alternativeTheatre
the home of inamoment theatre
theatre with a beat!
Theatre ¦ Shakespeare¦ Workshops
UNDOING ¦ UNLEARNING ¦ UNBEING
Our Journey
2004: Beginnings
It all started with Frank writing Time After Time, with a production in St. John's Church, in Frank's home city of Birmingham. This was under the banner of Heart Productions, with the help of the Actors Centre Birmingham and Stagecoach.
PRODUCTIONS: Time After Time
2004-2006: Shakespeare Sequels
The following years saw the creation and performance of the first three AlternativeShakespeare sequels in a number of festivals, again as Heart Productions.
PRODUCTIONS: Romeo & Juliet For All Time; Love Hurts; Macbeth Killing Time;
Tempest Fugit: Prospero's Will
2007-2010: London
2007 lead to a change of name to inamoment and also the move to London, teaming up with an up-and-coming young Director, Arnaud Mugglestone. The next three years saw three productions in London, as well as further appearances at festivals.
PRODUCTIONS: 3 Women, 2 Chairs, and 1 MP; The Accidental Lives of Memories; Shooting Clouds; Time Out of Joint; Best of Three
2011-2013: Blue Orange/Old Joint Stock Theatre
In 2011, operations moved back to Birmingham, and a close alliance with the soon to be opened Blue Orange Theatre formed, picking up again with producer Mark Webster.
There we developed our Theatre workshops.
A call from the Old Joint Stock Theatre, also in the heart of Birmingham, led to a number of plays being produced there. In that time we also headed the New Theatre Initiative and Theatre Exchange.
PRODUCTIONS: Barefaced Nights; Kicking Off; New Theatre Initiative; Ophelia, Princess of Denmark; I Love You…Goodbye; Parklife
2014-2017: Jewellery Quarter
In 2014 we set up theWorkshop, a space dedicated to creating and workshopping new Theatre, resulting in workshop and main-stage productions.
Our next base was at St.Paul's Church, also in the Jewellery Quarter. This led to the formation of the Theatre of the Quarter, and weekly Theatre sessions, out of which came collaborative productions focused on Birmingham, as part of our Brum Beats initiative.
The sessions relocated to the Birmingham & Midland Institute, along with further productions of new plays, both in the city and in various festivals throughout the country.
PRODUCTIONS: A Quarter Full; One Christmas Eve; King Lear (alone); The Nativity 2015; Orpheus in Blue; The Other Side
2018-20: Digitalisation
The next project was Arts transform, which was set up with two close colleagues to explore new digital ways of presenting our work.
This led to us experimenting with new forms
of Theatre, both audio and visual, the collaborative nature of which continues to develop to this day. A new form of Theatre, Micro Alternative Theatre (MAS), was launched.
PRODUCTIONS: An Audience with Sir John Falstaff; Cordelia / Fool
2020- 23: Reaching Out
More recently, our energies have focused on the nature of our work in general, leading to the launch of TheAlternativeSpace, which oversees the creation of written and audio playbooks arising out of our previous play productions.
We continue to explore new and alternative ways of making theatre, including the creation of digital theatre outputs, now through
holding regular Zoom workshops
PRODUCTIONS: Romeo & Juliet: The Confessions; Antony & Cleopatra Unto Death
Today
We continue to focus on our main areas (Alternative Shakespeare, MAT, Zoom Workshops) but also to develop our Alternative Chorus Theatre (ACT) initiative. 2023 sees the creation of Alternative Workshop Theatre to bring MAT to life on our Podcast and YouTube channels,
We are now working closely with local Universities & Colleges, especially the University of Keele. We hope to be soon setting up a new version of our Community Theatre project,
in Frank's hometown of Stafford.
OUTPUTS: Podcast Series; YouTube Channel; Community & Virtual Theatre Companies