Monkeywood Theatre

Following last year’s sell-out success and the recent Manchester Theatre Award nominations for Best New Play and Best Studio Performance, Monkeywood will be touring Once in a House on Fire again from April – June 2012 to the following venues:

Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal, Wednesday 18 April at 8pm

01539 725133 www.breweryarts.co.uk £10

Action Transport Theatre, Ellesmere Port, Thu 19 April at 7.30pm

0151 357 2120 boxoffice@actiontransporttheatre.org £8 (£5)

Oswaldtwhistle Arts Centre, Sat 21 April at 7.30pm

01254 398319  www.ticketsource.co.uk/civicartscentre £5

Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff, Tue 24 April at 8pm

029 2063 6464 www.wmc.org.uk £12 (£8)

Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Thu 26 April at 7.45pm

01970 623 232 www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk £6.50 (£4.50)

The Lowry, Salford Quays, Friday 1 & Saturday 2 June at 8pm

0843 208 6010 www.thelowry.com £12 (£10)

Based on the memoirs of Andrea Ashworth, Once in a House on Fire is an extraordinary story about ordinary people. In a rainy world of poverty, violence, packing up and moving on, Andy and her sisters escape through stories, games and dreams of a ‘happy family’. But with each new start ending faster than the last, their hopes are stubbed out along with their mum’s cigarettes. As Andy gets older and a new life beckons, she knows her escape will come at a cost.

Tickets are now on sale!

Monkeywood are absolutely over the moon to have been recognised by the Manchester Theatre Awards in their nominations announced today. Once in a House on Fire and Last Orders have been nominated for Best New Play, while our Sarah has been nominated for Best Studio Performance. We’d like to thank the panel and cannot wait for the results!

Thanks to all of the cast and crew involved in both productions – shout outs to Miriam Ainsworth, Rachel Austin, Tom Aldersley, Ted Holden, Lois Maskell, Doug Saunders, Kenan Ally, Dan Fitzsimons and James Harris!

Nominations below…

Best New Play

Last Orders, by Sarah McDonald Hughes, Royal Exchange Studio and Library Replay season at Contact

Mogadishu, by Vivienne Franzmann, Royal Exchange

Once In A House On Fire, adapted for the stage by Sarah McDonald Hughes, from a memoir by Andrea Ashworth, The Lowry Studio

Secret Thoughts, by David Lodge, Bolton Octagon

Best Studio Performance

Matthew Ganley, God Wept And The Devil Laughed, Lowry Studio

Rad Kaim, Ivan and the Dogs, Lowry Studio

Amy Nostbakken, The Big Smoke, Lowry Studio

Sarah McDonald Hughes, Once In A House On Fire, Lowry Studio

Rosie Wyatt, Bunny, Royal Exchange Studio

JOB: Lighting Designer & Technician                                                                TOTAL FEE: £908.50

CLOSING DATE      : 4th January 2012 START: February 2012

Monkeywood Theatre are looking for a LIGHTING DESIGNER & TECHNICIAN to work with us on a re-tour of our play Once in a House on Fire.

The 6 date tour is supported by Arts Council England between March and June 2012.

The fee for the lighting design is £428.50. This will include attending some rehearsals, meeting with the director and technical team and completing the design.

We would also like the same person to accompany the show on tour and operate the lights at each venue. The fee for these 6 performances is £480.00

This position would suit a recent graduate or someone at the beginning of their career in lighting design and is a great opportunity to gain valuable experience with a professional theatre company.

If you are interested in this role then please email your CV to info@monkeywoodtheatre.co.uk by Wednesday 4th January 2012. We will contact successful candidates after this time.

We have just received fabulous news that our short play Last Orders has been listed by Whatsonstage Northwest.com as one of their top productions of 2011! Having asked their reviewers to pick out three highlights from theatre in the north west, Harriet Chandler selected our contribution to The Library Theatre’s Re:Play Festival which took place at Jabez Clegg in January.

We’re thrilled to be included in the list alongside theatre that we loved in 2011 and delighted that Harriet enjoyed the show as much as we do!

We would like to wish you a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year from all at Monkeywood Theatre!

2011 was a busy year for us again and 2012 looks set to be even more full-on. We began the year by taking part in The Library Theatre’s Re:Play Festival at The Contact, performing Last Orders in the intimate Jabez Clegg bar. We have so much fun performing our short play about new starts, last chances and near misses and were delighted to see the audience enjoyed it just as much. The play gained 4* reviews and has been listed in the top productions of 2011 by Whatsonstage northwest and Public Reviews.

In March we premiered Once in a House on Fire, developed with The Lowry, supported by Arts Council England and funded through grants for the arts. The production sold out four performances at The Lowry studio and added an extra night in The Lowry’s Quays Theatre. We were overwhelmed by the positive emails and tweets from the audience and thrilled by the reviews we received. Following The Lowry we toured the play to The Civic, Barnsley and The New Continental, Preston, ending in May.

In June we had the opportunity to meet talent from across the north. We held open auditions inviting actors who we had never previously worked with to meet with us and were delighted by the high standard we saw. We look forward to being able to work with some new faces in the future.

The second half of the year has been spent working behind the scenes, busily preparing for 2012. In addition to this, Sarah and Martin have been busy with their brand new baby girl! Sarah gave birth to May Gibbons-Hughes in October and we’re so excited to have a mini monkey be part of the team.

In December we were thrilled to learn that our planned 2012 tour of Once in a House of Fire will be supported by Arts Council England and funded through grants for the arts. Now we just can’t wait to get cracking with it! We will be touring to new venues and returning to some of our old favourites. We will release the dates, venues and ticket information in the New Year.

As well as the Spring/Summer tour, we will be beginning Research and Development on a new project, which we will announce in the spring. There will be another exciting project happening simultaneously which we will launch in February. Phew! We will post any opportunities to work with us on our casting page, but please email us at info@monkeywoodtheatre.co.uk if you are performing and would like us to attend your production.

We’d like to thank you all for your support in 2011 and look forward to seeing you in 2012.

Francesca, Sarah & Martin (and baby May!)

Though things may seem to have gone quiet lately in the Monkeywood camp, there has been plenty going on behind the scenes. Firstly, we’re thrilled to welcome a mini monkey and announce the birth of May Gibbons-Hughes, born on October 30 2011.

While Sarah and Martin get to know their beautiful new daughter, we are also getting the wheels in motion for the spring tour of Once in a House on Fire, which we are proud to announce has been awarded £10,000 from Arts Council England Grants for the Arts. Watch this space for tour dates which we will announce in early 2012 when tickets become available.

Meanwhile we are also preparing for a brand new project, which we intend to develop in Summer 2012 to tour in 2013. More information about that will be announced in Spring.

So much to keep us monkeys busy, but we’ll be back with more news soon…

We are hugely disappointed to announce that we will no longer be taking our 5 star production of Once in a House on Fire to the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Our fundraising campaign has unfortunately not achieved the minimum that we required to take the show to Edinburgh, so we have had to make the difficult decision to cancel the run.

However, whilst this is disappointing, we are currently taking bookings for the Spring 2012 national tour of Once in a House on Fire and will announce details over the next few months. In addition to this, we are carrying out research and development on a number of brand new projects, details of which will be released very soon.

Thank you to all who have expressed an interest in Once in a House on Fire and our other work – keep your eye on our website, facebook and twitter for further information about what’s coming next for Monkeywood!

www.monkeywoodtheatre.co.uk
On twitter: @monkeywood
On facebook:  Monkeywood Theatre

On Saturday 11 June we held an open audition to meet actors we have never worked with or previously seen. We met 50 actors, mainly from across the north west, and were very impressed by the high standard that we saw. Although we are not specifically casting for any production at the moment, the day provided an opportunity for us to see some of the actors who are out there.

We do plan to run further open auditions in future and will be advertising specific casting calls. If you are interested in being considered, please do keep an eye on the Casting Opportunities page and follow us via twitter and facebook, as we’d be interested to hear from you.  We also try to see as much theatre as we can locally, so please do let us know when you’re performing and we’ll come along if we can. Email info@monkeywoodtheatre.co.uk.

Come to see Sarah’s new play, The Girl Next Door in a rehearsed reading at The Royal Exchange on Thursday 5 May at 1pm. Tickets available from The Royal Exchange box office on 0161 833 9833.

Annie and George have lived in the same house in Moss Side for 55 years.  They’ve never had trouble with the neighbours – until now.  As they set about collecting evidence to get rid of them, they meet the little girl next door and everything changes.