Real Talk

Real Talk: Paula Varjack x Conrad Murray 

Wednesday 23 September, 6pm

Conrad Murray is an actor, writer, director, rapper, beatboxer, singer and theatre maker, based in Mitcham, South-West London. He is passionate about making work through hip hop and beatbox theatre. He uses his mixed Indian heritage to address issues such as race and heritage. 

Since 2003 he has been pioneering new forms of theatre, experimenting with hip hop culture and theatre. He's been writing and performing regularly around the UK at venues and events such as Battersea Arts Centre, Tate Britain, Roundhouse, Camden People’s Theatre, Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall, The Lowry, Jazz Cafe, Latitude, WOMAD, Gloucester Guild Hall and the Edinburgh Fringe, as well as having his music showcased on the BBC Asian Network.

Conrad is the artistic director and has led the BAC Beatbox Academy since 2008. The Beatbox Academy have created many different theatre productions, included the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe smash hit, Frankenstein.

Current projects include directing and performing in High Rise State of Mind, a Beats and Elements production. The show has been performed at Battersea Arts Centre, Wilderness Festival and Camden Peoples' Theatre.

Conrad is represented as an actor, writer and director by The Avenue LTM.

Real Talk: Paula Varjack x Travis Alabanza 

Wednesday 7 October, 6pm

Travis is a writer, performer and theatre maker based in London, via Bristol.

Their writing, performance and public discourse surrounding trans and Black identities has had them noted as one of the most prominent emerging trans voices in the arts and beyond.

For stage, Travis wrote and performed in their debut show Burgerz. The show won the Total Theatre Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as selling out numerous venues including Southbank Centre and Traverse Theatre. It was also voted one of The Guardian Readers Top Shows of The Year and is published by Oberon Books.

Travis’ work has also appeared on BBC Front Row, The Verb and in 2019 they hosted their first radio documentary ‘Going to The Gay Bar’ for BBC Radio Four. 

Alabanza was listed in the Evening Standard as one of the 25 most influential Londoners under 25 and placed on the Dazed100 list.

They are currently developing a number of new projects including a seed commission and a play called Out of Order for The Roundhouse Theatre (autumn 2020). 

*This talk on Wednesday 7 October is part of the PACE Chapters festival.

Real Talk: Paula Varjack x Pauline Mayers 

Wednesday 21 October, 6pm

Pauline is a multidisciplinary theatre maker based in the North. Originally from London, she began her dance training at the Weekend Arts College and continued with ballet and contemporary dance at the Rambert School, London.

In 2011, Pauline diversified her practice to include theatre and writing. This led to collaborations with Red Ladder Theatre Company, Tell Tale Hearts Children’s Theatre, Transform Festival and Leeds Playhouse.

Pauline’s interest is in reframing spaces and histories through experiential art and culture to help her audiences re-examine shared histories and enable lost voices to be heard. Her work has themes of identity, participation, intimacy and care. Pauline’s critically acclaimed solo show 2017’s What If I Told You (WIITY) is a work Lyn Gardener of the Guardian describes as ‘shakes up traditional theatre and power structures to put the audience in the picture’. WIITY is a co-production with the Leeds Playhouse. Written and performed by Pauline and directed by Chris Goode, the show toured to theatres throughout the U.K. including Manchester Royal Exchange, Leeds Playhouse and the Barbican, London. WIITY was featured in British Vogue, Time Out, The Stage and The Scotsman and was presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017 where it was a shortlisted nominee for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award.

Pauline has collaborated with over 200 arts organisations, schools and universities across the U.K. as a facilitator of workshops and masterclasses. She is an Associate Artist with the Leeds Playhouse and Chris Goode and Company.

Real Talk: Paula Varjack x Demi Nandhra 

Wednesday 4 November, 6pm

Demi Nandhra is a neurodiverse artist and writer from Birmingham, West Midlands. Demi’s debut Edinburgh fringe show Life is No Laughing Matter won a Lustrum Edinburgh Award and was shortlisted for the prestigious Total Theatre Award and shortlisted for the Mental Health Fringe Award. The critically acclaimed show was listed as one of the Guardian’s top 15 2019 Fringe Shows and received praise by top theatre critic Lyn Gardner.

Demi currently makes funny work about sh*t things - depression, relationships and suicide.

Real Talk: Paula Varjack x Liv Wynter 

Wednesday 18 November, 6pm

Liv Wynter is a live artist, writer, and activist from SEL. Liv has been performing internationally since 2015, making live art that centres around radical action, community, rage, and power. With successful residencies at Project Indigo, Wysing, FACT (and a less successful one at Tate), as well as working with Free Word, the Hayward Gallery, Art Night, Hackney Museum, and even supporting Kate Nash a couple of times, Liv has gone on to cause chaos through both their personal practice and their commitment to antifascist, antisexist, and anticapitalist organising. Their work HOUSEFIRE, which told the story of how communities respond to domestic violence survivors, exhibited at WORM Rotterdam, Wysing Arts Centre and Centre Régional d'Art Contemporain Occitanie.

Their anarchist musical theatre debut, 'And So The Choir Gathers, Before It is Too Late' (ACE Funded), which focussed on the history of two tone and skinhead culture sold out over 5 nights at The Bunker Theatre Nov 2019. The work had a cast of untrained performers, a punk band, and a lot of whiskey. They are currently a refuge worker at The Outside Project, the UK's only LGBTIQ+ homeless shelter, and a peer support coordinator at Hearts & Minds. Liv stands in solidarity with all groups organising against oppression. 

Quit your job, join a band, start a gang.

Real Talk: Paula Varjack x Debris Stevenson 

Wednesday 2 December, 6pm

Dyslexic academic, Grime writer and Bashment dancing social activist, Debris Stevenson has no choice but to explore the intersectional, unexpected and unjust.

Whilst graduating top of her class twice Debris’ worked in over 20 countries, raised over £300,000 with her company The Mouthy Poets to develop young talent, designed foundation performance poetry modules at Nottingham University and had her debut poetry pamphlet, Pigeon Party, published by Flipped Eye.  

Debris’ debut show, Poet in da Corner (writer and performer), premiered at The Royal Court in 2018, receiving 4-5 stars across the board and saw Debris nominated for an Emerging Talent of The Year Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. Poet in da Corner toured the UK early 2020 alongside the release of the album with Accidental Records.

Debris is currently developing a new show, The Write to Rave exploring raving as radicalism, a play for High Tide about Margaret Catchpole and compiling her debut poetry collection.