The Live Lit Co and Amnesty International Tackle Female Genital Mutilation Through Theatre and Discussion - May 2014

Val Doulton, with her colleague and friend Catherine Suggitt, were among the first decades ago to try to bring action at Amnesty International against Female Genital Mutilation. Val is immensely glad to be staging this Forum Theatre event against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with her Company and in collaboration with Amnesty International's Creative Writers Group.

Please click here to be taken to The Live Literature Company website.

Romeo and Juliet Performance and Workshop Day. Your chance to play falling in love like Romeo and Juliet - April 2014

Rehearsal photo of Val watching Maeve O'Sullivan as Juliet on the V&A balcony

Join us to celebrate Shakespeare’s Birth Anniversary and participate in our experiential workshop. See below for details.

The Live Literature Company offer everyone this experiential workshop opportunity. The Victoria and Albert Museum Theatre & Performance Galleries with The Live Literature Company, present a workshop day on Saturday April 26^th 2014, in celebration of the 450^th Anniversary of Shakespeare’s Birth.

The focus of the workshop will be the Balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet. We will watch the scene played by Deaf actor Lee O’Brien, opposite a hearing Juliet, and then follow an experiential workshop exploring the scene physically, emotionally, and psychologically, from three perspectives:-

• Film and Sign Language – workshop led by Lee O’Brien.
• Dance – workshop led by Lucy Casson and Barry Grantham.
• Acting – workshop led by Valerie Doulton.

Film material to include Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev dancing the balcony scene and Lee O’Brien’s performance in Sign Language.

Performance specialists leading the workshops:-

Valerie Doulton is Founder and Artistic Director of The Live Literature Company established in 2002. This is a Performance based company unique in fusing Theatre, Literature, and the Humanities. She trained as a Director on the Post-Graduate Directing course at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, where her mentor was Nat Brenner. Her degree is in English Language and Literature, with study in philosophy, from Newcastle University. She has staged work at The National Theatre, The Lyric, Hammersmith, The Welsh Millennium Centre, and other venues including the staging of many classics in the leading drama schools.

Barry Grantham studied with Stanislas Idzikowski and worked with Massine on The Red Shoes and The Tales of Hoffman, so is one of the very few who still have a direct link to the Diaghilev Ballet. An authority on Commedia dell’Arte, he is author of Playing Commedia and Commedia Plays published by Nick Hern Books. He also lectures on Commedia dell’Arte and the Diaghilev Ballet.

Lucy Casson trained originally as a classical dancer at The Royal Ballet Lower School and Central School of Ballet.  With a performance career spanning 20 years, she has worked with companies including English National Ballet, The Royal Opera, English National Opera and The Live Literature Company. The choreographers she has worked with include, Robert North, Lynn Seymour, Wayne Macgregor, Will Tuckett, Rob Ashford and Susan Stroman.

Lee O’Brien was born Deaf. He is a graduate of the Master of Arts, Filmmaking course, at the Northern Film School, where he specialised in screen acting. Lee has acted for fifteen years and also works in media and production. Born in Liverpool, U.K. His acting career began as a teenager at the Mersey Sign Deaf local community theatre. His most recent acting work is a short film Locked In produced for world wide film festivals.

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