This Saturday marked the end of our debut Sketchy: London 2018!
In less than three months, myself and Lucy Ralph have turned a little idea into a pretty big reality – an idea that started its life one night out at a bar in Battersea a year ago. It has been a huge personal achievement and, to be honest, one I’m still processing.
Sketchy: London 2018 premiered at the adorable Stour Space in Hackney. It featured a truly international programme: we showcased the work of artists hailing from Benin, Brazil, France, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. Actors from London, Manchester, Hong Kong and Chicago performed eight new extracts – a special thanks goes to Dan McGeehan, Carly McQuay, Billie Sue Thompson, Tim Kidwell and Eddie Lynch for taking a gamble on two strangers and their new event and for making the 4,000 mile journey ESPECIALLY to perform their beautiful piece at Sketchy.
The quality of work on show exceeded our expectations. We championed a programme of entirely new writing and were proud of its variety and standard.
We were interviewed and featured as the Daily Arts segment on London Live News.
– – WATCH OUR INTERVIEW HERE – –
We had wicked after-show parties with our enormously talented music acts – the stunning Unique, hard-hitting Otis Mensah and funky fun Odd Soul. Check them all out, they are all masters of their own sound. Big thank you to Adam Jackson for sourcing all the music!
Call Me Unique: http://callmeunique.com/
Otis Mensah: https://otismensah.bandcamp.com/
Odd Soul: https://www.facebook.com/oddsoultheband/
We received a 4 * review from London Theatre 1!
– – READ OUR REVIEW HERE – –
We made this entire project happen ourselves, with zero funding and very little clue of how it was gonna go! Created press releases, read streams of writing submissions, flyered all over Hackney, designed online ticket sales, tech-ed the show (with the invaluable help of lovely artist, Martin Faure!), I learnt and performed a brilliant monologue by Natalie Beech (check her out here: http://www.nataliebeech.com/). It’s been a whirlwind.
Thank you to everyone who has supported us in this first endeavour and who came to watch Sketchy Nights. You made all the hard work worth it.
Thank you to Jordan Stowe-Merritt for filming the hubbub and Nina Biddle for snapping the beautiful moments.
Thank you to all the actors and artists who took part – I’ve met and collaborated with some amazing creatives in this process and the shows really wouldn’t exist without them.
We’ve learnt so much from making this happen and know this is the beginning of an exciting adventure (keep your eyes peeled for Sketchy: New York in Summer 2019…!).
