Am so excited and delighted to be able to share this news. This is truly a dream job and the fact that I get to do it with my wonderful friend and an amazing team at Paines Plough makes me so proud.
Dear
@Nigella_Lawson
I have never ever been able to make a Victoria sponge cake and this is the 2nd time I have made your fluffy delicious recipe! She may be a little rustic looking 😂but sharing my cake pride and joy anyway as i am a terrible baker!
SO much to be tired,angry, saddened by but I wanted to share this For the first time in over a year, my husband just went on a run. It was around this time last year when he felt the first pain that would become his cancer diagnosis and I’m buzzing for him ❤️
If you love someone tell them. If you admire someone tell them. If you feel like smiling at someone do so. If you want to lift someone’s spirits then do so. Don’t wait , don’t delay and think tomorrow is another day, make it today. ❤️
This is to celebrate and normalise that we can run companies, have babies, be Mamas and not feel guilty for trying to do it all! I know how destructive this is and will do everything in my power to ensure that
@charrrbennett
can enjoy this next adventure!
6 months ago I learned a new word, Lymphoma. This week I learned another one, remission. My cancer has gone to sleep, hopefully it'll stay that way. Thanks to everyone who has helped me. Now let's start again shall we? 👍
@LymphomaAction
In the midst of a pandemic my husband learnt he had lymphoma cancer. It’s been a wild rollercoaster but he been a beacon of positivity.Sometimes the roads are full of rocks but we build new pathways around them and we move. Love to all going through things ❤️
I've spent this year wondering why I had pains in my back. Recently I learned why. I'm happy, content & postive but this is something I wanted to share because of what I learned. If you need me I'm here to help.
@LymphomaAction
@lymphoma
#lymphoma
Today is the day my partner
@charrrbennett
and my pal is back at
@painesplough
the love and support we all have for her is endless. I will do my best to ensure this time back is meaningful and full of kindness as there should and can be no other way.
The only time in my life I will promote being 50!! What a flipping HONOUR to run this company with the best ever team you can imagine celebrating WRITERS and NEW WRITING ❤️❤️❤️
Panto is an art form is flipping brilliant. A theatre form designed to encourage the audience to shout, cheer and be active. To make them feel welcomed, looked after and never alienated! To make audiences feel they belong. Which always makes me emotional. ❤️
Holy moly this is to send out a whole heap of love and positive vibes to all that need it and in return (if there is any spare) please may I have some back ❤️❤️
Stranded on the M25 tonight with a flat tyre. A man called Cliff stopped to help me change it. He could have kept driving but chose to help me. I asked how I could repay him. He told me all I needed to do was to encourage people to
#careaboutothers
Art is subjective. We know this. But if you don’t like something or it’s not for you. Please take a small moment to think about the hard work and bravery it takes for artists to share their work with the world, sometimes at personal cost, health and wealth ❤️
Painful heartbreaking grief that no one deserves. To all in the Twitter universe keep sending love to my beautiful friend
@charrrbennett
and to her Margot. For tonight there is nothing that makes sense 💔
I am blessed to have met/worked with many wonderful actors, also married to one. Am always in awe of their creativity, generosity and talent. The audition is a place to play, not be word perfect and see if the project marries up. Actors I love & respect you.
Opened this card from my daughter this morning for the first preview of Strategic Love Play. To have this much love and belief from a 9 year old is very very special. Especially when that’s harder to find for yourself 🩷
Today we open the
@painesplough
Roundabout doors. Here’s to every single INCREDIBLE person who has worked tirelessly to make this happen. For all the joy, exhaustion, support and kindness we are finally here. With endless love for you all.
I have always been inspired by my beautiful friend
@charrrbennett
for endless reasons but today she has shown a strength and power that is beyond belief in saying goodbye to her Margot. In the deepest of pain we surrounded her and Alan with love and light.
Relieved and grateful to be sharing this post which enables us to place writers at the heart of everything we do but not without care and thought to others who have received devastating news today.
I found a seat on the busiest train ever to
@edfringe
with a bag bursting with clothes for every season! Inhaled all my food within the first 8 mins and only have 3hrs 30 to go!
A BIG old pinch me moment, as I get to direct Philippa Gregory’s first play which brilliantly dissects the humanity of the ‘real’ Richard III premiering
@ShakespeareNP
next March! I have always loved her novels and can’t wait for this one!
Been thinking a lot about failure and how terrified we are made to feel about it. In what other industry are you an expert at something straight away without practice, opportunities to get it wrong? If we genuinely don’t embrace it, how do we grow and learn?
My new recurring directors nightmare… when I’m in pre prep for a show. It’s the end of week 2 and we have done nothing except play Zip, Zap, Boing. The script lays unopened on the table and the game is on loop and it’s only a three week process 😫😬
Amazing
@IRubasingham
gave me the chance to direct
@KilnTheatre
and she has been a collaborator and mentor to me since. She will be the bestest of leaders
@NaalTheatre
and I am buzzing. The future looks so bright under her shining light, proud of my friend
Breaking: Indhu Rubasingham (
@IRubasingham
) has been appointed the new director of the
@NationalTheatre
, becoming the first woman and first person of colour to hold the post.
Read the full story:
When you wear outfits that match unintentionally and match the roundabout and both come from two different supermarkets, that’s love! Am so happy to have
@charrrbennett
beside me and so proud of our amazing
@painesplough
team who have worked so hard to open!
Tonight I will think of Sarah Everard. I will cry knowing her family will never be able to hold her in their arms again. Tonight I will think of every womxn who is feeling sad, angry, triggered, frightened and so deeply tired. I will think of you all and hold you in my heart ❤️
9 years ago I opened a show 10 days before my daughter was born. Today I open a show in Bristol on her birthday. She is bold, funny and amazing and I don’t get to cuddle her today and that’s really hard. Many emotions but also deep pride that she understands.
I did not become a director until I was 28 which is still young but at that point I was also hurtling towards being past all the (age wise) schemes that I was eligible for.The fear of starting late was scary and it should not have been.Wise words
@nedglasier
Bye
@edfringe
am heading home to be a Mama! Back up super soon but until then. Look after yourself, look out for yourself, take a risk on a unknown show, be KIND, come have fun in
@painesplough
tent ⛺️ those shows are so DAMN GOOD!! Beyond proud of all ❤️❤️
Actors I see you! Giving one million percent of your selves for the Christmas audiences ahead. The grafting, the creativity joy you are bringing, whilst up against the intense schedules that lie ahead. Actors you are bloody amazing🤩
What a day meeting actors in open auditions in an ACTUAL theatre! All the happy vibes and feeling mega happy to be in the toon at the super brilliant
@northernstage
@painesplough
I was late to the directing party 🎉 Love this article by
@lyngardner
we talk a lot about our focus on the sustainability of writers careers
@painesplough
the new must be celebrated but let’s cherish the not so new too.They are the trailblazers for us!
The theatre world fetishises youth, and often talks about the new and the young as if they are the same thing, says
@lyngardner
, but the industry would benefit from more pathways into the business from those with lived experience
About to see my 8 year old daughter do her first stage show and I am filled with excitement and a whole heap of nerves! She has come to so many of my shows and is always so amazing and gives me the best notes! Tissues are firmly gripped in hand 😭 ❤️
We used to live in York (for 8 years) and I always felt so happy when standing outside the
@York_Minster
on a sunny day. It has taken some time and it is definitely flawed but I have just finished painting it!
#paintinglockdown
#happyplace
A celebration moment for all the incredible women (1,169 entries) who shared their work with us as part of this prize - we are deeply honoured to have read your work and regognise how much it takes to share work in this way ❤️❤️❤️
We are extremely excited to announce that we will be releasing the names of the longlisted writers for The Women’s Prize for Playwriting 2020 tomorrow afternoon.
I got to make a play
@KilnTheatre
with an incredible community and a wonderful team which will live in my heart forever.The spirit of kindness that
@Chino100percent
beautifully wrote was the beating heart of this epic play. This picture was our first rehearsal
Roundabout packed full of people. Roundabout bursting with powerful and brilliant words. Roundabout with audiences standing and whooping. Roundabout in Brixton this weekend Pretty bloody proud of EVERY SINGLE person who is a part of this mad and wild ride.
So many colliding emotions this evening as the arts industry awaits NPO decisions in the morning. Regardless of the outcomes, I hope there is generosity, love and care as we navigate this together.
Get it right. Get it wrong. Make it better. Make it good. Make it work. Feel terrible. Feel amazing. Feel vulnerable. Feel euphoric. Feel powerful. Feel powerless. Feel scared. Feel assured. Feel the unknown. Feel the fear and feel it’s joy. Week 3 rehearsal.
Heading in to tech week with all the excitement & nerves to finally (all being well) open You Bury Me, a show I fell in love with з years ago! Please do keep all crossed for us, after our Covid storm that we can welcome audiences from Friday
@BristolOldVic
All the fun was had with
@LarryLambourne
at
@uk_theatre
. Delighted and so honoured to have been nominated amongst some incredible artists. A joy to celebrate all that is beautiful about making theatre with inspirational people.
A long time ago we sat in Roundabout dreaming of the endless possibilities of making some shows in her, this week we have started tech and I cant wait to share what we have all been making very soon! Come see us
Dreamt I was directing a new play. Started off with a live band and 50 people on stage going absolutely wild. It was a cacophony of creatives making magic. It felt like electricity running through my veins! Then I woke up to silence😩A dream bursting of hope.
An emotional morning seeing my little girl watch her first show at Roundabout
@painesplough
so much of this super funny, loud and brilliant play by
@PhoebeEclair
makes me think of her and seeing her laugh and enjoying it has given me so much joy. ❤️
Directing is a joy and it’s amazing to have the opportunity to tell stories,I will never not feel endlessly grateful for that. It’s also scary,vulnerable and exposing. Here is
@charrrbennett
at our 1st dress rehearsal. That moment of love &support says it all
Writers you are SO bloody amazing!! Fact! Actors you are So bloody amazing! Fact! Every SINGLE person on every SINGLE production onstage and off you are amazing!! Fact!!! just needed to share.
Genuinely delighted to have captured this frog taking a giant leap in my garden! Feels like a metaphor for the week ahead! Sending love and energy to all who need it ❤️
Happy 1st
@painesplough
anniversary to the best partner a gal could wish for
@charrrbennett
Who would have thought this time last year we would be navigating a pandemic crisis in our first year as AD’s! The waters may be choppy but I am grateful that I get to sail them with you
‘We need the government to recognise that the arts are a priority and a lifeline to so many people, especially during times like these’ me and
@charrrbennett
share some thoughts below 👇🏼
I will never not remember what it takes to walk in to an audition room as an actor and how much time, energy and commitment actors give in preparing for those moments.
As home school shuts, I want to take the opportunity to celebrate my husband
@LarryLambourne
for devoting himself to ensuring our little girl could thrive during this time. Super heroes come in all shapes and sizes and he is definitely ours ❤️
If you have space today in your heart, please send a whole heap of love to my beautiful friend
@charrrbennett
and her Alan on their wedding day. If ever there was a time to shower them with much deserved joy today is the day ❤️❤️❤️
‘When you desperately hope to hop from job to job, you live in fear of being unable to work – to miss the audition, the opportunity to work, to earn money’
@LarryLambourne
my inspirational husband. Sharing this with pride and hope for marathon support for him
During Covid, actor Michael Lambourne (
@LarryLambourne
) was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Now in remission and preparing to run the London Marathon, he warns that the ‘show must go on’ mentality is damaging creatives’ mental health
Don’t make it about a singular event, and think that’s all it is. It’s polemic. It’s systemic and it really hurts. Reading this book again and I would encourage you to read it too. We are asking to be included in the wider work. Something to keep considering.
A beautiful epic adventure with generous, talented, kind, brilliant, dedicated people who have made the journey one that I shall cherish forever! So many thanks! The power of people can change lives and you have all changed mine
#moldriots
@ClwydTweets
So desperately sad for my friends and for my new beautiful friend Margot who will always be part of my heart. Please donate, give and hold
@charrrbennett
with love as there are no words ❤️
On Fri 2 July I became a mum for the first time to the most amazing, beautiful girl who looked just like her dad. For reasons we don’t yet understand we lost her just 24 hours later at Great Ormond Street. Margot Alicia Bennett may have only been with us a day but she made us…
I hate that on a evening walk. I change direction where I’m headed. Not because I chose to. But because I’m scared. ‘That road has no street lights’. ‘That road is more visible’ and so on and on. And I am just 1 of so many others who do this every single day.
Today I send my heart and love to all artists living, sharing and making work. It can be such a wild, glorious and vulnerable place but keep being you and own the beautiful truth of what’s important to you!
So proud to be sharing this intention today. It is everything we believe in for the future of connecting with our communities. We are so honoured to be working with all these amazing artists and companies to make this all happen
#pp2021
These people. This play. This experience. So much love from such an electric community
@KilnTheatre
. Heart bursting. Full of pride, respect and admiration for all that made this magic happen.
#friendlysociety
In times of adversity we find positivity and my Mum has it in abundance. She is the most amazing woman who spreads kindness wherever she goes. Please share her thoughts with all as love and a happy wave at the end of the day is useful for all
#nanasteph
♥️
And so the musical discourse continues and I can honestly say it gives me the rage. Musicals are not the ‘lesser’ arts form. Good stories with songs are not the subservient friend to a play. Turns out they are great pals and we have room for both. Who knew 🥳
When there is no space for creative failure what do we loose? When there is no other option but success, what do we kill? The freedom of artistic discovery of new possibilities? Without risk we become robots. Listen to your audiences and keep YOUR faith ❤️
Live performance of Mold riots 'such a big project' - BBC News - opens tonight ! All the love to this outstanding cast and to all the incredible teams. Time to show Mold what we have got !
#epicstory
#taketothestreets
We got to go to our daughters school and share the story of Chanukah. There were candles, dreidel games & doughnuts. It was so nice to be able to celebrate this festival in a school context and all her pals were so excited.Happy Chanukah to all celebrating ❤️
Everyone who has a knot in their stomach today opening new shows
@edfringe
you are all BLOODY amazing. It’s takes courage and belief so have both, always, during this month. Also the biggest amount of love to the Roundabout show pals 🤩
Once upon a time we made a play called Strategic Love Play by MEGA superstar
@itsmiriamm
and took it to
@edfringe
and it only went and won a FRINGE FRICKING FIRST!!! Beyond proud of every single person in our team and the best bit it ain’t over yet!
We are looking for an Assistant Director for this brilliant play by
@samueldbailey
! If this is a job for you please do take a look or please pass on to others 🤩❤️
We're looking for an Assistant Director for Sorry, You're Not A Winner - touring in 2022. If you're interested in new stories that are socially relevant and that empower local communities, we’d love to hear from you:
Feeling all the emotions as we finish our Roundabout tour today. I could not be prouder of EVERY single person who worked SO hard to make the shows and this tour happen. The dedication and love that has been shown throughout is one I am so grateful for ❤️
And they watch an industry implode in front of their eyes and they do nothing.
Deep sadness for the total shit storm that lays ahead and still they do nothing.
We can’t not keep waiting!
Run to the station after rehearsals followed by a board meeting, desperate for the toilet, I race on to the train. Hooray I made it! What’s that? I didn’t lock the automatic door? Nope! And I was wearing a jumpsuit so pretty much naked for all to see!
Thinking of
@LarryLambourne
and wishing out positive love to him today and if you have space please do so too. Six month check ups and always holding if all will be ok🙏🏻 Taking this moment for him as everyday will always remain so bloody precious.
After a long day in tech, I arrive at the Travelodge and head to my room. Open the door to ‘my room’ and standing there is a naked man!! I screamed - he screamed!!! Definitely not the relaxed start to my evening! Man on desk convinced no one is in the room!
There was a point where
@LarryLambourne
was going through chemo not knowing if he would perform again and tonight he is about to go smash it on stage
@mercurytheatre
and you know what! I AM SO BLOODY BUZZING FOR HIM!! And also so proud and emotional 😭
🛎️We're
#CrazyInLove
with these
#TheComedyOfErrors
production pics! 🎉
Don't miss our production of Shakespeare's screwball comedy with a 1920s musical twist, running 'til Sat 28 May. Book your tickets and join the party!:
📸 by
@peachyraith
My pal
@charrrbennett
has the most generous of souls. Watching her navigate the world and give so much to others at a time of deep pain is beyond awe inspiring. I think of Margot everyday and I will always celebrate her life
#BabyLossAwarenessWeek
I want hope for tomorrow and for my daughter to love and cherish what that word actually means.
Vote tomorrow. Think wisely. Please bring back the hope.
For years my amazing and brilliant Mama has been spreading so much kindness in beautiful ways. Never once has this connection been made via the powers of twitter. So proud of my Mum and long may she continue to share beautiful gestures like this....
She asked what I do and when I said director/writer, she asked if she could tell me about her daughter. Turns out she’s
@katieposner
’s mum. We talked for just a few minutes but the kindness and warmth she showed me was unlike anything else I’ve experienced from a stranger.
Could not be prouder of our amazing friend
@PhoebeEclair
for winning
@bruntwoodprize
her play is outstanding, her talent is enormous and her wonderfulness is off the scale. So happy for her !!
#TheStage100
is back for 2024: Our annual list highlights the most influential people in theatre, focusing on achievements in the past 12 months.
Find the full list here:
A conflicted morning as I say goodbye to my little girl and head to start rehearsals for a new show (which means staying away from home) parting words from four year old. ‘I don’t want you to go. Why don’t you stay here? I could always direct it for you?’
#workingmum