Powerhouse Theatre Company

It's Our Birthday!

It's five years since Powerhouse Theatre Company was founded and we can look back with a great dollop of pride at all we've achieved in such a relatively short space of time. Totting up the number of original shows we've done, it's astonishing to see our work rate! Besides producing twelve original shows, we've also utilised our skills working with many community organisations devising and delivering workshops.

Huge thanks to all the fantastic actors, designers, stage managers and musicians, who have made such a valuable contribution to Powerhouse and to the core team of Sally Martin, Sarah West, Abigail Halley and associates Robert Caan, Kate Francick and George Longland.

Here's to the next five years!

New Our War date added!

We are excited to announce that we'll be returning to the Rose Theatre, Kingston on Tuesday 16th October at 11am 'Our War' a family show on the subject of the second world war.
Our show times have been confirmed at the Electric Theatre, Guildford as 1.30pm and 6pm on 25th September and 10am and 1pm on 26th September.

We really hope that you will come along to what promises to be an emotional and educational experience. Suitable for ages 7+

Our War is coming back!

This show on the second world war, was first produced in 2005 and was brought back twice in the same year to meet the demand from schools. With the support of Guildford Museum the show featured genuine artefacts of the period, including an air raid siren, gas masks, ration cards etcetera. Our War covers everything from rationing, evacuation, the rise of fascism, black market, air raids, Normandy landings VE day and lots more and is aimed at age 7+.

It's returning this Autumn and we already have one venue booked in - The Electric Theatre Guildford on 25th and 26th September. One of these shows will be on in the early evening so even if your school is not making a trip you can still come and find out all about this fascinating time in history. This show is a brilliant resourse for everyone in Keystage Two as it links in with the curriculem and even if you are not studying it, it will make for a very interesting evening out!

Storytelling back every Monday!

Spring has sprung and so have the stories in Digby the Bookworm's garden. Join us at the Electric Theatre, Guildford every Monday at 11 am for stories, songs and games on a different theme each week. Specially devised for the under 5's and their families.

Pretty Ugly tour a great success!

Pretty Ugly has enjoyed a fantastic revival. Check out the comments we received in the Pretty Ugly section on the Adults Page.
As usual, we have lots of thank yous to make to many wonderful people. Their hard work and dedication meant the play was a huge success, playing to packed audiences.

So- huge thanks to:
George Longland, Sue Barnard and all the staff at the Electric Theatre, Ciaran McConville, Sarah west, Sally Martin, Jeff Thomson, Becci Kenning, Conor Brown and GSA, Craig Hills, Guildford Council and our talented bunch of actors - Alice Frankham, Samantha Arends, Damian Quinn, Abigail Halley, Esme Rhodes, Billy Rhodes, Polly King, Anna Loveday, Robert Cann and Jonathan Whittaker.

Pretty Ugly Triumphs!

The gala performance of Pretty Ugly was a great night for Powerhouse, with very enthusiastic feedback from a sell out audience. We were all amazed at the teenage schools audience levels of concentration, with someone commenting that you could have heard a pin drop through the entire play!
Special mention should go to Alice Frankham and Samantha Arends for two wonderful performances and to Conor Brown for his technical wizardry!
We look forward to bringing the show to the Rose theatre Kingston on Wednesday 7th March at 3pm. Tickets still available!

Pretty ugly

Pretty Ugly is now half way through rehearsal and everything is coming together well! Conor, our stage manager and technician, is working wizardry with all the film pieces and music, Craig from Jellytree has created some great animations and our two stars, Alice Frankham and Samantha Arends are really bringing their characters to life. The play opens on Monday and we hope that you will come and see this life changing piece of theatre! Check out these rehearsal pictures to see everyone in action!

See it at:

• Electric Theatre 27th February 7.30pm
• Electric Theatre 28th February 10am & 1pm
• Cranleigh Arts Centre 1st March 10.30am
• Cranleigh Arts Centre 2nd March 10.30am & 1pm
• Rose, Kingston 7th March 3pm
• Courtyard Theatre, Newtonabbey, Belfast 20th March 10am & 1pm
• Courtyard Theatre, Newtonabbey, Belfast 21st March 10am & 1pm

 

Hello Pretty Ugly

Well, Pretty Ugly is now in rehearsal and we are so excited about showing you all the final play - only 10 days to go until the first night! Our two immensely talented lead actors are doing us proud and we are happy to welcome Alice Frankham who is playing Katie and Samantha Arends who is playing Anna to the Powerhouse team. Also Conor Brown who is taking the role of stage manager and lighting designer along with Josh Harris who has joined us in the rehearsal room for his work experience placement. Please book your tickets soon for this touching true story of one girl's heart rending experience.

 

Goodbye The Mouse,

The Hat And The Missing Cat

The next installment of Tip the Mouse's adventures played to packed houses at this year's Electric Theatre Family Festival. All the children who came to see it seemed to have a great time and so did we!! Hopefully we will be able to restage this in the future...
keep checking the website for updates!

Electric Theatre Family Festival

Next week sees this year's celebration of theatre for children. We are so excited to have been asked to write a show especially for festival and we are following up our Christmas sell out The Mouse In Santa's House with the next installment of Tip the Mouse's adventures: The Mouse, The Hat And The Missing Cat. Now in rehearsal, we are almost ready to unveil it with Mike Swain playing Daggle and Abigail Halley playing Mumsa. Geoff Lawson will also be playing live music. You can catch Tip, Claude and Tolly for one day only on 14th February at 1.30pm and 4pm. Book your tickets through the Electric Theatre box office.

Also at the Family Festival Geoff will be running some FREE storytelling sessions on Monday 13th, Tuesday 14th and Wednesday 15th all at 3pm. Ask at the box office to find out where he will be!

Our Daily Bed

This week saw the culmination of our latest project with Guildford Action. The brief was to work with a group of homeless people using drama and this time we really wanted to create an exciting piece of theatre that also meant something to those who took part. After 8 weeks of researching, devising and developing our committed band of performers finally got to show off all their hard work at The Spike. We had a huge audience who watched as our performance took them from the harsh realities of Victorian vagrancy to the modern experience... but has it really changed that much? We had a fantastic group of performers - check out the photos on our community page under Our Daily Bed. But we must also say lots of thank yous to those who helped us along the way: John Redpath, David Masquerade and all at The Spike, Su Kelland and HOST for making the project possible, Debbie Hayter and all at Guildford Action, The Electric Theatre, Rui Fradinho, Anna Tabush and Kristina Benjafield.

The Drama Teachers Network

We visited the drama teachers network meeting and had lots of fun getting back to what we love doing best - getting creative! Working with a group of drama teachers from Surrey's secondary schools we all joined in with a very practical workshop to get those dramatic juices flowing! It was great to meet some of the county's teachers and we hope that we can join one of their sessions again in the future.

STORYTELLING CLUB

As you can see from our updates below we are very busy at Powerhouse with two shows - 'Pretty Ugly' and 'The Mouse, The Hat and the Missing Cat'. Because of this, Digby the Bookworm has decided to take a little holiday during the month of February and also on the 19th March. So, there will be NO storytelling on these dates. But we do hope that you will come and see our new 'Mouse' show on 14th February. The last session will be on 30th January and resume on 5th March.

Welcome to Powerhouse 2012

Already we are hugely busy with lots of exciting projects to welcome in the new year... take a look below to see what we are up to and hopefully we will see you at one of our shows soon!

The Mouse, The Hat and The Missing Cat

For those of you who loved The Mouse In Santa's House you will be excited to learn that Tip the Mouse is returning to the Electric Theatre in a brand new adventure! Written especially for the Electric Theatre's Family Festival this new story is as full of fun as the last - full of songs, laughs and a mystery to solve. Join Tolly, Tip and Claude for one day only on 14th February at 1.30pm and 4pm. Hope to see you there!

Pretty ugly

Our award winning portrayal of Katie Metcalfe's story is back. Based on her book 'Anorexia - A Stranger In The Family', the play deals deftly with this difficult subject using a sensitive mix of pace, humour and multi media. We believe that theatre can make a huge difference to our experience of the world and this play has the capacity to literally change people's lives as the letters that were written to us after its premiere testify. This inspiring story of recovery is touring to venues in the South East and is suitable for everyone over age 12.

See it at:

• Electric Theatre 27th February 7.30pm
• Electric Theatre 28th February 10am & 1pm
• Cranleigh Arts Centre 1st March 10.30am
• Cranleigh Arts Centre 2nd March 10.30am & 1pm
• Rose, Kingston 7th March 3pm
• Courtyard Theatre, Newtonabbey, Belfast 20th March 10am & 1pm
• Courtyard Theatre, Newtonabbey, Belfast 21st March 10am & 1pm

The play has been endorsed by:
National Centre for Eating Disorders, beat, Katie Metcalfe.

 

Guildford Action Spike Project

We are now in the middle of the third leg of our project with Guildford Action and this time it is more challenging and exciting than ever! We are creating a site specific piece of interactive theatre devised with people from the Guildford Action Day Centre which will be performed at The Spike in Guildford - the only remaining building from the town's Victorian workhouse. Using their personal stories and those from times gone by we are hoping to weave together an unforgettable personal journey that spans 100 years asking the question - have things changed for homeless people that much? This project will be performed mid February to an invited audience.

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