Theatre Companies
2008 Visible Fictions Theatre Company
Our 2008 WebPlay will be Visible Fictions Theatre Companies production of Jason and the Argonauts. With just 2 actors, countless character's and 1 fleece this almighty tale is told in just 65 minutes.
Visible Fictions is one of the UK’s leading theatre companies. Working with only the finest artistic talent, they create professional performances that are innovative, memorable and relevant to audiences both young and old.
We are very excited about presenting Jason and the Argonauts to our WebPlay audience this year and feel confident that it will help 2008 to be the most successful WebPlay year yet!
2007 Tamasha Theatre Company
Our 2007 WebPlay was the Tamasha Theatre Company production Child of the Divide.
Tamasha are a London based theatre company who use drama to tell the stories of Asian and diasporic communities. Written by Tamasha’s Artistic Director, Sudha Bhuchar, Child of the Divide is a powerful tale of a small boy’s experience of the division of India and Pakistan. The play was well received when it was first performed earlier this year and was hit with our WebPlay audiences in both the UK and the US.
2006 Catherine Wheels Theatre Company
Gill Robertson set up Catherine Wheels in 1999, collaborating with practitioners Jay Manley and Annie Wood to create the company’s first production, Martha.
The response to the show was so immense that it has remained in the repertoire ever since, performing at theatres throughout the UK, Ireland and North America, taking in Broadway on the way.
In 2002, Catherine Wheels produced Lifeboat by Nicola McCartney, winning the Barclays Stage Award for Best Show for Children and Young People. The Company was nominated again in 2003 for The Story of the Little Gentleman. These successes have established Catherine Wheels as a leading producer of theatre for children and young people.
The critically acclaimed Lifeboat was our WebPlay for 2006. It played to over 3500 WebPlay students and was a tremendous success.
2005 Hoipolloi Theatre Company
Founded in 1994 by joint Artistic Directors Shôn Dale-Jones and Stefanie Müller, Hoipolloi has become one of the foremost touring companies in Britain. Hoipolloi have so far created 12 new plays - plays with men trapped inside apartment blocks, alien bakers taking over the world, people returning from the dead, poets and pobbles... (www.hoipolloi.org.uk ). Hoipolloi create new comic theatre. They look at a show in the same way you would see a party - full of fun and celebration. Their plays celebrate the imagination and take you, the audience, away from the everyday world. As a result, what you see on stage is visually powerful and not bound by the confines of reality. Their shows are packed with larger than life characters, bizarre situations, and a lot of laughs.
The WebPlay for 2005, My Uncle Arly was a tremendous success, it was a pleasure to work with the company and we are rightly proud to have presented such a wonderful piece to over 3000 WebPlay students.
2000 - 2004 Polka Theatre for Children
Our partnership with Polka Theatre for Children during the first four years of WebPlay enabled us to develop our highly successful programme. Over this period, not only did WebPlay classes benefit from the excellent work that Polka produced, but Polka was also able to develop its own way of using the Internet to reach out to audiences, which it has continued to use post-WebPlay. We thank Polka for four fabulous year,s and look forward to more collaboration in the future.
"My experience with WebPlay - as a director as well as an actor - has been one of immense pleasure and has given me huge job satisfaction. Working for many years at Polka Theatre, I am used to seeing the wonderment in our audiences' eyes as they see our plays. But to work on a project that links countries let alone cities together; have children working much closer to me than I am used to; answering, encouraging and teaching them how to communicate in the world of theatre has been for me a wonderful privilege. I would highly and strongly recommend the project to any colleague. It has been an honour for me to have been part of the founding team on such an adventurous and farsighted scheme. I say all this with great pride and wish WebPlay all the success it deserves."
Roman Stefanski
Associate Director
Polka Theatre