EQUAL STAGES STANDING UP FOR IDENTITY VOLUME 1

This is how diverse theatre is made in the UK and Ireland.

These are the experiences of gender, race, disability, class, poverty, age and region. African-Caribbean, British South Asian, British East Asian, Traveller/Romany, racism in theatre, racism in comedy, Islam, Welsh language, deaf/British Sign Language, gay, transgender, class through the prism of the council estates and poverty, women in the criminal justice system, rural, older people, the North, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, playwriting, criticism, theatre in education writing, education, funding, fringe, community, grassroots international theatre in the UK, alternative venues, Black Ticket Project, working men's clubs, theatres serving the community of all ages and backgrounds, marketing, academic, agents, representation and the language of respect.

42 voices across 40 interviews, published in association with the Other National Theatre, Morecambe, and the International Theatre Institute (Unesco).

Interviewees are: 

Dan Allum (writer, director, artistic director Romany Theatre Company)
Gavin Barlow (director the Albany, Deptford)
Luke Barnes (writer)
Julia Barry (executive director the Sherman Theatre)
Yvonne Brewster (director, co-founder Talawa)
John Byrne (writer & careers advisor/columnist The Stage newspaper)
Sanjit Chudha (marketing & communications manager Talawa)
Jo Clifford (writer, performer, transgender activist)
Stephen Davidson (writer, performer, director, transgender activist)
Sharlit Deyzac (co-director Voila! Europe Festival)
Susan Elkin (theatre in education writer, critic)
Paula Garfield (actor, director, artistic director Deafinitely Theatre)
Christopher Green (writer, theatre-maker, performer)
Jackie Hagan (poet, theatre-maker, disability activist)
John-David Henshaw (director, writer, artistic director Sweet Venues)
Anna Herrmann (joint artistic director Clean Break)
Lucy Hopkins (clown, director, co-director Heroes)
Sophia A Jackson (editor Afridiziak Theatre News)
Rosemary Jenkinson (playwright, poet, fiction writer)
Lora Krasteva (cultural producer, artistic director Global Voices Theatre)
Tobi Kyeremateng (cultural producer, founder Black Ticket Project)
Alan Lane (artistic director of Slung Low, The Holbeck)
Betsan Llwyd (artistic director Theatr Bara Caws)
Brian Merriman (founder, artistic director International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival)
Guleraana Mir (writer, theatremaker, executive director The Thelmas)
Will Nelson (fringe director, lecturer at Arden School of Theatre)
Gbolahan Obisesan (writer, director, artistic director Ovalhouse Theatre)
Miguel Oyarzun (co-director BE Festival)
Francesca Peschier (head of new works Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse theatres)
Tim Renkow (comedian, writer)
Paul Ricketts (comedian, writer, musician)
Barrie Rutter (actor, director, producer, founder Northern Broadsides)
Faz Shah (musician, actor, composer)
David Slater (director of Entelechy Arts)
Bob Slayer (comedian, producer, co-director Heroes)
Chris Sonnex (director, former artistic director Bunker Theatre)
Cleo Sylvestre (actor, writer, musician)
Amy Clare Tasker (co-director of Voila! Europe Festival)
David K S Tse (actor, writer, director, former artistic director Yellow Earth)
Lola Williams (agent, director New Wonder Management Talent Agency).
Kate Wood (executive director Activate, co-artistic director Inside Out Dorset)
Kat Woods (writer, director).

NICK AWDE is founder of the Other National Theatre at Morecambe s Alhambra Theatre, where he created the Morecambe Goth Passion Play, and co-director of the UK Centre of the International Theatre Institute (Unesco). He is also international editor (non-staff) for The Stage newspaper, was head critic of The Stage s Edinburgh reviewing & awards team for many years, co-founder of the UK's first professional theatre review site Theatre Guide London, and he also worked for many years for The Voice Newspaper Group. He has written, illustrated or edited more than 50 books including: Women in Islam, Chechen Phrasebook, Hausa Dictionary, Mellotron: The Machine and the Musicians That Revolutionised Rock, Singer-Songwriters Volume 1, and the forthcoming Avant-Hard in the UK, Finnish Rock, and Electric Guitarists & Bassists: Electrification of the Nation. As a playwright/ composer, dramatic works include Pete and Dud Come Again (with Chris Bartlett), Andrew Lloyd Webber: The Musical (book, lyrics & music), Noddy Holder's Christmas Carol Unplugged, and The Europeans (Parts 1-3: Bruges, Antwerp, Tervuren). As Nick Awde & Desert Hearts, music includes the albums Blues for Blighty (Vols 1-3), Swimming in a Fish Bowl, Mellotronic Belgium Blues, avant-garde online opera Belgium-737, and the EPs Selling England by the Pound, Close to the Edge b/w Meryl Streep/Rocket Man, and the single 'European Man (I Do What I Can)'.