Freedom Studios are delighted to announce full casting for the premiere of Lisa Holdsworth’s new stage adaptation of Adelle Stripe’s novel about the defiant life of the celebrated playwright Andrea Dunbar – Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile.
The production’s all-female cast will feature Emily Spowage (Eaten by Lions, Mecca Films) as Andrea Dunbar; Lucy Hird (The Funfair, HOME) as the younger Andrea Dunbar, Claire- Marie Seddon (Tarzanne, Interplay) as Eileen/Sophie/cast; Balvinder Sopal (Partition, Leeds Playhouse) as Mo/Patsy/cast; and Laura Lindsay (Partus, Third Angel and Sheffield Theatres) as Alma/Liane/cast.
The Beacon, Buttershaw, Bradford, 1990. Andrea Dunbar, acclaimed writer of Rita, Sue, and Bob Too, mum, sister, best friend, is struggling with her latest work. Her aching head is full of voices, stories from her past which have to be heard.
Adapted for the stage by Screenwriter Lisa Holdsworth (Ackley Bridge, Waterloo Road and Call the Midwife) and directed by Kash Arshad (Airplays, Leeds Playhouse and Memories of Partition, Royal Exchange), Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, will open at The Ambassador in Bradford from the 30 May – 8 June and then tour till the 30 June including performances at The Constitutional in Farsley, Buttershaw Youth Centre; Cast in Doncaster; Harrogate Theatre; Oldham Coliseum and The Holbeck in Leeds.
To book tickets and for more information on Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile click here: https://www.freedomstudios.co.uk/production/black-teeth-and-a-brilliant-smile/
OPENING VENUE LISTINGS
Dates: 30 May – 8 June (no performances 2 June)
Venue: The Ambassador, 90 Sunbridge Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD1 2AQ
Times: 7.30pm (Mat perf on 1 & 8 June at 2pm)
Tickets: Pay What You Decide £3, £6 or £12 (with a free drink)
To book: go to www.freedomstudios.co.uk
TOUR DATES
Thursday 13 June at 7.30pm - Constitutional in Farsley
Monday 17 June at 7.30pm -Buttershaw Youth Centre - (Pay what you decide, all proceeds going to the Youth Centre.)
Thu 20 June at 7.15pm - Cast, Doncaster
Box Office: 01302 303959 / www.castindoncaster.com
Saturday 22 June at 7.45pm – Harrogate Theatre
Box Office 01423 502116www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/Black-Teeth-and-a-Brilliant-Smile
Wed 26– Thu 27 June at 7.30pm -Oldham Coliseum
Box Office: 0161 624 2829/www.coliseum.org.uk
Sun 30 June at 5pm – The Holbeck, Leeds
Box Office: www.slunglow.org/upcoming-holbeck-events/
BIOGS
Lisa Holdsworth - Playwright
Lisa has been writing professionally since 2001. Her first commission was an episode of the ITV series Fat Friends. She went on to Emmerdale where she spent three years. She moved on to write for New Tricks, the top-rated BBC police series. She won the RTS Yorkshire Best Writer award for one of her episodes.
She also wrote extensively for Waterloo Road and on the final series of the BBC’s Robin Hood. She moved on to write ITV’s perennial Midsomer Murders including the fan favourite “Death by Cheese” episode. Recently she has written episodes of Ackley Bridge for C4 and Call The Midwife for the BBC. She also writes and produces fringe theatre in Leeds for Slung Low Shorts which is now in its fourth year.
Adelle Stripe – Author
Adelle Stripe was born in 1976 and grew up in Tadcaster. Her debut novel, Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile, received the Society of Authors’ K Blundell Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. She has published three poetry collections and has appeared in various anthologies in the UK and US. Her most recent poem, The Humber Star, was performed at Hull 2017 for John Grant’s North Atlantic Flux and was described by The FT as “a work of fantastic depth and poignancy”. Adelle is a lecturer in Creative Writing at York St John University and lives in the Calder Valley.
Kash Arshad - Director
Kash is the Trainee Artistic Director at Freedom Studios, Bradford. Currently directing Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile and will be directing Guard at the Taj for Theatre by the Lake’s Summer Season. Recent directing credits include Airplays (Leeds Playhouse) We Are Ninja Division (Slung Low Shorts), The Tempest (ALRA North), Selfies Kill More People Than Sharks and Making Love (Rogue Bones), Memories of Partition (Royal Exchange Theatre), Free Fall (Rogue Bones), The Big Reveal (Abooo Theatre) and Street Voices (Freedom Studios). He was Assistant Director on Threepenny Opera (Octagon Bolton, dir. David Thacker), Handbagged (Theatre By The Lake, dir. Liz Stevenson), North Country (Freedom Studios for. Alex Chisholm), ChipShop The Musical (Freedom Studios/Octagon Bolton dir. Ben Occhipinti) and Assistant Trainee Director on Romeo and Juliet (West Yorkshire Playhouse, dir. Amy Leach)
He is also co-artistic director of Rogue Bones Theatre, Associate Company with Oldham Coliseum.
