Now casting for The Highwayman Edinburgh 2008

The Curious Room are casting for their Edinburgh 2008 production of The Highwayman a new play by Bahar Brunton after the poem by Alfred Noyes.
It is a story about unrequited and un-permitted love with commentary on social status in the 1800’s which will be performed at C Venues in the vibrant C cubed venue.

Characters Required:
OSTLER: Male. Mid 20’s-early 30’s. A stable hand who essentially narrates the play. He is ridden with anxiety and bitterness due to his unrequited obsession foe Bess. Lacking in moral fibre.
THE HIGHWAYMAN: Male. Late 20’s. An original Highwayman Casanova. Full of intensity, mystery and smooth talking charm. A man free formal everyday constraints.
THE LANDLORD: Male. Late 30’s +. A single father and a coward. A sycophant to the Royal authorities and a selfish parent that struggles with his paternal responsibilities.
THE SOLDIERS x 2. Male. 20+. Nasty pieces of work. They abuse their authorities for selfish gain. Guilty of vulgar tongues and misogynistic behavior.

Dates: Auditions: 26th April. Rehearsals: Evenings and Weekends 21st June-23rd July (excluding 5th+6th July). London Preview: 24th-27th July .Travel To Edinburgh: 28th July. Performance in Edinburgh: 30th July- 23rd August. Travel day 24th August.

All actors will require a base in London. The project is profit share (agreement available to see at audition) . Accommodation for the duration of the festival (sharing rooms) and travel to and from Edinburgh will be provided. As well as a daily performance of 1hr all actors will be required to flyer for at least 1hr each day throughout the festival and help with get in/out.

Please email (preferred method of contact) headshots and CV’s to director Rachel Valentine-Smith at thehighwayman.thecuriousroom@googlemail.com or by post to The Curious Room, 31b Saltoun Road, Brixton, SW2 1EN.

www.thecuriousroom.com 10% of all profits on projects undertaken by The Curious Room are donated to the charity Kids Company.

Looking for Direction...

We are very excited to announce that The Curious Room will be performing an open air production this June as part of the new Brockwell Park Arts programme. We are keen to support our local park and enrich the arts available to our community. The Curious Room is thrilled to be given this opportunity. We are currently seeking a director to join our team of creatives. This post will have the responsibility of directing the forthcoming June production. We have a strong idea of what we would like the production to be, but , we are also open to suggestion if a director who is suitable for the role has a play that they are particularly keen to stage, especially if it is particularly suitable to an open air/ park/ walled garden location.

The position will be paid on a profit-share basis project to project based on The Curious Room profit share agreement which can be accessed by contacting us by email.

To find out more please email thecuriousroom@googlemail.com.

Car Booty.

Thank you to everyone who contributed their junk to our carboot sale today. We are very pleased to announce that we made £193.37 from our first sale today. We have plenty of stuff left that will sell and will gladly accept any further donations. Thank you for your support…we are one step closer to funding our Edinburgh production of The Highwayman this August!
Thanks,
Kate

We want your junk!!!

Our first fund-raiser for The Curious Room will be a CAR BOOT SALE with a twist- we want your junk! We will be taking a boot load of kind generous people’s old tat down to our local Boot sale- with in the hope that we will raise a few pennies towards our goal of taking our show The Highwayman to Edinburgh.

So rather than chuck those unwanted Christmas presents and dusty books in the bin give them to us! This is ultimately a good deed as by doing this you will be:

A) Supporting a blossoming theatre company that gives a creative opportunity to committed talented Actors, Artists, Designers, Film Makers, Photographers, Writers…the list goes on and on but a spectacular group of fresh British talent.

B) Helping produce vibrant new theatre and keeping the spirit of non-commercial art alive for both Artists and Audiences.

C) Last, but, not least…by supporting The Curious Room you are in turn supporting a fantastic charity called Kids Company. All of the profits from our first production went to Kids Company and they will have our continued support. A percentage of profits will always be donated to Kids Company to give something back to our community and to support future creative minds that may not have had the opportunity to develop were it not for the support and care they receive from Kids Company. To read more about their work please visit http://www.kidsco.org.uk/

How can you give us your stuff?

1) Collect together old clothes, books, unused cosmetics, VHS, DVD, CDs, even TAPES! And general odds and ends.

2) Email thecuriousroom@googlemail.com or call Kate 07974324101 or Tom 07968293413.

3) We can pick up from you (within London) or you can drop off with us (in Brixton).

What if I don’t got no junk?

1) Try and get down to the CAR BOOT and buy some of our kindly donated junk. Thus supporting The Curious Room and possibly getting your hands on a fine antique or priceless vintage number.

Hope to hear from you soon.
Kate and All at The Curious Room.

Edinburgh 2008- a call for Artists/Actors.

We are deep in pre-production for our Edinburgh 2008 show:

THE HIGHWAYMAN
written by Bahar Brunton
based on the poem by Alfred Noyes

There are currently opportunities for both Actors and Artists.

1.ACTORS.
We require five males for an upcoming script development evening. It will be an informal read through of the current script to provide the production team and the writer the opportunity to hear the piece performed and put forward ideas for development.
The actors involved will have the chance to give their feedback and there maybe the opportunity for later work shopping, depending on the writer’s schedule.
It will be one evening’s commitment in late January in a closed meeting in Brixton, London. There will be an opportunity to prepare the script in advance.
Although this doesn’t provide a showcase opportunity it will prove an interesting process and you will get a glass of wine for your pains!
The characters required are:
1.OSTLER: 20-30- outcast youth with poor upbringing and sinister plans.
2.HIGHWAYMAN: 20-30- charming but sincere and gallant criminal.
3.LANDLORD: 35-65- warm hearted foolhardy father.
4&5.SOLDIER 1/SOLDIER 2: The king’s men. Heroic but sly as dogs.
If you are interested please email Kate at thecuriousroom@googlemail.com

2.ARTISTS, ILLUSTRATORS, PHOTOGRAPHERS.
We are looking for strong image to represent our production on all of our promotional material.
There is no brief other than selling the show!
There are annual prizes for promotional artwork on the Fringe so this could be an exciting opportunity as well as being great for the portfolio.
We would like you to send your ideas to us by email to review. However, we would like to point out that although there will only be one central promotional image, there will be artwork used in the film work, merchandise and set of the production. So, all ideas are welcomed with open arms and will undoubtedly be used in some capacity!
We will also require photographers later in the production for our press pack and production photos- so if you are busy at the moment, but still interested please drop us a line.
Please email your ideas or questions to Kate at thecuriousroom@googlemail.com

If you know someone who may find this call interesting please forward it and invite them to look at our website http://www.thecuriousroom.com/ for more info or email thecuriousroom@googlemail.com to be added to our mailing list.

Thanks!

Kate and The Curious Room team.

A Christmas thank you from Kids Company

"11th December 2007

Dear Kate and the team,

We are deeply appreciative of your very generous donation to Kids Company. Your help means a great deal to our children at this time of year.

As Christmas draws near our children are often, sadly, filled with a sense of dread. They worry about the loneliness compared to promises of family gatherings portrayed in the media and all around them. On Christmas day, some 800 of these kids come to our premises. The team at Kids Company endeavour to protect them against the depletion by opening our centre on Christmas Day and providing each child with a bag of individually wrapped presents, as well as a Christmas lunch. For those living on their own we pack take away boxes full of food so they have something to eat on Boxing Day whilst the rest of us recover from the feat! I'm going to put some of your donation towards the catering for the day and use the rest of it to buy some winter jackets for the children.

Kind regards,

Camila Batmanghelidjh.
Director
Kids Company "

We at The Curious Room are very pleased that the proceeds of our first production were so well put to use and think everyone involved should feel very proud of their efforts.

Fundraising Ideas.

With the new Arts Council funding cuts we'll have to be super creative to get the funds together for our Edinburgh 2008 show. It's in the final stages of writing...so fund raising needs to start now...any bright ideas??
Email your ideas to thecuriousroom@googlemail.com