THE COMPANY
Townsend Theatre Productions
‘A company making a name for delivering vivid, politically committed theatre’ - The Observer Townsend Theatre Productions set up as a collaboration of experienced, highly-skilled theatre practitioners in 2011.
About the Company
Townsend Theatre Productions are a professional community interest company (CIC) with an outstanding reputation for producing imaginative, entertaining, socially relevant live theatre. The company believe that access to the arts (as audience, as participants, as co-creators and artists) can result in improved outcomes for health, education, inclusion, social cohesion, life-enhancing leisure and economic growth for individuals, communities, society and the environment.
Townsend Theatre Productions create touring and hyper-local work of the highest quality that resonates directly with specific communities, and is of appeal to new audiences and participants in areas and communities where engagement in art and cultural activity is limited by geographical and economic constraints.
Through collaboration and partnership with artists, venues, campaigners and organisations, the company offers a safe and secure place for those engaged in activities an opportunity to develop creative passions, build leadership skills, and have their voice heard; a place where anyone that feels excluded from arts and culture or feels under-represented, can share in a vision that creates positive change as well as grow a passion for artistic endeavour.
Much of Townsend Theatre Productions’ work has focused on powerful narratives based on carefully researched drama drawn from real-life events, employing a flexible, inclusive and accessible performance style that encourages audience involvement. The work celebrates overlooked figures and major events in the campaigns for positive social change from our national history, whilst also detailing the practical and cultural challenges continuing to face working people today.
Townsend Theatre Productions see what matters in a story, what chimes with audiences and participants, and revels in the reaction to performances and activities. The themes of the projects are built on foundations of truth and human experience, detailed through characterisation and observation; always direct and never exclusive. They convey British values of openness, generosity and strength in diversity, whilst actively challenging racism and sexism; explicitly connecting working-class history with contemporary experiences of workers - women and men of all ethnicities - in British society.
Formed in 2011, Townsend Theatre Productions’ past projects have included the stories of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the Shrewsbury Pickets, the International Brigades in Spain, the south Asian women’s strike at Grunwick led by Jayaben Desai, the women chain-makers’ battle for a minimum wage led by Mary Macarthur, the Right To Work campaign by the Clydeside Shipbuilders and the company’s own adaptation of ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’. See ‘Shows’.
Their projects have featured on BBCBreakfast, BBCr2Jeremy Vine, BBCr4’s Front Row & Woman’s Hour, The Observer, The Times, and nominated for Edinburgh Fringe Awards, Eastern Eye ACTA Awards and won a Stagescripts 10 at10 award in 2019.
Townsend Theatre Productions specifically aim to reach audiences that don’t usually engage with the arts; tour to areas of economic deprivation and social isolation, and perform in community centres, working men’s clubs, village halls, arts centre and theatres in the heart of working-class communities. They take shows into local places that make it easier for older people to engage - residential homes, libraries, day centres and work with their partners to make their shows accessible for people who are deaf or suffered hearing loss (often from working in noisy industries).
During the 2020-1 coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lock down and restrictions, Townsend Theatre Productions created a series of film and radio podcast projects based on past shows and research and development projects. It offered a chance to explore different approaches to presenting work other than live theatre. Please see the ‘Digital Projects & Discussions’ page.
Main Company Aims
Townsend Theatre Productions’ mission is to develop a programme of artistic projects which represent a successful combination of the imagination and inspiration of artists and the understanding and aspiration of the communities that the artistic programme will serve.
Community-led decision-making is central to the company’s activities through:
transparency - a confidence in how the company operates,
representation - ensuring fair representation for communities and artists,
and dialogue – removing barriers and empowering voices to enhance communication.
The aim is then to unlock and nurture the talent, skills and creativity in communities, new audiences and participants from all backgrounds and to develop ideas for the future; to regenerate through participation in great art.
Townsend Theatre Productions will continue to:
a. create live theatre projects of the highest artistic standard that are relevant, innovative, challenging and entertaining,
b. take our projects to non-theatre venues,
c. form effective links with trades councils, trades unions regionally and nationally, theatres and venues, education organisations and campaign groups,
d. work closely with promoters to create individual performances, develop audiences and marketing strategies,
e. use drama and education to explore social, political and historical issues by opening up channels of participation - workshops, exhibitions, post-show discussions, and so forth,
f. challenge racism, sexism, ableism and other forms of prejudice through our performances and working methods,
and g. maintain and develop a commitment to commissioning and creating new work.
CORE TEAM
Townsend Theatre Productions set up as a collaboration of experienced, highly-skilled theatre practitioners in 2011...the collaboration regularly includes Louise Townsend, as Producer; Neil Gore as Writer/Actor; folk music legend John Kirkpatrick as Musical Director, and New Vic Theatre Stoke’s Lighting Designer Danniella Beattie.
LOUISE TOWNSEND
CV (Director/Producer)For twenty-one years Louise has worked as a theatre producer, director, casting director, production, company and stage manager. She has directed all of Townsend Theatre Productions' plays: 'Dare Devil Rides To Jarama', 'United We Stand', 'On The Road To Freedom', 'We Will Be Free!', and 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists'. She has also directed community and youth theatre project. She was Casting Director for over 40 projects in the West End, commercial theatre and film which included 'The Lion King', 'We Will Rock You', 'Simply Heavenly' (NT/Young Vic). She also cast productions for Basingstoke Haymarket and Quondam Theatre Co., & was Production, Company and Stage Manager for Dublin Gate, New Vic Theatre Stoke, and Coventry Belgrade.
NEIL GORE
CV (Writer/Actor/Musician)Neil has over 35 years experience in community theatre, TIE, reminiscence theatre, small- and middle-scale touring, regional repertory, Panto and West End. He wrote/performed comedy with Eddie Izzard with SUFTheatre and co-founded Metro Theatre Company, in Sheffield, with Stephen Daldry, a co-operative company that toured new plays throughout the 1980s. His work includes seasons at New Vic Theatre Stoke, Coventry Belgrade, Queens Theatre Hornchurch, Bloomsbury and Mayfair Theatres in London, Bolton Octagon, Chichester Festival Theatre, Northampton Royal and many more. For Townsend Theatre Productions, he adapted Stephen Lowe's 'Ragged Trousered Philanthropists', and wrote 'We Will Be Free!', 'United We Stand', ‘On The Road To Freedom’, 'Dare Devil Rides To Jarama’, and toured and performed in all of them.
Jatinder Verma
Creative Consultant JV ProductionsJatinder Verma
Creative Consultant JV ProductionsJatinder grew up in Nairobi, Kenya and arrived in the UK as part of the “Exodus” of Kenyan Asians in February 1968, aged 14. He founded theatre company Tara Arts in 1977 as a response to the racist murder of young Gurdip Singh Chaggar in west London. Adapting Asian dramaturgical principles to European drama, Jatinder developed a unique approach to theatre, which he has termed “Binglish” – creating a different sort of noise in English.
This approach characterised a range of productions: from Moliere’s Tartuffe (staged at the National Theatre in 1990, when Jatinder became its first-ever non-white director) to A Taste for Mangoes, staged in Wilton’s Music Hall. Other productions include: 2001- A Ramayan Odyssey, Oedipus, Troilus and Cressida, Merchant of Venice, The Tempest, Macbeth, a Japanese version of Othello (“Ainu Othello”), Ibsen’s Enemy of the People, Beaumarchais’ Figaro, the Sanskrit classic, The Little Clay Cart and the trilogy on migration, Journey to the West.
Jatinder is an Honorary Fellow of Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and a Senior Research Fellow at Rose Bruford College. He has also received Honorary Doctorates from York, Essex and Leicester DeMontfort universities. He was awarded an MBE for services to diversity in the arts in January 2017.
DANNIELLA BEATTIE
(Lighting Designer)DANNIELLA BEATTIE
(Lighting Designer)Trained at Bretton Hall, West Yorkshire, and is the resident lighting designer at the New Vic Stoke, where she has designed the lighting for over 60 productions. She won Best Lighting Design at the TMA Awards in 2009 for "The Wicked Lady". She has also designed lighting for Oldham Coliseum, St. James Theatre (London), Northern Broadsides, Orange Tree (Richmond). For Townsend Productions Lighting Designer for 'Dare Devil Rides To Jarama' and 'We Are The Lions Mr Manager'
Tayo Akinbode
Musical DirectorTayo Akinbode
Musical DirectorTayo first discovered theatre in London at the Royal Court’s Activists Youth Theatre. At 18 I moved to Manchester to work on the stage crew at the Royal Exchange Theatre for a season and play bass guitar in their Christmas show ‘Christmas Fun and a Fairy tale’. After a few years spent playing in bands, Manchester Youth Theatre asked me to write music for their production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Since then Tayo has been a composer and Musical Director for theatre, film, TV, radio, circus and community projects for companies including: The National Theatre, The Generating Company, OCT East Shenzen, Almeida Theatre, Littlebigman Films, The Royal Exchange Theatre, Miami Gablestage, New York Public Theater, M6, Storyhouse Chester, Specsavers, and Spirit of the Union UAE 40th Birthday celebrations in Abu Dhabi.
Recent work includes: Granddad Anansi for Z-Arts/Half Moon Theatre; Robin Hood - Theatr Clwyd; The Island - Elysium Theatre Company; The Whip – Royal Shakespeare Company; Backyard, Rain Rain - Bamboozle; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – Royal Exchange Theatre; Untitled F**K Miss Saigon Play – Royal Exchange/MIF/Young Vic, My Voice Was Heard - Red Ladder; Jack Frost – Tutti Frutti; Spike – The Watermill Theatre and tour, and The World According To Grandpa for Grandpa Productions/Channel 5 Milkshake.
Raminder Kaur
Consultant audience activatorRaminder Kaur
Consultant audience activatorRaminder Kaur is a Professor of Anthropology & Cultural Studies at University of Sussex. She has conducted field work in India & Britain researching topics such as migration, race/ethnicity/gender, creative arts, human rights and so forth. She combines her research with creative activities, and is artistic director of Sohaya Visions Theatre Company, and has written five books & numerous articles & chapters.
Komita Dhanda
International Consultant (Artistic Director of Jana Natya Manch Deli, India)Komita Dhanda
International Consultant (Artistic Director of Jana Natya Manch Deli, India)Komita Dhanda @komitad is an organiser, actor, director & writer working with Jana Natya Manch (JANAM) Theatre since 2004. She is a research scholar in Theatre & PerformanceStudies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and she is currently working at the Ambedkar University having previously taught at various colleges in Delhi University.
JOHN KIRKPATRICK
(Musical Director)JOHN KIRKPATRICK
(Musical Director)He has directed and scored Townsend Theatre Productions' previous productions - "Dare Devil Rides To Jarama" "Ragged Trousered Philanthropists", "United We Stand", "We Will Be Free!" and "On The Road To Freedom". He is one of folk music's most prolific performers for over 50 years and a revered squeeze-box player who has performed solo and with Steeleye Span, Albion Band, Richard Thompson, Brass Monkey, Roy Bailey, Leon Rosselson, Home Service. Directed music of National Theatre and New Vic Stoke.
Medhavi Patel
Associate ArtistMedhavi Patel
Associate ArtistMedhavi Patel
Trained at The Brit School of Performing Arts and Technology
Theatre includes Tales of Birbal (UK Tour) Trident Moon (The Finborough Theatre) Fragile Land (Hampstead Theatre)
Television includes Doctors, Holby City, Channel 4 Dogma 3: Only Girls, Channel 4 Dogma 3: Snowman
Film includes Kidulthood
Radio includes Together, Bombay Talky and Romeo and Juliet In Southwark
Elizabeth Wright
DesignerElizabeth Wright
DesignerLiz has worked extensively at Theatre by the Lake, Cumbria, where some of her favourite designs have included Wallflowering, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, The Birthday Party, The Glass Menagerie, Vincent in Brixton, Suddenly Last Summer, The Lady of the Lake, The Vertical Hour and the critically-acclaimed Elektra.
Liz’s other designs include Herding Cats (Hope Mill Theatre for Play With Fire), The Blue Room, Blithe Spirit, Picnic and Barnbow Canaries (HOME for Manchester School of Theatre), Master of the Macabre (The Vaults, Waterloo), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Octagon Theatre, Bolton and Hull Truck Theatre), Queen of the North and Peter Pan (Octagon Theatre, Bolton) and When The Waters Recede, a site-specific production on Derwent Island, Keswick.
She studied at Leeds University, Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has a PhD in Theatre Design from Wimbledon College of Art.
CARL DAVIES
(Designer)CARL DAVIES
(Designer)Carl Davies trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, graduating in 2004.
Credits include:
Looking through Glass, Alix In Wondergarthen (Difficult Stage) The trials of Oscar Wilde, Still Life, Stage Beauty, Much Ado About Nothing, Dangerous Liaisons, She Stoops to Conquer, Moll Flanders, The Importance of Being Earnest, Canterbury Tales, (Mappa Mundi) The Falcon’s Malteser, Crimes Against Christmas (New and Old Friends) Outlaw, Sleeping Beauty, Alice Adventures, Road to Glory, Treasure Island, The Wind in the Willows, The Little Match Girl, The Snow Queen, A Christmas carol, Midsummer nights Dream (The Point, Eastleigh) Oliver Twist, Oh no not Snow, Immune, Honk, Sweeney Todd (Royal & Derngate) The Magic Toy Shop (Invisible Ink / Theatr Iolo) Resurrection, Robin Hood (Theatre Royal Bath) The Best Thing, Sharing Joy, Finding Joy, nursing Lives, Projectionist (Vamos) Hansel and Gretel, The Mikado, Madam Butterfly (Co Opera Co) Nansi, Blodeuwedd, (Theatr Genedlaethol) Lord of the Flies, The Snow Queen, Hansel and Gretel, James and The Giant Peach, The Jungle Book, Kes, The Borrowers (The Courtyard Theatre, Hereford) The Phoenix and the Carpet (forest Forge) The Laramie Project, The Bacchae, Caucasian Chalk Circle (Nuffield Theatre, Southampton) Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, The Jungle Book, Midsummer Nights Dream (The Castle Theatre, Wellingborough) Candide, The Calling of Maisy Day (Welsh National Youth Opera) It Will All be Over by Christmas, Cyrano De Bergerac, Bankrupt Bride, Big Bad Wolf, Me a Giant (Theater na-nOg) To and Fro (Oxford Playhouse) Exams are Getting Easier (Birmingham Repertory Theatre) A Casa di Anne Frank, IL Viaggio, La Casa Sull’ Aqua di Flora Mariani, Bebele, Pedro Paramo is Dead, Il Desegno Del Mondo, Lago senza Lacrime (Elan, Italy)
Lianne Bruce
Board MemberLianne Bruce
Board MemberEmily Mitchell
Board MemberEmily Mitchell
Board MemberVictoria Wright
Board MemberVictoria Wright
Board MemberCompany members have included: FineTime Fontayne, Rhiannon Meades, William ‘Paul’ Fox, Charlotte Powell, David Heywood, Richard Stone, Liz Eves, Jonathan Markwood, Rodney Matthew, Stephen Lowe, Amy Yardley, Jo Barber, Lianne Bruce