Northern Tour and a week at Soho Theatre as part of A Nation’s Theatre in partnership with West Yorkshire Playhouse, Live Theatre, The Lowry, Theatre in The Mill (Bradford), and the Hub, Leeds; http://www.lizipatch.co.uk/?page_id=746
Punching The Sky combines live performance with animation and an original score and explores the complexities of our relationship with online pornography, the dangers and redemptive qualities of the internet, and the contradictory nature of our feelings about sex, censorship and parenthood.
Produced and Directed by Gary Brown. Starring David Schofield as Frank Twist.
Radio 4’s long running annual drama serial set in a Manchester Legal Practice, created by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly.
Series 6, Episode 2 of 6: Frank Twist is called in to represent Jon, who is accused of historic sexual abuse. This has ramifications as Jon is a teacher and his wife has just had a baby.
Series 7, Episode 4 of 6: A teenager is pulled in for texting an indecent photo of his girlfriend which has gone viral.
Writer/Director: Frankly Prince Charming You’re Just Not My Type: (CVYT 12-15yrs) City Varieties Music Hall.
What if Sleeping Beauty just didn’t fancy the Prince? What if the Big Bad Wolf was a vegetarian?
Set in a parallel universe where fairy tale princes meet kick-ass comic book heroines, where the rules are re-written and new characters emerge to bring those sugary endings BANG up to date. With original music composed and played by Aron Kyne.
Co-Writer/Director: Summer Snowball: (CVYT 8-11yrs) City Varieties Music Hall: Co-written with the Company and Dick Bonham. Twins Tom and Amy and their friends Ella and Joe travel back and forth throughout the 20th and 21st century, to find the key to freezing time so they can spend some quality time with their oh-so- busy Mums.
Co-Writer/Director: Valentine: (CVYT 8-21yrs) Howard Assembly Rooms: Co-written with the Company and Dick Bonham. With original music composed and played by Jamie Fletcher.
Following a doomed love affair through a hundred years of history, from a turn-of-the-century Music Hall through a live 1940s radio show and beyond. With stirring music, stunning puppetry, and a sinister ventriloquist’s dummy, Valentine stays within the best traditions of Victorian fireside tales – with a uniquely contemporary twist.
GUEST WRITER/DIRECTOR: CARRIAGEWORKS THEATRE ACADEMY
From 2009 until 2013 the Blahs ran the Theatre Academy at the Carriageworks theatre in Leeds. The Academy provided an annual programme for 10 – 16 year olds, giving young people the opportunity to devise theatre in response to commissions and perform to the general public.
Writer/Co-Director: Bubble: (10-16yrs) Carriageworks Main House: In association with Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah. Co-directed by Rebecca Stokes. Original soundtrack by Alex Turner. http://www.carolinehallam.co.uk/reviews
A multi-media play for 35 young actors which explores how our rapidly growing obsession with documenting and sharing our lives online affects our connection with the real world – and how those in power feed the obsession.
Writer/Director: Life Turns On A Penny: (10-13yrs) Carriageworks Studio
Life Turns… looks at those moments, micro to global where everything changes in an instant. The story follows reluctant protagonist Gary Rayner as he re-visits key moments where he could have made a difference but chose not to. How his actions have made him the man he is today and how the pathways we all choose to take in our lives impact on those around us.
Dramaturg/Director: Echoes: (10-16 yrs) Leeds Town Hall: Holocaust Memorial Day: Written by the Company and Ruth Cooper.
“We met a woman called Amna. Amna is from Eritrea and now lives in Leeds. Amna told us her story.”
The young theatre makers of the Carriageworks Theatre Academy explored what it means to leave your home and community and come to the UK as a refugee. Echoes is the young people’s responses to Amna Idris’s story and other refugee experiences throughout time and from around the world.
Dramaturg/Director: The Leeds Story: (14-16yrs) In partnership with and performed at Leeds Museums: Written by the Company and Ruth Cooper.
Four short performances exploring the history of objects and how they came to be part of the collection at Leeds Museums and Galleries. Each group of young theatre makers chose an object which sparked their interest. The performances stay true to the history of each object as far as it’s known. The rest is imagination…
Dramaturg/Director:The Dripping Riots: (11-16yrs): Written by the Company and Ruth Cooper.
“It’s just what cooks do”
It is 1865 and Leeds servant, Eliza Stafford, is imprisoned for stealing 2 lbs of dripping from her employer, Mr Henry Chorley. Working class people in the city are outraged at the “Dripping Injustice” and we witness the good humoured protest descend into a full blown riot with tragic consequences.
Based on a true story, devised by The Carriageworks Theatre Academy, written by Ruth Cooper and directed by Lizi Patch.
OTHER SELECTED WRITING CREDITS
Annual Child Friendly Leeds Awards Night presenter’s scripts, City Varieties Music Hall. (2013 – present) Working with the young people’s committee I shape their ideas into a script, rehearse with them, edit and redraft ready for the performance.
Dramaturg: Elephant: ACE funded multidisciplinary show combining circus, theatre and live music created by performance artist Milton Lopes in partnership with National Circus.
Writer/Director: Best Before (Etcetera Theatre, London): Examines the interdependence and frustrations of Darren, a builder and his Dad, Albert who suffers from dementia. Ran for a week on the London Fringe.
Writer: Game (West Yorkshire Playhouse and White Horse Theatre, Waterloo) scratch performance directed by Daniel Bye. A game of Monopoly with the new neighbours descends into chaos.
Writer: I Will Be Queen (Carriageworks Studio and Seven Arts, Leeds) Directed by Dick Bonham. The story of Maggie (44) and her struggle with Lili (18)– her beautiful daughter who is a constant reminder of her own lost youth and beauty.
ALSEN DAY CARE CENTRE, FINSBURY PARK: Profiles of Alsen.
I worked with the users of this Day Care Centre, recording and writing their stories. We produced several beautiful handmade and handbound books for the participants and their families and copied many more for the community.
Judge and Poet: Friends of Dean Road Cemetery Poetry Competition.
As part of the Heritage Lottery funded Secret Garden project the Friends group launched a cemetery themed-poetry competition. Any original poem inspired by the cemetery, from a haiku to a sonnet, from a saga to a rap, was eligible to be entered.
Johnson Fold Trails: Community: Commissioned by Electric Angel Design / Bolton at Home to write text for a series of art interventions across Johnson Fold housing estate in Bolton.
The Echo Funnel (Designer/Performer): Saltwell Park in Gateshead, SO Festival in Horncastle, Stilsby and Skegness.
Originally commissioned by Saltwell Park as part of the Newcastle-Gateshead ‘Enchanted Parks’ Festival.
The Echo Funnel is a unique interactive artwork-performance. A beautiful copper funnel – it carefully listens to visitor’s questions and musings and whisper its thoughts right back to them. Visited to date by 35,000 people
Walker Wall, Newcastle: Commissioned by Newcastle City Council.
Wall-based public artwork designed with school pupils as a result of workshops blending improvisation and concrete poetry.
Limestone Journeys – Drawing the Way: Commissioned by Junction Arts. Using performance and story-telling with Year 6 pupils in Whaley Thorns School, Derbyshire to develop an artwork for display at Creswell Crags Visitor Centre exploring the lives of residents over 15,000 years.
Lore Unto Ourselves: Commissioned by the Scarborough Literature Festival
Working with Scarborough Brownies, taking a folk tale as their starting point I worked with an artist, a musician and a theatre practitioner to develop and showcase different responses to the story based on the Gyrash of Goathland
FOUNDER/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: RAISED EYEBROW THEATRE COMPANY 1992 – 2006
I established Raised Eyebrow Theatre Company in 1992 with the help of an Enterprise Allowance grant. Between 1009 – 2006 we toured extensively to schools, Arts Centres and other venues across the country. As well as creating scripted and devised performances, we specialised in encouraging drama work among young people through drama clubs, Youth Theatres and other community projects.
PROJECTS INCLUDE: MERGE: bringing together a range of creative artists to develop and present a number of site-specific pieces of theatre/dance which interrogate our local landscape (Writer/Producer). The Bridge: A new physical theatre show with a digital soundtrack (Writer/Director); Brompton Hall PRU Creative Writing Project (Writer/Director); ‘Space Pirates’ (Writer/ Actor) – a tour for Primary Schools looking at the KS2 Maths curriculum; ‘Strings’ (co-writer/director) – a TIHE tour for Derbyshire secondary schools running for 6 years and employing 30 young professional actors. Strings reached an average audience of 3000 young people per year; Raised Eyebrow Summer School (Annual – Artistic Director); Raised Eyebrow Youth Theatre (founder member and Artistic Director).Play, Come and Go, Footfalls by Samuel Beckett, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Art by Yasmina Reza, Fame!: Woldgate College, Pocklington; Cracked by Nicola Baldwin: Y Touring Theatre Company (Tour); Macbeth Albion Shakespeare Company (Tour); The Tempest, Play by Samuel Beckett and The Two Executioners by Fernando Arrabal: UEA Studio, Norwich.
Workshops and residencies, adult education workshops, staff training, INSET, holiday and extra curricular theatre and music projects in theatres, arts centres, primary and secondary schools and community settings throughout Scarborough, York, Leeds, Whitby, Filey, Hambleton, Ryedale and Selby.
Writing CV
WRITER/PRODUCER/PERFORMER: Punching The Sky: 2016:
Directed by Mark Hollander.
Northern Tour and a week at Soho Theatre as part of A Nation’s Theatre in partnership with West Yorkshire Playhouse, Live Theatre, The Lowry, Theatre in The Mill (Bradford), and the Hub, Leeds; http://www.lizipatch.co.uk/?page_id=746
Punching The Sky combines live performance with animation and an original score and explores the complexities of our relationship with online pornography, the dangers and redemptive qualities of the internet, and the contradictory nature of our feelings about sex, censorship and parenthood.
GUEST WRITER: BBC RADIO 4:
Brief Lives Series 6:
Brief Lives Series 7:
Produced and Directed by Gary Brown. Starring David Schofield as Frank Twist.
Radio 4’s long running annual drama serial set in a Manchester Legal Practice, created by Tom Fry and Sharon Kelly.
Series 6, Episode 2 of 6: Frank Twist is called in to represent Jon, who is accused of historic sexual abuse. This has ramifications as Jon is a teacher and his wife has just had a baby.
Series 7, Episode 4 of 6: A teenager is pulled in for texting an indecent photo of his girlfriend which has gone viral.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: CITY VARIETIES YOUTH THEATRE: 2012 – PRESENT
Writer/Director: Frankly Prince Charming You’re Just Not My Type: (CVYT 12-15yrs) City Varieties Music Hall.
What if Sleeping Beauty just didn’t fancy the Prince? What if the Big Bad Wolf was a vegetarian?
Set in a parallel universe where fairy tale princes meet kick-ass comic book heroines, where the rules are re-written and new characters emerge to bring those sugary endings BANG up to date. With original music composed and played by Aron Kyne.
Co-Writer/Director: Summer Snowball: (CVYT 8-11yrs) City Varieties Music Hall: Co-written with the Company and Dick Bonham. Twins Tom and Amy and their friends Ella and Joe travel back and forth throughout the 20th and 21st century, to find the key to freezing time so they can spend some quality time with their oh-so- busy Mums.
Co-Writer/Director: Valentine: (CVYT 8-21yrs) Howard Assembly Rooms: Co-written with the Company and Dick Bonham. With original music composed and played by Jamie Fletcher.
Following a doomed love affair through a hundred years of history, from a turn-of-the-century Music Hall through a live 1940s radio show and beyond. With stirring music, stunning puppetry, and a sinister ventriloquist’s dummy, Valentine stays within the best traditions of Victorian fireside tales – with a uniquely contemporary twist.
GUEST WRITER/DIRECTOR: CARRIAGEWORKS THEATRE ACADEMY
From 2009 until 2013 the Blahs ran the Theatre Academy at the Carriageworks theatre in Leeds. The Academy provided an annual programme for 10 – 16 year olds, giving young people the opportunity to devise theatre in response to commissions and perform to the general public.
Writer/Co-Director: Bubble: (10-16yrs) Carriageworks Main House: In association with Theatre Company Blah Blah Blah. Co-directed by Rebecca Stokes. Original soundtrack by Alex Turner. http://www.carolinehallam.co.uk/reviews
A multi-media play for 35 young actors which explores how our rapidly growing obsession with documenting and sharing our lives online affects our connection with the real world – and how those in power feed the obsession.
Writer/Director: Life Turns On A Penny: (10-13yrs) Carriageworks Studio
Life Turns… looks at those moments, micro to global where everything changes in an instant. The story follows reluctant protagonist Gary Rayner as he re-visits key moments where he could have made a difference but chose not to. How his actions have made him the man he is today and how the pathways we all choose to take in our lives impact on those around us.
Dramaturg/Director: Echoes: (10-16 yrs) Leeds Town Hall: Holocaust Memorial Day: Written by the Company and Ruth Cooper.
“We met a woman called Amna. Amna is from Eritrea and now lives in Leeds. Amna told us her story.”
The young theatre makers of the Carriageworks Theatre Academy explored what it means to leave your home and community and come to the UK as a refugee. Echoes is the young people’s responses to Amna Idris’s story and other refugee experiences throughout time and from around the world.
Dramaturg/Director: The Leeds Story: (14-16yrs) In partnership with and performed at Leeds Museums: Written by the Company and Ruth Cooper.
Four short performances exploring the history of objects and how they came to be part of the collection at Leeds Museums and Galleries. Each group of young theatre makers chose an object which sparked their interest. The performances stay true to the history of each object as far as it’s known. The rest is imagination…
Dramaturg/Director: The Dripping Riots: (11-16yrs): Written by the Company and Ruth Cooper.
“It’s just what cooks do”
It is 1865 and Leeds servant, Eliza Stafford, is imprisoned for stealing 2 lbs of dripping from her employer, Mr Henry Chorley. Working class people in the city are outraged at the “Dripping Injustice” and we witness the good humoured protest descend into a full blown riot with tragic consequences.
Based on a true story, devised by The Carriageworks Theatre Academy, written by Ruth Cooper and directed by Lizi Patch.
OTHER SELECTED WRITING CREDITS
Annual Child Friendly Leeds Awards Night presenter’s scripts, City Varieties Music Hall. (2013 – present) Working with the young people’s committee I shape their ideas into a script, rehearse with them, edit and redraft ready for the performance.
Dramaturg: Elephant: ACE funded multidisciplinary show combining circus, theatre and live music created by performance artist Milton Lopes in partnership with National Circus.
Writer/Director: Best Before (Etcetera Theatre, London): Examines the interdependence and frustrations of Darren, a builder and his Dad, Albert who suffers from dementia. Ran for a week on the London Fringe.
Writer: Game (West Yorkshire Playhouse and White Horse Theatre, Waterloo) scratch performance directed by Daniel Bye. A game of Monopoly with the new neighbours descends into chaos.
Writer: I Will Be Queen (Carriageworks Studio and Seven Arts, Leeds) Directed by Dick Bonham. The story of Maggie (44) and her struggle with Lili (18)– her beautiful daughter who is a constant reminder of her own lost youth and beauty.
ALSEN DAY CARE CENTRE, FINSBURY PARK: Profiles of Alsen.
I worked with the users of this Day Care Centre, recording and writing their stories. We produced several beautiful handmade and handbound books for the participants and their families and copied many more for the community.
Judge and Poet: Friends of Dean Road Cemetery Poetry Competition.
As part of the Heritage Lottery funded Secret Garden project the Friends group launched a cemetery themed-poetry competition. Any original poem inspired by the cemetery, from a haiku to a sonnet, from a saga to a rap, was eligible to be entered.
WRITER/FACILITATOR/ARTIST: COMMUNITY/PUBLIC ART IN COLLABORATION WITH ELECTRIC ANGEL
Johnson Fold Trails: Community: Commissioned by Electric Angel Design / Bolton at Home to write text for a series of art interventions across Johnson Fold housing estate in Bolton.
The Echo Funnel (Designer/Performer): Saltwell Park in Gateshead, SO Festival in Horncastle, Stilsby and Skegness.
Originally commissioned by Saltwell Park as part of the Newcastle-Gateshead ‘Enchanted Parks’ Festival.
The Echo Funnel is a unique interactive artwork-performance. A beautiful copper funnel – it carefully listens to visitor’s questions and musings and whisper its thoughts right back to them. Visited to date by 35,000 people
Walker Wall, Newcastle: Commissioned by Newcastle City Council.
Wall-based public artwork designed with school pupils as a result of workshops blending improvisation and concrete poetry.
Limestone Journeys – Drawing the Way: Commissioned by Junction Arts. Using performance and story-telling with Year 6 pupils in Whaley Thorns School, Derbyshire to develop an artwork for display at Creswell Crags Visitor Centre exploring the lives of residents over 15,000 years.
WRITER: SCARBOROUGH LITERATURE FESTIVAL
Lore Unto Ourselves: Commissioned by the Scarborough Literature Festival
Working with Scarborough Brownies, taking a folk tale as their starting point I worked with an artist, a musician and a theatre practitioner to develop and showcase different responses to the story based on the Gyrash of Goathland
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MORE…
DIRECTING HERE.
FOUNDER/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: RAISED EYEBROW THEATRE COMPANY 1992 – 2006
I established Raised Eyebrow Theatre Company in 1992 with the help of an Enterprise Allowance grant. Between 1009 – 2006 we toured extensively to schools, Arts Centres and other venues across the country. As well as creating scripted and devised performances, we specialised in encouraging drama work among young people through drama clubs, Youth Theatres and other community projects.
PROJECTS INCLUDE: MERGE: bringing together a range of creative artists to develop and present a number of site-specific pieces of theatre/dance which interrogate our local landscape (Writer/Producer). The Bridge: A new physical theatre show with a digital soundtrack (Writer/Director); Brompton Hall PRU Creative Writing Project (Writer/Director); ‘Space Pirates’ (Writer/ Actor) – a tour for Primary Schools looking at the KS2 Maths curriculum; ‘Strings’ (co-writer/director) – a TIHE tour for Derbyshire secondary schools running for 6 years and employing 30 young professional actors. Strings reached an average audience of 3000 young people per year; Raised Eyebrow Summer School (Annual – Artistic Director); Raised Eyebrow Youth Theatre (founder member and Artistic Director).Play, Come and Go, Footfalls by Samuel Beckett, The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Art by Yasmina Reza, Fame!: Woldgate College, Pocklington; Cracked by Nicola Baldwin: Y Touring Theatre Company (Tour); Macbeth Albion Shakespeare Company (Tour); The Tempest, Play by Samuel Beckett and The Two Executioners by Fernando Arrabal: UEA Studio, Norwich.
Workshops and residencies, adult education workshops, staff training, INSET, holiday and extra curricular theatre and music projects in theatres, arts centres, primary and secondary schools and community settings throughout Scarborough, York, Leeds, Whitby, Filey, Hambleton, Ryedale and Selby.