Curve Connect and Collaborate weekend - The MP Aunty Mandy and Me

Come and join us for a weekend of socialising, networking, sharing, inspiring, collaborating and learning!

This September we will meet together to consider what it takes to make a one person show. From writing, creating, performing, designing, producing and everything in between, this weekend is open to artists of all disciplines and experience. As well as socials, workshops, plenty of refreshments and Q&A’s, your weekend pass also includes a performance of The MP, Aunty Mandy and Me made by Curve Resident Creatives Emmerson & Ward. This one-person play is fresh from Edinburgh Fringe and starts a UK wide tour starting at Curve.

There will also be opportunities to book a slot to pitch works to your fellow creative community and perform extracts from works in progress. We hope that the weekend sparks new ideas and collaborations as well as consolidating existing creative conversations.

A weekend pass can be used to access all workshops and socials on Friday evening and Saturday, and includes one performance of The MP, Aunt Mandy and Me – select which performance you’d like to see when you book.

SCHEDULE

Friday 16th September:
From 6pm: Exchange your ticket for a Weekend pass and start to connect. (If you haven’t already you can book a pitching or performing slot, availability permitting.)
6.30pm: Curve Connect Social, join us on the Mezzanine at our Creative Canteen for drinks and an opportunity to share your interests and experience of creating or performing solo work.
7.45pm: Performance 1 of The MP, Aunt Mandy and Me
9pm – 10pm: Q&A – Making a solo show

Saturday 17th September:
From 12.30pm: If you missed Friday evening and are joining for the first time you can exchange your ticket for a Weekend pass and start to connect. (If you haven’t already, you can book a pitching or performing slot, availability permitting.)
12.30pm – 1.50pm:Pitch Your Solo Play Networking Brunch – Over coffee and a croissant this is an opportunity to share ideas for solo shows. This could be fully formed or just the spark of an idea. Use this platform to find collaborators or just say it out loud for the first time!
2pm – 5pm: Participate in two Creative Workshops with Rob Ward (Making a One Person Play) and Duncan Craig (It’s Personal: Using Trauma in Storytelling). Each workshop is 90 minutes long and your pass includes both.
5pm – 5.45pm: Time for a break, our cafe is open if you’d like to grab a snack or continue the conversation in our Creative Canteen with fellow theatre makers.
5.45pm – 6.30pm: Curve Connect Social, join us on the Mezzanine at our Creative Canteen for drinks and an opportunity to reflect on the workshops and consolidate new collaborations.
6.30pm – 7.30pm: Curtain Raiser – headlined by Neal Pike with an extract from his solo show The Walk that will tour next year, this is your opportunity to test out a ten-minute extract from a solo play that you are working on. Slots are limited so please contact Julia on j.thomas@curvetheatre.co.uk by Friday 16th September if you’d like to put your play forward.
7.45pm: Performance 2 of The MP, Aunt Mandy and Me

ABOUT THE MP, AUNTY MANDY AND ME:

Emmerson & Ward Productions and Curve present a bittersweet tale of political campaigns, sexual consent and steam trains.

Meet Dom. He wants more than anything else to be an #instagay #influencer but it’s tough when no one likes your posts, you can’t find a bloke who shares your love of trains and you live with your MDMA popping, Simply Red loving mum in a small northern village five miles from the nearest gay. He’d love a fabulous life with the A-Gays in the city, but his social anxiety prevents this from being a reality. It’s all a bit of an effort.

Then one day, a chance encounter with his local MP turns everything upside down. But in pursuit of the life he thinks he wants; just how much does Dom have to give up?

The MP, Aunty Mandy & Me explores consent, coercion and grooming within the gay male community with biting humour and contemporary social commentary. It is presented in association with Survivors; a Manchester based charity for survivors of male sexual abuse.