950 stories by "Laura Kressly"
1973, a village in rural England. Fifteen-year-old Dinah is placed in the care of 49-year-old, first time foster mother, Lotte (not 'Lottie,' that's an English name!). As the two navigate th…
Shakespeare's The Tempest is a love story, a swan song and a spectacle of supernatural life. It lends itself well to adaptation what with its complex, intertwining themes. In Mirando: The Ga…
Women get the raw end of the deal no matter how young or old they are, how mainstream or alternative. Two late twenty-somethings, acquaintances through a mutual late friend but with complete…
If theatre is a mirror held up to the world, then evidence is increasing that change is imminent. But what form will it take? Will the people rally as in The Caucasian Chalk Circle or will w…
Two West Country lads speed through the night as both cheerful teenagers and disillusioned twenty-somethings. They wear cheap fancy dress masks; one is Batman and the other small and indisti…
Tia is fourteen and lives with her foster mum in Rochdale. She's had a rough life growing up the care system, and no one seems to care about her. When she meets "youth worker" AJ in a kebab …
Maybe the witch in Snow White isn't that bad. Or, maybe her badness is justified, like she had a traumatic childhood or suffers from a mental illness. Siobhan McMillan proposes just that: Sh…
Amy Fleming's dad committed suicide when she was four years old. Fleming struggles with mood swings and wonders if she's "mental," like her dad. Luckily, she studied Molecular Medicine befor…
Two middle-aged men sit in a run down office. They're police officers, Denny and Joey. This is Chicago in the 1990s, and Denny, a family man, does what he needs to do to support his wife and…
The witches in Macbeth are the most interesting and powerful characters in Shakespeare's play, and the easiest to reconceptualise. I've seen them as nurses, children, old men, dancers and va…
Half of the UK population born after 1960 will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime. Considering this figure, cancer rarely features as the primary subject matter in theatre, thoug…
What happens when a director completely disregards age, gender and nationality in a Shakespeare production, then stages it in a former cricket bat factory with a stripped-back aesthetic and …
With two shows a day, six days a week for a month and a half, I could keenly feel the anguish of opera troupe The Overtones' pub booking in AJ Evans' Dress Rehearsal, even though those days …
Going to a Crick Crack Club storytelling event is a bit like joining a private members' club. This club doesn't have strict entry criteria, nor is it cold and exclusive " quite the opposite.…
The Rose, the tiny fringe theatre built on the remains of its Elizabethan original, is one of the most unique theatres in London. It has its issues, though. Rather than the hierarchy with an…
As picturesque as agrarian life may be with it's rustic farmhouses, sweeping land and livestock, it is not an easy one for older and younger generations who just want to make a decent living…
Halvard Solness is afraid. He’s afraid of young people displacing him, and heights. But he is revered as the master builder of his town, a self-made man with luck on his side. The midd…
The wonderful thing about new writing is the potential for discovering unknown gems, perfectly formed and ready for a transfer or a tour, or a piece that is still finding its shape but its p…
Without question, my best new writing discovery of 2015 was young writer Isley Lynn's play Tether at Edinburgh Fringe. This surprising, diverse two-hander also made it into the top five of m…
Grief doesn't need words to communicate. Music and movement are much better mediums for the relentless, gut ripping echo that is losing someone you love. The Wrong Crowd's latest work Kite d…
David and Charlotte's ten-year relationship is on the rocks. He's struggling with an addiction that's pushing her out of his busy life, but David's social media and internet habits aren't al…
Sometimes, simplicity in narrative structure is more effective than twists, heaps of characters and subplots. Storytelling has been a powerful medium for time immemorial. in/out (a feeling) …
Four hundred years ago this April, Shakespeare died. A bunch of academics decided to take advantage of this bizarre anniversary and launched Shakespeare 400. It's a great excuse for a nation…
Though drastic re-imaginings of Shakespeare's plays can show the contemporary relevance of his workgroups the use of a clear, justifiable concept, randomly slapping on cool ideas has the opp…
Lots of things seem like a great idea at uni. Some of them are genuinely good ideas. A great deal more aren't. Writing a play about Hitler in the Big Brother House is one of the latter. In 2…
