Thursday 25th March 2021 at 7.30pm in #TheGreenRoom_UK
Jennifer Bates of the DH Ensemble talks to Bea Webster and Brooklyn Melvin
Interpreted by: Erin Hutching, Anna Kitson, Julie Thompson
Bea Webster is a deaf Scottish-Thai actor and theatre-maker who graduated with a BA Performance in British Sign Language and English from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Recent Theatre Credits: The Winter’s Tale (Royal Shakespeare Company) Peeling (Taking Flight Theatre Company), Mother Courage and Her Children (Red Ladder Theatre Company), Love and Information (Solar Bear/RCS) A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Last Woman Left, Scavengers, Antigone (RCS). Bea wrote, performed and directed House of Ladies for RCS’s On The Verge festival at the Citizens Theatre. She also co-wrote and devised Everything Will Be Perfect, playing drag queen Lyn Chee alongside Jamie Rea as Vikki Ryan. She has published a poem in both BSL and English titled Long Lost Lover, about her birthplace of Thailand. She also performed in BBC Social’s How not to be d*cks to deaf people. She was nominated Best Actress in a Play at The Stage Debut Awards 2019 for her role of Kattrin in Mother Courage and Her Children, and is also one of the Playwrights Studio Scotland’s mentored playwrights for 2020. Bea communicates in both Spoken English and British Sign Language. Bea experienced a lack of access to professional performance training until the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland set up their acting program which is accessible to Deaf BSL users.
Brooklyn is a deaf actor with BSL and English. Credits include: Oliver Twist (dir. Amy Leach) for Leeds Playhouse/Ramps on the Moon, Last Women Left and Love and Information, RCS. Short films: Y, XYZ with RCS, The Studio (dir. EJ Raymond) and A Love Divided (dir. Ian Bustard). Brooklyn trained at The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland graduating from the BSL and English Drama BA. Brooklyn Melvin plays the eponymous ‘Oliver Twist’ at Leeds Playhouse. Adapted by Bryony Lavery, every performance will feature the use of integrated creative sign language, audio description and captioning.
You can find all previous episode of #TheGreenRoom_UK at: https://www.strivecollective.org/the-green-room
Some useful links:
Bea’s poem: https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/long-lost-lover/
The Mitchell Library Glasgow: https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/libraries/venues/the-mitchell-library
Solar Bear: https://solarbear.org.uk
Deaf Youth Theatre: https://solarbear.org.uk/deaf-youth-theatre/
The Royal Conservatoire School: https://www.rcs.ac.uk/courses/ba-performance/
‘Squeezy Yoghurt’ by Bea performed by Brooklyn: https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com/latest/squeezy-yoghurt
Get your Frubes here (other yoghurt based products available): https://www.frubes.co.uk
National Theatre of Scotland: https://www.nationaltheatrescotland.com
‘Is This a Fairytale?’ By Be a Webster: https://positivestories.scot/plays/is-this-a-fairytale/
‘Time Like These’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz-a-fqQX4c
Sphinx Lab: https://sphinxtheatre.co.uk/sphinx-30/
