[BLANK]: (National Theatre Connections Edition) (Oberon Modern Plays)

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In the 2000s we expanded the offer of short courses to create different pathways into the arts for students: from stage management to poetry, voice and singing, workshop skills, literacy and playwrighting. We also developed specialist courses in self-development, anger management, and wellbeing in recognition that these life skills were vital for Clean Break students to progress. By the late 2000s we were running 30 accredited and non-accredited courses for over 200 women per year. Many women studied with us over a period of years, progressing from short courses to longer term accredited courses. It’s about desperately wanting the conversations to have depth and complexity. I am hesitant to say that there has been a revolution when the President is the President and says he grabs women by the pussy. Are we talking about it for everybody? For those who have the least agency and power? Or are we just talking about it for a particular subsection of very privileged women? I don’t know if I noticed a change – in some small ways, but in other ways, no.” Thisdigital timeline has been made possible by the support of the National Lottery HeritageFund; Arts and Humanities ResearchCouncil; Arts Council England; and the BishopsgateInstitute, where Clean Break’s archive is now held. Fisher, Mark (1 August 2018). "A desire for Duras: Katie Mitchell and Alice Birch on the writer's erotic, existential mystery". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 17 March 2020. It felt impossible, and that really appealed as a challenge,” says Birch, who is softly spoken, has a tattoo of a slice of watermelon on her wrist and is given to understatement. Now 33, she started out in theatre in her twenties but has branched out into television and film of late, making her debut with an award-winning screenplay for Lady Macbeth starring Florence Pugh in 2016, followed by a role as Story Editor on Succession. Her next, keenly awaited, project is a 12-part adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People for the BBC.

Coghlan, Alexandra (4 June 2022). "Violet is the best new British opera in years". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235 . Retrieved 12 June 2022. She wrote Lady Macbeth when her son was tiny; it was nominated for two Baftas and won five British Independent Film Awards. She’s now working on a screenplay of Mothering Sunday, based on Graham Swift’s novel.,, and The Kept, a film starring Angelina Jolie, which is “a kind of Western quest – like The Revenant but for a woman. But it’s still just me, at night-time, at the kitchen table.” I heard she and her sister grew up on a commune? “Near Malvern. It’s called Birchwood Hall. My parents weren’t married, so they called us both Birch.” She smiles. “I always think that’s the most interesting thing about me. But we were only there until I was about five.”Kanter, Jake (25 February 2020). "BBC Commits To Second Sally Rooney Adaptation Before 'Normal People' Has Even Premiered". Deadline . Retrieved 6 March 2020. Kelting, Lily (28 November 2016). "Flipping the switch: Katie Mitchell". EXBERLINER.com . Retrieved 18 March 2020. In 2015, Birch developed the play We Want You to Watch with the feminist theatre company RashDash. We Want You to Watch was commissioned by the National Theatre. [21] The play protests the violent and graphic world created by pornography and raises the idea of getting rid of pornography in its entirety. [22] The same year, her play for children, The Lone Pine Club, premiered as a touring production. Birch adapted the story from Malcolm Saville's children's books. [23] Seth, Radhika; Schama, Chloe (17 June 2021). "12 Films to Watch Out for at Cannes". Vogue . Retrieved 30 June 2021.

Walker, Amy (30 May 2019). "BBC reveals stars of its adaptation of Normal People by Sally Rooney". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077 . Retrieved 18 March 2020. Gillmor, Alison (19 November 2022). "Food for thought". Winnipeg Free Press . Retrieved 21 November 2022. Mothers and daughters, sisters and friends, prisoners and guards are the characters that populate Aberg’s take on the work. The 22 scenes vary widely in their setting, tone, and style, but common to many of them are shadowy references to abusive men, rejected pleas for help from other women, and attempts to escape oppressive realities. Birch’s (and Aberg’s) women are variously suffocated by the curveballs thrown at them—from family, friends, or the state—but they are also brave enough to ask for help, to reach outward, even though all these efforts prove tragically fruitless.Birch's opera, Violet, composed by Tom Coult , was scheduled to open at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2020. [53] [54] The opera was commissioned and produced by Music Theatre Wales, Theater Magdeburg, and Snape Maltings, with the London Sinfonietta. [55] The two created Violet in 2019. [56] The opera's premiere was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, [57] eventually taking place at Aldeburgh in June 2022. Jude Christian's production starred soprano Anna Dennis as Violet with accompaniment by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Andrew Gourlay. [58] The production went on to tour the UK. [59] Coult’s score received an Ivor Novello Award nomination at The Ivors Classical Awards 2023 for Best Stage Work. [60] In 2019 Clean Break celebrated our 40th Anniversaryby embarking on an ambitious journey todocument the remarkablestory of the company.Over two years we established our archive atthe Bishopsgate Institute, interviewed42 women from across our 40year history and stagedexhibitionsto share our story of theatre, feminism and justice. She says her father always knew she was going to be a writer, perhaps because, aged 7, she wrote her first pantomime and forced her friends to be in it. “Horrible child! It’s the only thing I can really remember wanting to do. I was good at playing on my own – I used to line pens up and talk to them.” Wurtzel, David (2019-11-18). "Theatre review: [BLANK] by Alice Birch". Counsel Magazine . Retrieved 2022-11-15. |Alice Birch’s heartbreaking new play reaches across society to explore the impact of the criminal justice system on women and their families.

Saville, Alice (2019-10-17). " '[Blank]' review | Theatre in London". Time Out London . Retrieved 2022-11-15. Director Maria Aberg and a brilliant cast of 14 women and two young girls rise to the occasion. Over and over again, they plunge straight in, with intense and sometimes harrowing emotion. They are assisted by a clever and highly adaptable double height set designed by Rosie Elnile. Shiv is an interesting character this season because she thinks she’s good but she’s behaving horribly. Whereas most of them accept that they want the money, the drugs and the big, exciting life. There’s an honesty to that that appeals.” Alice Birch wrote her first play, a pantomime, aged seven: ‘Horrible child!’ (Photo: Georgia Ower) Robert Boulter and Scarlett Brookes in the RSC’s Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again by Alice Birch. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/Guardian This production and the associated Take the Stage programme is supported by Sir John Cass’s Foundation.

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Clapp, Susannah (2019-10-26). "The week in theatre: [Blank]; Lungs; Vassa – review". The Guardian . Retrieved 2022-11-15.

She writes in the dead of night – always has. “I don’t enjoy it, I find it painful and a bit torturous. I feel like psychologically I need to be quite far away from my child – and the rest of the world – but specifically him. There’s something about nighttime that you can be a bit braver. I really don’t look up when I’m writing, I don’t think about anyone’s response, nor an audience.” Bowie-Sell, Daisy (1 June 2011). "Many Moons, Theatre503, London, review". The Daily Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235 . Retrieved 17 March 2020. The pragmatism around childbirth is wild to me’: Rachel Weisz in Dead Ringers. Photograph: courtesy of Prime Over 40 years, Clean Break has commissioned some of the most progressive and brilliant women writers to write ground-breaking plays, alongside developing the writing skills of the women they work with in its London studios and in prisons. This is a collection of monologues from this canon.She’s the most exciting pop culture icon. She’s transcended everything, and I loved her documentary. But what would I like to make? I’m not sure yet. When she started out in the industry she certainly faced sexism. “I remember someone telling me that my play, had it been written by man, would have been seen as metaphorical and about the world, but because it was written by a woman, it was a kitchen-sink drama, domestic. Those kind of things feel quite embedded.” Cappelle, Laura (3 October 2019). " 'Orlando' Awkwardly Transitions to the Stage". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331 . Retrieved 18 March 2020.