Chickenshed (also known as Chicken Shed or the Chicken Shed Theatre Company) is a British theatre company based in Southgate, London.
Contents
Chickenshed (also known as Chicken Shed or the Chicken Shed Theatre Company) is a British theatre company based in Southgate, London.
Chickenshed was founded by teacher Mary Ward and composer Jo Collins in 1974. Mary and Jo hosted their sessions in a disused chicken shed in Wrotham Park, kindly gifted to them by local landowner Lady Elizabeth Byng. The theatre troup went by “The Lady Elizabeth Theatre Workshop” for a while in her honour, but soon the name “Chicken Shed” stuck and the former was dropped. Chickenshed truly was founded in an old, disused chicken shed! After meeting John Bull in the 1980s, who ran local children’s home “Cheviots”, Chickenshed’s journey of true inclusion had well and truly begun.
Chickenshed has a purpose built theatre complex in Southgate which opened in 1994 after a national-scale fundraising effort, supported by the likes of Dame Judi Dench and Princess Diana of Wales. The theatre has four performance spaces: The Rayne Theatre which seating 300, a smaller Studio Theatre, and Amphitheatre and a Bar/restaurant that regularly hosts music and comedy evenings.
Chickenshed is registered as a charity under the name The Chickenshed Theatre Trust. In 1996, company founder Mary Ward was awarded the MBE for Services to the Arts followed in 1999, with a Creative Britons Award, to acknowledge her 25 years of work with the theatre, [1] while co-founder Jo Collins was awarded the MBE in the 2001 New Year's honours, for Services to Music. [2] Chickenshed has performed at a number of public events, including Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee celebrations in 2002. [3] A show to commemorate 100 years of J. M. Barrie's children's story Peter Pan was staged by the theatre company at the Albery Theatre, London in 2004, in order to raise funds for Great Ormond Street Hospital. [4]
Since 2000, Chickenshed has established 19 'Sheds' in the UK, Finland, New York and two in Russia. These Sheds have been set up and trained by Chickenshed but then go to run independently, linked to Chickenshed by a shared vision of inclusive practice and philosophy. [5]
Notable patrons of Chickenshed include Diana, Princess of Wales, Lord and Lady Rayne, Judi Dench, and Micheal Williams.
Notable alumni of Chickenshed's membership and education courses include Jamie Demetriou, Miriam-Teak Lee and Natasia Demetriou.
Chickenshed present original and entertaining productions for young children, families, and adults, inspired by our community and the world around them. Chickenshed's membership programme comprises four Children's theatre groups and two Youth theatre groups for young people aged 5–21 years. They hold weekly theatre workshops for children, young people and adults.
Chickenshed take performing arts training to the next level, by bringing together young people from all social and economic backgrounds, cultures, and abilities to study creatively alongside each other. Over 200 students join the BTEC, Foundation Degree and BA courses every year.
Chickenshed's work incorporates many varied performing arts activities, and participants develop skills in acting, music and dance, as well as building a range of life skills such as teamwork, leadership, adaptability and interpersonal skills.
The first musical writers for Chickenshed were Jo Collins and Anthony Filby, who together formed Colby music, through which they published a collection of musicals that Chickenshed performed. The music team has since greatly expanded. In December 1997, Chickenshed released a single, entitled "I Am In Love With The World", performed by children from the theatre. At bookmaker's odds of 4/1, the song was one of the contenders to become the UK Christmas number-one single. [6] However it reached only #15 in the chart, remaining in the Top 75 for six weeks. [7] The song was included on Diana, Princess of Wales: Tribute , a charity album recorded following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Diana had been the royal patron of the theatre along with Dame Judi Dench. [1] [8]
Late 2003 saw the release of The Chicken Shed Album, a compilation that marked the 30th anniversary of the theatre company. Contributors to the album included supporters of the organisation, such as Cliff Richard, Emma Bunton, Bob Hoskins and Kenneth Branagh, as well as three tracks by Chicken Shed itself. Jo Collins & Chickenshed recorded a song, "Talk Through Me" for the 2007 show tunes album Over the Rainbow .
 | This list of songs or music-related items is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021) |
"Have A Heart At Christmas" (single, 1994)
"I Am In Love With The World" (single, 1997)
The Chicken Shed Album (album, 2003)
Dame Judith Olivia Dench is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actors, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage. Dench has garnered various accolades throughout a career spanning seven decades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards, and seven Olivier Awards.
Sir Kenneth Charles Branagh is a British actor and filmmaker. Born in Belfast and raised primarily in Reading, Berkshire, Branagh trained at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and served as its president from 2015 to 2024. His accolades include an Academy Award, four BAFTAs, two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and an Olivier Award. He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 2012 Birthday Honours, and was given Freedom of the City in his native Belfast in 2018. In 2020, he was ranked in 20th place on The Irish Times' list of Ireland's greatest film actors.
Richard David Briers was an English actor whose five-decade career encompassed film, radio, stage and television.
Sir Derek George Jacobi is an English actor. Jacobi is known for his work at the Royal National Theatre and for his film and television roles. He has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, two Olivier Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Tony Award. He was given a knighthood for his services to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.
Emma Lee Bunton is an English singer, songwriter, media personality, and actress. She rose to fame in the 1990s as a member of the pop group the Spice Girls, in which she was nicknamed Baby Spice, reflecting the fact that she was the youngest member. With over 100 million records sold worldwide, the Spice Girls are the best-selling female group of all time.
All Is True is a 2018 British fictional historical film directed by Kenneth Branagh and written by Ben Elton. It stars Branagh as playwright William Shakespeare. The film takes its title from an alternative name for Shakespeare's play Henry VIII.
Rachael Atlanta Stirling is an English stage, film and television actress. She has been nominated twice for the Laurence Olivier Award for her stage work. She played Nancy Astley in the BBC drama Tipping the Velvet, and Millie in the ITV series The Bletchley Circle. She has also guest starred in Lewis and one episode of Doctor Who, co-starring with her mother Diana Rigg.
Wyndham's Theatre is a West End theatre, one of two opened by actor/manager Charles Wyndham. Located on Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, it was designed c.1898 by W. G. R. Sprague, the architect of six other London theatres between then and 1916. It was designed to seat 759 patrons on three levels; later refurbishment increased this to four seating levels. The theatre was Grade II* listed by English Heritage in September 1960.
Patrick Doyle is a Scottish composer and occasional actor best known for his film scores. During his 50-year career in film, television and theatre, he has composed the scores for over 60 feature films. A longtime collaborator of actor-director Kenneth Branagh, Doyle is known for his work on films such as Henry V, Sense and Sensibility, Hamlet, Carlito's Way, Quest for Camelot, and Gosford Park, as well as Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Thor, Brave, Cinderella,Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile.
Progress Theatre is a local theatre company at Reading in England. It is a registered charity and it is a member of the Little Theatre Guild (LTG) and the National Operatic and Dramatic Association (NODA).
Miranda Caroline Raison is a British and French actress. She is best known for playing Jo Portman in five seasons of Spooks (MI5) and Nellie Davenport in HBO's Warrior. She originated the title role in Howard Brenton's Anne Boleyn at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and played Hermione in Kenneth Branagh's production of The Winter's Tale, both to critical acclaim. She is also a prolific voice artist.
Gerard McCarthy is an actor from Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Nigel John Hess is a British composer, best known for his television, theatre and film soundtracks, including the theme tunes to Campion, Maigret, Wycliffe, Dangerfield, Hetty Wainthropp Investigates, Badger and Ladies in Lavender.
Michelle Duncan is a Scottish-Canadian actress, known for Driving Lessons (2006), Atonement (2007) and The Broken (2008). She portrayed Shelley Stern in the biographical drama film Bohemian Rhapsody (2018).
Christopher Oram is a British theatre set and costume designer.
Sarah Woodward is a British actress who won an Olivier Award in 1998 for Tom & Clem and was Tony nominated in 2000 for The Real Thing. Sarah is the daughter of actor Edward Woodward and his first wife, actress Venetia Barrett. She is sister of actor Tim Woodward, and actor, voice artist, and screenwriter Peter Woodward, and half-sister to actress Emily Woodward, whose mother is actress Michele Dotrice.
The following is the filmography for actor, director, producer and screenwriter Kenneth Branagh.
Murder on the Orient Express is a 2017 mystery film co-produced and directed by Kenneth Branagh from a screenplay by Michael Green, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. The film stars an ensemble cast with Branagh as Hercule Poirot, alongside Tom Bateman, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, and Daisy Ridley. The plot follows Poirot, a world-renowned detective, as he investigates a murder on the luxury Orient Express train service in the 1930s.
Belfast is a 2021 British coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. The film stars Caitríona Balfe, Judi Dench, Jamie Dornan, Ciarán Hinds, Colin Morgan and Jude Hill. The film, which Branagh has described as his "most personal", follows a young boy's childhood in Belfast, Northern Ireland, at the beginning of The Troubles in 1969.
| Authority control databases: Artists |
|---|
