The Schools Season at the Bush
In response to one of the most urgent and divisive issues of our times, the Bush presents The Schools Season: The Knowledge by John Donnelly and Little Platoons by Steve Waters. The season will bring together an ensemble company of ten actors and a series of talks, debates and events which will examine education in Britain today. NB: These two productions will run in rep with each other. Please check here for times and dates for Little Platoons and here for the full programme of education events.
The Knowledge by John Donnelly
Being a teacher means weekends.It means thirteen weeks holiday. It means a secure job in uncertain times
But Zoe doesn’t want to have to rescue her students.
She doesn’t want to be called a slag.
She doesn’t want to sleep with the Head of Science.
And she doesn’t want to teach a group of kids how to do life.
Because that’s something Zoe’s not sure she knows how to do herself.
John Donnelly’s searing new play examines what happens when a young teacher goes off the rails in a failing school. Shocking, revealing and darkly funny, the writer draws on his own experience working in schools.
John Donnelly has worked in various primary and secondary schools across London, Essex and Kent, including programmes aimed at curriculum development, Irish and Romany Travellers, enterprise, literacy, sex education, addictions, student voice. His previous plays include Bone (Royal Court Theatre), Poll Tax Riots (Hampstead Theatre) and Songs of Grace and Redemption (Theatre 503). He is a past winner of both the PMA Award for Best New Writer and the NSDF Sunday Times Playwriting Award.
Please be advised, this play contains real cigarettes, strong language and sexual content. Please call the Box Office for more information
Charlotte joined The Bush as a Creative Associate in 2008; directing Nancy Harris’s ‘Little Dolls’ as part of The Bush’s Broken Space Season.
Charlotte is also the Founder and Artistic Director of ANGLE Theatre; where she initiated a project that actively targeted raw, local and talented writers from across three boroughs in East London. This led to: TriANGLE09 at Hackney Empire; ANGLE’s inaugural new play season, where she directed ‘Commercial Rd ‘ and ‘The Sea at Night’; and which won a Peter Brook Award in 2008.
Before coming to the Bush, Charlotte was Director on Attachment at The National Theatre Studio where she directed new plays such as: ‘Love in a Glass Jar’ by Nancy Harris, and ‘Lobster’ by Russell Barr; and her past directing credits include: a revival of ‘Knives and Hens’ by David Harrower for Bath Theatre Royal, ‘The Confederate’ by Simon Bent a new play, inspired by Hurricane Katrina (Paines Plough/Trafalgar Studios,) ‘Men Should Weep’ by Ena Lamont Stewart (Oxford Stage Company/The Citizens Theatre,) ‘Riders to The Sea, The Shadow of the Glen and The Tinkers Wedding’ by JM Synge and ‘Everything Must Go’ by Stephen Sharkey (The Southwark Playhouse,) ‘The Blood of Others ‘(The Arcola Theatre,)’The Conservatory’ (The Old Red Lion Theatre,) and ‘The Country of the Blind’ (The Gate Theatre.)
Charlotte began her career as an Assistant Director at The Royal Court Theatre, The Gate and at Theatre Gerard-Phillippe in Paris, before being invited to join the National Theatre Studio Directors course. The Bush Theatre has always been a goldmine of new writers and a major source of inspiration for Charlotte; and she is thrilled and delighted to be part of its team.
Since 2002, John has worked in various primary and secondary schools across London, Essex and Kent, including programmes aimed at curriculum development, Irish and Romany Travellers, enterprise, literacy, sex education, addictions, student voice, BSF, L2L, SEN, CPD, G&T and other acronyms.
He is also a visiting lecturer at Central School of Speech and Drama.
John Donnelly’s plays include BONE (Royal Court Theatre), POLL TAX RIOTS (The Factory/Hampstead Theatre), CORPORATE ROCK (Nabokov/Latitude Festival), CONVERSATION #1 (The Factory/V&A/Latitude Festival/SGP), SHOWTIME (LAMDA), THE KRAKEN FALLS IN LLANGOLLEN (Clwyd Theatr Cymru/Write to Rock), SONGS OF GRACE AND REDEMPTION (Liminal Theatre/Theatre 503), ALARM AND DISTRESS (Redbridge Drama Centre)
John is a past winner of both the PMA Award for Best New Writer and the NSDF Sunday Times Playwriting Award
SONGS OF GRACE AND REDEMPTION and BONE are both published by Faber and Faber
Mark trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art where he won the Richard Pilbrow Prize. Mark worked for a year and a half with London Contemporary Dance Theatre before getting his first position as Lighting Designer at the Redgrave Theatre where he lit over fifty productions.
Theatre for the Bush includes: Elling, The Danny Crowe Show.
Opera includes: Le Nozze di Figaro (Los Angeles Opera); Tannhäuser (Teatro Real Madrid); Kaspar Hauser, Le Nozze di Figaro (RSAMD/ New Athenaeum Theatre Glasgow); A Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Finta Giardiniera (RCM/Britten Theatre) The Cumnor Affair (Tête à Tête); Flight, La Rondine (BYO); The Cunning Little Vixen (RCM); Pirates of Penzance, Iolanthe, Mikado (Carl Rosa/Raymond Gubbay/Gielgud Theatre); Blind Date-a new opera (Tête à Tête); Die Schuldigkeit des Ersten Gebots (Wilton’s Music Hall); Hansel and Gretel (Opera North); Tannhäuser (Los Angeles Opera); Lysistrata (New York City Opera); Odysseus Unwound(Tête à Tête); La Vie Parisienne (D’Oyly Carte); Eugene Onegen (MTL); Die Fledermaus, Orlando Finto Pazzo, Shorts, Six-Pack, Family Matters (Tête à Tête); Falstaff (RAM); Le Nozze di Figaro (Opera Zuid, Netherlands); Hansel and Gretel (Scottish Opera on tour); Manon, Die Fledermaus (English Touring Opera); Ariadne auf Naxos, Albert Herring (Aldeburgh); Le Torreador, Messalina, Amadigi (Jonathan Dove’s) Le Porte di Bagdad, The Lady and the Sweep (Batignano, Italy); La Fanciulla del West, Norma (Opera Holland Park); The Rape of Lucretia, Cosi fan Tutte (RCM); Nitro (Royal Opera, BBCTV, Linbury Theatre); Lysistrata (Houston Grand Opera); The Knot Garden (Istituto di Musica di Montepulciano).
London theatre includes: Salad Days (Riverside Studios); Kurt & Sid (Trafalgar Studios); Family Man (Theatre Royal, Stratford East); Fast Labour (West Yorkshire Playhouse/Hampstead Theatre); Elling (Trafalgar Studios); The Birds, The Colonel Bird (The Gate); Retreat, Each Day Dies with Sleep, House Among The Stars, Lips Together Teeth Apart (Orange Tree Theatre); On The Piste (The Garrick); It Runs in the Family (The Playhouse); Kit and the Widow (Vaudeville and Ambassadors); Gogmagoggs (Lyric Hammersmith); Shadow of a Gunman (Tricycle); Easter (Riverside Studios, Oxford Stage Company); Out of Our Heads (ATC).
Regional theatre includes: The Daughter-in-Law (New Vic Theatre Stoke); Behzti (Birmingham Rep); Tall Phoenix (Belgrade Theatre Coventry); Broken Glass, How The Other Half Loves, The Deep Blue Sea, Get Ken Barlow (Palace Theatre Watford); A Chorus of Disapproval, The Beggars Opera, Henry IV pt. 1 & 2 (Old Vic Theatre, Bristol); Privates on Parade (New Vic Theatre Stoke); Present Laughter, A Streetcar Named Desire, Misery (Mercury Theatre Colchester); Forty Years On (West Yorkshire Playhouse).
Mark has also lit plays in many other regional theatres including: Derby Playhouse, Nottingham Playhouse, York Theatre Royal, Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, Greenwich Theatre, Churchill Theatre Bromley, Queens Theatre Hornchurch, Everyman and Playhouse Theatres Liverpool, Nuffield Southampton, Northcott Exeter, Salisbury Playhouse.
Signe is from Denmark, Copenhagen and trained at the Danish Design School and the Motley Theatre Design Course.
Theatre credits include: Tales of the Harrow Road (Soho Theatre); Some Voices, A Prayer for Owen Meany, Mill on the Floss (all Lamda); Kain (NyAveny and tour); Dr. Faustus (Watford Palace Theatre); House of Bernarda Alba, Dealer’s Choice (Embassy Theatre); Ghosts (Young Vic); King Ubu (Takkelloftet, Royal Danish Opera House and tour); Blackbird, Sexual Perversity in Chicago (both Norwich Playhouse); About Tommy, Plasticine (both Southwark Playhouse); Dancing at Lughnasa (Aubade Hall, Japan); Scenes from an Execution (Hackney Empire); Pedro and the Captain (Arcola); Love in Idleness (Bristol Old Vic); Breaking News (Theatre 503).
Her opera credits include: La Serva Padrona (Sa de Miranda, Portugal); Volume (ENO Opera Works); Eugene Onegin, Giasone (both Iford Arts).
Dance and circus credits include: Meridian, Phantasy (both Rambert, Queen Elizabeth Hall); Santa´s Shadow (Dansehallerne), A Night For One (European tour).
Signe was also stylist on Kate Moss Liberation (Liberation Magazine).
Tom trained at Central School of Speech and Drama in Theatre Sound and is resident sound designer for international physical theatre company Parrot{in the}Tank.
Designs for the Bush: 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover at Christmas, The Broken Space Season (as Associate), The Aliens (as Associate), The Schools Season.
Other recent design credits include: Love Love Love (Paines Plough, Tour), The Chairs (Theatre Royal Bath), The Road To Mecca, The Roman Bath, 1936, The Shawl (Arcola),Everything Must Go, Soho Streets (Soho Theatre), Holes (New Wimbledon Studio), Terror Tales (Hampstead Studio), The Hostage, Present Tense (Southwark Playhouse), Faustus (Watford Palace, Tour), Faithless Bitches(Courtyard), FAT (The Oval House), Just Me Bell (Graeae, Tour), Blue Heaven (Finborough), Pitching In (Latitude Festival, Tour), I Can Sing A Rainbow with Nabokov and Sheffield Theatres (Lyceum Sheffield), Pendulum (Jermyn Street), Journalist and Hope (ICA London), Machinal (Central), Bar Of Ideas (Paradise Gardens Festival and Glastonbury/Shangri-La).
Joanne Froggatt, best known for role as Anna in Downton Abbey, has appeared in numerous TV, film and stage productions including All About My Mother at The Old Vic, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the Royal Exchange Theatre and Be My Baby at Soho Theatre Company.
On screen she has appeared in Identity, Life on Mars, Island at War, Coronation Street and BAFTA Award winning drama See No Evil: The Moors Murderers.
CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON:
Forthcoming films include the Cuban-set drama THE DAY OF THE FLOWERS, directed by John Roberts and Mira Fornayová’s psychological drama LITTLE FOXES. Other film work includes Sarah Gavron’s film adaptation of Monica Ali’s best-selling novel, BRICK LANE, Penny Woolcock’s exuberant MISCHIEF NIGHT, and Michael Winterbottom’s CODE 46. Christopher also worked with Mike Figgis on THE GROUND BENEATH HER FEET, and on French film LE FILS DE MON PERE, filmed on location in Paris.
Television includes: SPOOKS: CODE 9. The TV adaptation of Zadie Smith’s novel WHITE TEETH, SECOND GENERATION, and Paul Abbott’s STATE OF PLAY.
Theatre work includes FALLUJAH, written from eyewitness accounts and directed by Jonathan Holmes for ICA at the Truman Brewery, and THE BACCHAE OF BAGHDAD at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, in which he played the lead, Dionysus. The title role in PERICLES in a site-specific co-production between the Royal Shakespeare Company and Cardboard Citizens, Bharatha in THE RAMAYANA at the National Theatre, and Omar in FRAGILE LAND at the Hampstead Theatre.
Aside from his work as an actor, he has written a song cycle, VERY PRESENT TENSE, which premiered during the Liverpool Capital of Culture. He also made a documentary for BBC Radio 4 called OTHER in which he explored the identities of people who have parents of different origins and have grown up in a culture belonging to neither parent.
Theatre includes: Polling Booth (Theatre 503); Relish (National Youth Theatre), Brixton Rock (Young Vic Theatre); Bus (Cockpit Theatre); Talking to Byron (National Youth Theatre / Roundhouse Camden); Tits and Teeth (National Youth Theatre / Soho Theatre); Laters (Team Angelica / Drill Hall Theatre); Birdboot, Twelfth Night, Our Country’s Good (Ilex Theatre);
Accrington Pals, Our Bad Magnet, Helmet (Kingston Youth Theatre)
Television includes; Injustice, Citizen Shane Pilot, Stanley Park, The Bill, Holby City, Concrete Jungle.
Film Includes: Do Or Die 3D Teaser, Come Fly With Me, Hand, Assessment, Six.
Kerron trained at the Identity Drama School, the United Kingdom’s first black drama school.
Theatre credits include Totally Over You (Arcola Theatre) and Gunshot (Stratford Circus).
Television credits include The Bill, Casualty, BBC2’s Beautiful People and Silent Witness.
THEATRE; Make Love Not War (Talawa); No Way Home (Made in Da Shade); Our Baby Charlie (Theatre Royal Stratford); Reparations (Black History Tour); The Final Hour (Breaking Walls).
TELEVISION; Tracey Beaker, The Bill.
FILM; Dots, The Fighter’s Ballad, Game Keepers Without Games
Theatre includes: Hedda Gabler (Gate Theatre Dublin); Much Ado About Nothing, The Voysey Inheritance The Life of Galilio, Luther, The Shape of the Table, Racing Demon and, most recently, Women Beware Women (National Theatre); Gaslight, King Lear, The Provok’D Wife, Cloud Nine, Waste (all Old Vic); As You Like It (Wyndhams); As You Desire Me (Playhouse); The Sugar Syndrome, Disappeared, Search & Destroy and Weldon Rising (Royal Court); Burning Issues (Hampstead); Certain Young Men and Butterfly Kiss (Almeida); A Letter of Resignation (Savoy); Our Late Night (Ambassadors); Don Carlos (Glasgow Citizens).
Television includes: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, Above Suspicion, Personal Affairs, Men are Wonderful, Place of Execution, Heartbeat, Lawless, Hear the Silence, Charles II, Starhunter, Ultimate Force, Dalziel & Pasco, Murder Rooms, Hearts & Bones, Harbor Lights, Gimme Gimme Gimme, Nature Boy, Kavanagh QC, Degrees of Error, Seaforth, Headhunters, Prime Suspect III, Between the Lines, Underbelly, Wish Me Luck and Hannay.
Film includes: Hypnotic, The Count of Monte Cristo and Regeneration.
Mandeep trained at The Harris Drama School.
Theatre includes; The Tempest, Life (Candi Productions); New Path, Twisted Minds (Fearnhill Productions); Oliver, Annie (Wilbury Productions, Jeff Gentry).
Film includes; Some Dogs Bite.
