A home for Mawa - Queen's Theatre Hornchurch

We are announcing the appointment of Mawa as part of Queen's Theatre Hornchurch’s creative leadership team, predominantly led by Co - founders Danielle Kassaraté and Maisey Bawden as Associate Directors. They will be working closely with Executive Director, Mathew Russell to help steer the future of the theatre in a new direction ensuring the support offered to local artists reaches more underrepresented and underserved creative practitioners. They will play a key part in overseeing all aspects of this growing programme.‍

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“As individuals and as Mawa Theatre Company we have always been committed to making long lasting change within the industry. In 2020, in collaboration with Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, the first Black Essex and Here panel discussions started to happen and since then QTH have been huge supporters and champions of our work and career development. We want to keep the momentum going creating more opportunities for local underrepresented artists. We are delighted to be joining the creative leadership team and excited to collaborate to continue the work we have already started.” Maisey Bawden and Danielle Kassaraté, Associate Director (Talent Development), QTH.

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Equality Shakespeare Festival - 15th June (Online)

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Mawa have been invited to attend the Equality Shakespeare Festival as guest lecturers to share and examine the roles of gender, sexuality, race and what the future of Shakespeare is for modern audiences. 

The Festival brings together theatre practitioners, film-makers, ‘applied theatre’ specialists, academics, actors, poets, life-writers, translators, and arts organisations to discuss, celebrate and explore the ways in which Shakespeare can be used to further equality, social justice, inclusivity, diversity and international collaboration.

This online festival, hosted by The University of Birmingham will take place between 16th May - 15th June 2022 with Mawa programmed for the final day, Wednesday 15th June 2022 (1pm -2pm).

Tickets can be booked for free here or via the University of Birmingham website. 

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Bradford Literature Festival - 27th June

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Bradford Literature Festival is an annual festival and year-round cultural outreach programme. Encompassing the best of literature, music, theatre, cultural discussions, lectures and family events, the festival is unique in the country for its diverse and imaginative approach to high quality arts and cultural programming.

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Mawa will be sharing the exciting videos from their online Shakespeare monologue launch featuring performances from Ellen Thomas and Cherrelle Skeete. The launch was supported by Talawa Theatre Company and BAFTA award winning Director Amma Asante. The talk will involve an in depth look into the monologues and explore the themes of the work seen through the black female lens. 

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The event will be taking place in person on 27th June 2022 and tickets can be purchased at www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk.

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Intercultural Shakespeare Course - Central School of Speech and Drama

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As part of this new exciting course Mawa have curated a one day practical workshop sharing their work of exploring Shakespeare through the Black female lens and guiding actors on bringing their own cultural experiences to the work.

The day will also see Mawa leading discussions around black and black mixed race representation in classical text and diversifying Shakespeare for new audiences.

This day will be a performance-based workshop with a monologue sharing at the end of the day.

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This course encourages participants to see that there are many ways of interpreting Shakespeare and his characters, reinvigorating his work within your own culture.

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The workshop is part of a four day course investigating Shakespeare through exciting intercultural perspectives from Japanese theatre to African and South-Asian Diaspora.

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To find more information please visit the website here.

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We are also delighted to offer two bursary places for black female artists for this course. Participants will be selected by Mawa. If you’re interested in the bursary, please apply here.

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Monologue Slam

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Mawa Theatre Company welcomes you to a showcase of classic monologues from Black and Black Mixed Race female artists, delivered in a fashionable, fierce, funny way, soundtracked with a live DJ at Birmingham Hippodrome. 

Following an open audition process, 20 performers will perform extracts from Shakespeare and other writers of that period for a welcoming audience and an industry judges.

Monologue Slam is supported by Triforce Productions, pioneers of Monologue competitions & friends of Mawa Theatre Company.

To find out more information, audition dates and to book tickets please visit the website here

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