Well, what a year it has been. We cannot believe it has been 17 months since dear Sarah Davey Hull died. We have only just brought ourselves to updating this news section that she last wrote for.

We thought it a good time to look back on what has been achieved over these months. Of course, we have just finished a hugely positive period for BOLD, by creating a pop up theatre in our Undercroft and putting on our ‘underground panto’, The Foreigners’ Panto, by BOLD associate, Shani Erez. It was pure joy to invite in diverse audiences and witness the moving emotions from hilarity to tears as this political, satirical and joyful piece of theatre unravelled. All achieved happily with a cast made up of first & second generation immigrants “Serving a ridiculous camp, hefty middle finger to the state of the country – this is pantomime at its finest” (The Review Hub****)

BOLD delivered another richly rewarding BOLD Playwrights Award 22/23 with Francis Grin & Louis Rembges winning and further developing their plays, Lucy & the VR Gods and It’s Raining on Prom Night respectively. Our winners from last year, Aaron Kilercioglu, Leila Nashef and Jaisal Marmion – have gone on to sell out at the Bristol Old Vic, developed research on the ethical challenges of staging trauma and become a Jermyn St creative associate – amongst developing new scripts for film, stage, opera & TV. We are delighted to still be collaborating in their careers with Jaisal rehearsing his new show, Boy in da Korma, and Aaron also rehearsing here at BOLD.

In Jan to March we went on to develop our inaugural BOLD Makers Award, designed specifically for devisers and collaborators. It included creatively looking at access and providing a terrific film maker, Will Hazell, to help make trailers or short films for each company. Huge thanks to our collaborators, Ray Young, Ben Wilson, Figs in Wigs, Hannah Quigley, John Kelly, Nigel & Louise, our film crew and theatre maker winners, mandla, Calico & Emergency Chorus. Do see the resulting film & more details on our Collaboration/ BOLD Maker page.

Out of BOLD Makers our Southwark BOLD Resident Artist Scheme emerged – we have enjoyed providing support to the artists Max Percy & Chris Yarnell – and seeing new shows emerge – Max Percy’s show BAKLA garnered huge praise and 5* reviews at Edinburgh.

We have enjoyed, immensely, being partners with James Ross & Quantum Leopard as they used the BOLD Undercroft for their incomparable comedy nights these last few months – catch them whilst you can!

A huge part of our work has been supporting diverse theatre freelancers and independent companies. Over the last year we have provided over £20k in ‘gift in kind’ support (this is just garnered from running our building – we receive no funding) and have felt it so important we could support theatre makers in this way.

We have made it an important factor to support access needs as much as we can – thanks to the director Hannah Quigley for being our Artist for Change and giving us invaluable guidance. We continue this journey as well as partnering with organisations like VitalXposure.

The building is currently thrumming with activity as all spaces are occupied creating new shows or musicals during the week and workshops running in the evening/weekend. We hope we can be here beyond March 2024! Come and be part of it!