Paines Plough Blog

Kate Tempest’s rave theatre smash hit WASTED has already completed two nationwide tours, visiting 43 places around the UK from Lancaster to Luton to Lyme Regis.

And there’s no stopping there.

WASTED will hit the road once again this Autumn in response to unprecendented popular demand. As long as you guys want to see the show, we’ll keep on touring it.

But where shall we send Ted, Danny and Charlotte next? They’ve been to Frome and Bromsgrove and even Aberdeen. Folkestone, Bracknell and Crewe.

So we want tips on where to go next. If you’d like to get WASTED in your local theatre this Autumn, we want to hear from you. Hit us up with an invite to your home town and we’ll have a go at getting the show to you.

Tweet us @painesplough, leave a message on our Facebook group, or send us an email.

Tell us where you live, the name of your local theatre, and we’ll do our best to do the rest.

Meantime, check out the WASTED trailer here, or browse our Flickr gallery.

This is it.

This week our General Manager Claire, Producer Tara and Assistant Producer Hanna headed up to Scarborough for NSDF 2013. As well as watching the final show of the WASTED tour at the Grand Spa Hall, and seeing some of the selected shows at Stephen Joseph Theatre, the team was also delivering workshops on Producing, Fundraising and Budgeting. We were really inspired by all of the young producers and arts managers who took part in the workshops, thanks so much for coming.

Check out the summaries of the workshops below and click on the handy links for the PowerPoints from the workshop. If you would like copies of any of the handouts please do get in touch.

The Scarborough seaside providing the backdrop for NSDF 2013

1. Run by Tara Wilkinson, Hanna Streeter and Claire Simpson

Workshop title: Getting big on budgets

Workshop summary: Practical guidance on how to draft a production budget, primarily for touring co-productions, focusing on all of the details you might need to consider.  This workshop will include group-based exercises.

Maximum number of attendees: 20

Skill level (if applicable): Some understanding or experience of drafting a budget or producing a show would be advantageous, but not essential.

Genre:  Producing, Finance, Administration

Items needed for workshop: Tables and chairs for practical activity and note taking, projector for power point, flip chart, board pens for flip chart

For the GETTING BIG ON BUDGETS powerpoint click here

2. Run by Tara Wilkinson, Hanna Streeter and Claire Simpson

Workshop title: Treasure Hunt – funding your way to success

Workshop summary: A summary of the current funding landscape and where the opportunities and challenges lie, with practical guidance on drafting a funding application.  This workshop will include group-based exercises.

Maximum number of attendees: 20

Skill level (if applicable): Some understanding or experience of applying for funding or producing a show would be advantageous, but not essential.

Genre:  Producing, Fundraising, Administration

Items needed for workshop: Tables and chairs for practical activity and note taking, projector for power point, flip chart, board pens for flip chart

Click here for the TREASURE HUNT- Funding your way to success Powerpoint

One of PP's NSDF workshops

3. Run by Tara Wilkinson, Hanna Streeter and Claire Simpson

Workshop title: Just the two of us – a guide to the very important co-producing relationship

Workshop summary: Sharing experiences of the different forms of co-producing relationships, how the relationship works in delivering a show and how that is reflected in the co-production contract.  This workshop will include group-based exercises.

Maximum number of attendees: 20

Skill level (if applicable): Some understanding or experience of producing a show would be advantageous, but not essential.

Genre:  Producing, Co-Productions, Administration

Items needed for workshop: Tables and chairs for practical activity and note taking, projector for power point, flip chart, board pens for flip chart

Click here for the JUST THE TWO OF US – a guide to the very important co-producing relationship Powerpoint

For any other information on the workshops email office@painesplough.com and we’ll see what we can do!

Happy Producing!

We’re really excited to announce that PP will be heading to this years’ National Student Drama Festival. Headlining Sunday night of the festival on March 24th, Kate Tempest’s WASTED will end its 2013 spring tour at the Spa Grand Hall in Scarborough at 11.15pm.

We’ll be around before and after the show, so please do come and chat to us about how to get WASTED on your university campus.

Then on Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th, our General Manager, Claire, Producer Tara, and Administrator (soon to be Assistant Producer) Hanna, will be running three workshops on producing and management of a touring theatre company. Any emerging companies wanting an insight into the behind-the-scenes world of budgets, contracts and co-productions, do come along. Information about the workshops and how to register will be published on the NSDF website soon.

While we’re there, we’ll also be fitting in as many of this year’s selected shows as we can. Thrilled to see that some of these include plays by past PP writers Simon Stephens & Philip Ridley.

This year’s NSDF runs from 23-29 March 2013 in Scarborough. You can buy tickets for the festival here.

WASTED Scene Three: A party in a warehouse in Peckham.

Check out these awesome new production shots of Kate Tempest’s WASTED, taken by Richard Davenport, featuring Cary Crankson, Bradley Taylor and Lizzy Watts.

See the full set on on our Flickr Page.

Find out more about the show, including tour dates, here.

This week I sat in one of the WASTED rehearsals.

I got to see James Grieve direct the actors through their choruses and choreograph particular scenes. I found it fascinating how one line could be said in so many ways, the different emotions and feelings it could portray, for example just by altering the tempo and volume of how it was said. The importance of understanding the meaning of every word also came across as significantly effective and James encouraged this strongly and the results were palpable. It showed just how important rehearsals are; they offer a chance for the director and actors to find the correct way to represent exactly what the writer; Kate Tempest is trying to create in order for the play to have the most powerful and positive effect it could have on the audience.

I was even lucky enough to get invited along with the rest of the PP team to witness its entrance back to the stage last night at The Garage in Norwich.
By having the opportunity to sit in rehearsals and then see the play live in action, I have been able to witness the whole producing process that this company has gone through in order to get a play that is admired by many back in business and on the road again, something that was a key objective for me when I first applied for this placement.

Kate Tempest reveals all about WASTED and writing plays in 140 characters:

@PainesPlough:
So we’re joined by poet & WASTED writer @katetempest on Twitter for the next 20 mins for our #katetempestwasted #twinterview You there Kate?

@KateTempest:  
@painesplough yep

@PainesPlough:
@katetempest Hoorah. Thanks for chatting to us today, we’re SO excited WASTED reopens on Monday. Where did idea for the play come from?

@KateTempest:  
@painesplough it was something i’d been thinking about for a while, it came from life, from my friends. hopefully people will feel that
@painesplough everyone i knew seemed to be going through the same process, wanting to make decisions about their lives but not being able to
@painesplough it’s not a judgement though. there’s a lot of love in it

@PainesPlough:
@katetempest So is the play based on people you know?

@KateTempest:  
@painesplough its just honest. its not intentionally based on people i know, but it comes from them.
@painesplough everything i do is informed by the people i love and have grown up with, in WASTED especially but the characters are fictional
@painesplough it’s about us. whether thats my us, or your us, or someone else’s us, hopefully everyone can relate to that feeling

@PainesPlough:
@katetempest how did you find the transition between writing for your own performance and writing for other people? Challenging?

@KateTempest:
@painesplough it was a massive challenge. james grieve was amazing, very supportive. i was petrified the whole way through
@painesplough it’s been so great for my writing though to learn about theatre
@painesplough i feel like i’ve learned a whole new language. WASTED has been one of the most exhilarating things to have been a part of
@painesplough hearing the actors speak my words has been humbling and exciting.
@painesplough they keep finding nuances i never meant to be there. it makes me feel very smart

@PainesPlough:
@katetempest has your writing style changed since you started writing plays?

@KateTempest:  
@painesplough yeah it has. it’s been such a confidence boost. coz james really believed i could do it, and i didnt. but then we did it
@painesplough i think about story differently. i feel like i’m just beginning to find my way with my writing.
@painesplough everything i do is terrifying until its done, and then its like, oh right, i can do that.
@painesplough and i’d never writen narrative before. now it crops up in all my poems

@PainesPlough:
@katetempest interesting. Who are your influences other than the people directly around you? Are there any writers you really like?

@KateTempest:  
@painesplough i like lots of writers. i think if you want to write, you have to read.
@painesplough i like roberto bolano, william faulker, james joyce, carson mcullers, e.l doctorow, christopher logue
@painesplough but i also feel very influenced by the music i love and the rappers i listen to
@painesplough i read poetry, plays, novels, history books, i listen to beethoven and gravediggaz and make no distinction between them
@painesplough i would say that if you want to be a writer, you need to write. all the time. and dont worry if its shit.
@painesplough the shitter it is, the better, because it means you’re learning your craft
@painesplough you shouldnt be afraid of getting it wrong, because that will stop you ever trying and then you’ll never get it right
@painesplough i would say use your experiences and be honest, even when you’re making characters up, be real with them.

@PainesPlough:
@katetempest great advice to aspiring writers. What other tips would you give writers who wanted to get into theatre?

@KateTempest:  
@painesplough most important piece of advice i could give is to FINISH THINGS.
@painesplough there’s a difference between writers with ideas, and writers who finish things. ideas are safe, because they can never fail
@painesplough but finishing work is what makes you a writer. it will never live up to the idea. but once its finished, you can move on
@painesplough you grow as a writer through finishing things. if you are an aspring playwright. write a play.

@PainesPlough:
@katetempest where is your favourite place to write?

@KateTempest:  
@painesplough i’ll write anywhere. i like to be high up and looking out at london. thats cool. but anywhere is good if i have the feeling
@painesplough i like writing in places where there are lots of people. i love looking at people talking to each other
@painesplough i used to write a lot in the pub, but all the poems started coming out the same. squiggly about 2 pages in…

@PainesPlough:
@katetempest do you have a favourite line in WASTED?

@KateTempest:  
@painesplough i dont have a favourite line. some lines still really make me cringe. but i love what the actors do
@painesplough lizzy watts makes the lines i’ve written into something i never imagined they could be and i like the way Cary says everything
@painesplough not the word ‘everything’ but all the words he has to say.
@painesplough i think thats our time. thanks PP. last thing to say is that WASTED is fucking brilliant and everyone should go…
@painesplough do you have a favourite line in WASTED?

@PainesPlough:
@katetempest Thanks Kate. Been great chatting. ‘Bish bash bosh there ya go.’

@KateTempest:  
@painesplough been a pleasure. well bosh

No matter how many of them you do – day one of rehearsals always feels like the first day of school. It’s that heady mix of expectation, nerves and a smattering of excitement. Granted, WASTED has been around a few years now and has the boasts and bruises to prove it, but there are some new kids in class  a whole new stomping ground to tour.

Yesterday, our office on the Aldwych opened its heavy glass door to the first production of 2013. The endless phone calls, Spotlight print outs and publisher deadlines were all for this. As cast, creatives and Team PP marched up four flights of stairs and filed into the rehearsal room, you could feel the first day buzz.

Slightly later than planned (who’d have thunk it) we kick off around the circle with the usual intros – what’s your name and what’s your role? Cue familiar nods and intrigued glances. There’s little glamour in it – no embossed name badges or extended spiels. Just a group of people in a room trying not to draw too much attention to themselves:

Call to arms done, and we’re off into the first reading. This is a chance for everyone involved in the production to hear Kate’s words being spoken by those who are going to do so for the next couple of months. Although there is no pressure on Bradley, Cary and Lizzy to ‘act’ per se, I cannot imagine it’s particularly relaxing to read in such close quarters to everyone else. Still though, it’s a necessary evil of most first days.

With the readthrough, the whole room is reminded of why we’re here in the first place. And it’s an odd feeling of enjoying what’s there already, whilst thinking ahead to what it will be like when it reaches its potential. An early lunch break is then called (it’s an hour long show after all) for the actors so that the production team can chat.

Being well versed in poetry is one thing, but trying to make sense of every intricacy of technical language is another matter altogether. That’s especially true when your show is as AV heavy as Wasted is set to be. It’s always surprising how late on big decisions can be made in theatre, and today was no exception. There’s support of the road for everyone travelling, but during the meeting, lighting desks and monitors were discussed and debated, only for further research to be done before a decision can be made.

Lunch provides everyone with a chance to run off and do what they should have done earlier, and catch up on mobile silence for the past few hours. Most of the creatives won’t return for the afternoon, so now was also the chance to catch those they needed to, before everyone is in the same room again in a couple of weeks’ time.

The afternoon session is spent with Kate, isolating each scene and going through line-by-line with a fine toothcomb. Punctuation and word choice have to be exact before the final version is emailed to the publishers, so Kate and the company discuss and refine and revise, launchinglong conversations about the world of the play, the specifics of the characters and the intricacies of Kate’ extraordinary rhythm and rhynme.

So that’s the end of day one. Names have faces and the challenge is set. There’s a lot of work to do but it all feels much more vital with rehearsals underway.

Can’t wait.

By popular demand after last year’s 42 date national tour and sell-out run at London’s Roundhouse, WASTED is back!

Kate Tempest’s acclaimed debut play embarks on a 16 venue nationwide tour in February and March, criss-crossing the country from Taunton to Tunbridge Wells, Colchester to Crewe, Lancaster to Lyme Regis and lots of other venues less conducive to alliteration.

You can find the full details and tour schedule on our website here.

Lizzy Watts in WASTED

Last time out, WASTED had the critics purring:

“Performances are tight, punchy and second to none… the energy, the originality, the humour and the insightful observations make it an unmissable experience.”
Will Stone, Whatsonstage ★★★★

“There’s a pulsing energy to performances and production… Tempest provides a welcome shot in drama’s arm.”
Fiona Mountford, Evening Standard ★★★★

“A slender, wistful three-way play that’s as seductive as smoke.”
Caroline McGinn, Time Out ★★★★

“An ingenious whole that’s funny and true…dynamic poetry that’s full of vividly phrased acute observation…spot-on.”
Elisabeth Mahoney, The Guardian ★★★★

Cary Crankson in WASTED

We’re super excited the show is back on the road, and we hope you can get to see it. Let us know!

This time last year I wrote a blog about our decision not to produce work in London for two years. It started an interesting debate in the comments section.

In 2010 and 2011, we toured to 69 places around the UK, but London wasn’t one of them. We wanted to reaffirm Paines Plough’s historic commitment to touring far and wide, in pursuit of being a truly national theatre of new plays.

But you’ll have noticed we’ve landed in the capital in a big way in 2012. Our London Season this year sees seven productions across town. In true Paines Plough style they’re well spread out so you can see our work in your local theatre whether you’re in Southfields, Shoreditch or Sloane Square.

Despite some claims to the contrary, we’ve never been anti-London. Everyone who works at PP lives in London, so it’s our home town and we love it. And it has always been our plan to produce work here. We just wanted to get out and about a bit first.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the demand for our work to be seen in London, and we’re very proud to be presenting a wide range of top class new plays across 2012 in a year that sees the world’s focus on our city.

Our London Season map - seven shows across the city

Our London Season started with LOVE, LOVE, LOVE at The Royal Court, which had previously toured to 18 different venues from Plymouth to Glasgow.

Kate Tempest’s WASTED spent two weeks at The Roundhouse and also popped up in Deptford, Earlsfield and Redbridge as part of a 26 venue nationwide tour.

This week we’ve got two new shows in town. SMITHEREENS by Sean Buckley is a co-production with Rose Bruford College, performed by the Third Year Acting students. It’s already been seen in Zone 5 in Sidcup, and it’s in Zone 1 at Soho Theatre all this week.

And we made our debut at The Barbican with Paul Heaton and Che Walker’s THE 8TH, a stunning soul opera we first made with Manchester International Festival last year and which goes out on tour to Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Birmingham before headlining The Film & Music Arena at Latitude next week.

Then in September the Roundabour Season lands at Shoreditch Town Hall. Three new plays by Duncan Macmillan, Nick Payne and Penelope Skinner performed by a single ensemble of actors in rep within our unique portable in-the-round auditorium. Co-produced with Sheffield Theatres, the Roundabout Season premiered in Sheffield last year.

The Roundabout Auditorium pitches up in Shoreditch this Autumn

So seven shows across London in 2012 for you to enjoy. We’re thrilled to be camped in the city, but we’re also proud that all the work we’re presenting in London has been seen outside the capital first, by people from Cambridge to Cardiff to Canterbury. More people saw LOVE, LOVE, LOVE and WASTED outside London than saw the shows in town, and that’s an important barometer for us. So moving forward we’ll keep popping up in the city, but our focus will remain on the whole country.

Let us know what you think by posting a comment.

PS – We’re also producing a show this year called LONDON, that’s not playing in London. Call us obtuse, but we kind of like that.

I remember clearly the day of my interview when Claire and Sean were sitting opposite me in the meeting room (which, since then, always gave me the feeling of serious events happening in there) – and the phone call with the acceptance a few hours later while I was attending rehearsals in the Jerwood Space. I can remember standing in the staircase looking over to the trains running between London Bridge and Waterloo and was excited and delighted by this offer and knew I had finally found my way.

At the end of March the twelve weeks ahead of me seemed endless but now the time is over and it went by so quickly. However during my time there I was able to achieve so much. Using my few days of holidays wisely I was able to run to Bristol for a Press Night, shot a short film at a beautiful Scottish beach near Edinburgh and jetted off to Munich for some German drama. All this time I was mainly occupied with leading the “literary department”, polishing my English on the phone while calling numerous writers regarding their unsolicited scripts, cultivating the office calendar with plenty of invitations to theatrical events, getting involved in financial management, announcing the full programme for 2012, writing an uncountable number of cards  for the opening of Love, Love, Love at the Royal Court, the welcoming of WASTED to the Roundhouse and the first public night of talented young creatives in SMITHEREENS at Rose Bruford College. And of course eating enough (to quote Sean) “cake/sweets/chocolate/doughnuts/cookies to sink a battleship“ – thankfully the four flights of stairs to the office kind of compensated for these sugary debaucheries. And of course I was as guilty as everyone else in supplying these sweet sins.

It has been an amazing time at Paines Plough during which I gained a lot of experience and insight into how a theatre company of this scale is run in this country, while meeting incredible, warm-hearted and driven people in a field where I am finding my occupation. Thank you very much to everyone.

And if I ever fancy a piece of cake I know where to go.