Time & Again Theatre Company Uncategorized

Save Time & Again Theatre Company after Devestating Fire

Time & Again have launched a GoFundMe page which is urgently seeking donations to ensure we can continue as a company and deliver our shows this summer. You can find the campaign here!

In the early hours of Saturday 26th February 2022, the storage unit which housed the entirety of Time & Again Theatre Company’s set, props, costume and equipment burnt down.

As most people are well aware, theatre was one of the hardest hit industries during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, all of our performances were cancelled, including our tours to rural communities across the UK who don’t have easy access to theatre. After working on an audio drama adaptation to sustain our output during lockdown, we had just returned to live performance in August 2021 with an 80’s fuelled performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Carrs Park, Wilmslow.

We are due to be touring A Midsummer Night’s Dream once more across the North West this summer, as well as brand new shows Much Ado About Nothing and new writing piece Earwig. We now have nothing: no props, no set, no costumes, no sound and lighting equipment.

Not only have we lost all of our expensive technical equipment but with our focus upon telling historical stories, we had amassed a carefully curated selection of vintage and painstakingly custom-built set pieces and props since our formation in 2017 – now all gone. We’ve also lost countless vintage costume pieces sourced from vintage shops, online and from personal collections. All of these items are difficult to replace and we are devastated. So much of the theatre company’s inventory will take a great deal of time to rebuild from the ashes.

Company founder and director Laura Crow says: ‘I think I’m in shock. This is 5 years worth of work and memories which we have spent countless hours designing, painting and making. I’m absolutely gutted. I’d like to confirm all of this year’s shows are going ahead, we’re not going anywhere, but we are going to need to remake, rebuy and refind everything. Like the characters in our 1940’s play Greyhounds we will be digging into our Wartime spirit and trying to keep calm and carry on, but any support would be hugely appreciated’.

Time & Again Theatre Company Casting Call, Rural Touring

Casting Announced for Greyhounds A/W 2019 Tour

Time & Again are incredibly excited to welcome five new company members! They’ll be joining us in heading back to the 1940s and performing in Greyhounds for our Autumn/Winter 2019 tour!

Greyhounds will be coming to Sheffield 9th – 12th October and Cambridge 9th & 16th November, with more dates to be added soon. You can book tickets here and here!

From left:
Samantha Vaughan – Ruby Winters
Katherine Reynolds  – Katherine Winters
Adam Martin-Brooks – Will Croft
Kendal Boardman – Nancy Wilde
Ben Hynes – Edward Holmes

We’re really excited to welcome to our new members to the company and to see them bring this story to life once again for brand new audiences.

Written by Laura Crow, Greyhounds entwines Shakespeare’s famous story of ‘warlike Harry’ with the everyday trials and tribulations of small village life during World War Two. Whilst the war rages above them, the residents of Shuttlefield village struggle to stage a production of Henry V to raise money for their local Spitfire fund.

The original cast, from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2018 run of Greyhounds, will also be performing for two nights of the tour.


From left:
Catherine Cowdrey – Ruby Winters
Laura Crow – Katherine Winters
Jacob Taylor – Will Croft
Fiona Primrose – Nancy Wilde
Tim Cooper – Edward Holmes

Greyhounds AW 2019 Touring Poster

Time & Again Theatre Company Casting Call, Rural Touring

OPEN CASTING CALL – New Company Members

THIS OPPORTUNITY IS NOW CLOSED

Time & Again Theatre Company are currently seeking new company members to join us on our Autumn/Winter 2019 Tour!

Audition date – Sunday 8th September, 1pm – 4pm
Audition Location – Hope Aria Academy, Hope Aria House, Unit 15 Wellington House, Manchester, M40 7FS

Greyhounds Website Header

Time & Again formed in July 2017 as a new company wishing to explore all things vintage and historical. We’ve just completed our second successful run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and are now small-scale and rural touring both of our shows. Time & Again recently won the Oldham Coliseum Pick of the Manchester Fringe award, as well as winning an Undrowning Scholarship of $1000 back in July for our efforts in promoting women in STEM, particularly the lack of women in the aviation industry.

We are looking for 6 new company members, 3 male, 3 female.

New company members will be expected to each learn and perform two different roles – one in our 1940s show Greyhounds and one in our Edwardian show Clouds – as well as joining in with ASM and tech duties, including helping to load and unload the van, setting up the lights for each show, laying out and packing away props. The ability to drink endless of cups of tea and snack on biscuits is also preferable!

Tour dates are currently between 9th October and 3rd December 2019 so anyone applying would need good availability from the end of September onwards.
So far we have dates in Sheffield, Cambridge, and London, as well as local performances in the Manchester area. You will be required to stay overnight for some shows. Time & Again pays for and provides accommodation and travel for all shows out of the Manchester area, as well as breakfast and an evening meal.

We currently pay our company members minimum wage of £8.21 per hour on performance nights only. This covers from the moment we arrive at a venue, from unloading, setting up, performing, and packing again, to the time we leave. This is supplemented by a share of the profits (if any) on a show by show basis.

To Apply
Please email a headshot, CV, and short cover letter explaining why you would like to join the company to itslauracrow@gmail.com

Show Information

Greyhounds
Written and Produced by Laura Crow
Directed by Jacqueline Wheble

Greyhounds 12 Location

The year is 1941 and rehearsals for Henry V are underway…
Greyhounds entwines Shakespeare’s famous story of warlike Harry with the everyday trials and tribulations of small village life during the Second World War. From within the wooden O of the local village hall, where every scene is set, the residents of Shuttlefield rehearse, gossip and indulge in some seriously bad acting as the night of the performance draws ever closer.
Each character is required to perform a short monologue from Henry V during the course of the show. There are additional extracts of Henry V threaded throughout, so experience or understanding of Shakespeare would be desirable.

Greyhounds is a full length play comprising two acts each 1hr long, usually with a 20 minute interval between each act.

Character Breakdown

All roles, other than Mr Nelson, are equal in terms of stage time and importance. It’s a true ensemble piece.

RUBY WINTERS – Playing age: 25 – 40
Directing the village’s production of Henry V. Would-be bohemian; thwarted artist. Bossy but kind. Loses her sight during the show after being caught in the blast of a stray German bomb.

KATHERINE (KATE) WINTERS – Playing age: 18 – 25
Ruby’s younger sister. Reluctant participant. Quiet, awkward, extremely literal. Logical to the point of causing unintentional offence. Becomes a codebreaker at Bletchley Park during the course of the show.

NANCY WILDE – Playing age: 18 – 25
Aspiring actress, recently moved to the village from London. Cheerful, friendly, tries to be helpful. Works in the local greengrocer’s shop owned by her aunt.

EDWARD (NED) HOLMES – Playing age: 25 – 35
Former RAF pilot, currently injured. Studied mathematics at Christ’s College, Cambridge. Rather formal and traditional. High ranking official at Bletchley Park.

WILL CROFT – Playing age: 18 – 25
Playing Henry V. A devotee of literature, working in the fields. Reserved but friendly. During the play we discover he is a conscientious objector. Returns from service in the RAMC with a slight tremor in his right hand.

ARTHUR NELSON – Playing age: 45 – 65
Ruby’s cantankerous lodger. Fought in the First World War. He only appears in the second act of Greyhounds but it’s still a sizeable part.

Clouds
Written and Produced by Laura Crow
Directed by Jacqueline Wheble

Brown Group Shot

The year is 1913 and women are rising up…
Winifred Baxter is determined to become the first Englishwoman to enter an air race, learning to fly amidst the chaos of the suffragette movement, a glorious garden party and far too much nephology: the study of clouds.
Our only set is a large mockup of an Edwardian monoplane so performers must learn how to assemble and take apart the plane quickly as part of the show. In Edinburgh we managed to do this in less than 3 minutes each night, though on tour we’ll have considerably more time!

Clouds is a one act play lasting 1 hour.

Character Breakdown

All roles are fairly equal in terms of stage time and importance. It’s a true ensemble piece.

PHILIP BROOK – Playing age: 25 – 35
An aviator with a high opinion of himself. Seems to be a typical product of a male-dominated society to begin with but he becomes invested in Freddie’s efforts to enter the race. Obnoxious yet charming.

SYLVIA LOVEJOY – Playing age: 18 – 25
A budding Suffragette with an innocent view of the world. Likes to grow flowers. Always talking, incredibly naive, accidentally humorous. Drives the pace of the show along with Philip. Extremely likeable.

FREDDIE (WINIFRED) BAXTER – Playing age: 18 – 25
Determined to become the first female pilot to fly around Britain in an air race. Hot-headed and rather cutting, but able to win the sympathy of the audience. Her health declines rapidly throughout the course of the play.

THEODORE BAXTER – Playing age: 18 – 25
Freddie’s older brother. Stutters badly and is obsessed with Nephology; the study of clouds. Shy and sympathetic. Fond of Sylvia.

LADY SARA FITZMAURICE – Playing age: 25 – 40
Married to Sir Hugh Fitzmaurice who owns the Blackburn monoplane flown by Philip and Freddie. Visitor to the local hospital and organiser of a garden party. Seems snobby and rude initially but a more understanding character emerges.

The parts usually double as follows;
Ruby Winters and Lady Sara
Katherine Winters and Freddie Baxter
Nancy Wilde and Sylvia Lovejoy
Edward Holmes and Philip Brook
Will Croft and Theodore Baxter
Mr Nelson and Light and Sound

 

Time & Again Theatre Company Rural Touring

Rural Touring in Kent & East Sussex!

For the past month Time & Again have had a wonderful time performing our show, Greyhounds, for rural communities in Kent & East Sussex, in association with Applause Rural Touring! This was our first experience of rural touring and life on the road, and it couldn’t have been more fun! We loved getting the chance to perform Greyhounds in actual village halls as the first act of the show is based in the fictitious Shuttlefield Village Hall so it leant itself perfectly to small local venues.

We were very excited to hit the road in our trusty VW Crew Van!

During our first leg of shows we were based in the lovely town of Tonbridge, near Tunbridge Wells. Our apartment was really nice and just a stone’s throw from the ruins of a castle (how great is that?) We explored Tonbridge during our time off, visiting a cat cafe for hot chocolate with some feline friends and having drinks in local pub The Humphrey Bean! We even managed to make it over to Tunbridge Wells for a wander along the Pantiles.

Kent gives the perfect G&T based advice…

Our shows were at Blackham Village Hall, Crowhurst Village Hall, Bredhurst Village Hall and Shoreham Village Hall (which was also near the Shoreham Air Museum. Obviously we had to drop in for a cup of tea and chat with the museum’s owner Geoff!) All the promoters made us feel very welcome, providing us with copious cups of tea and biscuits, and even a full picnic lunch.

Give us food and we’re happy. We like food.

It’s been really interesting having to adapt the show to different spaces and stages, with the entrances and exits all in different places. We’ve also become very quick at packing and unpacking all of our set into the back of the van! We also felt very proud of ourselves for cooking up a good meal before each of the shows (#adulting)!

Shoreham had pictures in the village hall from their VE Day parade!

We’ve just finished our final show at the 1000-year-old Allsaints Church in Allhallows. It was a wonderful way to end the tour. We got so many feedback cards filled in with wonderful comments and the promoters even bought us fish and chips for dinner!

We got to visit some really beautiful locations.

We’ve had so much fun on the road, a lot of laughs and hi-jinks, and it was amazing to perform our show to such friendly, engaged audiences. Thank you so much to Applause Rural Touring for organising everything – we hope you’ll have us back again soon! We’d love to return to Kent and East Sussex next year with brand new show Clouds!