History
Since its inception in 1997 Cloud Nine has commissioned and produced almost 20 new plays, all written by northern writers.
The Trip
The Company's first production, Peter Mortimer's The Trip was staged in 1998 at Cullercoats Community Centre and then transferred to Whitley Bay Playhouse.
It was followed by a large-scale community project, Clockman, staged again at Whitley Bay Playhouse.
The Company then branched out into touring with two sets of four short plays, Fourplay followed by Four by Nine.
At the turn of the century Cloud Nine began to develop a touring pub sketch show, Comedy Bites. There have now been four separate Comedy Bites shows and many new playwrights have cut their teeth writing sketches for them. A new incarnation of this comedy sketch show, Laughter Factory, toured in July 2007.
Hadaway: the Making of a Writer by Valerie Laws was the Company's contribution to the 2003 Tom Hadaway Festival and in 2004 the Company toured Peter Mortimer's Off the Wall on foot along the length of Hadrian's Wall.
In the summer of 2005 the Company produced probably the first play spread over a week and written for early morning commuters. The play Ships that Pass, written by Alex Ferguson, was performed in five minute episodes on the Shields Ferry as it crossed the river Tyne Monday to Friday during the week 4th to 10th July.
Threesome, three short plays by Paul Buie, Sarah Millican and Simon Moore, were produced in Autumn 2005.
The Company worked with York Theatre Royal on Double Act, two one-act plays Cloud Nine commissioned from Joanna Piesse (The Steal) and Kitty Fitzgerald (Men, Women, Inspectors & Dogs), performed at York Theatre Royal Studio and north-east venues in October and November 2006, after a summer revival of Tom Hadaway's last commissioned play, Billy Wilson, Big Fish.
2007 saw Kat among the Pidgeons, our community play by an over-sixties group, who followed up with a revival of Kitty Fitzgerald's Making Plans for Jessica in November, together with a half hour comedy sketch show, both performed at lunchtimes at North Shields Library. In the same year we moved into our new home, at Linskill Centre, North Shields, where we held our big ten year anniversary celebration on 29th September, Cloud Nine at Ten, featuring a comic history of Cloud Nine and live music in a gala night. The Selkie by Valerie Laws, with songs by Valerie, put to music and performed live by The Keelers and Katie Doherty, opened at Sage Gateshead for 4 performances in February 2008, followed by a two week regional tour from Berwick to York and Whitby. RIOT, by Peter Mortimer, followed at Customs House South Shields in June; and at Unity Theatre, Liverpool in July, as part of the Arabic Arts Festival. The Sixties Group continued to meet, working on a new play, Bingo!, with Kitty Fitzgerald, for performance in Autumn 2008.
In 2009 the company commissioned three new writers who had emerged through our PlayDay projects to take their scripts to full production level. The plays, by Alison Carr, Joe McLaughlin and Louise Gallagher were directed at the Customs House by Jackie Fielding in Spring 2009, under the umbrella title Unreal, and received excellent reviews.
Bingo! was delayed, and finally appeared at North Shields Library and Cullercoats Crescent Club in July. The play by Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood, God Only Knows, was given a script-in-hand run-out at the Customs House (directed by Daniel Carver) before a full audience, and plans were laid to do a full production in 2010.
In the autumn Cloud Nine appeared at Whitley Bay's first festival of the written and spoken word, Wordplay, and also performed a short comedy show at The Trojan Rooms, Whitley Bay. The latest PlayDay event staged two more script-in-hand plays at The Customs House, South Shields, written by Louise Taylor and Dick Curran. Twelve writers took part in a further PlayDay workshop at Bishop Auckland.
Cloud Nine's latest application to the Arts Council England North East was submitted in December 2009.
April 2008
updated January 2010