‘Where Do Little Birds Go?’ LIVE
Directed by Ed Green, Artistic Director of Urban Trendz Theatre. Ollie Clarke, Head of Technical Theatre at Urban Trendz Theatre, Sue Elliott, Rehearsal Assistant at Urban Trendz Theatre and Alan Fleet, Director of Photography, Woollyback Films.
We like a challenge at Urban Trendz Theatre so we collaborated with the Harlequin Theatre to do a LIVE broadcast from the theatre to audiences sat at home. Our chosen show was Where Do Little Birds Go? one we’ve performed on a few occasions, this particular show this time around was put together in three weeks.
It’s 1966. Lucy Fuller is 18 years old. She likes musicals and make up, and her job at Winston’s night club. One night Lucy is kidnapped by the Kray twins and locked in a flat with an escaped murderer. This is the terrifying story of Lucy’s time with Ronnie Kray, Reggie Kray, and Frank “The Mad Axeman” Mitchell.
Where Do Little Birds Go? is a colourful and poignant tale of crime, kidnap and lost innocence in the heart of the 1960s East End.
We don’t put much of our rehearsal stuff on our website, usually we leave it to social media. However, we learnt so much from this LIVE performance and we are so proud of our achievement - not only was it successful, it raised funds for a local theatre.
Here’s what audiences had to say about the production:
“Excellently acted. A very moving performance
Fascinating story, very well told. Congratulations to everyone involved.
Fabulous production kudos to everyone involved. I was in the theatre from the first moment. Laura gave us such a compelling and brave performance and grew into the role as each scene unfurled. A true tour de force.
Great being able to watch and enjoy live theatre again from the safety and comfort of home.
Excellent. Drew you in and although it was in an empty theatre, it didn’t feel like that at all.
The ensemble staging was excellent. Script, Laura’s amazing feat of memory and acting, Direction, lighting and camerawork.
Everything...... excellent acting. Well done to you all
A first for the theatre streaming live, fantastic solo performance by Laura. Everyone involved should be proud of their achievements.
Well staged, well acted, thought provoking content
More productions like this please!”
“I’m right in saying we learnt a lot from doing this project, not only did we have the challenge of making a stage play suitable for filming whilst still maintaining its identity as a stage play, we also had to look at blocking and lighting many times to ensure we worked with the camera with ease, then adding on the COVID-19 guidelines. That being said, It was fantastic we could get back into the theatre.
This piece of theatre is one I love doing, this will be the fourth time I perform it and the last. It was the first production I worked on with Ed to launch Urban Trendz Theatre, the production I was doing when I found about my bone condition which put an abrupt end to our tour so I love that I get to do it one more time as I return to the stage with better management of my health. I actually felt really emotional packing away the costume. Usually my friends would be in the bar after the show waiting for me, it was very bizarre to have empty seats infront of my whilst I performed.
I re-learnt the script over two weeks, people always ask how I remember it all but it’s all down to research, luckily the production is based on a true story. I’m confident I know the facts of the story and keep it at the back of my mind in case I forget.
The best thing about doing this LIVE is that members in my family who have never seen be perform because they live too far away - London, Cambridge, America - were able to see me on stage as one of my favourite characters.
I love looking at the pictures below and the rehearsal videos, we simply don’t take alot of rehearsal footage of the work that we do, so we aim to keep documenting our research, new writing, scripting process and rehearsals on our social media.” - Laura Elizabeth
