We’re planning an exciting and unique event at Hebden Bridge Little Theatre, this July, when the theatre hosts its new play Festival – Play Write!

For two nights only, on Friday and Saturday, 20-21 July, the Little Theatre will present an evening of original drama, as the winners of the Little Theatre, one-act play competition are performed.

Tickets are £10, and can be bought via the Little Theatre website, www.hblt.co.uk, or at the door (subject to availability). Doors open at 7pm, for a 7.30pm start.

 

The programme for the evening, consists of four short plays, receiving their world premières:

Size Zero by Dave Payne, directed by Ray Riches.

Claire, a young woman studying to be a marine biologist, lives with her mother, Gill. Claire has severe anorexia and is undergoing therapy, without success.
Gill is at her wits’ end, seeing her daughter waste away, and not knowing how to help.
Drastic measures may be called for.

 

Stranger by Peter Bird, directed by Vaughan Leslie.

Someone mysterious has moved into the flat upstairs, and Dot and Mark are unsure what to make of it. She wants to welcome the newcomer, but he is naturally suspicious.
The impact of the outsider on the couple’s relationship, can be seen as an allegory of our times.

 

Going Country by Theresa Sowerby, directed by Katrina Heath.

Joanna and Riggsy hang out with TJ. He’s got his own place, inherited from his nan, and is never short of money.
Then a 14 year old dies on the premises, and TJ is desperate for someone else to carry the can, so his drug-dealing activities don’t come to light.

 

Kelsi and Sam by Amelia Stephenson, directed by Jenny Gore.

A 21 year old woman, and a 41 year old man, meet up late at night on platform 11, Clapham Junction.
During two further late night liaisons, this odd couple forms a modern romance.
But will it just be a brief encounter?

 

The Writers

Dave Payne started his writing career when he was one of the winners of the ITV1 sketch show, Shoot The Writers, and since then has had work performed by a number of theatre companies including: Bread and Roses, Full Circle, Off The Fence and Fractured Lines. Dave was core writer for Laughlines Comedy Entertainment (his brand new versions of classic sitcoms Only Fools and Horses, Blackadder and The Vicar of Dibley are currently on tour) and is a member of Cucumber Writers in Birmingham. Dave worked with Hollyoaks online, was a Storyliner on EastEnders and is now Producer of BBC Radio 4’s The Archers. Last year Dave’s sketches appeared on CBBC’s Class Dismissed and his first short film Flashed is currently in production.

Peter Bird studied playwriting part time for two years at the City Literary Institute in London. On leaving the City Lit, he joined a support group with other former students so that they could help each other with work in progress. During this time he wrote a short piece, Christmas Is Cancelled which he performed, with other group members, at the Bonnington Restaurant. The piece was semi-improvised to respond to the restaurant audience, who hadn’t expected the production. It was very well received. Peter attended a theatre director’s course at Morley College in London. As part of this he directed a short play and acted in a play for another student (he valued the experience which helped him to better understand the dramatic process). Peter is a current member of Actors and Writers London (AWL) who have given rehearsed readings to two of his full length plays, The Neighbour, and All In It Together and of two shorter plays, The Adjudication and Hearts And Minds. Aside from playwriting Peter has worked as a welfare rights advocate and community worker and he remains active in civil society opposing cuts, austerity, and racism. These interests are reflected in Peter’s playwriting. His latest play All In It Together is agitprop theatre which breaks common theatrical convention.

Theresa Sowerby has written plays, poetry and short stories. She has directed her own adaptation of Moliere’s The Hypochondriac and a modern, experimental version of Durrenmatt’s The Visit of the Old Woman set in Ramsbottom. In the 2016 Voices of Tod performed at Todmorden Hippodrome she won the audience vote each evening for her monologue Nora’s Flood (starring our director, Katrina Heath). She has had poetry and flash fiction published in several magazines including Orbis and her poem, Migration, won first prize at the 2017 Huddersfield Literature Festival. Theresa also lectures on poetry, drama and fiction and runs Real Live Poets, a Poetry Society Stanza group in Manchester. This year she will give a lecture and workshop based on the poetry of Sylvia Plath at the Literature Festival of the North in June and at Burnley Literature Festival in September.

Amelia Stephenson is an actress and fledgling playwright based in South West London. She is a recent graduate of St Mary’s University in Twickenham having studied Drama and Theatre Arts for 3 years. Kelsi and Sam her second one act play and Amelia says ‘she is honoured that it is to be debuted at the historic Hebden Bridge Little Theatre’. Amelia’s previous work includes the comedy Debbie’s Dinner Party produced by TeaCup Theatre Company in 2017.

Photo: Festival Organiser, Vaughan Leslie directs Nigel Jamieson and Trish Ellis, in Stranger. Photo © Bruce Cutts