THE LAMELLAR PROJECT by Grant Watson will have its first streaming preview on April 24, 2015 at 10:30 a.m. EDT at http://www.pursuedbyabear.co.uk
And now about those butterflies
The Lamellar Project is an award winning, international collaboration between Phildelphia-based Tiny Dynamite and the UK-based theatre company, Pursued by a Bear Productions. It is being produced in association with the UK environmental organization The Bay Trust. Set in 2039, the story follows Carys, a US-based scientist who uncovers a global conspiracy linked to the extinction of butterflies. The conspiracy threatens to throw the world into chaos.
Writer/Film Maker Grant Watson is PBAB’s associate director for film. He is a television script writer and playwright. He is the winner of the prestigious Upstream Award. The Lamellar Project is a pioneering on-line, streaming production planned for UK and US arts and science festivals in 2016 and 2017.
A play written for A Play, A Pie, and A Pint goes to Glasgow
Continuing our theme of international collaboration, at the end of 2014 I received an email from Susannah Armitage, the producer of ‘a Play, a Pie and a Pint’, Oran Mor, Glasgow.
“Thank you so much for sending us ‘We Can All Agree To Pretend This Never Happened’ by Emma Goidel. I like the play very much and would like to programme it as our 350th play at A Play, A Pie and A Pint next Spring. We are planning on using this milestone to do a celebration of David’s achievements at A Play, A Pie and A Pint and I think that he would have very much approved of this being our 350th play as a way of also acknowledging our international partnership.”
Wow.
‘We Can All Agree To Pretend This Never Happened’ was first conceived in January 2014, over coffee in a Philly cafe with myself, Sarah Mantell, Miriam White, and Emma Goidel. I had been looking for a local playwright to produce as part of our fourth season of PPP, but the scripts I had read, whilst very good, had not been the right fit. I was sent a full length work by Emma Goidel and while the piece was not suitable for PPP, I was so impressed with her writing, that I decided to make the leap and commission her.
The process was an excellent one. Over the course of 8 months the play was workshopped with dramaturg Sarah Mantell, director Kittson O’Neill and a terrific cast of actors. Several drafts later, InterAct Theatre Company produced the show as part of our 4th season in October 2014, to sell out crowds and an excellent critical response. Not bad for a first commission between two Emma’s.
It was a proud moment for us. In the 2013-2014 season, Tiny Dynamite was the only theatre company in Philadelphia to commission an early-career Philadelphia playwright, and then produce the resulting new play. It was also exciting to see the turn out and support of the local Philadelphia writing community at the production. I had the opportunity to meet many new writers and subsequently have been sent some terrific work that bodes well for future commissions. As Emma herself puts it,
“Philadelphia’s playwriting community has evolved in the past five years. We have more early-career writers than ever, and these emerging artists are poised to put Philadelphia on the map as a home for new writing talent.”
When I received Susannah’s email inviting Emma’s play to be produced as the play that would celebrate the 350th play, and also David, I was honored and moved. For the past four years, David MacLennan (founder of PPP, Glasgow) has been an inspiration and a valuable resource as I established PPP here in Philly. His generosity of spirit and willingness to share scripts has meant that I have had access to some fantastic writers. It was with great sadness that I learned about his untimely passing in June 2014.
Emma’s play went into rehearsal at the end of January, almost exactly a year since that first auspicious meeting over coffee, and is now in performance at Oran Mor. The press reaction has been excellent.
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