Meet Lee

We would like to introduce John Mulholland, who is joining us, playing the part of Lee.

Welcome to the team John! Guess it is time to start rehearsing.....

What's next?

We've talked a bit about the origins of Life's Witness and how the idea has grown and developed. But what is the plan? Where do we intend to take the play?

It's hard to believe that the show stemmed from four people accidentally ending up in a group together. However, we very quickly learned that the four of us had similar goals, similar aims. We all wanted to make theatre that would strike a cord with people. Theatre that was understated, primarily naturalistic, but had a strong meaning behind it. But most of all, we all wanted to create theatre that was fun to be involved in; we wanted to enjoy performing and wanted the audience to enjoy watching.

Page to Stage has given us the platform to do this. It has enabled us to take the play to the next level and perform what we have spent so long creating. And we can't wait! We're so excited to share with you all something that we have worked so hard on and are really proud of. Unfortunately, Pete has moved down south to London, so we are at the stage of recasting his part, but then we are all systems go, and rehearsals will commence. We're all very excited to start working with Onur, our director, and getting back into the rehearsal room with each other again.

We'd like to thank everyone who has supported us so for, those of you who came to see the show in January. The support, and the positive feedback we received really convinced us to continue working on this. Of course the constructive criticism was useful too!!

Over the next month we will work exceptionally hard to develop this play before heading to the Liverpool to perform with Page to Stage. We'll let you know specific dates and times closer to the festival, but do check out the Page to Stage website for more info.

And after page to stage? Well who knows? There is plenty of potential to pursue a variety of avenues with Life's Witness, so we'll just see where we end up.

Writing the play

Our play started as a very simple idea: what is the true price of fame and fortune? Do we ever get to see this reality or is it hidden away? Through discussions, improvisation and more than a bit of luck, that idea went onto become "Life's Witness".

Our work seemed to connect with audiences and there was a genuine buzz around it. We knew that in order to take this play further, we needed to made it longer, so that it could be a stand alone piece.  The question was, how do we make this play longer?
We decided that the key to making the play better, was to spend time on our existing four characters. To do this we wanted to work to build up their history, personalities and relationships. No story is ever completely black and white and no character completely good or bad. This ambiguity was our stepping off point.

And so the writing began! Over February and March, the script started to be developed. Some days there would be no progress, sometimes there would be a sudden idea to help push the story forward. Sometimes what was written was good, sometimes it was terrible.
But slowly, bit by bit, the script took shape. The script went through about 15 rewrites before we started to consider it ready for submission to the festival. Hopefully we have managed to keep what audiences liked and our additions and changes have made a better, more rounded and ultimately more interesting play. Time will tell..........

Before we talk about where we are going, we should probably talk about where we have come from.....

Our four company members met on a devising theatre course held at the Lowry in Manchester in 2013. During the course, we were asked to create a 20 minute piece of original theatre; a play that eventually came to be called "Life's Witness/The Observer". We were proud to win a showcase held at the end of the course and started to think about whether we could develop the piece further.

Our next stop was The King's Arms in Salford, where we were kindly invited by Mick Cooper and My Beating Heart to the "Play for Free" festival, held in January. This was a chance to try out the work on a new audience and look for feedback to try and see if the piece would work in a new place.

“Life’s Witness was presented well with clear characters created from the start. I look forward to the developed piece!”

“Really enjoyed Life’s Witness… well done to all involved”

“Definitely great potential”

“Lovely bit of theatre tonight from ‘Life’s Witness’…nice idea, can’t wait to see the fully formed piece soon!”

“Life’s Witness; great concept exploring creative duality & authorship. With deeper relationships & stakes could be a winner”.

“I would love to see the fully developed version when it is finished!”

  

During rehearsals and meetings, it became clear that we had found a company of people, who shared the same work ethic and had a combined experience including acting, writing, directing and production. We felt that we had stumbled onto a project 

that had the potential to be very special.  Thus "From the Mill Theatre Company" was formed. Our name takes inspiration from L.S Lowry's "Coming Home from the Mill" and is a tribute to where we met and started this journey. 

Our director- Onur Orkut!

Thrilled to announce Onur will be directing Life's Witness!

Here is a little bit about him:

Originally from Turkey, Onur completed his degree in Physics before starting his training in theatre.

He graduated from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (now The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) twice, with a master’s degree in drama and another in musical theatre. In training, he received a full scholarship and an award for TV acting.

He has worked both in the UK and in Turkey as an actor (stage and TV), director and singer. He has also worked as a drama coach, script-writer and dancer for the contemporary dance group [laboratuar] and founded and directed his university’s student musical theatre society “The Company”.
Onur has taught as both a teacher and course leader for various institutions including The RSAMD.

He has also developed and lead workshops for application of acting technique in professional and personal development. In 2011, he completed his PGCert in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education with distinction at the Liverpool John Moore’s University.

His credits include The Abduction From the Seraglio (Ankara State Opera), Hamlet and Cikisyokland
Cumhuriyeti (Arts Institution Award – Oteki Tiyatro), Playback (Musical Theatre Coach – VeDigerSeyler), a TV series in Turkey and many concerts, including some for international charities and diplomatic missions. He also took part in international festivals including Fabbrica Europa in Florence and (as a choreographer) in International METU Contemporary Dance Days. Onur also wrote the lyrics for the musical “1453” with A. Sahin, performed in concert with a symphony orchestra in 1998 in Istanbul and as a production in 2003 in
Ankara.
He currently works as a Lecturer in Acting at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.