Red Dragonfly Productions
Taking Flight New Writing Competition & Festival
Winning Writers: Joan C Guyll, Chandni Lakhani and Sammy Wong
Directed by Ross Ericson
Cast: Megha Dhingra, Eugenia Low, Michael Phong-le, Harriet Sharmini Smithers and Michelle Yim
A collaboration with Grist to the Mill Productions:
Red Dragonfly Productions in association with Grist To The Mill presented a New Writing Competition and Festival, Taking Flight, for new and emerging writers from British East Asian, South Asian and South-East Asian communities.
Three winners and their plays were selected to be produced and performed Taking Flight Festival. All three stories were suitable for the whole family. These are three stunning new stories – stories that could only have been made in Britain, all told with a hint of spice.
Red Dragonfly New Writing Festival is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
#NewWritingFest
#TakingFlight
100% of Nothing is Nothing by Joan C. Guyll Michelle Yim as Mum & Eugenia Low BC
100% of Nothing is Nothing by Joan C. Guyll Harriet Sharmini Smithers as Tracy, Eugenia Low as BC, and Michael Phong-Le as Ben
Hema Anjali by Chandni Lakhani Harriet Sharmini Smithers as Anjali and Megha Dhingra as Hema
100% of Nothing is Nothing by Joan C. Guyll Michelle Yim as Mum & Eugenia Low BC
'I cried twice and lost count of the times I laughed... it hits all the right notes'
'Fast paced... with much entertainment... Red Dragonfly Productions has exceeded expectations'
WINNERS
Ketchup - By Sammy Wong
Her Mum might be Vietnamese Chinese but Emily is as British as... well as British as Ketchup. A humorous look at identity and just what food can say about us.
Hema Anjali - By Chandni Lakhani
On the eve of her wedding, Anjali sets teenage sister, Hema, the responsibility of honouring an old family tradition; a mission that'll cast her back through the sweetness and bickering of their childhood years, as she faces the prospect of Anjali leaving home forever.
100% of Nothing is Nothing - By Joan C. Guyll
When BC returns to Singapore for her fathers funeral she finds he had been living a double life, and now her brother has inherited the lot it looks like a case of like father like son. How traditions and tragedies can leave you with a share of absolutely nothing.
Taking Flight Spring 2017 Tour
London
Dates: 5th - 6th February 2017
Venue: New Diorama Theatre
Cheltenham
Dates: 7th - 8th February 2017
Venue: Studio, Everyman Theatre
Lancaster
Dates: 9th February 2017
Venue: CCL, The Dukes Theatre
Devon
Dates: 10th February 2017
Venue: Crediton Arts Centre
Leeds
Dates: 11th February 2017
Venue: Seven ArtSpace
Barnsley
Dates: 23rd February 2017
Venue: The Civic
Competition Finalists
Thank you to our other five finalists who has been developing their stories for the British stage. We are continuing to work with them and will present their plays in the near future:
(in alphbetical order of first names)
Alex Blanc, Christy Ku, Kiran Harrar, Paven Virk, and Yasmin Hussain
Honourable Mentions
During our competition, we received many many wonderful, creative and personal stories but we can only take a limited group of applicants on board. However the following submissions has caught our eye and though they have not been selected this time, we wish them all the best in developing their stories and we hope to work with them in the future.
(in alphbetical order of first names)
Amy Ng - The Lotus Lantern
Jimin Suh - Random Collisons
Jingan Young - The Hope Cafe
Lekha Morrison - Cooking for the Cartwrights
Phoong Li Yan - Painted Places & Painted Faces
Pauline Leung - White Wash
Sofia Perretta - I Cannot Remember My Mother
Thank you again to everyone who has taken their time and effort to share exciting stories from all around Asia.
This being our first competition we are most surprise and grateful to receive so many interest and submissions from East Asian, South Asian and South East Asian applicants in the UK. We also received quite a few interest from around the world. It is regretable that our competition is only limited to UK applicants this time, but if successful we hope to open this scheme to an international level in the future.
