In our latest podcast interview we chat to Gavin Dent and Neil Sheppeck from Rising Tides about Good Cop, Bad Cop 26: A Climate Festival, which is playing at The Space between 1 and 12 November.

The festival is in response to the COP26 summit taking place in Glasgow as the festival opens. During its 12 days it will features plays, workshops and live music, all with the climate crisis at their heart.

Gavin and Neil tell us about the festival, why theatre has a role in making people talk about the climate issue and their hopes for the summit itself.

This week we chat to Andrew Muir and Georgia Bates. Andrew is co-creative director of Ardent Theatre, plus the writer of their latest show, Rethink. Georgia is a young actor involved with the play as well as part of Ardent8, the theatre company's project that takes eight young actors from outside of London and helps them put on a show.

Rethink, the show that has come out of this, is a direct response to the government's ad campaign early on in lockdown that suggested those in the arts could retrain elsewhere. Hear what Andrew and Georgia thought of that suggestion.

You can find out more about Ardent Theatre at https://www.ardenttheatre.co.uk/

Matt Woodhead is the co-artistic director of Lung Theatre. He also created Who Cares? a verbatim play about young carers in the UK. Listen to Matt talk about the play, how it was created, and the campaign that it launched.

More information on the Who Cares campaign can be found here

The play is touring the UK throughout October and November. The radio version of the play can also be found on BBC Sounds here.

This is the second of two interviews originally recorded as part of Everything Theatre's contribution to Runn Radio's Mental Health and Wellbing Day. 

Phoebe Angeni talks to us about mental health, the important role therapy can play in helping you cope, and just how she has turned her own struggles, including anxities and body image phobias, into a positive by putting on her stage show Ithaca. 

You can find more information about Phoebe at https://www.phoebeangeni.com/ 

This is the first of two interviews originally recorded as part of a Mental Health and Wellbing Day run by Runn Radio, where Everything Theatre hosts a weekly show.

Jen Roehrig tells us about her theatre work, and more importantly, how she overcame both physical and mental health difficulties to return to education in her 40s. Along the way we talk about how theatre can help normalise mental health and why its important to look after both body and mind.

We head outside of London for our latest interview, which finds us chatting to co-Artistic Director of Imitating The Dog, who are about to stage their live graphic novel, Dracula: The Untold Story at Leeds Playhouse. Andrew tells us about their version of this familiar tale, taking it into the 1960s and focusing their attention on Mina Harker. We also hear how they have turned this live show into a graphic novel, merging live performance with technology to give us a glimpse of a whole new world.

You can find out more about Imitating the Dog here

Stepping away from our usual Fringe surroundings, we caught up with Jaki WIlford, founder and owner of Flamenco Express. As the name would suggest, they are a dance theatre company, with the simple aim of putting on accessible Flamenco dance shows. Jaki tells us about the company's history, what great flamenco dancing should be like, and their plans for the future. 

You can find out more about the company at https://flamencoexpress.co.uk/

Max Mackay talks to us about her professional directing debut with The Arsonists. She also tells us about StoneCrabs Theatre Company, whose programme for emerging artists has made this possible, and culmilates with the Play-doh Festival, showcasing nine new directors. Along the way we chat about the excitement of knowing your play is about to be performed at Southwark Playhouse, and why she really wants to one day direct the play in its original German!

In our first episode, we chat to Georgie Bailey, Artistic Director of Chewboy Productions and Jack Sunderland, who is starring in their new show, DJ Bazzers Year Six Disco. They tell us more about the show, how they are finding their first time working at Golden Goose Theatre, plus so much more.

DJ Bazzers Year Six disco is performing at Golden Goose Theatre 7 - 17 September. You can get tickets at www.goldengoosetheatre.co.uk/dj-baz

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