45North and Ellie Keel Productions collaborate on a brand-new audio project – Written on the Waves, showcasing the best in new writing, directing, acting and sound design, and engaging with over 60 freelance creatives and including co-productions with Atticist, HOTTER Project, and The North Wall.
The first season of Written on the Waves comprises 9 world premières including new pieces from Luke Barnes, Tife Kusoro, Rafaella Marcus, Mary Higgins and Ell Potter, Margaret Perry, Lettie Precious, and Amanda Wilkin. The first in the series are currently live, and can be accessed via www.forty-fivenorth.com/writtenonthewaves, with the full season to be released across the remainder of 2020.
Listeners are invited to lose themselves in the intimacy of these audio worlds, in these nine thrilling, newly commissioned stories which will spark listeners’ imaginative worlds, and enable audiences to connect with each other while we are forced to remain apart.
Embracing the opportunities lockdown has presented with enhanced technology and communication, the first season will also include a special international commission – encouraging a more global way of working through finding new ways of collaborating transatlantically. This project and a final commission to complete the first season will be announced shortly.
45North’s Creative Director Jessica Rose McVay said today, “In a tremendously difficult time, we are proud to have found a way to harness the astonishing creativity of theatre artists to commission and produce this season of all new audio work. It has been a wonderful opportunity to work with new collaborators, first and foremost Ellie Keel, and a thrilling chance to move into a new-to-us medium. This season showcases an incredible breadth of talent, our communal resilience, and inherent desire to create. We are thrilled to bring these pieces to you at home until we can meet again. ”
Ellie Keel commented, “I am delighted to have the opportunity to collaborate with 45North to curate and produce this outstanding series of work. This is EKP’s first foray into audio drama and it’s a hugely enjoyable journey. I am particularly pleased to be working both with regular EKP creatives including Margaret Perry, Jessica Lazar, Mary Higgins and Ell Potter, as well as forging new relationships with immensely talented artists such as Amanda Wilkin and Lettie Precious.”
The line-up for Written on the Waves Season 1 includes:
- Loss and Hope
A trilogy of short audio pieces by Luke Barnes, Tife Kusoro and Rafaella Marcus, co-produced with Atticist.
Directed by Madeleine Kludje, Grace Cordell and Jessica Lazar respectively.
- Lem N Ginge: The Princess of Kakos
By Mary Higgins and Ell Potter: a four-part feminist, queer, comedy-quest narrative.
Directed by Mary Higgins and Ell Potter, with sound design, composition and editing by Tom Foskett-Barnes.
- The You Play: small acts
Rafaella Marcus’ debut play for audio, which makes the listener an active participant in their own play.
Directed by Jessica Lazar, with sound design and editing by Dinah Mullen
- A Passion Play
By Margaret Perry, originally a Paines Plough seed commission and now co-produced with Atticist, which tells the story of two teenage girls taking part in their local passion play in a small church in Cork.
Directed by Jessica Lazar, with sound design and editing by Annie May Fletcher
- Nina Simone’s Four Negro Women
A new four-part audio play by Lettie Precious, based on the song by Nina Simone.
- recognition
By Amanda Wilkin, based on the life and music of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.
Directed by Rachel Nanyonjo.
- The You Play Vol. 2
By Rafaella Marcus, expanding on the form of The You Play: small acts.
Directed by Jessica Lazar.
