Canterbury’s Marlowe Theatre and Colchester’s Mercury Theatre have joined forces to help support some of the boldest and brightest emerging theatre makers across Kent, Essex and Sussex.

Awarding ten commissions, the successful artists have been given £1,000 to develop their new work, as well as mentoring and rehearsal space from both venues.

Essex artists are: Sharan Atwal, an actor and writer whose work will deal with issues around fertility and the pressure society places on women to have children by a certain age; Blouse & Skirt!, a brand new theatre company that celebrates stories, songs, performers and puppets from the Afro-Caribbean diaspora, whose The Instrumentals, deals with a young girl’s grief at losing her Grandfather; Mark Smith of Deaf Men Dancing (a collaboration of male dancers who are deaf & hard of hearing) is developing Isolation In The Dark, inspired by inventor of the lightbulb Thomas Edison, who was partially deaf; TalkShow (made up of artists Clare Dunn, Stu Barter and Faith Dodkins) is working on Take This Test…, a new interactive digital piece that parodies Buzzfeed-style clickbait personality tests to explore morality and what makes a ‘good person’; Sundeep Saini is a theatre-maker, movement director and choreographer who is creating a multidisciplinary family show about mental health struggles that affect children, including the lack of connection in a digital age; and writer Esohe Uwadiae is developing a project that follows the highs and lows of growing up as a Black woman in Essex.

Kent artists are: Henry Madd, award-winning poet and emerging theatre maker, whose latest venture Puddle will explore climate change and environmental migrants through the eyes of two lost polar bear; Gaz Tomlinson (also known as Quiet Boy) is developing A Message From The Future which plays with the idea of the audience dissecting a music artist’s interpretation of their current surroundings (where they are living 50 years from now) and how that information might challenge our current thinking on the economy, capitalism and the environment; and Margate based artists Jodie Cole, Faith Prendergast and Karl Fagerlund Brekke are creating a new work called Boogie Booth that is an exploration on joy and how movement can connect us.

From Sussex, George Rennie (City Actors) and Sarah Gain Productions have teamed up to create Fright Box, an inter-dimensional horror play in which YouTube ghost hunter, Dara Faulks, must cross the boundary between live and digital performance, confronting a demonic legacy and exorcising a truly haunted house.

This incredibly exciting array of work is part of the Marlowe’s Catalyst for Culture initiative that aims to champion the huge array of talent across the region and new work.

Rebekah Jones, Executive Producer at The Marlowe said: “We are thrilled to be working with our partners at The Mercury to support the early development of work by our region’s theatre-makers. The freelance creative sector has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic and we believe that it is vital to support artists by investing in new work, to try new ideas and take risks.

Ryan McBryde, Creative Director of the Mercury Theatre said: “It is fantastic to be working alongside The Marlowe to ensure that we can provide essential support for local freelance artists. It is vital that our theatre-makers feel completely supported in developing new work and can benefit from links with professionals and access to our new theatre rehearsal spaces.”

We, at West End Best Friend, are hugely excited by this prospect and wish the successful artists well going forward with their respective projects!