REHEARSAL ROOM 16

"Sometimes the most magical moments happen in the rehearsal room."
Participant, FST Open Space event, 2009

From a hairdressing salon in Edinburgh's Royal Mile to Scotland's only women's prison to County Armagh, Stellar Quines brings you three different evenings of three new plays. Get involved in vigorous debate with the writers, director and actors as they present their works in progress. Find out how they have reached this point. Listen to their conversations as they take on your ideas to help build the productions of the future.


Wednesday 28 April 8 pm
BLOW ME BEAUTIFUL
by Gabriel Quigley and Vicky Liddelle
Directed by Marilyn Imrie
Assistant Director: Amanda Gaughan

Set in a small hairdressing shop on Edinburgh's Royal Mile, manager Raymond Bussell tries to keep things running smoothly while dreaming of a life of celebrity success. Things rarely go according to plan as Raymond struggles with an over-sexed assistant, a sullen receptionist, a vacant Saturday girl and a new recruit…only Dolly Parton keeps him sane.



Thursday 29 April 8 pm
DARE TO CARE: A Noel Coward and Madeleine Smith Revival
by Christine Lindsay
Directed by Muriel Romanes
Assistant Director: Lauren Graham

A view of jail life from an unexpected angle, with a cacophany of madness keeping it rooted in sanity. A world inside a world, where the exact opposite is in fact the reality. A place where ‘there are no secrets or boundaries’…where witches can meet Lizzie Borden…where stand up comedy meets Desert Island Discs…a place that inhabits violence, control, despair and hope carried along by an incessant beat of rhythm and rap whilst sitting on a park bench.


Friday 30 April 8 pm
THE NEXT OF IT
by John McCann
Directed by Lu Kemp
Assistant Director: Madeleine O'Reilly

A black comedy, set in County Armagh, about family secrets and the legacy of silence. An old blind woman is digging her grave. She enlists her teenage grand-daughter to dig with her, to the disgust of the girl’s mother who bans the girl from returning. However, the girl does go back the following day to help her grandmother and in so doing, learns the secret which has driven the family apart with silence and reproaches for as long as she can remember.


Saturday 1 May 2.30 pm
REHEARSAL ROOM SHOWCASE & DEBATE: Emerging Artists - Where to Now?
See and discuss extracts from all three new plays over one afternoon and then join us for a discussion about the experience of emerging artists entering the theatre today.

In the course of the debate we will consider what kind of help is available to newcomers working in all disciplines from performance to production and in conversation with emerging artists themselves, as well as a range of established industry professionals, we aim to explore how individuals can be supported through this crucial time in their development. We want to know what works, what doesn’t and possibly even discover some new and innovative ways of moving forward.

Debate Organisers & Facilitators: Amanda Gaughan, Lauren Graham and Madeleine O'Reilly

Guest Speakers: Ali de Souza, lecturer, RSAMD; Nic Green, artist; Julie Ellen, Creative Director, Playwrights' Studio, Scotland.


For information about previous REHEARSAL ROOMS please see under "Past Productions"