Directors Workshop (actors needed!)

When: Saturday 7 November 1pm – 4pm
Where: Hoop and Grapes, 80 Farringdon Road, EC4A 4BL

Fancy giving directing a bash but not sure where to start? Or maybe you an experienced director looking to brush up you skills and enjoy a jolly theatrical afternoon. Look no further – you’ve found your place.

The workshop will give you a chance to get stuck into directing; looking at how to approach text, make actors do what you want them to and make a play your own. We’ll also cover the terrifying subjects of teching, lighting and promoting your masterpiece.

I am looking for actors and directors – to sign up please complete the online form HERE. Places may be limited due to space!

Any questions drop me (Kim) a line: artistic@kdctheatre.com

Breathing Corpses Cast Biographies

Breathing Corpses opens at Barons Court Theatre on Tuesday 20 October 2015. Call 020 8932 4747 to reserve your tickets. The cast:

Tim BloreTim Blore – Ben
Tim was a latecomer to this production but since getting involved has loved every minute! This is also not only his first play for KDC but his first since moving to London after taking part in numerous productions at Durham University including (most recently) The Taming of the Shrew, A Clockwork Orange and The Children’s Hour. The cast and production team have been fantastic to work with and are such a talented bunch. Tim hopes this will be the first of many KDC productions for him!

Jill DavyJill Davy – Elaine
Jill’s new script Science Experiment was recently produced by FOH Theatre Company where she played the snooty, space nerd Earth at the Vaults, Waterloo. She has performed with the Baroque Theatre Company in Sherlock Holmes and The Case of the Christmas Carol, The Haunting of Hill House, Up Pompeii, The Great Santa Kidnap, The 101 Dalmatians and Kindly Leave the Stage.  Jill has performed in Italy, Portugal and Spain, toured TIE and Panto as well as appeared at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Cardiff International Music Theatre Festival.

Matthew JordanMatthew Jordan – Ray
This is Matthew’s second play with KDC – having received international acclaim for his role in Dinner. After graduating from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2014, he moved to the big smoke to become a chef and has now followed the natural career progression of a cook by advancing into the world of business consultancy.

 

James-McKendrickJames McKendrick – Jim
This is James’s second appearance for KDC following The Arsonists this summer. James also appeared in two productions this year for Woodhouse in The Tempest and Interview, the latter winning the award for best play at the Waltham Forest Festival. Other acting credits include The Acid Test (Jim Bank), Glengarry Glen Ross (Shelley Levene), Largo Desolato (Leopold Nettles) and Separate Tables (John Malcolm). He has directed Two and Bed for Woodhouse and Road and Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off for Network Theatre. He has also performed at the Edinburgh, Brighton and Prague Fringe Festivals and in productions that transferred to the Orange Tree Theatre and Riverside Studios

Nick MoutonNick Mouton – Charlie
Nick is delighted to be back in the cozy confines of Barons Court Theatre for another KDC Winter season. Other Barons Court encounters include, as an actor, The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, A Clockwork Orange, Picasso at the Lapin Agile, Red Noses (KDC); Bouncers, Popcorn (Basement Bodies). As a writer, Cab Ride (KDC). As a Director, One Night Hire (So It Goes Theatre). Other encounters while at the venue include being threatened with a sword by a mental Geordie and sleeping in the pub’s freezer, but that’s a whole different bunch of stories for another time. @NickMouton

Diana PaulineDiana Pauline – Kate
A newcomer to KDC, Diana is very excited to perform in Breathing Corpses as her first stage experience in London since moving here five years ago from Los Angeles. With her acting background found mostly in film, living in England has increased her passion and inspiration for theatre and is looking forward to being involved in many more stage productions to come.

Lisa Stewart – Amy
This is Lisa’s 2nd play for KDC, her last coming more than a decade ago. She is delighted to be getting back on stage after such a long hiatus.

Autumn 2015 posters

The show posters are now available to download for this season. Please print them out and let people know! All in PDF format.

Breathing Corpses
Night Night, Sleep Tight
Romeo & Juliet

Romeo & Juliet Cast List

Congratulations to the cast of Romeo & Juliet, showing at the Rosemary Branch Theatre from 17 to 21 November 2015:

Katy Treble – Prologue
Joe Burnham –
Sampson / Friar John
Nimatullah Duman – Gregory / Apothecary
Shaun Bates – Balthasar
Ryan Crotty – Abraham
Neil Bowman – Benvolio
Keir Mills – Tybalt
Wayil Eisa – Lord Capulet
Sarah Beebe – Lady Capulet
Cathy Abbott – Mrs Montague
Emily Barnes – Mayor Escalus
Govind Hodgson – Romeo
Ian Green – Paris
Helen Jackson – Nurse
Julia Pagett – Juliet
Matt Tylianakis – Mercutio
Jimi Odell – Friar Laurence

Night Night, Sleep Tight Background

Night Night Sleep Tight continues KDC Theatre’s tradition of staging original plays in an innovative and creative manner which provide opportunities for aspiring amateur actors, directors, writers and technicians in London to produce exciting and challenging new work.

A series of six short plays, Night Night Sleep Tight draws on traditional fairy tales and folk stories (amongst them, Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Bluebeard’s Castle) and twists these much-loved tales to create a disturbing fantasy world of dark dreams and nightmares using London as the backdrop for an evening of chills and spooky fun.

Night Night Sleep Tight is a great example of the kind of theatre work for which KDC is well-known and originated in an audition session for a previous series of Halloween shows, where auditionees were set the challenge of improvising creepy versions of traditional fairy tales. Those audition sessions produced some genuinely eerie and unnerving performances and were the inspiration for the Night Night Sleep Tight project. Continuing KDC’s tradition of supporting aspiring (and established) playwrights in London, we commissioned a series of new short plays based on well-known fairy tales and received dozens of submissions before whittling these down to the six plays to be performed.

The six plays are: The Sorcerers App by Frances Bushe (based on The Sorcerers Apprentice), The Assassination Club by Julia Collier (based on Snow White and Rose Red), Blue Blood by Susan Grey (Based on Bluebeard’s Castle), While You Were Sleeping by Beth Crane (based on Sleeping Beauty), Fragile by Kate Moore (based on Cinderella) and Simple Jack by Alan Maddrell (based on Jack and The Beanstalk).

The plays will be directed by Katy Treble and Peter Cabrera who have both worked with KDC extensively before though this will be the first time either has directed for the company. Night Night Sleep Tight will be performed at Baron’s Court Theatre from Tuesday 27 October until Saturday 31 October 2015.

Night Night Sleep Tight is an original KDC production.

Directors Spring 2016

We are seeking directors for the Spring 2016 season (venue tbc). We are staging three weeks, auditioning in early January and performing in the weeks commencing 14, 21 and 28 March:

  • One full-length play (one director)
  • Two one-act new writing pieces (two directors)
  • A collection of shorter pieces (two+ directors)

You can pitch anything. We are handing over our Spring Season to our wonderful members; we want to hear your craziest, most whimsical ideas – tell us what you really want to see. Whether you have a fully fledged plan or a twinkle of an idea get in touch and we’ll help you work it out.

KDC generally prefers to put on plays with 8 characters or more to give more of our talented actors parts but please don’t let that put you off – we are looking at ways to work different types of plays into our season and would like to hear all kinds of pitches.

If you don’t have an idea to pitch… Fine! We have lots… we can make some suggestions – you just need to be keen.

You don’t have the time to direct a full play… No problem – for Spring Season we are looking at putting on a series of short plays directed by different directors so you can enjoy the buzz of creating without the task of creating 2 plus hours of magic.

You’d like to give it a go but I have never directed before… Perfect – we are looking for people exactly like you! We have plenty of small projects for you to cut your teeth on and a whole bunch of talented and friendly people to help you every step of the way.

In the first instance contact our Artistic Director, Kim Morrison, an email by Sunday 4 October introducing yourself. We’ll go from there.

Round Table Readings Autumn 2015

In a few short weeks we get to play again with the rebooted, revamped, all-new, refurbished, born-again Round Table Readings! Come join us for a beer / tea / packet o’crisps in the pub while we give a brand new piece of writing a good thorough probing. We’ll be reading the whole play, plus experiementing with different character direction and swapping parts around to explore all the angles, and then have a chat at the end about what we thought. Open to actors who want a bit of fun reading new characters, and anyone who would like to kick back and listen to the show.

Miranda versus the Get Over Women Club
by Matthew Patridge
7pm, Tuesday 29 September
Hoop & Grapes, Farringdon Street

Can’t come? No problem, there is still 3 other Roundtable Readings this year:
Thursday 8 October
Tuesday 13 October
(then a little break for our shows, and)
Thursday 12 November

Night Night, Sleep Tight Cast List

Congratulations to the cast of our Hallowe’en Show, Night Night, Sleep Tight, performing at the Barons Court Theatre, 27 – 31 October 2015:

Sharita Oomeer – Siri (The Sorcerer’s App) and Anna (Lock up your Skeletons)
Sophia Speakman – Mary (The Sorcerer’s App) and Ella (Fragile)
Sarah Ratner – Ana (Fragile), Michelle (While you were sleeping) &  Rose (Lock up your Skeletons)
Franki Georghiou – Judith (Lock up your skeletons) and Cilla (Fragile)
Henry Williams – Snow White (The Assassination Club) and Jack (Simple Jack)
Stephen Lucas – Lenny (The Assassination Club), Jasper (Fragile) and Blue (Lock up your Skeletons)
Clive Eliot – Mr Ogre (Simple Jack) and The Clown
Richard Copperwaite – Christopher (While you were sleeping) and Al (The Sorcerer’s App)
Bernard Brennan – Rose Red (The Assassination Club) and Tomas (Fragile)
Abby Still – Mrs G (Fragile) and Mums (Simple Jack)