Happy Birthday to The Crush Bar
A look back at this newsletter's first year - and a small announcement about its future.
On New Years Day 2021, I published the first issue of this newsletter. It was an interview with Grace Gallagher, the artistic director of clowning company Ugly Bucket Theatre, and it was sent to 280 subscribers. Since then, I have sent out 29 more newsletters, and interviewed 34 more theatremakers – playwrights and producers, directors and designers, actors and improvisors, musicians and mimes.
The Crush Bar started as me simply interviewing people I found interesting or inspiring. In September, though, I re-jigged it, introducing a new design, a new schedule, a new format, and a new focus, in response to some conversations I had about how difficult emerging artists find it to make headway in theatre, and how little time industry leaders have to help them.
I re-jigged The Crush Bar to provide a small solution to that situation. I wanted to give emerging artists a platform to talk about who they are, what they do, and where they want to go – then to send that interview into the inboxes of as many producers, programmers, and artistic directors as possible.
Today, one year on from its first issue, The Crush Bar has nearly 700 subscribers and is regularly read by over 1000 people. I like to think of it as a growing community of theatre professionals, all invested in making the theatre industry more connected.
I like to think of subscribers opening the email that lands in their inbox at 11.45am (or thereabouts) every Friday, finding out about an emerging artist they might otherwise never have heard of, and wondering if there is something simple but significant they can do to help them. A quick email. A friendly phone call. A small favour. A little leg-up.
If you are already one of those subscribers, I want to say a massive thank-you for supporting and engaging with The Crush Bar. If you aren’t yet, then what are you waiting for? You can join the club right now.
Below, instead of your regular newsletter, is an update from (almost) every interviewee to that featured in The Crush Bar in 2021, letting you know what they are up to in 2022. Business will be back to normal – one new interviewee at 11.45am every Friday – next week. Before all that, though, I have a small announcement.
The Crush Bar is free to read, but it takes up quite a lot of my time to put together and publish. Hitherto, to help make it worth my while, I have asked for the odd donation via Ko-Fi. Starting in 2022, I am introducing two new ways of funding this newsletter. Firstly, you can now set up a monthly donation via Ko-Fi, too. Just visit my page here, select the “monthly” option, and you’ll work out the rest.
And, secondly, starting in late January, subscribers will start receiving the occasional paid, promotional newsletter in addition to their regular Friday issue. They will look and sound pretty much the same, and still feature emerging artists talking about what makes them tick – but they will be advertorial instead of editorial. I’m sure you understand. I’ve got rent to pay, and a small dog to support.
Over the last year, there have been 29 issue of The Crush Bar, featuring 35 different theatremakers. Here is what they will be up to in 2022.
Grace Gallagher and her clowning company Ugly Bucket Theatre are finishing a national tour of their superb show Good Grief, before focusing on expanding and developing a new programme of workshops. They hope to be at the Edinburgh Fringe in August, and are planning a project in partnership with Newcastle’s Alphabetti Theatre in the Autumn.
Alice Boyd has completed an artist residency at the Eden Project, and will be releasing her debut EP inspired by her research there, as well as an internet game with Tom Halliwell. Her company Poltergeist have some exciting projects in the pipeline, too.
Actor and improvisor Vera Chok has joined the cast of Hollyoaks to play Honour Chen-Williams, forensic psychiatrist and mother of the first East Asian family to appear in a British TV soap.
Lewis Doherty – actor and mime – is developing Hawk, the final instalment in his one-man mime trilogy that started with Wolf and continued with Boar. It should be ready by the middle of 2022.
Elizabeth Newman, artistic director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre, just announced her 2022 season, and the opening of a brand new studio space. There are some really exciting shows on the way.
Actor, musician and songwriter Maimuna Memon is developing both a semi-autobiographical TV series called Third Culture Kid, and a semi-autobiographical musical called Sparrow Kid. Watch this space.
Playwright Nina Segal is doing a lot of writing in 2022, on a mix of adaptations (Shakespeare, Homer, Ibsen, Brecht) and new plays (one about big tech, another about empire). She was recently announced as one of the winners of the 2022 Playwrights’ Scheme Bursary and will be on attachment at the RSC as a result, while her breakout hit In The Night Time (Before The Sun Rises) is being revived in Germany.
Billy Barrett and Breach Theatre are developing two new projects – a verbatim musical about Section 28, and a new show about Laura Kieler, the Norwegian woman who inspired Ibsen’s A Doll’s House – as well as running Cambridge Junction’s Young Company.
Actor William Grint has some exciting auditions lined up. The RSC’s production of The Winter’s Tale, which he starred in earlier this year, is still available to watch on iPlayer.
Paines Plough, led by Katie Posner and Charlotte Bennett, have just released three short films with Deafinitely Theatre, and announced two in-person productions for 2022 – Samuel Bailey’s Sorry, You’re Not A Winner and Chinonyerem Odimba’s Black Love.
Designer Rosanna Vize has, in her words, a “dream year ahead”. Gulliver’s Travels at the Unicorn Theatre. Britannicus at the Lyric Hammersmith. The Glass Menagerie at Manchester Royal Exchange. A double bill at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre, and another exciting project TBA.
David Byrne’s New Diorama Theatre recently announced the culmination of its 10th Anniversary season – three new commissions from Kandinsky, Rhum + Clay, and Deafinitely Theatre, plus lots more exciting stuff, including free pizza.
Middle Child Theatre, led by Paul Smith, are collaborating with playwright Luke Barnes for the first time since their smash-hit 2017 show All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, as well as doing a load of other stuff. Details TBA soon.
Actor, poet and playwright babirye bukilwa was recently shortlisted for the Soho Theatre’s Tony Craze Award and longlisted for the Alfred Fagon Award. They also took part in the Young Vic’s Five Plays programme, appear in the Papatango Prize-winning audio plays, and have a bunch of commissions.
Eva O’Connor – together with her collaborator Hildegard Ryan and company Sunday’s Child – is touring her plays Mustard and Afloat, running an arts festival focused on the climate crisis in Limerick, and developing new play Ghost Estates.
Kate Barton, co-artistic director of Piccolo Theatre, is planning on taking Screen 9, her company’s show about the 2012 mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, on a UK tour in Autumn 2022. It has also been invited to the US in July to commemorate the tragedy ten years on.
Julia Taudevin and her company Disaster Plan are taking their outdoor show Move on a tour of Scottish beaches, thanks to support from Creative Scotland’s Touring Fund.
After the success of Tokyo Rose earlier this Autumn, Cara Baldwin and Burnt Lemon Theatre will be “donning business hats” to try and make their company sustainable long-term, as well as developing some new projects and collaborations.
Writer Martha Watson Allpress has a new play being produced very soon, to be announced in early 2022.
Actor and writer Bea Webster is set to appear in the world premiere of a new show in May, and will be a making a short film next year as well.
Sam Cochrane and Gigglemug Theatre are debuting new show RuneSical at MTFest 2022 in February, before taking it to the Edinburgh Fringe in August, while improvised musical The Bean Spillers is running at VAULT Festival and Leicester Comedy Festival, and Scouts! The Musical continues to develop.
Writer Tom Powell’s Papatango Prize-winning play continues to tour in audio form, while Surfacing, “the most technologically and narratively ambitious” piece he has worked upon is at VAULT Festival in March as a work-in-progress.
Imy Wyatt Corner is directing Bebe Sanders’ play Snail at VAULT Festival in March, before working as associate director on True Name Productions’ revival of Sue Glover’s The Straw Chair at the Finborough Theatre in April. Some other exciting stuff is in development.
Director, producer and playwright Alistair Wilkinson is directing their first TV film – Hannah Kumari’s Devi – with Sky Arts, as well as directing the latest version of Tommy, The Queer Historian’s show How Disabled Are You? at VAULT Festival. They are also finishing their new play, Hot Rain in Hackney, and their own short film, Ostrich, and their company WoLab is involved in a load of other shows.
NDT Broadgate – the New Diorama’s revolutionary new space for artist development – celebrated gifting 40,000 hours of free space to emerging artists earlier this month. In its design studio led by Shankho Chaudhuri, a host of designers - including Blythe Brett, Andrew Exeter, Jasmine Swan, Simeon Miller and Tingying Dong - continue to pursue exciting projects.
Kai Rufai’s S.M.I.L.E-ing Boys photographs are currently being exhibited around Hackney, and are also available as a 2022 calendar. Rufai has recently partnered with Nike as part of the company’s Black Community Commitment initiative to expand his creative workshops with young Black teenagers.
Writer, actor, improvisor and comedian Sadie Clark is spending 2022 developing two shows – a solo piece called Greedy, and a two-handed play called Gemini – as well as performing improv and stand-up whenever she can.
Musical writer Hilmi Jaidin’s first in-person production – Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading, produced and directed by Adam Lenson – is at VAULT Festival in March.
The Crush Bar is totally free and always will be, so anything you can do to support it is hugely appreciated. There are three helpful things in particular: you can subscribe using the button above, you can share it, either on social media or by forwarding it to anyone who might be interested, and you can donate to my Ko-Fi account using the button below.
If you want to get in touch with me to ask about anything, or to suggest someone who deserves a shout-out in this newsletter, you can reach me on Twitter - I’m @FergusMorgan - or by simply replying to this email. That’s all for now. Back in a week. Thanks for reading.
Fergus Morgan