Tuesday 12 – Saturday 16 December at 7.30pm.
Matinée on Saturday 16 December at 3pm.
At the Tower Theatre, Stoke Newington
Following last year’s well-received and engaging showcase comes a new challenge for the Writers Room on the theme of:
Home
A place? An ideal? An emotion? Tower Theatre writers explore a range of ideas suggested by this richly evocative little word in an exciting programme of short plays. Come along and see some ground-breaking new writing!
Buy Tickets :
Tuesday 12 December at 7.30pm
Wednesday 13 December at 7.30pm
Thursday 14 December at 7.30pm
Friday 15 December at 7.30pm
Saturday 16 December at 3pm
Saturday 16 December at 7.30pm
Post Show event : Q & A with the Writers Of Home
We are delighted to announce that writers Kate Roche, Janet South and Melanie Bell will be available for an exclusive Q&A at the Tower! This will take place immediately after the matinée performance on Saturday 16 December (from around 5pm to 6pm). To attend the Q & A make sure you purchase your ticket NOW for the matinée performance on 16 December – do not delay, this performance will be sold out!
When You Go to Ireland by Kate Roche
Directed by Simona Hughes
London-based Evelyn invites her adult daughter and son over for ‘lunch’. Their suspicions are rightly aroused, as this is not something she normally does. It turns out she has a very dramatic request to make of them. She has decided that when she dies, she “wants to go home” to be buried in Ireland….
Cast
Evelyn : Rosanna Preston
Tessa : Kate Pemberton
Irvine : Joshua Picton
Assistant Director : Ozlem Tas
Difficult to Describe, Understand or Measure by Sibila Diaz-Plaja
Directed by Faith Abongo
Tom and Jo have broken up. On the last night in their shared flat they divide and pack up their belongings as well as their history. As they navigate the bubble wrap and cardboard boxes they start to unpack their relationship. How did they get here? A play about love, home and really lived-in green armchairs.
Cast
Jo : Rebecca Allan
Tom : Nick Edwards
Associate Director : Ian Hoare
Homemakers by Janet South
Directed by Feiyang Yang
What if, in the future, a home is even further out of reach for most people than it is now? What would you do to get one? For Karola and Devan, working on the assembly line in a factory, the question has a powerful significance as they grapple with their ambitions for the future and the weight of past events.
Cast
Karola : Sophia Chrisafis
Devan : Thisakya Dias
An IQ Test for my Birthday by Melanie Bell.
Directed by Ragan Keefer
Callie gets a surprising birthday present from her father. An appointment to take an IQ test. Upon her arrival she meets a straightlaced journalist, a hard working mum and her energetic daughter. All are here for the same thing, to pass the test for their own personal agendas. Will they pass? Will their nerves get the best of them? A play that deals with themes of family, acceptance, and pride.
Cast
Callie : Helen Wieland
Edward : Fred McMahon
Becky : Eloise McCreedy
Sandra : Lucy Moss
Assistant Director : Isobel Quiroz
For Writers’ Room
Artistic Team Lead : Landé Belo
Producer : Nichola Vasey
Set Design : Angelika Michitsch
Costume Design : Lucy Moss & Rachel Bothamley
Lighting Design : Robin Snowdon
Sound Design : Colin Guthrie
Stage Manager : Jacqui Dickson
ASM : Lorelle Hirth
Lighting Operator : Laurence Tuerk or Robin Snowdon
Sound Operator : Peta Barker
Set Design Assistant : Millie Weston
Photography : Jason Harris
| When You Go to Ireland |
 This is Rosanna Preston‘s seventh role at the Tower Theatre and she has also directed and narrated Tower productions. Elsewhere Rosanna has performed and directed at Theatro Technis, White Bear, Baron’s Court, The Pleasance, Watford Fringe Festival and others. Recently she has been an undercover actor for Kit Green’s 1133 and facilitated We’re Going on a Bear Hunt at Kew Gardens. Rosanna’s films include the Jamie T music video Between the Rocks and the TV series Psyched (in production). |
 Kate Pemberton is an actor and comedian who has been training and performing internationally since 2017. She recently moved to London from Copenhagen, where she performed with groups including “The Fallen Sundays” musical improv troupe, the “Let Her Speak” comedy collective and Copenhagen Theatre Circle. Her theatre credits include Chekhov’s Dreamers, Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery and The Seasons: A Bloody Musical. She enjoys creating and playing with characters for the stage and the internet, and her play-writing includes Lipstick Pens and |
 This is Joshua Picton‘s first performance for the Tower Theatre Company. He trained at East 15 Acting School in their BA Acting course and has performed in local and regional theatres all over the country on national tours. He’s also performed at the Vaults and and the Edinburgh fringe festival whilst doing some work in the world of audio books. A lot of Joshua’s work consists of running theatre workshops for many different community groups so he’s very excited to perform for the Tower, a company which puts community at the heart of their work./span> |
 Simona Hughes completed her MFA in Advanced Theatre Practice at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and graduated (with distinction) in 2019. She is one of the Artistic Directors at the Tower Theatre and has been a company member for 20 years, during which time she has served on the Management Committee and both acted and directed. Directing credits at Tower include Coram Boy, A Passage to India, Table, Love Love Love, Brontë and, most recently, Labour of Love. Elsewhere she has directed (short pieces) at Theatre 503, Vault Festival, The Bread and Roses and The Pit (Barbican) and has written and directed her own play About 500, which was staged at The Union, The Omnibus and The King’s Head and was nominated for 3 awards. Simona is particularly interested in using movement and in deep exploration of text/subtext and character in her work. Her original training was in psychotherapy and this has definitely influenced the way she explores the layers of meaning and motivation in drama. |
| Difficult to Describe, Understand or Measure |
 Ex Drama school grad Rebecca Allan has performed in previous Tower shows Table, Trainspotting, A Passage to India, Breaking the Code, Queers and, most recently, Our Country’s Good. |
 This is Nick Edwards‘ tenth show with the Tower following roles in Under the Blue Sky, The Vortex, The Deep Blue Sea, Time and the Conways, Mother’s Day, Clybourne Park, Sweat, London Wall and most recently ConsentLondon Wall. He has acted and directed on the London stage with various theatre groups, most notably KDC and SEDOS. When not acting, Nick is an assistant principal in an academy in North Kensington. |
 Faith Martin Abongo joined the Tower Theatre in early 2022. She performed as an actor for the company’s annual Spring Forward season in the one-woman show Tituba. Faith has since completed an outstanding month-long performance of Tituba at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival fringe, which she also produced and directed. Difficult to Describe, Understand or Measure is her second show as director. In 2024, she hopes to be showcasing her first plays as a writer and director with the company. |
| Homemakers |
 Sophia Chrisafis has been a member of the Tower for several years and first performed on stage with the company in Improbable Fiction last year. She has previously run the lighting for one of our shows and been involved in writing, acting and backstage work with other drama groups around London. |
 After a decade long break from participating in theatre, Thisakya Dias joined the Tower Theatre in January 2023 and Homemakers marks her third show. Her credits at the theatre include The Little Prince and Two Billion Beats. Thissy previously cultivated her love of acting from her early years, performing with The Young Theatre Company and the National Youth Theatre, before acting in a number of plays and short films at the University of Warwick, where she studied Politics. The Babysitter won four awards at National Students Drama Festival and went on to complete a full run at the Pleasance Courtyard during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. |
 Feiyang Yang has been with the Tower Theatre for nearly two years, coming from no theatre background whatsoever. She has had the chance to learn as many aspects as she wanted over that time, mainly focused on directing. Having assisted three very different plays (Port Authority, Twelfth Night and No Room at the Inn), she directed her first play, Distant Early Warning earlier this year. Feiyang also loves to learn about sound design and has worked on a few plays as sound designer. |
| An IQ Test for my Birthday |
 Helen Wieland first entered the am dram scene while in sixth form through the Sutton Amateur Dramatics Company (or, amusingly, the SAD Company for short). With them, she played Daphne in Present Laughter and the title role in The Ashgirl. This encouraged her to get involved in student theatre societies at the University of Edinburgh, where she studied psychology. At Uni she acted in various short productions (one coincidently directed by another Tower member!) and also got involved in directing. Helen’s directing credits include Hangmen and also a Spanish play, ¡Hay motin, compañeras! She is now excited to be playing her first role at the Tower after moving back to London. Helen hopes to get to know more people through the theatre and get involved in more Tower projects in 2024! |
 Fred McMahon is a London born actor and writer based in Islington. This is his first show with the Tower Theatre, after joining earlier this year. He’s a part of the Park Theatre Company and studied English and Drama at the University of Birmingham. |
 This is Eloise McCreedy’s second show with the Tower Theatre. Eloise moved to London last year after growing up in Melbourne, Australia. She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre and has performed at the Melbourne Fringe Festival and Melbourne Recital Centre. Her credits in London include: Patricia Milligan in London Wall (Tower Theatre), Actor in New Writers Programme (KDC Theatre) and Trudi in Apologia (Putney Theatre Company). |
 Lucy Moss is a playwright, director and actor. She was most recently seen in Play and before that The Boy who Fell into a Book, Nine Night and Mules, all at the Tower Theatre. Online, she played Mother in Vitual Tower’s award-winning zoom play adaptation of Metamorphosis, and she created the audio-drama Five Women with Angharad Ormond and Colin Guthrie. She co-wrote The Canterbury Tales adaptation and has appeared in a variety of other shows, including two different productions of The Seagull in 2018, where she played Irina each time. When not on stage, she assists with costume and make-up. |
 Writer’s Room is Ragan Keefer‘s (Rae) fourth show with the Tower. Ragan stage managed Spring Forward earlier this year, and then stage managed The Little Prince. She joined as Assistant Director for Richard III. Past directing credits include Echoes, On The Exhale, Lost Connections, VIRGIN-IA and, most recently, Heroin Is NOT The New Chic. Just recently Ragan has completed her MFA in Theatre Directing from the University of East London and is so grateful to have found the Tower since moving to London from the US. |