Friday, 4 December, 2015

INTERVIEW WITH TRISH WADLEY

Executive producer of The Hotel Plays (Langham February 2014) and The Armour (Langham February 2015). Trish spent 20 years working internationally in Media as a journalist and Marketing Director before moving to theatre and has worked as Development Director of the Bush Theatre and Development consultant to the Tricycle Theatre. For Defibrillator she was Co-Producer on The Hotel Plays by Tennessee Williams (Grange Hotel, October 2012) and Executive Producer for Hard Feelings by Doug Lucie (Finborough, July 2013). Trish received her Stage One Bursary for new theatre producers to develop her career and to support a new revamped production of The Hotel Plays scheduled for The Langham Hotel in February 2014. Trish is a Director of The Uncertainty Principle – a theatre company established in both the UK and Australia – working with text and movement directors, developing Festival focused new works.

At the moment you are…
About to launch two site specific shows for 2016 – one in New York and one in London.  They haven’t been announced yet…. so you are keeping this secret right?!
Up first is the New York Premiere of Insignificance by Terry Johnson which we are staging in a suite at Langham Place, Fifth Avenue.  It continues our successful Hotel Plays formula and we are hoping Manhattan audiences will embrace this Olivier award winning play that imagines Marilyn Monroe meeting Albert Einstein in a NY Hotel room in 1953.  It’s our first venture to Off Broadway which is completely exhilarating and we have a brilliant NY partner on board which makes it less terrifying.
Back to London for A Memory of Two Mondays by Arthur Miller directed by Robert Hastie at a location we cannot yet name - but it is in the heart of theatre land and is already creating great excitement with its current program.  This is a beautiful, largely forgotten play that was originally performed alongside A View From The Bridge and features a cast of 11 factory workers based on characters Miller worked with when he was a student. We’re going for a very industrial setting to give you a clue!

What does Stage One mean to you?
The Stage One Producers Bursary and everything that comes with it including the workshops, my mentor, the office and the fantastic community of producers who open their little black books has been key to helping me to achieve a lot in a short space of time. Being anointed as a Stage One producer definitely gives you confidence and added credibility.  It also makes you more determined to succeed to prove the selection committee backed a winner!

Last show you saw and loved?
Can I please name two that have knocked my socks off? Hangmen – I had no idea of the true story, it was totally gripping throughout and played on that incredible set in the Royal Court. AND Four Minutes and Twelve Seconds, for brilliantly economic staging and razor sharp writing on a subject matter that is really close to me as a mother of teenage children.

What do you think, is the best thing about the Theatre Industry?
My partner in Defibrillator, James Hillier! Seriously though...the industry is incredibly democratic and extremely generous and welcoming.  I came into theatre very late after more than 20 years working in Media and Marketing.  There has never been a sense of it being a closed club and the steep learning curve has been made easier by people willing to share and encourage all comers to this crazy game.  It’s also a very positive industry with a ‘can do’ spirit and failure has many forgiving guises making it easier to bounce back each time.

What's the best piece of advice you've been given?
From my mentor, Robert Fox, who said don’t worry about specialising or positioning yourself as a producer of a particular genre – just do GREAT work that you can be proud of!

To find out further information on Defibrillator, click HERE
To find out further information on the Stage One Bursary scheme, click HERE
 


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