Intensive care doctor Tuheen Huda won £1,000 in Manchester Library Theatre Company's Pitch Party event as part of the recent Re:play Festival at The Lowry Studio in Salford. Pitch Party provides a platform for emerging theatre practitioners to showcase work and a chance to win funding and support to develop ongoing work.
Tuheen's project, Pandamomium, based on personal life events, is an interactive theatre experience where a solo performer displays a ‘black and white' nature to tackle the most difficult experiences in their life, explaining that "a mixture of psychology, neuro-linguistic programming, and Zen exposes these ‘obstacles' to peace as the playground upon which the game of life takes place."
Tuheen, who was born in Essex, now lives in Manchester, and qualified as a doctor in 2006. He describes himself as a massive fan of pandas, animals which helped inspire the piece. "They have distinct patterns of behaviour that are comical, playful, and also fiercely protective and sometimes contradictory," he says.
A former member of Contact Theatre's Young Actors Company, Tuheen quit full-time medicine last July and says he wasn't expecting to have been selected as the winner. "It came as a huge but very welcome surprise," he smiles.
"Pandamonium was the outstanding pitch on the night and we look forward immensely to see how the work develops," says Chris Honer, the Library Theatre Company's Artistic Director.
Porl Cooper, The Lowry's Studio Producer, says he is "very excited by the passion, strength and originality of Tuheen's pitch. I'm looking forward to welcoming him back to The Lowry to develop it further."
Tuheen hopes to perform the piece at the Lowry Studio early in 2013.
Follow developments at panda-perspective.posterous.com