H E L E N T E N N I S O N
I love the rhythm and structure of a good text and enjoy working with writers to develop a new script. I've written adaptations, I often create text through a devising process and was recently commissioned to write my first full-length script. I am currently developing a solo show: Doggerland.
My writing experience includes:
Suitcase Stories (working title)
A magical tale about dementia, commissioned by ArtsUplift and based on stories from their outreach programme for people living with dementia. I'm currently writing the script with the project set for production in 2022.
Magnetic North
A script I created specifically for online performance through a part scritpted, part devised process. Part of my role as Artist in Residence at the University of South Florida, Jan/Feb 2021.
Orlando
An adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel performed in Florida at USF March 2020.
Wuthering Heights
An adaptation of the classic novel which played the main stage at Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud before embarking on a regional tour. 2014.
my directing experience for new writing:
Everything I See I Swallow
Edinburgh Fringe First Winner 2019
Inter generational feminism, circus theatre.
Performed by Tamsin Shasha and Maisy Taylor
Commissioned by The Lowry, Salford.
Performed Summerhall, Edinburgh 2019 +UK Tour.
"A beautifully elaborate depiction of the mother and daughter relationship. It was moving, it was unexpected and shocking, but it worked against the grain to give audiences a visually, unique experience. Everything I See I Swallow is truly a piece of art."
-Saskia Calliste, Voicemag.
"The pair play out their relationship amid stunning rope gymnastics.. in a gorgeous evocation of intergenerational schism and mutual understanding." - Dave Pollock, The Independent
"An intelligent investigation of the multi-dimensional nature of contemporary feminism... And although there is no trite resolution in the piece, there is the message that if we just try to listen to and understand each other, we can get through life…" - Dorothy Max-Prior, Total Theatre
"Director Helen Tennison excels at combining text and movement, and the show’s beauty lies in how the movement mirrors, contrasts and accentuates the emotional struggles of its characters." -Stav Meishar Circus Diaries
TEACH
Solo show written and performed by Matthew Roberts
What does it mean to be a teacher in today's secondary schools?
Surgeon's Hall, Edinburgh.
Extracts presented at numerous teaching conferences.
*****"Director Helen Tennison wisely allows the right amount of anarchy balanced with poignancy and sadness."
- Paul T Davies, BritishTheatre.com
Dracula
By Kate Kerrow
A new adaptation of Dracula written by Kate Kerrow, focusing on the relationship between Jonathan and Mina.
Produced by Creation Theatre, performed site-responsive at Blackwell's Bookshop, Oxford 2018, transferred to The London Library 2019.
"A masterpiece, sensuous, unsettling and absorbing to the point of hypnotic"
-Katherine MacAllister, The Oxford Times.
Cinderella
A festive retelling by Kate Kerrow
Produced by Creation Theatre
Mill Arts Centre, Banbury
2016-17
"no swooning maidens here... charming, thought-provoking, funny, imaginative"
-Katherine MacAllister, Oxford Times
Readings and Script Development
Includes work for Women at RADA
Development work on BOOTS by Jessica Butcher and Sascha Voit
F**k18 - Restoration comedy meets club 18-30 by Matthew Roberts, Before Christmas, by Nastazja Somers for the Herstory Festival.
Rehearsed Reading of The Arrest of Rosa Gold by Diane Samuels featuring Penny Downie.
Lovesick
New Writing from Georgina Barley
"I didn't ask for this feeling. It's invasive, it's infectious, I don't want it, so I'm asking you - very politely - to medicate me"
Development workshops 2018
Premiered September 2020
