PASSION

– Line of Departure

By Stephanie Dale

 Multi-award winning AsOne Theatre Company present

a gripping new piece of theatre with live music – five incredible stories of families affected by war. The play has been created using real testimony from people:  who’ve fought in Afghanistan; who’ve waved their child off to fight; who’ve discovered a WW1 relative’s diary. Intertwined  with extensive research and dusted with  talent this is affecting theatre at its best.

AsOne Theatre Company’s project 2014/15 ‘PASSION’ had live music, song and film and was timed for the anniversary of the start of WW1 and the planned final exit of UK troops from Afghanistan. Funding in place from Arts Council England, The Heritage Lottery Fund, West Dorset District Council. It was premiered at The Corn Exchange, Dorchester and toured from Wednesday 8 October 2014  – throughout wider Wessex and into Gloucester, London, Bath and Bristol – until our finale in Weymouth in November 2014. In 2018 we plan a national tour out of Edinburgh with some secondary schools hosting us where we will not only perform but offer workshops (Tel. 01305 835541 if you are interested). A big thank you to our Major Sponsor Brewery Square Dorchester who invested £1500 towards our Marketing Budget ensuring the quality of our  marketing. We are always thrilled to have such amazing partnerships.  http://www.brewerysquare.com/

Tour List Information about the Creative Team follows the tour list.

THE CREATIVE TEAM  Multi-award winning AsOne Theatre Company has gathered a creative team par excellence: Playwright – Stephanie Dale; Director – Peter Leslie Wild; Composer and Musical Director: Tim Laycock

Stephanie Dale was our commissioned playwright http://www.stephaniedale.org

Current commissions include: For the Past 30 Years (Birmingham REP, 2014) Alice in Wonderland; (Theatre in the Quarter,2014) Passion, a play about the First World War and the exit from Afghanistan, (AsOne Theatre, touring 2014) and A World Beyond Man; (Arena Theatre and tour, 2014). Recent work includes:  Chester Mystery Plays;(cast of 250 at Chester Cathedral, June-July 2013) an adaptation of Moonfleet; which toured the South West (BristolOld Vic Theatre School, May-June 2013). Believe Me; (nominated for the Tinniswood Award 2011, BBC Radio Four, 2011) andThe Witches’ Promise ;(cast of 120, Birmingham REP @ Weoley Castle Ruins, July 2012). Other work includes: Mary Macarthur; (cast of 80, Midland Actors Theatre) and A Time to Keep; co-written with David Edgar, (cast of 120, Dorchester Community Play Association, November 2007). A Time to Keep is published by Nick Hern Books. Stephanie taught Applied Drama at Loughborough University for seven years and was a Supervisor on the MRES in Playwriting at the University of Birmingham for five years.  She currently teaches Writing and Devising at Birmingham School of Acting. Stephanie has facilitated playwriting workshops in over 500 schools, colleges and universities and has facilitated over 50 pieces of community based theatre projects. She has also written four large- scale plays for schools. She has an MA in Playwriting (University of Birmingham, 1998) BA (Hons) Theatre and Media Drama, 1996.

Peter Leslie Wild directed. http://www.peterlesliewild.com/ Peter Leslie Wild is a theatre director and audio drama producer with more than 20 years’ experience in the business. Since winning the 1989 BP Young Directors Award he has worked in a vast range of media including theatre, radio and video. He set up and ran the Community Programme for the Orange Theatre between 1991 and 1995, before moving to the BBC where he produced and directed hundreds of radio dramas for Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, Radio 3 and Radio 2. He has also made a speciality of site-specific work, creating theatre and audio in vast cathedrals, a Roman gold mine, the streets of cities, and museums and art galleries. He is known for combining drama and documentary, having produced more than 25 drama-documentaries for Radio 4, two of which won the prestigious Prix Marulic. His site-specific audio work has often included a documentary element, as in the Titanic Trail, which mixed commentary and drama to tell the story of the designer of the ill-fated Titanic; and the National Trust audio trail for Dolaucothi Gold Mine, which features interviews with archaeologists and dramatic inserts. In the theatre, Peter has directed major site-specific work such as The Chester Mystery Plays (Chester Cathedral and Liverpool Anglican Cathedral, 2013), and The Worcester Pilgrim (Worcester Cathedral), right down to small scale touring and work in regional reps such as The New Vic, Stoke.

Tim Laycock composed and arranged original and traditional music. http://www.timlaycock.co.uk/He is well known in Dorset as a folk musician, composer, playwright, director, actor, and storyteller. Tim toured as musical director for A Winter’s Tale with the RSC earlier this year, directed the local New Hardy Players The Woodlanders, and continues to perform his Tuneful Stories at Max Gate, tour the his own ‘Time Clock’ performance piece . Tim is an extraordinary talent and genuinely loved wherever he performs or works. He has written 10 plays for theatre companies, and continues to work for Solomon Theatre with writing, arranging and playing in two short plays for senior citizens: Trickster, which has received over 450 performances to date; and Too Good to be True, both directed by Mark Hyde. Sonia Ritter and he perform in The Land; and Tim’s own play about William Barnes: The Year Clock with musician Colin Thompson is also still being booked. He is currently appearing in Whoops, Apothecary! with Alan Cheeseman for Theatre Merchants.

AsOne Theatre Company Associate, Annette Sumption designed the set, props and costume.  Annette has 30 years experience of Theatre design and has worked throughout the UK since 1977 including: The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield; The Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke; Contact Theatre, Manchester and in London’s West End. This will be her fourth design for asOne Theatre and we are delighted.

Jane McKell has been AsOne Theatre’s founding Artistic Director/Producer for 10 years. The company draws upon the experience of Jane’s work with memory projects in theatre, education, the community, and on both commercial and BBC radio. Jane set up AsOne Theatre Productions in 2004 to employ Dorset based professional theatre practitioners and shake hands with the community whilst taking real Wessex stories to theatres all over the region and encouraging new writing. An experienced professional actor, singer, director and theatre producer Jane has toured regionally and nationally in everything from Pantomime to contemporary and classical theatre with a little film and television for good measure. She feels it is a privilege to explore real, regional stories and then create exciting, bitter-sweet theatre that informs whilst genuinely pulling at the heart strings.

HOW DID WE CREATE OUR THEATRE PIECE – PASSION?

We asked ‘Has your family lived or are you living in Wider Wessex; either: Dorset, Devon, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Bath or Bristol and have you either family connections or direct stories to tell about WW1 or the Afghanistan Conflict?’ The response was wonderful and some fantastic families came on board from Portland, Weymouth, Bournemouth, Dorchester and Bath. Their stories touched, amazed and thrilled us. 

Dorset based, Award winning, AsOne Theatre Company’s Artistic Director Jane McKell, accompanied by film and radio expert, Andy Worth collected and recorded real stories from Wessex families as research,  for Stephanie Dale our playwright to interweave some of these remarkable stories writing a brand new theatre piece with live music; as well as create pod-casts for the internet, and a radio documentary as a legacy. The creative team chosen is of standing and experience. Playwright, Stephanie Dale; director Peter Leslie Wild, and Composer/Musician Tim Laycock are joining forces with Artistic Director/producer Jane McKell commissioned by AsOne Theatre Company to respectively write, direct, compose, design and produce a premier tour of  ‘PASSION’ –  Stories of War and Love 100 Years Apart

“Intertwining stories from the First World War and the Afghan War, Passion integrates genuine memories, original live music and song to create a poignant, sometimes funny, vivid and surprising take on the effect of war on combatants and families alike.”

AsOne asked Wessex people willing to talk openly about their own experience as a soldier or what it is like to have children, husbands, fathers or brothers and sisters away fighting in Afghanistan; some who returned safely, some injured, some who lost loved ones to the conflict. We talked to descendants of Great War combatants about the stories, photos and diaries handed down by their relatives, who were involved in WW1 in Europe, Messapotamia, Gallipoli or Russia. All research was handled sensitively and with respect, with people’s anonymity  preserved if that was requested.

If you would like to further contribute to exhibitions that will be touring with us and share relevant memories, letters or diaries please do so  by writing to: info@as-onetheatre.co.uk

or AsOne Theatre Company ‘Talbothays’, 3, Osmington Lodge, Osmington, Weymouth Dorset DT3 6EX