September’s nearly here, those of us who’ve been at Edinburgh are beginning to think about the massive post-festival comedown, and some of us are thinking about going back to school. I’ve always thought of the end of summer as a turning time, a time for change, and that’s true for me this year as much as it was last year. Last year I was moving house and coming out of a long-term relationship; this year I’m about to start on Birkbeck College’s Master of Fine Arts programme for theatre directors. It’s a change for Upstart too – we’ve been reorganising the company, bringing in new people and enabling us to do lots more in the future – more of which on the blog soon.
Benjamin Peters in "Oh Well Never Mind Bye"
So this seems like a particularly good time to look back on some of the things Upstart has achieved in the last year. By my reckoning, about 750 people saw an Upstart performance between September 2008 and today. 502 of them saw Oh Well Never Mind Bye by Steven Lally at the Union Theatre. The combination of great writing, superb performances by the wonderfully committed cast of Matthew Duggan, Susanna Fiore, Charlotte Flintham and Benjamin Peters, an excellent design by Giulia Scrimieri (set and costumes) and Phil Hewitt (lights and sound) and a deep level of engagement with one of the most vital issues of the day, made this show one of the things I’m the most proud of in my entire career. Special thanks and huge respect also go out to Simon Darwen, who stood in with huge courage and conviction for three nights when Ben was unable to perform. We’re really hoping to take the project forward in 2010 and of course we’ll let you know about it as soon as we have any details. (If you’re a producer, you might like to have a gander at the producer’s pack here.)
Hannah Thomson in Act/React 1: The Focus Group
The other 250 people all joined us at another Upstart event, all of which in the last year have been one-night stands, and all the more exciting and unique for it. We produced four Act/React events in autum 2008 at Theatre503, with each evening devised by a different artist and each drawing inspiration from an event or several events which took place on the day of the performance. Jemma Llewellyn, Lydia Ziemke, Tom Wateracre and Small Change Theatre each produced some brilliant work – some dark and brooding, some very funny, all compelling.
Earlier this year, we produced three one-off nights at Arch 635 in Clapham, bringing together theatre, comedy and music for some thoroughly good nights out. Highlights included Laura Casey’s devised piece Green hills, bowler hats and knife crime as part of This England on St George’s Day; Sarah Sigal, Ellie McRea and Penny Lisle’s improvisation on the same night; and some superlative comedy from the brilliant Joey Page. There was also some pretty fine sea-shanty action from Jessica Beck and, well, me.
Poetry and audience participation in When was the last time someone told you that you're beautiful...?
And just recently we’ve become a part of the Tristan Bates Theatre’s Midnight Matinee event, with an installation piece, When was the last time someone told you that you’re beautiful…? that was more fun to do than just about anything else this year. We’ll be back at the TBT after the pubs shut on Saturday 19th September, so if you can make it it’d be great to see you. Show details are on our Coming Soon page.
As we move into the autumn, with many changes about to come, I’m incredibly proud of what this company has achieved and it’s done it all because of the many people who’ve come and written, acted, devised, fundraised, designed, written press releases, directed, looked over the accounts, offered advice, fed us coffee – all for no money and the occasional thank you. To all of those people – you’re amazing. Thank you. And of course, to every one of those 750 people who forked out their hard-earned money to see one of those shows – thank you as well. I hope you enjoyed it; I hope it meant something to you; I hope that from time to time it might even come back into your mind and start you off thinking about the subject all over again. But above all – thanks. You didn’t have to come along (unless you’re related to or dating someone involved) but you did, when you could have gone somewhere a lot bigger and a lot more famous. So cheers for your support – and I look forward to seeing you in the bar after an Upstart show somewhere very soon.
