News

This summer, to help the artistic community recover from the pandemic that all but closed down the performing arts industry, Queen's Theatre Hornchurch, supported by the Culture Recovery Fund, called out for submissions from local artists for projects that had a value between £1 and £500 which: – help them move their practice or career forward post-pandemic – that signify crossing a new frontier - involves them coming and taking the theatre up on free rehearsal space and performance opportunities – involves them interacting in real life with a new person in their community All that the Theatre asked was that all of the artists: – live in Outer East London or South Essex – define themselves as ‘professional’ After an overwhelming response from the Outer East London and South Essex creative community, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch have supported 15 professional local artists to create 13 separate projects.  All of those who were not successful have been offered on-going in-kind support for their project from Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch’s Associate Producer, including rehearsal space, performance opportunities and careers and advice sessions. THE NEW FRONTIERS: CATALYST COMMISSION ARTISTS are:

MICHELLE PAYNE	Michelle will work with an Essex based Virtual Reality specialist and an Oculus Rift headset to work out how this area of technology can influence her theatre-making practice.
SHARAN ATWAL	Sharan will undertake a professional development course at either RADA or Central School of Speech and Drama to give her new skills and new motivation to develop her projects.
CHARLOTTE PAYNE	Charlotte will provide a programme of free singing lessons to the community around Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
KNICKERS THEATRE	Knickers Theatre will break new ground for the company and produce an online performance – ‘The UnPlausibles: A Study of Dog Whistles and Echo Chambers’ – made up of an online zine, a series of mockumentary films and an online portal hosted on their website
DARYL BRANCH	Daryl will venture into podcasting with a series of 5 conversations with Essex based creatives - ‘Creative Conversations’ - who are attempting to get the creative and cultural sector back up and running in the area.
NATALIE DAY	Natalie will develop and trial a 45-minute set of music, developed for her Event Singer business, at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch
ESTHER-RENNAE WALKER	Esther and her company Cities On Hills will work with 4 underrepresented actors to perform a series of 2-3min monologues that will be professionally recorded and released on their special channels, exploring a non- Christian perspective on faith and God.
KIMBERLEY CAPERO	Kimberley will work towards a work in progress short play exploring themes of class, sexuality and sexual freedom and a young woman’s experience with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD).
STACEY AND NICOLA BLAND	Stacey and Nicola will work on developing their second play, about two Essex Waitresses, with support of Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch’s rehearsal space and scratch performance opportunities.
MICHELLE PITTONII	Michelle will fulfil a long-held desire to develop a Drag King character whilst exploring drag as a performance style and experimenting with their look, sound and potential future performance ideas.
HANNAH BRAILSFORD	Hannah will develop her existing storytelling practice by working with local musician Cerys Hogg.
MARTIN JOHNSTON	Martin will write his first play and bring it to the stage of being ready for a round table reading
OLIVER YELLOP	Oliver will work with a local graphic designer to create new branding and a show brochure for their next production.