked as both an actor and writer since graduating from the University of Exeter in 2003. During this time her work has been split between comedy and new writing projects. Her performance work has included TV roles for BBC 3, Sky 1 and she will soon be appearing in Silent Witness for BBC 1. Her theatre work includes Tamburlaine Must Die, Notre Dame of Paris, Cabaret Auschwitz and also the Being Alive poetry tour, in association with Warwick arts centre and Bloodaxe books. In 2006 she became a founder of sketch comedy group Paper Monkeys, who received critical acclaim for their show Legends at the 2007 Edinburgh fringe festival.

Tim Macavoy (Blue Bag Head Man, Signal Failure, Waiting for Smythe, Black and White, Red ‘Fore Morn)

Tim studied BA Drama and MFA Staging Shakespeare at Exeter University. He has since worked as an actor in classics and new writing, including a current tour of Club Class. His recent writing credits include the premiere adaptation of Louise Welsh's Tamburlaine Must Die, Edinburgh Fringe's controversial Cabaret Auschwitz and Wise Enough to Play the Fool (Commended Best New Writing API Solo Festival). Tim also works on the comedy circuit after co-founding sketch group Paper Monkeys.
http://timacavoy.googlepages.com

Kate Walsh (Signal Failure, The Other Side of Everything)

Kate is a native Lancastrian who started out her performing life as a singer whilst still at university. Kate’s distinctive voice soon led to a career as a voice over artist, narrating shows and commercials as well as audio books for the RNIB, utilising her arsenal of accents which ranges from Aberdeen to Devon. More recently Kate has stepped out from behind the microphone, appearing in several short films and staged plays. She will be appearing at Teatro Technis as Sister Helena in The fabulous Prime of Miss Jean Brodie in February, and can be heard daily on Discovery Channel UK, as the regular daytime continuity announcer. You can see further details on Kate’s Spotlight page: 0279-1204-3976