Bad Aunts: LIVE Inter-generational sitcom chatshow
Donation protected
Eloïse & Elinor tackle ageism through the joy of comedy! Starting with a chortleful show at Brighton & Edinburgh Fringe 2019
Bad Aunts is a brand new LIVE inter-generational sitcom chat show
(whew!) by Eloïse Poulton & Elinor Lipman - the co-parents, if you will. It’s a celebration of community, the joyous abnormalness of normal people and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, it stars three women over 40: a radically silenced demographic of society.
We’re so excited and thrilled that we’ll be taking the show to the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringes this year! The sensational Sweetwerks and glorious Gilded Balloon believe in the show’s potential and have opened their doors so we can transform their stages into the Aunts’ living room...Little do they know the riotous antics that will ensue.
BUT: we need your help to make these antics happen!
From left to right: Elinor (Short Friend) & Eloïse (Bad Boi) in a heaving nightclub
'And it made me realise...Just by being there. Just by standing there and being visible - that is a political statement (with a small 'p') in itself. It's a statement in itself of, 'I am female, I am older, I am here, I am confident and sod you.' - Pauline Eyre, Comedian
When we held auditions for the project, we were shocked by the number of women who described themselves as being ‘invisible’ to society. So we are committed to putting them centrestage: not only as stars of the show, but as hosts!
Bad Aunts follows Maz, Jo and Dee, three women in their forties, fifties and sixties, who live together in suburban England. They’re all at crossroads in their lives: job-hunting, post-divorce, mid-magnum opus, pre-(and post-)menopause - and wondering what the heck to do next.
Whilst living their own ups and downs, the Bad Aunts extend a warm and wacky welcome to their living room, where friends and neighbours from all walks of life join them on the sofa to offload their agonies. Celebrating all the sunshine and the sh*t of living in a community, Bad Aunts is Graham Norton crossed with Ab Fab with a splash of Some Mothers do ‘Ave ‘Em and a sprinkle of Sex and the City.
SOUNDS LIKE A RIGHT ROLLICKING KNEES-UP! HOW CAN I HELP?
We need £6,000 to take Bad Aunts to the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringes.
The money we raise from Kickstarter will go towards our overall budget of £10,000. We’ve received some priceless gifts in the form of rehearsal space, set and costumes, thanks to the generosity of fellow creatives.
The incredible Project Phakama, whose work is geared towards arts participation, are supporting our Showcase Nights in Brighton & Bristol, platforming female and non-binary comic talent, hosted by the Aunts - thank you, Phakama!
But there’s still a long way to go: and we’ll be working hard over the next few months to raise the remaining cash to cover the production costs.
Our budget covers:
Paying our cast and production team. Our first priority is that we pay our artists a fair wage for their fantastic work.
PR to connect audiences to the show!
Production costs including props, lighting, insurance...it all adds up!
We aren’t joking when we say that your donation will make a huge difference:
£3.50 pays for our audience members to have pens and pencils and paper on which to compose their agonies for the Aunts
£5 pays for Jo's Mills & Boon boxset
£10 pays one of our actors a decent wage for an hour of rehearsal
£15 pays for Dee’s signature fur dress from her days in the 80s as a cabaret performer (we know - priceless, right)
£20 pays for Jo’s house plant, Vincent Flies Undone
£50 pays for Maz’s 90s rave lasers. Come and see the show to see them kick off
£100 pays for two stand-up artists to improvise live on stage with our Aunts
£250 pays for all our set materials
£500 pays for all our stage lighting - crucially, strobe lighting
£1000 pays for just over half of the Gilded Balloon venue fee
£2000 pays for accommodation costs for the cast and crew, for the whole Edinburgh run!
Donation is not a one-way street, oh no. We’ve created some Kickstarter-exclusive rewards for everyone who supports us in whatever way they can. We take any support, great or small & great, seriously. If you’d like to be kept in touch with the show's progress - progress which you have made happen (!), we’ll regularly update you from the moment you donate. In the spirit of Bad Aunts, we want our donors to be part of the community we hope the show will create in its audiences!
I LIKE THEATRE, DON’T GET ME WRONG - BUT IS THAT ALL THIS IS ABOUT?
We’re so glad you asked, so we can say - NO! Bad Aunts is more than a 55-minute side-splitting lol-fest.
As part of the development process, we are recording podcasts with existing community groups, chatting to them about the importance of community; and how equipped society is to deal with an aging population. You can check out parts one and two of our first, with three female comedians over fifty, here!: https://soundcloud.com/auntsbad
We aim to use the sitcom chat show format to attract audiences who enjoy watching shows like Graham Norton on TV. However, rather than the traditional entertainment industry personalities who appear on such shows, Bad Aunts features a much more everyday, yet no less exciting, diverse mixture of characters, celebrating the eclectic make-up of the UK today.
We're holding a Relaxed Performance on 11th August in Edinburgh and are exploring other ways to make our production as accessible as possible.
Comedy is the perfect environment to provoke questions in a way that unifies individuals across generations and cultural backgrounds. This, combined with the informal and interactive style of the chat show, will get the audience chatting, too!
The live show also offers opportunities for comedians, up and coming and established, to make guest appearances; uniting more and more demographics in the fun and unpredictableness of live theatre.
WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT AGEISM?
Because aging happens to all of us, yet we’re embarrassed, and even ashamed, to talk about it. There is a startling lack of discussion with younger people about the machinations of growing older and its physical and emotional effects. This contributes to stigma, and stigma is no fun. At all.
We are young women who have older friends.
Society 'others' older people. We find it particularly alarming how society censors the female aging process. Women have an evolving relationship with their identity as they age; yet this is offset by the stark media prescriptions of a woman’s body either being ‘sexy’ or ‘motherly’ or else - nothing else. Or else, old - therefore, redundant.
This is reductive, boring; and not funny!
In 2016, 18% of people in the UK were age 65 and over. According to 2030 projections by the Office for National Statistics, this number is only set to increase.
How are we as a society going to cater for this upsurge, whilst acknowledging the systemic flaws and social prejudices which prevent progress?
Through talking about and laughing at aging, of course. And through forming inter-generational relationships!
START WITH DONATING TO Bad Aunts.
Then come and see us as we hop round the UK; and say hello! We may even invite you for tea and a chat...
CREDZ - MEET THE Bad Aunts TEAM!
Here's some more info about us. You're in good hands, folks!
DENISE STEPHENSON, Maz
© Idil Sukan
Denise has worked extensively on stage and screen. Recent credits include 'Swimming with Men' (dir. Ollie Parker); 'Girl in the Glass' (dir. Naomi Wright); 'Men Buy Sex' (dir. Alice Russell); and 'About a Boy' (dir. Chris & Paul Weitz), as well as the 'St. Trianian's' films (dir. Ollie Parker). For television, her appearances include Doctors, The Bill and My Family.
Her theatre work has ranged across many of the UK's stages, including the Almeida, Theatre 503, the National Theatre, the Old Red Lion, the Liverpool Playhouse and the Gate Theatre. Other highlights include playing Hilary Clinton in 'Hilary and Monica' for the Lost Festival in London; Marine Le Pen in 'Stella Europa' at the Hen and Chickens; The Queen in 'Elexion' at Theatre 503; 'Molly' in 'Cecilia' at the King's Head Theatre; and 'Valiant', a verbatim piece examining women's war stories with The Wardrobe Project for Visible Theatre, in which Denise played a dynamic transgender jazz player.
Denise has written and performed her own work, most recently a one-woman play, 'Pentimento', which played at the Gilded Balloon in the Edinburgh Festival. The show went on to tour internationally, including to the Junction Festival in Ireland.
PENELOPE MCDONALD, Dee
© Michael Pollard
After many years with rep and touring companies including the Humberside Theatre, Manchester Library Theatre, Bolton Octagon, Oldham Coliseum, Georgian Theatre Royal, Winchester Theatre Royal, Century Theatre and the Palace Theatre Westcliff among many others, where her roles ranged through Shakespeare, Priestley, Shaw, Rattigan, Ayckbourn, Mrojet and more, Penny’s other work includes the role of Virginia Woolf in the new play, ‘A Good Day’ with Beat Productions and Manchester in ‘Under Manc Wood’ for Hat Hair Productions. Also ‘Up Frankie’ (Tour), ‘Broadway or Bust’ (Encore Productions), ‘Four Calling Birds’ and ‘The Final Days of Fringe Theatre’ (Northern Elastic Theatre Co.), ‘The Physicists’ (Tete a Tete Opera Festival), ‘A Spectre Calls’ and ‘Red’ (JB Shorts), ‘To Walk In Your Shoes’ (Red Bobble Theatre Company), ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ and ‘Walking’ (Contact Compacts). lus tons of pantos, musicals and voice-overs!
More recently she played the role of Mrs. Rutter in Billy Cowan’s fabulous ‘Care Takers’, winning the Stage Award for Acting Excellence at the Edinburgh Festival in 2016.
Penny has also been a magician’s assistant, stood-in for a drag queen at Manchester’s Birdcage nightclub, is Zampanella The Voice Phenomenal with the pierrot troupe The New Follies, and is half of the comedy singing duo Mac and The Medic.
VIVIENNE SOAN, Jo
© Rocco Redondo
It was Eisteddfods and taking part in The Girl Guides Diamond Jubilee at Wembley Stadium in the late 60's that set Vivienne on her theatrical path.
After graduating from Goldsmith’s College in the late 70’s, her first theatre job took her on a five-year European tour with highly animated comic troupe Action Theatre.
Returning to UK in the early 80’s in time to work at the original Comedy Store, Ben Elton's description of her as a 'dizzy dumb blonde not for the alternative scene' saw her shift attention from comedy to the saxophone, which she played throughout the 80’s: recording with African, reggae, rock, funk and glamour punk bands.
Combining her sax playing with performance led her inevitably back to the alternative comedy scene. Features in magazines Smash Hits and The Face described her as a New Age Joyce Grenfell and predicted an 'off the wall step for woman, perhaps an important leap for comedy’s woman kind'. However, marriage to Master of Prop Comedy Martin Soan and two children conspired otherwise!
Anarchic clown Chris Lynam and his cabaret Extravaganzas kick-started Vivienne back into performance. A season at Chichester Festival Theatre, national tours with Boothby Graffoe and Edinburgh Shows with Rich Hall in the late 90's precluded two Radio 4 comedy series as a team and theme player of The Big Both and The Big Booth 2.
Radio presenter of the now defunkt Southcity Radio and one-time compère of South East London comedy club PTOO, Vivienne is thrilled and delighted to be returning to the joys of live interactive performance with her fellow Bad Aunts.
ELOISE POULTON, Co-Creator of Bad Aunts & Founder of Untoward Productions
Hello there. Here's a slice o' me...I am a Director, Writer & Relentless Optimist! I completed the King’s Head Theatre’s Trainee Resident Director scheme in September 2018, when I was appointed Junior Associate. Whilst training, I assistant directed and produced opera, new writing and a West End transfer.
I have since directed The Christmas Truce (St. Paul’s Actors Church, St. Peter's Vauxhall), starring Hadley Fraser. I am on the Barbican’s first Youth Panel which improves arts access for young people.
I am Director of The Bach Choir’s Creative Focus Group, a committee of thirty members aged 22 - 62, who widen classical music audiences through incorporating narrative into concerts. Through this project, I have directed work at the Royal Festival Hall and Westminster Cathedral. Our current inclusive music project explores d/Deaf people’s varied experience of concerts. I work ad hoc with Young Film Academy, at the Boat Show Comedy Club and formerly with Faulty Towers the Dining Experience.
Volunteering with Chichester Festival Theatre's Shakespeare Summer School and the BTEC Performance Diploma at Chickenshed first ignited my passion for making work with, for and about the eclectic communities which make up the UK.
In November 2018, I founded Untoward Productions, to create innovative content for diverse audiences.
ELINOR LIPMAN, Co-Creator of Bad Aunts
Hey hey hey: SO. What do you want to know? I am a Writer, Director & MMA Fighter. I'm passionate about comedy, new writing and education through theatre. I have directed and performed in fringe venues in London, Cambridge and Edinburgh.
In Cambridge I ran Smorgasbord, a new writing showcase, which brought together evolving groups of writers, directors, actors and creatives within the university and beyond to comment on and inform each others’ work.
I was the Assistant Director and Education Coordinator of the Cambridge University Shakespeare Touring Company Europe-wide tour of Hamlet in 2016. Me & Eloїse previously collaborated on the Springboard Charity Pantomime, Aladdin, at the Arts Theatre, West End, as Assistant Directors. Aside from all that jazz, I volunteer with the Access Project.
OTHER WAYS TO HELP
Do you know other people and communities who might support us? Share this page with them and get them to contribute. We defo need the dolla, but broader than that, we'd love your likes and tweets and all the support on social media #pissedontea (fancy that on a quirky badge? Donate!) We'd also love to hear from community groups we should be podcasting about their experiences. Get in touch!
Friendly & Approachable
Please, tell me where the show will be - I simply MUST see it
Come and catch Bad Aunts in Brighton. If you miss us there, pop along to one of our scratch nights in May & June. If you can't make those, come to our London preview in July. Chortle up your week with one of our stand-up Showcase Nights in Brighton & Bristol. If you want to go the whole hog - we'll see you in Edinburgh.
If you want to come to everything - PLEASE DO. We love keenness.
Bad Aunts is running at Brighton Fringe 3-5 [email redacted] at Sweetwerks 2: https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/bad-aunts-135960/
Edinburgh Fringe from 31 July - 25 [email redacted] at Gilded Balloon, Old Tolbooth Market
For more information, check out our website: https://www.untowardprod.com
Follow us!
Facebook: /AuntsBad
twitter/Instagram: @AuntsBad
or email us: [email redacted]
Film by Callum-Hale Thomson.
Bad Aunts theme tune by Eloïse Poulton & Ivan Self.
Risks and challenges
The fringe market is full of excellent companies with important things to say. Taking a show is not without risk, but we are confident that our voice is distinct and our dedicated and experienced team will work together to make the show a success; and the best it can be for our lovely audiences!
Bad Aunts is a brand new LIVE inter-generational sitcom chat show
(whew!) by Eloïse Poulton & Elinor Lipman - the co-parents, if you will. It’s a celebration of community, the joyous abnormalness of normal people and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, it stars three women over 40: a radically silenced demographic of society.
We’re so excited and thrilled that we’ll be taking the show to the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringes this year! The sensational Sweetwerks and glorious Gilded Balloon believe in the show’s potential and have opened their doors so we can transform their stages into the Aunts’ living room...Little do they know the riotous antics that will ensue.
BUT: we need your help to make these antics happen!
From left to right: Elinor (Short Friend) & Eloïse (Bad Boi) in a heaving nightclub
'And it made me realise...Just by being there. Just by standing there and being visible - that is a political statement (with a small 'p') in itself. It's a statement in itself of, 'I am female, I am older, I am here, I am confident and sod you.' - Pauline Eyre, Comedian
When we held auditions for the project, we were shocked by the number of women who described themselves as being ‘invisible’ to society. So we are committed to putting them centrestage: not only as stars of the show, but as hosts!
Bad Aunts follows Maz, Jo and Dee, three women in their forties, fifties and sixties, who live together in suburban England. They’re all at crossroads in their lives: job-hunting, post-divorce, mid-magnum opus, pre-(and post-)menopause - and wondering what the heck to do next.
Whilst living their own ups and downs, the Bad Aunts extend a warm and wacky welcome to their living room, where friends and neighbours from all walks of life join them on the sofa to offload their agonies. Celebrating all the sunshine and the sh*t of living in a community, Bad Aunts is Graham Norton crossed with Ab Fab with a splash of Some Mothers do ‘Ave ‘Em and a sprinkle of Sex and the City.
SOUNDS LIKE A RIGHT ROLLICKING KNEES-UP! HOW CAN I HELP?
We need £6,000 to take Bad Aunts to the Brighton and Edinburgh Fringes.
The money we raise from Kickstarter will go towards our overall budget of £10,000. We’ve received some priceless gifts in the form of rehearsal space, set and costumes, thanks to the generosity of fellow creatives.
The incredible Project Phakama, whose work is geared towards arts participation, are supporting our Showcase Nights in Brighton & Bristol, platforming female and non-binary comic talent, hosted by the Aunts - thank you, Phakama!
But there’s still a long way to go: and we’ll be working hard over the next few months to raise the remaining cash to cover the production costs.
Our budget covers:
Paying our cast and production team. Our first priority is that we pay our artists a fair wage for their fantastic work.
PR to connect audiences to the show!
Production costs including props, lighting, insurance...it all adds up!
We aren’t joking when we say that your donation will make a huge difference:
£3.50 pays for our audience members to have pens and pencils and paper on which to compose their agonies for the Aunts
£5 pays for Jo's Mills & Boon boxset
£10 pays one of our actors a decent wage for an hour of rehearsal
£15 pays for Dee’s signature fur dress from her days in the 80s as a cabaret performer (we know - priceless, right)
£20 pays for Jo’s house plant, Vincent Flies Undone
£50 pays for Maz’s 90s rave lasers. Come and see the show to see them kick off
£100 pays for two stand-up artists to improvise live on stage with our Aunts
£250 pays for all our set materials
£500 pays for all our stage lighting - crucially, strobe lighting
£1000 pays for just over half of the Gilded Balloon venue fee
£2000 pays for accommodation costs for the cast and crew, for the whole Edinburgh run!
Donation is not a one-way street, oh no. We’ve created some Kickstarter-exclusive rewards for everyone who supports us in whatever way they can. We take any support, great or small & great, seriously. If you’d like to be kept in touch with the show's progress - progress which you have made happen (!), we’ll regularly update you from the moment you donate. In the spirit of Bad Aunts, we want our donors to be part of the community we hope the show will create in its audiences!
I LIKE THEATRE, DON’T GET ME WRONG - BUT IS THAT ALL THIS IS ABOUT?
We’re so glad you asked, so we can say - NO! Bad Aunts is more than a 55-minute side-splitting lol-fest.
As part of the development process, we are recording podcasts with existing community groups, chatting to them about the importance of community; and how equipped society is to deal with an aging population. You can check out parts one and two of our first, with three female comedians over fifty, here!: https://soundcloud.com/auntsbad
We aim to use the sitcom chat show format to attract audiences who enjoy watching shows like Graham Norton on TV. However, rather than the traditional entertainment industry personalities who appear on such shows, Bad Aunts features a much more everyday, yet no less exciting, diverse mixture of characters, celebrating the eclectic make-up of the UK today.
We're holding a Relaxed Performance on 11th August in Edinburgh and are exploring other ways to make our production as accessible as possible.
Comedy is the perfect environment to provoke questions in a way that unifies individuals across generations and cultural backgrounds. This, combined with the informal and interactive style of the chat show, will get the audience chatting, too!
The live show also offers opportunities for comedians, up and coming and established, to make guest appearances; uniting more and more demographics in the fun and unpredictableness of live theatre.
WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT AGEISM?
Because aging happens to all of us, yet we’re embarrassed, and even ashamed, to talk about it. There is a startling lack of discussion with younger people about the machinations of growing older and its physical and emotional effects. This contributes to stigma, and stigma is no fun. At all.
We are young women who have older friends.
Society 'others' older people. We find it particularly alarming how society censors the female aging process. Women have an evolving relationship with their identity as they age; yet this is offset by the stark media prescriptions of a woman’s body either being ‘sexy’ or ‘motherly’ or else - nothing else. Or else, old - therefore, redundant.
This is reductive, boring; and not funny!
In 2016, 18% of people in the UK were age 65 and over. According to 2030 projections by the Office for National Statistics, this number is only set to increase.
How are we as a society going to cater for this upsurge, whilst acknowledging the systemic flaws and social prejudices which prevent progress?
Through talking about and laughing at aging, of course. And through forming inter-generational relationships!
START WITH DONATING TO Bad Aunts.
Then come and see us as we hop round the UK; and say hello! We may even invite you for tea and a chat...
CREDZ - MEET THE Bad Aunts TEAM!
Here's some more info about us. You're in good hands, folks!
DENISE STEPHENSON, Maz
© Idil Sukan
Denise has worked extensively on stage and screen. Recent credits include 'Swimming with Men' (dir. Ollie Parker); 'Girl in the Glass' (dir. Naomi Wright); 'Men Buy Sex' (dir. Alice Russell); and 'About a Boy' (dir. Chris & Paul Weitz), as well as the 'St. Trianian's' films (dir. Ollie Parker). For television, her appearances include Doctors, The Bill and My Family.
Her theatre work has ranged across many of the UK's stages, including the Almeida, Theatre 503, the National Theatre, the Old Red Lion, the Liverpool Playhouse and the Gate Theatre. Other highlights include playing Hilary Clinton in 'Hilary and Monica' for the Lost Festival in London; Marine Le Pen in 'Stella Europa' at the Hen and Chickens; The Queen in 'Elexion' at Theatre 503; 'Molly' in 'Cecilia' at the King's Head Theatre; and 'Valiant', a verbatim piece examining women's war stories with The Wardrobe Project for Visible Theatre, in which Denise played a dynamic transgender jazz player.
Denise has written and performed her own work, most recently a one-woman play, 'Pentimento', which played at the Gilded Balloon in the Edinburgh Festival. The show went on to tour internationally, including to the Junction Festival in Ireland.
PENELOPE MCDONALD, Dee
© Michael Pollard
After many years with rep and touring companies including the Humberside Theatre, Manchester Library Theatre, Bolton Octagon, Oldham Coliseum, Georgian Theatre Royal, Winchester Theatre Royal, Century Theatre and the Palace Theatre Westcliff among many others, where her roles ranged through Shakespeare, Priestley, Shaw, Rattigan, Ayckbourn, Mrojet and more, Penny’s other work includes the role of Virginia Woolf in the new play, ‘A Good Day’ with Beat Productions and Manchester in ‘Under Manc Wood’ for Hat Hair Productions. Also ‘Up Frankie’ (Tour), ‘Broadway or Bust’ (Encore Productions), ‘Four Calling Birds’ and ‘The Final Days of Fringe Theatre’ (Northern Elastic Theatre Co.), ‘The Physicists’ (Tete a Tete Opera Festival), ‘A Spectre Calls’ and ‘Red’ (JB Shorts), ‘To Walk In Your Shoes’ (Red Bobble Theatre Company), ‘Neighbourhood Watch’ and ‘Walking’ (Contact Compacts). lus tons of pantos, musicals and voice-overs!
More recently she played the role of Mrs. Rutter in Billy Cowan’s fabulous ‘Care Takers’, winning the Stage Award for Acting Excellence at the Edinburgh Festival in 2016.
Penny has also been a magician’s assistant, stood-in for a drag queen at Manchester’s Birdcage nightclub, is Zampanella The Voice Phenomenal with the pierrot troupe The New Follies, and is half of the comedy singing duo Mac and The Medic.
VIVIENNE SOAN, Jo
© Rocco Redondo
It was Eisteddfods and taking part in The Girl Guides Diamond Jubilee at Wembley Stadium in the late 60's that set Vivienne on her theatrical path.
After graduating from Goldsmith’s College in the late 70’s, her first theatre job took her on a five-year European tour with highly animated comic troupe Action Theatre.
Returning to UK in the early 80’s in time to work at the original Comedy Store, Ben Elton's description of her as a 'dizzy dumb blonde not for the alternative scene' saw her shift attention from comedy to the saxophone, which she played throughout the 80’s: recording with African, reggae, rock, funk and glamour punk bands.
Combining her sax playing with performance led her inevitably back to the alternative comedy scene. Features in magazines Smash Hits and The Face described her as a New Age Joyce Grenfell and predicted an 'off the wall step for woman, perhaps an important leap for comedy’s woman kind'. However, marriage to Master of Prop Comedy Martin Soan and two children conspired otherwise!
Anarchic clown Chris Lynam and his cabaret Extravaganzas kick-started Vivienne back into performance. A season at Chichester Festival Theatre, national tours with Boothby Graffoe and Edinburgh Shows with Rich Hall in the late 90's precluded two Radio 4 comedy series as a team and theme player of The Big Both and The Big Booth 2.
Radio presenter of the now defunkt Southcity Radio and one-time compère of South East London comedy club PTOO, Vivienne is thrilled and delighted to be returning to the joys of live interactive performance with her fellow Bad Aunts.
ELOISE POULTON, Co-Creator of Bad Aunts & Founder of Untoward Productions
Hello there. Here's a slice o' me...I am a Director, Writer & Relentless Optimist! I completed the King’s Head Theatre’s Trainee Resident Director scheme in September 2018, when I was appointed Junior Associate. Whilst training, I assistant directed and produced opera, new writing and a West End transfer.
I have since directed The Christmas Truce (St. Paul’s Actors Church, St. Peter's Vauxhall), starring Hadley Fraser. I am on the Barbican’s first Youth Panel which improves arts access for young people.
I am Director of The Bach Choir’s Creative Focus Group, a committee of thirty members aged 22 - 62, who widen classical music audiences through incorporating narrative into concerts. Through this project, I have directed work at the Royal Festival Hall and Westminster Cathedral. Our current inclusive music project explores d/Deaf people’s varied experience of concerts. I work ad hoc with Young Film Academy, at the Boat Show Comedy Club and formerly with Faulty Towers the Dining Experience.
Volunteering with Chichester Festival Theatre's Shakespeare Summer School and the BTEC Performance Diploma at Chickenshed first ignited my passion for making work with, for and about the eclectic communities which make up the UK.
In November 2018, I founded Untoward Productions, to create innovative content for diverse audiences.
ELINOR LIPMAN, Co-Creator of Bad Aunts
Hey hey hey: SO. What do you want to know? I am a Writer, Director & MMA Fighter. I'm passionate about comedy, new writing and education through theatre. I have directed and performed in fringe venues in London, Cambridge and Edinburgh.
In Cambridge I ran Smorgasbord, a new writing showcase, which brought together evolving groups of writers, directors, actors and creatives within the university and beyond to comment on and inform each others’ work.
I was the Assistant Director and Education Coordinator of the Cambridge University Shakespeare Touring Company Europe-wide tour of Hamlet in 2016. Me & Eloїse previously collaborated on the Springboard Charity Pantomime, Aladdin, at the Arts Theatre, West End, as Assistant Directors. Aside from all that jazz, I volunteer with the Access Project.
OTHER WAYS TO HELP
Do you know other people and communities who might support us? Share this page with them and get them to contribute. We defo need the dolla, but broader than that, we'd love your likes and tweets and all the support on social media #pissedontea (fancy that on a quirky badge? Donate!) We'd also love to hear from community groups we should be podcasting about their experiences. Get in touch!
Friendly & Approachable
Please, tell me where the show will be - I simply MUST see it
Come and catch Bad Aunts in Brighton. If you miss us there, pop along to one of our scratch nights in May & June. If you can't make those, come to our London preview in July. Chortle up your week with one of our stand-up Showcase Nights in Brighton & Bristol. If you want to go the whole hog - we'll see you in Edinburgh.
If you want to come to everything - PLEASE DO. We love keenness.
Bad Aunts is running at Brighton Fringe 3-5 [email redacted] at Sweetwerks 2: https://www.brightonfringe.org/whats-on/bad-aunts-135960/
Edinburgh Fringe from 31 July - 25 [email redacted] at Gilded Balloon, Old Tolbooth Market
For more information, check out our website: https://www.untowardprod.com
Follow us!
Facebook: /AuntsBad
twitter/Instagram: @AuntsBad
or email us: [email redacted]
Film by Callum-Hale Thomson.
Bad Aunts theme tune by Eloïse Poulton & Ivan Self.
Risks and challenges
The fringe market is full of excellent companies with important things to say. Taking a show is not without risk, but we are confident that our voice is distinct and our dedicated and experienced team will work together to make the show a success; and the best it can be for our lovely audiences!
Organizer
Eloïse Mary
Organizer
England
