The Sum Of Our Parts, Barking Up The Wrong Tree, Switching Tracks, The Blackmore Theatre, Exmouth, Friday 4th and Saturday 5th March, 7.30pm
Phonic FM director Audaye Elesedy will be taking to the stage for his acting debut in a new local play.
The evening of three topical plays written and by, performed by, and directed by local people takes place in Exmouth next month.
After their glowing reviews at The North Devon Fringe and Exeter New Theatre last summer, The Wind Up Theatre Company is back with a new show. They will be performing three new plays that take a wry look at controversial subjects such as The Big Society, multiculturalism and even dementia.
The scripts are full of comedy and playfulness and bring to the stage larger than life characters from shy spinsters to trophy wives to feisty cleaning ladies.
The Sum Of Our Parts by Lucy Bell
Gate-crashing is a dangerous business. An uninvited guest stumbles into a cocktail party and his made to feel far from welcome. However, he quickly realises he has something the strange guests need, and if they have their way he may never ever leave! Prepare for a gruesome twist in the tale.
This script was shortlisted by Plymouth Theatre Royal Short Play Festival.
Barking Up The Wrong Tree by Cally Hayes
In this topical tale a lonely spinster takes a bizarre journey through the health service and makes a life changing discovery about what it means to be part of The Big Society.
Switching Tracks by Nick Discombe
Devonians can expect local references in the story of Cissy and Nell, two strangers who meet beneath the tracks of St Thomas station. The women strike up an unlikely friendship and make a controversial deal that will allow each to pursue their dreams.
Previously performed at The Lyric Hammersmith.
Wind Up was started in 2010 when like-minded dramatists met at Nick Discombe’s playwriting group. The company contains more than its fair share of public servants – four teachers, a social worker and a health worker.
Play director Lucy Bell said: “We stage new plays in local venues and the scripts are often set in Devon and based on topical issues. One of our writers guided tours around the Exeter underground passages so we are all about local connections. ”
Marnie Pyne, also a director added: “It is very much a Devon-style company – we have had toddlers, babies and dogs roaming through our rehearsals. But it all comes together because everyone is so committed to what they do.”
The writers and directors
Marnie Pyne, director, from Exmouth got the acting bug after a lead role as Main Mouse at primary school. After graduating with an English and Theatre degree she abandoned the stage for seven years before starting an exhaustive career acting for the Northcott Community Company. Her credits include Tobias and the Angel (with the English Touring Opera) and The Curse of the Werewolf, which travelled to Cornwall’s Minack Theatre.
This is her first outing as a director, unless you count her work as a teacher. Surely nothing can be harder than the year she tried to direct 140 nine, ten and eleven year olds in a nativity play.
Lucy Bell, director and writer of The Sum Of Our Parts, lives in Chudleigh and came to playwriting via copywriting and documentary making. She won two awards for her writing as a BBC copywriter and was runner up in BBC and Channel Four documentary competitions. Lucy has had her plays performed at The Exeter New Theatre, The North Devon Fringe and The Bike Shed Theatre. She was described by The Soho Theatre as ‘an exciting new voice’ and shortlisted for the Arvon Foundation/Jerwood prize. She divides her time between teaching and her young family.
Nick Discombe, writer, is something of a legend to the budding Exeter writers that he has brought on over the years. He co-wrote Union Street for the Theatre Royal Plymouth in 2000, Matthew Miller for the Exeter Northcott in 2003 and The Talisman for The Drum Theatre Plymouth in 2008. Other plays include Halfway to Paradise (1996), Dirty Water (2006), The Long Count (2007) for The Drum Theatre Plymouth, and Nature Knows Best (2005) for The Everyman, Cheltenham. His play Switching Tracks was first performed in the Lyric Studio Hammersmith.
The actors
Jan Liff
Jan’s love of acting started at school. Then she grew up, got a proper job, married, had children and gave it all up. Later, when immaturity and senility set in, she rediscovered acting, appearing in several Northcott Community Company productions, including The Government Inspector and a musical Goodnight Mister Tom. She has acted in and directed several one-act plays. Jan has recently been trying to write and has quickly mastered the skill of staring for hours at a blank piece of paper and swearing. Jan works for her Local Authority as a child protection specialist.
Andrew Dean
Since joining the Northcott Community Company for its first production Andrew has been Governor in the Government Inspector; Charles, and a rather strange cow, in Cold Comfort Farm and Laurie Lee in Cider with Rosie among other parts. He played Charles Condomine in Blithe Spirit in Sidmouth. He has also toured Devon with Pen and Trough, and Whisky Jack Productions and Wind Up Theatre. Andrew draws on his experience as a former Head of History to keep order in the rehearsal room.
Chris Gaskell
An undergraduate of the Count Arthur Strong School of Performing Arts, Chris Gaskell has only recently returned to the stage after a long period of absence. His come-back, via pantomime (you’d never know) sees his second outing with WindUp Theatre. During his debut at the Barnstaple Fringe Festival in 2010, one audience member favourably commented on his playful but skilled portrayal of an aspiring middle-class businessman of the Edwardian period. The other one wanted to know if it was Chris’s van outside blocking the driveway.
Audaye Elesedy
Audaye is a director of Phonic FM and heavily involved with community arts, music and education in Exeter, his home for the last five years. His involvement with Wind Up theatre started in 2011. He hopes to add to the many talents already in the company!
The three plays will also be performed at Crediton Arts Centre on Friday 11th March at 8pm.
Exmouth, tickets £7, from Exmouth Tourist Office 01395 222299 or buy on the night.
Crediton, tickets £7, from The Record Shop 01363 774299, Sandford Post Office 01363 775805, Crediton Arts Centre 01363 773260 or at creditonartscentre.ticketsource.co.uk.