Theatre has been around long before 4th century B.C., and today it is still very present in almost all cultures. In Barcelona, there are multiple theatres with plays to please folks of all ages and there are even a several English plays to accommodate the growing expat and English speaking community!
For the past 3 years, Sue Flack, co-founder and artistic director of Escapade Theatre, has brought English theatre to Barcelona. In our recent podcast with Sue (listen here), she discussed her upcoming show; Alice in Wonderland, as well as her journey pursuing her passion.
Escapade Theatre was first founded in London in 1987, where Sue as born and raised. She started off as a part-time actress and part-time waitress. After a short time of this lifestyle, she decided that she would take a leap of faith and run her own theatre.
“We decided that 6 months of waitressing was enough and we were going to do our own theatre.”
When asked how she initially got involved in theatre, Sue explained that it was through a youth theatre.
“As soon as I entered into the theatre, I realized this is what I wanted to do and therefore applied for drama school and since then it’s been a professional activity for me.”
However, the move to Barcelona happened unexpectedly. Sue talked about her initial plan of simply travelling and teaching English for 9 months with all intentions of going back to London. As things don’t always go as planned, Sue met someone and everything changed – now she has two teenagers, a husband and a theatre company here in Barcelona.
A big motivator for to Sue’s decision to start her own theatre was the lack of strong parts for women. In order to continue pursuing her career in the theatre industry, she knew she couldn’t only rely on acting jobs. With this being an issue close to Sue, one of Escapade Theatre’s first missions was to offer great roles for women.
“We started off with plays with very strong parts for women because it’s always very difficult to get great plays with parts for women.”
However, Sue realized there are some obstacles with creating many roles for women and that unfortunately there is still a stigma around creating all-women plays. According to Sue, admitting she may be imposing the stigma upon herself, all-woman plays are often expected to be either “sexy calendar women” or a feminist play.
“If you do a play with all guys, nobody says ‘Oh it’s some kind of play about being a man’, it just happens to be a play with a lot of guys in it. But when you do it the other way around, it’s a bit tricky, so I haven’t yet done that.”
Alice in Wonderland – debuting on May the 12th at Gaudi Theatre– is Escapade Theatre’s newest project. It being the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Alice and Wonderland, Escapade Theatre, as well as many other theatres have decided to create new versions of this classic piece.
A very impressive note to make of Escapade’s version of Alice in Wonderland is that all of their songs and music are original. Julian Jahanpour, composer at Escapade Theatre did an incredible job at creating the music for the show. They’ve taken the words that Lewis Carroll wrote stemming from poems and transformed them into songs. In the podcast, we listened to several of the songs that will be used in the show.
This version of Alice and Wonderland, described by Sue as a sexy, Victoriana and steam punk themed play, is sure to be a hit. Being a musical, Sue explained that they are very fortunate to have a full triple threat cast. The term “triple threat” is used in the entertainment industry when a person has talents in singing, dancing and acting! With 11 actors (6 women and 5 men) and 29 characters, each talented actor takes on 2 or 3 roles!
“When I start a project, I always surround myself with the best people.”
Creating a show being an expensive endeavour, Escapade Theatre started a crowdfunding initiative to help support the realization of the show. For €25, you not only get a ticket, but a glass of cava and an exclusive signed mosaic poster of the play as well. You can also pledge €50 or more for even more great items! If you are interested in supporting the arts in Barcelona, visit their web page here to contribute to the crowdfunding initiative!
Or you can simply buy your ticket for the show on the Gaudi Theatre website here! Show times are 21:00 Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and 18:00 on Sundays! Don’t miss out on this incredible show and go buy your ticket today! We definitely will!
Danielle Marquis
The Grid BCN
