St Edward's Chronicle Summer 2018

28 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

Alchymy 2018 By Amy Walters, Marketing Manager, The North Wall

During the school holidays, The North Wall transforms from hub for school drama, art and dance to an arts laboratory: a place where emerging theatre-makers from across the UK can meet each other, share ideas and create new work. The route to making a career in the arts is never easy so The North Wall, with the support of St Edward’s, seeks to offer young artists a nurturing environment and professional mentoring as they start their journey. Over the last 10 years, we’ve welcomed hundreds of young people aged 18-25 to our ArtsLab, and this network of creative minds has grown and developed – and so has their work. In 2017, we launched Alchymy, our festival of new plays, as a way of showcasing the talent and creativity of these individuals. The festival programme also includes panel discussions and workshops from some of the leading lights in UK theatre, offering ArtsLab participants and audiences alike insight into the industry and the chance to add their voice to the debate. The first night of Alchymy in April opened with the results of Catalyst , an intensive residential course that began a fortnight before the festival, involving six young writers, three young directors and a small cast of professional actors, who’d spent two weeks living in Apsley and eating their meals in the Dining Hall. It’s this invaluable in-kind support by St Edward’s that makes ArtsLab possible – and unique amongst the artistic development programmes in the UK. Extracts from six new plays were performed in a fast-paced two-hour slot including Siofra Dromgoole’s Walk Swiftly and With Purpose , a tumbling, touching story of four female friends on the brink of adulthood, and Nina Berry’s Wings , a slickly written, daring essay on life after death.

Overall, Alchymy 2018 featured the premiere of twelve new productions about a diverse range of subjects: from a post- apocalyptic play about climate change to Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme expeditions, the pitfalls of family weddings and life in pupil referral units. The festival also included three newly-commissioned monologues by Luke Barnes, Sonya Hale and Ashley Zhangazha, which were performed three times across the weekend. Sunday afternoon saw a series of “in conversation” events: actor Imogen Stubbs and Jonathan Guy Lewis, whose play  Soldier On was performed at The North Wall at the end of April, spoke about their routes into theatre; and North Wall co-director Ria Parry interviewed former Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland, Laurie Sansom, who directed Barney Norris’ Nightfall  at the brand new Bridge Theatre in May.

“The Alchymy festival at The North Wall was a fantastic event for anyone with a passion for theatre. As a pupil, having the opportunity to listen to talks from Laurie Sansom and Imogen Stubbs was a highlight for me. Hearing about their experiences gave a truthful and inspiring insight into what it is really like to

work in theatre”. Sixth Former Emily Smart