COMPANY BIOGRAPHY
Big Telly is a professional theatre company formed in 1987 and based in Portstewart, Northern Ireland. The company designs and delivers theatre productions, interactive workshop programmes and community creativity projects, which it mainly tours throughout Northern and Southern Ireland. We concentrate on the visual potential of theatre through fusion with other art forms such as dance, music, circus, magic and film to create a unique sense of spectacle. Big Telly's work is driven by a determination to offer audiences entertainment that surprises, stimulates and ignites the imagination.
Mission Statement
To invest in the development of professional theatre, theatre skills and creative expression through theatrical experiences that surprise, stimulate and entertain.
Vision
Big Telly aims to innovate, involve, inspire, excite and ignite the imagination through the company's design, delivery, production, touring and training activities.
Primary objectives
- To concentrate on the visual potential of theatre through fusion with other art forms such as dance, music, circus, magic and film to create a unique sense of spectacle
- To develop skills for practitioners and the dissemination of professional theatre skills to a wider community
Values and Approach
- Educational and outreach programmes, open rehearsals and community creativity projects, workshops, talks and summer schools
- Placing the audience firmly at the centre of work through open and inclusive processes
- The production and touring of new work, and production and touring of classic texts and published work which are presented in an innovative manner (existing work is given a contemporary angle and relevance is stressed)
- Acting an agency role to support skill development of teachers, actors, community groups and staff
Affiliations
Big Telly Theatre Company is a company limited by guarantee recognised as a charity by the Inland Revenue. The company receives annual support funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and in-kind support (use of an office) from our local authority, Coleraine Borough Council. Big Telly is an Approved Manager of the Independent Theatre Council (ITC) and operates Equity/ITC contracts for all its productions.
Management Structure
The company has a full-time General Manager (Louise Rossington), a full-time Development Manager (Linda McCracken) and an Artistic Director (Zoë Seaton) who works for the company on a retainer basis. Projects are managed by the Artistic Director alongside additional technical/artistic staff who are contracted on a project basis. The Company is managed by a Board of six voluntary Trustees. The company's current directors (trustees) are: Heather Carr, Client Services Manager for Arts & Business NI; Jill Holmes, Director of the Market Place Theatre, Armagh; David McClarty, Councillor and Member of the Northern Ireland Assembly; Stephen Donaghy, freelance Management Consultant; Chris Hurd-Wood, Human Resources Consultant with IBM; and Tom Maguire, Course Director for Theatre Studies at the University of Ulster, Coleraine.
Work Schedule
The company's yearly work schedule includes an Ireland-wide tour of a middle-scale theatre production, an Ireland-wide studio tour of a small-scale theatre production, a three-to-four-week curriculum-based Schools Workshop Programme and an eight-week Summer Workshop Programme in theatre skills for rural communities. However, forthcoming productions may tour worldwide.
Forthcoming Projects
'Sinbad' opening Spring 2008.
Previous Productions
| 2006 |
The Little Mermaid by Zoë Seaton and Paul Boyd - remounted for SPARK Children's Festival, Leicester and TIBA Festival, Belgrade
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, adapted by Zoë Seaton |
| 2005 |
The Little Mermaid (International Tour of swimming pools) by Zoë Seaton and Paul Boyd
The Shadow of the Glen and The Tinker's Wedding by J.M. Synge |
| 2004 |
The Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge - remounted for Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke
The Thief by Zoë Seaton, Paul McEneaney and Paul Boyd |
| 2003 |
The Colleen Bawn by Dion Boucicault
The Playboy of the Western World by J.M. Synge |
| 2002 | McCool XXL by Paul Boyd |
| 2000 | Fish by Zoë Seaton and Paul McEneaney |
| 1999 |
The Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne by Zoë Seaton
Lovers: Winners/Losers by Brian Friel |
| 1998 |
To Hell with Faust by Zoë Seaton
The Water Babies by Zoë Seaton |
| 1996 | Metamorphosis by Steven Berkoff |
| 1995 | Cuchulainn by Zoë Seaton |
| 1994 |
My Mother Said I Never Should by Charlotte Keatley
Onions by Big Telly Theatre Company |
| 1993 | Blood, Sweat & Tears by John Godber |
| 1992 | I Can See The Sea by Big Telly Theatre Company |
| 1991 |
Onions by Big Telly Theatre Company
Cut and Dried by Jane Thornton |
| 1990 | Teechers by John Godber |
| 1989 | Crumbs! by Big Telly Theatre Company |
| 1988 | The Bald Prima Donna & Frenzy For Two by Eugene Ionesco |
| 1987 | Waking Up & The Same Old Story by Franca Rama and Dario Fo |
Educational & Outreach Projects
| 2006 |
Painting by Numbers (Maths, Theatre and Art workshops) The Cameo of Dorian Gray (Miniature Wilde workshops for older people) Irish Classic Drama Workshops (Schools Workshop Tour) |
| 2005 |
Summer Workshops 2005 Irish Classic Drama Workshops (Schools Workshop Tour) |
| 2004 |
Millstrand Movies (Primary Schools Multi-media Project) Summer Workshops 2004 Philadelphia, Here I Come! (Schools Workshop Tour for ART NI) |
| 2003 |
Interpretive Drama Workshops (Schools Workshop Tour) Summer Workshops 2003 Mad Hatters Tea Party (mini two day outdoor theatre production) Interpretive Drama Workshops (Schools Workshop Tour - The Playboy) |
| 2002 |
Summer Workshops 2002 McCool XXL Tricks of the Trade (Schools/Teachers & Amateur Dramatic) StageCoach Community Project (Community Workshop Programme) |
| 2001 |
Summer Workshops 2001 Summer Camp of the Imagination (Pushkin Prizes Residency) |
| 2000/01 | Magic, Madness & Mayhem in Macbeth (Schools Workshop Tour) |
| 2000 |
Fish Street and Community Theatre (Street Theatre Programme) Summer Workshops 2000 Summer Camp of the Imagination (Pushkin Prizes Residency) Millennium Festival- Kesh (Community Residency in Magicianship) |
| 1999 |
Summer Workshop Tour '99 (Community Workshop Programme) Lovers Workshops (Schools Workshops Tour) |
| 1997 |
Summer Fun With Big Telly (Community Workshop Project) Stage Your Story (Inter-generational Story Telling Workshop) Navigating Shakespeare (Schools Tour) |
| 1996 |
Wordplay (Writing for Performing Workshop) Wild Child by Robert Parry (Schools Tour) |
| 1995 | Wigs on The Green (Schools Tour) |
| 1994 | The School on the Green by Greenwich Young People's Theatre |
| 1993 | Rubbish (Schools Tour) |
| 1992 | Twice Upon a Time (Schools Tour) |
| 1991 | The Peacemaker (Schools Tour) |
| 1990 | Little Lucy's Magic Box (Schools Tour) |
| 1989 | Crumbs! (Schools Tour) |
| 1988 | Conflict & The Peacemaker (Schools Tour) |
