New Strides Productions

Following a rekindling of Tea With Mrs Pankhurst at a very special private performance, it has been decided to take the play on tour again. Tea With Mrs Pankhurst has always been a popular play and we feel it is time to dust off our large Edwardian hats and take it on the road again particularly throughout the region of Lancashire as both main characters of the play hailed from here. We will be performing both ‘tea’ and ‘non tea’ versions. For prices and info please email or telephone us.

New Strides will soon be launching ‘Portaghost’, the UK’s only portable ghost walk service. The idea has sprung from our involvement with the Coldingham Ghost Walk over the past few years. We intend to provide a service that will research and create tailored ghost walks for communities all over the country. The walks will be fun and educational and have a root in the real history and characters of each place. We have created different packages from simply researching and creating a script for community use to a drama workshop and walk involving the community to a ghost walk entirely run and acted by professional actors. These walks are ideal for community festivals and galas. The Portaghost website will be up and running shortly but for anyone seeking more information please contact us through this site.

Descent, the one woman show that premiered last year at the Edinbugh Fringe is available for touring and events. The show is ostensibly set in Nazi Germany and charts the decline of a Jewish family yet no actual reference is made to time nor place as the story of Veronicka and her family could be of any time or situation past or present. The play deals with issues of homophobia and rascism and is offered with a post show discussion where suitable. It has already played at colleges and at two Holocaust Memorial events this year to great success. Any interested organisations please contact us for prices. Descent will also be touring this year to rural venues across the UK. Dates will be posted up here as soo nas they are confirmed.

If you would like to contact us via post our new address is:

5 Ashdene, Walsden, Todmorden, Lancs OL14 6QS.

Telephone 07792 752409

Email newstrides@hotmail.com

Actors interested in joining our pool of actors should send CVs and photographs to the above address or via email. We are only interested in people who are committed to community work. CVs and photographs will be kept on file and we shall contact those we are interested in when auditions arise.

Some new photographs from performances of Tea With Mrs. Pankhurst are now on the site. View the photos here.

When school children Gemma and Harry find a purse on the street, they can’t believe their luck. Gemma can buy some nice things for her mum who isn’t very well, and some sweets and Harry can get the CD he wants. But questions begin to arise. Do they really have the right to keep the purse? And will they get into trouble if they spend the money?

DEBATE! is a new interactive drama experience for primary schools (Key Stage 2/P4, 5,6,7), set up to encourage and develop children’s debating skills.

Beginning with a twenty-minute play, four professional actors present a live ‘video’ of a moral dilemma. As the characters find the situation going wrong, they ‘rewind’ – and with the help of the audience, show different outcomes to the problem.

Following on from the play, drama games and exercises are applied to demonstrate the importance of listening and responding accordingly in a debate. The session culminates with a formal ‘parliamentary’ debate by the participants of the topics raised.

DEBATE! has been piloted in London to great success and is available as part on an ongoing project.

We have now successfully adapted our play ‘Tea With Mrs Pankhurst’ for schools. It needed only small alteration and it has had a great response from young people everywhere it has gone.

The Play
Emmeline Pankhurst and Selina Cooper took tea together many times. Yet these two suffrage leaders had not only different approaches to gaining the vote, but also different motives.

Exploring the suffrage movement and the conflicts within it, this fast paced production gives great insight into Edwardian Britain and beyond. It also shows the impact that war had upon the suffrage movement and begs the questions ‘ who won the vote?’

The Curriculum
Suitable for Key Stages 3 and 4 and S3-6, Tea With Mrs Pankhurst incorporates both History and Citizenship. It encourages debate and discussion and encourages young people to respect the right to vote. It also demonstrates the different methods employed by suffragists and suffragettes and asks important questions about the impact of the franchise movement upon society. The play is available with a full teachers pack and an after-show character ‘hot-seating’ session as well as actor discussion with the audience.

With a cast of four professional actors playing a whole host of colourful characters, Tea With Mrs Pankhurst brings the suffrage campaign to life and shows how this historic movement is still relevant today.

“Featuring sophisticated agitprop, friendly audience participation and some lovely moments of wit, the play’s historical content unfolds in a series of short episodes, beautifully enacted by the cast” The Stage & Television Today, review of Tea with Mrs Pankhurst.

BOOK EARLY TO AVOID DISAPPOINTMENT Please call 07792752409 for further details

2004 has been a busy year (as usual) for the company. We have continued to tour both our plays Tea With Mrs Pankhurst and Purge to all sorts of different venues nationwide and we have expanded our Pankhurst tour to schools. This has been greatly received. We also had the privilege of performing it at the Unity Hall in Nelson, Selina’s home town and the hall that she herself laid the foundation stone for. A talk was given by historian and author Jill Liddington and suffrage songs were sung by a local choir. The hall was packed with local Nelson people some of whom actually knew Selina and her daughter Mary. (see pictures of Nelson performance)We also performed Purge at the TUC conference in Brighton at the Old Market Theatre. As usual there were some minor cast alterations with new boy Garth Williams gallantly taking the role of Paolo and Lori doing a wonderful Maganzinni.

Another of our old allies Colleen Daley (Indestructible Man) has also joined the Pankhurst team and Lori, Ruth, Nicki and Coll are having great fun on the road together (as well as handling tricky ‘hot-seating’ sessions in schools).

Both ‘Debate’ for primary schools and Tea With Mrs Pankhurst (for secondary schools and community venues) will be touring extensively throughout 2005. As well as this we have many projects on the back boiler to be revealed shortly. We are also trying to get some funding this year (about time!). The going is tough as it is for all small-scale theatre companies, but each year New Strides seems to expand more and we are optimistic for the future.

One of our bases has now changed. We no longer have a base in Northern Ireland as Ruth has moved to Calderdale (West Yorks). See our brochure or contact page for the new address.

This year has been a busy one so far for us as New Strides continues to spread its wings. As well as continuing performances of both Tea With Mrs Pankhurst (see Tea With Mrs. Pankhurst below for details of upcoming shows) and Purge (see Unison Conference 2004below for a report on our last run in Glasgow), we have been involved in many successful workshops including a conference in Wales for a self advocacy group of people with learning difficulties (in which Lori, Tiran, Eve and James found out that shaving foam isn’t the best substance to use for custard pies!). We also ran a week long workshop for children in Hebden Bridge on the theme of legends ending in a performance of ‘The Sword in the Stone’ to parents and friends. This was great week and due to popular demand we are running a longer workshop in July (details to be posted soon).