NEWS
16th June 2021
Announcing 3 workshops as part of the Centre Stage Project - SussexWe're delighted to announce 3 new online workshops in July, free for those in Sussex on a low income, kindly supported by Sussex Community Foundation.
The workshops will explore local history writing, putting your own story on stage, and building writing confidence. They're facilitated by award-winning playwright Sam Chittenden, performance poet Rachel Shorer and theatre-maker Chelsea Newton Mountney.
More information:
Building Writing Confidence
Wednesday 14th July 11am-12:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158925804359
OR
Friday 16th July- 1-2:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158935485315
Writing Plays - Using Local or Personal History
Wednesday 21st July 11am - 12:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158893796623
OR
Friday 23rd July 1-2:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158914879683
Putting Your Own Story on Stage
Wednesday 21st July 1-2:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158917308949
OR
Friday 23rd July 11am - 12:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158923651921
Creative:Monthly Writing Circle - ProseZoom: Wednesday 16th June 7pm-9pm(£4 - limited spaces remain!)With a class limited to just SIX writers each month, we'll give you a chance to read your extract to the group and get feedback from your peers. This is a great chance to hear other work, get inspired, explore what is it you're writing, and develop your voice!
Sunday Writing Sprint Zoom: Sunday 13th June 11am(Suggested donation £4)Every Sunday we take an hour to write! Leaving your cameras on or not, your choice! It's a lovely space and it really works.
Networking:Creative Catch-upZoom: Thursday17th June 10am (Suggested donation £4)
A Zoom place for creatives to connect and check-in! We'll chat all things creativity, performing arts and professional practice. It's not about selling your work or pitching - just be you.
Workshops:Monologues, Speeches & SoliloquiesZoom: Tuesday Nights in June 7pm (£15 per session drop-in)Join Andrew Allen and find different ways to approach monologue. In a supportive and fun environment you will learn to ace your moment in the limelight and actually enjoy it too.
Our free events:Our free events are just that - we know that times are HARD. If you can support us, you can donate any time with Ko-Fi
Our Ticketed events: Avoid Eventbrite booking fees for our paid events by joining The Ironclad Hub, our free to join digital community platform.
In Other News... WE RETURN TO BRIGHTON DOME!
In Person Creative Catch-upTUESDAY 29th JUNE 10:30am - 12pm
Hosted in partnership with Brighton Dome, these monthly free Creative Catch-ups, held on the last Tuesday of each month, are a positive coffee morning networking space to bring our community together, share ideas and think.
At this session, artists set the agenda. Pop along to catch-up with the Brighton creative community. No need to pitch or sell - just be you.
Held in the Mezzanine Bar of Brighton Dome. NOTE: Social distancing rules and the usual Brighton Dome venue check-ins apply.
The workshops will explore local history writing, putting your own story on stage, and building writing confidence. They're facilitated by award-winning playwright Sam Chittenden, performance poet Rachel Shorer and theatre-maker Chelsea Newton Mountney.
More information:
Building Writing Confidence
Wednesday 14th July 11am-12:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158925804359
OR
Friday 16th July- 1-2:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158935485315
Writing Plays - Using Local or Personal History
Wednesday 21st July 11am - 12:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158893796623
OR
Friday 23rd July 1-2:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158914879683
Putting Your Own Story on Stage
Wednesday 21st July 1-2:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158917308949
OR
Friday 23rd July 11am - 12:30pm https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/158923651921
Creative:Monthly Writing Circle - ProseZoom: Wednesday 16th June 7pm-9pm(£4 - limited spaces remain!)With a class limited to just SIX writers each month, we'll give you a chance to read your extract to the group and get feedback from your peers. This is a great chance to hear other work, get inspired, explore what is it you're writing, and develop your voice!
Sunday Writing Sprint Zoom: Sunday 13th June 11am(Suggested donation £4)Every Sunday we take an hour to write! Leaving your cameras on or not, your choice! It's a lovely space and it really works.
Networking:Creative Catch-upZoom: Thursday17th June 10am (Suggested donation £4)
A Zoom place for creatives to connect and check-in! We'll chat all things creativity, performing arts and professional practice. It's not about selling your work or pitching - just be you.
Workshops:Monologues, Speeches & SoliloquiesZoom: Tuesday Nights in June 7pm (£15 per session drop-in)Join Andrew Allen and find different ways to approach monologue. In a supportive and fun environment you will learn to ace your moment in the limelight and actually enjoy it too.
Our free events:Our free events are just that - we know that times are HARD. If you can support us, you can donate any time with Ko-Fi
Our Ticketed events: Avoid Eventbrite booking fees for our paid events by joining The Ironclad Hub, our free to join digital community platform.
In Other News... WE RETURN TO BRIGHTON DOME!
In Person Creative Catch-upTUESDAY 29th JUNE 10:30am - 12pm
Hosted in partnership with Brighton Dome, these monthly free Creative Catch-ups, held on the last Tuesday of each month, are a positive coffee morning networking space to bring our community together, share ideas and think.
At this session, artists set the agenda. Pop along to catch-up with the Brighton creative community. No need to pitch or sell - just be you.
Held in the Mezzanine Bar of Brighton Dome. NOTE: Social distancing rules and the usual Brighton Dome venue check-ins apply.
10th June 2021
Photo Credit: Amar Chundavadra
This week at Ironclad Creative!
Unapologetically Taking Up SpaceMonica Gaga
Zoom: Monday 14th June 7pm (£18)Take time to pause and reflect on your triumphs and cancel out the noise with Monica Gaga! Using fun exercises, this workshop will help you focus on the improv you want to do and map out how you can do it on your terms.
ABOUT MONICA... As seen, heard, staged and featured on BBC Three, BBC News, BBC Click, ITVBe, London Live, BBC History, BBC Radio London, Talk Radio, Global Pillage, The Comedy Store, Hoopla Impro, Omnibus Theatre, Boulevard Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, Bristol Improv Theatre,The Guardian, Timeout and more...
Monica Gaga is a British-born black African queer improviser, facilitator, host and scripted actor and performer.
She trained in Community Theatre at East 15 Acting School, and her boundless love for improv stems from time spent at Second City in Chicago.
When she is not performing, hosting or teaching, Monica is championing diversity, inclusion and equity in improv and trying to get as many people, particularly POC, involved as possible.
COMING UP on THE IRONCLAD HUB:
Networking:Creative Catch-upZoom: Thursday17th June 10am (Free / donation £4)
A Zoom place for creatives to connect and check-in! We'll chat all things creativity, performing arts and professional practice. It's not about selling your work or pitching - just be you.
Creative:Sunday Writing Sprint Zoom: Sunday 13th June 11am(Free / donation £4)Every Sunday we take an hour to write! Leaving your cameras on or not, your choice! It's a lovely space and it really works.
NEW EVENTMonthly Writing Circle - ProseZoom: Wednesday 16th June 7pm-9pm(£4 - limited spaces)With a class limited to just SIX writers each month, we'll give you a chance to read your extract to the group and get feedback from your peers. This is a great chance to hear other work, get inspired and explore what is it you're writing and develop your voice!
Workshops:Monologues, Speeches & SoliloquiesZoom: Tuesday Nights in June 7pm (£15 per session drop-in)Join Andrew Allen and find different ways to approach monologue. In a supportive and fun environment you will learn to ace your moment in the limelight and actually enjoy it too.
Unapologetically Taking Up SpaceMonica Gaga
Zoom: Monday 14th June 7pm (£18)Take time to pause and reflect on your triumphs and cancel out the noise with Monica Gaga! Using fun exercises, this workshop will help you focus on the improv you want to do and map out how you can do it on your terms.
ABOUT MONICA... As seen, heard, staged and featured on BBC Three, BBC News, BBC Click, ITVBe, London Live, BBC History, BBC Radio London, Talk Radio, Global Pillage, The Comedy Store, Hoopla Impro, Omnibus Theatre, Boulevard Theatre, Battersea Arts Centre, Bristol Improv Theatre,The Guardian, Timeout and more...
Monica Gaga is a British-born black African queer improviser, facilitator, host and scripted actor and performer.
She trained in Community Theatre at East 15 Acting School, and her boundless love for improv stems from time spent at Second City in Chicago.
When she is not performing, hosting or teaching, Monica is championing diversity, inclusion and equity in improv and trying to get as many people, particularly POC, involved as possible.
COMING UP on THE IRONCLAD HUB:
Networking:Creative Catch-upZoom: Thursday17th June 10am (Free / donation £4)
A Zoom place for creatives to connect and check-in! We'll chat all things creativity, performing arts and professional practice. It's not about selling your work or pitching - just be you.
Creative:Sunday Writing Sprint Zoom: Sunday 13th June 11am(Free / donation £4)Every Sunday we take an hour to write! Leaving your cameras on or not, your choice! It's a lovely space and it really works.
NEW EVENTMonthly Writing Circle - ProseZoom: Wednesday 16th June 7pm-9pm(£4 - limited spaces)With a class limited to just SIX writers each month, we'll give you a chance to read your extract to the group and get feedback from your peers. This is a great chance to hear other work, get inspired and explore what is it you're writing and develop your voice!
Workshops:Monologues, Speeches & SoliloquiesZoom: Tuesday Nights in June 7pm (£15 per session drop-in)Join Andrew Allen and find different ways to approach monologue. In a supportive and fun environment you will learn to ace your moment in the limelight and actually enjoy it too.
2nd June 2021
This week at Ironclad Creative!
Arts Industry Networking Mixer with Brighton Fringe and Ironclad Creative For Participants of Brighton Fringe
This is an online event in partnership with Brighton Fringe, in association with the free digital platform The Ironclad Hub. This will be a chance for YOU to PITCH your Brighton Fringe project to the ARTS INDUSTRY.
It will be a space for you to tell arts industry professionals about your work for two minutes, make connections and get a little feedback.
If you're already thinking 'what's next?' after Brighton Fringe, this is the event for you.
Our Arts Industry guests on Thursday 3rd June include:
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts
Sheffield Theatres
BBC Studios (Scripted Comedy)
New Wimbledon Theatre & Studio
Highlights Rural Touring Scheme
Underbelly
Our Arts Industry guests on Thursday 24th June include:
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts
Sheffield Theatres
BBC Studios (Scripted Comedy)
Art Rage
The Kirkgate
Spun Glass Theatre
SIGN UP HERE
This is an online event in partnership with Brighton Fringe, in association with the free digital platform The Ironclad Hub. This will be a chance for YOU to PITCH your Brighton Fringe project to the ARTS INDUSTRY.
It will be a space for you to tell arts industry professionals about your work for two minutes, make connections and get a little feedback.
If you're already thinking 'what's next?' after Brighton Fringe, this is the event for you.
Our Arts Industry guests on Thursday 3rd June include:
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts
Sheffield Theatres
BBC Studios (Scripted Comedy)
New Wimbledon Theatre & Studio
Highlights Rural Touring Scheme
Underbelly
Our Arts Industry guests on Thursday 24th June include:
Norden Farm Centre for the Arts
Sheffield Theatres
BBC Studios (Scripted Comedy)
Art Rage
The Kirkgate
Spun Glass Theatre
SIGN UP HERE
Networking:Creative Catch-upZoom: Thursday 3rd June 10am (Free / donation £4)
A Zoom place for creatives to connect and check-in! We'll chat all things creativity, performing arts and professional practice. It's not about selling your work or pitching - just be you.
Creative:Monthly Writing Marathon Zoom: Sunday 6th June 11am - 6pm
(Free / donation £4 - £10)A whole DAY writing in the same Zoom room! Leaving our cameras on or not, your choice - short stints and longer runs with breaks for lunch. Drop in and out if you can only make a few hours.
Workshops:Monologues, Speeches & SoliloquiesZoom: Tuesday Nights in June 7pm (£15 per session drop-in
OR £65 for all 5 - if booked via The Ironclad Hub)Join Andrew Allen and find different ways to approach monologue. In a supportive and fun environment you will learn to ace your moment in the limelight and actually enjoy it too.
Masterclass:Unapologetically Taking Up Space - Monica GagaZoom: Monday 14th June 7pm
(£18)Take time to pause and reflect on your triumphs and cancel out the noise with Monica Gaga! Use this workshop to put a focus on the improv you want to do and map out how you can do it on your terms.
Our free events:
Our free events are just that - we know that times are HARD. If you can support us, you can donate any time with Ko-Fi
Our Ticketed events:
Avoid Eventbrite booking fees for our paid events by joining The Ironclad Hub, our free to join digital community platform.
A Zoom place for creatives to connect and check-in! We'll chat all things creativity, performing arts and professional practice. It's not about selling your work or pitching - just be you.
Creative:Monthly Writing Marathon Zoom: Sunday 6th June 11am - 6pm
(Free / donation £4 - £10)A whole DAY writing in the same Zoom room! Leaving our cameras on or not, your choice - short stints and longer runs with breaks for lunch. Drop in and out if you can only make a few hours.
Workshops:Monologues, Speeches & SoliloquiesZoom: Tuesday Nights in June 7pm (£15 per session drop-in
OR £65 for all 5 - if booked via The Ironclad Hub)Join Andrew Allen and find different ways to approach monologue. In a supportive and fun environment you will learn to ace your moment in the limelight and actually enjoy it too.
Masterclass:Unapologetically Taking Up Space - Monica GagaZoom: Monday 14th June 7pm
(£18)Take time to pause and reflect on your triumphs and cancel out the noise with Monica Gaga! Use this workshop to put a focus on the improv you want to do and map out how you can do it on your terms.
Our free events:
Our free events are just that - we know that times are HARD. If you can support us, you can donate any time with Ko-Fi
Our Ticketed events:
Avoid Eventbrite booking fees for our paid events by joining The Ironclad Hub, our free to join digital community platform.
CELEBRATING BRIGHTON FRINGE!
Brighton Fringe is here and we're celebrating the work of our two Ironclad Creative bursary winners which both, coincidentally, feature characters from Shakespeare's work!:
WAITING FOR HAMLET - (5th&6th 19th&20th June)
Winner of the Michael Graney Bursary
FICTION ROMANCE - (9th-13th June)
Winner of Ironclad Creative New Writing BursaryWe asked John Knowles, writer of FICTION ROMANCE, to tell us more about Twelfth Night and how it inspired his work:
'Twelfth Night, a misunderstood comedy.
I’ve played Toby Belch and Bottom, but only one left me feeling uneasy and that was Toby, in fact the whole play left me feeling unresolved.
Twelfth Night is a comedy in which the writer, far from resolving characters, seems to go out of his way to leave everyone at sea. The Duke marries a woman he had the hots for when dressed as a man! Oliva ends up marrying the wrong young man. Sebastian agrees to marry a total stranger. Malvolio storms out threatening revenge on everyone and Toby doesn't even bother to make a curtain call, he’s done a runner with the maid.
And Antonio, Shakespeare's most openly gay character? Left with a ‘Fiction Romance’.
Twelfth Night is the greatest Shakespeare comedy, because we get it! How many relationships have you had in your finger flicking tinder lifetime? How many unresolved endings do you have in your closet? This is a thoroughly modern mess and I love it!'
We asked David Visick, writer of WAITING FOR HAMLET, to tell us more about the piece and why it matters now (or, why we make it matter):
'Stay home, save lives? Try telling that to Hamlet’s dad. Life imitates art, but crafty old art has been furtively watching life’s every move, so it drains its pint, signals for another, and goes the hell ahead and imitates life right back.
Here’s the pitch; two old friends are in lockdown together. One of them paces the room, desperate to go out, to return to normal, to carry on as if nothing’s changed. The other thinks that would be disastrous. Stay in, he says, wait it out. It’s dangerous out there.
That’s the plot of Waiting for Hamlet, which we’re bringing to The Rialto in Brighton in June. It’s a swift little two-hander which explores the reasons why the Ghost in Shakespeare’s Hamlet decides that limbo’s lockdown can’t hold him, returns from his purgatorial prison to wreak revenge and – sorry if this is spoilers, but it’s been around for well over 400 years now, and it’s considered quite good, so it’s more your problem than mine if you haven’t seen it – ends up killing most of his family and friends.
Written before ‘hell itself breathed out its contagion into the world,’ as the big man puts it, any similarity between this story of a clown in a crown and more recent Covidiots is entirely coincidental. So it would be a bit rich of us to make that comparison in all our publicity for this year’s summer run, wouldn’t it?
Would it hell!
Shakespeare gets a lot of clout for creating storylines that resonate even now. Maybe, like Caesar’s soothsayer or Macbeth’s witches, he could see into the future. Or maybe we’re so keen to see prescience in his writing that we engineer it to suit our current circumstances, a sort of retrofitted foresight. All those modern-dress productions of his plays – look, we shout, as if nuance couldn’t make its own way past the front row of the Circle, it’s as true now as it was then!
Or maybe, like me, he just got lucky.
So yeah, of course we’re going to juxtapose the universal experience of lockdown with the 400-year-old tale of a dead, fictional king making the greatest mistake of his afterlife. You stick your posters as close to the potential ticket buyer’s wallet as you can. Of course you do.
Shakespeare was a producer too. He’d understand.'
Brighton Fringe is here and we're celebrating the work of our two Ironclad Creative bursary winners which both, coincidentally, feature characters from Shakespeare's work!:
WAITING FOR HAMLET - (5th&6th 19th&20th June)
Winner of the Michael Graney Bursary
FICTION ROMANCE - (9th-13th June)
Winner of Ironclad Creative New Writing BursaryWe asked John Knowles, writer of FICTION ROMANCE, to tell us more about Twelfth Night and how it inspired his work:
'Twelfth Night, a misunderstood comedy.
I’ve played Toby Belch and Bottom, but only one left me feeling uneasy and that was Toby, in fact the whole play left me feeling unresolved.
Twelfth Night is a comedy in which the writer, far from resolving characters, seems to go out of his way to leave everyone at sea. The Duke marries a woman he had the hots for when dressed as a man! Oliva ends up marrying the wrong young man. Sebastian agrees to marry a total stranger. Malvolio storms out threatening revenge on everyone and Toby doesn't even bother to make a curtain call, he’s done a runner with the maid.
And Antonio, Shakespeare's most openly gay character? Left with a ‘Fiction Romance’.
Twelfth Night is the greatest Shakespeare comedy, because we get it! How many relationships have you had in your finger flicking tinder lifetime? How many unresolved endings do you have in your closet? This is a thoroughly modern mess and I love it!'
We asked David Visick, writer of WAITING FOR HAMLET, to tell us more about the piece and why it matters now (or, why we make it matter):
'Stay home, save lives? Try telling that to Hamlet’s dad. Life imitates art, but crafty old art has been furtively watching life’s every move, so it drains its pint, signals for another, and goes the hell ahead and imitates life right back.
Here’s the pitch; two old friends are in lockdown together. One of them paces the room, desperate to go out, to return to normal, to carry on as if nothing’s changed. The other thinks that would be disastrous. Stay in, he says, wait it out. It’s dangerous out there.
That’s the plot of Waiting for Hamlet, which we’re bringing to The Rialto in Brighton in June. It’s a swift little two-hander which explores the reasons why the Ghost in Shakespeare’s Hamlet decides that limbo’s lockdown can’t hold him, returns from his purgatorial prison to wreak revenge and – sorry if this is spoilers, but it’s been around for well over 400 years now, and it’s considered quite good, so it’s more your problem than mine if you haven’t seen it – ends up killing most of his family and friends.
Written before ‘hell itself breathed out its contagion into the world,’ as the big man puts it, any similarity between this story of a clown in a crown and more recent Covidiots is entirely coincidental. So it would be a bit rich of us to make that comparison in all our publicity for this year’s summer run, wouldn’t it?
Would it hell!
Shakespeare gets a lot of clout for creating storylines that resonate even now. Maybe, like Caesar’s soothsayer or Macbeth’s witches, he could see into the future. Or maybe we’re so keen to see prescience in his writing that we engineer it to suit our current circumstances, a sort of retrofitted foresight. All those modern-dress productions of his plays – look, we shout, as if nuance couldn’t make its own way past the front row of the Circle, it’s as true now as it was then!
Or maybe, like me, he just got lucky.
So yeah, of course we’re going to juxtapose the universal experience of lockdown with the 400-year-old tale of a dead, fictional king making the greatest mistake of his afterlife. You stick your posters as close to the potential ticket buyer’s wallet as you can. Of course you do.
Shakespeare was a producer too. He’d understand.'
12th April 2021
MICHAEL GRANEY BURSARY AT BRIGHTON FRINGE
WINNER ANNOUNCED
WINNER ANNOUNCED
We are proud to announce that Waiting For Hamlet by David Visick, premiering at Rialto Theatre, has been awarded the Michael Graney Bursary at Brighton Fringe.
This play reveals the comedy of errors that lies behind Shakespeare's most famous tragedy as we meet two old fools in limbo, one who knows he's a fool and one who doesn't.
Waiting for Hamlet is presented by SmokeScreen Productions UK and performed by comedy veterans Nicholas Collett and Tim Marriott.
Tickets:
https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/waiting-for-hamlet-146390/
This play reveals the comedy of errors that lies behind Shakespeare's most famous tragedy as we meet two old fools in limbo, one who knows he's a fool and one who doesn't.
Waiting for Hamlet is presented by SmokeScreen Productions UK and performed by comedy veterans Nicholas Collett and Tim Marriott.
Tickets:
https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/waiting-for-hamlet-146390/
25th March 2021
THE IRONCLAD CREATIVE NEW WRITING BURSARY AT BRIGHTON FRINGE
WINNER ANNOUNCED
WINNER ANNOUNCED
We're delighted to announce Fiction Romance by John Knowles has won the inaugural Ironclad Creative New Writing Bursary at Brighton Fringe.
A magnificent piece of writing that just jumped from the page!
‘Fiction Romance’ is the third in the Shakespeare monologues series and explores the life of the secondary
characters in the Bard’s plays. Fiction Romance sees Antonio, from Twelfth Night, reflecting on a love that was all consuming and unrequited.
From the writer of ‘Caliban’s Codex’ and ‘Toby Belch (is unwell), comes a tale of love unrequited, of one man’s odyssey for the lover he will never have. For anyone who has ever sighed for your ‘Sebastian’
whoever they may be.
Tickets:
https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/fiction-romance-153870/
A magnificent piece of writing that just jumped from the page!
‘Fiction Romance’ is the third in the Shakespeare monologues series and explores the life of the secondary
characters in the Bard’s plays. Fiction Romance sees Antonio, from Twelfth Night, reflecting on a love that was all consuming and unrequited.
From the writer of ‘Caliban’s Codex’ and ‘Toby Belch (is unwell), comes a tale of love unrequited, of one man’s odyssey for the lover he will never have. For anyone who has ever sighed for your ‘Sebastian’
whoever they may be.
Tickets:
https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/fiction-romance-153870/
DISADVANTAGED LOCAL ARTISTS TO GET FREE WORKSHOPS
FROM PROFESSIONAL THEATRE-MAKERS
FROM PROFESSIONAL THEATRE-MAKERS
8th March 2021
Sussex-based artists from disadvantaged backgrounds are being invited to take part in free workshops run by professional theatre-makers.
The workshops, which will be first be offered digitally and then move to in-person post-lockdown, are for beginner writers, actors and directors, or those who might have already made some work.
The Centre Stage Project, run by Ironclad Creative CIC, has been made possible by funding from Sussex Community Foundation, with the aim to increase artistic participation for local people, create supportive networks of grassroots artists and discover new voices. Participants will also get six months of free access to professional development classes on The Ironclad Hub, Ironclad Creative’s free-to-join online community space and training platform.
Co-founder of Ironclad Creative CIC, Michelle Donkin said: “Artists from disadvantaged backgrounds so often struggle to have their voice heard and their work seen. Many artists have limited resources to begin a career, make connections and finance their work. The funding we’ve received from Sussex Community Foundation is a massive leap forward for us as a new organisation. We want to make sure we impact as many people as possible, be that the participants or the artist-facilitators whose careers have been impacted since 2020.”
Ironclad Creative are keen to make contact with artists who would like to take part in the classes, in addition to small groups and organisations who have members they know would be interested. Michelle [at] Ironcladcreative [dot] org
ENDS