Early in March, the Customs House in South Shields invited young writers between 17 and 25 to apply to be the first Young Writer in Residence as part of the Takeover Festival. In April, Reece Connolly, 24, from Prudhoe, Northumberland, was chosen after impressing the judges with his play Wormtown. Now the play has been cast and all the actors are under 25.
They are:
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Andrew Finnigan as Kezzy. He began his theatre career as a member of the Customs House Youth Theatre and in July he will be playing Lecky in the venue’s production of Alex Ferguson’s My Uncle Freddie, a stage play based on his popular BBC Radio 4 series. His first major role was in the Paines Plough / Live Theatre co-production of Broken Biscuits.
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Also returning to the venue are former Youth Theatre and recent Arts Ed graduate James Gladdon, playing J, and Lauren Waine, who will play Cassie. A graduate from The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) who began her career at the Customs House, she has most recently appeared in The War of the Worlds at Northern Stage and on tour and as Polly Perkins in Durham’s Gala Theatre’s panto Robinson Crusoe.
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Luke Maddison, who also appeared in The War of the Worlds, in Don’t Go Outside in the Castle Keep for Twenty Seven Productions and has starred in Customs House pantos and in Geordie the Musical, plays Scrum.
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Playing Batter is Sunderland’s Abigail Lawson, whose first professional credit since graduating from Newcastle College this year was Blowin’ A Hooley’s WANT.
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Playing multiple roles are Daniel Watson who was in The Terminal Velocity of Snowflakes at Live Theatre, Serena Ramsey, a Newcastle-born actress whose first TV appearance was in CBBC’s Mission 2110, and Kema Sikazwe from Newcastle who got into acting in his early 20s and went on to land a leading role in BAFTA and BIFA Palme d’Or-winning film I, Daniel Blake.
Also from the North East is director Jake Smith, who began his career at Hull Truck Theatre as a Creative Learning Facilitator. He has since been a Resident Director at the Almeida Theatre, Trainee Director at Chichester Festival Theatre and trained on the National Theatre Directors Programme. He is currently Artistic Director of Petersfield Shakespeare Festival and has previously been nominated for an Off West End Award for Best Director.
Wormtown is a new legend of misfits and monsters.
Something is terrorising the Lambton Council Estate and it’s not the bulldozers and wrecking balls that have started pulling the towers down. This thing hunts at night and its hunger and taste for destruction grows with each day. Streetlights are uprooted like toothpicks, the water’s started tasting funny. People are going missing.
Those who’ve seen it—and lived—describe it as a giant, ferocious worm. But the police won’t listen so it falls to a small group of unlikely heroes—a bunch of misfit teens and a mysterious loner—to go into battle and save a community that no one else will.
Wormtown is at the Customs House on 1 June (Pay What You Decide) and will be staged again on Saturday 16 June at Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle as part of the region’s first Youth Fringe Festival.