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      How to Undress Someone Quickly

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      Don’t start frantically grabbing at someone’s garments; trust is key. Let the person you’re disrobing do some of the work. “Wear kneepads, there’s lots of kneeling involved,” says Lacie Bonanni, 36, who works as a so-called dresser, a theatrical worker who helps actors into and out of their costumes. Bonanni got her start on Broadway 11 years ago on a show called “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” which involved stripping off a multitude of skintight bodysuits. Although Bonanni’s husband occasionally jokes about her taking people’s clothes off for a living, her skills don’t necessarily translate outside the theater, where the focus of undressing is never singularly speed and where sometimes fumbling is part of the fun. During a show, it’s not uncommon that a complete costume change, including mask and shoes, needs to happen in less than 30 seconds.Let the person you’re disrobing do some of the work. Bonanni tends to go for the bottom half of the body and lets the actor undress up top. At first, you both might stumble, reach for the same garment simultaneously, bump heads even. You’ll get faster as you become more familiar with clothing and bodies. By the time a show opens, costume changes should feel like a choreographed dance.Undressing happens mostly in a theater’s darkened wings and backstage. “Wear a headlight,” says Bonanni, who learned the craft from her mother, a longtime dresser on shows like “Rent” and “Fiddler on the Roof.” Costumes get what wardrobe people call “quick rigged,” which mostly means replacing buttons with Velcro. Some garb is unavoidably time-consuming. “A corset is the thing you’re dreading,” Bonanni says. Once you’ve got a person’s clothing off, toss it into a basket to be sorted and cleaned later. Unless, of course, you’re required to put the same outfit back on, as Bonanni had to do repeatedly for the musical “Groundhog Day.” In that case, keep it organized and lay it out in such a way so that the sweat can dry. Backstage is often hectic and crowded; don’t start frantically grabbing at someone’s garments or you’ll exacerbate their nervousness and discomfort. The person needs to trust you. “You want them to feel like they’re in a safe space,” Bonanni says. More

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      Review: Martha Washington, Hilariously Haunted by Her Slaves

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      James Ijames’s amusingly cynical and eclectic new play, “The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington,” is at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival through July 30.On an evening train back from the Hudson Valley last weekend, I overheard two drunken friends — one white, one Indian American — having a loud, expletive-ridden debate two rows behind me.History was irrelevant, the white friend was saying. Between Cold Spring and Yonkers, they argued about police brutality, institutional racism and citizenship, but they kept circling back to the topic of reparations. “If my grandfather was a serial killer, why do I have to pay for his crimes?” he asked. He said history was being used against him. The past is the past — so why should he suffer?That this experience followed a performance of James Ijames’s stunning new play, “The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington,” directed by Taylor Reynolds at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, was an event of stage-worthy irony. The theater gods certainly have a sense of humor.And so does Ijames (“Fat Ham,” “TJ Loves Sally 4 Ever”), though his is laced with a brutal sense of cynicism. I say that as a compliment: What else could be more appropriate to the obscene joke that is this country’s treatment of its Black residents? In “Miz Martha Washington,” George Washington is dead and his wife, Martha (played by Nance Williamson), seems about ready to follow him to the grave. Ann Dandridge (a sharp Britney Simpson) — her slave and also her half sister, who is unfortunately tangled up in Martha’s line of ancestry — tends to the former first lady while raising her own son, William (a perfectly jejune Tyler Fauntleroy).Martha is weak and feverish, talking nonsense and having hallucinations while Ann and the rest of her slaves — the Washingtons held hundreds, historically — continue to cook her food, clean her floors, chop her wood and polish her silverware, as they’ve done her whole life. But now they’re antsy and less accommodating: In his will, Washington offered the slaves freedom upon his wife’s death.In a series of hallucinations, her slaves appear as lawyers, prosecutors and historical figures who try to show her how accountable she is in a system of oppression. Her fever dreams include chats with Abigail Adams, Betsy Ross and Thomas Jefferson, all of them Black; a game show hosted by a Black King George and Queen Charlotte; and a “People’s Court”-style trial. She should just do the right thing and free her slaves while she’s still alive, but it’s hard to be ethical when you’re accustomed to a certain lifestyle.“Miz Martha Washington” bears the signature of Ijames’s clever wit: He writes the slaves as more than docile stereotypes; these slaves have personality to spare, and they joke and sing with a threatening jocularity. You know how baring one’s teeth can be a sign of joy or hostility? Ijames does.Two female slaves, Doll (Cyndii Johnson) and Priscilla (Claudia Logan), act as twin jesters in the play, clowning and gossiping at Martha’s expense — as when Priscilla acts out what she hopes will be Martha’s “death rattle,” a hilariously odd sound that falls somewhere between a groan and a screech. They don’t talk purely in the expected dialect of stage slaves, but in an anachronistic mix of that with modern Black American vernacular.All of the elements of the production have a bit of this playful mash-up approach (which recalls the style of other great Black playwrights like George C. Wolfe, Adrienne Kennedy and Suzan-Lori Parks). In terms of plot, the play recalls, of all things, “A Christmas Carol,” as Martha is haunted by her wrongs. But “Miz Martha Washington” is never as procedural as that; scenes set in the real world are broken up by dance interludes with disco lights and by surreal fantasies like a reverse auction in which the slaves, posed as owners, examine and bid on Martha.Even the costumes, by Hahnji Jang, are sportively eclectic, with clashing patterns and colors — along with additional anachronistic details, like hoop earrings and sneakers. Under Reynolds’s puckish direction, the tone, too, whips from exaggerated sitcom-style humor (hammy facial reactions, quick comedic beats) to poetic surrealism (a young slave boy’s prophetic monologue) to tragedy (accounts of abuse, sexual assault).Cyndii Johnson, foreground center, plays a slave who also serves as a kind of jester, joking and gossiping at Martha’s expense.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesWhen the slaves sing and dance and drum around poor, sick Martha’s bed, it looks like a dark sacrificial ritual or an exorcism of America’s evils. And when one slave laughs, and the sound is joined by an offstage chorus of laughter from other slaves, the thunder is spirited at first but then quickly becomes unnerving. As Ijames notes in his script, “Laughter is a weapon.”And yet Martha isn’t a meek, quivering pupil to the slaves’ lessons on the debts America owes to its Black people; Williamson pivots from pleas to commands, fear to rage, declaring herself America’s mother, a woman who “did right” by her slaves, and refusing to be spooked into more righteous behavior.Behind the simple staging of Martha’s bed on a sandy patch of ground, an opening in the tent on the beautiful lawn of the Boscobel House and Gardens, in Garrison, N.Y., revealed a backdrop of mountains and a hazy blue sky. This view, which dimmed over time into the buzzing, uninterrupted darkness of the evening, for me recalled the ways our American mythos is tied to grand landscapes — “amber waves” and “purple mountain majesties” for white explorers and white landowners. All fitting for a show confronting questions about freedom, inheritance and birthright. (“Miz Martha Washington” is part of the festival’s 34th and final season before it moves to a new location.)I couldn’t help but imagine how much greater the show would be on a big Broadway stage with all the fixings, so to speak. After all, Ijames’s revisionism works, in many ways, as the inverse to “Hamilton.” “Hamilton” uses its Black and brown actors to reclaim history as a story of hope for immigrants, minorities, the disenfranchised. It’s a rebranding of the American dream. “Miz Martha Washington” uses its Black actors to expose the blights of the American dream and the hypocrisies of our historical narratives.And so the hilarious Brandon St. Clair is the obliging slave Davy as well as a very Black — and priceless — George Washington, resurrected from the dead. And another slave, Sucky Boy (Ralph Adriel Johnson), appears as a humorously tactless Black Thomas Jefferson.Does the play have a happy, inspirational ending? Well, let me just say that despite Ijames’s antic fabrications, he is ultimately tethered to the tragedy that is America. And we all know how that story goes.On the train after the show, the conversation between the two friends seemed to stretch on forever. When the white friend got off, after saying he had enjoyed the “discourse,” a fresh silence took over. Infuriated by the ignorant, racist statements I had been hearing, I walked over and spoke to the Indian American man, a lawyer named Ash.“You’re totally right on everything,” I said. “I’m not sure you should bother.” He gave me a fist bump and said that he still wanted to try.About halfway through the play, Priscilla says to Doll, “Hard work openin’ folks’ eyes,” to which Doll responds, “Huh … you can say that again.”But are we all accountable for our fellow citizens who are, if not explicitly racist, at least complicit in the systems and institutions that degrade and oppress? Does Ijames consider his work educational, a corrective? I would wager not. History has taught us that even our most high-minded foundational ideals — “all men are created equal” — can be interpreted to a single group’s advantage or be a basis of manipulation. You can’t teach a person humanity if it’s a lesson they don’t want to learn.In the fairy tale version of our country’s racial politics, we all learn about justice and skip happily toward the future. I, for one, am done with fairy tales as history — and patient explanations. Give me the harder truth of Ijames’s fantastical version any day.The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha WashingtonThrough July 30 at Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Garrison, N.Y.; 845-265-9575, hvshakespeare.org. More

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      On the Scene: ‘Springsteen on Broadway’ 🎸

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      On the Scene: ‘Springsteen on Broadway’ 🎸Michael PaulsonReporting on theater Even before entering the St. James Theater, the theater district was clearly more alive than it was a year ago, at the height of the pandemic. Times Square, even with all but one theater still closed, was mobbed. More

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      Review: A Darkly Satirical Glimpse Into Life ‘Off Broadway’

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      Torrey Townsend’s backstage fiction is an indictment of the real world’s overwhelmingly white, disproportionately male theatrical establishment.It is the fall of 2020, and the American National Theater is desperate to survive the pandemic.In Torrey Townsend’s blistering and hilarious satire “Off Broadway,” presented by Jeremy O. Harris and streaming free on Broadstream, this tenaciously middling nonprofit is millions of dollars in the red, and operating with only a skeleton crew.But it sees one route out of financial calamity. When it finally reopens, it will do so with a surefire smash: Al Pacino in “Othello,” playing the title role. In blackface.Andy, the company’s staggeringly underqualified artistic director, doesn’t recognize this as regressing to a shameful and banished tradition. Rather, he frames it as a brilliant provocation, a metatheatrical challenge to quaintly limited thinking.“Y’all are gonna get eaten alive,” Marla, his horrified associate producer, warns during a Zoom meeting, but no one pays the slightest heed. She is Black; the others are white. They are happy to rationalize the idea.And that, like most of what happens in “Off Broadway,” doesn’t seem at all far-fetched.Directed by Robert O’Hara, who also directed Harris’s “Slave Play” and is an accomplished satirist in his own playwriting (“Bootycandy”), this backstage fiction is both raucously funny and devastatingly on point. It is an indictment of the real world’s overwhelmingly white, disproportionately male theatrical establishment — not just in New York, but nationwide.This spiky critique arrives with perfect timing: as the industry begins to emerge from well over a year of shutdown, with many companies having publicly pledged their allegiance to the goals of the initiative We See You, White American Theater. Will this indeed be a reset to a more vital, inclusive theater, or merely a blip? “Off Broadway” wants to know.Structured as a series of Zoom calls, it’s powered by a top-notch ensemble. The company’s ailing founder, Daryl, is deliciously played by Richard Kind as a shambling, pretentious gasbag, untethered from reality. He is on the verge of retirement when a ticked-off letter writer mocks him as a “morally insensitive, artistically incompetent fraud.” His rage kills him before his cancer can.Andy, played by Dylan Baker, is his chosen successor. That casting is our first clue that Andy will turn out to be a deeply unnerving guy. (This is a compliment; no one does creepy like Baker.) At least as thin-skinned as Daryl, and just as aggressively certain of his own laudable intentions, Andy shuts down any internal criticism of the company’s racism — in hiring, in programming and in what Marla calls its “fusty, elitist, Anglo Saxon neoclassical fetish.”He sees himself as a hero for retaining two people of color, Marla (Jessica Frances Dukes) and Steph (Kara Wang), on his ravaged staff. He is thrilled at “the optics” of promoting Marla from literary manager, and when he promotes Steph to replace her, he promises a raise — eventually. “Fingers crossed,” he says.The surprising beauty of Zoom here is that the format doesn’t prioritize one character over another. Even when Andy monopolizes a meeting, steamrolling Marla and Steph, the eye of the camera in their little rectangles is unblinking. We see in their faces how strenuous it is to endure him silently.And when he is alone online with Steph, we also see that working from home is no barrier to sexual harassment. With that plot twist comes a new layer of grievance. The company’s managing director, Betty (Becky Ann Baker), reflexively defends Andy. And when Steph takes graphic evidence to The New York Times, no #MeToo article comes of it.Well paced at nearly two hours, but segmented to allow watching in shorter chunks, “Off Broadway” entreats us to notice whose voices, perspectives and experiences are dismissed, talked over, ignored. It asks who in the theatrical establishment is willing to listen, and who is willing to act — and act differently — based on what they hear.That is the question of the moment. Whether we get a healthier, more urgent and empathetic American theater depends on the answer.Off BroadwayThrough Sunday; broad.stream/off-broadway More

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      With New Show, a Broadway Rarity: Season Has 7 Plays by Black Writers

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      “Chicken & Biscuits,” a new comedy by Douglas Lyons, will star Norm Lewis and Michael Urie. Performances will begin on Sept. 23.Plays by Black writers have been few and far between on Broadway over the years. The coming season will feature at least seven.The latest entrant is “Chicken & Biscuits,” a new comedy that last year ran for two weeks at Queens Theater before the pandemic forced it to close.Much of the creative and producing team will be in leadership roles for the first time on Broadway — the playwright, Douglas Lyons, was previously in the ensemble of “Beautiful” and “The Book of Mormon,” while the director, Zhailon Levingston, is an assistant director of “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical.”Onstage, there will be some familiar faces: Norm Lewis and Michael Urie, both well-known and well-liked by theater audiences. Lewis, a Tony nominee for “Porgy and Bess,” is best known as a singer, and this will be his first Broadway play; Urie is on more familiar ground as a comedic actor, and he was featured in a virtual reading of the play during the pandemic.Three of the show’s lead producers, Pamela Ross, E. Clayton Cornelious and Leah Michalos, are in that role for the first time. A fourth, Hunter Arnold, has producing credits on 29 shows, and is one of the lead producers of “Hadestown.”These plays arrive at a time of intensified attention on racial inequity in many corners of society, including the theater industry. Lyons founded the Next Wave Initiative, a scholarship program for Black theater artists; Lewis is a founding member of Black Theater United; and Levingston is the director of industry initiatives for the Broadway Advocacy Coalition. The coalition will be recognized with a special Tony Award this fall.“Chicken & Biscuits,” which is about a family that gathers for a funeral and is forced to reckon with a secret, is scheduled to start performances Sept. 23 and to open Oct. 10 at the Circle in the Square Theater. The play will be the first to move to Broadway from Queens Theater, a nonprofit performing arts center in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.“This show was the one that Covid-19 interrupted for us,” said the theater’s executive director, Taryn Sacramone. “To go from that moment — abrupt shutdown — to now seeing ‘Chicken & Biscuits’ move to Broadway in this moment of reopening for the city — this feels incredibly meaningful.”The other plays by Black writers scheduled to run next season are “Pass Over,” by Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu; “Lackawanna Blues,” by Ruben Santiago-Hudson; “Thoughts of a Colored Man,” by Keenan Scott II; “Trouble in Mind,” by Alice Childress; “Clyde’s,” by Lynn Nottage; and “Skeleton Crew,” by Dominique Morisseau. More

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      Theater to Stream: A Dispatch From Britain and a Greek Classic

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      Terrence McNally’s farcical “It’s Only a Play,” the revue “After Midnight” and productions from Russia are among the highlights.Theater is slowly returning to what it knows best: actors and audiences in the same room at the same time.Yet digital initiatives endure. Companies in Britain appear to be ahead of their American colleagues when it comes to putting on physical shows while also catering to audiences who, for one reason or another, don’t have access to them in person. As the Southwark Playhouse in London says on its website, “This is the beauty of online stuff *waves furiously to all our international pals.* You can view this show from anywhere in the world.” That company will livestream two performances (on the same day) of its production of the Charles Dyer “Staircase,” a 1966 drama about a couple of gay men at a time when their relationship was vilified. July 3; southwarkplayhouse.co.uk‘It’s Only a Play’Terrence McNally’s 1980s farce is set at the opening-night party (remember those?) of a Broadway show (they’re coming back, you know). To work at all, the play needs a cast of ace comedians who can milk the assembled egos and their petty feuds. Luckily, the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey has wrangled crackerjacks, including Andy Grotelueschen (a Tony Award nominee for “Tootsie”), Julie Halston, Christine Toy Johnson and Triney Sandoval. Through July 4; georgestreetplayhouse.org‘After Midnight’Sophia Adoum and Solomon Parker III in “After Midnight.”Christopher MuellerThe Signature Theater in Arlington, Va., is presenting an energetic full production of the revue “After Midnight,” which ran on Broadway in 2013. Christopher Jackson (“Hamilton”) leads the cast through a whirlwind of jazzy Cotton Club-era songs, held together by Langston Hughes texts. The show has many pleasures, like the heavenly vocal harmonies in “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” and a timely reminder that tap is exhilarating. Through Aug. 4; sigtheatre.org‘The Bitch Is Back: An All-Too Intimate Evening’Sandra Tsing Loh’s 2015 solo show tackled the subject of menopause. Anybody familiar with Loh’s bitingly funny essays will know that for her, tackling means wrestling to the ground. After all, her memoir on the subject was titled “The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones.” In Los Angeles, the Broad Stage is bringing the show back for a digital encore, because Lord knows a lot of women out there need that outlet. Through June 30; thebroadstage.org‘The Third Day: Autumn’Created by Felix Barrett of the British company Punchdrunk (whose “Sleep No More” opened in New York just over 10 years ago) and Dennis Kelly (“Utopia”), “The Third Day” is a cryptic hybrid of serial television and theater starring Jude Law. “Summer” and “Winter” are available on HBO; the middle part, “Autumn,” was done last fall as a live theatrical broadcast, and is now streaming for free. In typical fashion for the envelope-pushing Punchdrunk, “Autumn” goes on for 12 hours. punchdrunk.com‘The Oresteia’Theater for a New Audience presents Ellen McLaughlin’s adaptation of this ancient Greek trilogy, which she has streamlined into a single piece. Of course this only means a more concentrated dose of murder, palace intrigue and revenge (Friday through June 29; tfana.org). Keeping busy, McLaughlin has another classic coming up this summer: the Jacobean play “Pericles, Prince of Tyre,” presented into consecutive streamable “episodes” for the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival (starting July 2; sfshakes.org).‘Tiny House’It’s a safe bet that when the Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut opened in 1931, its founders did not expect the 90th-anniversary season would be taking place in a virtual universe even H.G. Wells couldn’t imagine. But here we are, and Michael Gotch’s new play, about folks discussing retrofitting their lives and best environmental practices at a Fourth of July picnic, uses green screens for the sets. June 29-July 18; westportplayhouse.org‘Where We Stand’Steppenwolf, in Chicago, concludes its virtual season with Donnetta Lavinia Grays’s fable of community and forgiveness, directed by Tamilla Woodard. When the solo show premiered at the WP Theater in New York early last year, it ended with the audience voting on a tough decision. That element is maintained in this digital capture, perhaps without the emotional impact of everybody being in the same room at the same time, but preserving the play’s anguished questioning. Through Aug. 31; steppenwolf.org‘Clubhouse’This spring, the Yangtze Repertory Theater commissioned five playwrights to adapt tales pulled from Pu Songling’s classic, often supernaturally tinged collection “Strange Stories From a Chinese Studio.” (The wonderful 1987 movie “A Chinese Ghost Story” was loosely inspired by Pu.) Now the company is streaming the results, with contributions by Stefani Kuo, Yilong Liu, Han Tang, Minghao Tu and Livian Yeh. Through July 18; yzrep.org‘Ghosting’This play, by Anne O’Riordan and Jamie Beamish (Nigel Berbrooke in “Bridgerton”), is less about abruptly ending a text chain than the lies we tell others and ourselves. The Irish Repertory Theater is now streaming the Theater Royal, Waterford, production, directed by Beamish and starring O’Riordan. Through July 4; irishrep.orgStage RussiaRussian theater productions are among the most creative in the world, but even at the best of times it’s been difficult to see them in the United States. This company is making it a lot easier by offering live captures and documentaries like “Rezo,” about the brilliant Georgian puppeteer Rezo Gabriadze, via various streaming options. One of them is Kanopy, which is free through many public libraries (though not, alas, New York’s). On-demand platforms include Stage Russia’s Vimeo channel and Digital Theater. stagerussia.com More

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      Playlist: ET radio show 23 June 2021

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      Author: Everything Theatre

      in Features and Interviews, Radio playlist

      24 June 2021

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      Interview with Tom Foreman on his play Big Boys

      You can also read more from Tom Foreman here

      Shows, Venues & Theatre Companies mentioned

      Music Playlist

      Dorothy Trogdon – Under A Graphite Sky (taken from Diagrams album, Dorothy)Prefab Sprout – Faron YoungThe Drums – Let’s Go SurfingJim Bob – Kidstrike!Red Box – New EnglandDiagrams – I Tell MyselfKing Creosote – BetelgueseIsobel Campbell – Ant LifeKing Krule – Easy EasyThe Cure – Boys Don’t CryTrampoline – The Boy That Life ForgotPenfriend – SeventeenPete Wylie – People (The Rise of DunningSufjan Stevens – All of Me Wants All of YouKing Creosote – BetelgueseBright Eyes – At The Bottom Of EverythingBaby Bird – King Of NothingThe Anchoress – 5AMThe Flaming Lips – Race For The PrizeIan McNabb – Great Spirit More

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      Interview: Tanya Bridgeman on Shoes To Fill

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      Iris Theatre, located at The Actors Church in Covent Garden, is always a joyful place to visit, especially when the sun is out. Their summer season promises more great shows presented outside in the churches wonderful gardens. One of which is Shoes To Fill.  So it seemed a good chance to catch up with writer Tanya Bridgeman to find out more about having your debut show performed in such a lovely location and the strong woman who inspired her to write it.

      First things first, what’s Shoes To Fill all about then?

      Shoes to Fill is about a young, mixed woman of Bajan and Irish heritage who is trying to find herself. At the start of the play she struggles with her mental health and all of her shoes go missing, leaving her confined to her bedroom. She uses the stories that her grandmothers tell her to escape from her sense of entrapment and find freedom in being who and what she wants to be. She fights against the imposter in her head to take up space and thrive for a fulfilling life as her grandmothers taught her.

      The play draws on both Irish and Bajan culture, what were the reasons in using those two?

      My Grangran is Bajan and my Granny is Irish. Both women had a huge impact on my life in different ways. I grew up hearing their stories and have always thought that these are stories worth sharing.

      These cultures are my personal heritage, and I do not think there has ever been a character specifically written with this in mind. I started writing because I want to create more roles for black and mixed actors, I want these roles to be specific so that everyone can see themselves reflected on the stage. For me it is about getting specific, my mix of Bajan and Irish heritage play a huge role in how I relate to the world, this would differ from a person of Greek and Trinidadian heritage. Culture runs through our veins and makes us see things differently from our neighbours. From the food we eat, to how we socialise, a lot of this stuff is ingrained from cultural traditions passed down to us.

      The story features a character only known as “Granddaughter”, but appears to never be named, is there a reason for this approach?

      Granddaughter is unnamed because I want her to remain relatable. Pretty much everyone has a shared experience of being a grandchild or hearing stories from older relatives, and although the story is specific to someone of a mixed heritage there is something powerful in knowing that a lot of people can connect to this character. Not everyone will relate to everything but hopefully they will relate to just one experience or emotion expressed by granddaughter.

      The play promises spoken word and elements of music; are these genres you have explored previously? Did you start with the idea of using them or did they develop as you wrote the play?

      I wanted to use spoken word and music when I set out to write Shoes to Fill. When I started my writing journey a lot of what I was writing was spoken word, as I feel like this is a really freeing form to write in. I enjoy rhythm, flow, and rhyme and this is something I wanted to incorporate into the play. I also feel like spoken word has less rules. I’m not, and have never been, great at grammar and structure but by using a form such as spoken word I’m able to just let the words just fall out of me. –(sounds cringe I know! But it’s true!)

      For the elements of music, firstly- I just love moving and singing to music – in particular, the bass of a song. But music also encapsulates different cultures so well and to transport audiences to the worlds of Granny and Grangran music was always going to lend a helping hand! Plus, music is fun and can move us in so many ways, it can make us sad, happy, angry, determined!

      There is a very feminine focus to things – granddaughter and grandmothers all get mentioned – was it a conscious effort to focus on the female side of family and culture?

      Yes, this was a conscious effort! The Grandmother/Granddaughter relationship is so precious, and I wanted to highlight this. Also, Granddaughter is 26 and this whole idea of womanhood across different generations is really interesting. By the time both of my grandmothers where this age they had migrated to England, were married, had jobs, had homes and had children and the conversation around milestones in a woman’s life is a theme that the play looks at.

      The play is being performed in the gardens of The Actors Church, does performing outside require a different approach to the final draft of the play?

      The play has been written especially for an outside space! When we were awarded the Iris seed commission, I only had a rough draft of what the play was going to look like- so I have been able to write with this in mind. The biggest change in approach that we are having to keep in mind is the fact that we cannot use lighting to create atmosphere. But within the writing there is a sense of the classic, ‘’black out’’ or ‘’scene change’’. Getting creative with words and not relying on lighting has taken us back to the foundation of theatre.

      You are part of Soho Theatre Writers Lab, how did you get involved in that and how has it helped you develop your writing?

      I only started writing over the first lockdown, having not really written creatively since secondary school (ten years ago – gross!)  A friend told me about Soho Writers Lab, and I had a piece ready to send in but did not really expect to gain a place. But I did earn a place and it has been so great! It has firstly giving me the confidence to say that I am a writer. I have learnt so much about structure, different techniques, ways of unlocking ideas and all the different forms that plays can be written in. I am learning and absorbing so much information that is aiding my skills as an artist.  Being able to read some amazing plays by other amazingly talented new writers is so inspiring and really pushes me to produce my best work.

      As well as Shoes to Fill I am writing another play which I am getting feedback for through the Soho writers lab and although the plays are separate, I can apply the dramaturgical advice to both. Doing so I can break down the play and really push the narrative to an exciting place.  

      So, how does it feel knowing your debut play is all set to be unleased upon the world?

      Brilliant! I cannot wait to share Shoes to Fill with an audience. It’s a really fun piece and we have a lot of surprises in store! Also Shoes to Fill is not only my debut play as a writer but the debut show of my production company FAIR PLAY.  It’s so exciting to see everything coming together and years of hard work paying off. Eeeakkk so many emotions right now!

      ================================================

      Thanks to Tanya for her time in chatting to us. Shoes To Fill will be playing in the gardens of The Actors Church in Covent Garden between 5 and 10 July. Further details and booking via the below link. More