Belt Up Theatre

Whatsonstage: Five Reasons To See ... Belt Up's The Boy James

2012-01-27T09:30:00.000-08:00

Following outings at the Edinburgh Fringe and Southwark Playhouse in January 2011, Belt Up Theatre's The Boy James returns to London running at The Goldsmith on Southwark Bridge Road from 26 January to 11 February 2012.

An original story inspired by Peter Pan and the life of JM Barrie, The Boy James is a dark, beautiful tale of one boy’s awakening to the harsh realities of adulthood. Play with him, and take his hand as you lead him back to Neverland.

Jethro Compton returns to the role of The Boy, alongside Serena Manteghi as The Girl and Dominic Allen as James. Staged as part of Southwark Playhouse's 'Out and About' programme, the show makes a new home above a bar and restaurant originally built as part of the London Brigade Fire Station. In typical Belt Up style the space is transforming into a fully formed immersive environment.

Belt Up Theatre give us their five reasons to see the show.

1. It made Stephen Fry cry

In 2011 the world’s favourite polymath, egged on by some Belt Up fans, came to see The Boy James at Southwark Playhouse. As with many audience members, the show struck a chord and led Fry to tweet, "Just been knocked out by The Boy James, Belt Up's interactive show about JM Barrie… Still drying my eyes."

2. An original story inspired by Peter Pan and the life of JM Barrie

There is something about the work of JM Barrie and the story of Peter Pan that manages to reach the inner child of every audience member; the idea of not-wanting to grow up is universal. The Boy James is a dark, beautiful tale of one boy’s awakening to the harsh realities of adulthood.

3. It was created by the award-winning Belt Up Theatre

Belt Up has been working across the UK over the last three years. Their unique style of performance has created a great following and a number of shows including The Tartuffe, The Trial, Lorca is Dead and Macbeth which was staged in the House of Detention in Clerkenwell and will be returning later this year.

Belt Up has been hailed as a company "changing the future of British theatre" by the Observer and as Edinburgh "Fringe Royalty" by Time Out.

4. It has some amazing reviews

The show has been running now, on and off, for a year and a half. Over that time it has received some incredible write-ups including three four-star reviews from Whatsonstage describing it as "a magical experience" and "flawless". It has also been called "moving and beautifully played" by writer Neil Gaiman, and called everything from "riveting," "wonderful" and "superbly realised" to "Belt Up’s finest performance" by reviewers from The Stage, The Scotsman, Fest Mag and Edinburgh Evening News.

5. It’s your last chance to see it before the show flies off to Australia

After the enormous success of the show in the UK, the company is heading off to Australia for a month-long run at the Adelaide Fringe Festival. Unless you fancy a trip to South Australia, be sure to book your tickets for the London run whilst they’re still available.

The Boy James opened at The Goldsmith on Southwark Bridge Road on 26 January where it continues until 11 February 2012. Tickets are available from the Southwark Playhouse box office.

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This has been taken from Whatsonstage.com

Exeunt Magazine interviews Jethro Compton on Belt Up, 'The Boy James' and growing up

2012-01-27T08:05:00.000-08:00

I don’t think any of us anticipated this reaction when we first put it on,” admits Belt Up Theatre’s co-founder Jethro Compton. “I can’t quite put my finger on what it is that makes people cry.” But they do cry. Inspired by the work and life of Peter Pan’s creator J.M. Barrie, The Boy James is the company’s longest running and most successful production to date, and has been making audiences weep since it debuted at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe as part of their ambitious House Above project in which they took over and transformed part of C Venues.

It has proved a curiously divisive production, one with a tendency to trigger extreme reactions in its audience. Certainly not every response has been as enthusiastic as Stephen Fry’s (his tweet, “still drying my eyes”, helped cement the show’s reputation), but Compton believes this is to be expected as it’s “not a narrative driven show. It’s more of an emotional journey.” Some people are less comfortable with that than others, he concedes, unable to resist a dig about critics “hiding behind their notebooks,” but for those who do connect with the production it often proves to be an incredibly powerful experience. In Edinburgh “people would come back a few days later to tell us they couldn’t get it out of their heads. We’ve been doing the show for so long now and are still getting similar reactions.”

When The Boy James was first performed it was somewhat buried amidst a number of other shows which the company were presenting under the banner of The House Above, so it was only seen by around 300 people initially. Yet of all Belt Up’s work it’s this piece which has gone on to have the longest life. The production transferred to Southwark Playhouse in London in January 2011 and the venue is again hosting the show, though this time off-site at The Goldsmith, a nearby pub which the company are transforming into a by now familiar Belt Up space. Belt Up, for many of their productions, favours non-traditional seating, sofas and floor cushions, a soft-edged and atmospheric performance space. Or rather a space within a space. “It’s not site specific,” Compton says firmly. “We’re making our own site. There’s no point us putting it on in a theatre and then spending time and money making it not look like a theatre, we may as well put it on somewhere else.”

This use of space is integral to the kind of theatre Belt Up want to make. “We’re not a devising company. We have a script [in this case by Alexander Wright] and a director with a vision. The audience is part of the story; [in The Boy James] the audience are his imaginary play-friends. If a character looks at an audience member, we want it to be OK for them to look back; if a character asks an audience member a question, we want them to feel like they can answer. We want them to feel like they can interact with us and, with a long running show, those are the moments that make it special and keep it alive.”

The company, though still comparatively new, have already established a particular aesthetic, a recognisable style, one that ‘places its audience at the centre of the production’. They’re currently working on a revised version of their production of Macbeth to be staged in the vaults of a former prison beneath the streets of Clerkenwell, a haunting space they filled with melancholic wailing and the unsettling scrape of blade on stone. “We can do a show like The Boy James and a show like Macbeth and they are completely different, the space is different, the audience is different, and yet there is something inherently Belt Up about them both.” Though some of their stylistic devices can seem a little too pat at times, they pursue them with commitment and consistency. One of the reasons Compton believes that audiences feel so strongly about The Boy James is the way the piece denies its audience closure. “As with all our work there’s no defined end point. The play comes to an end but the story continues. The characters remain in the space.” Compton, who works predominantly as a producer as well as playing the title role, is a fluent and passionate speaker, and you can sense within him the clear-eyed drive that has helped the company establish itself so quickly. The company was formed in 2008 by Compton, Dominic J Allen, James Wilkes and Alexander Wright, when they were still studying at the University of York. That same year they made their Edinburgh debut, winning the Edinburgh International Festival Award for their immersive Red Room project. By the time they graduated in 2009, they had already made a name for themselves as a company. “With a mixture of stupidity and ambition we’ve thrown ourselves into things,” says Compton with a laugh. The Red Room, described by The Stage as a ‘boudoir theatre’ in which they presented five full productions daily, “could have gone horribly wrong” but it didn’t and instead it provided a springboard for future projects. Soon afterwards they became company in residence at York Theatre Royal which “gave us a home, gave us a purpose, and gave us a support network.” Compton attributes their success to a mixture of luck and hard work and the fact that “by the time we graduated we already had a reputation and work lined up. We’d started building those relationships while we were still at university.” He also acknowledges that they’d set up hurdles for themselves by the very nature of the work they do. They had to be as prolific as they were, to do so much in so short a space of time, because of need as much as want. “Because of the nature of the work we do we can only have audiences of a certain size, so that was a challenge.”

Their plans for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe are somewhat scaled down – at least by Belt Up standards, which means only one or two new shows instead of the nine productions they juggled as part of the House Above (where Compton was averaging about three hours sleep a night) but they are, he says, planning to go big once again for Edinburgh 2013.

Compton’s energies in the main are now focussed on producing instead of acting, but he’s reluctant to relinquish the Boy just yet. “If it was another show I’d get another actor in, but because it’s The Boy James, because it’s that part, I haven’t.” He enjoys the challenges inherent in the role, the scope for interaction and unpredictability. “You experiment and you learn from mistakes. As an actor, it lifts you up and revitalises you.”

In the spring the company will be taking The Boy James and another show, Outland, to Adelaide and there’s every sign the show will continue beyond this, a state of affairs Compton seems happy with. “We went through a period where we created a lot of work very quickly whereas now we’re enjoying touring one show that grows and improves over time.” The Belt Up boys are, it seems, growing up. “We used to go wild because we had the energy to do that, but now we’re concerned with becoming stable, with becoming a company that doesn’t burn out.”

The Boy James will be presented by Southwark Playhouse, offsite at The Goldsmith, from 25th January to 11th February. For tickets and further information visit the Southwark Playhouse website.

Belt Up’s Macbeth will run from 17th April to 18th May at the House of Detention in Clerkenwell with previews starting 12th April. For further details visit the production website.

First Image from the new set - The Boy James

2012-01-25T05:40:00.001-08:00

This is the first image of our new performance space for 'The Boy James' at The Goldsmith in Southwark.

And below is a photo of the space before we arrived.

'The Boy James' returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012 and at the Adeliade Fringe Festival from 24th February - 18th March 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

Tickets for the London run can be booked here.

The. Bo'y, Jame:s - Google Alerts gone mad

2012-01-22T06:17:00.000-08:00

When we announced 'The Boy James' return to London (and trip to Australia) we set up a Google Alert to let us know when the show was mentioned online. The following are some of the headlines we've been sent...

One child killed, one badly injured in Wilton crash

The boy, James Eggleston, of Corinth, was in a 2007 Dodge Caravan with three other passengers, his siblings. Police said his mother, Shiho Price, 39, was ...

A Different Kind of Fairy Tale Chapter 2 Story

Over her shoulder the boy James was looking at me with sad eyesYoull be happy I promise Em I planned this whole thing without a choice and I chose ...

Fan Fiction - A little slythiern - Wattpad

The two babies where born lily was holding the girl who was born an hour after the boy. James was holding the boy. They where trying to decided names. ...

Fanfic: epilouge, Harry Potter

Best be quick while no one's looking. "Ginny murmured into her eldest biological son's ear. The boy, James, looked left and right then ran straight into a platform ...

Baby Boy On the Way for Jeremy Sisto – Moms & Babies – Moms ...

Shannon – was thinking the same thing Ballerina Ugh Poor Kid Are they going to name the boy James Astronaut. Jen on December 22nd 2011 ...

Fan Fiction - Face Your Fate Three Learn to be Lonely - Wattpad

“My mom said it's because your mom doesn't love you.” “James,” a woman reprimanded the boy. “Stop, that's mean.” “It's the truth,” the boy, James, said back. ...

Express.co.uk - Home of the Daily and Sunday Express | UK News ...

THE BOY JAMES ... I cant wait for the end game because I would not put money on the fact that the boy James doesn't appear before the courts in connection ...

'The Boy James' returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012 and at the Adeliade Fringe Festival from 24th February - 18th March 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

Rehearsal Pictures from THE BOY JAMES

2012-01-21T09:40:00.000-08:00

The following are pictures from the rehearsal room. They aren't really pictures of rehearsals...

'The Boy James' returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012 and at the Adeliade Fringe Festival from 24th February - 18th March 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

The Boy James: A Younger Theatre interviews Jethro Compton

2012-01-05T10:10:00.000-08:00

“One of our more ‘Marmite’ shows,” is how Jethro Compton describes Belt Up Theatre’s current venture, The Boy James. “Some people hate it and some people absolutely love it.”

The Boy James began life in 2009 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a sideline to a programme of more high profile performances The Trial and Tartuffe. The show ran every other day and admitted an audience of only 25 people. Compton, who juggles his role as The Boy in the show with his responsibilities as both Producer and Lighting Designer, notes, “It’s weird that two years later we’re still doing it.”

It has become something of a flagship production for Belt Up. Returning to London for a three-week run in association with Southwark Playhouse (where Belt Up have been performing since 2009), the show will then journey to Australia to represent the company at the Adelaide Festival. But how will a new, international crowd take to Belt Up’s mischievous ways? The company is known for its unconventional staging and audience interaction and this show is no exception.

“Basically, the audience are invited into a study, where they prepare to go on an adventure,” explains Compton. “Whether that adventure does or doesn’t happen is not clear.” The Boy James is inspired by Peter Pan and the life of J.M. Barrie. The dialogue between the characters and the audience centres around the idea of growing up – or rather of not wanting to grow up. The character of James struggles throughout the play to bid farewell to his childhood self and put The Boy to rest. “It’s not a narrative show,” explains Compton. “It’s really bizarre in that way. It’s not storytelling in the way we usually tell stories. It’s all about the relationship that the audience has with the character of The Boy and how that starts and ends.”

Compton is quick to admit that this unconventional approach has divided critics. The Boy James has received criticism from some individuals. “I think that’s because it’s not the kind of show you can sit behind a notepad and write about,” says Compton. “You need to be feeling it.” In stark contrast to the negative responses, one of the best endorsements The Boy James could have received came fromStephen Fry on Twitter. He was one of many who left the show at the end of an evening in floods of tears. According to Compton, it can be anything from one audience member with a tear in their eye to the whole lot sobbing. With Fry, (“Just been knocked out by The Boy James – still drying my eyes”) the company struck gold.

“To have the Stephen Fry thing – that gave the show a boost and allowed us to continue doing the show,” remembers Compton. “It’s quite an amazing thing to have the Fry quote because people read The Guardian or whatever paper they read and when they read a bad review they will trust it. When Stephen Fry comes out with a positive quote, people think ‘Well I like him and he likes that so therefore maybe I will like that’.”

It’s easy to consider the mounting pressure on a young company sich as Belt Up. Two 5-star sell-out runs at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and some high profile admirers must make for high expectations. “We try not to think about that too much,” says Compton. “We started making the work that we wanted to make, telling the stories that we wanted to tell. We’ve always tried to keep that at the centre of it.”

The question of how a production translates from a Fringe stage to a London one is also crucial. When Belt Up made the transition, it found its work didn’t impress quite so effortlessly as it had done before. “When we came to London for the first time, we weren’t just a fringe company that people quite liked,” explains Compton. “There was an expectation of our work. People were like ‘Well there are loads of young companies – what’s different about you?’ and so when people were blindfolded and thrown into a space, they were a bit like ‘Oh no, not this again’.”

Returning to Edinburgh in 2010 brought its own daunting level of expectation from audiences. Coming back after a prior season peppered with glowing reviews, the company were met with an attitude that Compton describes as “Go on then – impress us.” But the company is still young, still learning and still prone to making mistakes – and so it should be. If, as Compton points out, an audience enters a space with ridiculous expectations, viewers are unlikely to drop their guard even with the ten minutes of participatory childhood games that start the show.

Adopting the role of producer for a young company, as Compton has, adds another dimension of pressure. “I never wanted to be a producer,” Compton recalls. “It just kind of happened. I did the lighting which led to doing all the technical side of things which led to being a production manager and doing budgets, and I then ended up realising that the thing I enjoy doing is producing. The more I did it, the more I realised it’s actually what I want to do.” Being taken seriously is still the challenge with which Compton most identifies. He clearly believes that producing is not a skill you can learn on a course – you learn through doing. And there is support available to young producers. The office from which he works is provided by Stage One, a trust set up to help the next generation of commercial producers. So why aren’t more young people getting into production right now?

“Some people see producers as facilitators, which is not what I do,” says Compton, engaging with the common misconception that producers deal only with logistics. “I have an interest in taking a show that I like or coming up with an idea and then putting it together. And the great thing about being a producer is that I don’t have to wait for someone to give me a job. I know so many young people out there who are unable to get work and I don’t have to worry about that because I’m the one making the work happen. It’s a great feeling, especially if the work is successful.”

This interview is by A Younger Theatre. Click here to visit their website.

'The Boy James' returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012 and at the Adeliade Fringe Festival from 24th February - 18th March 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

‘To Live Would Be An Awfully Big Adventure’

2011-12-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

The following is an extract from a dissertation by alice harbourne, a student of anthropology at edinburgh university.

She talks about her time shadowing the company in rehearsals and performances of 'The Boy James' in Edinburgh 2011.

- - - - - - - - - - - CONTAINS SPOILERS - - - - - - - - - - -

‘To Live Would Be An Awfully Big Adventure’

Having witnessed the performances day after day, I did not notice a visible tiring of the cast, in fact the performances often appeared to depend on how the actors perceived the mood of the audience – the performance was dialogical in this respect.

Jethro, for example, had played the same character in ‘The Boy James’ on and off for about a year, and on asking how this affected his ability to improvise, he gave me an illuminating response:

There are things that the audience will think are special that actually happen every night, but they feel like they’re happening for the first time. But there are other things that genuinely do happen differently, like later on in the show people come over to me and obviously that’s really touching as at the end of the play the boy is most vulnerable, so when audience members come over and return an item, or give the Boy James a cuddle, or a pat on the head - that does happen relatively often - each time it does feel very special, it’s a really meaningful thing. The show is improvised, but based on the experience of having done it dozens of times (Interview, 04/08/2011).

To put his statement in context, it is necessary to briefly outline the play Jethro is referring to. ‘The Boy James’ by Alex Wright centres on a character called The Boy (played by Jethro), who undergoes a traumatic event involving The Girl (played by Lucy), which forces him to accept his fate in becoming an adult: he must leave the ‘childlike’ desires, wishes and make-believe of youth behind. This change is further highlighted by the presence of The Adult James (played by Dan), who quietly and mysteriously rejects the Boy’s plea for him to continue on the adventures that in the play typify childhood. This interaction is most poignant when The Adult James leaves The Boy for the final time alone in his study, with just a written note that the illiterate child cannot read. The character thus makes a plea for an audience volunteer to read the letter for him. He then takes their hand and seats them at a desk in the centre of the room and asks them to begin. Each time I saw the play, not only did someone always volunteer, but also the reader was consistently visibly emotional in response to the letter’s content; in two out of six performances I witnessed, the readers cried.

Wright’s play is heavily symbolic and can thus be widely interpreted, and Jethro’s experience of playing The Boy indicates the many possible reactions audience members can have. On a practical level, the play is restricted by a number of ‘frames’: a script, a series of rehearsed movement, action and speech, which are repeated constantly for a month. Even so, ‘real’ moments of human emotion cut through what could have easily become mundane (Schechner, 1977). Immersive theatre in these instances seems characterised by relationships between audience members and actors which transcend the hyperreality of the constructed authenticity of the show. Conversely, the complete opposite could be argued. These moments of intimacy could be seen as products of total hyperreality – the audience members are so convinced by the simulated reality the ‘world’ that the play presents, that they appear to act as if Jethro is in fact a vulnerable child by comforting and touching him.

To interpret what is going on here is a complex task. One might assume audience members are indulging in a ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ (Coleridge 1818, cited in Emigh 1996), however it would seem the fullness of Jethro’s performance as the Boy, combined with the immersive ‘world’ that the set presents, induces ‘delicious instants of complete illusion’ (Stendahl 1823, cited in ibid). By inducing belief within the audience, Jethro becomes a child who has undergone a traumatic experience for the first time, who must be cared for by his ‘friends’ in the audience. In this example, for Jethro it is ‘the real’ which matters most. The most memorable audience reaction he experienced, for instance, was an elderly audience member who reassured him as she left the play with the words, ‘to live would be an awfully big adventure’, alluding to the script of Peter Pan in Barrie’s most famous work (2007 [1902]) in which Peter says, ‘to die would be an awfully big adventure’ (121, my emphasis). For Jethro, these moments were touching on a personal level, and were what made the experience varied and meaningful as opposed to simply routine. They also condensed the joy of acting in immersive theatre for Jethro, in that to live as a real character was an adventure, and what made the repetition of performances bearable.

This chapter has sought to demonstrate that ‘reality’ was a notion created in the discourse of Belt Up as an ideal to strive for in both performance and aesthetics. It was precisely because this concept was a fiction born out of discussion, however, that when it came to realising the show materially, the concept as ideal became a concept of limitation. After the final performances at the end of August, in the depth of night, I joined the team to begin deconstructing the set. Objects were variously torn, discarded, and offered up to individuals. Their meaning vanished along with the imaginary worlds that would no longer be created; this temporary home was destroyed and the space restored to its original state of disrepair.

'The Boy James' returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012 and at the Adeliade Fringe Festival from 24th February - 18th March 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

Belt Up Theatre goes International

2011-12-09T15:33:00.001-08:00

We are delighted to announce that 'The Boy James' and 'Outland' are to play the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2012.

GUY MASTERSON for THE CENTRE FOR INTERNATIONAL THEATRE

and JETHRO COMPTON LTD present

BELT UP THEATRE's THE BOY JAMES

by Alexander Wright

A dark, beautiful tale of a boy's heartrending awakening to the harsh realities of adulthood. A truly intimate experience from the inimitable Belt Up Theatre, "Edinburgh Fringe Royalty" (Time Out). "Just been knocked out by 'The Boy James'! Still drying my eyes" (Stephen Fry). ***** The Scotsman. ***** Fringe Review.

BELT UP THEATRE's OUTLAND

by Dominic Allen

Belt Up Theatre, "Edinburgh Fringe Royalty", invites you into a delightful world of childhood dreams and weird, wonderful characters. Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s life and work, 'Outland' will guide you back, deep into the imagination you'd forgotten you'd forgotten. Where will your dreams take you? "SIX STARS!!" (Broadway Baby).

visit www.beltuptheatre.com for full details

Audience Reviews: on THE BOY JAMES

2011-12-08T07:06:00.000-08:00

here are some reviews from our audiences:

‘This production was beautifully done..... Quite simply STUNNING!!!!!’

Madeline Reid

‘Everything Stephen Fry said, then double it. Powerful and moving, taking the audience on an emotional roller coaster, the performance haunts long after leaving the theatre.’

Pamela Wood

‘Delightful and sensitive play, performed brilliantly by the "Boy James". See it if you can.’

Paul Kustow

‘Immersive and so well-conceived and delivered. WEll done’

Karthik Kumar

‘I couldn't stop thinking about "The Boy James" over the next 24 hours. It's rare for a piece of theatre to haunt you but this will.’

Mr M J Weedon

‘Top class … Terrific acting, especially from the male lead.’

Michael Hubbard

‘A great experience. Very moving.’

David Goodrum

'The Boy James' returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

Year of the Producer: A blog for Whatsonstage

2011-12-06T06:14:00.000-08:00

Belt Up's Co-Artistic Director and Producer, Jethro Compton, has written a blog for Whatsonstage's Year of the Producer.

A wise old man once warned me that producing can be a very lonely business. Of course producing does have its fabulous show business qualities; opening night galas, champagne breakfasts and private auditions with gorgeous young actresses. However, you spend the rest of your time alone with your thoughts; you lie awake at night panicking about ticket sales, panicking about your cash flow, generally panicking – and the whole time making sure there is enough money in your account to purchase that all important one-way ticket to a non-deportable country and start your new life.Being an independent producer, at times you are the captain of your own ship, with a full crew, a glorious destination and engines running full steam ahead. At others your ship is sinking, your crew has drowned, the water is rising and all the lifeboats have f****d off.

Over the past few months I’ve felt a real change in the way I work with other producers – even the way I socialise with other producers. A lot of people see them as the competition… the enemy. The reality is that we all share the same enemies and actually by working together, sharing and helping each other as producers, individually we all become far stronger.

Stage One gives you that network. It’s not quite a safety net, but it’s a close a thing you’ll get to a safety net. Whether that’s through the training, workshops and seminars that they offer, which prepare you as best as possible for the journey ahead, or the connections they make between us all, Stage One develops a network of people throughout the industry of all ages, experiences and backgrounds.

Producing independently is one of the most satisfying and rewarding experiences in theatre. To be working for a producer and to be part of that experience is obviously brilliant. But to work independently, or as an equal, the theatre you make is your theatre. It isn't someone else's artistic vision. It's yours. And what better way to learn than to just do it? And if you get it wrong? Even better. It's the mistakes that mean something. Successes are pure luck.

And as much as I love the Apprentices, I do love reminding them of the fact I get to have a lie-in whenever I like. And I can take a lunch break all afternoon if I want. That is, if I’m not too busy having nap… or if I’ve gone home early. Or not come in at all. And of course there’s naked Friday. I bet they don’t get that in their West End offices.

For more articles from our Year of the Producer series, visit whatsonstage.com/yearoftheproducer

For further information about the producers taking part, click here.

Jethro is the producer of 'The Boy James' which returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

'The Boy James' - The new image

2011-12-03T07:16:00.000-08:00

This is the new image for 'The Boy James'. The photo comes courtesy of Claudine Quinn.

You can find out more about Claudine and her work at www.claudinequinn.com

The Boy James' returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

Neil Gaiman talks briefly about 'The Boy James' returning to London

2011-12-03T07:08:00.000-08:00

'The Boy James was the highlight of the Edinburgh Festival for me, last year.'

After the performance this summer - during which Neil graced us with his wonderful reading skills -he tweeted, 'Incandescent drama. Moving and beautifully played.'

'The Boy James' returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

THE BOY JAMES returns to London

2011-11-28T05:59:00.000-08:00

JETHRO COMPTON LTD presents

BELT UP THEATRE’S

THE BOY JAMES

in association with SOUTHWARK PLAYHOUSE

25 January – 11 February 2012

the Goldsmith, London

Belt Up Theatre’s runaway success returns to London for three weeks prior to its international debut in Australia at the Adelaide Festival

From multiple critically acclaimed and sell-out runs in London and Edinburgh comes a dark, beautiful tale of one boy’s awakening to the harsh realities of adulthood. Play with him, and take his hand as you lead him back to Neverland.

After a run at Southwark Playhouse in January 2011, The Boy James is returning to Southwark for three weeks as part of Southwark Playhouse’s ‘Out and About’ programme. The show will make a new home above The Goldsmith, a bar and restaurant originally built as part of the London Fire Brigade Station. The company will be transforming the space into a fully formed immersive environment.

Jethro Compton will continue his role of The Boy and will be joined in this production by Belt Up regular Serena Manteghi as the Girl (Lorca is Dead, Quasimodo, Antigone, Atrium, The Tartuffe) and co-Artistic Director Dominic Allen as James (Macbeth, The Tartuffe, The Trial, Lorca is Dead, Quasimodo).

Wednesday - Saturday 7.30pm

25th January-11th February 2012

the Goldsmith, 96 Southwark Bridge Road, London, SE1 0EF

tickets £15 (£13 concessions)

available from Southwark Playhouse

book online at www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

call the box office (10.30am - 6.30pm) on 020 7407 0234

Acclaim for The Boy James:

‘Just been knocked out by The Boy James… Still drying my eyes’ Stephen Fry

‘Belt Up’s finest performance’ The Stage

‘Moving and beautifully played’ Neil Gaiman

‘Riveting’ ***** The Scotsman

‘Superbly realised’ ***** Fringe Review

‘Magnificent’ ***** Fest Mag

‘Flawless’ **** Whatsonstage

'The Boy James' returns to London from 25 Jan - 11 Feb 2012. Full details at www.beltuptheatre.com

Twenty Minutes to Nine - Images

2011-08-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

A selection of photographs from Twenty Minutes to Nine.

Photographs by Jethro Compton.

Twenty Minutes to Nine features as part of the Edinburgh Fringe - find more information at www.beltuptheatre.com

Belt Up wins Bobby

2011-08-14T07:16:00.000-07:00

Belt Up's OUTLAND is the proud winner of the first ever Bobby - the Sixth Star award from Broadway Baby.

Tickets for the show and more information can be found at www.beltuptheatre.com

Highlights - Reviews at the Fringe

2011-08-11T04:23:00.000-07:00

The Boy James

‘Belt Up’s finest performance’ STAGE
‘magnificent’ ***** FEST
‘wonderful’ **** EDINBURGH EVENING NEWS
‘moving and beautifully played’ NEIL GAIMAN

Outland

‘Belt Up has a big reputation to live up to. Outland proves the hype is entirely justified’ STAGE
'perfection' ***** BROADWAY BABY
‘Inspired and awe-inspiring, Outland is a true credit to the future of theatre’ ***** FRINGE GURU
‘enthralling’ WHATSONSTAGE

Twenty Minutes to Nine

‘Lucy Farrett is mesmerising’ **** THREEWEEKS

'captivating' STAGE

'transfixing performance... funny and haunting' NEIL GAIMAN

'mind-blowing actress' AMANDA PALMER

photographs by Radek Slomnicki

Southwark Playhouse Needs Your Help

2011-08-06T06:25:00.000-07:00

Southwark Playhouse has become a home away from home for Belt Up over the last three years.

Since they first invited us in 2009, we have presented a number of shows in their incredible spaces.
The Tartuffe, The Trial, Lorca is Dead, Atrium, Quasimodo and The Boy James have been performed in the Vaults and Main Space and earlier this year our production of Macbeth was produced with the help of Southwark's Press and Marketing team.

Our producer and co-artistic director Jethro has also been made Associate Artist at the Playhouse; offering support and a home to an indepentant artist and developing the relationship between an established and well known venue and an aspiring theatre producer.

There is no theatre or team like Southwark Playhouse anywehere in London. Their ambition and determination rivals that of any major producing house and their commitment to the arts will pave the way for the next generation of theatre companies, writers, directors , producers , actors and audiences.

Southwark Playhouse is invaluable.

Click here to read more about the difficultie the Playhouse is facing due to the London Bridge Station Redevelopment.

Twenty To: Our First reviews

2011-08-06T05:10:00.000-07:00

We were delighted to have Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer along to one of the first performances of Twenty Minutes to Nine.

Here's what they said (on Twitter):

'transfixing performance... funny and haunting' NEIL

'mind-blowing actress' AMANDA

Amanda's show, Evelyn and Evelyn, is playing in Edinburgh from 17th - 21st August.

More information on our Edinburgh run at http://www.beltuptheatre.com/

The Penthouse - Belt Up's New Home at the Fringe

2011-08-01T13:08:00.000-07:00

The Penthouse, as it's become known, opens on Wednesday and will be the home for Outland, Twenty Minutes to Nine and The Boy James until 29th August.

For tickets and more information visit www.beltuptheatre.com

Edinburgh Fringe - eProgramme

2011-07-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

The programme to accompany our season at this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Please click on the box below to view.

Tim Crouch reccomends...

2011-07-19T07:58:00.000-07:00

Edinburgh fringe veterans share their past experiences and highlight their picks for 2011.

One of our favourite theatremakers, Tim Crouch, talks to Maddy Costa of The Guardian. Asked what to look out for at this year's Fringe he says, 'Anything by Belt Up'.

Thank you Tim.

Click here to read the full article including tips from Mark Ravenhill, Isy Suttie and Richard Herring.

The Boy James, Outland and Twenty Minutes to Nine are at C venues 3-29 August. More info at http://www.beltuptheatre.com/

Tim Crouch's I, Malvolio, is at the Traverse Theatre 16‑28 August. More info here.

OUTLAND - Dominic Allen talks about Belt Up's brand new show

2011-07-17T07:49:00.001-07:00

DOMINIC ALLEN talks about OUTLAND, BELT UP's new show inspired by the life and works of LEWIS CARROLL.

How did you come up with the idea for Outland?
The idea of Outland came to me while I was on the train on a very nice day. We had been talking about the potential of a sister piece to The Boy James and as I was watching the landscape roll past the train window, I couldn't help thinking about Lewis Carroll; how fun it would be to write a play that's about his work and his life, which he appears in. I thought an adaptation of Alice would be a bit predictable and so I had a rummage around in the hope of finding something people don't know so well. I came across Sylvie and Bruno, in which he's already written himself into it more or less (it's quite subtly done) and, ironically, one of the earliest scenes is on a train. So that was that.

What do you look for when thinking about writing a new piece?
When I'm trying to write something new I'll become super-absorbent. I'll soak up and scrutinise everything I see, or hear, or come across and ask myself how it could fit into a story. Sometimes nothing sticks together and therefore nothing gets written. But then, on occasions such as with Outland, I think to myself 'Hang on, that might just work'. It has to excite me and it has to make me think that it's going to be worth the time and toil I'm going to have to put in, because I know I always get to a certain point when writing a play where I wish I'd never started. So, in short, it's got to have something that hooks me and something about it that's going to keep me going.

How does Outland compare with previous plays you have written?
I'm very interested in writing about historical figures and in historical settings. Lorca is Dead, for example, was made up entirely of real people. So in Outland I have that same sort of challenge to get to grips with Lewis Carroll's life but, also, I have a lot of leeway to play around with it and make stuff up. So, it has a few connections to other stuff but I think, on the whole, Outland will be a new direction for me.

If you could sum up Outland in 3 words what would you say?
I'd use a quotation from Hamlet (Act III, sc i) : '...Perchance to dream'

What can audiences expect from Outland?
They can expect a lot of typical Carroll nonsense and characters; there's a fair bit of Wonderland and his obsession with puzzling logic. However, you'll also meet some new characters, if you're not familiar with his more obscure work, and perhaps another much more profound, sentimental, philosophical side to him. The play has its surreal, absurd moments that you'd inevitably expect but it's also touching, sweet and introvert.

What do you believe creates a good piece of theatre/writing?
A good piece of theatre relies on taking the writing and making it into an experience. That experience needs to rhyme with the text and help externalise what's going on for the characters. Any play where you come out feeling very sorry or very happy for a fictional character is always a good play, and if it's possible to make that experience unique for each audience member, then all the better! As for good writing, I think that relies on telling a good story and telling it well. Keeping the audience on their toes and keeping them engaged. It's not just what you say but how you say it.

OUTLAND runs alongside THE BOY JAMES and TWENTY MINUTES TO NINE at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer.

More details can be found at www.beltuptheatre.com

The List - Belt Up among Highlights

2011-07-12T03:12:00.000-07:00

'The theatre shows to look out for at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011'

The List

Belt Up's three shows are listed alongside companies such as Analogue with their 2401 Objects and, of course, Marc Almond in Ravenhill's Ten Plagues.

Read the full article here...

Outland: The First Rehearsals

2011-07-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

Photographs by Alice Harbourne

A True Critic

2011-07-08T06:36:00.000-07:00

'A period of self-evaluation is never a bad thing. Surely if a theatre artist works continuously they’ll eventually begin to produce some disappointingly tired pieces – it’s only natural that the real energy comes at the start, and we start to dwindle at the end of a run. I think of the Belt Up Theatre gang, and how they seem to constantly be in a state of flux, and whilst they are being hailed as the new wave of British theatre companies, they’re also letting the odd show reach us that disappoints. The importance here is that whilst they have been rocketed to a certain level in new theatre making, they need to take time out to reassess, and to find the passion and project that will propel them forwards even further'

Jake Orr
A Younger Theatre

You can read the full article here.

Applause

2011-07-01T02:45:00.000-07:00

This email came through to Belt Up yesterday evening.

Thanks Lisa, glad you enjoyed the shows.

'Dear Beltup,

We recently came to the Theatre Royal in York and saw your production. Thank you for a truly wonderful evening I cried and cried.

I wanted to email my applause:

clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap.

Lisa Green.'

'The Boy James' will be running at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2011 alongside two brand new shows.
For more information please visit http://www.beltuptheatre.com/

Review from the York Press: 'Atrium' & 'The Boy James'

2011-06-29T03:36:00.000-07:00

Atrium and The Boy James, Belt Up Theatre
4:24pm Friday 24th June 2011
By Charles Hutchinson

THESE two new plays from the York Theatre Royal company in residence made their debut at the 2010 Edinburgh Fringe as part of Belt Up Theatre's bold project The House Above: ten devised works performed in different rooms of a purpose-built house.

They are united again this week, each staged in a cluttered study and linked by not only a common theme of the artistic mind, life and loss, but also a desire to release the imagination and heaps of audience participation. A couple of the cast overlap too, as do certain actions, such as pouring a drink from a decanter and hitting a head violently on a table, and the influence of fantasy is pervasive.

Written by James Wilkes, the charming yet anarchic orchestrator of Belt Up's reinventions of The Tartuffe and The Beggar's Opera, Atrium comes from the experimental end of the company's spectrum: the absurdist Monty Python/League of Gentlemen end that more divides opinion like Marmite.

Wilkes blurs the line between fact and fiction on a "surreal journey through the subconscious mind of ageing artist Malcolm Kinnear as his self-obsession tears apart the life around him". Such a part could only be played by Belt Up's master of the deluded, the deranged and the despicable, Dominic J Allen, a provocateur with Macbeth and Mr Peachum on his CV already.

Under the direction of Jethro Compton, he is an even looser cannon here, and yet such is Allen's dangerous energy, quick wit and cabaret MC skills that he keeps you onside as Kinnear indulges in flights of fancy to drive beyond distraction his biography writer, Paul (or is he Simon?, as he equally often calls him), played by Wilkes. The women of the piece,Serena Manteghi's Pennie in a hotdog suit, and Lucy Farrett's servant girl Butter, are pulled hither and thither by Malcolm's twisted need to make his life sound more interesting.

The play follows the same trajectory, never quite climaxing. However, then comes one of the best pieces in Belt Up's rapidly expanding portfolio, Alexander Wright's The Boy James, a haunting story of playful innocence and cruel experience woven around the life of Peter Pan author JM Barrie, directed with devastating impact by Allen.

Initially, the audience is cajoled into childhood games by Jethro Compton's pyjama-clad, wide-eyed Scottish boy James, but playfulness makes way for darker materials: the harsh arrival of adulthood, as represented by Wilkes's older James and Farrett's Girl undergoing her sexual awakening under the influence of "poison" (alcohol) with an unwilling boy James. The inner child in us all slinks away, crushed by the innocence-terminating letter from the adult James, read by a man drawn out of his front-row seat by the boy's pleading.

No wonder a certain Mr Stephen Fry felt moved to tweet "Just been knocked out by The Boy James. Still drying my eyes" upon seeing it last year. A second Edinburgh run and five-star reviews await from August 3 to 29.

More information can be found at www.beltuptheatre.com

Whatsonstage Review - 'Atrium' and 'The Boy James'

2011-06-29T03:08:00.000-07:00

Atrium/The Boy James (York)
Date Reviewed: 22 June 2011
WOS Rating: ****

Belt Up are never going to please everyone when they experiment with what theatre can be in 2011. But then, you can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. Actually, they don’t make an omelette during their double bill of new writing, although an egg does get broken during a delightfully ill-advised juggling incident.

First up is Atrium, a slippery little play about unreliable narrators. We are personally greeted by born entertainer Malcolm Kinnear (Dominic J. Allen), a man intent on having his life written up into a best-selling book; the thing is, he doesn’t so much play fast and loose with the facts as consider them wholly irrelevant to the story he wants to tell. Atrium’s playwright James Wilkes spends a great deal of time on stage as ghost-writer Paul, trying to coerce Malcolm into cooperating. The levels of meta-theatricality range from the disturbing to the absurd to the hysterical, and at times it’s like a cross between Luigi Pirandello and Harry Hill. For some, it will seem ludicrously indulgent, and many will struggle to keep up with the labyrinthine plots. But then, that’s sort of the point: the audience both shares the frustration of the painfully put-upon writer and revels in the central character’s irrepressible lies; both are, in fact, a pleasure to watch.

The second half of Belt Up’s evening is Alexander Wright’s The Boy James, which explores the state of mind irrecoverably lost in the transition from childhood to maturity. Drawing on the life of J. M. Barrie, Jethro Compton gives a flawless performance as a little boy desperate to remain just that, strongly supported by Lucy Farrett as a girl all too eager to give up her innocence. With audience involvement not merely encouraged but entirely necessary to the plot, the piece combines the beauty of youth’s simplicity with the sharp sting of disenchantment. My one complaint is that The Boy James, like the sense of youth it captures, is all too short, and some of the poignancy of the conclusion is lost in its abruptness. Although, because this is Belt Up, you’re allowed to take matters into your own hands: wanting to linger longer in the moment, I stayed until the rest of the audience had left so I could do something I’d been desperate to do throughout the performance – namely, give a lost boy a comforting hug.

Theatre should make you want to leap out of your seat and intervene, and this talented company allow you to do just that. Belt Up don’t want applause, they want to make you feel, and surely there is no nobler goal for theatre to strive for. While these pieces of new writing aren’t perfect, they are diamonds in the rough: York can feel justly proud of its homegrown talent.

'The Boy James' will feature as part of Belt Up's Season this summer at the Edinburgh Fringe Fesitval. More information via http://www.beltuptheatre.com/

'The Importance of Adventuring'

2011-06-16T11:31:00.000-07:00

A card from a member of the audience who came to see 'The Boy James' in January in London:

To the Cast & Crew of 'The Boy James',

Thank you for one of the most enjoyable evenings of theatre I've ever had.

'The Boy James' was horrific and beautiful; despite the dark subject matter, I left feeling happy. Perhaps I was reminded of the importance of adventuring.

Details of upcoming performances of 'The Boy James' can be found at www.beltuptheatre.com

The New Tea Boy

2011-06-15T07:24:00.000-07:00

Since making first contact with Belt Up in February I have been waiting in anticipation and nerves about coming to York to work on two acclaimed shows Atrium and Boy James. After seeing the work during Edinburgh fringe in 2010 and 2009 I have been itching to be involved and now heres my chance. I am full of nerves and excitement for the two weeks ahead in York theatre royal meting and working with a lot of talented people and trying not to freeze and actually do a decent job.

I am coming to the company with a small amount of experience in Production but what I lack in knowledge I can hopefully make up with cups of tea. Being described to the twitter community as the new tea boy on your first day does hold some level of expectation.

I am currently residing in Edinburgh whilst completing BA Hons Drama and Performance at Queen Margaret University specialising in Contemporary Performance and Arts Management. Becoming a jack of all trades master of none, but hopefully becoming more employable in the process. Away from Edinburgh I am originally from Dudley West Midlands home to some of the countries great performers Julie Walters, Lenny Henry, Frank Skinners, and Matthew Williams. Ok maybe not frank skinner but you get the jist. Coming t York is a home away from home with good food good beer and an awful accent, safe to say I think I will fit in pretty nicely.

Not only will I be working on the shows in York but also very delighted to be working with the company in Edinburgh on 2 brand new pieces, which I am thrilled about. Not only the opportunity to work again with the company but at such a great theatre festival. However part of me thinks it’s the least they can do as I am housing the company for the month (that may have something to do with the job but hey ill take what comes my way)

Safe to say I’m stoked to be working with the company and bring on whatever may entail in the months ahead.

Matt Williams
Production Assistant
Belt Up Theatre

'The Boy James' and 'Atrium' - June at York Theatre Royal and Chelmsford Theatre Workshop

2011-05-30T06:46:00.000-07:00

'Just been knocked out by 'The Boy James' Belt Up's interative show about J.M. Barrie... Still drying my eyes'
STEPHEN FRY

Find out more at www.beltuptheatre.com/ytr

Tickets available from www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk

Lorca is Dead and Macbeth lives on

2011-05-08T04:59:00.000-07:00

MACBETH at the House of Detention
RUN EXTENDED DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND.
MUST CLOSE 14th MAY.

Tickets will be available from www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk

Lorca is Dead at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival has been cancelled. Apologies to the thirty people who had booked to see the show.

But fear not, Macbeth will be playing for a extra week in the House of Detention. Following some rave reviews and a number of sold out performances we're adding 7 additional performances this week. So those of you who couldn't get hold of tickets, now is your chance.

'Brilliant'
Stephen Fry

The Guardian on Macbeth

2011-04-28T02:34:00.000-07:00

'Belt Up once again prove adept at working in tandem with the spectres that linger in apparently empty spaces.'

Lyn Gardner for The Guardian

Click here for the full review.

Stephen Fry on Macbeth

2011-04-28T02:21:00.000-07:00

'Just had fab time at the House of Detention (an old prison in Clerkenwell) watching Belt Up's brilliant production of Macbeth.' Stephen Fry

The Observer on Belt Up Theatre's Macbeth

2011-04-26T02:20:00.000-07:00

'a company at the beginning of its career, finding its way and worth following'
Susannah Clapp for The Observer.

Read the full review here.

The First Production Shots of Macbeth

2011-04-20T02:23:00.000-07:00

Dominic Allen as Macbeth. James Wilkes as Lady Macbeth.
Photographs courtesy of Jethro Compton Ltd.

First Reviews for Macbeth

2011-04-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

Photograph by Elliot Franks.

Tweets from Lyn Gardner:

'Some say Belt-Up too prolific; but they're just learning on the job, 21st C theatre's equivalent of old rep system. Macbeth rough but ready'

'Grazing during shows now endemic.Girl munched muffin through bloody bit of Macbeth promenade as if normal thing to do when witnessing murder'

Review from Howard Loxton for British Theatre Guide

'Director Alexander Wright has utilised the site with skill'

'Dominic Allen is a young Macbeth... balancing the poetry against the need for naturalism in such close quarters'

'Wilkes’s Lady M is one of the best I‘ve seen'

Review from Sam Marlowe for The Times:

'The best site-specific theatre interacts with its chosen space; the worst merely plonks an indifferent staging in an intriguing spot and assumes that’s enough. This effort, unfortunately, tends towards the latter.'

'Restless spirits may stalk these cells; but visitors to this production will depart
disappointingly untroubled.'

DRUNKEN NIGHTMARE: Advice from Councillor Allan

2011-04-19T06:02:00.000-07:00

Councillor Allan has posted on the Clerkenwell Liberal Democrat's blog talking of the license that has been granted to the House of Detention.

Cllr Allan's advice for local residents follows:

If anyone in the area experienced any serious problems during the Macbeth run, please try to notify them immediately to the management of the event, at the premises. If they concern music noise, contact the Noise Patrol via Contact Islington (020 7527 2000) and if they concern public order or otherwise merit immediate police intervention, dial 999.

We will be inviting the Councillor to a performance of Macbeth to witness for himself the nature of the event. Perhaps then he will put this nonsense to rest.

'NOSE-PAINTING, SLEEP, and URINE'

2011-04-18T04:35:00.000-07:00

Residents fear NOSE-PAINTING, SLEEP, and URINE as Islington Council allows House of Detention to sell alcohol

Picture: OUTRAGE & FEAR: Sans Walk residents Betty Landers, Eileen Dear and Trudy Penk with Cllr Andrews and Cllr Allan who fear the License to sell alcohol at the performances of Macbeth will result in a “drunken nightmare”.

Residents, acording to an article for the Islington Tribune by Peter Gruner, not only fear nose-painting and urine but also sleep... outstanding journalism Mr Gruner.

Local Councellor, Liberal Democrat George Allan said that granting the alcohol licence could ruin the quality of life for residents in the area. After the hearing held by Islington Licensing Committee on Monday 11th, Cllr Allan said he was disappointed the licence had been granted.

What a shame.

Full article available here.

Revloutionary 3D Scans of Our Venue - The House of Detention

2011-04-08T05:42:00.000-07:00

This is groundbreaking technology that has never been used for this purpose.

Allows you to travel through spaces in an entirely new way.

Scan and Film made in association with SCAN LAB

This is what the makers say:

ScanLAB is an ongoing series of experimental projects investigating the use of 3D laser scanning in architecture. 3D scanning is an emerging architectural discourse and a potent tool for design and fabrication.

We explore 3D scanning at all scales, from intricately detailed object to vast cityscapes. The technologies employed range from desktop self‐assemblages to state of the art LiDAR based surveying tools. Our investigations lead us to produce images, animations and artefacts.

ScanLAB is run by Matthew Shaw and William Trossell.

For more information please contact studio@scanlabprojects.com

New Discovery In Space

2011-04-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

This is, I hope, the first instalment of what will be an exciting and uncertain journey in to and through our new production of Macbeth.

We are performing in London at the House Of Dentention in Clerkenwell; part of an old underground prison system dating from around the 1700’s. We had our first proper day of rehearsals today and to be perfectly honest it took me places I had never expected to go.

I am afraid of the dark; I always have been ever since I was a child. I used to be terrified that things were hiding under my bed or on the windowsill behind my curtains. Although I have grown up since then I occasionally get reminded that these old childhood fears still linger at the back of my mind and imagination. So the prospect of being faced with an allegedly haunted prison system admittedly left me a little weak at the knees. It was, though, important for us all to understand the space so that we could use it best for the show.

Now we have done a reasonable amount of site specific and site responsive work before. Sometimes we build our spaces and sometimes we use spaces that we have found. I feel quite used to and quite comfortable with this process. We are quite used to getting to know spaces, to feel an ownership over them and learning how to use them for our shows. But this space felt different. And it is different, everything about it is different.

Ordinarily we give a space its atmosphere; we impose a theatricality upon it. Either we build a space or we create a context for the space. But this time we are dealing with something very different. The House of Detention has been used as a prison, as a work house, as an air raid shelter, as a prisoner of war camp: It has so much history behind it, so much history hidden in and around it. It’s hard to describe how this feels as someone who is about to make a show in there but I think we all felt the same today.

We decided that we should spend some time in the space with no motive other than to get to know it. It’s a little labyrinthine and it’s little disconcerting and we needed to get over this, we needed to feel comfortable there. So we thought we’d take the bull by the horns and just spend time in their, simple. I think secretly we were all expecting to use this time to get over our childhood and spookish fears. We wanted to feel a sense of ownership and a sense of control. But for me I had a very different and unexpected experience.

After spending an hour in the space just standing and looking and moving slowly around, I felt anything but a sense of ownership. I felt humbled and privileged to be there, I felt like I needed to thank History and Time for allowing me in to their domain. It’s hard to express. That place has seen so much pain, so much confusion and terror that the walls seem to drip with it. As soon as you step out of the sunlight and through the doors you walk in to a forgotten world. When you actually stop and look, think about what the huge iron hinges in the walls were for, when you figure out the dimensions of the cells, when you think about the darkness and the noise that would have been down there, it’s almost overwhelming. I have never felt humbled by space before, never felt so grateful and so dutiful towards History and Time. I realise now that we have a responsibility to this space, to the echoes and the secrets and the lives that are sunken in to its walls. I think we all realise now that this is not something we can take so lightly.

None of us are really superstitious and none of us were expecting to come face to face with a ghost or ghoul. But the place does have a spirit and it feels like a spirit that is hundreds of years old and that is a combination of all the people who have passed through that network of cells. I asked the cast to go and run bits of lines, to tell them to the walls and the nooks and crannies, to get a feel for how the script might fit in. As I have no lines I was, for a while, wandering and listening. I found myself stood towards the back of the system and felt a slight chilly breeze on my side. By no means was this a ghostly chill, I’m not suggesting that. However, as I stood there on my own I found myself talking quietly to the walls. I found myself thanking History and Time for allowing us to be here; explaining who we were and what we’ll be doing; explaining how we are not here to exploit the space but rather we are privileged to be using it; saying thank you; explaining how we hold the upmost respect. And as I said this, ‘Thank you, we respect you’, the chill dropped from my side and I felt entirely comfortable, without any trace of those childhood fears and imaginings. And this feeling remained for the rest of the day.

I no longer desire a feeling of ownership over the space, but rather an understanding. An understanding of what that space is, what it means and what it holds and has held within its walls. I have no real idea how History works, how Time works or how Spirits work, but in that place they all have my respect and my thanks and I know that will feed and drive the show. For the space, 6 weeks out of over 300 years is nothing, but for me it has started to matter. It has already changed my perception of site specific and site responsive theatre. A site is not something to claim for your own, it is a living and breathing, dynamic and constantly shifting entity that we can have no real control over, nor should we try. We must work with it. It is older and wiser than us. And, in this case, far more real than our theatre can ever be. I look forward to getting to know it better.

Alexander Wright

Director for Macbeth

York Press Review of THE BEGGAR'S OPERA

2011-03-25T10:59:00.000-07:00

'Such moments of blissful theatricality make Belt Up stand out from the new radical theatre crowd'
Click here to read the full review.

The Beggar's Opera - some instructions

2011-03-10T10:08:00.000-08:00

It’s now only two weeks until opening night of THE BEGGAR’S OPERA so here’s a little revelation for you in the form of some instructions.

Like all Belt Up shows, you as an audience member will be able to make your experience what you want it to be. This time around we’re giving you a few fun ways to get more involved.

Essentially we want you to bring all your friends, family, neighbours, pets (no animals allowed), lovers, enemies, idols and other types of people you’re affiliated with along to the show and make your voice heard.

The show is set in the 1980’s so by all means set yourself as an audience member in the 1980’s. Come in full costume if you’re really up for it. Or you can come dressed as a parody of a famous political or entertainment figure from the 80s (or any time period for that matter, if you’ve come dressed up at all then that will make us happy*). You may find yourself more involved in the show than you expected if you truly throw yourself into it all – just a little hint there.

Really feel free to add your voice to the mix. Sing along. Dance along. Clap, laugh, boo, hiss, wail in terror, shout, weep; essentially don’t sit back and relax, get involved, we really want you to!

You might also want to pick your seats as soon as possible. Where you’re sat may mean you get an extra special experience of the show...

So what better way to spend an evening (or an afternoon, we’ve got matinees on the Friday and Saturday) than to bring a load of people you love to the theatre dressed in cool clothes and have a really good time laughing, singing and dancing?

Spread the word. Bring as many people as you can. As the Prime Minister says, ‘We’re all in this together’ so let’s have a bloody good time together!

THE BEGGAR’S OPERA runs from the 24^th to the 26^th of March at the York Theatre Royal as part of the Takeover festival.

Performances at 7.30pm with 2.30pm Matinees on the Friday and Saturday

Book online at www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk or call the box office on 01904 623 568

*There may be special repercussions for those in the most elaborate costumes

Theatre as Protest

2011-03-07T12:36:00.001-08:00

I don’t know how much you might know about Belt Up. I guess at least enough to have lead you here. This is long, but please hear me out.

If you know us, have seen our shows or just know us socially; if you like our work or hate our work; if you have just heard some things about us for better or for worse – for whatever reason you might be reading this – I would ask you to read on. And once you have read on I would ask you to get a friend to read this, or a colleague, and another and another, and get them to get someone else to read it. Whether you agree or disagree, I think this is important and I hope you do too.

Belt Up Theatre is a young company. We set up whilst still at University of York, where we all met. We all studied English. We all grew up at the Uni’s Drama Society. We went to NSDF and had a blast. We were went up to Edinburgh Festival and made a hell of a lot of shows. We were a part of TakeOver at York Theatre Royal. We were given a residency at York Theatre Royal. We have, time after time, thrived on the generosity and community spirit that exists within the arts. We have met wonderful and inspirational people.

We are in our early twenties and running a theatre company. We were featured in The Observer. We are contacted by people at schools, in sixth forms, at drama schools, at Unis, studying for MAs and PhDs who want to ask us about what we do and how we do it because they find it interesting or exciting. We provide workshops in schools too and offer any advice we can to anyone who wants it or needs it.

We are in our early twenties but are starting to make some headway in to the world of Modern British Theatre. We aren’t trained, we have had no one looking after us, we have learnt from our mistakes. The other people in our company are our age too, our peers who want to act and perform and create, we are able to offer them that opportunity. Sure, we don’t pay well, but we get by.

We aren’t exceptional. There are lots of companies doing the same thing. Companies like Little Bulb, Rash Dash and Catapulting Cacoon. Other people our age who have just thought ‘Fuck it, we’re going to make our way in the arts.’ I take my hat off to you. It’s the most bloody fun in the world, but it’s hard and is soon to get a lot harder.

I am concerned: Are we the last of a dying breed?

Everything I listed above, every reason why Belt Up is able to exist, is soon to disappear. Why? Because of this Government. Because this Government is, step by step, royally fucking the arts.

Perhaps a lot of this comes down to University Fees. We met at University; NSDF is populated by University Students; Audiences for companies like us, Rash Dash etc are made up of students; TakeOver focuses on the under 25’s, of which many are students. If no one can afford to go to University then all this student network breaks down.

More than that, people won’t be able to afford Artsdegrees because a job in the Arts is never going to pay off the debt they will be left with. So the infrastructure and management of the Arts is going to disappear and become corporate. Theatres aren’t going to be able to afford to create and offer such generous opportunities as York Theatre Royal has to us, or Slung Low have to Rash Dash. It is going to become harder and harder to carve a path in the Arts. It’s appalling. The whole structure and generosity of the Arts is going to crumble, not because the people will change, but because the necessary infrastructure will no longer be possible.

And the audiences. A Night Less Ordinary has gone, ticket prices will go up, the demographic will narrow and people like us who live of the minimum possible will no longer be able to access theatre. Companies like Belt Up will be forced to up our ticket prices, which means we lose our core audience, which means our theatre means less and has less impact. It means that people won’t get in touch from schools, Universities and Drama Schools. Why? Because no one will be able to afford to see our work, because no one will be coming in to the arts wanting to know what we might have found out, and because no one will be studying Theatre or English because they will no longer be viable options.

It’s sad. Very, very sad.

We are currently in rehearsal for The Beggar’s Opera for TakeOver Festival at York Theatre Royal. Take a look at that sentence and see what’s at stake.

Our Beggar’s Opera is fun, irreverent but important. It’s a big ‘Fuck You’ to the ConDems.

It sounds obvious, but I feel quite strongly about this:

The very act of people like us putting on a show like The Beggar’s Opera for people like TakeOver at somewhere like York Theatre is, for me, an act of protest. All the components of this production – the people involved, those who have programmed it and supported, the venue, the crew – everything about it is at risk. To make a show that stands up and says ‘Look at what we are doing. We are young and able to do this because all the people around us have made it possible. And you, Mr Cameron, and you, Mr Clegg, are going to slowly burn us to the ground. Well, if you do, we’re are going to go down kicking and screaming and making a bloody big fuss.’ I think this, regardless of whether the show is any good, is an important thing to do. For me this is a gesture of protest. We are displaying a whole stratum of society that is going to disappear. I don’t want that stratum to disappear because it is a fucking good stratum.

I’m not suggesting that Belt Up can change the world. But we are making work by twenty-somethings and, as above, we are making it for so many reasons, ones that we care about. And I don’t think it’s just us. Belt Up, Rash Dash, Little Bulb, Catapulting Cacoon, TakeOver. These are all exciting and important and generous people who all flourish in a strong and thriving network of artists. We need people like York Theatre Royal, NSDF, Slung Low; we need the people who are able to be generous. By doing so it means that we can be generous too. It’s a cycle and a damn important one.

The Beggar’s Opera, for me, stands up to Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg and says ‘Look! Look what this network can do, look what this network can create and support.’ I am more than willing to use this network of wonderful people to tell the ConDems that we are pissed of, and they are risking a lot.

Like I say, even if you know nothing about us, you must know someone in the arts, or at University, or who goes to the theatre, or makes work, or who goes to a youth theatre; the list is endless.

Let’s keep it endless.

Alexander Wright

Co-Artistic Director & Director for The Beggar's Opera

TakeOver Festival runs at York Theatre Royal from 14th - 26th March

The Beggar's Opera runs as part of TakeOver from 24th - 26th March

Pushing Belt Up's Boundaries

2011-03-07T04:10:00.000-08:00

We are into our second week now of Beggar’s Opera rehearsals and things are starting to look good, we had a stumble through this weekend and everyone seems to be gaining a sense of how the show hangs together. As rehearsal goes on however I think we all become more aware of how much we are pushing Belt Up’s own boundaries.

One of the many ways in which we are doing this is by attempting a piece of ‘Political Theatre.’ While other shows such as Lorca is Dead have necessarily touched on politics in the process of telling their stories, this is the first time that the company has attempted to make anything with a definite agenda. This brings very specific challenges.

For one the amount of research that has gone into the show is huge and I have spent a significant amount of the last month reading articles, watching videos and listening to opinions to make sure that the show is informed, current and relevant. My research has taken me from the Anglo-Spanish war of the early 18^th Century , through the 1984/5 miners strike by way of the bombing of the Belgrano and onto the current debate over voting rights for prisoners. This research won’t stop until the curtain goes up on the final performance at the end of March, if some huge event happens on the day it will go into the show that evening.

One of the most important parts of the research process began last week when we asked each actor what the show, and in particular the politics of the show, meant to them. While I would never expect all of us to be identical in our political views, I was surprised to hear the wide variety of reasons people had for being involved in this piece of overtly political theatre.

For many people there seemed to be a real feeling that our version Beggar’s Opera might be able to achieve something, that by creating a piece of theatre we might be able to encourage people to question or change their own political views. For others it was about creating something that reacted to arts cuts and a real concern that opportunities might not be available to people of our generation in the future. At least one member of the company was excited about turning their hand to a piece of political and social satire, perhaps as they are a huge Monty Python Fan! There was even one of us who admitted that the show for them was far more about the chance to perform on such a big stage rather than any political agenda.

These reasons have been as important in the way we’ve interpreted our characters as all of our combined historical and political research. The question we have been asking ourselves is how the opinions of George II might sit alongside those of Margaret Thatcher while taking into consideration Nick Clegg’s beliefs (or lack there of) and Laura’s/Dom’s/Serena’s own personal reasons for being in the show. It is a huge challenge as Belt Up isn’t used to tackling political issues, however there is a feeling that if we pull it off we might have created something really quite special.

Joe Hufton

Assistant Director

The Night Before The Morning After

2011-02-28T12:26:00.000-08:00

As I often seem to say, things move so quickly with Belt Up that everything always seems a long time ago.

It feels like ages since we sat down to make a new show, but tomorrow morning at 9am we start rehearsal for The Beggars Opera, our brand spanking new show on in the Main House at York Theatre Royal from 24^th-26^th March.

I love this feeling. The feeling of waiting to launch in to a rehearsal process for something that no-one has ever seen before. It’s exciting and intimidating. I have a long list of things that I may or may not need to do before tomorrow morning. However, I am writing this instead. Perhaps I’m distracting myself or perhaps my thoughts are too erratic to get down in a measured and logical way. I need to make another list.

But this is no ordinary beginning.

To an extent I am used to walking in to a rehearsal room for an intimate site-specific show. But tomorrow morning I walk in to the rehearsal room to start directing a musical for an 840 seater venue.

We had a production meeting earlier today with all the team to tighten up a few things. Joe and I have sat down and talked and laughed our way through a plot for projections. Dan and I have crudely recorded the songs to play in the read-through. Jethro and I made and changed rehearsal schedules. James has written and rewritten the script until I had to stop him so I could print one off. Dominic and Chris have started pulling things together for the set design. Joe is working on his presentation for tomorrow, which apparently involves a quiz. Marcus arrives in about ten minutes to stay with us for a while.

And I’m sat in this armchair in my little room, half excited and half scared. Or rather 100% excited and 100% scared. I’m listening to Billy Elliot to try and get myself in the anti-Thatcher musical mode. I don’t know whether this is helping or just intimidating me.

However, in 12 ½ hours we kick off, and I can’t wait.

I guess I’ll make a list and make some notes and have some panics and try and get all my notes in to one place. But ultimately I will walk in to a rehearsal room tomorrow morning ready to make a new show with people I know, trust and thoroughly enjoy working with.

And, you never know, Belt Up Theatre’s first ever musical might just turn out to be bloody good!

Fingers crossed.

Alexander

Director of The Beggars Opera

Co-Artistic Director of Belt Up Theatre

The Beggars Opera runs at York Theatre Royal from 24^th-26^th March

How to make theatre...

2011-02-26T09:37:00.000-08:00

I so often meet people who are starting their careers in theatre, somewhere just a couple of years behind where Belt Up is now, who feel frustrated at the lack of information available. There is no definitive answer to running a theatre company or the business aspect of theatre. Everyone has their own opinion. These opinions come from the way we work, from trial and error, and predominantly from the opinions of our elders, from the people who have achieved, in one form or another, what we newbies are aspiring to achieve.

Over the past few months I have met many young companies, producers, aspiring theatre makers, all of whom seem to ask the same question, ‘how do we make it work?’. I’ve been helping companies such as Random Occurrence, an enthusiastic group of four setting up in their final year of University. For them I act as a sounding board, someone to go to for advice, but mostly to ask the silly questions. That, for me, is the most important thing that any of us can have, someone to go to and ask the questions that you wouldn’t ask your boss, or your accountant because they’d look at you like a fool.

The more professionals I meet, the more I realise that they too have been through this process. I have a mentor who also has a mentor who no doubt was once learning from those around him who each thought they had the answer, or at least something close to the answer. Let’s face it; no one actually has this answer. No one actually knows what is right or wrong, what makes a great show and what doesn’t, what makes a hit and what makes a flop. There is no handbook on theatre because there is no answer. There are simply the opinions of those making work, and whilst those people are on top their answer seems pretty valid. Then someone else will come along with a different answer and ‘Yes, this is it. This is how theatre should be made’. And on and on…

There is no definitive answer because the way theatre is created will constantly change and adapt, those creating it will also change, they will adapt, but no doubt we will still look to those above us and ask, ‘How do we make it work?’. Perhaps one day someone will have the answer. Until then, I guess we’ll just have to keep going, wondering constantly what the hell it is we’re meant to be doing.

Jethro Compton

Producer and Co-Artistic Director

Comedy Boyband Posing

2011-02-20T07:55:00.000-08:00

A week ago there was a photograph of us in The Observer. We looked surprisingly normal in this photo. This is all down to Lucy Farrett.

When the four of us are together, on our own, and someone takes a photograph, we look like a boyband. Without exception.

Below are some photos taken by Ruth Gibson for an article in York University paper, Vision.

Something Special Well Worth Preserving: Keeping The Community

2011-02-19T08:19:00.000-08:00

There is something absolutely wonderful about rural theatres. They exist for the perfect reasons.

The other month I blogged about rural touring,

whilst we were taking Octavia around Yorkshire and Cornwall, and how wonderful it is to take shows to a community, to people who are ready and willing to come and enjoy themselves. For me, time seems to move so quickly and that Octavi

a tour already seems quite long ago. Since then we have run in London with The Boy James and run at The Lowry with Odyssey and Quasimodo. I have also spent a lot of my time thinking about The Beggars Opera for York Theatre Royal and Macbeth for London in April. But this week we have been performing at Wyeside Arts Centre in Builth Wells, South Wales.

Our few days here have been one of the most enjoyable times we have spent in a theatre. There is something about the intimacy and the scale of the place, the way the whole theatre is run. And it’s not just a theatre, it’s a cinema, an arts space where the community gather. We have been wholly received as part of the Wyeside family, or so it feels. We have been here for four days, but I feel like I am friends with all the staff, like I belong a little to this community, such is the welcoming and appreciative nature of the p

lace; people seem really happy that we are here, and in turn we are very happy to be here. They are so bloody lovely. They have let us sleep in their theatre, kept the bar open for us, brought us tea and coffee, let us watch a private screening of Black Swan. And why? Because they pride themselves on being lovely, giving and offering everything they can, which is so much more than money.

As with everything arts related these days, there are dark times ahead. Wyeside Arts Centre are struggling under loss of funding, their youth theatre is struggling in response and so might their outside programming struggle and their cinema programme struggle. If this place shuts down, or has to cut back, then it is a disaster.

Places like Wyeside provide the cultural hub for such a widespread community. We had 100 primary school children from about 5 different schools in Octavia. For them, this is the only theatre around. They have had to add extra screenings of The Kings Speech because of the demand for cinema, where the next nearest cine

ma is about an hours drive away.

As I said in my previous blog on rural arts, a community is so much more involved if you bring the art to them. Of course, this is true of all comm

unities. In London there is so much art brought to the larger community that you are spoilt for choice. In York people flock to the Theatre Royal for the Pantomime and their summer family shows, such as The Railway Children, Wind In The Willows and the upcoming Peter Pan. But trying to get people to drive hours to their nearest event, you are somewhat pushing the easy enjoyment of being entertained.

The National make good work, it sells and people

go in their droves to see it. If The National have their funding cut a little, it makes a small dent in their vastly enterprising business. If somewhere like Wyeside gets their funding cut a little it means losing the youth theatre. Then where is the next nearest youth theatre?

People who run venues like Wyeside do not do it for the fame, the money or the artistic respect and credibility, they do it for the community. This is such a heart-warming thing. Perhaps it’s because I come from the countryside, but I feel so bound to these kind of people who work just to give it all back to the people they are working for. It’s really quite a beautiful cycle, one it would be criminal to lose.

This morning we met some amazing people. Phil and Sue run Shakespeare Link, working out of the Living Willow Theatre. It is an incredible place and I would please urge everyone who reads this to at least visit their website. Perhaps email them, perhaps go and see a show, perhaps take one if you make work; they are truly inspiring people. After working for years in the industry they set up camp on a big farm in Wye valley. They both have such a huge love for theatre and specifically Shakespeare. And they too are such giving people, so much so that they have made everything they need to run a theatre, and made in purely off their own back and genius initiative.

They have turned their stable in to a library and costume store, their barn in to an indoor venue, another barn in to a pub and, most impressively built a miniature version of The Globe out of living willow trees complete with thrust stage and 130 capacity. And what’s more it is entirely self-supporting running off green electricity harvested from solar panels and wind turbines. It’s truly incredible.

I think the main thing that is incredible though is its simplicity. There are no airs or graces, there is just a love of theatre and some open and welcoming arms ready to embrace and provide for the community. They run a season of work across summer that involve workshops, sessions, storytelling and big community Shakespeares. Sue was saying how last year the local window cleaner did a stunning Hamlet, honest and bare in their beautiful setting. They welcome other companies and tours, The Factory brought their Seagull the other summer, even Germaine Greer has visited.

But when you put it against places like The National you think ‘Well what is it? Is it a farm or a theatre? Who is this for?’ And the answer is that it is a farm and it is a theatre and it is a place where you can go on nature trials or have a pint of locally brewed ale. And who is it for? Everyone. It is for the people who make the shows, the people who come to the shows, it is for the community. Or rather communities. I am not from the Wye valley, but I am from a theatrical community and I feel at home drinking coffee and chatting in their stable-come-library and I hope I would feel just as at home in and amongst their community Shakespeare. Are places like this more worthy than places like The National? I think perhaps they are.

People like Phil and Sue are so inspiring. They set up Shakespeare Link in 1992 and have done so much but it feels like they are just getting going with the amount of energy that pours out of the couple. I got up early after sleeping on the floor of the Wyeside Arts Centre and drove through the back roads of Wales to the Living Willow Theatre. I then performed for local children. The rest of the company have just gone for a walk down the river and I’m sat typing in a home away from home. Rural arts is so special, I couldn’t have had this day in London.

I have realised that I care a hell of a lot about this, about these theatres and arts centre that exist purely to give. I want to work with them, to make exciting things happen and be a part of the exciting things that already are happening. And as funding and the future gets more and more uncertain, perhaps we all need to take a leaf out of Sue and Phil’s book to find a way to sustain in every sense of the word.

I've no idea how, but I’m very willing to find out how this is done.

Anyone want to do it with me?

If so, email me on alexander@beltuptheatre.com

Alexander Wright

Co-Artistic Director

James Wilkes: How I accidentally became a Political playwright*

2011-02-17T12:32:00.000-08:00

“Political Theatre? All theatre is political. With a small ‘p’ or a capital ‘p’, it’s all political” is one of the pearls of wisdom handed down to Belt Up from York Theatre Royal artistic director (and unsung Scottish philosopher) Damian Cruden whilst we’ve been in residence under his wing. The idea of ‘Political Theatre’ (with a big ‘p’) is something I’ve never really been that interested in to be honest. It wasn’t that I didn’t like it; I just wasn’t intrigued by it. I’m happy to confess that I grew up with that Political apathy commonly attributed to my generation. I was indifferent. Politics were of no interest to me and when I started to write plays they weren’t Political in the slightest, they were surreal and mainly tried to find the most ridiculous use of the word ‘fuck’.

But then something happened. That election that happened last year. Remember that? That’s what happened.

I was pulled into the buzz of the election mainly because of the potential cuts to arts funding. My job is running a theatre company and so this felt like a threat. A danger lurking over the hill. Which party was going to be best for the arts? Labour? They did a war and that. Did they like arts? They’d brought in the ‘A night less ordinary scheme’ – that was nice of them. Or those nice Lib Dem chaps who’ve been sitting patiently in the corner for so long. They seem nice. Quite good policies on the arts too. And that nice Mr Clegg seems lovely. How about the Conservatives? What’s their arts policy? Oh...right... I see.

And then I realised that this was actually the first vote I’d ever have in a general election. What to do with it? So far I was judging almost purely on the arts but then the country changed. Everyone seemed to be interested in this election. More so than anyone had seemed before in my memory – I couldn’t remember the election buzz in 1997, I was more concerned with who was going to win the Intercontinental title in WWE (née WWF). There were all those exciting television debates. That nice Mr Clegg did awfully well didn’t he in that first one? Everyone started discussing the election. Everyone seemed to start becoming Political. And I was too. It felt like an important moment. It wasn’t just about who was going to protect the arts. It was about every aspect. I was now paying tax, I wanted a say in where those taxes went. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to be screwed over by policies that weren’t interested in me. All of a sudden I, like so many other people, was Political.

With that I began to appreciate Political satire. Those funny cartoons in the paper which used to be unfunny had now become funny, well some of them. I started properly appreciating people like Armando Ianucci – the perfect combination of Political satire and genius uses of the word ‘fuck’. I had joyfully stepped out of the Political apathy that I’d been in previously (I was young, everyone was doing it).

And then that fateful day in May came. I’ve been told it’s not the ‘done’ thing to say who you voted for but I can say that I didn’t vote for the baddies. Nevertheless that Mr David Cameron assumed the throne with the potentially not so nice Mr Clegg perched uncomfortably on the arm. And then all those cuts happened. And all those places started closing down. And all those people got angry. I don’t need to describe the effect; you can look in a newspaper to see that.

By Politics (with a big ‘p’) I mean the shifts, changes, decisions etc that happen in regards to government. Politics (with a small ‘p’, it only has a big one in this case for grammatical reasons) are those same conflicts in a much broader sense; the often conflicting interrelationships in society, between friends, between family members, between humans. There’s that advert where they’re like ‘are you interested in politics’ and they list a load of things and then they’re like ‘haha, we tricked you, those are politics’ to make people more political, you remember that? They were trying to get young people out of that political apathy. The point is, before there was a definite difference between Big Politics and little – more personal – politics, of course they’re connected but it was easy to forget that connection. Today though, that connection is Prevalent. Big Politics are having a very visible impact on everyday life and it’s this that has shaken a lot of people out of Political apathy. The sorts of protests that only occurred in France are now happening on our doorstep. A Christmas tree was set on fire. Even Prince Charles and his ‘other woman’ were attacked (or they just wound down their windows for a chat depending on who you’re talking to). People are now using their voices and wanting to be heard.

Up until now I'd say all of my plays, and all of Belt Up’s work have mainly been political in that small ‘p’ way dealing with people, how they respond to each other, the world and society. They've never been overtly Political. But then we were asked to put on a show as part of the York Theatre Royal Takeover Festival (a festival set up with the deceased ‘A Night Less Ordinary’ scheme). We enjoy working with established texts and rediscovering them and we eventually settled on a reworking of John Gay’s ‘The Beggar’s Opera’.

The Beggar’s Opera was written as a Political and political satire in 1728 and caused a scandal with the complain-about-culture-Prick the Lord Chamberlain (nowadays he’s been replaced by the Daily Mail and Stephen Green). We wanted our version to talk about today, to put onstage people like Mr Cameron and that nonce Mr Clegg (he’s not actually a nonce but it’s a play on how I was calling him ‘nice’ earlier, clever) and to talk about some of the Politics that are governing the politics of today. Of course we didn’t want to play people of right now, we wouldn’t get costumes for a start, we’d just be wearing our own clothes. The concept became one of setting our version in the not too distant past, long enough ago for the audience to be relatively objective but recent enough to recognise the effects. Ironically, thanks must go to Mr William Hague for the setting, his quip about Cameron and Osbourne being the ‘Children of Thatcher’ inspired the setting of the 1980’s. So in this adaptation of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ we have a group of ‘beggars’ (they’re not literally beggars) protesting and satirising Maggie Thatcher’s government; A government which has huge echoes with the one we’ve got today. We’ve ended up with a musical that is simultaneously set in 2011, 1988 and 1728. We haven’t let Cameron, Clegg and their chums off the hook of course, they will be appearing onstage but you’ll have to see the show to see in which guises.

And so, despite my years of Political apathy I’ve accidentally become, I guess, a Political playwright. Don’t worry, I’ve spent a long time researching and catching up on all those years of indifference. All theatre is political, it is pretty much impossible for anything to be apolitical, but ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ is unashamedly Political. It’s not propaganda. It’s not a preach. It’s satire. It’s about the political conflicts that we’re living in today. With Margaret Thatcher singing.

James Wilkes

The Beggar's Opera runs from 24th-26th March at York Theatre Royal

* This was going to be called 'Accidental Birth of an Anarchist'. I'm not an anarchist though. It's just a witty (in a wanky way) title that I liked the sound of

The Joys of Being Terrified

2011-02-16T04:47:00.000-08:00

It’s been a while since I was terrified.

It’s strange that years ago when I was a kid I would get terrified and nervous about opening nights, about going on stage. At university I would plan rehearsals and workshops like mad, willing it all to go right. I would sit nail-biting in the corner of a show desperately trying to figure out if the audience were having a good time.

But with every show that I’ve done these feelings grow less and less, little by little. Now I can walk in to a rehearsal and probably know what I need to do, and this is partly down to the people that I work with. I’m quite comfortable in the knowledge that some people will like our shows and some people will hate them, but thankfully the former seems to outweigh the latter.

However, there are two things that have recently re-awoken my scare sensors.

One of these was having an incredible feature in The Observer with companies 1927, Theatre Delicatessen and Analogue. Three years ago I would never have dreamt that we’d be featured in a national paper amongst other companies who are all older and more experienced than us. We all felt quite proud.

It’s great to get this recognition and publicity before we make two big shows: The Beggars Opera in March in the main house at York Theatre Royal, and a site-specific Macbeth in London in April. This is wonderful. This is also terrifying.

It’s quite nice to be terrified again.

I sat all of last week with Dan Wood writing the music for The Beggars Opera. It was a thoroughly enjoyable process and we’re both pleased with the music. But occasionally during this process I look a little step back and said to myself ‘Alex, you’re writing the music for a musical that your directing in an 800 seat theatre. How did that happen?’ And when I put it like that to myself I realised it was quite terrifying.

Last night I watched the press night for To Kill A Mockingbird at York Theatre Royal, directed Damian Cruden, the Artistic Director. It was an incredible show and I became wonderfully drawn in to the steady unfolding of Harper Lee’s tale. But again, just sometimes, during the show my brain took a step back and said ‘You’ve got to do that next month. You’ve got to do a play on that huge stage, with songs.’ And I still found it terrifying.

But it’s a good kind of terrifying. I feel way out of my depth in the best way possible. I’ve gone back to planning rehearsals and workshops and making endless notes in drafts of scripts. Joe, our assistant director, is busy researching like crazy. Dan is busy writing up music. Dom is busy designing with Chris. Jethro is scheduling the world away. James sent through the final draft last night. We have a stage manager called Kim. A production assistant called Laura. Serena is making lists of costumes. It’s brilliant.

I’m scared but I cannot bloody wait to get started.

The cast arrive at the end of Feb and we hit the ground running on the 1^st March.

We’re young and making things up as we go along. And we’ve done okay so far, but I think we’re all ready to try and do better.

The Beggars Opera is political. We are in out 20s and work in theatre, naturally us and the ConDem government don’t get along. So we’ve got things to say and opinions to air, which we are doing in the form of Musical Theatre. What’s terrifying is that I really hope people will come and listen and, perhaps because we were in The Observer, people might.

I hope to see a lot of people there who we recognise, who have seen our work across the years and grown up with us. I also hope to see lots of people who have never seen our work. And I don’t imagine that you will all love it, like every show we do some will love it and some will hate it. But I love it.

The Beggars Opera runs from 24^th – 26^th March at York Theatre Royal

Alexander Wright

Co-Artistic Director

Reviewer of the Week and Runners Up

2011-02-04T08:48:00.000-08:00

Runners up this week include:

'a living hell in more than just a theatrical sense', Jo Beggs for Public Reviews on Odyssey - 1 and a half stars

'It’s not what poor old Quasimodo deserved', Jo Beggs for Public Reviews on Quasimodo- 2 stars

'One woman even yawned aloud.' Natalie Anglesey for City Life on Odyssey - 1 star

Reviewer of the Week goes to Rick Bowen for Lancashire Telegraph:

'I’ve had to sit through some dross, but Belt Up Theatre’s production of Odyssey takes the word to a whole new level... Absolutely aweful.' 1 star

Congratulations Rick Bowen, you're now in the running for Belt Up Theatre's Reviewer of the Year!

Previous Reviewer of the Week winners include:
Tracey Sinclair for Music OMH for her review of 'The Boy James'

CityLife Manchester Evening News Review for Quasimodo

2011-02-02T10:48:00.000-08:00

Odyssey and Quasimodo at the Lowry

CityLife for Manchester Evening News

on Quasimodo ****

It's not hard to see why Belt Up Theatre’s Quasimodo was a sell-out success at the Edinburgh Fringe.

One: it is fantastic; and two: it can only take about 20 people in the audience at any one performance.

That said, this is not a show for the faint hearted. Prepare to take part, be insulted and immersed in the heart-breaking, lonely and ruthless world of Quasimodo.

The drama starts before we even take our seats. A man with bandages over his eyes and a white cane shuffles us along to a small space (a darkened orchestra pit) in the bowels of the theatre.

As he announces, we are entering the Court of Miracles – a surreal world of deceit and villainy. It is a dimly lit room, not much bigger than many sitting rooms. There is the sound of dripping water, manic laughter and cruel taunts from which the audience are not exempt.

Jethro Compton’s adaptation of Victor Hugo’s classic, Notre Dame de Paris, is dark and compelling. Joe Hufton is both vulnerable and monstrous as the deformed Quasimodo. His twisted body, bare-foot and spitting in the darkness, reflects an inescapable torment. He has us crying in sympathy for his painful condition and repulsed by the horror of his actions.

Dominic J Allen is an equally convincing Frollo, whose wealth and authority masks a sinister ugliness inside.

Serena Manteghi as Esmerelda and James Wilkes as Phoebus make up the energetic company, for whom this is the second show of the evening. But you would never guess by watching them. This skilful team has the audience transfixed to the end, never once breaking the theatrical spell – not even for applause.

Spotlight on... Jethro Compton and writing Quasimodo

2011-01-28T08:38:00.000-08:00

Quasimodo is playing for two weeks at The Lowry, 1st - 12th Feb

www.thelowry.com/beltup

INTERVIEW WITH JETHRO COMPTON, writer and director of Quasimodo

What are you hoping the audience will take away with them?

I don’t know. I’d hate to say that ‘I’d like the audience to look at people differently, to look past ugliness’, I think that would probably be a little pretentious. I guess if people can feel sorry for him in spite of who he is, of what he is, of what he does, that’d be great. I’d be really interested to see what people make of Frollo, he’s always seen as the real baddy. I’m not sure he is. Not in the novel, and not in this adaptation. He’s the politician that everyone’s happy to hate, if people can see the man behind that, that’d be great too.

How does Quasimodo differ from the other shows in the Belt Up repertoire?

The audience are cast as a role, not as in other Belt Up shows where you might get cast as an individual, but as a whole. It’s like a story told underneath a magnifying glass. In other Belt Up shows you’re asked to sit side by side with the characters, to go on a journey with them. In Quasimodo you’re asked to be the jury, to sit and observe the characters from a distance, and eventually to judge them.

What was it that made you want to adapt Notre Dame de Paris?

I’ve always loved the story. It’s a story that everyone can relate to. It’s simple and honest. It’s obviously a little more dramatic than reality, but the themes are simple. The themes are about love, about desire and lust, about rejection. It’s not the fairytale that everyone expects. It doesn’t end happily ever after, our hero doesn’t ride away into the sunset, girl in arm, to life happily ever after. He loves the girl, he’d do anything for her, she’s everything to him, but she loves someone else. I think that’s something that everyone experiences at least once in their life.

How faithful an adaptation is it? What can fans of the book expect?

One of the key things with all Belt Up adaptations is that they aren’t just versions of a story, they really do adapt the source into something new and different. That’s what I’ve tried to do here. I’ve tried to dig past the architecture of Paris that Hugo’s novel obsesses with and find the story that everyone really knows, and then I’ve twisted it. I’ve given it the Belt Up treatment, so to speak. I want to give the audience something different than they’ll get from any other version. There are little bits of the novel hidden away throughout the play, little treats for fans of the novel. But if you go in with no idea who Quasimodo even is, that’s not a problem at all, it doesn’t assume anything is a given. So I guess the overall story you get might not be totally faithful, but the emotions from the novel are there, the love is there, and the pain and suffering and the desperation is there. The essence of the novel is all there.

Accidentally a Misogynist: What the Press said...

2011-01-20T13:38:00.000-08:00

I was very excited about The Boy James opening, almost in a childish way because it was the first play I’d written being performed in London. For me this felt important, at least for me it was important.

The other three boys have already had their shows run at Southwark Playhouse and so each have had to deal accordingly with the Press. This is, of course, true of any run. It is inevitable that you will get some good reviews, others bad; some that are fair and others that read like they were watching an entirely different show. I was prepared for this. In Edinburgh The Boy James and my adaptation of Antigone both received wildly varying responses. I have begun to think that the style of my writing might be a love or hate type affair.

However, the Press for The Boy James have levelled an opinion that I had never expected: that a strand of the play is misogynistic.

The first review which mentioned any possible misogyny was the glorious Tracey Sinclair from Musicomh.com, who seemed to hate everything and so I took it with a pinch of salt: ‘It feels vaguely misogynistic; if only it wasn’t for all those rapacious females and their evil ways, the boys could stay uncorrupted and have fun forever!’ (Read the full review here).

However the accusation came again in Sam Marlowe’s review in The Times: ‘There’s also a whiff of sexism to the girl’s portrayal: in her demands to play house or mummies and daddies with the fearful and reluctant boy, and her threat to burn down Barrie’s study, there’s a faint suggestion that women are the natural enemy of male creativity.’ (Read the full review on our blog).

The third came from Ought To Be Clowns: ‘Lucy Farrett, with a great entrance into the show, coped admirably with what comes across as a rather uncomfortably misogynistic role’ (Full review here).

And finally a slightly less overt inference from British Theatre Guide: ‘She has only knocked him out but she thinks violence and hurting people can be exciting and then attempts to introduce him to sex: the female in the biblical tradition of Eve as the instrument of corruption.’ (Again, full review here)

Of course I am not a critic and everyone’s opinion is entirely valid. And obviously I know ‘The Death of The Author’ exists, but is it bad of me to read the above and think ‘You’re wrong, the play isn’t misogynistic’?

I know people interpret things in different ways, but The Boy James hasn’t a hint of misogyny in it. My main way of backing this up is simply because I am not a misogynist in any way shape or form.

There are two ways of approaching my defense, through the topic of the play and through my reasoning around it.

If you’ve seen the show you know what happens. A girl enters the world of James’ childhood self and effectively rapes him. This is violent and upsetting. A little girl rapes a little boy. Yes, this does resonate with the occasional discomfort of being unsympathetically brought in to the adult world by the forces of Time, and of the relative changes that come with that. It does not suggest that all young men are corrupted by young women. Surely if the Boy raped the Girl, that too is misogynist and sexist, subordinating the power of the female?

Sex is, and I’m sure noone will dispute this, a powerful tool and a powerful force. Just look at the amount of sex that is selling products in the media, it is something that adults are drawn to, seduced by, enchanted and obsessed with. Children don’t have this overt obsession. The introduction of sex in to someone’s life is a clear shift from childhood to puberty and to adulthood, not just physically but socially and politically too.

Of course in the play the symbol of this is the Girl, and the change happens rather quickly, but this is due to writing a play and not making a documentary.

Perhaps the above is the disputed point. Perhaps it is merely that the symbol of this shift and change is a girl, instead of a boy.

There are two characters in the play: James as a boy and James as a man. Although the events are not biopic, James is obviously a shadowy symbol of J M Barrie. Here again I split in to two arguments, one of his life and one of his fiction, as The Boy James mingles both.

J M Barrie was heterosexual. Some say a-sexual but he was married to a Mary and later became socially involved with the Llewelyn Davies family and the children’s mother, Sylvia. Apparently his marriage to Mary was unconsummated and also apparently he and Sylvia were engaged when Sylvia died.

There has been speculation as to whether Barrie had a paedophilic relationship with the Llewelyn Davies boys, but this speculation is by no means involved in The Boy James. However, had the Girl been another boy, had a more dominant male interfered or raped a little boy then suddenly The Boy James is about J M Barrie being a paedophile. This was never going to factor in The Boy James.

Considering the above points about any biopic sense in the play, it makes sense for the symbol of adolescence or danger to be a girl, not a boy.

Secondly and, perhaps more importantly, we come to the fictional allusions within The Boy James. In Peter Pan there is a boy who doesn’t want to grow up and a girl who wants him to. There is a boy who wants to remain forever young and careless and a girl who wants to kiss him. There is a boy who wants to stay in adventureland and a girl who wants him to come back to her house. There is Peter Pan and Wendy Darling.

When I watch or read Peter Pan I never think of Wendy as a symbol of misogyny.

The Boy in The Boy James is not a rewrite of the part of Peter Pan and the Girl is not a rewrite of Wendy Darling, but the parallels are there and they are clear and obvious. Wendy wants Peter to grow up, she wants him to kiss her and she plays Mummy to all the Lost Boys. But Wendy is not a misogynistic role.

In The Boy James the Boy wants to play, to go on adventures and make magic things happen, the Girl wants him to kiss her, to look at her, to play Mummies and Daddies. But here the Press have said the Girl is a misogynistic symbol.

I have to say that I disagree.

Alexander Wright

Writer of The Boy James and Co-Artistic Director of Belt Up Theatre

The Boy James runs at Southwark Playhouse until 28^th January.

Extra performances have just been added due to popular demand.

DUE TO POPULAR DEMAND

2011-01-20T07:24:00.000-08:00

We are very happy to announce that due to popular demand we are adding three more performances to the run of The Boy James here at Southwark Playhsoue.

This week:
FRIDAY 21st JAN at 9pm

Next week:
THURSDAY 27th JAN at 9pm
FRIDAY 28th JAN at 9pm

You can secure tickets for these performances at http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/the-vault/the-boy-james/

This coming Sunday 23rd there is a chance to come meet the cast and creative team of the show at Southwark Playhouse after the performance. There are no tickets left for the Sunday show but you can come along at 8.40pm for a drink, talkback session and chance to ask any pressing questions you might have.

Hopefully see some of you there.

A Few More Reviews (inlcuding The Times)

2011-01-17T14:11:00.000-08:00

So we had another handful of reviews come in over yesterday and today. Here is glimpse of what they had to say...

**** from whatsonstage:
'Belt Up have a knack for conjuring moments where hand flies to mouth in shock'

There Ought to be Clowns:
'thoroughly enchanting'

British Theatre Guide:
It's a nice review but there aren't really any good quotes from it. Here is a link so you can read the whole thing if you feel inclined to do so.

As The Times don't allow you to read their reviews without first giving them money very few people will be able to discover this review. So here it is in full:

To die will be an awfully big adventure,” Peter Pan famously declares. Yet in Alexander Wright’s hour-long play about Peter’s creator J. M. Barrie, staged by the immersive-theatre specialists Belt Up, death, both literal and figurative, is a source of scarring trauma. Directed by Dominic J. Allen, the piece attempts to tug its audience back into the world of childhood imagination, where enchantment lies, but beyond whose borders the terrifying adult domain lurks in wait. It’s occasionally harrowing, but the participatory element creates a self-consciousness that sometimes acts as an unfortunate barrier to involvement.

The setting is a small, cosy room that is part Edwardian study, part child’s den.
Overstuffed sofas and cushions provide audience seating, the ceiling and walls are hung with blankets and piles of books surround the oak desk. Here we encounter an eager-eyed Scots boy in striped pyjamas who winsomely cajoles us into playing with him: first, a game of tag, then I Spy. This had my personal inner child drumming her heels with impatience. Happily, the narrative livens up, with the arrival of a nightdress-clad, sulky-looking little girl who bursts in through the fireplace, and then of James (James Wilkes),dour- faced and haunted in pinstripes, the grown-up incarnation of our youthful host. Boy and man face one another, the first longing to be taken on a new adventure, the second insisting on agonising and perhaps overdue separation from his younger self.

The girl (Lucy Farrett), with the spite and mischief of Tinkerbell, dares the boy to drink “poison”, James’s whisky, before sexually assaulting him. It’s a startling and painful journey from innocence to experience.

Peter Pan is, of course, the boy who never grew up; and there are echoes, too, of Barrie’s own intriguing life. The death of his elder brother when Barrie was six and his allegedly asexual adulthood both seem to have informed Wright’s play — which could usefully have given such ideas more room for development. There’s also a whiff of sexism to the girl’s portrayal: in her demands to play house or mummies and daddies with the fearful and reluctant boy, and her threat to burn down Barrie’s study, there’s a faint suggestion that women are the natural enemy of male creativity. The performances, though, are persuasive, particularly Jethro Compton’s poignant boy; and when it’s not trying too strenuously to charm, the production has a penetrating melancholy.

Reviews: A Quite Interesting Endorsement

2011-01-16T06:49:00.000-08:00

The reviews have been coming in from the blogs, and we're expecting the nationals to start coming in over the next few days.

We've had some positive reviews from SE1 and A Younger Theatre, a negative one from Arts Desk, and a bitter and twisted review from the Rt. Hon. Tracey Sinclair of Music OMH that is well worth a read purely for its comic value.

Our highlight so far is not actually a review but a message on Twitter that reads:

'Just been knocked out by "The Boy James" Belt Up's interactive show about J. M. Barrie at The Southwark Playhouse. Still drying my eyes.'

from Mr Stephen Fry.

Tickets available from Southwark Playhouse.

A few shots of The Boy James

2011-01-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

We're now three nights into the run and things are going swimmingly.

A handful of press in tonight and a lot more in tomorrow... so we'll let you know how we get on!

In the meantime, here are some production shots courtesy of Nicholas Coupe, our sometimes stage manager, ocasional photographer and eternal gentleman.

Spotlight On...Dominic J Allen and The Boy James

2011-01-08T05:06:00.001-08:00

You’re back in the directing chair at Southwark Playhouse after Lorca is Dead in November. What’s different about The Boy James?

The Boy James has been a much more intimate directing experience, partly because the cast is so much smaller (three actors instead of eight) and also the tone and texture of the piece is sort of the opposite end of the spectrum. Something the two plays have in common for me as a director is that they both require the audience to be given a helping hand on the journey. In Lorca, for instance, there was a lot of assumed knowledge about surrealism and history that it was important we made sure everyone in the audience was able to be filled in on things they missed. The Boy James doesn't necessarily assume any prior knowledge about anything but the subject matter can be somewhat oblique. This is the great joy of the piece; it's mysterious, intriguing, sinister – so it's important to make sure the audience are with us all the way so they get the full experience by the end.

Is it hard to switch between the two styles, the madcap nature of Lorca and the intimate tragedy of The Boy James?

One of the good things about having done Lorca immediately before Boy James is that I feel I've got a bit of practice in when it comes to pulling at the heart strings. Although Lorca had its topsy-turvy moments, it also had an emotional centre. The Boy James is very similar in this respect except the melancholy is more profound and perhaps more immediately visible. So, in a way, I guess it's not as hard as it may first appear. It's been an interesting learning curve though, taking the plunge into these darker areas.

Belt Up’s shows are typically interactive and involve the audience in the story. What is the audiences place in The Boy James?

It suits the piece that it's never made explicitly clear who the audience is or what they represent. The cast and I have got our own ideas about that, of course. The important thing about the audience's place in the play is their journey with the boy. They enter as old friends – perhaps even imaginary friends, or memories – and some audience members can expect to be cast in certain roles but their involvement will shift as much as the boy's experiences shift. You'll have to come and see for yourself where the audience end up.

Belt Up works at break neck speed, coming straight to Southwark after a rural tour of Octavia. How do you find the time to get a show back up and running?

It wasn't half as bad as I was expecting, actually. We had to rehearse in a new actress (Lucy Farrett, taking over from Veronica Hare) but it was easy for us all to slip back into it. It was also very useful returning to a play that's already had a good month long run in Edinburgh because there were things we knew we wanted to change and try out. As we all got back into it so quickly, it gave us some time to put a few new ideas to the test.

You were here in November, what makes The Boy James worth the return visit for the audience?

Because it's not what you'll be expecting. Lorca, Atrium and Quasimodo, even though they weren't directly related, fitted together in a way that's hard to describe. The Boy James on the other hand has something completely different to offer so its worth just coming for a look. It's neither mad nor scary. It's something else...

Spotlight on... Jethro Compton and The Boy James

2011-01-06T12:21:00.000-08:00

Tell us about The Boy James – how did it go in Edinburgh?
I think we’d all agree that the show was a success at the Fringe. We were lucky enough to play to full houses for every performance and received some really positive reviews (as well as a couple of comically awful ones). It was the first time ‘The Boy James’ had been seen by anyone; we didn’t do previews prior to Edinburgh so we literally had no idea what to expect. For us the play was about so many things; we spent a lot of time in rehearsals trying to work out all its meaning and what lay beneath the surface. I think one of the most important things we missed was the emotional potential that the play holds. In our first public dress in Edinburgh we were shocked and delighted when half the audience left completely broken by the story. We hadn’t anticipated such a reaction. I’m glad to say that it was a reaction that continued throughout the month.

You played the Boy in Edinburgh. How does it feel coming back to a role after almost five months off?

I’ve loved every second of it. To be able to come back to the show after such a long time has given me the chance to look at it in a completely different way. I can’t just remember how I did it before; I’ve got to rediscover it. A lot of what existed in the Edinburgh production has returned but a lot more has been added. We’ve had the time to take what we already know and find more to build on top of what we have. The cast has changed slightly as well, so we’ve not simply been rerehearsing it. For Lucy as the Girl it’s been a case of starting afresh and I think that’s definitely challenged the rest of us to push ourselves even further.

You don’t sell yourself as an actor, rather a producer. Why do you want to take on and continue this role?

I’ve taken a break since the Fringe to give me more time to focus on producing but I always said that if the opportunity came up again I’d definitely want the chance to play the Boy again. I think part of the reason is that I felt in Edinburgh I didn’t get the chance to put everything into the character; as well as performing in two other shows, writing two shows and directing two, I also produced The House Above and the eight shows that were part of it. The amount of time available to me was so limited that I never even once had a chance to look at a script outside of rehearsals; working fifteen to twenty hour days for three weeks straight meant free time was such a rarity that I felt it should be used for sleep rather than anything else. Now there’s a chance to go back to the play and to the character with the time they deserve I couldn’t really say no.

It’s a very intimate piece. Is it difficult to create a relationship with the audience that is so seriously jeopardised, or changed, by the end of the play?

The first time an audience filed in for the show I was absolutely petrified. One of the real difficulties with any of our shows is that you can’t really rehearse until that moment. It says in the script to ‘play with the audience’, and until you have that audience you can only imagine what that moment’s go to be like. I was so relieved to discover that the audience seemed more than happy to oblige, they laughed and played along and offered everything they could. I think creating a relationship with any audience is hard, however, it’s the focus of such a large part of ‘The Boy James’ so I think it comes quite naturally. Once it’s there, jeopardising it or changing it is outside of the Boy’s control. For me as an actor I don’t feel it’s a difficult change, but maybe one that does leave me feeling a little guilty.

Is it worth watching, especially as you were only here two months ago?

Absolutely. ‘The Boy James’ is so different from the shows that featured in the Belt up Season in November. That’s why it sits alone. I think it’s a show that will appeal to all. There is something in ‘The Boy James’ that clearly has a truly emotional impact on its audience. I can’t say what it is, not because I’m not allowed but because I’m not able. There is something here that can only be felt when you make the journey and go along with the Boy’s adventure. I can’t encourage you enough.

What The Audience Think...

2011-01-04T04:09:00.000-08:00

Thoughts from Val Burgess on her first Belt Up experience...

'I thought about doing a write up of the shows that I've seen over the past few months, but instead I'm sending you what I wrote shortly after seeing The Tartuffe, my first Belt Up show, when I knew nothing about the company other than you'd started at York Uni and were now in residence at YTR.

I knew I was going to enjoy Belt Up Theatre’s The Tartuffe when we were standing in the theatre bar, and members of the cast were mingling amongst us. We chatted with clowns, ladies in corsets, mimes, and the great actor Orgon Poquelin (who was a little put out that we didn’t realise that he was the star of the show), and a chap who asked our names, which we obligingly told him.

As we went to take our seats in the second row of the stalls, the same chap was learning over the edge of the circle, and announced to all the audience ‘here ladies and gentlemen, we have Val and Julie, who have just entered’, of course, we took a bow, and took our seats.

What I hadn’t realised was that we were attending the very final performance of The Tartuffe, and over the last couple of years, and performances in York, Edinburgh, and London, this show has gained it’s own cult following. Belt Up’s style is Immersive Theatre, and for this last show, there were a lot of people who had seen it before, and were happy to get involved. Most people on the front row were dragged up on stage in some way. I was, of course, kicking myself that we were on the second row.

It was, quite simply, the best production I’ve seen for some time, funny, clever, very irreverent, with enough theatre ‘in-jokes’ to make a theatre snob happy, and then some.

By the end, the whole of the audience were on their feet, as Orgon died, and was lifted aloft like a dead Christ. The cheering went on for some time. This time, I didn’t begrudge the standing ovation, they deserved it. They’re in residence at York Theatre Royal, and I’ll definitely be seeking out what they do next. Also, they have a blog. Seek them out people, you won’t regret it.

Since then, I've seen Midsummer Night's Dream, Lorca (which I recommended to a friend in London, who also loved it, and who also recommended it to friends), Antigone, Macbeth, Elsewhere, and Octavia. I've seen you perform in attics, open spaces, a library and a pub restaurant. You've made me laugh, cry uncontrollably and celebrate the sheer joy of live theatre. I'm looking forward to what 2011 brings.'

Thanks Val!

Keep them coming...

info@beltuptheatre.com

What The Audience Think...

2011-01-03T03:24:00.000-08:00

We asked you for your thoughts on Belt Up and your experiences over the last few years.

Here’s the first in from Andrew Skipper.

‘During this years Edinburgh fringe I was dragged, somewhat hung over and unwilling, to see a production I'd never heard of called Lorca is Dead, I had no idea who you were and had never seen any productions before, the only prior knowledge I had was of reading Lorca's Blood Wedding which i didn't even like

Needless to say I left the venue that night amazed, I loved your production and was astounded by the style in which you performed it. I was so blown away I found a similarly unwilling university friend of mine and bought her to your final night at the Southwark playhouse. This time I knew what to expect so I made sure to sit right in the action on the floor and because of this I; had my face stroked by Dali, performed the elephant, had Dali and Gala lying on top of me and my friend was brought up to read some of the lines behind Breton's desk.

She was just as amazed as I was the first night I saw it, in fact this was better than Edinburgh for a few reasons but mainly because of the lack of clapping at the end, in Edinburgh someone started a round of applause which I found didn't feel right but this performance went perfectly and we left the theatre that suitably distraught and in awe.

One moment that has stuck out in my mind is the ending image of Breton behind his desk, distraught and broken, in both performances this was a brilliant piece of acting which I couldn't look away from, so much so that I remember seeing the actor playing Breton out and about in Edinburgh the next day and feeling very odd in need because as a company you created a level of character realism which I haven't seen matched to date and seeing caught me off guard!

Unfortunately being students we couldn't afford to stay for Atrium afterwards at Southwark but have just bought tickets to the final show of The Boy James on the 28th, which we are highly looking forward to.

So many thanks Belt up, for a wonderful performance and giving us a kick of inspiration which is helping with our own work at university!’

If you want to send us your thoughts then drop us an email on info@beltuptheatre.com.

Ta.

The Last Three Years

2010-12-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

We now have a full show archive of all our professional work to date: www.beltuptheatre.com/archive

2011 fast approaches and in January Belt Up will be three years old.

In real terms 3 years isn’t that long a time, but thinking back to those early days it seems like decades. So, because it’s a festive time we thought we’d reflect. Or rather, we thought we’d ask you to reflect.

Here are all the shows we’ve ever done, and we want to know your thoughts. I guess anyone who reads this must have seen or heard of our work in one way or another and we want to know your best bits, your worst bits, your weirdest bits, your funniest bits, your most entertaining bits and your most exciting bits. Send them through to us we’ll put them up here. Our email is info@beltuptheatre.com

We have had a very good three years, and another very busy year coming up. And then…who knows…watch this space!

This is the story so far...

(from now, Dec 2010, back to Jan 2008)

Octavia
by Jethro Compton
DECEMBER 2010 – Yorkshire and Cornish Tour
Performed in Sutton on the Forest, Great Broughton, Kettlewell, Coxwold, Newlyn, Saltash, Bude, Mevagissey, Lelant

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: ALEXANDER WRIGHT & JETHRO COMPTON
COMPOSER: DAN WOOD AND ALEXANDER WRIGHT
TRUCKING: DOMINIC J ALLEN and ALEXANDER WRIGHT

Mrs. Heinzel/Queen/Mariana – Serena Manteghi
Mr. Heinzel – Dominic J Allen
Octavia (puppeteer) – Jethro Compton
Spriggan/Prince (puppeteer) – Joe Hufton
Musician – Alexander Wright

Lorca is Dead: or a brief history of surrealism
By Dominic J Allen
As part of ‘THE BELT UP SEASON’ November 2010 at Southwark Playhouse London

DIRECTOR: DOMINIC J ALLEN
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
MUSIC BY: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
CHOEROGRAPHER: CHI-SAN HOWARD
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: NICK COUPE

Breton – Marcus Emerton
Gala – Lucy Farrett
Aragon – Patrick Fysh
Bunuel – Joe Hufton
Magritte – Serena Manteghi
Dali – James Wilkes
Eluard – Dominic J Allen
Artaud – Alexander Wright

Atrium
By James Wilkes
As part of ‘THE BELT UP SEASON’ November 2010 at Southwark Playhouse London
DIRECTOR: JETHRO COMPTON
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: NICK COUPE

Malcolm – Marcus Emerton
Paul – Alexander Wright
Pennie – James Wilkes
Butter – Lucy Farrett

Quasimodo
By Jethro Compton after Victor Hugo
As part of ‘THE BELT UP SEASON’ November 2010 at Southwark Playhouse London

DIRECTOR: JETHRO COMPTON
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
COMPOSER: GAVIN WHITWORTH
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: NICK COUPE

Quasimodo – Joe Hufton
Esmerelda – Serna Manteghi
Frollo – Dominic J Allen
Captain – Patrick Fysh

Elsewhere
October 2010
With Young Actors Company for York Theatre Royal Takover Festival
Directed by Alexander Wright & Julian Ollive
Devised by The Company

Dominic J Allen
Rebecca Beattie
Carl Bowstead
Bryony Byrne
Daisy Douglas
Luke James
Steve Johnson
Joshua Mason Wood
Rebecca Storey
Cat Tottie
Abigail White
James Wilkes

Macbeth
By William Shakespeare
October 2010 York Theatre Royal Main House

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
COMPOSER: JONNY SIMMS
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
SOUND DESIGNER: JONNY RATHBONE
SOUND TECHNICIAN: GARETH PRESCOTT

Macbeth – Dominic J Allen
Witch: Captain/Lady Macbeth/Lady Macduff – James Wilkes
Witch: Banquo/Malcom/Young Macduff/Seward – Joe Hufton
Witch: Duncan/Macduff/Fleance/Doctor – Marcus Emerton

Dracula

by James Wilkes after Bram Stoker

August 2010 - Behind the Scenes at Edinburgh International Festival

CONCEPT: DOMINIC ALLEN, JETHRO COMPTON, JAMES WILKES, ALEXANDER WRIGHT

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT

Hypnotist - Dominic J Allen

Renfield - James Wilkes

Seward - Marcus Emerton

Quincey - Jethro Compton

THE HOUSE PARTIES
as part of ‘The House Above’ August 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Prohibition Night
Surrealist Ball
Totalitarian Night
Proud Proud People
Edward and the Itch

Octavia
by Jethro Compton
as part of ‘The House Above’ August 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: LUCY HOWE

Mrs. Heinzel – Sarah Gordon
Mr. Heinzel – Dan Wood
Octavia – Veronica Hare
Grotesque – Mia de Graaf
Grotesque – Chi-San Howard
Grotesque – Janey Stephenson

Odyssey
By Dominic J Allen after Homer
As part of ‘The House Above’ August 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
MUSIC AND SOUND DESIGN: GARETH PRESCOTT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: LUCY HOWE

Ted Stirling - Dan Wood
Woman – Janey Stephenson
Man – Chris White

The Boy James
by Alexander Wright
As part of ‘The House Above’ August 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: DOMINIC J ALLEN
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: LUCY HOWE

Boy – Jethro Compton
Girl – Veronica Hare
James – James Wilkes

Metamorphosis
By James Wilkes after Franz Kafka
As part of ‘The House Above’ August 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
MUSIC BY: MICHAEL SLATER
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
SOUND DESIGNER: GARETH PRESCOTT
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: OLIVER JULIAN
Gregor – James Wilkes
Greta – Veronica Hare
Mr. Samsa – Dominic J Allen
Mrs. Samsa – Lucy Farrett
Grotesque/Chief Clerk – Marcus Emerton
Grotesque/Boss – Serena Manteghi
Grotesque/Cleaner – Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Grotesque/Tenant – Jethro Compton
Grotesque/Tenant – Patrick Fysh
Grotesque/Tenant – Joe Hufton

Lorca is Dead: or a brief history of surrealism
By Dominic J Allen
As part of ‘The House Above’ August 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: DOMINIC J ALLEN
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
MUSIC BY: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
CHOEROGRAPHER: CHI-SAN HOWARD
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: OLIVER JULIAN

Breton – Marcus Emerton
Gala – Lucy Farrett
Aragon – Patrick Fysh
Bunuel – Joe Hufton
Magritte – Chris White
Dali – James Wilkes
Eluard – Dan Wood
Artaud – Alexander Wright

Antigone
by Alexander Wright after Sophocles
As part of ‘The House Above’ August 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
MUSIC BY: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
CHOEROGRAPHER: CHI-SAN HOWARD
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: GARETH PRESCOTT

Antigone – Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Haemon – Jethro Compton
Ismene – Serena Manteghi
Creon – Dominic J Allen
Eteocles – Chris White
Polynices – Alexander Wright

Quasimodo
By Jethro Compton after Victor Hugo
As part of ‘The House Above’ August 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: JETHRO COMPTON
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
COMPOSER and PIANIST: GAVIN WHITWORTH
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: GARETH PRESCOTT

Quasimodo – Joe Hufton
Esmerelda – Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Frollo – Dominic J Allen
Captain – Patrick Fysh

Atrium
By James Wilkes
As part of ‘The House Above’ August 2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: JETHRO COMPTON
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER and TECHNICIAN: GARETH PRESCOTT

Malcolm – Marcus Emerton
Paul – Alexander Wright
Pennie – Serena Manteghi
Butter – Lucy Farrett

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
By William Shakespeare
June 2010 – York Rowntree Park

DIRECTOR: MARCUS EMERTON
PRODUCER: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
MUSIC: JAMIE OLIVER
CHOREOGRAPHY: CHI-SAN HOWARD

Oberon - Dom Allen
Titania - Lucy Farrett
Demetrius - James Wilkes
Helena - Janey Stephenson
Lysander- Alexander Wright
Hermia - Serena Manteghi
Puck - Chris White
Starveling - Tom Vickers
Bottom - Marcus Emerton
Quince - Joe Hufton
Flute - Freddie Hall
Snout - Max Tyler
Snug - James Oliver
Theseus - Dominic Allen
Hippolyta - Lucy Farrett
Philostrate - Chris White
Chorus:
Lucy Hammond
Bryony Byrne
Julia Clague
Mia De Graaf
Chi San Howard
Ellie Taylor
Amy Powell Yates

The Tartuffe (farewell performance)
By James Wilkes after Moliere
May 2010 York Theatre Royal Main House

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER: OLIVER JULIAN
DEPUTY STAGE MANAGER: JETHRO COMPTON
TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS: GARETH PRESCOTT and NICK COUPE

Orgon Poquelin – Dominic J Allen
Renard Le Clown/Damis – Jethro Compton
Jacques/Cleante – James Wilkes
Amorette /Marianne – Serena Manteghi
Racine/Dorine – Rachel Finnegan
Ethelle/Elmire – Lucy Farrett
Patrice/Tartuffe – Marcus Emerton

Margaret - Danie Linsell
Jean Clo – Alexander Wright
Le Bass – Patrick Fysh
Gaston Ledoux – Dan Wood
Timote le Roadie – Joe Hufton
Les Triplettes:
Sarah Gordon
Veronica Hare
Chi San Howard

Lorca is Dead: or a brief history of surrealism
By Dominic J Allen
May 2010 York Theatre Royal Studio

DIRECTOR: DOMINIC J ALLEN
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
COMPOSER: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
CHOREOGRAPHER: CHI-SAN HOWARD
STAGE MANAGERS: LUCY HOWE AND GARETH PRESCOTT
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: OLIVER JULIAN

CAST:
Aragon: Patrck Fysh
Artaud: Alexander Wright
Breton: Marcus Emerton
Bunuel: Joe Hufton
Dali: James Wilkes
Eluard: Dan Wood
Gala: Lucy Farrett
Magritte: Chris White

The Order of Atlantis
March/April 2010
As Visiting Artists at the National Student Drama Festival with Punchdrunk Enrichment

Concept by Dominic J Allen, Jethro Compton, James Wilkes and Alexander Wright
Devised and performed by:
Dominic Allen

Jethro Compton

Lucy Farrett

Rachel Finnegan

Paddy Fysh

Veronica Hare

Joe Hufton

Serena Manteghi

Francesca Murray-Fuentes

Niamh Walsh

James Wilkes

Dan Wood

Alexander Wright

Stage Manager: Polly Ingham

The Tartuffe
BY JAMES WILKES
March 2010
Great Whyrly Performing Arts High School (South Staffs) and The Parkhouse Centre (Bude)

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON

Orgon Poquelin – Dominic J Allen
Renard Le Clown/Damis – Jethro Compton
Jacques/Cleante – James Wilkes
Jean Clo /Marianne – Alexander Wright
Racine/Dorine – Rachel Finnegan (GWPAHS) and Nic Lamont (PARKHOUSE)
Ethelle/Elmire – Lucy Farrett
Patrice/Tartuffe – Marcus Emerton

A Ghost Walk
February/March 2010 – York Theatre Royal
Devised and Performed by Dominic J Allen, Jethro Compton, James Wilkes and Alexander Wright

The Tartuffe
BY JAMES WILKES
November 2009 – Southwark Playhouse London

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON

Orgon Poquelin – Dominic J Allen
Renard Le Clown/Damis – Jethro Compton
Jacques/Cleante – James Wilkes
Jean Clo /Marianne – Alexander Wright
Racine/Dorine – Rachel Finnegan
Ethelle/Elmire – Lucy Farrett
Patrice/Tartuffe – Marcus Emerton

The Trial
BY DOMINIC J ALLEN AFTER FRANZ KAFKA
November 2009 – Southwark Playhouse London

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
SOUND DESIGNER: MICHEAL SLATER
COMPOSER: GAVIN WHITWORTH

Joseph K – Dominic J Allen
Chorus :
Jethro Compton
Marcus Emerton
Lucy Farrett
Rachel Finnegan
James Wilkes
Alexander Wright

The Tartuffe
BY JAMES WILKES after Moliere
October 2009 - Part of York Theatre Royal’s Takeover Festival

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
DEPUTY STAGE MANAGER: ALEXANDER WRIGHT and JETHRO COMPTON

Orgon Poquelin – Dominic J Allen
Renard Le Clown/Damis – Jethro Compton
Jacques/Cleante – James Wilkes
Amorette /Marianne – Serena Manteghi
Racine/Dorine – Rachel Finnegan
Ethelle/Elmire – Lucy Farrett
Patrice/Tartuffe – Marcus Emerton

Margaret - Danie Linsell
Jean Clo – Alexander Wright
Le Bass – Patrick Fysh
Les Triplettes:
Sarah Gordon
Veronica Hare
Chi San Howard

The Trial
BY DOMINIC J ALLEN AFTER FRANZ KAFKA
October 2009 - Part of York Theatre Royal’s Takeover Festival

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
SOUND DESIGNER: MICHEAL SLATER
COMPOSER: GAVIN WHITWORTH

Joseph K – Dominic J Allen
Chorus :
Jethro Compton
Marcus Emerton
Lucy Farrett
Rachel Finnegan
Patrick Fysh
Sarah Gordon
Veronica Hare
Chi San Howard

Danie Linsell
Serena Manteghi
Francesca Murray-Fuentes
James Wilkes
Alexander Wright

The Tartuffe
BY JAMES WILKES after Moliere
Part of ‘The Squat’ August 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON

Orgon Poquelin – Dominic J Allen
Renard Le Clown/Damis – Jethro Compton
Jacques/Cleante – James Wilkes
Mimi/Marianne – Niamh Walsh
Amorette/Dorine – Serena Manteghi
Ethelle/Elmire – Lucy Farrett
Patrice/Tartuffe – Marcus Emerton
Jean Clo – Alexander Wright
Benoit – Niall Walsh

The Trial
BY DOMINIC J ALLEN AFTER FRANZ KAFKA
Part of ‘The Squat’ August 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
SOUND DESIGNER: MICHEAL SLATER
COMPOSER: GAVIN WHITWORTH
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: ZOE HUGHES

Joseph K – Dominic J Allen
Chorus :
Jethro Compton
Marcus Emerton
Sarah Gordon
Zoe Hughes
Vicky Lloyd
Serena Manteghi
Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Niall Walsh
James Wilkes
Michael Wilkins
Alexander Wright

Squat Nights
Part of ‘The Squat’ August 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe
UnBirthday Party
Love Story
The Fastest Train To Anywhere
Surrealist Piece, by Paddy Fysh
Tartuffe Cabaret

Leasspell

August 2009 - Behind the Scenes at Edinburgh International Festival

PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: LAURA MURPHY

CAST:
Dominic J Allen
Marcus Emerton
Lucy Farrett
Sarah Gordon
Virginia Hartman
Joe Hufton
Victoria Lloyd
Serena Mantegi
Layla Merrick-Wolf
Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Niall Walsh
Niamh Walsh
James Wilkes
Alexander Wright

Persephone
August 2009 at the Forest Fringe, Edinburgh
CAST:
Dominic J Allen
Marcus Emerton
Lucy Farrett
Sarah Gordon
Virginia Hartman
Joe Hufton
Victoria Lloyd
Serena Mantegi
Layla Merrick-Wolf
Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Niall Walsh
Niamh Walsh
James Wilkes
Alexander Wright

The Tempest
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
July 2009 – The RSC Dell Stratford

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT

CAST:
Prospero – James Wilkes
Miranda – Lucy Farrett
Caliban – Dominic J Allen
Ariel – Niamh Walsh
Ferdinand – Jethro Compton
Stephano – Nic Lamont
Trinculo – Paddy Fysh
Sebastian – Marcus Emerton
Anthonio – Joe Hufton
Alonso – Dan Wood
Gonzalo – Layla Merrick-Woolf
Adrian/Fransico – Michael Wilkins
Boatswain – Niall Walsh

Chorus –
Sarah Gordon
Veronica Hare
Virginia Hartman
Chi-San Howard
Tom Jones
Serena Manteghi
Francesca Murray-Fuentes

The Oresteia
BY DOMINIC J ALLEN AND JAMES WILKES AFTER AESCHYLUS
February 2009 York Theatre Royal Studio

DIRECTOR: DOMINIC J ALLEN AND JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: ALEXANDER WRIGHT

CAST:
Clytemnestra – Rachel Finnegan
Agamemnon – Marcus Emerton
Aegisthus – Tom Ellis
Orestes – Tom Powis
Old Woman/Athena – Danie Linsell
Apollo – Niall Walsh
Electra/Iphigenia – Lucy Farrett
Fury – Layla Merrick-Wolf
Fury – Francesca Murray-Fuentes
Fury – Niamh Walsh

Instinct
BY JAMES WILKES
December 2008 – The University of York

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: LUCY HOWE, TOM POWIS & NIC LAMONT
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: TOM POWIS
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER: NIC LAMONT
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: REBECCA HARRIS

CAST:
Dominic J Allen
Jethro Compton
Marcus Emerton
Rachel Finnegan
Joe Hufton
Alex Lawless
Danie Linsell
Victoria Lloyd
Serena Manteghi
Francessca Murray-Fuentes
Tom Powis
Niall Walsh
Niamh Walsh
Alexander Wright

The Seven Seas
By James Wilkes
December 2008
University of York
Created by Jethro Compton & James Wilkes

The Pitchfork Disney
BY PHILLIP RIDLEY
November 2008 – The University of York

DIRECTOR: DOMINIC J ALLEN
PRODUCER: TOM POWIS
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: JAMES WILKES

CAST:
Presley Stray - Marcus Emerton
Hayley Stray - Lucy Farrett
Cosmo Disney - Spencer Elliot
Pitchfork Cavalier - Tom Ellis

William and Octavia
BY ALEXANDER WRIGHT AND JETHRO COMPTON
October 2008 – The University of York

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: JETHRO COMPTON
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON

CAST:
Dominic J Allen
Lucy Farrett
Rachel Finnegan
Serena Manteghi
Tom Powis
Niamh Walsh
James Wilkes

The Fastest Train To Anywhere
By Alexander Wright
October 2008
University of York
Created by James Wilkes & Dominic Allen

The Pervert Circus
Part of ‘The Red Room’ August 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Devised by the Company

Love Part 1
and
Love Part 2
By ALEXANDER WRIGHT
Part of ‘The Red Room’ August 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Cast:
Rachel Finnegan
Geoff Gedroyc

Romeo and Juliet
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Part of ‘The Red Room’ August 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: DOMINIC J ALLEN, JETHRO COMPTON, JAMES WILKES, ALEXANDER WRIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER: LUCY HOWE & JETHRO COMPTON
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: JUTSUS VON VERSCHUER & REBECCA HARRIS

CAST:
Romeo – Tom Powis
Juliet – Sarah Barker
Capulet – Matthew Lacey
Lady Capulet – Niamh Walsh
Nurse – Lucy Farrett
Mercutio – Matt Springett
Tybalt – Alex Forsyth
Prince – Dominic J Allen
Friar Lawrence – James Wilkes
Montague – David Jarman
Lady Montague – Danie Linsell
Paris – Ed Duncan-Smith
Benvolio – Joe Hufton
Balthasar – Jethro Compton
Sampson – Jethro Compton
Gregory – Nikolaus Morris
Abram – Ollie Tilney
Apothecary – Alex Lawless
Peter – Nic Carter

Macbeth
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Part of ‘The Red Room’ August 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: DOMINIC J ALLEN, JETHRO COMPTON, JAMES WILKES, ALEXANDER WRIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER: LUCY HOWE & JETHRO COMPTON
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: JUTSUS VON VERSCHUER & REBECCA HARRIS

CAST:
Macbeth – Dominic J. Allen
Lady Macbeth – Lucy Farrett
Witches/Murderers – Sarah Barker, Matt Springett, Niamh Walsh
Banquo – Alex Forsyth
Duncan – Matthew Lacey
Macduff – Ollie Tilney
Lady Macduff – Danie Linsell
Young Macduff – Alex Lawless
Malcolm – Ed Duncan-Smith
Donaldbain – David Jarman
Hecate – Rachel Finnegan
Fleance – Jethro Compton
Lennox – Alan Stewart/Thomas Ellis
Ross – Joe Hufton
Porter – James Wilkes
Old Man – Matthew Lacey
Seyton – Alex Lawless

Women of Troy
BY JAMES WILKES AFTER EURIPIDIES
Part of ‘The Red Room’ August 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: DOMINIC J ALLEN, JETHRO COMPTON, JAMES WILKES, ALEXANDER WRIGHT

MUSIC BY: NICK ASHBY

SOUND DESIGN BY: ED DOWIE
STAGE MANAGER: LUCY HOWE

CAST:
Hecuba – Anna Rhode
Cassandra – Sarah Barker
Andromache – Danie Linsell
Helen – Lida Mirzaii
Guard – Joe Hufton
Talthybius – Ed Duncan-Smith
Menelaus – Ollie Tilney
Chorus – Alice Boagey, Sarah Waite

Volpone
BY DOMINIC J ALLEN AFTER BEN JONSON
Part of ‘The Red Room’ August 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: DOMINIC J ALLEN
PRODUCER: DOMINIC J ALLEN, JETHRO COMPTON, JAMES WILKES, ALEXANDER WRIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER: LUCY HOWE
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: JUTSUS VON VERSCHUER & REBECCA HARRIS

CAST:
Volpone – Joe Hufton
Mosca – James Wilkes
Nano – Lida Merzaii
Androgyno – Olly Tilney
Castrogne – Alexander Wright
Voltore – Matthew Lacey
Corbaccio – Alexander Lawless
Corvino – Nikolaus Morris
Lady Politic Would-Be – Danie Linsell
Mrs Corvino - Rachel Finnegan
Bonario - Tom Ellis
Clerk – Dominic J. Allen

The Park Keeper
BY NIKOLAUS MORRIS
Part of ‘The Red Room’ August 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: NIKOLAUS MORRIS
PRODUCER: DOMINIC J ALLEN, JETHRO COMPTON, JAMES WILKES, ALEXANDER WRIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
COMPOSER: NIKOLAUS MORRIS
STAGE MANAGER: LUCY HOWE
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: JUTSUS VON VERSCHUER & REBECCA HARRIS

CAST:
Talbot/Aaron – Matt Springett
Rebecca – Niamh Walsh
Finn – Dominic J Allen
Gabbitas – James Wilkes
Catrina – Nic Carter
Thring – Alex Lawless
Phanotourist – Alexander Wright
Phanotourist – Rachel Finnegan
Phanotourist – Sarah Barker
Phanotourist – Sarah Waite
Phanotourist – Alice Boagey

The Tartuffe
BY JAMES WILKES
Part of ‘The Red Room’ August 2008 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

DIRECTOR: JAMES WILKES
PRODUCER: DOMINIC J ALLEN, JETHRO COMPTON, JAMES WILKES, ALEXANDER WRIGHT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER: LUCY HOWE
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: JUTSUS VON VERSCHUER & REBECCA HARRIS

CAST:
Orgon Poquelin – Dominic J Allen
Renard Le Clown/Damis – Jethro Compton
Guillaume/Cleante – Matt Springet
Mimi/Marianne – Niamh Walsh
Genevieve/Dorine – Nicola Carter
Francine/Elmire – Anna Rohde
Sylvestre/Tartuffe – Nikolaus Morris

A Clockwork Orange
BY ANTHONY BURGES
June 2008
York Theatre Royal Studio

DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: NIC LEMONT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
SOUND DESIGNER: ED DOWIE
COMPOSER/VIDEO DIRECTOR: NIKOLAUS MORRIS
STAGE MANAGER: RACHEL LERMAN
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: FRAN OLLEY

CAST:
Alex – Alex Forsyth
Chorus:
Sarah Barker
Lucy Farrett
Geoff Gedroyc
Joe Hufton
Danie Linsell
Mark McDaid
Lida Mirzaii
William Poskitt
Ollie Tilney

The Grotesque Tea Party
June 2008
The Shunt Vaults London

LEADER: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON & JAMES WILKES
STAGE MANAGER: LUCY HOWE

CAST:
Sarah Barker
Nicola Carter
Jethro Compton
Alex Forsyth
Danie Linsell
Tom Powis
Niamh Walsh
James Wilkes

Morbid Curiosity
BY DOMINIC J ALLEN
May 2008
University of York

DIRECTOR: DOMINIC J ALLEN
PRODUCER: NIC LAMONT
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
STAGE MANAGER: RACHEL LERMAN
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: JUSTUS VON VERSCHUER

CAST:
Dr Hart - Matt Springett
Eugene Flint – Jethro Compton
Mr Leach – Simon Maeder
Mr Morgan – James Wilkes
Ms Lambert – Lucy Farrett
The Man – Matthew Lacey

Metamorphosis
BY STEVEN BERKOFF AFTER FRANZ KAFKA
DIRECTOR: ALEXANDER WRIGHT
PRODUCER: NICOLA CARTER
LIGHTING DESIGNER: JETHRO COMPTON
SOUND DESIGNER: MICHAEL SLATER
STAGE MANAGER: RACHEL LERMAN
TECHNICAL ASSISTANT: FRAN OLLEY

April 2008 - NATIONAL STUDENT DRAMA FESTIVAL 2008 CAST:
Gregor Samsa - James Wilkes
Mr Samsa – Dominic J Allen
Mrs Samsa – Danie Linsell
Greta Samsa – Sarah Barker
Lodgers/Chief Clerk - Matt Springett
Grotesque Chorus:
Jethro Compton
Lucy Farrett
Nikolaus Morris
Tom Powis
Matt Springett
Niamh Walsh

January 2008 - UNIVERSITY OF YORK CAST:
Gregor Samsa - James Wilkes
Mr Samsa – Dominic J Allen
Mrs Samsa – Danie Linsell
Greta Samsa – Sarah Barker
Lodgers/Chief Clerk - Matt Springett
Grotesque Chorus:
Lucy Farrett
Alex Forsyth
Tom Powis
Matt Springett
Niamh Walsh

Dreamscape
January 2008
University of York
Devised by The Company

Rural Touring...

2010-12-29T03:35:00.000-08:00

A few months ago we had some work fall through that had been planned across December and January. It was too late to try and get in to any theatre’s programme and we couldn’t just leave two empty months standing by. So, to fill the gap, we thought we’d try and take Octavia, our family show, around some rural venues.

I can clearly recount the day I spent sitting ringing over 100 village halls in Yorkshire and Cornwall to try and make it happen: speaking to innumerate people, explaining the shows, leaving messages, posting information out, emailing dates and times and costs. It was a surprisingly large amount of work.

We have never done any rural touring before. The closest we’ve got is taking shows back to our home towns for one night only, but this is different and quite easy, because our home towns are our home towns. I got some help and information off Rural Arts in Yorkshire and Carn to Cove in Cornwall, both rural touring organisations, and they were wonderfully helpful. I have to say I take my hat off to them.

There are things we are used to that come with the venues we normally work in, however these rules don’t apply out in the countryside. The venues we’re going to are run by people who give up their own time, for free, to organise events for their community and they do it all for nothing. And, most importantly, they aren’t theatres and they don’t spend their time programming theatre.

We have found this rather liberating. We turn up somewhere with our van full of stuff and see what we can do, nothing is guaranteed. Sometimes there are lights and sometimes there aren’t, sometimes the halls are huge and sometimes they are tiny, sometimes there’s tea and coffee and raffles and sometimes there’s not. It’s fun. It’s not stressful because there is nothing being asked of you, you set up your show, get on with it and hope that people turn up.

Over the last few weeks we have played to 65 people squished in the restaurant of a pub, and to 12 people rattling in around in a big old sports hall. Every show has been different and unpredictable.

We were performing in the restaurant of the pub in Coxwold, the village I grew up in about 30 miles north of York. It was packed, there was hardly space to perform. It was amazing that so many people had turned out on a cold Winter night. Some people with kids and others without. Of course, I knew some people there but not that many. A lot of people had come because it was an event in the village. They wanted to support the pub but also they wanted to come. We were speaking to the landlord afterwards and he was saying that every event they do there goes down really well because people want entertainment. The nearest place people around my area can go is York, which is the best part of an hours drive away. So when stuff is brought to them they flock to it, wanting to see it.

And this is one of the most wonderful things that we have noticed: that the audience arrive already on your side, wanting to have fun and to be entertained. They don’t need convincing because they have come for a good night out.

It’s funny to think how much you can spend on a show; how much money, time, sweat, stress, tech etc in a big theatre to make it as wonderful as possible. We’ve done that plenty of times in Edinburgh and in London, and some audiences come in needing to be impressed, needing to be convinced because they have had to make the effort to get there and watch it, they have done you a favour by coming to you. But if you come to them it’s a different story: we can roll out some turf and turn on some fairy lights in a village hall and the atmosphere is there, with no cost, time, stress or tech because people want you to be there.

It’s still something we are very new at, but rural touring is something we are very much enjoying and I think it is a lot more important than we gave it credit for. Theatre shouldn’t and doesn’t just exist in theatres: it’s in fringes, schools, halls, pubs, communities, parks. And each place it exists in, it exists a little differently. It has it’s own nuances and idiosyncrasies, it’s own personality and way of working and none of these ways are better than the other, there is a lot to be said for all of them. But for us, we have genuinely begun to appreciate the simple enjoyment of a good night out.

We are looking forward to the next few dates in Cornwall and what they next few shows might throw up. And we hope they are as enjoyable as the rest have been. We only have 4 more to go, but I very much hope we’ll be back.

(NB - please excuse the wonderfully cheesy photo. It was taken in Tintagel in Cornwall. We are deliberately posing. I struggled to find a related picture)

Alexander Wright

Introducing...Dan Wood

2010-12-24T06:17:00.000-08:00

My first experience with Belt Up, the company as opposed to the four boys individually, came at the end of my first year at York. I auditioned, successfully as it happened, for The Tempest which was due to be performed in Stratford. I was intimidated, to say the least! Here was a clearly exceptional company with an existing ensemble of obviously fantastic actors and here was I, a slightly nervous nineteen year old who had managed to grab a decent part in what sounded like a pretty damned exciting production of The Tempest! Then, a couple of weeks later, I saw The Tartuffe’s Edinburgh preview in the Drama Barn. My intimidation turned in one swift second to sheer unadulterated excitement and glee at the prospect of performing with these people. Everything about that night made me think that I wanted to be a part of this group. Goodness knows that in my wildest dreams, I could not have conceived of what was to follow...

Now here I sit, eighteen months later reflecting on my time with company. Among the Belt Up ensemble as I saw it at the end of my first year, that group of mighty practitioners who so graciously and warmly accepted me into their friendship group, I now count some of my dearest friends. James, Dominic, Jethro, Alex who were so lovely but also so intimidating at that first audition have become people whom I hope to be able to call my friends for a very long time. In Serena, Joe and Marcus, I now have three of my closest companions and in Lucy, a beloved girlfriend (if you need to edit out that flagrant public display of affection for the wellbeing of the readers then I understand!) On top of these wonderful people, working with the company has allowed me to grow closer to a number of others who have themselves become more involved with Belt Up in the last year and a half. Paddy (my unabashed man-crush), Chris (with whom I have now been in roughly four hundred and three shows), Sarah (the best fairy wife in history), Veronica (perhaps my oldest friend of anyone mentioned here)...The list goes on. It really does. I can’t possibly name everyone here. But I will be texting them individually to let them know just how grateful I am to be able to call them friends. In particular, the twenty people who made up the Edinburgh 2010 ensemble will remain very dear to me for a long time indeed.

Apologies for coming over all sentimental but that is the truth of the matter. My time with Belt Up has given me some fantastic friends made in a variety of different shows, playing a variety of different characters. From The Tempest, I went on to be in Atlantis (at NSDF) followed by Lorca is Dead in the York Theatre Royal and then Lorca, Odyssey and Octavia in The House Above at the Edinburgh Fringe 2010. I shan’t dwell on the shows as I will just get sentimental again (!) but rest assured those memories are very special to me and will endure for a very long time. I am incredibly grateful to the boys for having trusted me with some fantastic parts. Harry (a nutter), Paul Eluard (a surrealist nutter), Mr. Heinzel (a fairytale nutter) and Ted Sterling. A poet. And a bit of a nutter. Special mention among these must go to Paul Eluard, a character who I would gladly play again and again.... My next role with the company is on the production side of things in March, where I will be co-writing the music for and musically directing The Beggar’s Opera; another opportunity for which I am more grateful than I can possibly say.

The upshot of this, then, is that working with Belt Up Theatre has given me so very much. I have had lovely parts in fantastic plays and great opportunities. I have made brilliant friends and we have done brilliant things together! I will forever be indebted to the boys and everyone that I have worked with through them for giving me some of the happiest times of my life. Whether in a professional capacity, as an audience member or as a friend, I hope stay involved with Belt Up as long as I possibly can. After all, it is thanks to Belt Up that I have been able to make theatre I truly believe in with people I love. Who could ask possibly ask for more than that?

Until the next mountain chaps...

Introducing...Veronica Mary Hare

2010-12-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

'Back in May 2009 I joined Belt Up as an ensemble member for their production of The Tempest to be performed in Stratford-Upon-Avon that July. At the time I had little idea what sort of work Belt Up produced, having never seen any of their shows. As a first year at York University I was already involved in the University Drama Society and had recently signed myself into two shows heading to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe that summer. I had heard mixed things on the grapevine about Belt Up's work from fellow students, and if I'm honest had previously been somewhat put off finding out any more for myself.

However, about a month or so before they opened auditions for The Tempest I'd learned who each of the directors of the company were. I hadn't realised it, but I had met James in my first week of university when he had led an acting workshop for the freshers wanting to get involved with the Drama Society. He'd been very friendly and encouraging and I'd not thought twice about auditioning for the society afterward. Dom was the current chair of the Drama Society and I'd auditioned in my first term of university to be in a play he was directing (I was not aware that the play had any links with the infamous Belt Up at that point) and although I had been unsuccessful I saw him around quite a few times and we’d chatted occasionally. I have a distinct memory of being on a bus going back to campus after I'd finished a shift at work and I’d insisted on giving Dom and Marcus Emerton some chocolate I didn't want that I'd got at work... Toward the end of my second term I was rehearsing the musical I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change with the Drama Society when I met Jethro who was doing our lighting design. At the time he was going through some “emotional torment”, and I found his decision to go from veganism to all-out-carnivore in the space of 2 weeks rather amusing. However, he filled me in on more of the ins and outs of Belt Up, and that was when I learned their success stories (so far) and their intention to be innovative and challenge the way that theatre works. Finally I met Alexander who was coming in to help out the company of ILY,YP,NC in an improv workshop because for whatever mad reason we had decided to perform An Improvised Musical as promotion for the show later the following week. Alex ended up being in the Improvised Musical with us, and thus No Shoes Theatre began, but that is another story.... By this point I knew all of the co-directors of Belt Up, but still had absolutely no idea about what their work was really like. The interesting thing at this point was that they were just fellow students, not that dissimilar to anyone else I'd met, but what I did know was that they were doing something different, and that it was exciting.

When the boys opened up their auditions after the Easter break I became perhaps a little too willing to throw myself blindly into it and come to my own conclusions about the company's work. I was aware that the boys were in their last year at university, and that this may have been my only chance to work with them before they got into the big wide world. To be frank I wanted to take what others may have called ‘a risk’.

Over the following couple of months we had various workshops on the different skills and methods that Belt Up use. This was a wonderful chance to get to know all the cast and company members as well as the way they worked. All of this was in preparation for specific production rehearsals later. When it came to putting the Tempest together, we had little more than a week to actually block through the show - an intense period where concentration and trust were key. We were told what we needed to do, and it was up to us to get it right.

What I learnt early on with Belt Up is that a huge amount of their work relies on trust within the company. It is vital that you learn to work well and work quickly with other people and that in the end the only mistakes that can happen are your own. The company was of course interested in talent, but they looked for the individual's ability to work well within a group, and whether the person is confident enough in themselves to realise their own potential and be open to new experiences. Friendship was important in an often close environment, but you have to maintain your professionalism if ever personal problems arise. The nature of Belt Up's work often involves an ensemble, and allowing personal issues into the work can make it an unpleasant experience for the cast and more importantly the audience!

Over the year and a half since I first joined Belt Up, I have worked on a number of projects with them. At the Edinburgh Fringe 2009 I was involved in a number of Squat Nights as well as the "secret" show Persephone. Following the Fringe I was in The Trial and Tartuffe in the Take Over Festival at York Theatre Royal from September-October 2009, and in May 2010 was invited back for the final Tartuffe in York Theatre Royal's main house. In April I spent a week as a mournful, lonely girl desperately hoping to find her family all day every day while we worked on 'The Atlantis Project' as visiting artists at NSDF 2010.

For Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2010 I was invited to perform in The House Above season in three shows. This was by far to be the biggest project I couldn't have anticipated being involved in. The House Above saw 9 shows go through it (7 daily) as well as various bar nights featuring various events. The House was built from scratch by the ensemble, following a 3 week rehearsal period. Time was limited, and much of the work was rushed or squeezed in wherever possible. The fringe itself was incredibly tiring, and perhaps for the majority of the month my body worked on adrenaline alone. But it was the most incredible experience! Spending 2 months surrounded by people I would trust with my life (quite literally considering some stunts involved in certain shows) and some of my nearest and dearest friends made it simply wonderful.

Since working with Belt Up I’ve worked with some brilliant people. I’ve made friends that I hope to keep for a lifetime. I’ve had my view on theatre challenged and influenced in ways I’m not sure I could put into words. I’ve been pushed to my limits and laughed until I’ve cried. I’ve been tired, I’ve been encouraged, I’ve been confused, I’ve been helped, I’ve wanted to go home, and I’ve not wanted to be anywhere else in the world. I’ve had so much to be thankful for.

Now, my next project with Belt Up is as an ensemble member for The Beggar’s Opera and quite frankly I cannot wait!'

Introducing...Chris White

2010-12-22T05:01:00.000-08:00

The other day Joe wrote a blog introducing himself as the assistant director for Beggar's Opera.

We realised that there are loads of people who work with us to make Belt Up what it is, and thought you might like to meet some of them.

So you’ve had Joe…here’s Chris White…

‘I think it is safe to say, being a part of Belt Up has been one of the best experiences of my life. I remember getting the phone call from Dom to say I'd been successful with my audition, and despite having glandular fever and being emotionally drained from "another" production, I turned into a five year old boy down the phone. Dom will testify I was very excited, I then remember seeing Jethro straight after in a restaurant with Serena, and tried to maintain a coolness, I failed, I was bloody chuffed to bits!

My first show was Lorca is Dead in the Theatre Royal, the first day will always stick out in my mind...An excruciatingly early train from Suffolk in the morning, arrive in York in the rain. But it was all OK because I was going to be working for a professional theatre company, all very exciting... EXCEPT! Nobody had bloody turned up! Some stupid volcano had kept everyone abroad, just my luck! Nevertheless, even though half the cast was missing, it was still brilliant fun "rehearsing". I don't think I've ever laughed as much as that first rehearsal.

Edinburgh, that was unreal. Whenever I talk to anyone involved in theatre about what we did in Edinburgh, they look at me as if I just told them I killed their cat. "Nine shows? Nine shows? You performed in three shows a day?!" Well three shows one day, two the other...and flyering, and sometimes we'd work on the bar... "What!?" On paper it's hard work, but my god, it was just 24 hour fun everyday. Sure it gets tiring but once your on stage

in a Belt Up show you forget that pretty quickly.

My mental health was slightly tinkered with in Edinburgh after playing easily over a dozen characters, plus my freak Royal Mile creation Giraffe, the northern child who was painted as a dalmatian. I do worry I may have personality issues, especially after performing in Odyssey, the Greek tragedy that offended more Scotsman readers than I care to mention. It was dark it was disturbing, it was the show that I wouldn't let my Mum and Dad see. It did show me another side of people, seeing both eight year olds and OAP's alike take great glee in declaring "I've got balls!" then absolutely battering Dan Wood with a selection of ball pool balls. Odyssey also broadened my sexual horizons, but that's for another blog...

Whether it was Jethro drinking what he thought was apple juice, Marcus making a cameo as Oedipus, Joe continually getting his bloody slides the wrong way round or whenever Dali did anything... it was always impossible not to corpse, and if that isn't the sign of a group of really close friends having a lot of fun on stage I don't know what is. I have made some of my best friends during the last year, and have easily had the most fun ever in my life ever. The scary thing is, I don't know if I'll ever be part of something this amazing again...bugger.’

Chris was part of the ensemble in The House Above playing Magritte in Lorca is Dead, Eteocles in Antigone and Male Puppeteer in Odyssey, he also played Puck in our A Midsummer Nights Dream in York in June.

'My Belt Up Journey Thus Far' by Joe Hufton

2010-12-20T12:25:00.000-08:00

In March Belt Up begins 'The Beggar's Opera' at the York Theatre Royal, a project that promises to not only to produce a different kind of work but also challenge the way that Belt Up works. Not only do we have to get to grips with working in a much larger space than usual, the main house at the York Theatre Royal, but also working with perhaps the largest cast to date. As such the production team for The Beggar's Opera is much bigger than usual for a Belt Up show, and this is where I come in. I am Assistant Director during The Beggar's Opera and will be keeping you updated with blogs, videos and tweets throughout what promises to be an interesting rehearsal period. I thought I might use my first blog to tell you a little about myself and my Belt Up 'journey' thus far.

My Belt Up story is perhaps one of the oldest of any of the current members of the extended Belt Up family, I have been involved now for nearly three years. Like most of us I first got involved when I was at York University. I had done lots of acting before going away to study English at University but for whatever reason it would be Easter of my first year before I finally made the decision to audition for something. I had no idea what to expect when I went to auditions for the Drama Society that term, I had no idea how they worked and no idea what shows the society was doing, so I picked the first door I came to, it was 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess. It seems funny to me now how uninformed this decision was, a quick look in the campus magazine or on the Drama Society website would have told me that 'A Clockwork Orange' was the latest show by 'Belt Up Theatre' and that it was in the studio of the York Theatre Royal, and that this 'Belt Up Theatre' had just been selected for NSDF '08 with 'Metamorphosis'. However I was blissfully unaware of what I was getting myself into!

So I found myself in the coolest show the society produced that summer and the coolest thing at the Edinburgh Fringe that August. I managed to land some brilliant roles in 'The Red Room' that year and made some great friends over what was perhaps one of the most hectic months ever! There was a definate excitement about that first Edinburgh, we didn't really know what we we were doing but we knew that what we were doing was different and that it mattered. Looking back it makes me laugh thinking of the effort and stress that it took to get 'The Red Room' on its feet that summer, especially if you compare it to the size and scale of the projects we now take on. The House Above for example had four spaces each more elaborate and bigger than The Red Room and took half the time to build!

Needless to say I am still here three years later and am now living with James, Dominic, Alex and Jethro and enjoying working for them and with them. Over the last few years I have; played a lecherous old fox, run through the streets of Edinburgh in the pouring rain performing a 20 minute fight sequence, nearly capsized a boat dressed as a public school boy, sacrificed myself to save my clown daughter, lived for a week as a delusional Victorian Explorer, thrown plastic balls at blindfolded members of the public whilst dressed as Luis Bunuel, got completely naked for a 'Surrealist Experiment,' spent 3 weeks underneath a railway bridge in London and climbed Arthur's Seat at night, with a large group of people whilst under the influence no fewer than 3 times. And thats only the start of it.

And now for the next part of my Belt Up Journey, being part of the Creative Team for Beggar's Opera. I am sure that like any Belt Up project there will be many more stories to come, and I will enjoy keeping you up to date over the next few months.