The Everything Theatre Interviews

Suzy Kohane and Sidsel Rostrup created their theatre company, Secretariat, in 2019, just a few months before the world came to a halt in 2020! Their debut show, Hexenhammer, was due to play at the Vault Festival this March, that was until the festival became another casualty of covid. Undetered though, the pair found time to come and chat with us about what inspired them to create a theatre compan...

It’s always fascinating to find out where the original ideas for a play come from, and that’s just what we hear about from sisters Maya and Rosa, who make up Hooky Productions. The pair tell us about turning a childhood idea into the central concept for their show, Experiment Human. We also hear the truth about Benedict Cumberbatch, who has a leading part to play in their show. The interview was r...

Charlotte Anne-Tilley came to our attention a year ago when her show Twenties was online as part of TheSpaceUK's short online festival showcasing many of the artists who would normally have been planning to head off to Edinburgh that summer. The show caught our attention for both its inventiveness and for being what felt a very true portrayal of a young girl moving to London where she believed she...

Linus Karp became the first two-time guest on our Runn Radio show (the first interview can be heard here ).  Linus is getting ready to take his "How To Live A Jellicle Life: Life Lessons from the 2019 Hit Movie Musical 'Cats'" on the road in 2022, starting at Bristol and then two months of dates up and down the country. So it felt the purrfect time to catch up with him and find out what it is...

Jane was another writer we came across as part of The Fright Before Christmas, a night of short horror plays at The Space Arts Centre. It was a very abstract play that left as many questions about what it all meant as we had answers! So we thought it would be great to sit down with Jane and get her to explain it a little more to us. We were surprised by how much we'd missed, so it turned into a fa...

We came across Freddie Valdosta when her show, Flipping The Switch,  performed as part of The Fright Before Christmas; a collection of short  horror plays curated by Harpy Productions and Danse Macabre and  performed for one night only at The Space. Not only did Flipping The Switch blow us away, it was similary loved by  the rest of the audience who voted it the best of the nig...

Our latest guest to chat to Everything Theatre is Christopher Smart from Mangled Yarn Theatre . This time last year they released Everytime A Bell Rings , their "prequel" to It's A Wonderful Life. It was a show we loved, so when we heard this year they were putting on It's A Wonderful Life, both in person and on-demand (to be recorded on Christmas Eve) it seemed a great chance to speak to them abo...

This week we sat down with one of our own reviewers, Lily Middleton. Lily has written for ET for a number of years, although she took a break before returning at the start of 2021. She is a big advocate of musical theatre, and so we tells us why it's an often misunderstood genre and why it doesn't always get the respect it deserves. She also talks about some of her favourite shows and why reviewin...

https://www.leicestersquaretheatre.com/sht-faced-showtime-a-pissedmas-carol/Sh!tfaced-Showtime, and sister company, Sh!tfaced-Shakespeare have entertained audiences now for over ten years with their high energy shows. It looks a simple idea on paper; one cast member each performance drinks for four hours prior to the start, and so whilst the rest try to carry on with the script, have to work aroun...

Belinda McGuirk works for Chickenshed, a theatre in North London that is more than just a theatre, it is also a place that provides education and training - many actors have gone on to big things after their involvement with Chickenshed. They also, each Christmas, put on what can only be described as a big production - 800 people, divided over a rolling 4 day rota. This year, Belinda will be direc...

In our latest podcast interview we chat to Gavin Dent and Neil Sheppeck from Rising Tides about Good Cop, Bad Cop 26: A Climate Festival , which is playing at T he Space between 1 and 12 November. The festival is in response to the COP26 summit taking place in Glasgow as the festival opens. During its 12 days it will features plays, workshops and live music, all with the climate crisis at their he...

This week we chat to Andrew Muir and Georgia Bates. Andrew is co-creative director of Ardent Theatre, plus the writer of their latest show, Rethink. Georgia is a young actor involved with the play as well as part of Ardent8, the theatre company's project that takes eight young actors from outside of London and helps them put on a show. Rethink, the show that has come out of this, is a direct respo...

Matt Woodhead is the co-artistic director of Lung Theatre . He also created Who Cares? a verbatim play about young carers in the UK. Listen to Matt talk about the play, how it was created, and the campaign that it launched. More information on the Who Cares campaign can be found here The play is touring the UK throughout October and November. The radio version of the play can also be found on BBC...

This is the second of two interviews originally recorded as part of Everything Theatre's contribution to Runn Radio's Mental Health and Wellbing Day.  Phoebe Angeni talks to us about mental health, the important role therapy can play in helping you cope, and just how she has turned her own struggles, including anxities and body image phobias, into a positive by putting on her stage show Ithac...

This is the first of two interviews originally recorded as part of a Mental Health and Wellbing Day run by Runn Radio, where Everything Theatre hosts a weekly show. Jen Roehrig tells us about her theatre work, and more importantly, how she overcame both physical and mental health difficulties to return to education in her 40s. Along the way we talk about how theatre can help normalise mental healt...

We head outside of London for our latest interview, which finds us chatting to co-Artistic Director of Imitating The Dog, who are about to stage their live graphic novel, Dracula: The Untold Story at Leeds Playhouse. Andrew tells us about their version of this familiar tale, taking it into the 1960s and focusing their attention on Mina Harker. We also hear how they have turned this live show into...

Stepping away from our usual Fringe surroundings, we caught up with Jaki WIlford, founder and owner of Flamenco Express. As the name would suggest, they are a dance theatre company, with the simple aim of putting on accessible Flamenco dance shows. Jaki tells us about the company's history, what great flamenco dancing should be like, and their plans for the future.  You can find out more abou...

Max Mackay talks to us about her professional directing debut with The Arsonists. She also tells us about StoneCrabs Theatre Company, whose programme for emerging artists has made this possible, and culmilates with the Play-doh Festival, showcasing nine new directors. Along the way we chat about the excitement of knowing your play is about to be performed at Southwark Playhouse, and why she really...

In our first episode, we chat to Georgie Bailey, Artistic Director of Chewboy Productions and Jack Sunderland, who is starring in their new show, DJ Bazzers Year Six Disco. They tell us more about the show, how they are finding their first time working at Golden Goose Theatre, plus so much more. DJ Bazzers Year Six disco is performing at Golden Goose Theatre 7 - 17 September. You can get tickets a...