Blue Elephant Theatre, Camberwell

We are on the lookout for emerging Black artists who are willing to showcase up to 10 min of their work as part of our upcoming scratch night TRUNKATED: AstroBlack.

The event will be taking place on 14 October at 7:30pm at Blue Elephant Theatre in Camberwell. Artists may need to get there an hour early (or earlier depending on their tech needs).

We are interested in a very broad range of genres: music, film, theatre (scenes or monologues), spoken word, poetry, movement / dance - feel free to apply even if your artform doesn't fall within these categories!

Blue Elephant will cover £15 worth of expenses per act.

To apply, please complete this form by Friday 7 October: TRUNKATED application form

Please email submissions@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk if you have any questions or if you would like to apply differently.

Our in-house show Give Me The Sun opened yesterday! Theatre Manager and Programmer Guillaume sat down with our Executive and Co-Artistic Director Niamh (currently on maternity leave) to ask her how this play came about, the journey it’s been on, and what first drew her to this story of familial bonds, fatherly love and identity.

How did you meet Give Me The Sun writer Mamet? What is the play’s origin story?

Mamet approached us, originally with a few other plays – including a one-man adaptation of Macbeth. We were very intrigued by him and interested in collaborating somehow. He said to us, “People keep telling me to write about Iran! In Iran, I write about Iran. I’m in London now, can’t I write about London?”

When he sent us the script for Give Me the Sun, we thought, “There’s something there. It’s not quite ready for production, but there’s something in this script.” We had an initial meeting to discuss how we could work together, and so began a long development process. In fact, it’s been three years now since we first met Mamet. It is amazing to see how far the play has come, getting to the final script while making sure it was still the work he envisioned.

Tell us more about the development process of Give Me The Sun.

Mamet was initially going to direct and act in the piece, as well as being the writer. The script was different back then. There were four characters, including Baba’s love interest and Bashir’s girlfriend. But they were very tiny parts, who appeared and disappeared very quickly and ultimately didn’t need to actually be seen on stage. The first stages of the R&D consisted in a lot of back and forth between Mamet and the Blue Elephant team, as we gave him feedback to consider, some of which he pushed back on as it wouldn’t be true to the culture.

We invited Mamet to organise a rehearsed reading in February 2020 to test the script in front of an audience and the response was incredible. It clearly moved a lot of people. We started thinking about potential collaborators and funded two days of R&D in April 2021 with director Sepy Baghaei and two actors. They were all of MENA (Middle Eastern & Northern African) background – we were really taken with this play, as it’s unusual to see an intimate family story like this about people of MENA background in London.

What’s the Intergenerational Festival, that Give Me the Sun is part of?

We’re always looking for work that feels real and relevant to our local communities. A few years ago, we commissioned a piece of work based on criteria our youth board suggested. One of the themes put forward was the expectations that a lot of immigrant parents put on their kids. There’s a whole host of things they experience. There’s often a huge amount of pressure to achieve academically for instance.

During the pandemic, we were allowed to apply for a project grant from the Arts Council because their rules for their regularly funded organisations changed. We jumped on the opportunity and applied to fund a larger Intergenerational Festival, looking at stories about being ‘first gen’, about parents from one country with its specific culture and a child who’s grown up in London - what the clashes may be, and what these generational divides mean in a tangible way.

As well as Give Me the Sun, the ‘festival’ included R&D periods for the two winners of our playwriting competition in 2020 which addressed these themes (The Apple Of His Eye by Vicky Olusanya and Roughly 150 Years by Rebecca Batala). It also included a community play. All these elements were supposed to happen close together but thanks to Omicron and other challenges, they ended up being spread out quite a bit.

Why should audiences come see Give Me The Sun?

In a way, it’s a play where nothing happens and yet so much happens. It’s intimate, it’s well-written, it’s not too in-your-face, it’s got subtlety to it. You don’t often see father-son relationships onstage like that. They’re vulnerable. It’s two brilliant parts for two actors.

When we had the rehearsed reading, people related to it. I was really intrigued. Even when it seemed like there was still a lot to resolve in the script, people related to it in different ways: people of MENA background because it’s very specific to them; anyone who was an immigrant was able to see themselves in it; and white British people were able to relate to the intricacies of the father-son relationship.

It’s a special play people can relate to in so many ways. Everyone watching it will see something for them in it.

Give Me The Sun will be on until 30 July at Blue Elephant – head to our What’s On page for more info, or click the button below to book.

Give Me the Sun, a new play written by Mamet Leigh and directed by Majid Mehdizadeh, is looking for a Production Manager.

Give Me the Sun is an in-house production at Blue Elephant Theatre, running from July 12th – 30th, Tuesdays to Saturdays, with some matinees.

Give Me the Sun is an intimate and compelling play, set in London, about a father and son whose relationship begins to unravel the evening the son finally questions why they moved from their home country to London and turned their back on their life there.

Blue Elephant Theatre is a black box studio space – please see here for more details.

The Production Manager will be responsible for ensuring the health & safety and feasibility of the design, helping build/set up, sourcing set, ensuring budgets are kept to in conjunction with the designers and producer and planning the get-in, tech & dress rehearsals and get-out. Blue Elephant Theatre’s space is used during the day for rehearsals and youth theatre activities so it is important that any set can be safely pushed back to allow space for these sessions.

The get-in, tech rehearsals and dress rehearsal will be July 10th – 12th and the get-out will be after the final performance on July 30th or on July 31st or August 1st (TBC).

Fee: TBC (Expected to be £1000-£1250 for equivalent of 6-8 days work)

If you have any questions, please call 02077010100 or email alice@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk.

To apply for this role, please email Alice at alice@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk with a CV by April 18th. If you would like an alternative way to apply, please contact Niamh on 02077010100.

Give Me the Sun is a new play by Mamet Leigh which will have its first production at Blue Elephant Theatre, Camberwell, with support from an Arts Council England project grant.

Short description of play: Bashir and Baba live in a council house in London. Baba, once a doctor in Egypt, works in Tesco. Bashir plays basketball with his friends and wonders what his home country was like. When he turns eighteen, his father encourages him to ask him anything, not expecting that the question will be ‘why did we come to the UK?’.

Give Me the Sun is a compelling short play, exploring what happens when too much is left unsaid for too long. A seemingly perfect father-son relationship unravels to reveal grief, loss and loneliness. As a play, it addresses the complexity of finding your place in a new country and how different that can be for each person.

Writer Mamet Leigh was a pioneer of the Tehran Underground Theatre Movement before coming to London in 2013. The script runs at 50 minutes – one hour.

Details

Total Fee: £3,093 (preparatory fee of £1,117.00, 3 weeks rehearsal @ £494/week & production week @ £494)

Timing: Performance dates will ideally be in April, May or June 2022. The exact dates will be agreed between the availability of the director, designer and theatre space. The director will need four weeks of continuous availability for rehearsals and production week.

Please note: we are ideally seeking a director of Middle Eastern or Northern African background.

Next steps: if you are interested in applying to direct this production, please contact Niamh at niamh@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk to request a copy of the script by February 10th.

The Apple of His Eye by Vicky Olusanya is one of the winning plays of last year's lockdown playwriting competition.

The R&D will be from January 17th - 19th 2022, with the 19th being used to prepare for and hold a rehearsed reading in the evening. We anticipate the R&D going ahead but the rehearsal reading may need to be postponed should additional restrictions be imposed.

We are looking for:

1 x Actor to play teenage girl, Grace - Black British or mixed race

1 x Actor to play an older Nigerian man who has lived in London for more than 40 years (Grace's Father)

1 x Director We hope to work with a director who is of Nigerian heritage or is working class.

All should be interested in exploring a piece of new writing with the writer in the room. The major themes of Apple of His Eye are the benefits system, young carers, and Nigerian heritage.

Fee: £360 for each

To express interest, please email submissions@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk by midday on Saturday 8th January.

Give Me the Sun, a new play written by Mamet Leigh and directed by Sepy Baghaei, is looking to cast two roles.

Give Me the Sun is an in-house production at Blue Elephant Theatre, running from 15th February 2022 to 5th March 2022. Its rehearsal dates are 24th January - 14 February and they will largely take place at Blue Elephant Theatre (generally Mondays to Fridays, 10am – 6pm).

Give Me the Sun is an intimate and compelling play, set in London, about a father and son whose relationship begins to unravel the evening the son finally questions why they moved from Egypt to London and turned their back on their life there.

The characters are:

Baba: forty-seven years old, male, Egyptian with an Egyptian accent. A former doctor, Baba is a gentle man in questionable health whose son is his pride and joy.

Bashir, Baba’s son: eighteen years old, male, speaks with a London accent. Bashir is a respectful, conscientious young adult who seizes the opportunity to talk to his father ‘as a man’ for the first time.

Both actors should ideally be of Egyptian background. If not, they should be of other Middle Eastern or Northern African background.

Fee: £3270 (including holiday pay)

Auditions: TBC

How to apply: Please apply via our audition notice on Spotlight or by emailing submissions@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk by 10am on Monday 15th November with a CV/spotlight link and short cover note outlining your suitability for the project. If emailing, please entitle the email ‘Give Me the Sun Application’ and address it to Sepy Baghaei and indicate which character you are interested in.

Please contact Jimmy on 02077010100 or jimmy@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk if you have any questions or would like to apply in an alternative format.

Elephantology is Blue Elephant Theatre’s Festival for recent graduates/those who are just entering the performing arts industry. We created our Elephantology Festival to offer showcase opportunities as a supportive step into the arts industry. With the support of the Idlewild Trust, this year’s Elephantology offer is a little different, including workshops, mentorships and showcase opportunities. As part of Elephantology, we are hosting two showcase evenings in November – on the 11th and 26th. We recognise that many people who finished training in 2020 and 2021 performed final pieces as monologues or solo performances, often without a live audience. This is a chance to get in front of an audience!

We’re looking for solo performances of 2 - 15 minutes. They can be an extract of a longer piece. They should be original or you should have permission to perform them without Blue Elephant becoming liable to pay royalties. Technical requirements will need to be quite basic as there will not be a lot of set up/rehearsal time. Each performance will receive £30 towards their expenses.

What you should know before applying:
• We are looking to support those who have entered the performing arts industry in the last eighteen months or will be shortly; if you finished or are finishing training in 2020 or 2021 for instance.
• We are especially interested in pieces you created to showcase you and your skills and/or were created to conclude some sort of training. We welcome submissions from writers working with an actor but for logistical reasons they should be solo performances. Theatre, dance and music performances are all suitable but there may be no dance floor down.
• We will start technical rehearsals from approximately 4pm on both performance dates and performances will be at 8pm.
• All applicants must be over 18 and based in the UK, ideally London.
• For more information about Blue Elephant Theatre, please see here: http://blueelephanttheatre.co.uk/companies.
• Please note that the Blue Elephant’s theatre space is on the ground floor and accessible to those in wheelchairs but its upstairs bar area is not.
• We are committed to working safely and so may have to change arrangements if Covid restrictions change.
• Blue Elephant Theatre is committed to widening access to the arts and we particularly strive to work with people who reflect our local communities and audiences in Southwark and make work that is relevant to contemporary multi-cultural London. We particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented in the arts and/or face discrimination, including people who experience racism, identify as working class, identify as having a disability or are from the LGBTQ+ community.

Deadline for entries has been extended to October 26th

To apply, please complete the application form here by October 26th. Alternatively, you can record your answers as video or audio files and share those with us at submissions@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk. After you submit your application, we may get in touch with you to ask for more information or to clarify anything we are unsure of. If you would like an application form posted to you, rather than use the survey tool, or to access it in a different format or have any questions, please contact us on jimmy@blueelephanttheatre.co.uk or 020 7701 0100.