Wednesday 25 June & Thursday 26 June
The Lyric Theatre, Bridport
Niki McCretton, Artistic Director of The Lyric Theatre, Bridport, is proud to announce that The Lyric will be hosting a ten-day guest artist residency with New York City’s Paul Lucas Productions, culminating in two staged readings of Trans Scripts, an unflinching investigation into the transgender journey; the oft-overlooked “T” in the LGBT acronym.
A verbatim theatre piece in the tradition of The Vagina Monologues, The Exonerated, Twilight: Los Angeles, and The Laramie Project, Trans Scripts gives theatrical form to the real stories and actual words of transgender people from around the world.
New York writer and producer Paul Lucas has conducted over 60 interviews with transgender individuals in the USA, Europe, Australia, India and Cuba in an attempt to discover the elements that define the transgender experience. This presentation in Bridport marks the World Premiere reading of the full script, which will also be performed in London at the Actors Centre on 27 and 28 June. A fully staged production will premiere in November 2014 in Adelaide, Australia.
In this unique “across-the-ponds” collaboration, The Lyric and Paul Lucas Productions have brought together a team of highly distinguished theatre professionals from New York City, England and Adelaide, to further develop the script and experiment with staging devices for Trans Scripts. Award-winning Australian Director, Charles Sanders, will lead a cast featuring Shelley Bridgman (renowned psychotherapist and performer); Joey Hateley (The GenderJoker); Zoë Hunter (National Theatre of Scotland); Mzz Kimberley (2011 BOYZ Award: Best Cabaret Artist); Nicholas Vince (Hellraiser); and Gail Winar (NYC Broadway’s Roundabout Theatre Company); as well as Niki McCretton, (Artistic Director at The Lyric).
Paul Lucas Productions (PLP) has produced extensively in Edinburgh, London and throughout the UK, touring the Fringe First Award-winning What I Heard About Iraq, and the OBIE and Herald Angel Award-winning performance artist Taylor Mac, among others. Paul Lucas says, “I’m so pleased to have this amazing opportunity to work with The Lyric on developing this ground-breaking piece of verbatim theatre before it goes on to London and Australia later in the year.”
Performances will take place on Wednesday 25 June and Thursday 26 June at 8pm at The Lyric Theatre, 9 Barrack Street, Bridport, Dorset DT6 3LX. Tickets are £5 from Bridport Arts Centre box office: 01308 424204 / www.bridport-arts.com
All staged reading performances will be followed by a facilitated post-show discussion with the cast, director and playwright.
The historic Lyric Theatre in Bridport reopened in 2010, under the direction of Niki McCretton. The theatreexists not only as a base for Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company but also provides a facility for established and up and coming artists to create and showcase their work.
For more information about Trans Scripts, please visit www.transscripts.org.
