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Hello lovely person who's reading our website. Nay here, founder of Naked Bear Theatre.
I have just graduated from BA Acting Collaborative and Devised Theatre! I am excited now after three years of having projects scheduled for me, to be able to put my creative capacity into ideas I have chosen to work on, and I now have a brilliant pool of people to choose to work with. So hold on tight! The long break from Naked Bear will hopefully not last much longer. I am currently developing a script about the parallel and connected lives of a mother and son, both going through physical changes and the grief of leaving girlhood as the mother experiences menopause and the son takes testosterone for his transition. It will take me a good amount of time to do this story justice, but once it's done it will definitely be one of Naked Bear's next productions. I am also developing a show with two of my classmates, that we aim to be bringing to fringe venues in the coming year - but I won't say too much before it's been confirmed for us. No jinxing! Outside of Naked Bear, I've been developing my directing and writing practices and re-discovering what they are after all I've learned about at drama school, which you can read more about in the post below this one. This summer I'm very busy directing at various youth theatres, applying to writer's programmes to help support my next play and getting my foot in the door with acting auditions through my new agent. Lots of love, and please sign up to the News Letter so that you know when all of this takes off. Yours, Nay
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Hi all! Nay here, with a long overdue update!
I’m currently in my third year at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama on the Acting CDT course. Naked Bear has taken a back seat on the producing side these past two years I’ve been in training, but I’ve been cooking up many ideas, and learning a lot to bring to Naked Bear once I graduate in summer 2024. I’m now a Jacque LeCoq and Michael Chekhov practitioner - which means I know how to be an elastic band very well ;). I’ve also been devising and writing a lot with my classmates. I’ve done clowning, Comedia D’El Arte, Stage Combat, Stanislavski and quite a few plays to add to the resume, from devising an hour-long show to classical Shakespeare tragedy. Being at drama school, and being exposed to so many practitioners and ways of acting, I’m currently a bit overloaded, re-discovering my personal style and interests in the rehearsal room. I’ve started this process through facilitation work and am becoming more independent in third year plays and projects: I am digging through my repertoire to find what it is I most enjoy, and what works for me. I’m looking forward to developing a new distinct style for Naked Bear Theatre, alongside whoever is next to join the team! I’m currently in conversation about a new verbatim devised show that I explored in first year with some classmates. It’s about people’s personal and cultural relations to their hair, and I hope to be bringing it to Naked Bear soon. Alongside drama school I’ve been working with the National Youth Theatre on ‘Speak Out’. We’ve had two R&Ds thus far. This is a project made up of actors, writers and dancers who identify under the trans umbrella, exploring how to express the trans experience, and advocate for trans rights through performance with a specific focus around medical care for trans people. A long-term goal for this project would be to perform at schools and/or universities: I believe that if there is proper care taken in the education system on the trans experience prejudice would be significantly reduced, as it comes from fear of the unknown. To summarise - there’s a lot of ideas and projects bubbling that I’m excited to be working toward. I’m also looking forward to jumping into my third year of drama school, with our first production of As You Like It! I’ll add the ticket link when I can. All the love, Nay Founder of Naked Bear Theatre Wow wow wow. Putting on Charisma I never expected the response I had - so much energy and buzz in the audience post-performance, with many coming up to me afterward asking if I’d really written the play myself, and how I’d done it, and why I cast Ella and many more excitable questions asked with intrigue. To see my play raise so many questions in an audience makes me feel I’ve achieved my gaol, a goal to raise empathy and further understanding for other life experiences. That is always my goal when I write. Many have said they appreciated the dialogue on diagnosis within the play, while others were curious about the philosophical conversation or the curious mix between romance and friendship that Charlie and Fifi experience toward one another.
I am still editing the script, and found several faults within it as we put it on its feet. This said, I couldn’t be more please with what audiences said, specifically many mentioning how awkward they often felt, as if they were experiencing the tension felt by Charlie and Fifi themselves. Many of them said they felt as if they shouldn’t be there -as if they were spying on a private conversation between two people. This is a massive compliment to my aim of writing naturalistic dialogue, as well as a props my fellow actor Ella. Several audience members also contacted me days after the performance to let me know they had been thinking about it still. I can’t say it wasn’t challenging directing and acting at the same time - and I can’t say I fully achieved it. Personally, I don't feel I did my best acting, but I do think I did near the best I could have done sans direction. This said, I remain proud of what I was able to offer Ella and thoroughly enjoyed watching her discover and become Fifi. Here’s what an old drama teacher of mine had to say about the direction: “I remain impressed by the way Nay was able to selflessly work on the direction of the other person he was acting with. The temptation for a young writer/director to focus purely on themselves is significant. He allowed Ella ['Fifi'] to discover and perform a character with vim and vigour.” Pictures of the play are up on 'Past Productions' and a description of the rehearsal process can be found if you scroll down this page. A video of the performance is being published on Thursday 9th of July 2021 at 7PM BST. Save the date!  I have been editing this script since 'That Face' was put on last summer with Naked Bear. I am proud to say it has been longlisted for the New Views Competition at the National Theatre. After some delays due to the pandemic, it is finally live on June 16th at the Bedales Drama Studio. I don't know about you, but I have been booking tickets all over the place - after a year without live theatre, we've got to make up for it.
'The Definition of Charisma' is a two-person play performed by myself and the hilarious Ella Peattie. We have begun with an R&D period over zoom, which ended with a rehearsed reading. We'll be rehearsing for the performance in June over an intensive period of 9 days. I've decided to place the focus in rehearsals on knowing the characters inside out, as opposed to defining exact blocking; the play is in real time and is set in one room - I'm hoping this rehearsal method will allow for a completely natural and instinctive performance; what's most important is the connection between the two actors, Ella and myself, the rest will follow. I’ve learned in the rehearsal process that performing one’s own work can be quite challenging - I’m performing a kind of version of myself, who’s also not me. It becomes hard to think of the character objectively, given that they are my own creation. This is a challenge I’m completely willing and happy to face and intrigued to see the outcome - only by accepting challenges and having a willingness to fail can we produce our best work. As these two best friends tidy up from a party, the tensions of the weekend unfold. Infatuated with Fifi’s mind, Charlie makes her the unwitting subject of a psychological study. But perhaps Fifi knows more than Charlie realises... The play explores what it means to have a big imagination; it is about self love and confidence, discussing religion, sexuality, philosophy and gender. I would say that above all, 'The Definition of Charisma' is about friendship and the intensity that that can bring. Here's what Ella has to say: "Sophia is an enigma. Cultivating her thoughts and reactions has been confusing, yet thrilling. It's been a delightful experience creating her life story, cultivating her manner of walking and so much more. Come and see this freaky fun-packed show XD". If you'd like to come along, tickets will be made available soon - join our mailing list to keep up to date. If you're unavailable or feel unsafe in live theatre due to the pandemic - not to worry! There will be an online stream of the performance later on in the summer. |
Nay 'Exiting Drama School' in CDT 24's final production 'The Intimacy Test' (June 2024)
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