New show coming January 2018!

And the winner is…!

Launching our playwriting competition – “The Local”!

“The Local”! A play set in a local pub.

We love working on new writing and on plays that fit our space perfectly. We are now launching a playwriting competition to find a brand new play that we will stage in the upstairs bar of The Crown Inn, Oxted.

We are accepting scripts for production in our Autumn 2017/2018 season on the theme “The local”. The play will be performed in the upstairs bar of the pub and so must not have a large, complicated set (other than the bar itself which can be used within the performance).

So get down you local and start writing!

Eligibility: 

The competition is open to anyone.

We are happy to receive scripts from 30 mins – 2 hours as if we find 2 good shorter plays we will combine them into one evenings entertainment.

What to submit:

• A brief synopsis
• A short insight into your inspiration. Where did your idea come from?
• At least one scene (we will accept full or partially complete scripts)
• Character/Casting breakdown – Maximum 3 actors

How to apply:
Please email scripts to threadbaretheatrecompany@yahoo.co.uk

Deadline: 16th June 2017

Other useful information

There is no fee to submit scripts.

We will reply to every script that is submitted but cannot guarantee to give detailed feedback and won’t enter into any further correspondence if your script is unsuccessful.

The winning play will be produced by Threadbare Theatre Company and performed at The Crown Inn, Old Oxted and will be directed by Artistic Director Lucy Linger. The writer will receive an equal share of the profits with Lucy and the actors. All up front production and venue costs will be covered by Threadbare Theatre.

We are committed to producing theatre from anyone and everyone with a great story to tell and a yearning to tell it.

All work submitted remains the intellectual property of the writer. The work must be that of the writer or writers and the writer must own all relevant rights to material included.

 

Apply to join the team for our Brighton run!

Voices of the Great War

Gala performance at Theatre Royal Brighton and then a tour
£100 guaranteed fee and profit share
Tried and tested format recruiting extra actors

This is an opportunity to join a project that has been underway for over a year working on 100 year old scripts. Collated together in a Music hall style evening these plays were written during the First world and have not been performed, or performed rarely, since. We performed initially in Surrey in Nov 2015, and were picked up to perform at the Somme centenary in Manchester in July of this year. We then played a festival in Surrey and were invited back by the original venue to perform again. We are now producing a gala matinee performance at Theatre royal in Brighton, and plan to then mount a tour.
We are casting two main roles, but there are also subsidiary roles within the company and also songs – this is a real ensemble piece and you must be prepared to get stuck in. We will be taking plays we have already performed – including one by A.A.Milne and one by J.M.Barrie – as well as adding to our repertoire.
The fee is £100 guaranteed with a share of the profit. As a company we have never not made additional profit for our actors and work very hard to ensure we get the best financial deals possible. The production is already partly costumed and propped so we do not expect production costs to be large. Additionally we have access to costumes for free from our sister company Fancier dress, a costume and fancy dress hire shop.
This is a wonderful opportunity to tread the boards in a well known 200 year old 950 seat theatre, it will look great on your CV and give you good exposure. Comp tickets will be available for agents and casting directors. The show will be recorded and you will be given a copy of this.

Mr Torrance

• Description
  J.M.Barrie wrote A new word in March 1915, and that is where we meet Mr Torrance – the night before his son is due to take up a position as 2nd Lieutenant in the army and depart for the first world war. Mr Torrance is described by Barrie as “no great luminary”. He is a law clerk, who has managed to raise his family’s standard of living and “by an effort” send his son to boarding school. Now the day of departure is upon them and Mr Torrance must try and find some words for the occasion. A sarcastic man, he is a man of his time, with a strong British stiff upper lip and a belief that displays of affection are all “bunkum”. He comes from a relatively humble background but is now able to “keep one servant” and also employ a young girl twice a month to “crawl about the floors”. He is a proud family man, who likes a cigar and a joke in the club with like minded professional men.
• Gender

  Male

• Min Age

  45

• Max Age

  60

Mrs Torrance

• Description
  J.M.Barrie wrote A new word in March 1915, and that is where we meet Mrs Torrance – the night before her son is due to take up a position as 2nd Lieutenant in the army and depart for the first world war. She is a deeply affectionate mother who has “knitted enough for his entire platoon” and provides him with socks “to go inside your socks and these are for outside your socks”. She has an extremely sarcastic husband, but his wit falls on her “like pellets on sandbags”. She is absolutely a woman of her time, with no vote, and no real desire for it, believing she must just “take it on trust”. She is incredibly proud of her son fighting for his country, and also fearful for his safety and comfort in the trenches. She is the glue that holds the family together, and encourages her husband and son to spend time together. She is not the most subtle of women but her heart is in the right place and you cannot help but wish she would bake you some cookies and tuck you in with a warm glass of milk.
• Gender

  Female

• Min Age

  45

• Max Age

  60

Email your CV to threadbaretheatrecompany@yahoo.co.uk or visit

http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/job/379008/voices-of-the-great-war

 

The review is out!

Forgotten war plays from the vaults will help remember the fallen

Sunday, 30 October 2016 By Kevin Black in Entertainment

With the First World War raging 100 years ago and the nation’s thoughts turning to the remembrance of the fallen, Limpsfield based Threadbare Theatre has taken the wraps off its latest production, The Great War As It Was.

Audiences at the Bluehouse Festival at the URC Church in Oxted were the first to witness Threadbare’s Lucy Linger’s plundering of archives to retrieve three short works that are largely forgotten and dealing with the effects of the Great War on families and individuals.

The three plays are A New Word by JM Barrie, first performed in London in March 1915; God’s Outcast from the pen of J. Hartley Manners and written in 1919 as the world tried to patch together the wounds caused by WWI; and The Boy Comes Home, a piece from AA Milne, first performed in 1918, and a bit before Winnie The Pooh was on his literary horizon.

These three plays, with some songs and humour and prefaced by a music hall setting (hands up who remembers Leonard Sachs and his gavel and very big words), conjure up the emotions and feelings as war plucks young men – and women – from the very core of their families to an undescribable hell where death and survival are the only consequences.

Naturally the people who are embroiled in the conflict and its aftermaths are terribly, terribly middle class, but if you ignore that, you soon realise that going to war, dying in battle, surviving the bullets and bombs, touches the lives of all, irrespective of class or creed.

The Great War As It Was is quirky theatre at its best and Lucy Linger has assembled a trio of actors capable of breathing plenty of life into three plays that had been gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.

Andrew Candish has the Leonard Sachs role when introducing the music hall element of the evening and really comes into his own with a tear provoking role as the Man At The Station in God’s Outcast as he and a stranger he encounters cope with the loss of loved ones.

Felicity Jolly, last seen locally in Threadbare Theatre’s poignant Offroading, is the rock on which this trio of works depends, underpinning the entire presentation with her female perspective of war and its fallout.

Matthew Winters, who cuts a caddish but loveable figure at times as the young man who goes off to the battlefield, provides the khaki to embroider the picture that emerges of the human face of war. I must also put in a mention for Year 12 Oxted School student Hayley Sasserath who puts in an all too fleeting appearance as Mary The Maid but enough to suggest that there are better and bigger things to come.

The Great War As It Was is at the Crown in old Oxted on November 11-13 before transferring to the 950 seat Theatre Royal in Brighton for a gala performance to launch a regional tour.

Words: kevin black Photo: supplied

The Great War as it was!

What did the men who wrote Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh make of the First World War?

THREE PLAYS – ONE EVENING

We present to you a play from J.M.Barrie , another by A.A.Milne, and a third written 100
years ago and premiered by our company last year, in a Music Hall style evening of laughter, singing and reflection.

These plays provide fascinating insights into the experience of war for both the men
fighting and those left at home. Although written 100 years ago the issues of masculinity,
generational difference, loss, fear, hope, pride, and questioning faith in times of darkness,
are as relevant today as ever.

With a mixture of humour and pathos our show is a wonderful way mark our traditional
period of remembrance. Enjoy food before if you like and then sit back and relax, you can
watch the show from your table, which is yours all evening! Laugh, cry and sing along to the old songs that helped to get people through, and hear more about what those living at the time of the Great war went through – direct from the men who lived through it…

Armistice day 11th Nov – Remembrance Sunday 13th
Nov, 8pm Doors open 6:30pm

The Crown Inn, Old Oxted
Tickets £15, £12.50 Concessions
t: 01883 723 855 w: fancierdress.co.uk

Such Art, Such Beauty!

Barbara and Lucy, friends and long standing members of the Red Velvet Opera group, find themselves vying for the lead part in their next Opera, in this riotous behind the scenes comedy. Barbara is every bit the dramatic soprano, never able to enter a room without “giving the impression she’ll demolish the furniture”, while Lucy, the studious young Mezzo, is desperate for her chance to play a leading lady, or even just get herself into a frock.

Opera being the passionate art form it is, this is a tale as much about getting the man as the best part in the forthcoming opera, and their conductor Sebastian is the hottest baton in town. However as they prepare to face off in a head to head battle, a stranger rides into town, and threatens to take not only the role, but also the attention of the ever elusive Sebastian from under their very noses.

Can life ever be as spectacular as an Opera? It can certainly be as dramatic, and often more hilarious, as we discover in this riotous behind the scenes comedy.

 Sunday 26^th June – Wednesday 29^th June @ 8pm Crown Inn, Old Oxted

Tickets £15, £12.50 Concessions

Box office 01883 723 885 or click

http://shop.fancierdress.co.uk/theatre-tickets-54-c.asp

 

Back by popular demand!!

Sometimes in life you decide to take the path less travelled but occasionally life has plans of its own and drags you onto a path NEVER travelled and all you can do is hang on tight to the wheel. I…

Source: Back by popular demand!!

Back by popular demand!!

Sometimes in life you decide to take the path less travelled but occasionally life has plans of its own and drags you onto a path NEVER travelled and all you can do is hang on tight to the wheel. It’s time for a bit of off-roading… exhilarating, life affirming but one hell of a bumpy ride!!

Threadbare Theatre Company’s latest production asks some timely questions about trying to figure out adulthood, and what happens when Cancer unexpectedly gets in the way and you are thrust into decisions that you thought you had years to make.

Threadbare deals with some serious issues in a fun and entertaining way always seeking the joy and humour to be found in all human situations and interactions.

Inspired by real events, ultimately it is a love story about two millennials, perpetual adolescents who, as the Facebook meme says, just don’t want to “adult today”, but suddenly find they have to.

“OffRoading really is a roller-coaster experience! From proper belly laughs to genuine tears,this play provokes them all and is utterly absorbing from start to finish” – Audience Member

Audience reaction to our latest show “Off-roading”

“We thought it was brilliant. I was totally engrossed & found it very emotional. I loved it!”

“Off-roading really was a roller coaster experience. From proper belly laughs to genuine tears, this play provokes them all and is utterly absorbing from start to finish. This is exactly what story telling should be – thought provoking characters that you really care about, dialogue that is utterly authentic and a storyline that keeps you guessing right to the end”

“My only complaint was that they didn’t come back for a 2nd bow so we could give a standing ovation!”

“Just to say how brilliant your play was. I am always saying I want to see drama where cancer just happens in life but it’s not all about having cancer – you did just that”

“Offroading – the title doesn’t give much away and little did we realise that we, the audience, would be ‘Offroading’ on a journey of emotions from crying with laughter to, literally, shedding a tear.  I went in a group and everyone loved it – including the thought provoking discussions it inspired for the journey home.”

“The actors were so natural and so close you really felt you were eves dropping on someone’s conversation! Amazing!”

“Your play, Jim Alexander & Felicity Jolly were all simply amazing ! What a constellation of stars!”

“Grt eve @surreytheatre‘s #OffRoading Beautiful writing @LucyLingerMoore & performances @FelicityJolly @jimielectric”

“A great night out at the theatre is a rare treat. Off-roading is just that. Exceptional writing and wonderful performances come together to create a truly moving experience. A roller-coaster of real life from laugh out loud humour to the edge of your seat emotional confrontations you may even have shed tears by the end (I did). This beautiful play pulls no punches and the open and honest performances by Felicity Jolly and Jim Alexander allow us all to share in the joys and heartache of what it is to be alive. I can not recommend it enough, I am so glad you’ve added extra dates, I’m definitely coming to see it again.”

“Thought-provoking and insightful”

“I am really excited that you are adding the extra dates. We loved it so much that we may come again and bring other friends. If you haven’t seen it yet it really is a must see!”

“I had never been to see a play before, so for my very first I’m so glad I saw this one, very well written, had me feeling all emotions!! Definite must see.”

“Super uplifting”