A Play by Lance Woodman and an Art Installation by Sheila Farrell

Extracts from the programme for the Pershore production in February 2005

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Credits for the play

The play is set in 1913 and the present day

Charlie and Lance in rehearsal

"Dilly", an art installation by Sheila Farrell, is in the foyer

Things lie hidden in the dressing table. Open the drawers and discover its secrets.

More details on this Web site

Biographies

Paul Clarkson, (Actor) Paul was brought up in Worcester and began his career at Worcester Swan Theatre. In 1984 he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Actor of the Year. His most recent West End performance was Harry Bright in Mamma Mia at the Prince Edward Theatre. Paul has directed productions at the Crescent Theatre, Birmingham, The Waterman Arts Centre and the Rose Theatre, Kidderminster. Until recently Paul was Course Director of the BA Hons Acting course at Birmingham School of Acting. TV work includes two series of The Manageress, Eleven Men Against Eleven, Drop the Dead Donkey, Kavanagh QC, McCallum, Kiss Me Kate, Heartbeat, and three series of Trippers Day for Thames TV; Dream Team for Sky TV and Christmas Bedtime for BBC. Radio includes The Worcester Pilgrim by Alex Jones, broadcast on Radio 4 last year.

Paul as "Alan"

Nettie Edwards (Designer)

Nettie's Theatre work includes Awake and Sing, The Entertainer, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and All That Trouble That We Had, at the Birmingham Rep; Not a Game For Boys (Royal Court) and costume designs for Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick at the Royal National Theatre. Nettie won the Manchester Evening News Design award for Blood Wedding at Manchester's Contact Theatre and she was a member of the gold medal award winning British theatre design team at the 1995 International Quadrennial Exhibition in Prague. She now works primarily as a freelance artist and is currently working on a creative research project with some of Gloucestershire's Romany families, entitled All Those That Belong to Us.

Sheila Farrell (Artist)

Sheila graduated from University of Gloucestershire with a degree in sculpture. She received a Creative Ambition Award from West Midlands Arts 2002. Her work has been exhibited in the South West. Recent exhibitions include Blueskythinking and un/open in Stroud, Perpendicular in Gloucester and Out of the Blue in Bristol. Later this year Sheila will be curating Primary Source, an exhibition of artists’ books at Warwick University.

Michael E Hall (Lighting Designer)

Michael has lit productions for many companies throughout the country. He worked extensively at the Everyman Cheltenham whilst it was a producing theatre including The Mayor of Casterbridge, Pickwick Papers, Annie, Sound of Music, Death and the Maiden, Amadeus and Macbeth. The designs for Macbeth formed part of the gold medal winning entry to the 1995 International Quadrennial Exhibition in Prague. He lit Into the Woods for Royal Northern College of Music, Gaslight and Last of the Red Hot Lovers for Bolton Octagon, Second from Last in the Sack Race at Harrogate, Brother Eichmann and Two Way Mirror at The Library Manchester. For the last six years Michael has been lighting designer for the Shysters Theatre Company lighting their productions of Scary Antics, Fallen Angels and Tango Apocalypso in Coventry and on national tours and co productions of A Midsummer’s Nights Dream at The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and The Monkey King at the Patrick Centre in Birmingham. Michael has also featured in a Lithuanian TV Tomato Ketchup advertising campaign!

Samantha Jones & Cerianne Pitcock (Assistant Stage Managers)

Cerianne from Barry in South Wales and Samantha from Northampton are in their second year of study for BA Theatre Design and Production at Trinity College Carmarthen.

Polly Lister (Actor) Born in Evesham, Polly grew up in Worcestershire, trained in Manchester and now lives in London. Having just finished Cinderella in Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake, Polly is delighted to again be involved in a Lance Woodman play and to be working so close to her family home and her grandfather who lives in Bishampton. Polly played Cathy Shepherd in Red Skies over the Severn and Julia in The Rivals at Worcester Swan Theatre. Polly toured as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet for all time, a new play for Birmingham’s Heart Productions. A new project with them is in development called Love Hurts. She was a member of both Birmingham Repertory Theatre’s Transmissions and Birmingham University’s MPhil New Playwright ensembles in 2004 and last Christmas was at The Roses Theatre in Tewkesbury as Cinderella’s Prince Charming. Other work includes The English Shakespeare Company, Tour de Force, Manchester Library Company, BBC Radio 4, various TV roles and the lead in a feature film called RTFM.

Polly as "Dilly"

Charlie McCarthy (Actor) Charlie trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, graduating in 2003. Since then he has appeared in a UK tour of Stones in his Pockets and in Bedazzled for NTC Touring Theatre. During the summer Charlie played Kester Woodseaves in Pentabus Theatre Company’s production of Precious Bane, which was staged in Shrewsbury School Gardens.

Charlie as "Sam"

Deborah Rees (Project Manager)

Deborah works as a freelance arts manager and is also currently Programme Director at Script, the regional agency for new writing in the West Midlands. For three years she was Administrative Director of the Worcester Swan Theatre. She has also worked as General Manager for both Red Shift and Compass Theatre Companies and as Development Manager with Paines Plough (all Arts Council funded national touring companies). Deborah is currently project managing Dreams and Ruin a large scale outdoor dance and visual arts event which is due to take place at Witley Court in June 2005

Lance Woodman (Playwright)

Lance lives in Worcester with his wife Pat, to whom this play is dedicated. He has had three main stage plays and two youth theatre plays produced at Worcester Swan Theatre. His work has been performed around the country. Lance is on attachment at Birmingham Repertory Theatre and a member of BBC Radio Drama’s Sparks writing group. He was Pearson playwright in residence with the Worcester Swan Theatre and New Theatre Works at the Courtyard Arts Centre, Hereford. He is a graduate of the University of Birmingham’s MA in Playwriting Studies.

Peter Leslie Wild (Director)

Peter won the 1989 BP Young Directors Award, and subsequently spent five years at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond, where he set up the Community and Education programme and directed many plays including The Return of the Prodigal, Someone Waiting, How He Lied to Her Husband, Black Snow, The Gate, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, The Children’s Mysteries, The Magic Island and The Bell. He directed Brief Candle at the Lyric Studio, and last year was responsible for a major Son et Lumière in Worcester Cathedral. He is currently Senior Producer for BBC Radio Drama in Birmingham, and has directed many plays, serials and drama-documentaries, as well as episodes of The Archers. He has consistently supported and produced the work of locally based writers. The Language of Flowers (made in collaboration with Rosie Boulton) won a prestigious Prix Marulic in 2004.

Special thanks to Charlotte Saunders, volunteers and staff at Number 8. Special thanks to Cheryl Stott

Thanks also to: BBC Radio Drama, Bridget Clinton, Carmarthen College, C&T, Emily Wild (music), Fiona Kelcher, Henri Wood, Lee White, Lewis Wood, Leon Antiques Ludlow, London Camera Exchange Cheltenham, Meg Wild (costume assistance), Nick Willcock, Pat Roberts, Pentabus Theatre Company, The Rose Theatre Kidderminster, Stephanie Dale, Worcester Arts Workshop

"Holding them there, I pin the moment down and break them out of time."

The words of Sam Evans in Upside Down and Back to Front

What do photographs do? What do they capture? What do they lose?

Working together for the first time, artist Sheila Farrell and playwright Lance Woodman have responded to what photography does, and what it does not do. Sheila's installation and Lance's play are freestanding pieces of work that complement each other. Each is complete in itself, but to experience them both offers a 'third perspective' on what happens when we click the shutter, open a family album or look at a picture and begin to tell a story.

artworcs gratefully acknowledge support from...