This celebrated nationwide project visits Newbury inviting the finest local playwrights to write and perform mini plays about their home towns.
Since 2010, more than 160 writers from across the UK have returned home to pen plays about the places that shaped them. Together these plays make up a theatrical tapestry of the nation – a playwrights’ guide to Great Britain. At theatres from Bristol to Belfast, Cardiff to Coventry and Nottingham to Newcastle, these plays have been performed by the playwrights themselves, coming home to tell their tale.
Now, Come To Where I’m From visits The Watermill for a special evening of new short plays about Newbury performed by the playwrights themselves on the stage of their home town theatre.
Download the Come To Where I’m From app to listen to plays from around the UK for free. Available from the App Store and GooglePlay.
Four playwrights will each perform a new short play inspired by Newbury:
Beth Flintoff, Danielle Pearson, Sophie Stone, Talitha Wing
Beth Flintoff
Beth is a freelance playwright and theatre director whose writing has been longlisted for The Papatango Prize, The Bruntwood Prize, and nominated for Most Promising New Playwright 2017 at the Off West End Awards. Her play THE GLOVE THIEF, commissioned by Tonic, is published by Nick Hern Books and regularly performed by young companies around the world.
She is an Associate Artist at Reading Between the Lines Theatre Company in Reading, for whom she has written OSCAR WILDE ON TRIAL; HENRY I OF ENGLAND; MATILDA THE EMPRESS; and HENRY II. Other writing includes THE BALLAD OF MARIA MARTEN for Eastern Angles (touring again in 2020); THE REBELLIOUS WOMEN OF WIMBLEDON for Attic Theatre Company; ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF WAR AND PEACE on Greenham Common (2017).
Beth has collaborated twice as writer/director with physical theatre ensemble Rhum and Clay, on JEKYLL AND HYDE (The Watermill) and HARDBOILED (The Watermill/New Diorama Theatre - Off West End Award Nominee for Best Director 2016). As the former Outreach Director at The Watermill, she worked on many productions as writer, director or both, including THE RIVALS; HAMLET (2014); MACBETH (2015); ROMEO AND JULIET (2013); OTHELLO; and DOCTOR FAUSTUS. For the Watermill Senior Youth Theatre: DAVID COPPERFIELD; LIFE LESSONS; WRITERS’ BLOCK; THE GIRL WHO NEVER FORGOT; and THE THREE MUSKETEERS.
Beth is currently working on THE WORLD WE MADE (Change Festival at Warwick Arts Centre), GENOMES and THE LAST ABBOT OF READING for Reading Between the Lines, and a new commission for Write the Girl Project, working with St Albans High School for Girls. She is also the Co-Director of THE INCIDENT ROOM, which will run at New Diorama Theatre before transferring to Off Broadway in New York, April 2020.
Danielle Pearson
Danielle Pearson is Playwright in Residence at The Watermill Theatre. Her new play, CAMP ALBION, will be performed at The Watermill as well as tour to rural venues in May and June of 2020. She is a winner of the 2017 EU Collective Plays! Competition and a graduate of the Royal Court Writer’s Programme.
Recent work includes D DAY 75 (101 Greenham Arts); MOONFLEET; (Watermill Senior Youth Theatre); JANE EYRE (Watermill Theatre); AND SO MY FACE BECAME MY SCAR (Quartieri dell’Arte Festival, Italy); A PRICKLE OF HEDGEHOGS (Southwark Playhouse); THIS RESTLESS STATE (Ovalhouse Theatre & Tour); DIGGING FOR VICTORY (Watermill Senior Youth Theatre); THE WITCHES AND THE SINGING MICE (Unicorn Theatre, R&D); THE LOCAL HISTORY CLUB (Old Red Lion); NEWBURY YARNS (Watermill Theatre); ANN VERONICA (Watermill Senior Youth Theatre); NEW EUROPE (Camden People’s Theatre) and TABITHA'S BALLAD (South Street Arts Centre, Reading).
Sophie Stone
As an actor:
Theatre includes AS YOU LIKE IT (Shakespeare’s Globe); EMILIA (Shakespeare’s Globe/West End); A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM (Watermill Theatre); JUBILEE (Lyric, Hammersmith/Manchester Royal Exchange); THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR (Birmingham Rep/ UK tour); HERONS (Lyric Hammersmith); MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN (National Theatre); MINE (Shared Experience); FROZEN (Birmingham Rep); TWO (Southwark Playhouse); THE BLOODY GREAT BORDER BALLAD PROJECT (Northern Stage); IN WATER I’M WEIGHTLESS (National Theatre of Wales); PANDORA (Arcola); WOMAN OF FLOWERS (Forest Forge/UK tour); MULTIPLEX, FEN, YOU MAKE ME HAPPY (WHEN SKIES ARE GREY) (Watermill Theatre).
Television includes TWO DOORS DOWN; SHAKESPEARE & HATHAWAY; SHETLAND; THE CROWN; DOCTOR WHO; MAPP AND LUCIA; MOONSTONE; MARCHLANDS; MIDSOMER MURDERS; SMALL WORLD; HOLBY CITY; CASUALTY; FM.
Film includes RETREAT (Sophie was awarded the Best Actress Award, Clin d’Oeil Festival); MY CHRISTMAS ANGEL; CONFESSIONS; COMING HOME.
Sophie Stone is Co-Founder of Deaf & Hearing Ensemble Theatre Company.
Talitha Wing
Talitha Wing graduated from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in 2018. Talitha is a professional actor, writer and poet.
Paines Plough; COME TO WHERE I’M FROM, is Talitha’s first commissioned play. Acting credits since graduation include: ALEX RIDER directed by Andreas Prochaska (Eleventh Hour Films / Sony TV); THE FEED directed by Jill Robertson (Amazon Studios) and the feature film; MILITARY WIVES directed by Peter Cattaneo (42).