Offstage Theatre UK
Offstage Theatre is "an enterprising young theatre company", based in Waltham Forest, London, run by Artistic Director and Producer Cressida Brown. The company's first piece was Home, written by Gbolahan Obisesan, Cressida Brown and Emily Randall in response to the demolition of the housing estate Beaumont Road. The site-responsive piece functioned as "a valuable document of a people and a place just moments before an irrevocable change". "The project, which overwhelmed the creative team with its success" established Offstage as a Site-specific theatre company.
In 2015, Offstage Theatre was announced as recipients of the Kevin Spacey Artists of Choice Program. With KSF's support, they returned to Beaumont to create the sequel to Home, Re:Home. The production was performed at The Yard in 2016 and was nominated for Best Production and Best Ensemble at the Offies 2016.
Offstage has also staged a site-specific production of Macbeth in Paris to mark the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birthday. The production was featured on French news channel France 24, where director Cressida Brown and actor Florian Hutter were interviewed.
Other productions include Walking The Tightrope, ten five-minute plays exploring censorship in the arts, longlisted for Amnesty Scotland's Freedom of Expression Award. "Tricky, dangerous, stimulating, discomfiting – what serious theatre is for, in other words"., it was first shown at Theatre Delicatessen with the following plays:Tickets are now on sale by Caryl ChurchillPlease Forgive Us Whoever You Are by Ryan CraigSun City by April De AngelisBeyond the Fringe by Tim FountainA Bond of Love by Hannah KhalilExhibit A by Neil LaButeActing Towards the Promotion of Peace by Sarah Solemani Faust for Kids by Hattie NaylorRe:Exhibit by Gbolahan ObisesanOld Newland by Julia PascalBand Wagon by Evan PlaceyWhat Are We Going To Do About Harry? by Mark Ravenhill
In August 2015, Walking the Tightrope transferred to the Underbelly for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with two new commissioned works from Omar El-Khairy and Timberlake Wertenbaker; it was pick of the festival for both The Scotsman and The New York Times.
Productions
- Re:Home The Yard.Caught by Christopher Chen, Volta Festival, Arcola. Nominated for TBC Award at The Offies 2015 Accidental Brummie Birmingham Rep Walking the Tightrope by Various, Underbelly at Edinburgh Fringe Festival Walking the Tightrope by Various, Theatre Delicatessen Macbeth by William Shakespeare in Association with Shakespeare & Co, Bard-En-Seine Festival, Paris.Drawing Play by Cressida Brown and the company, at The Yard, Hackney Wick.
- For Theatre Uncut: The Price by ; The Birth of my Violence from Marco Canale ; Pine by Clara Brennan, New York Theatre Row .Amphibians by Steve Waters, in an abandoned swimming pool. One of '2011 Ones to Watch' in The Guardian and described by Susannah Clapp in The Observer as "For once a production has earned the description 'site-specific'" Nominated for the OffWestEnd Awards in six categories: Best New Play, Best Director, Best Set Designer, Best Sound Designer, Best Lighting Designer, Best Choreographer.Scum in Trinity Buoy Wharf, site of London’s only lighthouse; part of CETT Fellowship.Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Novello Theatre.Phaedra by Jean Racine, in the ruins of Craigmillar Castle, Edinburgh Festival. Nominated for the Three Weeks Editors Award Home by Cressida Brown, Ghobolan Obeisan and Emily Randall, in the vacated St Catherine's tower block on the Beaumont Road Estate in East London.