The cast has been announced for the pilot Better In Person event, a new initiative from the recently launched not-for-profit organisation, Burn Bright, showcasing a selection of short plays by talented women writers, made to be broadcast digitally on Zoom. Sharon Small (London Kills, The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, BBC) and David Yelland (The Habit of Art, UK Tour, Witness for the Prosecution, London County Hall) have been cast in Charlotte Jones’ play The Cardigan, with Cherrelle Skeete (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Palace Theatre, Hanna, Amazon) starring alongside Temi Wilkey (Cymbeline, Hamlet, RSC) in Natasha Brown’s Mahoganie Jo.
Completing the casting are Arinder Sadhra and Naveed Khan in Sharmila Chauhan’s I’m Better In Person, Luke Barton and Kat Rose-Martin in Krystina Nellis’ Recipes and Debra Baker, Amba Rose Mendy and Timothy O’Hara in Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley’s Options. The plays will be directed by Abigail Sewell (I AM [NOT] KANYE WEST, Bunker Theatre).
Inspired by the general public’s stories of conversations that would be Better In Person, but are happening online due to the ongoing lockdown, the audience are invited to be an online fly-on-the-wall witnessing these intimate, uncomfortable, hilarious, and always very human conversations.
Founder of Burn Bright Tori Allen-Martin comments, We’re so excited to have such a diverse cast on board for this – representing neurodivergent performers, the south Asian community, the black queer community, people of mixed heritage – we still have further to go but we want all of
our work to be representative of the world that we live in now. We also feel strongly about mixing new and established talent and we’re so excited to see such brilliant actors and writers coming together and lending their time and their talent to bring these truly brilliant plays to life. Our goal is to keep creating work where people feel heard, seen and represented – we hope this is a nice start.
Co-founder Sarah Henley added, The response to our launch and to Better In Person has been fantastic which we think shows we’re tapping into something important – audiences want the future of theatre to be diverse and for up and coming voices to heard and platformed. We’re really excited for the pilot and hope it’s the start of something wonderful which gives talented women a space to share their gifts.
This will be aired live on Zoom on Bank Holiday Monday, 25th May. Tickets cost £5 and are available from https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/better-in-person-tickets-104747163586
