Frozen Dramaturgy: Lucy Garland @ Edfringe 2017

HOME by Frozen Light Theatre

Again Frozen Light deliver the only show at the Fringe specifically for audiences with PMLD. 

HOME immerses teenagers and adults with PMLD into a multi-sensory story of discovery. 

The company creates shows for this audience that perform them in theatre spaces (rather than homes, day centre’s etc) bringing many of the audience into a theatre for the very first time. 

Pleasance Courtyard, Beyond 21-28 Aug 10.30am (60 mins) 

What was the inspiration for this performance/show?

HOME is a show for audiences with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD) so as always, we begin by thinking about what our audience will need from the performance to make it accessible to their needs.  

With HOME, our main inspiration for the piece came from post-apocalyptic sci-fi landscapes, I had been reading a lot of science fiction at the time and we were very influenced by my dad’s 70’s Sci-Fi art books.   This seemed like a landscape that would provide many multi-sensory opportunities and also provide an interesting starting point to create a story.  

In terms of story we are always trying to balance telling an exciting story with a strong emotional narrative whilst creating a multi-sensory experience that our audience can engage with.  With the refugee crisis and everything going on in the Middle East we really felt that we needed to tell a story about loss, separation and belonging.  

What we realized is that this is a universal story, everyone needs a sense of belonging and it seemed like an exciting story that our audience could engage with. 

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

Absolutely! I think it is one of the best places for discussion of ideas.  I believe that the best place to learn and question things is when you are doing something that you enjoy.  I learn much more about other cultures and ideas by seeing a play or reading a book about them, rather than being lectured at.  In performance you can use character to explore complex ideas.  By using character those ideas become human and you can see that ideas and opinions are not always black and white, which I believe is a really important thing to understand and one that makes the world more tolerant.  

In terms of our work we are really passionate about performing in theatre venues so that our audience with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities have access to opportunities appropriate for their needs in their community and that by accessing the theatre in their local community they become more visible to the rest of society.  There is still huge ignorance and misunderstanding around learning disability and this stems from most people’s lack of experience of people with learning disabilities.  We will only begin to tackle this prejudice when people are aware that people with learning disabilities are people just like them but they just have additional and different needs.  We hope that by using performance and putting this work into theatres we can begin to start these conversations.

How did you first become interested in making performance?

I think I have always been interested in creating performance.  There is something so satisfying about having an idea and seeing it come to life on stage. The opportunity to tell peoples stories on stage is fascinating to me. 

In terms of making multi-sensory work for audiences with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD) this really grabbed me during my Masters in Applied Performance at The University of Kent.  I had always wanted to perform/create performance but I felt that I also needed to make work that would create social change.  I had also worked with people with learning disabilities for a long time and this was another passion for me.  During the Masters year I realised I could combine the two and this was a revelation and something that I knew I had to continue.   

Is there any particular approach you took to the making of the show?

As explained in the first question we were very influenced by the environment.  This was deliberate.  When creating this show we wanted to start the process with the set designer in the devising room with us.  Due to our work being multi-sensory we really wanted to start with an environment that gave us the sensory opportunities we needed to explore.  We then let this environment guide the story and narrative.  

We wanted this show to feel immersive for our audience and the set, props, music, language needed to feel like part of a new world we had created on stage.  

We also took a slightly different approach to the music than we had before.  We wanted to create everything live and have no recorded music in the show.  We therefore invested in a loop pedal and this gave our musician numerous ways to create layered music live and explore different percussive sounds. 

Does the show fit with the style of your other productions?

In terms of it being multi-sensory and for teenagers and adults with PMLD then yes it does fit with the style of our other productions.  Like all our other shows HOME includes live music and a strong emotional narrative.  

I feel like HOME was a step up for Frozen Light in terms of production values and design and this really helped push our performance further than we have before.  

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

For many of our audiences this will be the first time they have ever been to the theatre.  During our first tour 41% of our audience with learning disabilities had never been to the theatre before (and most of our audience were over the age of 13).  

We want to create a safe space where our audience can experience a piece of theatre that is appropriate for their needs in a theatre building (because theatres are magical places).  We also aim to challenge pre-conceptions of how people should behave in a theatre and let our audience dictate how we as performers behave to accommodate their needs.  We create a space where our audience are not asked to “fit in” but where we try to enter their worlds and accommodate their needs. 

We want them to experience everything theatre has to offer from the standard light and sounds to one to one interactions with characters and performers. Live theatre is so powerful and we can utilize everything the liveness has to offer when creating theatre for audiences with complex needs. 

Frozen Light (UK) presentHOMERare Fringe show specifically created for audiences with profound and multiple learning disabilities
Following their sell-out 2016 Fringe debut with The Forest, Frozen Light return with Home, their latest bold and exciting production, devised specifically for audiences with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities (PMLD).

Exploring a new and unknown world, Home immerses audiences with PMLD in a multi-sensory story of discovery. Frozen Light devised this accessible and inclusive production especially for teenagers and adults with PMLD. For many in the audience this will be their first time in a theatre venue.
 ‘The palpable joy of the audience, many witnessing live performance in a theatre environment for the first time is a wonder to behold.’ Sarah Holmes, Chief Executive, New Wolsey Theatre.
The play follows Scarlet and Olive in a world that is not how they remember it. Where are they now and where is their home? The pair must learn how to survive and create a future together in an environment that is full of surprises. Will the stars shine on this unexpected friendship? And how will they face the challenges that lie ahead?
 
Performing to up to 12 people - six people with disabilities, each supported by a companion - the three-strong cast greets the audience at the entrance, gently leading them into the performance space, ensuring a smooth transition into the theatre environment. Inside, one-to-one interactions between cast and audience include singing directly to each audience member and providing props to be touched. The production incorporates live music specifically composed to highlight the emotional narrative and multi-sensory elements of the story.
 
Home has been selected as part of The British Council Showcase 2017.

Frozen Light launched in 2013 as a response to the fact that arts venues rarely cater for audiences with complex disabilities. Those with PMLD have more than one disability. 

The most significant is a profound learning disability and all people who have PMLD will have great difficulty communicating. Many have additional sensory or physical disabilities, complex health needs or mental health difficulties.


Venue: Pleasance Courtyard, Beyond (Venue 23)
Dates: 21-28 Aug
Time: 10.30am (60 mins)
Tickets: £12.50 (for audience member and companion)
Venue Box Office: 0131 556 6550
Online: www.pleasance.co.uk

Kafka and Dramaturgy: Alon Nashman @ Edfringe 2017

Theaturtle and Threshold with Richard Jordan Productions in association with The Pleasance presents

KAFKA AND SON

Adapted by Mark Cassidy and Alon Nashman from Kafka’s ‘Brief an den Vater’

Directed by Mark Cassidy

Performed by Alon Nashman

at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh

2 – 27 August (not 15 & 16 August) at 11.40 (12.45)

At the age of 36 Franz Kafka was still living at home, a petty bureaucrat, a failed artist, a timid Jewish son. Ruling and ruining his life was his overbearing father Hermann. What to do?

Kafka wrote a 50 page letter to his father in which he reveals deep connections between his life and his fiction. Adapted from this monumental letter, Kafka and Son is a blistering, often hilarious dissection of domestic authority and a revelatory visit with one of the architects of the modern psyche.

What was the inspiration for this performance?

Franz Kafka's letter to his father is inherently

dramatic and was beaconing to be staged. It deals with an elemental and epic struggle between the artist and authority and has many resonances.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?

I performed Kafka and Son in Turkey this past April, weeks before the national referendum which installed Erdogan as unfettered dictator. Our post-show conversation became a rare opportunity to air people's feelings of frustration, confusion and anger, all in the guise of discussing the conflict between Kafka and his father.

How did you become interested in making performance?

This form of physical storytelling appealed to

me because it is all about a performer transforming the energy in the room... something which can only happen in living performance.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

Myself and director Mark Cassidy spent 2 years working on this, meeting weekly to dissect the text and explore it's implication for us and for society. And it is still being made, shifting in meaning and emphasis depending where in the world it's performed.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

I develop work slowly and carefully, plodding like the turtle. When it is ready I glide like a turtle into international waters to share this physically and musically robust theatre.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope audiences experience a deep identification with both father and son, and find their hearts and allegiances overturned.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We use every trick in the book, from sleight of hand, to dance, physical comedy, magical transitions, surprising bursts of sound, lights coming from nowhere... and some captivating acting.  

Alon Nashman is a performer, director, creator, and producer of theatre. Since graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada, Alon has worked with theatres across the country and around the world. Selected credits include: The Summoned, Much Ado About

Nothing, Forests, Scorched (Dora Award: Outstanding Production), Democracy, Remnants (Dora Award: Outstanding Production) Alias Godot (Tarragon Theatre), Hamlet, All’s Well That Ends Well, Botticelli in the Fire/Sunday in Sodom (Dora Award: Outstanding Production), Picasso at the Lapin Agile (Dora Nomination), THIS (Toronto Theatre Critic’s Award, Dora Nomination) (Canadian Stage), The Wild Duck (Soulpepper), Hedda Gabler (Volcano / Buddies in Bad Times), The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (Dora Award: Outstanding Production) (Birdland Theatre), Macbeth (Modern Times), This Hotel, Wedding Day at the Cromagnons (Theatre Passe Muraille), Howl (Threshold / Buddies in Bad Times)..., Talley’s

Folly, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Resurgence), If Jesus Met Nanabush (De-ba-jeh-mu-jig Theatre), The Barber of Seville (Persephone Theatre), Easy Lenny Lazmon and the Great Western Ascension (Dora Award: Outstanding Production) (Go Chicken Go), Reading Hebron, A Short History of Night, Restitution, and Singapore (Factory Theatre), Hirsch, None is Too Many (Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre), Hotel Loopy (Theatre Columbus), The Hobbit (Young People’s Theatre). Alon was a principal actor/director with the “Shakespeare and The Queen’s Men Project” at U. of Toronto, and Narrator/Storyteller in Tales of Two Cities with Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra.

Alon last performed at the Edinburgh Fringe in Hirsch in 2013.

Venue: Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh

Dates and Times: 2 - 27 August at 11.40 (not 15 & 16 August)

Running Time: 65 mins

Tickets: 2 – 4 August £6.00

5 – 8, 11 – 13, 18 – 20, 25 – 27 August £11 (£10)

9 - 10, 17, 23, 24 August £10 (£9)

14, 21, 22 August £9 (£8)

Box Office: 0131 556 6550

Ballistic Dramaturgy: Anna Marsland @ edfringe 2017

Explosive one-man show based on real events comes to the 
Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

BALLISTIC
By Alex Packer

Mini Mall Theatre presents Ballistic at Pleasance Courtyard August 2 - 28, 2017 at 2.15pm (no show August 14).

He tries his best with girls. He tries his best with mates. But for all his efforts, things just don’t seem to be going right. So he’s making a change. Something’s triggered him to stand up for himself and reassert his worth. They made him feel small but with just a few clicks he'll become the biggest thing on the internet. But does he have the balls to go through with it?

What was the inspiration for this performance?

In 2014, 19 year old mass shooter Elliot Rodger killed 6 and injured 14 people in Isla Vista in California. Before his attack, he sent out a long autobiographical 'manifesto' called My Twisted World and uploaded several YouTube videos detailing how he would punish woman who he felt were sexually rejecting him, and men who were more sexually active than him. 

His manifesto became the initial inspiration for Ballistic, and led us to explore the many influences that contributed to Rodger's growing misogyny and aggression - early sexual failures, male pressures, mental health, pornography, online communities - alongside the stories of other violent acts committed by young men around the world, including Newcastle student Liam Lyburd who was recently jailed for planning a similar attack.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

The stories of young men turning to acts of violence keeps repeating themselves, and it's something that as a society we need to talk about. We hope that this show provides that opportunity to consider the possible causes for one young man's actions. 

The show doesn't provide any answers and we, as a creative team, all individually have our own opinions on the causes and responsibilities within the story. Instead, our hope is that the audience find it difficult to make a judgement on the character they meet; they might sympathise with his humour and teenage difficulties in one moment, and then despise his actions and words the next. So, yes, I think performance can provide a good springboard for discussion of ideas. We would like our audience to leave discussing the responsibility behind the act: was there a moment where someone could have prevented the tragedy? What do you think was the root cause?

How did you become interested in making performance?

I started making performances at Burnley Youth Theatre alongside Mark Conway (performer), and directed my first show there before going to university. It was the combination of working with actors, text and visual design elements that I loved. Whilst at university, I continued to direct plays and then trained on the MFA Directing course at Birkbeck College. 

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

Alex (writer and co-director), Mark and I have worked very collaboratively on making the show. Alex finished the first draft in 2015 and since then we have all thrown in ideas, research and stories to develop the final production. The approach was always rooted in how Mark, as the sole performer, could tell a complex story of a boy's life from 12 to 19 with little to no set or costume changes, just a chair and him. 

He plays lots of different ages, as well as different characters, throughout the show, so we knew that the show would need a discipline and dynamism in the performance to achieve this. The performance style and sound world grew out of this: what do we need to tell an audience that we are in a computer game, a house party, a loner's bedroom? 

Since its first incarnation, it's been a continually evolving as we've further explored the depth and complexity of the character's motivations. It's such an intricate and sensitive subject and the more we work on it, the more we discover. 

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

In terms of performance style, this is different to anything I've made before, as it is technically very precise and demanding for Mark. He has to be able to switch time period and character in a

second. We've had to be very specific about his physical performance; it's hugely helpful that Mark is also a movement director! However, the show does fit in with an overarching interest in exploring gender in the work I've made so far. Examining how misogyny damages both women and men has been a fascinating subject to explore further.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

This is a fast paced, dynamic and punchy show that will take an audience from laughter at teenage relationship disasters to a shocking and violent conclusion. I hope the audience will experience am internal struggle as they both like and despise, laugh with and at, and condemn and pity, the central character. I'm interested in the moment when the audience turn against him, when do they decide that this is not okay. So far it has been really fascinating to see how different audiences react; some stay with him till very near the end, others will reject him quite early on. 

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

We have been continually examining the structure of the text to create incremental developments in how his attitudes manifest in his language and actions. We have been rigorous in asking ourselves questions: Does this feel like too big a jump, or can this seed be planted earlier? Both Alex's writing and Mark's performance have a natural warmth and likability to them, so we have worked hard to embed the early seeds that an audience might let pass but then see grow into something much more horrible and violent. 

Anna Marsland trained on the MFA Theatre Directing course at Birkbeck College. She was Resident Director on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End, and was Assistant Director on The Roaring Girl and The White Devil at the RSC. She recently directed The Blue Bird (New Wimbledon Studio and Albany Theatre), Macbeths (Hope Theatre) and Horniman's Choice (Finborough Theatre).

Ballistic is a darkly-comic thriller that asks vital questions about the stories that increasingly define our 21st century narrative.

Age guidance 16+ (strong language & mature themes)
Running Time: 60 mins

‘With Ballistic I wanted to explore a coming of age story with a difference,’ said writer Alex Packer.  ‘How does a boy who appears to have everything cope with repeated rejection? And how do we label him? A monster with an innocent face, a lost soul with nowhere to turn, or the poster boy for a dangerous underground movement?’ 

Writer Alex Packer was inspired to write Ballistic after reading mass shooter Elliot Rodger’s manifesto, ‘My Twisted World’, which is now widely available online. The 100,000-word document speaks bluntly and obsessively about his rejection by women and unending jealousy of his ‘sexually active’ peers. Elliot Rodger was responsible for the deaths of six people in a shooting he committed in California in 2014. Ballistic also takes inspiration from multiple ‘lone wolf attacks’, both foiled and realised, which have taken place in the UK and across the world in recent years. Ballistic explores the dangerous effects of misogyny and isolation on young men and asks questions about why these events take place and who is responsible. Ballistic is Alex’s debut play.

Written by Alex Packer 
Directed by Anna Marsland
Co-Directed by Alex Packer
Performed by Mark Conway
Produced by Euan Borland
Design by Frances Roughton
Lighting Design by Peter Tomes

Mark Conway trained at Rose Bruford College and is a performer and Movement Director. Acting Theatre credits include: Hacked, Occupied, It Never Ends (Theatre 503), Chicken Dust (Finborough Theatre), Country Music (Cockpit Theatre), Peter Pan (Northern Stage), Sunday Morning at the Centre of the World (Bad Physics, BAC & Latitude), Toad (Bad Pysics, Southwark Playhouse). 

Mark was recently shortlisted for the Old Vic 12 for his work as a Movement Director. He has worked as movement director on the multi-award winning Land of Our Fathers.

Alex Packer formed Mini Mall in 2013 and created their first show, Tiny Tempest for the company. For the last 18 months, he has worked as an actor and assistant director on The Woman in Black around the UK and at the Fortune Theatre in the West End. As a playwright, Ballistic is his debut play.

Anna Marsland trained on the MFA Theatre Directing course at Birkbeck College. She was Resident Director on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at the Gielgud Theatre in the West End, and was Assistant Director on The Roaring Girl and The White Devil at the RSC. She recently directed The Blue Bird (New Wimbledon Studio and Albany Theatre), Macbeths (Hope Theatre) and Horniman's Choice (Finborough Theatre).

Euan Borland is an independent theatre producer and currently works for DumbWise Theatre Company and the Half Moon Theatre. He has previously produced Land of Our Fathers, at Theatre503, which was shortlisted for Best Production in the Off West End Awards. Other credits include Matchgirls (Dumbwise Theatre / Red Ladder Theatre / Wilton's Music Hall), The Living Room (Primavera Productions / Jermyn Street Theatre) and One Hour Only (Made From Scratch / Underbelly).

MINI MALL THEATRE

Mini Mall was formed in 2013 with an aim to create exhilarating and playful theatre. Mini Mall's work varies from Shakespeare to new writing, from one man shows to full scale promenade productions. Our work aims to challenge, to excite, and to provoke discussion.

Website: www.mini-mall.co.uk
Twitter: @MiniMallTheatre
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MiniMallTheatre

LISTING DETAILS

2 - 28 August, 2.15pm (no show 14 August)
Pleasance This
Pleasance Courtyard, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ
www.pleasance.co.uk/event/ballistic
0131 556 6550

Perfectly Imperfect Dramaturgy: Danyah Miller @ Edfringe 2017

As part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017, Wizard presents

Perfectly Imperfect Women

Performed by Danyah Miller & Directed by Dani Parr

Award-winning storyteller, Danyah Miller brings her touching, funny, fast-paced, biographical piece,

Perfectly Imperfect Women to Pleasance Courtyard (venue THAT) from 2nd – Monday 28th August at 12.45pm.  

Perfectly Imperfect Women explores what drives some females to want to live perfect lives as mothers, daughters, wives, sisters and bread-winners. Looking at our society the play questions what makes women want to be perfect and asks - what is so bad about imperfection anyway?

Looking at five generations of Miller’s own family, this one woman play examines the often complex relationship between mothers and daughters and the discovery that some women may have more in common with female bloodline than they care to admit. 

LISTINGS INFORMATION: PLEASANCE COURTYARD (That) Wednesday 2nd – Monday 28th August, 12.45pm (except 14/21/28 August). Tickets £6 - £9.50

What  was  the  inspiration  for  this  performance?  

I’m a storyteller. A couple of years ago I was invited to create a ‘female’ story. I said yes without knowing what stories I might tell: folktales, creation myths, legends? But I soon realised that there was a story demanding to be told, my biographical story.... I began to explore my matrilineal line, to consider the less than perfect relationship between myself and my mother through the lens of our female ancestors.

As I began to write and speak I made many connections between myself, my mother and her mother which surprised me. What was I passing on to my daughter I wondered?

The story was incredibly personal and I knew that whilst this was fascinating to me, I wanted to create a performance that also spoke directly to other women about their own relationships and about their drive to be better, or perhaps ‘perfect’ mothers, daughters, business women.

Is  performance  still  a  good  space  for  the  public  discussion  of   ideas?    

I believe that it can be, and often is, a great space for discussion and reflection - This show is a good example of that. When we opened Perfectly Imperfect Women in March this year (we did 7 performances in different venues) I immediately received a great deal of feedback from audience members saying how much the show had stimulated debate between them.

People who spoke or wrote to me later also commented on how they were still discussing the show, thinking about it, looking at their own stories

‘Fabulous, loved every minute and it hasn’t ended yet as I will peruse and ponder on my thoughts that you have left with me’

‘I think I’ll drink until Christmas! - so much to think about, so much to talk about. Thank you for making us think, question, speak’

How  did  you  become  interested  in  making  performance?

Since I was a child the only thing I wanted was to be ‘in theatre’. I wanted to be on stage but as I grew up, not thinking I was good enough to be an actor, I became involved in marketing, administration and management of theatre venues. However with every new job, new step up the ladder, I tried to get closer to the creative process, always feeling that I was too far away.

When John and I set up Wizard Presents in order to produce our own shows I still felt that I wasn’t close enough to the ‘action’. I retrained at Lecoq in Paris and began to work in schools as a storyteller. This work felt hugely satisfying and led me to producing and performing in a small scale village hall tour of a children’s story, which I also then brought to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Since that time I have continued to create theatre and it is where my heart lies and where I want to spend as much time as possible. I feel privileged to enjoy a combination of producing, teaching storytelling at International School of Storytelling, performing and writing... these strands work perfectly together for me.

Is  there  any  particular  approach  to  the  making  of  the  show?

This is the third, one-woman, show Dani Parr (director) Kate Bunce (designer) and I have created together. We’ve worked in a similar way on each of the productions although each end result has been different. We have a basic story from which to begin but the show is created out of a devising and improvisational process which begins with us determining the answer to certain questions, for example: what do we want to say? Why this? Why now? Why me? We consider and decide the structure, the conceit and the parameters of the piece including how the design grows from these decisions and then informs and creates the world of the story.

We work very closely together for a period of time, then leave time and space for the ideas including design to emerge. A couple of months later we come back together to continue the process and have the ‘set’ and props in the rehearsal room as early in the second process as possible. Other creative practitioners work with us at different times, including voice coach, movement director, devising actors and other specialists. We always seem to run out of time as we get close to the first performances as the ‘words’ come last and the script changes right up to the last moment. For me, this is hair-raising to say the least....

Does  the  show  fit  with  your  usual  productions?

Yes it fits really well into our family theatre work and into my own work as a storyteller (trainer) too.

What  do  you  hope  that  the  audience  will  experience?  

What I love about art in general, and theatre in particular, is that you can never predict how an audience will respond to your work, either as a group or individually. Before I go on stage I always remember that I’m in service to the story and hope that the audience will receive it on many levels. I believe that there’s a magic triangle between the story, the teller and the audiences which means that no two performances are ever identical.

In Perfectly Imperfect Women, people have spoken to me afterwards about their stories and experiences, their mothers and how the show has stirred up their thoughts. I have heard people say that they want to come back and see the show again. I’m really happy with these responses and feel that the production is provoking questions and discussion.

‘I connected so much - I relate as a mother of three, brilliant. Funny, true and honest. Beautifully performed and cleverly staged. Thank you’ - Tracey

‘You touched me in so many places and ways - and your beautiful sensitivity and vulnerability illuminated this rich, true, wonder tale’ - Judith

‘Bold, courageous, entertaining, liberating’ - Matthew

What  strategies  did  you  consider  towards  shaping  this  audience   experience?  

I performed my original biographical story in front of a couple of audiences and received feedback from them, researched a number of other one-woman biographical performances and spent time with Dani (director), Kate (designer) discussing what we wanted to achieve with this production. We knew that we had some of the ingredients to make a compelling story but we also knew that we needed to throw everything up in the air and start again whilst exploring what connected the three of us, our families and our lives. We joked about our need to be perfect and questioned what perfect is anyway. We played with a range of structures and asked many questions, Is he need to be perfect uniquely female? What happens if we’re less than perfect?....

We were amazed at and delighted by the number of similarities we discovered between us. We laughed a lot and consoled each other too. We worked with the personal, the universal and the archetypal to create a modern day fairytale which we’ve discovered, to our delight, seems to speak to audiences on many different levels....

As one reviewer said ‘It is simultaneously her story, my story and our story’

Danyah Miller starred in ‘I Believe in Unicorns’ by Michael Morpurgo, which premiered at Edinburgh Fringe in 2013 before touring nationally and internationally. She received an Argus Angel Award for Artistic Excellence at Brighton Festival 2014 and an Audience Choice Award for ‘Get Creative Family Arts Festival’ in 2015. 

Danyah also recently toured ‘Why the Whales Came’ by Michael Morpurgo. She was a regular storyteller on BBC Three Counties Radio and recorded a 5-part version of ‘The Snow Queen’ for BBC Radio Solent in 2014. 

The production is directed by Dani Parr, who is Director of Participation at Almeida Theatre. She was previously Associate Director at Royal & Derngate Theatres, Northampton. 

Dani directed I Believe in Unicorns for Wizard Presents. She also directed ‘Why the Whales Came’ which is currently on a national tour. Dani co-directed Moominsummer Madness, a co-production between Polka Theatre, Royal & Derngate and Little Angel Theatre and won two awards for Flathampton at Brighton Festival in 2013: the Argus Angel award for artistic innovation; and the Latest award for Best Children’s Event.