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Cast announced for ‘Drifting Dragons’ the new Merton Opera Project

Baseless Fabric Theatre is proud to announce the cast for its new Merton Opera Project.

OSKAR MCCARTHY – Jason
AYAKA TANIMOTO – Sadie
ROSEMARY HINTON – Violin
GREG HARRADINE – Guitar / Composer

AYAKA TANIMOTO

Ayaka Tanimoto

Ayaka Tanimoto

Ayaka Tanimoto graduated from the Royal College of Music with a Bachelor of Music (BMus Hons) in 2009 and a Masters in Vocal Performance (MPerf) in 2011. Having trained extensively under Margaret Cable and Patricia Rozario OBE, Ayaka’s studies were supported in by the Okada Cultural Foundation Scholarship as well as the Mie International Exchange Foundation Scholarship (Japan). She then continued her training as a Scholar at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s Alexander Gibson Opera School where she sang the main role of Sesto in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito.

Ayaka has won numerous awards in Japan and the UK including the 1st prize at the 3rd International Ernest Bloch Competition in London. To date, Ayaka has taken to the opera stage many times, singing 2nd boy and 2nd Lady in Mozart’s Magic Flute (Longborough Festival Opera & LFO Tour), Iolanthe in G&S’s Iolanthe (Brent Opera), covering Darabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte (Opera de Baugé), Poppet in Benjamin Britten’s Paul Bunyan (British Youth Opera), Flora Bervoix in Verdi’s La Traviata (Opera Lyrica), Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Bury Court Opera/Grimeborn Festival), and Chorus for Opera Holland Park.

Ayaka’s future engagements include, singing Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly (Bury Court Opera and Secret Opera) and Chorus for Opera Holland Park. ayakatanimoto.com Read more

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Merton Opera R&D is well underway!

Well, we’ve had a pretty fantastic couple of weeks meeting lots of different people, hearing their amazing real life stories and getting their ideas for what our opera about friendship should be about. We’re feeling totally inspired by everyone and feel very lucky to have met both older people who’ve led such fascinating lives and young people who’ve got so many great ideas!

Raynes Park High School Workshop

Raynes Park High School Workshop

For our young people’s workshops we had great fun leading workshops for Wimbledon Park Primary School, Raynes Park High School, the Merton Youth Concert Band and the 4th Morden Girls’ Brigade to teach them about the process of creating stories and song writing. Thanks so much everyone who was involved for all your fantastic ideas. I didn’t realise digging to China with spoons was such a common childhood activity!

Greg and I now have a strong idea of what the story of our piece is – the overall idea is inspired by various conversations with everyone, specific storyline ideas that have come up in our workshops with young people or via our online questionnaire, and little bits of personal stories or short lines people have said are making their way into the libretto. Greg is now hard at work writing the music for these first few songs (or arias and duets) and I’m busy casting our singers to help us bring the piece to life in rehearsal. We’ll be holding a sharing to invite everyone to give feedback on what we’ve done so far so stay tuned…!

P.S. If you haven’t yet filled in our online questionnaire and would like to be involved please do so here

Take the Friendship Quiz

 

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What does friendship mean to you?

Merton & Morden Guild

Merton & Morden Guild

Exciting news! We’ve been given Arts Council funding to create a new opera in Merton and we need your help! We are talking to people based across the whole borough to gather their stories about friendships throughout their lives and how these friendships change over time. So far we’ve been talking to the wonderful people at Merton & Morden Guild (including at their fantastic Christmas lunch!) and some lovely ladies from the Wimbledon Cancer Friendship Group. Thanks everyone for their time and great stories!

Merton & Morden Guild

Merton & Morden Guild

We’re talking to lots more people at different groups in the new year so if you have a story about your friends that you’d like to share with us we’d love to hear from you!

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Do you want to experience a Death Cafe?

After an amazing sell-out week at the VAULT Festival we’re holding a Death Cafe next week!

At Death Cafes people drink tea, eat cake and discuss death. The aim is to increase awareness of death to help people make the most of their (finite) lives. You can find out more information at http://deathcafe.com/

It will take place on Monday 16th February at EV Deli near Waterloo from 7pm. You will be able to purchase your own food & drinks from the Deli Counter. Later on we will move to the EV Bar (2 doors down) and enter the Afterlife part of the evening, celebrating the show and the themes that emerged. There may even be a bit of cake to take home!

Registration is on a first come first served basis. If you do want to attend please click the link below to sign up so we can get an idea of numbers.

REGISTER FOR THE DEATH CAFE

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Get involved with our production!

IdeastapWe’ve set up a crowdfunding campaign to help support our show. We’ve got some fantastic rewards – you could have your photo in our prop ‘Book of Condolences’ used in the show, attend a rehearsal to get a sneak peak before anyone else, have a special pre-performance experience for you and a friend, or even dinner with the director and writer!

You can check out our cool video to give you an idea of the production:

‘A First Class Death’ on IdeasTap 

Thanks so much for your support!

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10% Off ‘A First Class Death’ and Q&A on Thursday 5th Feb

For a limited time only we have an early bird discount of 10% off all ‘A First Class Death’ Tickets.

Thursday 5th February Q&A Session
Immediately after the show on Thursday 5th February  we will be holding a Q&A session with the company in the Cavern space following the performance. Entry is free to same day ticket holders.

 

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Make Space Studios next to the disused Necropolis track at Waterloo

Some rather unusual research at Waterloo Station….

The old Necropolis Railway Platform

The old Necropolis Railway Platform

Our research for A First Class Death for VAULT Festival 2015 is taking us in so many unusual yet wonderful directions! Playwright Jason Hall spent a day shadowing a funeral director (more info to follow) while I explored the old Necropolis platform now turned fantastic Make Space Studios (you can see the studios as you come into Waterloo Station). See Make Space Studios for a fantastic YouTube video about the Necropolis Railway. Anna (Assistant Director) and I also had a brilliantly inspiring evening at a Death Cafe (www.deathcafe.com) enjoying tea, cake and talking about death with some lovely people. Though we’ll admit to being slightly apprehensive beforehand we had such a fun, joyful and inspirational evening. Meanwhile, our R&D workshops with a fantastic bunch of actors led to sharing stories of sadness as well as much heart warming laughter. Read more

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A First Class Death coming Feb at VAULT Festival

A First Class DeathBaseless Fabric are excited to be creating ‘A First Class Death’ for VAULT Festival 2015. Based on the London Necropolis Railway and the history of the Waterloo Vaults, this immersive theatre piece will question contemporary attitudes to death and mourning, taking the audience on a journey round the local area and culminating in the atmospheric Cavern space in the Vaults.

We’re working with a fantastic new team which includes –

Jason Hall – Playwright

Jordan Eaton – Associate Producer

Christianna Mason – Designer

Edward Lewis – Sound Designer

Avril Cook – Lighting Designer (Baseless Fabric Associate Artist)

Anna Marsland – Assistant Director

 

More details to follow!

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