Off Cut Festival 2012 opens at Riverside Studios

This year’s Off Cut Festival of short plays opens this week at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. Showcasing some of the best new writing in theatre, 4 groups of plays (28 in total) will do battle in a gladiatorial contest to win the votes of a capricious, hard-to-please audience, (that’ll be you) with the eventual winner crowned almighty god of fringe theatre on the 12th of October, (banquet and jousting to follow). You can book tickets here and also read an interview with Off Cut’s organising genius Daniel Brennan on the OffWestEnd website.

My play ‘Armed Forces Day’ is in Group 3, opening next Tuesday the 2nd of October at 7.30pm (with further performances on the 4th and 6th, plus a matinee on Sunday the 7th at 3pm). Its being directed by Ng Choon Ping and the cast are James Unsworth, Darrie Gardner, John Hoye and Zara Radford. I’ve been to rehearsals and it’s shaping up to be really good, fingers crossed it should be something special.

I’m also looking forward to seeing this week’s groups, as the cast of my REDfest finalist ‘Nothing But Mammals’ are both acting in plays. Matt Houlihan is appearing in Personnel by Hugo Plowden in Group 1 and Antonia Reid is in Buzzkill by Annabel Wigoder in Group 2. Fine actors both, I can’t wait to see them on stage again.

So get booking!

Armed Forces Day at the Off Cut Festival 2012

My next project is the short play Armed Forces Day for the upcoming Off Cut Festival at the Riverside Studios in the Autumn. 28 plays (divided into four groups) will battle it out for audience votes, 2 plays being voted through from each group to a final week where the ultimate winner of the festival will be decided.

Dates for the plays were announced yesterday, and my play is in Group 3, on the 2nd, 4th and 6th of October at 7.30pm, and on the 7th at 3pm. This is the second year I’ve had a play selected for Off Cut, and its a great (if somewhat tense) experience being part of this festival. This year there are a few names I recognise amongst the other writers taking part; I’ve seen plays by at least three of them, but a lot of other names are completely new to me and I’m really looking forward to seeing their work.

Anyway, the really exciting part is yet to come, as I’ll be assigned director and actors for my play in the next few weeks. Further details to follow.

http://www.theoffcutfestival.com/the-plays/