Plays by Athena Stevens, Caridad Svich, Lashay Green, Fernanda Rocha, Grace Chapman and Sonja Ferdinand were selected from the international open call for female or female identifying playwrights to be presented in the first full series of The Fizzy Sherbet Podcast.
International writing initiative Fizzy Sherbet have announced their first full series of six narrative podcasts after piloting the format during lockdown. A new play by a female or female identifying writer will be showcased every fortnight. Plays include themes such as female friends finding queer love together later in life, motherhood and knife crime in the black British community, a poetic piece about swimming the channel, and the story of a flight of an unaccompanied refugee boy from a war zone.
The season kicks off on 17th January with The Diagnosis by Athena Stevens, recorded in front of a live audience at the Bush Theatre. Inspired by the Cassandra Effect, a metaphor from Greek mythology of a Trojan woman cursed to deliver true prophecies but never to be believed, The Diagnosis is about a woman who awakens one morning able to see how those closest to her will lose their power and autonomy. Athena Stevens is a writer, performer, director and social activist. In 2019 she was nominated for an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre for her play Schism.
Other writers include Danish writer Sonja Ferdinand, whose The Dream Machine was recorded in front of a live audience in Denmark. Writer of Scientific, Fernanda Rocha is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and film researcher from São Paulo, Brazil. Further episodes include Blue by Caridad Svich, whose recognitions include an OBIE for Lifetime Achievement, Ellen Stewart Career Achievement Award from ATHE, and a Visiting Research Fellowship at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Lashay Green presents Eulogies, and is a poet, spoken word artist, writer, and playwright from North-West London. Finally, Grace Chapman, known for It’s Not A Sprint, presents May Day.
The Fizzy Sherbet Podcast is an international platform for women and non-binary writers and directors. Their first season presented seven new short plays and four ‘Fizzy Chat’ interviews with playwrights, including Morgan Lloyd Malcolm. Their mission is to create a global network of artists, to enable plays and voices to travel across borders and to open up a more directly accessible way of distributing new plays and playwrights. They are passionate about enabling audiences – from theatre makers, artistic directors, theatre lovers to podcast lovers – to get to know contemporary playwrights in different countries.
Tamara von Werthern and Lily McLeish of Fizzy Sherbet said, “We are absolutely delighted to launch this first series especially at this time which is so precarious for theatre makers all over the world. We are so grateful to be able to connect and make work independent of what the restrictions in our respective countries are. We are so proud of the whole team and all our writers, directors and creatives for making some real magic happen. This will fizz, crackle and pop – make sure you listen in and enjoy some theatre in your ears wherever you are!”
The Fizzy Sherbet Podcast launches on 17 January with a new episode available every fortnight
Free and available all major podcast platforms including: Apple Podcasts, Spotify
Please see their website: https://www.fizzysherbetplays.com/podcast
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