I’m thrilled to be part of Starting Blocks 2022 at Camden People’s Theatre! I’ll be developing my solo show I’m Sorry I’m Not Lucy Liu (working title) on the excellent artist development scheme. Here’s more from CPT’s website:
The first of the artist support schemes is Starting Blocks which runs from January to March, allowing time for participants to develop works-in-progress to be shown in the Spring SPRINT festival. Over the 10 weeks, Starting Blocks artists meet weekly to share practice, ideas and their developing works. Today, the theatre also announces the 2022 recipients of this scheme. The artists are Meg Hodgson (Moonface), Eden Jun (I’m Sorry I’m Not Lucy Liu), Jonny Khan (Our First Daytimer), Jack Boal (The Children are Leaving), Chris Yarnell (Perpetuity) and Louisa Doyle (Cassiopeia).
Starting Blocks has previously supported Rachel Mars and her hit show The Way You Tell Them, Louise Orwin’s Pretty Ugly, Haley McGee’s The Ex Boyfriend Yard Sale and 2018 Underbelly Untapped Award-winner Queens of Sheba by Nouveau Riche all of which have gone on to national and international tours, critical acclaim and extended runs at CPT and beyond.
https://cptheatre.co.uk/news/Starting-Blocks-2022-Finalists
https://www.cptheatre.co.uk/blog/paul-hamlyn-funding-announcement/
My pitch for the show:
My character, Imogen Grant, has been commissioned to create a new show for CPT. She decides to create an interactive comedy show about the process of creating a show, which involves work-in-progress performances with her audience. As she and her audience try to put the show together based on scenes, music, and live art elements she has created, a mysterious call keeps interrupting. Immy ignores it… Until she can’t. What the audience discovers about her past and present may break down the trust built between them and threaten the life of the show.
How much of Imogen’s story do we really want to know?
Can she be honest with her audience if she can’t be honest with herself?
Does she choose to comply with the authorities or to fight back?
Imogen asks: ‘Who do you want me to be?’
There will be songs, multiple disguises, a treasure hunt, and a shrine to Lucy Liu… Most importantly, however, the audience’s dilemmas and decisions will determine whether Imogen’s fate – and therefore the show’s conclusion – ends in comedy or tragedy.
