BIRKBECK MA in CREATIVE PRODUCING - June 09 update

MA CREATIVE PRODUCING 2008 - 2009

Since beginning their training in early September 2008, students have experienced a varied range of professional training that has included

several sessions with senior members of TRSE staff (Barry Burke, Karen Fisher, Murray Melvin, Kerry Michael, Jan Sharkey-Dodds and Vanessa Stone) and the involvement of some students in TRSE’s professional casting sessions; 

·      over forty hours of extended and detailed tuition centring on commercial production from Julius Green (Bill Kenwright Ltd)

further sessions from commercial producers Neil Laidlaw, Jeremy Meadow, Derek Nicholls, Nick Salmon, investment consultant Philippe Carden; and a range of independent producers including Chloe Dear, Bill Gee, Angela McSherry and Sita Ramamurthy ;

talks/discussions with Neil Murray (NToS), Gene David Kirk (Theatre 503), Chenine Bhathena (ACE London), Leyla Jones (Roundhouse ACE Fellow),  Jackie Elliman (ITC),  Manick Govinda (Artsadmin), Jonathan Kennedy (TARA) and casting director Sophie Marshall.  

As well as leading the course, Andrew McKinnon has conducted a wide range of sessions on relevant subjects including funding strategies and planning.  Students have  completed a wide range of practice-based exercises, budgets and presentations.

Students undertook short secondments in the autumn term with The Actors Centre, Arden Entertainment, Churchill Theatre Bromley, Bill Gee, Mimbre, Mark Rubenstein Ltd, Soho Theatre and TRSE.   They are now preparing for their final Personal Projects with companies such as Artichoke, AJ Productions, Cardboard Citizens, Forest Forge, Hampstead Theatre, Maverick Theatre and Manilla Street Productions.

Together the group have seen (and analysed) Wicked and Blood Brothers in the West End; Come Dancing, Hansel & Gretel, Mad Blud, Bad Blood Blues and Foreplay at Stratford East; Pied Piper at the Barbican; Warm at Theatre 503; and The Trapeze Artist at TARA,   They also formed part of the onstage audience at the first dress rehearsal of Spring Awakening at the Lyric Hammersmith. 

APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2009/10 INTAKE ON THIS GROUND-BREAKING NEW MA ARE NOW BEING ACCEPTED. 

THE FINAL DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS WILL BE EARLY IN JULY.

 

CURRENT STUDENT BIOGS

ABENA ADOFO is a new producer from East London.  She studied Media Arts and Drama at St Marys University College and is currently training to be a producer at Birkbeck College (MA Creative Producing).  She has a varied background in the entertainment industry (theatre, film, television and radio) and she has worked in many different roles in front of and behind the scenes – as Production Manager, TV Researcher, Actress, Production Co-ordinator and Liaison Officer - for companies such as ITV, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Soho and UBC Media.  

Abena has produced Gospel concerts and African Cultural Events in Waltham Forest, Fashion Shows for the designer and record label ‘Howell 2 be Harsh’, and several short plays.  Recently she worked on the Soho Script Slam at Soho Theatre and as Trainee Producer and Lead Researcher on the Theatre Royal Stratford East production, Mad Blud, created by Philip Osment.  Abena is keen to produce new writing and theatre that deals with social issues and bridges the gap between the community and the mainstream.  She is always on the lookout for new talent!

NICHOLAS BOALCH has been producing for ten years, principally in Durham and Tyneside but also including several tours to the Edinburgh and London Fringes.  During this time he co-founded the theatre companies ‘Captain Theatre’ (Edinburgh Fringe sell-out Antigone, 2005) and ‘rather like a shark’ (Edinburgh Fringe sell-out Assassins, 2008).  Although his productions have included straight plays, musicals and sketch comedy, his principal interests are in new writing and the promotion of international theatre.  Since his secondment to the Actor’s Centre last autumn he has been working at the Centre on a regular basis.

NICK HENNEGAN is currently planning a national tour of a new play about Tony Hancock.  His first production was a transfer of Nicolai Erdman’s The Suicide to Solihull Library Theatre in 1992.  After success at the Edinburgh Festival with a one-person version of Shakespeare’s Henry V, in 1994 Nick established the Maverick Theatre Company in Birmingham to encourage new theatre audiences and new local talent, increasing access to the performing arts though the presentation of contemporary classics and new works in mainly non-theatre environments. Over the next ten years, Nick and Maverick won numerous awards, and produced over thirty plays and comedies in Birmingham - some of which toured nationally and to the USA – as well as establishing the Fox Maverick Youth Theatre project and the Rocket Writers Group. 

Nick has been involved in the creative industries most of his working life, creating new, popular events, working with creative teams and generating new ideas.  During 1989-1993 he headed Sharp Images– a Birmingham-based company producing commercial openings, product launches and retail support for many blue-chip clients and agencies.  He was a radio presenter and producer for commercial and BBC stations 1980-1988, mainly on music presentation and documentary programmes (Sony Award Winner for Susan and Friends).

KAREN JEMISON is an independent theatre producer.  Originally from Australia, she worked for the Victoria Tourism Department promoting Melbourne as the 'theatre capital of Australia', which involved working with commercial theatre producers such as Really Useful Group, IMG and Cameron Macintosh to develop cooperative marketing campaigns promoting Melbourne's theatre offerings.  She initiated the successful Melbourne the Musical campaign, launched by the Minister of Tourism, which ran for three years.  Karen moved to the UK in 2000 where she worked internationally as a management consultant for six years.

Karen is a member of Mercury Musical Developments (MMD) and Musical Theatre Matters (MTM) and was an Olivier Award Panel judge for Musicals in 2006.  She has a Graduate Diploma in Arts Management from Melbourne University and an MBA and is currently completing her MA in Creative Producing at Birkbeck, University of London.  She is currently working at the Southwark Playhouse as a Curator of the Secrets Series.  Artists who have recently performed as part of Secrets include Tangled Feet, Myernark and Scratch Interact.

Karen is also developing several new productions including a concert of the songs from the musicals of Alexander S. Bermange entitled Something New, which coincides with the recent release of Alexander’s Act One CD featuring 26 west end performers on the Dress Circle label.  Other productions in development include the UK premiere of the Noah Haidle play ‘Mr Marmalade’ and a workshop production of the new musical Damage written by Tony Rees and based on the Josephine Hart novel (subsequently filmed with Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche).  Karen established 'Manilla Street Productions' in 2008 which specialises in producing new musical works. 

SAMANTHA NURSE previously trained as a theatre technician and has spent most of her professional life working in theatre.  Working across a spectrum of disciplines such as music, audio visual, dance, comedy and performance Samantha has worked with such companies as Talawa, Theatre Centre, Graeae Theatre Company and Theatre Royal Stratford East. 

Samantha turned her attention to professional training and development in theatre and became a lecturer at Brooke House Sixth Form College where she taught Technical Theatre and Stage Management.  She was Course Designer & Tutor for the first practical traineeship for BME women at Clean Break, where she also currently teaches a short annual Technical Theatre Course.  Samantha has also designed and taught technical theatre courses for Streets Alive Theatre Company and Streetwise Opera.  She is currently developing an educational package for her company SamTec Productions, providing short intense training in Technical Theatre & Stage Management to various groups. 

As a producer, Samantha has assisted in a number of well received projects with such companies as Theatre Royal Stratford East, Talawa Theatre Company and Rukus! Federation.  She has become particularly interested in new writing and in bringing the theatre experience to wider communities including collaborating with artists from various art forms and countries.  Samantha currently has two projects in development.  www.samtecproductions.com

MICHELLE OWOO is based in East London.  She is currently working with a comedy poet, organising performances at the Poetry Cafe and in other London venues.  She also plans to work with director Mathilde Lopez (new Creative Associate, National Theatre of Wales) as producer on a forthcoming Franco-British physical theatre/dance collaboration.  In February she worked as Casting Assistant on Mad Blud, a verbatim theatre piece on knife culture at Theatre Royal, Stratford East (director Dawn Reid).  In 2008 she worked voluntarily at TRSE on the first International Festival for Emerging Artists (2008), a collaborative event featuring theatre, dance, music and spoken word writers and performers from all over the world. 

In October 2008 she co-produced a special live event with Shunt, bringing film maker Kenneth Anger to London for a rare showing of his new work and a Q and A.  Last year she completed a five week work placement with Bill Gee, Associate Producer at Artsadmin, on the development of a site specific project for the Thames Festival.  She has previously worked as producer/performer on a theatre show based on 1920’s French Dada texts, which has performed at Tate Modern, Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art, Hackney Empire Spice Festival and site specific venues.  (Her translations of the original material have been published by Tate Modern.)  She has also staged a number of cabaret collaborations featuring sound artists, dancers, poets and comedy acts.  Earlier in her career she studied for a BA in French & History of Art before moving into performance.

THERESA PINE is currently developing a site-specific project for her home borough of Greenwich; and is hoping also to develop a project within the Royal Parks.  She currently works in front of house management and has also worked extensively in ticketing, box-office and other roles.  She studied drama and theatre studies at Goldsmiths College, where she became very involved in the technical side of theatre and stage-managed many productions.  Shortly after leaving Goldsmiths, Theresa produced two of her own shows - a two handed play, A Time to Die, at the Union St Theatre in London (2001), and The Lower Depths, with a slightly larger cast of seventeen, at the Greenwich Playhouse (2002).  She is currently on the MA Creative Producing course at Birkbeck and within her producing work has a particular interest in studying audiences and audience behaviour patterns.