THE OXFORDSHIRE MAKERS’ 24 HOUR PLAY CHALLENGE
Eighteen local theatre makers met at the Jam Factory to be put in to four teams to create four short plays within 24 hours. They were given a title and an opening line, pulled randomly from a hat, using suggestions from the general public. They then proceeded to spend the night writing at the Old Fire Station and the day rehearsing at the theatre and in the Mitre pub.
Given Title: She Said She Wouldn’t
Given Opening Line: “Call the Newspapers; they’re all dead!”
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Group 1:
She Said She Wouldn’t
Written by Doc Andersen-Bloomfield
Directed by Danielle Taaffe
Cast:
He: Adrian Banks
She: Elizabeth Cox
George is having a bad day or is it a bad year? A writer’s still living with mum… the dictator. She says he needs a “real job” with a “real girlfriend”.
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Group 2:
She Said She Wouldn’t
Written by Mark Ralph-Bowman
Directed by Miriam Higgins
Cast: Jenny Johns; Antoinette Drakes; Lorna Pearson
There’s a massacre taking place. PHYLL and KARLY bring all the resources of social media to the rescue. MRS TIBBINS has a different approach.
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Group 3:
She Said She Wouldn’t
Written by Joel Kaye
Directed by Emel Holifield
Cast: Edwin Davies; Melissa Berry
Ollie, in his early twenties, still lives with his mother, clinging, with his ritualistic behaviour, to the security of his room, unchanged for years. But his mother, ever so gently, wishes him to grow a little. To anyone else but Ollie that might present no problem, but to Ollie, any change is a threat.
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Group 4:
She Said She Wouldn’t; A feline tragedy
Written by Hannah Greenstreet
Directed by Tristan Pate and Griffith Rees
Cast:
Elissa – Jessica Lloyd-Jones
Darren – Krage Brown
Elissa has her life mapped out. She’s deputy manager of the Nine Lives Cat Sanctuary and rising fast to fulfil her ambition to open a chain of animal shelters. She only wishes that the new guy, Darren, would stop following her around. Then she comes into work one morning and finds all the moggies dead. Will it draw Darren and Elissa closer together? Or is there something fishy in Darren’s unfeline/ unfeeling behaviour.