Category: News

Auditions + extracts

Monday 20th & Tuesday 21st September

Come to one evening only (you can audition for both shows on the same evening)

Lovely to meet so many new people at the season launch yesterday, very much looking forward to the auditions next week. Here’s all the info you need:

Audition noticeAdditional material
Titus Andronicus – Audition NoticeTitus audition extracts (Please note you do not need to learn these, they are just for reference if you would like to know what will be used in the initial audition)
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons – Audition Noticen/a

Please note that due to unforseen circumstances, we are no longer able to audition The Bald Soprano this season.

Autumn auditions

Massive congratulations to the Pomona team for their run last week, and getting their corona-delayed production finally in front of live audiences. A big achievement all round.

But the wheel doesn’t stop turning here at KDC towers! It’s time to announce our autumn season shows, and your chance to get involved either by auditioning to act or backstage.

Autumn Season shows

First up, we have action-packed blood-soaked Shakespeare in Titus Andronicus. It’ll be a modern adaptation, exploring the dangers of revenge and how it can twist the intentions of everyone it touches.

Our second show will be Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, about censorship and free speech in a world where people are limited to 140 words per day.

Auditions are free and open to all, and will be held 20 & 21 September in the evening. You only need to come to one audition and you can audition for both plays on the same evening.

Recalls take place on the evening of 23 September.

Auditions

Attend whichever date suits you best, and you can audition for all 3 plays on the same evening.

Monday 20 & Tuesday 21 September 2021
7pm-9:30pm (registration from 6:45pm)
Theatre Deli, Broadgate. 2 Finsbury Ave, London EC2M 2PF

Titus Andronicus, by William Shakespeare
Directed by Matt Aldridge and Jess Rogers
Performance dates: 16-20 November 2021 
Audition notice
Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, by Sam Steiner
Directed by Lloyd Smith and Sarah Berryman
Performance dates: 23-27 November 2021 
Audition notice

Meet the directors

Hear the directors speak about their project, and answer your questions at the Season Launch. You can also talk to them about getting involved in other backstage ways.

Tuesday 14 September 2021, 7pm
Theatre Deli, Broadgate (in the ground floor bar). 2 Finsbury Ave, London EC2M 2PF

Add the Season Launch to your calendar

Edit: Please note that due to unforseen circumstances, we are no longer able to audition The Bald Soprano this season.

Notice of the AGM 2021

KDC Theatre’s Annual General Meeting (aka drinks!) is 7pm Monday 9 August at The Drayton Arms. Help us confirm numbers by rsvp-ing: https://tinyurl.com/2avn6akb

NOTICE IS GIVEN that an Annual General Meeting of KDC Theatre will be at 7pm on Monday 9 August 2021, at The Drayton Arms, 153 Old Brompton Road, London, Greater London, SW5 0LJ to transact the following business:

AGENDA

Click here to view the revised agenda, including the nominees.

  1. Reports and accounts

To receive and consider the draft and partial accounts for the year ending 31 July 2021 and the reports of the charity trustees.

  1. Member proposed resolutions

Details any proposed resolutions will be made available. Proposed resolutions should be sent to the Chair by 9am on Thursday 5 August 2021. If applicable, a revised agenda will be issued prior to the AGM. 

NB. Proposed resolutions may be submitted by full members of KDC by clicking here. Find out who is a full KDC member here.

  1. Appointment of charity trustees

Nominations are required for the following officers: Chair, Artistic Director, Treasurer. 

Nominations for all trustees, including non-officers, must be received by 12 noon on Saturday 7 August 2021. 

NB Details of how to make a nomination are available from the KDC website (click here).

  1. Appointment of non-trustees to specified roles to assist in the running of the charity

Nominations of non-trustees to specified roles to assist in the running of the charity must be received by 12 noon on Saturday 7 August 2021. 

NB Details of how to make a nomination are available from the KDC website (click here).

  1. Any other business

To deal with any matters raised at the meeting.

On behalf of the Board of charity trustees,

Sarah Dobson

Chair of Trustees

KDC Theatre

Help us confirm numbers

Planning on coming along? Let us know you’re coming so we can update the pub.

RSVP here

Want to join the committee?

If you want to be nominated for a committee position and you’ve been involved in KDC in the last year, your friendly KDC Chair can help you with that. Click here to drop her a line.

Details of committee positions are here.

We’re loving Summer Season – and there’s more to come

After two fantastic productions, (in person!), we’re feeling pretty elated at this mid-point in KDC’s Summer Season.

After two fantastic productions, (in person!), and a bit of making up for lost time with after show drinks, we’re feeling pretty elated at this mid-point in KDC’s Summer Season.

Congrats to the cast, crew and writers of Obsession and When it Hits the Air: An Evening with KDC Theatre’s New Writers, and to our queens of new writing this year: Saskia van ‘t Hoff & Rachel Carnes.

There’s more to come of course – we’re busily sticking the Annual General Meeting on Mon 9 August 7pm in the diary, booking our tickets for Pomona on Tue 31 Aug – Fri 3 Sept, all while confirming the Autumn Season productions and audition dates for September.

Want to get more involved? Watch this space for audition dates and details of how you can join the KDC committee at our AGM on 9 Aug (taking place in a pub, of course).

Sign-up to our newsletter for the latest news.

Will you be the next KDC Treasurer?

To put yourself forward for the role, submit an application.

Do you want to gain experience of charity accounting or understand the nuts and bolts of running a small theatre company? Do you have a passion for theatre or financial management, and the time to support the ongoing running of KDC Theatre?

KDC is a performing arts charity that has existed for the last 90 years, and (as far as we know) is the only central London amateur theatre group focused on plays. We have built up a great reputation for taking chances and putting on interesting classic, contemporary, new writing and devised plays. Thousands of actors / directors / technicians have honed their craft in some fantastic performances over the years, as well as having a great time in the process, and long may that continue. For KDC to produce our work, we need dedicated people behind the scenes, running the company through its organising committee.

This year, we are looking to fill a single crucial role in June 2021: the role of KDC Treasurer. We will be taking on new recruits for other committee positions at the AGM in August. If you are interested in one of these roles, find out more here.

This is a key position for KDC. The Treasurer manages our financial processes, writes the budget, and proposes financial policy and strategy to the Trustees. Alongside the Chair, Artistic Director and Producer, the Treasurer is essential to the effective running of the organisation

In the past, this role has been filled by KDC members with accounting and finance experience in their day jobs, or by highly numerate, organisational wizards who know their way around a spreadsheet and are looking to “beef up” their financial expertise with experience gained through this volunteering role.

The new Treasurer will join the committee for a handover period of a few weeks working alongside the outgoing Treasurer, Sarah Beebe.

If you would like to put yourself forward for the role, submit an application here.

View the Treasurer Role Description.

PLEASE NOTE – if you submitted an early application (before 24 June), you will need to send your contact details separately. If this applies to you, submit your contact information here.

Direct with KDC

Apply to direct with KDC – pitches open now

With the pandemic now in retreat (sssh, grant me my optimism!) we are now looking to the future, and getting back to physically theatres. We’re looking for pitches for our next couple of seasons, so if you want to direct, read on!

This is what directing looks like. You get to sit down.

In November we have one week at Lion & Unicorn Theatre in Kentish Town, and one week in Barons Court Theatre. In March next year we will have another 2 weeks in theatres, TBD. We want shows that will fit into one of these small pub theatre venues for a one-week performance, preceded by about 8 weeks of rehearsal, rehearsing around 8-hours-per-week.

What we’re looking for

Fringey or contemporary or classical plays, or devised projects, that can be auditioned in September and presented in November (or auditioned January and presented in March, during Spring Season). Our spec is deliberately open, as we try to keep a varied season, we would aim to do something known (a Shakespeare or classical or contemporary play) and something unknown (new writing or devised or obscure) each season. Please feel free to pitch multiple projects, it allows us more freedom to balance the season and makes more likely we can choose you. We would like to keep a fresh take on anything we do, so if you do pitch something that is very well known (eg Romeo & Juliet) then I would be particularly interested in what will make your production unique.

What we need from you

  • A motivated, creative, ambitious director
  • A interesting play or project that will be fun & fulfilling for cast & audience
  • A production team. I wouldn’t recommend pitching as a lone director – it can get quite lonely at the top. You should bring with you someone that can fill the role of Assistant Director, or Co-Director, or Producer, or Dramaturg, etc. or have a plan to fill a role like that before audition, so that you don’t have to carry the show on your own.
  • A frugal and inventive use of budget (we are a charity!)

What we provide

  • Audition & rehearsal space (about 8 hours of rehearsal per week for about 8 weeks)
  • A week theatre hire to perform
  • Marketing on our email list, website, socials, etc. for audition and then later audience.
  • £400 show budget for props, costume, logistics etc.
  • Rights to show if needed (copyrighted plays need rights, and these are not always available. Another reason why it is a good idea to pitch multiple shows)
  • A technician to run the show
  • Advice & support from KDC creative team

You don’t need experience per se, but if you have never directed before then you should try to bring some experience on your production team. KDC can & will support you, but we have limited capacity.

If this all sounds like something you’re up for, head on over to our pitch form and send us your ideas!

What happens next

Pitches are open until 30 June 2021 and we will get in touch for director interviews shortly after. (Where possible, we interview everybody who applies.)

Obsession winners & cast

We are very happy to announce the winners of our Full Stack writing competition, and the cast and directors that will make the winning scripts come to life in our show in June!

Without further ado and in no particular order, here are our script writing winners:

Barry Wood
Jamie Lakritz
Natascha Graham
Amy Oestreicher
Jen Moss
Alan Kilpatrick
Nick Mouton
Carl Fletcher
Darren Donohue
Olly Clifford

A very big thank you to all the writers who submitted their plays. We had a great time reading through all your submissions, and it was very hard just to pick ten winners!

Of course we need actors to perform those wonderful words. The auditions were busy and fun, and we want to extend a huge congratulations to our fantastic cast:

Aoife Spengeman
Carl Fletcher
David Hepburn
Grace Aldridge
Ian Green
Jacky Rowland
Sara Odeen-Isbister
Sarah Berryman

And heading up this creative endeavour are our lovely directors:

Jannina Brosowsky
Matt Aldridge
Florence Oliveira
Jon Foster
Jessica Rogers

Congratulations to everyone – let’s get back on stage and make some theatre!

Obsession will be staged 29 June – 03 July at the Lion & Unicorn Theatre in London. Tickets are on sale here.

Come audition for Obsession!

Fill in the online audition form here!

Our 5th annual Full Stack show – Obsession – will be staged at The Lion & Unicorn Theatre from 29 June to 03 July, 2021, live on an actual stage! (*gasp*)

And to stage a play, we need actors. So we are auditioning next week! Download the full audition notice HERE and read on for the important dates & information!

When: Monday 12, Tuesday 13, and Wednesday 14 April 2021
Choose whichever date suits you best, but bear in mind that auditions get busier later in the week. 
Time: Welcome at 6.45pm. Auditions start at 7pm till ~9.30pm.
Where: Online via Zoom

Auditions are free and open to all. You do not need to prepare anything for the audition.

Let’s get back on stage!

Excited to get back in front of an audience? Then sign up for auditions by filling out the online audition form so that we have your contact details and know to expect you.

Tickets on sale for our spring show, Zoomed Out

Fully live streamed on 31 March, 1 & 2 April at 7:30pm

Get your tickets for the livestream!


In this last year we’ve all had to change how we work and socialise. From unexpectedly chaotic parish council meetings, to cat lawyers, and finding out what your boss’s bedroom looks like, there have been some rather… unusual aspects to the “new normal”.

As we start to tentatively envision a physical world again, KDC reimagines some of its previous productions through the constant (sometimes unwelcome but always useful) online lens…

Including pieces from:
– Tis Pity She’s a Whore and Carried Away (2019)
– Future Imperfect (2018)
– What Keeps Me Awake (2017)
– Romeo & Juliet (2015)

And a special newly produced segment from A Midsummer Night’s Dream!

Get tickets here

Auditions, this Thursday

The Most Lamentable Comedy, and the Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisby

*Audition signup now closed*

What would Shakespeare be doing today if he was still alive? Well, obviously he’d be telling people what it was like to be over 450 years old, plus, like many other people in the theatre industry, he’d be working out how best to perform plays via Zoom.

And that is what KDC will be doing as we perform via Zoom on 31 March – 2 April, the Mechanicals’ scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Whilst in lockdown, Quince, Bottom, Snug, Flute, Snout and Starveling must rehearse a play over Zoom to perform it for the Duke and Duchess on their wedding night (via Zoom). Think the Handforth Parish Council meeting, with even more inflated egos.

KDC are holding online auditions to perform in this comedy of putting on a play where we’ll be mining the script for every drop of comedy along with mining the fact we are having to rehearse a play on Zoom for a performance on Zoom for every other drop of comedy.

Quince, Bottom, Snug, Flute, Snout and Starveling are often referred to as Mechanicals. They are a group of amateur and incompetent actors and that incompetence shines through as they rehearse and perform their play.

Gender is not important. Age is not important. Shakespearian experience is not important. What is important is the drive to make scenes that are funny on the page even funnier on the Zoom stage.

The first round of auditions will Thursday 25 February from 7pm revolve around group work, some improvisation and you may be asked to read both Bottom and Quince – see script below.

Audition piece – Bottom and QuinceDownload