Make connections, start conversations

Our next house southeast theatre network Pitch Up event will be on Monday 3 November hosted by New Wolsey Theatre Ipswich, Suffolk.

Pitch Up brings together artists and companies and representatives from venues in our network to share their opportunities, connect and collaborate in front of an audience. We will be joined by the following South East based venues to pitch their opportunities for partnership working: Cambridge Junction, The Seagull Lowestoft, The Cornhall Diss, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, The Garage Norwich, Norwich Theatres, Chelmsford Theatre, Colchester Arts Centre, Eastern Angles, St George's Theatre Great Yarmouth and Sheringham Little Theatre.

The event attracted a diverse wealth of talented theatre-makers and we are now pleased to announce the 12 artists and companies who will be joining us to pitch their work: Wright&Grainger, Axe To Grind and Puppet Theater Manila, The Whiting’s on the Wall, Laura Christina Edwards, Papergang Theatre,Contemporary Ritual Theatre, Upswing, Terracotta Productions, Roly Poly, Jumped Up Theatre and LJHope Productions, The Keeper’s Daughter and The Place.

Meet the artists and companies below:

WRIGHT&GRAINGER

Wright&Grainger are two storytellers and musicians based in rural North Yorkshire in the UK. They weave worlds from music and spoken word. Since 2016 their wild retellings of Ancient Greek myths have taken them around the world, touring across the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Bali, India, Europe and transferring work to New York.

Pitching - Selene

Wright&Grainger’s newest solo storytelling show, following the footprint of award-winning HELIOS. Premiering in Australia at the start of ‘26, it will tour the UK in June & July and then again in Autumn.

THERE IS STUFF INSIDE US, WILD STUFF INSIDE US

A young girl is watching the moon landings on repeat

A bunch of teenagers are swimming under a lunar eclipse

A mis-matched couple are watching a horror film at a drive-in cinema.

Image: © Late Cut Media

Axe To Grind and Puppet Theater Manila

Axe To Grind is a collective that focuses on under-discussed themes and brings real stories to the stage. We dive into issues that make audiences feel, think, and talk. We are passionate about fresh voices and stories that matter.

Puppet Theater Manila (PTM) is a puppetry company based in the Philippines and London that champions puppetry in theatre. By drawing from puppetry cultures from East and Southeast Asia, PTM aims to bring a unique kind of puppetry to British audiences.

Pitching - Dog by Rob Perry

Dog by Rob Perry is a heart-warming and humorous tale of friendship, loyalty, and neurodiversity. Adapted by Kate Austen, this moving new production brings to life the story of Benjamin Glass; his unique perspective, his challenges, and his unbreakable bond with Gary the Wonder Dog.

Featuring dazzling puppetry from award-winning Kayla Teodoro and inventive multimedia storytelling, Dog is a vibrant, feel-good family show that celebrates love, understanding, and the magic of one extraordinary dog.

Image: Design and illustration by Ginevra Rapisardi

The Whiting’s On The Wall CIC

The Whiting’s on the Wall are a Norfolk-based devising company with a distinctly local flavour, created with support from the Arts Council England lottery project fund in early 2020...born from the ashes of our first lockdown...striving for a feeling of connection and community.

Verbatim /və(ː)ˈbeɪtɪm/ (adverb) in exactly the same words as were used originally.

We make verbatim / docutheatre with a difference, based on interviews and conversations with real people. We use the interviews, their transcripts and/ or the audio in its original form, adding inventive set design, puppets, original music and a touch of theatre magic to create unique rural touring theatre in the region.

Pitching - When The Tide Comes

When The Tide Comes is our most ambitious project yet, exploring the human cost of the climate crisis through a hyper-local lens, focused on the village of Hemsby, Norfolk. The play will bear witness to the real-life experiences of those living on the literal cliff-face of the climate crisis. It will feature real interviews & hard-hitting truths about our current coastal management systems, told with humour and a whole lot of heart.

Image: Design and illustration by Ginevra Rapisardi

Laura Christina Edwards

Laura Christina Edwards is a Wirral-born, Cambridge-based interdisciplinary performance artist, maker and curator devoted to the art of ‘being’. Guided by her dual-Gemini nature, she explores contrast and contradiction in her work, bringing opposing qualities into dialogue through embodied, mischievous and emotionally intuitive performance that fuses clown, dance, comedy, experimental music and physical theatre.

Pitching - Divine Timing

Divine Timing is a poetic punch-up between productivity and presence – a mischievous fusion of physical comedy and dance. Meet Allora, a clown in crisis: one self wants to rule the world, the other just wants to dance through it. One body, two selves – ‘Doing’ and ‘Being’ – battle for control in a playful, surreal exploration of presence and productivity.

Image © Ingrid Turner

Papergang Theatre

Papergang Theatre is a theatre company with the aim of improving the representation of British East / South East Asian (BESEA) culture across the dramatic arts primarily in UK theatre.

Isabella Leung’s recent work as a playwright, director and performer, A BOUFFON PLAY ABOUT HONG KONG, 21’ finalist Women’s Prize for Playwriting, was produced by Papergang Theatre and presented at HOME Manchester. It received a sold out run, engaging with the audience through its hilarious, ‘otherworldly and punk’ storytelling style. Through this work, Isabella was nominated by the public as finalist for Manchester Culture Awards Independent Creative of the Year.

Pitching - Masha Has A Gun!

Masha Has A Gun! is an absurdist play infused with butoh dance. The play explores post COVID Anti-Asian racism and the impact of the 2021 Atlanta spa shooting, which took the lives of six Asian women. The story delves into sensitive topics such as exoticisation of the Asian female, and violence in colonial history. Although the play inspects something deeply distressing, the comedic writing and interdisciplinary art forms disarm and challenge contemporary audience.

Image © Jeffrey Choy

Contemporary Ritual Theatre

Contemporary Ritual Theatre is an emerging experimental company based in Great Yarmouth, creating cutting-edge theatre projects that explore the myth, magic and folklore of Norfolk. We aim to leave our audiences with goosebumps and indelible memories as we develop a new style of theatre, called ‘ritual theatre’. Remaking ancient ritual and folk practices, this style is visceral, immersive and interdisciplinary, using folk songs, dancing, masking and improvised percussion.

Pitching - WYRD SISTER

CRT’s second project, WYRD SISTER, tells the story of Angharad, a charismatic nomad and centuries-old witch. Wandering barefoot over East Anglia with a wheelie bag filled with human heads - trophies of her lovers and enemies - she spends her years re-enacting her most treasured memories. But Angharad is not alone: wherever she goes, she is hunted by her ‘Shadow’, a terrifying crow-like creature intent upon confronting her with her guilty past.

Upswing

Upswing is a leading contemporary circus company led by Artistic Director Vicki Dela Amedume MBE.

We use circus to tell new stories in extraordinary ways and to amplify and celebrate the skills, creative talents and stories of global majority artists and communities. We present work in a range of contexts from theatres and festivals to libraries, care homes and other public spaces as well as on film, meeting people where they are.

Pitching - SHOWDOWN

SHOWDOWN is a dynamic narrative driven circus performance packed with standout acrobatics, razor-sharp humour and audience interaction, set to a hip-hop/afrobeat score by musician Afrikan Boy. The show satirises talent show culture by showcasing six fearless contestants who push their limits in a no-holds-barred race to the top, playfully unpacking our obsession with winning. It uses the theme of competition to explore diversity, identity and ideas of fairness and opportunity.

Image © Dan Martin

Terracotta Productions

At Terracotta Productions, we believe that theatre should belong to everyone. We create work that listens, sharing narratives rooted in community and lived experience. Our projects open doors and make space for everyone’s story. We collaborate with local residents, artists, and charitable organisations to tell honest, accessible stories that hold warmth and hope at their core.

Pitching - Sitting (In Silence)

Sitting (In Silence) received the Farnham Maltings Emerging Artist Award and the Mid Street Lab Community Award, recognised for partnerships with suicide prevention charities including Dad La Soul (recently supported by actor Stephen Graham), Start The Conversation, and Papyrus..

Image © Surrealshot Media

Charly Jolly and Maddie Broad

Charly Jolly and Maddie Broad are two “professional playful people” making sensory performance with babies and their caregivers.

Their shows are non-verbal and child-led allowing the company to follow the curiosities of the children and validate their creative and explorative ideas. Roly Poly is also about the caregiver’s experience, with audience members often commenting that they feel calm and relaxed in the spaces they create.

Pitching - Roly Poly

Roly Poly is a sensory theatre experience for under-twos and their grown-ups. We provide a warm, musical playscape where families can relax, play and explore together. Using cardboard props, soft lighting and live musical instruments, they transform community spaces into gentle worlds of sound and movement – designed especially for the youngest audience members.

Image © Matt Jolly

Jumped Up Theatre and LJHope Productions

Clare Currie is a playwright and poet. She has written for Eastern Angles, Paines Plough, Jumped Up Theatre and was a 2024 HighTide mentored playwright. She is a former Peterborough Poet Laureate and a founding member of Syntax Poetry Festival.

Jumped Up Theatre creates opportunities to make, enjoy and celebrate arts and culture. They focus particularly on live events and theatre that brings people together.

Lucy Farrant, of LJHope Productions, is a creative producer of arts and culture events around the UK, based in Norwich. Her driving passion is developing opportunities for telling important stories and curating meaningful discussions.

Pitching - Cold Snap

Celebrating women’s bodies: their power and resilience. In Cold Snap, Clare grapples with her love of netball and all sports, the strains of the aging process and the demands of modern life. As – having once been a sanctuary – her body becomes a new battleground for her to conquer, and her mental health becomes yet another thing to manage.

Image © David Hone - photography, George Payne - digital design

The Keeper’s Daughters

The Keeper’s Daughter produces stage and screen projects with a social impact production process at its core. We provide early-career employment for regional, underrepresented creatives and create participation opportunities for teenagers and young adults across the eastern region.

With a sixteen-year history of rural touring, the company’s acclaimed national tour of The Time Machine inspired the creation of the debut short-form drama Time Travelling With Myself, produced in partnership with The Seagull. This project revealed a growing need for further screen development opportunities in the area. We now aim to establish an ongoing professional development programme across the region.

Pitching - Lantern

In 2027, a live screening and performance tour, accompanied by an augmented reality exhibition, will bring eccentric heritage and regional creatives’ work to East Anglian communities. Lantern is unique, vital, and requires your support. Early-career directors and local crew will shoot throughout 2026, while a community team of up to 12 young people per episode will gain on-set experience and co-produce a companion podcast exploring the east’s quirky history.

Image © Scott Godding

The Place

The Place, London’s creative powerhouse for dance development, has been leading the way in dance training, creation and performance for 50 years. In a changing landscape, our vision for the future remains steadfast: we are powering imagination through dance, championing new ideas, embracing risks and creating a dance ecosystem unlike any other in the world, with optimal conditions for dance artists and enthusiasts to realise their full potential.

The Place is home to London Contemporary Dance School, an extensive theatre and artist development programme, education projects, a range of classes and courses and a nationwide touring model. As a pioneering dance organisation, we are committed to creating no-barriers access to exciting dance experiences and opportunities for everybody, offering a diverse and dynamic theatre programme for audiences, empowering artists and dance makers and giving young people access to the highest quality opportunities to touch their lives with dance.

Pitching - The Playground Tour

The Playground Tour began in 2021, bringing dance directly into schools at a time when children and families couldn’t visit theatres. It’s been growing each year, reaching over 27,000 children across the country, many experiencing live dance for the first time.

Each summer, we commission two artists to create a vibrant 20-minute dance piece for primary-aged children. The double-bill tours a new playground every day for five weeks and is also performed at local arts festivals on weekends. The tour thrives on local partnerships, and we’re now seeking collaborators to bring this exciting programme to children in the South East.

Image © the album: skool edition by SAY, photo by Roswitha Chesher

Audience Tickets still available

As part of Pitch Up, we invite an open audience made up of theatre makers, arts professionals and representatives from other South East based venues eager to join us, connect and listen to the pitches of the day.

There are still a handful of tickets available for this in-person event at New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich and spaces are limited. Please book your free ticket in advance (a complementary vegetarian / vegan lunch and refreshments will be provided).