Camden Peoples Theatre x So La Flair
A 1973 Bonanza: 50 Years Of Feminist Theatre
In partnership with Camden People’s Theatre, So La Flair produced a very special Launch Event for CPT’s Calm Down Dear Feminist Theatre Festival.
A 1973 Bonanza celebrates 10 years of Calm Down Dear and marks the 50 year anniversary of the first Women’s Theatre Festival in 1973 championing 50 years of feminist theatre making and charting its evolution over the last five decades.
The event served as an opportunity for intergenerational connection and conversation on progress made and what agendas lie ahead. As with the first Women’s Theatre Festival in 1973, this anniversary 50 years later offered us another milestone stop-point to gather together and check in on the state of gender parity in the UK theatre industry.
Date: Saturday 3rd June
Location: Camden People’s Theatre, 58-60 Hampstead Rd, London NW1 2PY
Order Of Events: Panel (2:30pm-3pm) followed by a social (3:30 - 6:00pm)
The event included a panel discussion on feminist theatre ecology featuring Calm Down Dear 2023 programmer Abbi Greenland from RASHDASH, Jessica Kaliisa, Lily Susan Todd, Amelia Donkor and Dr. Susan Croft. The discussion focused on barriers facing creatives and explored how we can work to progress towards an equal industry. The discussion was followed by a 1970s inspired social, providing a chance for us all to meet, network and celebrate our community.
Creative Producer & Panel Host: Lucy Laverty
Production & PR Manager: Scarlett Spicer
Marketing & Social Media Manager: PJ Cunningham
Panellists: Abbi Greenland, Jessica Kaliisa, Lily Susan Todd, Amelia Donkor and Susan Croft.
SO LA STARS
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Panellist
Abbi Greenland (she/her) is one third of feminist, physical theatre company RashDash who have been making theatre and art for twelve years. She writes, performs, directs and choreographs for the company. Shows include Look At Me Don’t Look At Me, Oh Mother, Three Sisters, Two Man Show and We Want You To Watch. RashDash exists to celebrate and make space for people to live as their fullest selves.
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Panellist
Amelia (she/her) is an actor, writer and facilitator blending creative arts and community building. She trained at LAMDA and has worked across theatre & television, as well as leading a wide range of workshops and hosting podcasts. She is passionate about story-telling and discovering new ways to play and liberate. Amelia recently studied for an MA in gender, culture and media at Goldsmiths and is an elected member of the Equity Women’s Committee. She is currently researching and writing on the place of care in anti-racist feminist worldmaking.
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Panellist
Jessica Kaliisa (she/her) is an actress and award winning theatre director, most notably known for Queens of Sheba which has just finished it's run at The Public Theatre in New York. Jessica's vision is to magnify the compelling truths in human nature, through story-telling and performance, in a way that affects both performer and audience.
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Panellist
Lily (she/her) is a veteran director and acting trainer, who began work after an MA at University of Sussex as a trainee/apprentice in the then-lively repertory system, in 1969. Over 50 years she has directed a great range of modern classics in rep (Arthur Miller, Shelagh Delaney, Tom Stoppard, Noel Coward, Joe Orton, Caryl Churchill) as a Freelancer, and as an Associate.
Todd took part in the first Women’s Theatre Festival at the Almost Free in 1973, and became active in counter-cultural and feminist theatre from then on, as well as training actors within the drama school context. She was among the founder members of Monstrous Regiment in 1975, and created ground-breaking productions as a writer and director within the Company, as well as outside, including premieres in English of two Marguerite Duras plays, and devised pieces for innovative comedy company, National Theatre of Brent. She has directed two plays by Deborah Levy, Pax and Heresies at the RSC Pit Theatre, taught acting at Trinity College Dublin, and on other major training courses. She has worked closely with many writers developing and sustaining their work.
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Panel Host / So La Flair Artistic Director
Lucy (she/her) is a performer, director and theatre-maker as well as being joint artistic director and co-founder of So La Flair, originating work for the last 2.5 years.
At University Lucy focused her research on Feminist Theatre Practice, investigating the radical restructuring needed in mainstream theatre to move towards equality both on and off stage, resulting in a sustainable and more accessible theatre practice. Since 2020, Lucy has had '2023' stuck on a post-it note on her wall in the hope of producing a space to celebrate 50 years since the first Women's Theatre Festival in 1973 and bring together women and non-binary people in the industry.
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Panellist
Dr Susan Croft (she/her) is a writer, curator, archive adviser and Director of Unfinished Histories, the oral and archival history project on Alternative Theatre in Britain. She also runs SuffrageArts, exploring the suffrage movement through art and theatre.
Croft taught performance studies at Nottingham Trent University as well as lead live art/performance research at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her publications include …She Also Wrote Plays: an International Guide to Women Playwrights (2001), Black and Asian Performance at the Theatre Museum: a Users’ Guide (2004) and How the Vote Was Won: Art, Theatre and Women’s Suffrage (with VI Cockroft).
Croft later became Senior Curator (Contemporary Performance) at the V&A Theatre Museum from 1998 to 2005. Curating major exhibitions at the V&A on Edward Gordon Craig and Tanya Moiseiwitsch; Architects of Fantasy / Forkbeard Fantasy and the Redgraves and their history on the public stage.
As a freelance curator Croft has created exhibitions on women’s suffrage, on Black Theatre in Britain and numerous exhibitions and displays on aspects of alternative theatre history.