Category: News

Performance Photos by Dr Matthew Partridge

Get to know our talented team of directors, who are building an exciting showcase of new writing…

Get your tickets here!

Anna Markland

The first show Anna directed, the comedic Maybe Radio, was just featured as part of KDC’s Spring season.
Anna’s background is in improvised comedy and she will be using improv techniques and a very collaborative approach as part of rehearsals.

Lloyd Smith

This is Lloyd’s first time working with KDC. Previous directing credits include new writing for Wandsworth Arts Festival and The 39 Steps for New Stagers. Recently he produced After The Dance and acted in Earthquakes In London for Sedos.

Saskia van ‘t Hoff

Saskia is a director and stage manager, and has worked with theatre companies in the Netherlands, London, and Sydney.

She was a long-standing member of a theatre company in the Netherlands, writing, producing, and performing plays, before moving to London in 2014. In 2016 Saskia directed her first full-length play for KDC Theatre; THERE HAS POSSIBLY BEEN AN INCIDENT. 

She is stage manager and associate artist for Director’s Cut Theatre Company, directing and stage managing at Leicester Square Theatre, The Pleasance Theatre, The Southwark Playhouse, and St James Theatre.

Lucy Spreckley

Lucy has been getting itchy feet for a while now to have a crack at directing and to be doing her directorial debut with KDC is just the icing on the cake. At the start of April Lucy had finished a run of the devised show ‘Hush Now’ with KDC and is exciting to be involved in another season!

Aneirin George

Aneirin has been working on this theatre lark for many years now and is excited (and grateful) to be taking part in a second KDC Full Stack extravaganza. This year as well as directing/hopefully arranging for comedy to occur on stage. He is taking a new step and learning how to make “that social media thing” say what he wants it to.

Vicky Olusanya

Vicky has been part of the KDC community for several years, producing our Full Stack show for the second time with Carried Away. She has recently directed for the Arcola Queer Collective and looks forward to creating more new writing projects in the near future.

Claire Pattie

Our new writing showcase brings you 15 brilliant, super-short plays on the theme of ‘Carried Away’. Expect a thoroughly creative, entertaining and surprising night of brand new theatre. Details of plays and performers.

Carried Away is being performed for 5 nights only from Tues 9 July – Sat 13 July at the Drayton Arms Theatre, South Kensington, SW5 0LJ

GET YOUR TICKETS HERE

After over 100 scripts, we whittled it down to just 15. Here’s a bit more info on the talented souls to be included in this year’s showcase.

Get your tickets for Carried Away here!

Ivo de Jager

Ivo is a recent graduate of RCSSD’s MFA degree in writing for performance. His work has appeared at the Arcola, the Bunker, and Theatre503 in London, as well as the Y Theatre in Leicester. In 2017, he took Sweetmeat, a new play about homoerotic cannibalism, to the Edinburgh Fringe, where it earned 4-star reviews. He’s currently working on a play about hazing in the Soviet army, and a short film about modern-day trepanning.  When not typing away at his laptop, he can usually be found forcing his cat to spend time with him.

Vivian C Lermond

Vivian is an award-winning playwright who has penned 58 one-act plays and monologues that have entertained audiences in the US, Mexico, England, Scotland and Australia. Her full-length drama/comedy, Back to Bethlehem (PA), premiered Off-Broadway in 2006 at the Manhattan Theatre Club.  She has taught playwriting at a local college and has facilitated playwriting workshops at writing conferences. 

Mark Daniels
I’m a writer from South-East London who writes mainly comedy with a little bit of drama mixed in. I enjoy finding the funnies in the mundane and using humour to provoke conversation about important, current topics. I’ve had short plays on at Theatre503, The Vaults and The Brockley Jack, as well as two full-length pieces at Matchstick Theatre (N89, The Institute of Nuts) and one at Canal Café Theatre (Tinderella). I also regularly have sketches and songs performed at Canal Café’s NewsRevue and I’ve written sketches for BBC Radio 4.

Adam Szudrich

Adam Szudrich is a ‘Bartie’ award winning writer whose work has been selected for 59 festivals and received 30 award

Scott Mullen

Scott Mullen is a longtime Hollywood screenplay analyst, a two-time winner of Amazon Studios’ screenwriting contest, whose short plays have been performed hundreds of times around the world.  His short play WEDNESDAY was performed last year as part of KDC’s “Future Imperfect” show.  An evening of his comic plays, A NIGHT OF S.M., recently had a two-week run in Hollywood.

Niall Urquhart
My work has been performed at the Waterloo East Theatre, Jack Studio Theatre, The Aeronaut, Theatre Deli and the Redgates Theatre with upcoming performances at the Bread & Roses Theatre and the Southwark Playhouse. Currently focusing on shorter pieces. I always try to find different and quite possibly strange ways to address contemporary issues.

Andy Marchant

Andy has been a long time collaborator with KDC Theatre, but this is the first time his name has appeared in a programme since he directed The Arsonists in 2015. Previously written plays produced by KDC Theatre include “You’re So Vain”, “Oh, Mom” and “Stag Nation” as well as being a co-writer for both the company’s 70th anniversary show “The Long Run” and their contribution to the RSC’s Open Stages competition “The War Of The Waleses”. Andy currently runs the 10 Minutes A Month Playwriting Collective, setting monthly challenges and reading nights for new plays.

Matt Wixey
Matt works in cyber security, and previously worked in law enforcement. He’s also a part-time PhD candidate, focusing on cyberweapons and cyber warfare. Matt’s writing work to date has included short plays and spoken word performed at Redgates Theatre Gateways, Stitchin’ Fiction, and Sharp Scratches. He is also a member of the Director’s Cut Writer’s Club. Matt enjoys writing horror, dark comedy, science fiction, and “twist in the tale” stories and plays.

L.H. Grant
L.H. Grant has authored many full-length and one-act plays with productions in numerous venues both in the United States and internationally including New York, London, San Francisco and Vienna. Most recently, his one-act Free Hugs was performed at The Other Palace in London as part of a charity benefit.

Jon Deery
Jon is a writer whose works have received generous and consistent praise from a dedicated fanbase. This may be a credit to his skills as a writer, or simply a product of the fanbase itself, which consists of: his mum, his dad, and his best friend. Due to Jon being an eighteen-year-old writer from Darlington, this is the first of his plays to be performed, and he hopes that a few more successes will expand his fanbase a little (maybe his grandparents too?)

Matthew Fisher

Matthew has found some success with his writing being performed in Manchester, London, Cardiff and NYC. His full length play, “Abandoned”, was performed by Dramatic Moose Productions and was in Entertainments South Wales ‘Top 5 Live Shows of 2018’.  He is also working with Bamalam Productions to produce “Abandoned” as a 4-part radio play, that will be released in Jul-19. Recently, his short film “Second Chances”, released in Jun-19, is on the YouTube channel for Watchers Productions project, Strange Tales. Also, his one act play “We Are Stronger Together” has been performed at various one act festivals this year.

James Taverner

This is James’s first play and he’s very grateful to the talented team at KDC for taking on the challenge and performing it.

Jim Moss
Jim has authored four full-length plays and over a hundred one-acts. His work has been produced in Tampa. Miami, Orlando, Chicago, San Diego, and numerous New York Off-Broadway venues, including: La MaMa La Galleria, the American Globe, and the Manhattan Repertory Theatre. Last year his play “Tagged” won three contests: First place in Theatre Odyssey’s One-Act Play Festival in Sarasota, Best Lab Works Production at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, and the British Theatre Challenge in London.

Thom Jordan

Thom first cut his teeth writing and performing sketch comedy in Australia, one of which he toured to Edinburgh Fringe. Following this he performed and developed Where There’s Smoke, which toured to Perth and Sydney Fringe. His next adventure was to write and perform a family show The Hand of Time, which toured to Sydney, Perth and Adelaide Fringe side by side with his solo Thorn (Cleansed in Blood/We Are All), which toured Australia and the UK. Since moving to London he wrote and performed The Monks of Umami: Radiodyssey, which debuted at the Vaults Festival before touring to Brighton and Prague fringe. 

Thank you to everyone who submitted an entry for this year’s new writing competition. As ever, the quality was very high, but we can only do so much in a season. If you have other new writing, short and long, please get in touch via our contact form and we’ll tell you how you can submit other pieces.

The chosen pieces for this year are:

Aubergine – Mark Daniels
Asportari – Jon Deery
Date – Matthew Fisher
Death of a Mime – L H Grant
Necessary – Ivo de Jager
One Lucky Country – Thom Jordan
The New Woman – Charles Leipart
Alice in Therapy – Vivian C Lermond
Rebel – Andy Marchant
Vortex – Jim Moss
Merits of Risking an Anal Probe – Scott Mullen
Fairies – Adam Szudrich
Jessica – James Taverner
They’re Coming to Take Me Away – Niall Urquhart
High Score – Matt Wixey