Kay Adshead Writer Kay Adshead is a poet, playwright, theatre maker, performer, and producer. She trained at RADA as an actress, where she won the Emile Littler Award for Outstanding Talent. She has played leading roles in film, theatre and TV, including Cathy in the BBC classic series Wuthering Heights, Linda in Mike Leigh’s film Kiss of Death, as well as notable appearances in popular TV programs spanning 30 years. Theatre performances include Moll Gromer in Thee and Me at the RNT, Viola in Twelfth Night, Betty in Touched and singing the role of Clara Twain in White Suit Blues, at The Old Vic. She learnt to wrestle for the role of Tanzi in Trafford Tanzi at The Mermaid, As a writer, she has been nominated 3 times for The Susan Smith Blackburn Award. She has written over 25 plays. She has been published by Methuen, Faber and Faber, and Oberon, with commissions and/or productions at The Royal National Theatre, The Royal Court, The Young Vic, The Roundhouse, The Tricycle, The Bush, Soho Theatre, The Cockpit, The Arcola, Theatre503, The Omnibus, and many more. In 1999 with Lucinda Gane, she co-founded award-winning theatre company Mama Quilla, winning amongst other awards, Edinburgh Fringe First, Adelaide Fringe Sensation Award, Adelaide Best Fringe Performance Award, M.E.N. best Fringe Performance, nominated for an E.M.M.A and Encore Magazine best Play of the Year. She has devised and directed more than 12, experimental and live art projects for Mama Quilla (many with casts of over 30) working in hard to reach communities, including maximum security prisons. In April 2019, Kay devised and directed Section 28 and The Queer State, produced by Jacksons Lane Alexandra Palace and Mama Quilla, It was performed as an epic promenade around The Alexandra Palace ending in the iconic Victorian Theatre. Kay is currently producing The Pangolin Project for Mama Quilla, a series of 60 second extreme close up films, provoked or inspired by the pandemic. It has attracted to date, over13, 000 views. United Agents | 12-26 Lexington Street London W1F OLE | T +44 (0) 20 3214 0800 | F +44 (0) 20 3214 0801 | E [email protected] Alex Sierz of The Tribune describes her as” the great survivor”, and The Times reviewed her play I am Sad you are dead Mrs. T as “a poetic mortar bomb. Her new (American white privilege play), Entering Incomplete Map Data, was presented as a staged reading, with esteemed activist group #Sayhername as guests in the audience. In February 2019, the Last Little Girl tackling sex trafficking, was performed at MATCH Houston Texas, and Kay was awarded a Purposeful Artist Award. A tour of Stormy-The Opera funded by Houston Arts Alliance was cancelled due to Covid19 restrictions and was reimagined as a bricolage, with a premiere production live streaming on YouTube in October 2020. Her second short film The Driflin, (before COVID19) was scheduled to be shot on the Bolivar Peninsula Texas in 2021for Stingaree productions. Her short film Prelude, shot in 2020 (set in the days before the2016 election) will be edited in 2021. Agents Nicki Stoddart [email protected] +44 (0) 20 3214 0869 Credits In Development Production Company Notes PRELUDE STINGAREE PRODUCTIONS Short film in post-production 2020 THE DRIFLIN STINGAREE PRODUCTIONS Short film (writer/ director) 2019 THE WORKING CLASS MAMA QUILLA (AND Three short plays - writer/director PROJECT (PART 2) PARTNERS TBA) 2019 ENTERING INCOMPLETE MAP Full length theatre version (writer) DATA AREA 2017 WOMAN IN WARD 4 Book 1, The Kill Buyer – a novella 2017 in verse (writer) THE TOUPE (working title) short film (writer/director) 2017 United Agents | 12-26 Lexington Street London W1F OLE | T +44 (0) 20 3214 0800 | F +44 (0) 20 3214 0801 | E [email protected] Production Company Notes MAIA SENT FOR WATER Short film (writer/director) (working title) 2017 WORKING GIRLS La Compagnie Yorick/Mama Part of the Soho Project Quilla Radio Production Company Notes HANGING BBC Radio 4 Produced by Catherine Bailey 2002 OF THE END BBC Radio 3 Homage to Samuel Beckett. Writer and Performer. THE BOGUS WOMAN BBC Radio 3 Produced by Catherine Bailey 2001 Short Films Production Company Notes THE COUNT Written and directed by Kay Adshead THE LAST LITTLE GIRL Written by Kay Adshead, dir. by Quason Matthews THREE LOTUS SheSpeaks Productions Adapted from theatre poem written by Kay FLOWERS Adshead, directed by Eugenia Low AFTER THE PARTY Club X/Channel 4 ORANGES AND BBC City Shorts LEMONS Theatre Production Company Notes STORMY THE STINGAREE Created as an online production OPERA (a bricolage) https://youtu.be/QwcZGMCA9TE live-streamed on 2020 Youtube on October 3 2020. Funded by Houston Arts alliance. STORMY THE OPERA STINGAREE Performed at MATCH Houston Texas November 2019. 2019 PRODUCTIONS Written and directed by Kay Adshead. THE QUEER STATE Alexandra Palace, Experimental performance inspired by LGBTQIA 2019 Mama Quilla experience, performed in workshop on October 13 2019. Writer/ director United Agents | 12-26 Lexington Street London W1F OLE | T +44 (0) 20 3214 0800 | F +44 (0) 20 3214 0801 | E [email protected] Production Company Notes HARINGEY HAS Jackson’s Lane / Promenade performance at Alexandra Palace as part PRIDE: SECTION 28 Harringay Council / of Jacksons Lane ‘Haringey Has Pride’ AND THE QUEER Alexandra Palace STATE 2019 THE LAST LITTLE Houston Play on written and directed by Kay Adshead as part of GIRL Purpose / MATCH Houston Play on Purpose's Showcase of Shorts (S.O.S) 2019 Houston TEN LOVERS Anything Goes written and directed by Kay Adshead 2018 HISTRIONICS Mama Quilla written and directed by Kay Adshead 2018 productions VIRILICUS Mama Quilla / 2018 Theatre Absolute, Coventry A CRACKED PLASTER FUTURES Written and Directed by Kay Adshead 2017 WORKING CLASS Mama Quilla / A Play in a Day workshop, as director 2017 Broadway Theatre ACTS OF Mama Quilla and A weeklong festival produced by Kay Adshead DEFIANCE - THE Theatre 503 comprising – six new plays by various authors, inc. FESTIVAL Entering Incomplete Map Data Area , written and 2016 directed by Kay Adshead, 25 specially commissioned short films, including The Count , written and dir. Kay Adshead, and two work-in-progress community projects, including The Soldiers Son , written and directed by Kay Adshead. ACTS OF DEFIANCE Mama Quilla & the Three Plays written by Kay Adshead: 2016 Omnibus The Last Little Girl , dir. Michael Batz Happy Ending , dir. Kay Adshead Three Lotus Flowers , dir. Kay Adshead ACTS OF DEFIANCE Mama Quilla and Three short plays written and directed by Kay 2015 Theatre 503 Adshead including Primrose , The Singing Stones , Mama Quilla , written and directed by Kay Adshead, performed at the Arcola Theatre with a cast of nine women and one man. VEIL Mama Quilla A theatre poem by Kay Adshead, directed by Kully 2014 - 2015 Thiarai and performed with an immersive installation created by Shanaz Gulzar, performed at Theatre at The Mill Bradford, Z-arts Manchester, and The Hub Leeds, transferring to the South Bank for the Alchemy Festival. United Agents | 12-26 Lexington Street London W1F OLE | T +44 (0) 20 3214 0800 | F +44 (0) 20 3214 0801 | E [email protected] Production Company Notes HAPPY ENDING Natural Shocks/PEEP Performed at Edinburgh's most intimate venue 2013 I AM SAD YOU ARE Theatre 503 Three Eulogies written for THATCHERWRITE DEAD MRS T 2013 F.O.M.O Mama An interactive performance about social networking 2013 Quilla/Broadway written and directed by Kay Adshead Theatre Barking ACTS OF DEFIANCE Mama A series of short films, public interactions or 2013 Quilla/Broadway interventions (ongoing to be published on line Theatre Barking September 2013) devised , written or produced by Kay Adshead. Ten monologues filmed separately were performed as an epic poetry theatre event at the Broadway Barking for one night only. MATTER Mama Written and directed by Kay Adshead performed as 2012 Quilla/Broadway work in progress Theatre Barking FROM THE STREETS Roundhouse A day of debate and performance - a series of linked OF REVOLUTION events exploring recent global events and the nature 2012 of protest. BREAKING John Lyons Theatre Work in progress transferring to Camden Fringe. 2011 IF ANYONE Mama Quilla Performed in workshop at the Broadway Theatre RECOGNISES THESE Barking to be performed at The Round House in 2012. YOUNG PEOPLE 2011 THE LAST LITTLE La Compagnie Dir. Michael Batz GIRL Yorick/Theatre Vitry 2011 at Cine Robespierre BOYS TALKING Mama Devised and directed by Kay Adshead 2010 Quilla/Broadway Theatre, Barking SWEET PAPAYA Mama Devised and directed by Kay Adshead. GOLD Quilla/Broadway 2010 Theatre, Barking PROTOZOA The Red The Oikos Project was shortlisted for the Whats On 2010 Room/Jellyfish Theatre event of the year. PROTOZOA was performed Theatre at The Jellyfish Theatre, the first fully recyclable theatre in Europe. Published by Oberon Books in THE OIKOS PROJECT. United Agents | 12-26 Lexington Street London W1F OLE | T +44 (0) 20 3214 0800 | F +44 (0) 20 3214 0801 | E [email protected] Production Company Notes THREE POLICE Mama Quilla with STATEMENTS The English TAKEN FROM Collective of WORKING GIRLS Prostitues and The 2010 City Lit POSSESSED Soho Theatre Part of Everything Must Go 2009 Company FIVE CRIMES Mama Devised and directed by Kay Adshead RECONSTRUCTED Quilla/Broadway 2009 Theatre, Barking STUFFED Mama Devised and directed by Kay Adshead 2008 Quilla/Broadway Theatre, Barking OTHERS LAMDA Part of LAMDA Long Project. 2008 BONES Calypso, Dublin/La 2007 Compagnie Yorick BONES Mama Writer and Director 2006 Quilla/Leicester Haymarket/Bush THE BOGUS WOMAN Leicester Haymarket Dir. Kully Thiarai. Toured to Adelaide where it was 2005 awarded Best Performer, Best Play and the Sensation Award at the Adelaide Fringe Festival.