Sophie Woolley

I’m performing a monologue this Monday 19 June, at the Poplar Union.

Scratch, Crackle & POP! showcases the work of writers, performers and poets in the early stages of development, giving audiences a taste of upcoming and developing shows.

7pm- 10pm Ticket are FREE, just turn up.

Address: 2 Cotall St, Poplar, London, E14 6TL

Line Up:

Luke Hull: Circa ’94

Lust for love, lust for live, judge or be judged. As my tumultuous past slowly unravels before you, just think to yourself what are you hiding in plain sight? Lust for love, lust for live, judge or be judged.

Dale Pearson: Title TBC

An exploration of how the dry, barren California desert can embody abstract human emotions. This piece was developed during Poplar Union’s ‘Peeling Back Places’ writing workshop lead by Dale Pearson.

Annie Rockson: Say Our Names

This poetic conversation focuses on the importance of rehumanising people through their stories. It declares everyone’s right to be recognised and shows empowerment through self actualisation. Follow poets on a personal and powerful journey as they explore what really is in a name…?

Sangeeta Pillai Lander: Soul Sutras

A reading of the first chapter of Sangeeta’s debut novel ‘Soul Sutras’- a tantalising tale that will leave you wanting more…

Sophie Woolley: Clear

A monologue about the emotional duality of becoming a cyborg, based on Woolley’s personal experience of hearing and deafness.

Cameron Cook: It All

Cameron Cook performs an eclectic, high-energy, low-budget one-man performance, spawned out of uncertainty, anxiety, and residual optimism about it all.

Tim McNiven & Sam Rix: Miserable Les

A first taste of the hilariously tragic and tragically hilarious brand new musical- Miserable Les.

I recently wrote, produced and performed in a new piece of theatre, directed by the multi-talented, Gemma Fairlie. The new piece starred the wonderful, much in demand Andile Vellem and Marsanne Neethling as onstage, integrated SASL Interpreter.
As a British Council Connect ZA piece, the performance at Artscape in Cape Town, South Africa caused a stir. I had a phone interview with a radio station in Johannesburg, which you can listen to below.

Here is a video of Andile at the R&D.

Andile Vellem in Fake Interpreter scratch performance. from CapeGosh on Vimeo.

More press below –

Blubblegum Club

“If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.” – Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

This quote is at the top of every page of the blog that Sophie set up to document the process they are undertaking to put the production together. This quote ties together perfectly the core motivators behind their collaborative show. The first being the fake interpreter that was used at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. The second being the necessity for a serious public conversation about the need for good, qualified interpreters. The third being a conversation around who controls language. And lastly, thinking about deaf power, deaf pain and deaf people being able to have these kinds of conversations on their own terms.”

The Times, 21 April 2017 (republished online in Sunday Times)

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/lifestyle/entertainment/2017/04/21/Infamous-fake-interpreter-fiasco-inspires-thought-provoking-play1

”I’m interested in integrating sign language artistically. We’re trying to create a cross artform piece that has dance, signing, video editing and storytelling intertwined. It’s a new genre,” she said. ”Hopefully it will help people see this invisible world.”

Review and interview in Weekend Special –

https://weekendspecial.co.za/unmute-fake-interpreter/

Interview with Azania Mosaka on Radio 702

http://ewn.co.za/2017/04/25/fake-sign-language-interpreter-inspires-new-theater-production

We also had an interview on SAFM on the literature show with Nancy Richards.

And finally, read about the development of the piece on the blog. 

 

I’m in the middle of editing episode 3 of The New Colonialist satirical series. It will feature our heroine’s trip to Lesotho. When I told some British people I was going to Lesotho, they said, ‘Oh, Prince Harry was there last week, I saw it on TV, he set up a charity there.’ I asked everyone I encountered in Lesotho if they had heard of Prince Harry. Everyone in Lesotho replied, ‘Who?’. Maybe this was because I was mainly visiting rural areas where villagers had no electricity or TV.

Meanwhile, here is episode 2, which features a visit to a Cape Town township and then a wine farm.

I’ve been told this spoof is a bit too believable and to ‘be careful’. But I think it needs doing.

In the last few years, I’ve heard a good few white supremacist* views, often presented as ‘facts’. As a British person abroad, guest house owners often give me racist advice. This advice tells me something about the host, rather than being useful information. It also tells me something shameful about the British travellers that came before me.

To cut a long story short, I made this sketch, called The New Colonialist, about a British immigrant in Cape Town.

I’m aware there is more to a place than inequality and racism (I’ve heard that line a few times in Cape Town), and yes, I know there IS crime in South Africa; but it would be odd for me as a satirist, not to write something in about the disturbing absurdities of everyday white supremacy, happening seemingly everywhere right now, all the time.

*Without getting deep into intersectional definitions here, I say ‘white supremacy’ because most people don’t consider themselves racist. But no one can deny that white people are extra privileged.

 

It’s all kicking off in holiday hotspot, Sea Point. Here’s my latest podcast about the growing resistance movements in South Africa. This time I went to find out about Reclaim the City’s fight to stop the Tafelberg sell off. Workers in the area say the land must be used to provide affordable housing.

 

A short film that I wrote, directed, starred in and edited, is being screened at London Short Film Festival on 12 January 2016.

See the brochure and book tickets here.  The 10 day programme looks excellent. I’m proud to be a part of this festival after being selected from 2000 submissions.

I made my short, Expat on a Balcony, on an iPhone, using a Tascam portable recorder to record the audio. I edited it together in iMovie. It was a ‘no-budget’ film.

Lo-Budget Mayhem, London Short Film Festival

12 January 7pm @ Hackney Picturehouse 270 Mare St, London, E8 1HE, United Kingdom.

View Expat on a Balcony, my four minute film, online on youtube

The Waugh Office kindly asked me to do a live Periscope TV broadcast for their Cross Borders: RISK exhibition event with Venice Agendas at the Turner Contemporary Margate gallery. 

 

I’d been following the radio drama serial development workshops of Cape Town’s Siyaziwa at Children’s Radio Foundation and was delighted when the group agreed to a live interview.

They spoke candidly about wanting to create true-to-life LGBTIQ characters and storylines and the process of recording a ten part drama serial called Kwa Ntliziyondise.

My short film, Expat on a Balcony also screened at the gallery at the event.

Photos by Jacqueline van Meygaarden at CRF.

My live interview with Siyaziwa is on Periscope TV and at the Turner Contemporary Gallery Margate this Saturday 21 November.

Siyaziwa – a Cape Town group of LGBTIQ radio reporters-turned-actors – will be talking about their audio drama, ‘Kwa Ntliziyondise’ (Following My Heart) created at Children’s Radio Foundation.

The interview is part of a day of performance, screenings and interviews curated by the Waugh Office as part the TC Risk exhibition. Watch live and local on the big screen at the Turner Contemporary or watch online.

HOW TO WATCH PERISCOPE TV:
1) Download the Periscope TV app to your phone or iPad. https://www.periscope.tv
2) Follow @sophwoolley
3) You will receive and alert when the Interview goes live at 12pm UK time and 2pm South African time.
4) You can send us likes and comments while we are live.
5) You can watch on replay for 24 hours afterwards. ‪#‎airedeturner‬

Kwa Ntliziyondise is an audio drama (currently being recorded) based on the issues faced by gay and lesbian youth living in the township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town, South Africa. The drama is an inclusive project created, written and performed by a group of youth from different parts of Khayelitsha selected through a process facilitated by Health4Men and Free Gender. The audio drama will offer a space to gay and lesbian youth to voice their experiences and create stories that personify their dreams, fears and aspirations. The series aims to foster greater understanding and tolerance for a way of life that isn’t easily accepted in the community. Through authentic representation of the challenges of LGBTI youth the series will open up a space for reflection, empathy and action towards reducing stigma and discrimination.

New character, new video piece: