The Boiler Room
2023 saw a process of development and growth for us at Peripeteia Theatre Company. We now felt in a place to support artists with their own creative practice and development.
The Boiler Room servers as our community outreach programme and its inspired name comes from The Boilerhouse Theatre which situated in the Egham Campus Royal Holloway, University of London. To pay homage to our training and the seedling of our company.
The programme’s initiative is both an online and in person format for script readings, workshops, masterclasses, mentorship, discussions and a safe space for theatre artists to share their work. The price of this programme will be free as costs saw during the cost of living crisis. We hope it is a place where artists feel comfortable to take risks and invent something new with the support of the members of Peripeteia Theatre Company. There is also the opportunity for scripts to developed into future Peripeteia productions.
Crossings
by Hannah Salt
Key Information:
When - Saturday 19th September
Location - In-Person (Salford)
Time - 10am until 2pm
Deadline to express your interest Wednesday 9th September
Short Synopsis of Script:
Brie, an anxious young woman, is caught in the space between faith and uncertainty, and life in the UK and Ireland, as she embarks on her IVF journey.
On ferry crossings she repeatedly meets Patsy, a gregarious older Irish man, and the pair strike up an unlikely friendship. New life and death dance in the corners of their encounters, overlooked and perhaps guided by, an ancient wandering Saint.
Crossings is a play about forging family, and fearlessly facing both the opposite shores of life and death.
Content Warnings:
Pregnancy loss, fertility
Character Breakdown:
BRIE (Female. Play age: mid to late 30s)
Mancunian
Irish Mum, English Dad
Anxious therapy veteran, blind to her real issues. Catholic – Atheist. She is no longer religious, but entertains the idea of manifestation. She is about to start IVF, scared shitless of what she doesn’t quite know – she meets Patsy and is shaken out of her anxiety bubble. Head over heels for her boyfriend and the idea of starting a real family. This is their one and only shot on the NHS. Therefore, their one and only shot at a baby.
PATSY (Male. Play age: early to late 50s/60s)
Irish
Friendly, forthright, gregarious. He happily kills his time at work on the ferry, and is very happy to strike up conversation with anybody who’ll entertain a chat. Fewer and fewer folk open to talk now, he thinks. Earphones in and phones out. If he can hook them with a tall tale or anecdote he will keep them wiggling on the line for as long as I can.
ST BRIGID (Female. Play age: 60s)
Irish.
Just that - Mother Saint of Ireland. Real or imagined, an entity that accompanies the ferry. An aged goddess fallen on hard times. You might cross the road if you saw her coming.
How to apply?
Please send your acting CV/Spotlight pin to Peripeteiatheatre@outlook.com with 'Crossings' and the role in which you are applying for in the subject heading of the email. Due to the nature of this project this is an unpaid opportunity.
Deadline to express your interest Wednesday 9th September
Yarmouth
by Daniel Roy Connelly
Key Information:
When - Saturday 19th September
Location - In Person (Salford)
Time - 3pm
Deadline to express your interest Wednesday 9th September
Short Synopsis of Script:
The play takes place in a car on a return journey from Cambridge to Great Yarmouth, the first leg in 1987, the second in 2007, when Scott, who committed suicide fifteen years earlier, is replaced by Adam, his son, with whom Geraldine was pregnant during Act One.
Act One follows Scott and Geraldine as they drive from Cambridge to Great Yarmouth in the immediate aftermath of their son’s accidental death by defenestration. They are en route to throw his ashes into the North Sea from the beach at Yarmouth.
Act Two takes place twenty years after, in 2007, and sees the return journey from what has become an annual pilgrimage. Geraldine and her son Adam drive from Yarmouth to Cambridge.
Content Warnings:
The death of a child; suicide; depression.
Character Breakdown:
Young Geraldine (Female. Play age: mid 20s)
A grieving mother, devout Christian, angry and devastated at the loss of her son.
Older Geraldine (Female. Play age: mid 40s)
A grieving mother, devout Christian, angry and devastated at the loss of her son.
Scott (Male. Play age: early to mid 40s)
Geraldine's partner a maître d’, chancer, jailbird, atheist, un-medicated depressive, only appears in Act One.
Adam (Male. Play age: early 20s)
Geraldine and Scott's son.
A drama student, medicated depressive, has grown up in the shadow of his dead brother.
How to apply?
Please send your acting CV/Spotlight pin to Peripeteiatheatre@outlook.com with 'Yarmouth' and the role in which you are applying for in the subject heading of the email.
Due to the nature of this project this is an unpaid opportunity.
Deadline to express your interest Wednesday 9th September