Wowing the crowds at Eden, and bringing our new plays off the page

August 12, 2010 :: Related project: Not My Fault

It’s been an exciting summer so far for ‘Not My Fault’, with development of all three plays continuing apace, and an excellent turnout for Ridgeway School’s performance in the Eden Project’s Mediterranean Biome.

The Theatrescience team has been supporting the development of the three scripts and three young writers’ pieces through a combination of workshops, script readings and online dramaturgy. In mid-July we held a script reading workshop day for Simon Turley’s play ‘State of Nature’ and the young writer’s ‘guerrilla’ theatre pieces. Working with four actors, the writers were able to hear their work for the first time, and receive feedback from both the actors and the Theatrescience team. Simon has also been receiving input from psychiatrist Dr Giles Richards, ensuring the accuracy of the play’s content regarding dementia and heredity, and with our production manager now on board the wheels are in motion to produce ‘State of Nature’ at the Eden Project this November.

Selma Dimitrijevic’s play ‘Extremely Brief and Violent’ also received a development workshop, and Alison Falconer and Jeff Teare have undertaken research into genetic counselling through Dr Peter Turnpenny’s kind invitation to visit the South West Clinical Genetics Service – excellent input into the development process of Alison’s play ‘Over One Shoulder’.   

The summer term saw theatre director Kevin Johnson working with ten Year 8 and 9 students from Ridgeway College, Plymouth, creating a performance that reflected their own experience of genetic determinism. Following initial workshops where they tried out different performance styles and identified areas of topical interest, Kevin helped the group devise a physical theatre performance that explored the impact on the human body – from the macro to the micro, or cellular level – of blaming genetic makeup, and failing to take responsibility for important health-related decisions like smoking and overeating.

In July they performed to a walk-up audience of over 100 in the ‘Citrus Space’ within the Eden Project’s Mediterranean Biome, delivering a performance of which they could be justly proud – the group were commended by Eden Project staff, who provided great support throughout the day. 

We are all excited about bringing ‘State of Nature’ and the young writers’ pieces to Eden in November – watch this space for updates as the play goes to print, and rehearsals begin!

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