From Represents…. to The Pleasance: playwright Sarah Davies on how her short, Grit, has been developed into a full lengh play. ‘She deals with the world now with a grimace that to her looks cheerful, and to everyone else, looks like the final stages of rigor mortis setting in. She puts it on as she reaches the school gates and leaves it in her lap-top case at weekends. Pupils go out of their way to let her pass now in corridors, heads respectfully bent to the floor. Because s

This month, Sienna Miller revealed that she turned down a Broadway play, a two-hander, because she was being offered less than half the pay of her male co-star. Turning down an opportunity like this is a brave move career-wise, and revealing the fact braver still. As we well know there are far fewer roles for women in theatre, film and TV – and as a result, actresses can ill-afford to be turning any roles down, even if you are a Hollywood star. Emma Thompson acknowledged that

The fantastic Sam Hall (17%) brings her new play to London! 17percent The main aim of the play is to raise awareness for World Anti-Slavery Day (18 October 2015). There are an estimated 30 million slaves in the world, with approximately 13,000 in the UK. Modern day slavery victims include: women forced into prostitution, imprisoned domestic staff, and workers in fields, factories, building sites and fishing boats. Jude Spooner, founder of London-based Rah Rah Theatre Company,

Preparing to go on stage as Katie in Madjesty for Whoop ‘n’ Wail Represents…Mayday, I put the finishing touches to my make up. Lipstick on and dabbed, I stood by the wings and waited for my cue. The opening music, The Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen, fired up and on stage I went. As the lights went up there was a howl of laughter, screams and wolf whistles from a packed house. What was so funny? We hadn’t even started yet. Why were people laughing? And as I stood there, bemus

Whoop ‘n’ Wail Represents…Mayday Waterloo East Theatre, London, SE1 8TG Monday 27th & Tuesday 28th April 2015, 7.30pm Tickets on sale now: £10 in advance (£12 on the door) Box office: 020 7928 0060 / www.waterlooeast.co.uk innovation   •   entertainment   •   social justice #WaterlooEastTheatre #AmnestyInternational #PatrickStewart #whoopnwail #artystew #17Percent

Ali Kemp and Deborah Klayman: Whooping and Wailing on the Road to Gender Equality Read our feature in Female Arts here. Whoop ‘n’ Wail Represents…Mayday Waterloo East Theatre, London, SE1 8TG Monday 27th & Tuesday 28th April 2015, 7.30pm Tickets on sale now: £10 in advance (£12 on the door) Box office: 020 7928 0060 / www.waterlooeast.co.uk innovation   •   entertainment   •   social justice #PrisonReformTrust #GerardArmin #WaterlooEastTheatre #LeahLovett #CanalCafeTheatr

Here are Whoop ‘n’ Wail HQ we are excitedly moving into the next phase of pre-production. It is great to be working with our fantastic team of directors: Marc Kelly, Janet Palmer, James Callas Ball and Georgie Weedon, who are Represents… first timers; and Represents… returners Alice Bonifacio and Paul Kevin-Taylor, all of whom have been busy casting and getting rehearsals underway. Debs and I have also been busy in the last few days getting our publicity out and inviting pres

We wish to extend our thanks to all the writers from across the UK who have sent us their work in response to the theme of Mayday. It has truly been a pleasure to read such a broad range of plays, all of which include significant female characters and in doing so bring theatre in the UK closer to achieving realistic gender representation. We are excited to be able to announce the line up for the third Whoop ‘n’ Wail Represents… returning to Waterloo East Theatre on 27th & 28t

Tickets for Whoop ‘n’ Wail Represents…Mayday are now on sale! Don’t forget that there is a £2 discount on tickets booked in advance via our friends at Waterloo East Theatre: www.waterlooeast.co.uk. We have a line up of fantastic new plays and fabulous directors which will all be announced shortly, so remember to watch this space! #WhoopnWailRepresents #WaterlooEastTheatre #stewartcalladine #whoopnwail #newwriting #genderequality #WhoopnWail #theatre #WhoopnWailRepresentsMayda

We are very proud to be able to announce our wonderful team of delightfully desirable directors: Alice Bonifacio is directing Nice Jumper by Dan Page Norman Murray will direct The Hidden Room by Patricia Reynoso Tom Neill directs The Work-Love Balance by Tom Jensen Dan Horrigan will direct Three AM by Barbara Blumenthal-Ehrlich Sarah Davies is working on Would You Let Me Finish? by Leon Kaye and Emily Bush has taken the helm on Heart’s Desire by Ali Kemp & Deborah Klayman. Ha

Whoop ‘n’ Wail are delighted to announce the six successful playwrights for their February showcase: Whoop ‘n’ Wail Represents…Desire. We have been absolutely delighted with the response to our open submission brief, with almost seventy brand new plays from all over the world winging their way to the Whoop ‘n’ Wail submissions inbox. Our reading team received scripts from Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK and the USA, and were overwhelmed by the innovation and talent shown

Whoop ‘n’ Wail are getting ready to announce the successful playwrights, selected from responses to our open submission brief. Our reading team has received almost seventy scripts from both sides of the Atlantic and beyond: brand new plays from Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the UK and the USA. Currently they are still  locked in debate over which of our ten shortlisted submissions should make the final cut, but tomorrow at 17:00 is the absolute deadline and we will announce h

It’s not easy producing a show that consists of 6 plays by 6 different writers, 6 directors and 6 casts but last Monday’s Whoop ‘n’ Wail Represents..The Launch was testimony to the talent and professionalism of those involved in this project. The technical rehearsal, led by the wonderful Tom Neill went seamlessly and even ran ahead of schedule at one point – for those of you in the business, you’ll know that this is almost unheard of – and the show itself, to a lovely audienc

Pheeewie! What a week here at Whoop ‘n’ Wail headquarters. Represents..The Launch is nearly upon us. There is nothing like the run up to a show: laughter and tears in the rehearsal room; begging, borrowing and stealing – well, not stealing – last minute bits of props and costume; shouting from the roof tops so that no one misses the chance to see this great show. How do we do it all? Well, this week we have mostly been living off Ali’s homemade Caramac Cookies. If you’d like

***************TICKETS ON SALE NOW********** http://waterlooeast.ticketsolve.com/shows/873523779/events?show_id=873523779 We are super excited to announce our fantastic line up for Whoop ‘n’ Wail Represents…The Launch on Monday 17th & 24th at Waterloo East Theatre, 7.30pm! The Final Frontier by Sam Hall, directed by John Mitton Three Women in a Music Box by Dan Horrigan, directed by Alice Bonifacio Cause for Alarm by Deborah Klayman, directed by Emily Bush On the Horizon by A

With very great thanks to the super talented Stew Calladine @arty_stew #17Percent #StewCalladine #WaterlooEastTheatre #WhoopnWailRepresents

Way back in July 2012 as Olympic fever was getting under way, here at Whoop ‘n’ Wail we were getting rather excited about the work of Anita Sarkeesian’s Feminist Frequency blog and in particular, her post on the Smurfette Principle – that there is a common tendency for, in this case screen writers, to only include one female character in their principle cast – http://www.feministfrequency.com/2011/04/tropes-vs-women-3-the-smurfette-principle/ As you’ll remember from our post

What do women talk about? Whatever it is, it has got to be different from what normal people talk about, right? While Ali and Debs were preparing to launch Whoop ‘n’ Wail Represents… (more of which later) they were more than a little amused to read a quote from Jenifer Kessler’s book,  “Why film schools teach screenwriters not to pass the Bechdel test”. While a scriptwriting student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Kessler was told by professors that the audience

I was enjoying  a recent warm summer’s evening with friends, listening to a rather amusing anecdote, animatedly being told by a member of the party who I’d only just been introduced to. As he peppered his sentence with expletives, he politely leans across to me, the only woman in the group, and whispers “Excuse my French”.  I am in no doubt that his intention was not to exclude me from full enjoyment of the story, but nonetheless, this reaction in my gut was instant. He hadn’

Well, a fantastic end to Whoop ‘n’ Wail’s busy 2012. If having our latest play ‘Cascade of Baubles’ presented at 17Percent’s She Writes showcase wasn’t exciting enough, Whoop ‘n’ Wail’s very own Deborah Klayman was one of the winning writers in the Traverse Theatre’s Traverse Fifty competition. Whoop! To celebrate the Traverse Theatre’s 50th year they launched a competition for a play of 500 words on the theme of Plays for Edinburgh. They received 630 scripts and Deb’s play T