2003
Company founded by Rebecca Mordan with Sally Mortemore as an Associate Artist.
Scary Little Girls Productions (SLGP) stages The Kisses at The Courtyard, King’s Cross – an original adaptation – by Rebecca Mordan - of the Dracula story featuring Sally in the title role. A sell-out production, the play examined modern parallels to Victorian attitudes to gender, medicine, abuse, control and sexuality. Director: Rosie Hughes.
Sally becomes Director of Commissioning and Programming, sharing with Rebecca the roles of new commissions, creative producing and artistic liaison. The company also develops a schools and community programme.
2004
SLGP extends its artistic networks and launches its bespoke Conflict Resolution workshops in youth clubs and schools across London.
Their success leads to a collaboration with the Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture which draws support from leading children’s authors including Quentin Blake, Tony Ross, Philip Pullman and Adrian Mitchell.
Impressed by the work being done by SLGP, Southwark Council’s Agencies Supporting Schools Programme (ASSP) funds a pilot scheme in Southwark schools.
Organisers at the Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts commission several SLGP artists and small projects for performance at various sites at the festival, including the Theatre, Circus and Cabaret fields as well as on the festival radio.
2005
SLGP stages Maria Stuart at The Union theatre, Southwark, directed by Ryan McBryde. Actress Lucinda Raikes - fresh from national acclaim in Channel 4’s new hit comedy Green Wing - takes the lead as Mary and subsequently joins SLGP as an Associate Artist.
This production – which also plays to capacity audiences – examines issues of terrorism; conspiracies; arbitrary arrests and detention; interrogation and intercepted correspondence.
Summer 2005
SLGP is commissioned by the Greater London Authority and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to tour London and national summer festivals with an interactive artist-led action initiative. It uses music, live art and drama to enable participants of all ages to challenge the inevitability of war and destruction by promoting positive creative environments and high self worth through achievement and mentoring.
Autumn 2005
Scary Little Girls Association (SLGA) is founded as a sister company to SLGP with focus on youth, community and NGO projects.
Sally and Rebecca approach Dr Margaret Ward about her work on Anna Parnell, sister to Charles Stuart Parnell, and key campaigner in the Irish Land War.
SLGP commissioned by ASSP to work across the whole of Southwark.
Winter 2005
Maureen McManus is commissioned to write The Ladies Cage; a play focusing on Anna Parnell’s experiences in the Land War from an original concept by Rebecca and Sally.
Bop on the Boat is launched: a floating performance of live contemporary music onboard the Beauchamp Lodge Electric Barge, as a fund-raiser for the London Feminist Network and its Reclaim The Night march.
2006
Spring 2006
SLGA is commissioned by Centrepoint to create a drama programme that can be used as a mechanism to help residents develop assertiveness skills and build their self confidence.
Leading NGO’s and private national and international companies begin to commission SLGP to run media and public image training… and also to create events and perform in them.
Development stage one for The Ladies Cage takes the form of three readings with different casts across a month – with rewrites between each one – allowing the play-write to make the most of each experience.
Expansion of ASSP workshops in Southwark.
Summer 2006
Associate Artist Joannah Tincey helps create and deliver a site-specific forum theatre piece commissioned by the South London Gallery to accompany Nigel Cooke’s A Portrait of Everything exhibition, one of the most premier collections hosted by the gallery during 2006.
An article featuring the Scary Little Girls Production of Maria Stuart, alongside those by the Nuffield and Derby Theatres and the Donmar Warehouse, appears in the latest publication of Routledge’s Contemporary Theatre Review.
Development stage two for The Ladies Cage in which a director and cast of actors, during the course of a week, develop the draft script.
Artists from SLGP hired by CND to develop the chair’s public speaking skills.
SLPG return to Glastonbury in various performance roles, including interviewing Tony Benn for Festival Radio. Beauchamp Lodge Floating Classroom and Electric Barge commission SLGA to create and deliver a summer play programme and to write, lead and perform at their corporate events.
The company begins a collaboration with Society of Wonders and is commissioned to perform in the Arrivano del Mare Puppet Festival in Cervia, Italy (one of Europe’s foremost festivals for traditional puppetry and related performing arts).
Autumn 2006
Southwark Council commission SLGA to develop a pilot nutrition project covering healthy, balanced eating, positive eating environments and good body image for Southwark schools.
Workshop for development of Consuming Stories, a further collaboration between Society of Wonders and SLGP.
Blues on the Boat a floating performance of blues, jazz and some contemporary music (to raise funds for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) onboard the Beauchamp Lodge Electric Barge.
SLGA develops an Assertiveness Training Programme for delivery to 8-14 year old girls at the Rosebowl, Islington. Project runs through autumn to the end of year.
SLGP and the Curzon Cinema Group put on a women’s film festival which highlights women’s work in documentary, feature length, short and fictional films and has live performances from SLGP artists to accompany every screening.
Winter 2006
Pre-production begins on The Ladies Cage.
2007
Spring 2007
John Terry directs The Ladies Cage at the Finborough Theatre. Lucianne Mcevoy of the National, Royal Court, Old Vic and Abbey Theatres takes the lead as Anna and then joins SLGP as an Associate Artist.
This production is inspired by the life of Anna Parnell, a brilliant young Anglo-Irish woman drawn into political action by the threat of a new famine in Ireland. It tells the story of the 18 months when Anna founded and ran the Ladies Land League, following the banning of the Land League and the imprisonment of the men who ran it. The play attracts widespread interest in the national media including an interview on Radio 4’s Women’s Hour. The play transfers to the Manchester Royal Exchange Studio.
The Southwark nutrition programme is extended – it will now be delivered throughout the year. The company is invited by the Viewfinder Gallery to stage a rehearsed reading of Consuming Stories (working title), a new script still in development, as part of the gallery’s live art programme showcasing artists and groups from across London.
Summer 2007
Collaboration begins with Associate Artist Abigail Anderson on interviews with some of the original Greenham Common women.
Abi becomes Director-in-Residence.
Commencement of a collaboration with Cornish Theatre Collective and Rogue Theatre Company in Cornwall. The companies wish to draw upon Abi’s experience as assistant director at the Globe – where she helped run a series of Shakespeare Sonnet Walks – to bring those live theatre events to the streets of Cornwall.
Autumn 2007
Gillian Hanna, founder of Monstrous Regiment, joins the Advisory Board of SLGP. Key practitioners within SLGP are mentored by Gillian, Susie Orbach and Mary McCusker.
Sweet Witchery: A Halloween project of scenes, songs, poems and ghost stories directed by Abigail Anderson is performed onboard the Beauchamp Lodge Barge. The programme is used to highlight women’s writing, in particular that of Joanna Bailey, and is given added “creep” factor by drifting though Regents Park in the dark. The London shows sell out and it is subsequently performed in the chapel at Mansfield College, Oxford.
SLGP and the Phoenix Cinema present a weekend of new women’s films, including three short films made by SLGP artists and edited by Director of Moving Image, Daniel Searle.
Winter 2007
SLGP holds an Artistic Development Residential for its Associate Artists in order to develop a physical language with artists from Society of Wonders.
This weekend – held in a large farmhouse in Normandy – includes actors, directors, makers, writers, musicians, sound artists, designers and is led by movement specialist Marion Duggan of Ragroof Theatre Company. This work is in part funded by Creative Skills, Cornwall.
Marion joins SLGP as Director of Movement.
Initial meetings are held between director Sarah Chew and Tinderbox, Belfast Lyric and the Northern Irish Arts Council to discuss follow-up productions or a tour of The Ladies Cage.
2008
Spring 2008
Developed by SLGP with Abigail Anderson, How Do I Love Thee sonnet walks are staged in the streets of Marylebone, London. Each 90 minute sonnet walk includes unique, inter-active performances of ten of Barrett Browning’s most romantic sonnets, in which any passer-by might be a professional actor waiting to unfurl one of history’s greatest love poems. Participants are caught up in an experience that re-awakens them to the city they live in and the people around them as well as presenting Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s much-loved sonnets in a brand new light.
Artistic Development Residential for Associate Artists of SLGP which continues developing a physical language, working relationship and body of material with artists from Society of Wonders. This weekend includes actors, directors, makers, writers, musicians, sound artists, designers and is lead by Director of Movement Marion Duggan and writer and director Laura Trevail, Writer-in-Residence with SLGP and founder of Society of Wonders. It takes place in the house and grounds of a family seaside home in Falmouth, Cornwall.
Summer 2008
As a result of that development weekend SLGP commissions Laura Trevail to write a play. Working title: 4 of 8.
Artists from SLGP invited to perform at the Ragroof tea dance, Finsbury Town Hall.
SLGP’s first production for performance at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, The Riot Showgrrrls Club, directed by Sarah Chew. This show combines piano and electro pop music written and performed by Rebecca Mordan and Associate Artist Katherine Kerrow. It is an irreverent look at the pornification of theatre and culture – through the medium of feminist politics, free drinks and party bags. Following a preview at the Rosemary Branch, London, the show runs for a month at the Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh and receives notoriety, acclaim and rave reviews.
Autumn 2008
Dark Fancies, a new Halloween project of scenes, songs, poems and ghost stories directed by Abigail Anderson is performed onboard the Beauchamp Lodge Barge. The programme is used to highlight women’s writing on the themes of gothic love in particular that by Stella Duffy who, as a measure of her support, provided her work free of charge. The shows sell out.
SLGP are invited to submit scripts or projects in development to Chipping Norton Theatre for consideration as part of its 2009 programme.
Following the success of the Halloween shows, Beauchamp Lodge invites SLGP to discuss a commission that would see literature-based performance events onboard the boat.
Winter 2008
SLGP are invited to collaborate – with Aurora Metro Press and the Orange Tree – on an event that will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Actress Franchise League (January 10th 2009).
Ragroof invite SLGP to collaborate on various projects in London and Brighton in 2009 and to perform as special guests in the spring tour of The Riot Showgrrrls Club. Dirty Protest invite SLGP to collaborate on a version of The Riot Showgrrrls Club to tour summer festivals in 2009.
SLGP are invited by venues across London – including The Nave in Islington, the School of Oriental and African Studies and a variety of pubs and cabaret spaces – to put on The Riot Showgrrrls Club.
Special guests for The Riot Showgrrrls Club to include puppeteers, comedians, dancers, musicians, theatre makers.
Script development begins on Kiosk by Laura Trevail, a new short play written for key participants in SLGP.
Wallspace approach SLGP to ask them to be part of their conference and showcase of women artists in March 2009.
Exhibition of photographs by SLGP Associate Artist in the Serpentine Gallery representing the company’s involvement in Barbara Steveni’s I am an Archive project.