Speak up! Stand up and speak up!

London Performance Studios is pleased to launch ‘Play Circles’ a new series of intimate script-in-hand workshop reading by The AIDS Plays Project.

Every day, more bad news. In his poky flat, Milo flits between videotapes of his favourite TV quiz shows and his collection of obituaries for dead friends and lovers, carefully cut out and saved. Over the course of seventy-five minutes, Jewell sketches an unbearably moving portrait of an ordinary man asking himself: why have I been spared? 

Based on Jim Jewell’s autobiographical one-man show from 1992, ‘Milo Lookingale’ is a frank and furious dispatch from the early years of the epidemic. The text was recently rediscovered by a group of performers and queer activists in Oregon. For one night only, it is read by acclaimed theatre artist and performer Dickie Beau. 

–

Play Circle is an intimate public workshop in which actors read a script for the very first time before a live audience. Performed with the cast seated amongst the audience, the reading blurs the line between stage and spectators, creating a unique shared experience. After the reading, audiences are invited to join a lively discussion about the play. Jim Jewell was a writer, performer, and teacher from Indiana. He acted in and directed dozens of shows for Stage 212, a community theatre in the Illinois Valley, and edited the organisation’s newsletter for 17 years. ‘Milo Lookingale’ premiered in 1992 with Jewell in the title role, before touring to Indiana and New York, where it was filmed for television. He passed away in 1994 at age 49 from HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.

Cast

Dickie Beau

Creative Team

Director: Alastair Curtis
Producers: David Doyle, Alastair Curtis
Designers: Tom Joyes, Fran Ortega

This event is organised by Alastair Curtis, as part of the Associate Artists Programme.