New, unique and original theatre will be put firmly in the spotlight this weekend with a three-day festival dedicated to the art and craft of performing on stage.

Theatrefest 18, kicks off on tomorrow evening (Friday) at the Studio Theatre, Ballakermeen High School, from 7.30pm and, throughout the weekend, will feature the premier of an original drama piece, devised community theatre and a night of music, featuring songs from the shows that you may never have heard before.

The festival is organised by Lisa Kreisky and Kristene Sutcliffe, from Stage Door Entertainment, who said they want to create a festival that offers the chance to create new pieces of work and make theatre accessible for all.

’Theatrefest is in its third year now, and this year it has three aspects,’ said Lisa. ’We have an evening based around two plays that examine the idea of choice’, the second evening will feature music and also, we will be holding a "pop-up" performance.’

The first play to take place is ’An Order of Lunacy’, written by local writer Paul Levy. This the first performance of his play, which won the Isle of Man Arts Council’s annual playwright competition last year.

’It is a period piece, set in 1842, during the reform of the lunacy act,’ said Kristene, who directs the play.

’It is set in a stately home. and focuses on a brother, who calls in a "mad" doctor, as they were called, to condemn his two sisters to asylums.

’Prior to the act, it was very easy to have people condemned as mad or insane. We find out during the course of the play that everything is not quite as it seems, and you are never quite sure if the sisters are mad, or the people involved who are making them.

’I am excited about people coming to see it, as it relates closely to a lot of hot, social topics around today, with the views on pay grading, pro-choice debates.

’It explores the themes of restricting women’s rights, and taking away their choices.’

Lisa features as one of the sisters, with Naimh Murdoch as the other, with Neil Callin appearing as the brother in the play, which Kristene describes as ’intense and claustrophobic’.

Second on the bill for Friday evening is a piece of devised community theatre with the acclaimed director John Young.

’John is a local lad, who went away to university, and has basically taken the directing world by storm,’ said Lisa.

’He still wants to come back here and work with us, and we are so lucky to have him.

’He is taking a community group of actors, some of whom have very little or no acting experience, and developing a play with no script.

’They have only a theme, which is "choice" and some ideas to work from, with some basic plot devices from John, and they have week to put it together.

’They only started on Saturday. John has done some theatre techniques and exercises with them, and he has his work cut out, but I think he will impress us with what he develops.

’We don’t know what it will be until we see it ourselves, and the great thing is that every time they rehearse, it will change.

’A devised play like this is great, as it really stretches the actors taking part. It gives you, the actor, ownership of what you are doing. You create it, which is special as an actor,’ she added.

’The young kids taking part in this will be able to gain a lot of experience with this professional director and take this to university or drama school with them, which is brilliant.’

Saturday will see an evening of original musical theatre from a top composer and actor.

’We were lucky to make contact with Christopher J. Orton, who has this massive body of work, and it is just glorious,’ said Kristene.

’Christopher and his writing partner, Robert Gould are coming over to work with our ten singers for the Saturday night performance.

’The singers will be working directly with the composer on his songs, some of which have never been sung before. That is really exciting. Singers who perform musical theatre very rarely get the chance to do that. And the songs will carry on developing as they go on. It is a really great thing, and we are really lucky that the Isle of Man Arts Council trust us with this project,’ added Lisa.

’You don’t expect to have work like this happening on the Isle of Man. If music like this isn’t developed and supported like this, then it wouldn’t go anywhere.

’To have raw, new, changing music being performed on stage here is a brilliant thing for the Isle of Man.’

The weekend festival finishes on Sunday with a special ’pop-up’ performance of ’An Order of Lunacy’, held in the Victorian setting of the Grove Museum, in Ramsey, at 2pm and 3pm.

’That is going to be a massive challenge, as the Grove isn’t made for theatre. But that is what we are trying to do, taking the plays out to a new location and possibly a new crowd,’ said Lisa.

’With the Theatrefest, we want to try to do something a bit edgy and different. We are trying to find the niche things and do things that nobody else will do. Slowly and surely, with the support of the Arts Council we are getting there.’

More details and tickets for Theatrefest 18 are available online at thestudiotheatre.im

by Mike Wade

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