Russell Maliphant Dance Company Presents ‘Vortex’

Last night was the press night for Russell Maliphant’s ground breaking project Vortex at the iconic Sadler’s Wells Theatre and we were delighted to welcome a host of national, cultural, and specialist dance press including The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, The Financial Times, Culture Whisper, Bachtrack, British Theatre Guide, Broadway World and Dance International.

It was wonderful to see the internationally acclaimed dance company grace the stage for the first of three consecutive nights as we have had the joy of working with the Russell Maliphant Dance Company throughout its UK national Vortex tour, which comes to a close this June.

The production itself was sublime and an utter escapism from reality. The performance sparks a variety of emotions triggered by the production’s astounding composition and lighting – at times the production is beautifully intense, at other times it is peaceful, gentle and serene. The dancers of RMDC were nothing short of remarkable, and it was a privilege to watch the performance in such an esteemed setting.

Our close relationship with RMDC stretches right back to 2018 and in five successful years, in addition to Vortex, we have worked with the simply incredible team on the award-winning Maliphantworks and looked after the entire press campaign for the UK national tour of the critically acclaimed Silent Lines (either side of the pandemic!).

The audience absolutely loved last night’s performance; there was a certain energy in the room that only Russell’s work can generate, and we cannot wait for the rest of the tour.

Sundae x

Images by: Roswitha Chesher

Stockton Globe Unveils Completion of £28 Million Restoration

Wow! What a week! Just yesterday we were on the ground at Stockton Globe, ATG’s brand new, 3000 capacity, flagship music and comedy venue, as it unveiled the completion of its £28 million restoration by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, to a targeted guestlist of press.

We have been so excited for this incredible milestone and it was a real honour to be part of the day as we worked alongside the amazing team from the council to lead our guests on an informative guided tour of the venue, taking in all of the heritage works and new additions while facilitating interviews with ATG representatives and local councillors, as well as a live television news broadcast from the stage.

This wasn’t any normal press launch as it required even further meticulous planning in order to adhere to the social restrictions thrust upon us by the pandemic that shall not be named. We won’t bore you with the exact details of this part of the process, but to cut a long, yet triumphant, story short: they presented a huge challenge that we worked really hard to successfully overcome.

It was a beautiful day; a real life event (we know, right!) with an amazing feeling of pride pulsating through the truly iconic Art-Deco building; it was as if it knew that its entertainment journey was about to start once again.

Tremendous support for the build completion from the media has seen meaningful coverage appear across a spread of titles including BBC News Online, ITV Tyne Tees Online, Music Week, Access All Areas, Total Production International, MONDO-DR, BBC Look North, BBC Radio Tees, ITV Tyne Tees, Northern Echo, Teesside Live, Darlington & Stockton Times and NE Volume.

Another step closer to opening for Stockton Globe and a huge moment for the live entertainment industry as a sleeping legend awakens… in the words of The Beatles: here comes the sun!

Tom x

Silent Lines….the UK tour that made us want more!

When our friends at Russell Maliphant Dance Company got in touch with us and offered us the opportunity to look after the 10 month comminications campaign for the UK national tour of its much anticipated new work, Silent Lines… we certainly didn’t need to be asked twice.

Over the course of 2019 we were tasked with organising the announcements of the work and the world premiere in April at DanceEast in Ipswich where RMCo is ‘Company in Residence’ on a national level and managing press activity for the entire tour on a regional level featuring dates in Nottingham, Newcastle, Guildford, Salford Quays, Wycombe, Birmingham, Taunton, Llanelli, Aberystwyth and Lancaster before organising press attendance for the final shows at Sadler’s Wells, London this weekend.

We planned the campaign down to the letter and worked really closely with the RMCo team and the press and marketing representatives of each venue within the tour to ensure that absolutely no stone was left unturned – this beautiful piece of work deserved maximum exposure and meticulous strategy.

Over the course of the campaign we placed have interview features in The Guardian, The Times, The Stage and The Wonderful World of Dance amongst others.

Further regional features included Creative Tourist, Quays Life, Sommerset County Gazette, Watford Observer, East Anglian Daily Times, BBC Radio Lancaster, Morecombe Visitor and Lancaster Evening Post to name a few.

Silent Lines, as a production, is something that we feel honoured too have worked on here at Sundae; the very energy of the piece and the visually rich and resonant connections between internal and external worlds is something that has inspired us throughout.

It has been an incredible experience; one that transcends dance and our own world of publicity as the media are so engaged with the innovative nature of the work and Russell Maliphant’s unequivocal genius levels that the campaign took a life of it’s own.

The Silent Lines UK national tour is a dance that we don’t want to end and as we look forward to Sadler’s Wells this weekend with a press list consisting of reviewers from The Telegraph, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Times, Evening Standard, Classical Source and Bachtrach plus many more we are filled with pride that when the curtain comes down we will have achieved the coverage that the production deserved.

Right now we are off to tie up the very last loose ends and prepare for the weekend… we cannot wait to read the reviews!

Tom x

Images courtesy of Russell Malipant Dance Company

Hear Her, the Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy comes to the BBC

We were very proud to work with the Donmar Warehouse again this summer when the films of its trail-blazing all-female Shakespeare Trilogy came to the BBC.

The TX was part of the BBC’s Hear Her season, beginning with the broadcast of Julius Caesar on BBC Four in June, and the world premiere of Henry IV and The Tempest on the BBC iPlayer, where all three films will remain for a brilliant six months, watch it here.

Described by Susannah Clapp (Observer) as ‘one of the most important theatrical events of the past 20 years’, the Trilogy features an all-female cast led by Dame Harriet Walter, one of the greatest living Shakespearean actors, and is directed by Phyllida Lloyd (The Iron Lady, ROH: Macbeth), for both stage and screen.

In Julius Caesar, Phyllida Lloyd has taken her striking production of Shakespeare’s famous discourse on power, loyalty, and tragic idealism, and used her considerable directorial vision to shape it into a gripping on-screen version which was welcomed into the Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2017, and nominated for a number of awards as a film in its own right.

The incredible cast continues to reach new heights and the broadcast was supported by a brilliant set of interview features, pitched by our Donmar account manager Tom, including Phyllida Lloyd in the Observer New Review and Olivier Award winner Sheila Atim in the Daily Telegraph. Watch this space for an upcoming Financial Times podcast from the wonderful Dame Harriet Walter. There was also an insightful piece in the Guardian from the Donmar’s outgoing artistic director and executive producer Josie Rourke and Kate Pakenham, which you can read here.

The television broadcast and iPlayer premiere campaign delivered on a dream strategy, hitting every mark, and wide range of audiences, with key coverage across an extensive list of national titles with Critics Choices, Highlights and Picks of the Day in The Sun TV Mag, TV Times, TV & Satellite Week, Radio Times, What’s On TV, Daily Mail Weekend, Mail on Sunday, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times Culture, Daily Star, DIVA Magazine and i-D Magazine, even garnering an impressive five stars in the Financial Times.

Unbelievably there is still more to come from the Donmar Trilogy, as it is now available for free to schools via the National Theatre’s On Demand platform, supported by an incredible array of bespoke content here, and an education programme is due to start in September, which we can’t wait to be part of.

Sundae x

 

Images: Donmar Trilogy / Publicity shots / Helen Maybanks / Nadav Kander

 

 

 

 

Making Contact

One of Sundae’s first missions for Contact, Manchester’s critically acclaimed, trail-blazing theatre and arts venue, led and programmed by young people, was to help launch the final phase of its Capital Redevelopment fundraising campaign, with a target of 500k, after raising over £6m of its £6.65m target. 

The rousing campaign was launched with Making Contact, an event at Manchester Art Gallery introduced by Contact advocate Julie Hesmondhalgh, Contact’s Chief Executive & Artistic Director Matt Fenton, and an inspiring performance from Contact Young Company’s radical 5* show She Bangs The Drums.

Front and centre of the campaign was Con:Struct, the dedicated team of young people aged 13-30 leading the project to transform the building for the next generation of audiences, artists and young people. They revealed the plans for the building, which is looking to reopen in Summer 2019, along with a new film to introduce Contact to a wider audience.

A new arts and health space has been funded by a Wellcome Trust grant of £500,000. This will provide a dedicated space to develop new partnerships and relationships with NHS, patient groups, young people, local communities and artists. Additional funding will support a three-year post of Health Producer to lead on projects and produce new theatre shows that explore health inequalities and other current issues.

Support from trusts and foundations follows initial grants from Arts Council England and Manchester City Council.  In addition, Contact has received in kind support and with Contact’s own funds and individual donations this brought the total secured to date to £6,161,133.

They had already achieved an incredible and inspiring amount, so our job was to shine a light on their work, whilst helping put Contact in front of new people, to grow their audience and fanbase, as well as introducing the company new possible sources of funds.

We shared Contact’s news with broad spread of press from the regional Manchester media, national arts press, theatre, architectural and business press. We achieved key coverage including news and features, plus interviews with Contact ambassador Julie Hesmondhalgh, in Architects Journal, Northern Soul, Manchester Confidential, Manchester Theatre Awards, Manchester’s Finest, Manchester Evening News, VIVA Magazine and British Theatre Guide.

We also delved into our own little black book and invited our favourite creatives, influencers and business owners along to the event. The turnout was amazing and despite a very sunny day, the event was packed to the rafters with new and existing fans  of Contact.

The Contact team are well and truly on their way to achieving their fundraising target and this event was the first step on a very exciting road and a journey that we are honoured to travel with them.

 

 

Be//Longing at the PR Moment Awards

Tonight team Sundae are off to the PR Moment Awards at the Hilton Hotel with our clients, collaborators and friends from Be//Longing; a project that we are so very proud of and a campaign that has been nominated for the Best Use of Creativity Award.

As well as Caroline Boyd and Dr Tanja Müller from the University’s of Manchester’s Migration Lab we will be joined at the table by the inspirational Take Back Theatre collective; actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, writer Becx Harrison and visual artist Grant Archer.

Manchester Migration Lab was formed in January 2017 and brings together more than 70 researchers across the University’s Schools and Research Institutes that focus on migration issues as part of the University’s research expertise in addressing global inequalities.

The Lab came up with the amazing idea of using writing, theatre, and live events to ignite and inform debate in local, national and global communities to support and communicate its work. After a lot of work and planning from ourselves, Take Back and UoM, Be//Longing came to life.

Be//Longing was an immersive production at Hope Mill Theatre with proceeds going to migration charities, it used installations, an exhibition, music and video alongside scripted theatre, to create an experience that boldly addressed perceptions of migration and expose myths.

So as we get dolled up for the evening’s events in the office, we are nervous, excited yet hopeful that we will bring the award home for a project and a subject matter that is so close to all of our hearts.

Fingers crossed x

(Images: Sebastian Matthes)

The journey to Be//Longing

This is a surprise project, the one you don’t expect and didn’t imagine, but then becomes a defining moment that opens a whole world of new possibilities.

Earlier this year the University’s of Manchester’s new Migration Lab got in touch with the brilliant, but ambitious, idea of using writing, theatre, and live events to ignite and inform debate in local, national and global communities to support and communicate its work. You can read more about this here.

After a good deal of thought, we decided that of course the arts are a form of communication, and why can’t we bring in some brilliant partners to collaborate and tell this important story.

Manchester Migration Lab was formed in January 2017 and brings together more than 70 researchers across the University’s Schools and Research Institutes that focus on migration issues as part of the University’s research expertise in addressing global inequalities.

We’ve worked with Hope Mill Theatre since they opened, and they have gone from strength to strength, winning awards, 5* reviews, and putting on definitive shows in a versatile and beautiful space they made themselves.

Next up, and essential to the success of the project was the inspirational Take Back Theatre collective, a company set up by actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, writer Becx Harrison and visual artist Grant Archer as an artistic response to the politics of austerity.

With the perfect team in place, and a solid comms strategy to back them up, we set about turning research into a piece of theatre.

The essential first step was to arrange a meeting of minds, orchestrating a fascinating combination of academia and creativity; a development workshop took place at Hope Studios, a rehearsal space in the Northern Quarter also part-owned by Joe and Will from Hope Mill Theatre.

There the team was joined by MML coordinator Dr Cathy Wilcock, a selection of Manchester Migration Lab researchers from across the University, in addition to the Lab’s co-convener, Dr Tanja Müller. The session opened with a showcase from Take Back, performing a selection of scenes show us what they do; and they grabbed the room with a passion that made us all realise the potential of this project.

The next step was to look at the research and stories the Lab is keen to share widely and create conversation around. We settled on the theme of ‘crossing borders’ a concept that has so much meaning, and made the decision to create a multi-media piece that looked at all types of emotional, physical and societal borders expressed in many different ways.

Take back listened hard, went away and came back with a plan… Be//Longing was born.

The immersive production will run from Tue 31st Oct –Sat 4th Nov with proceeds going to migration charities, and it will use installations, an exhibition, music and video alongside scripted theatre, to create an experience that will boldly address perceptions of migration and expose myths.

Throughout the run, Hope Mill Theatre will be completely transformed to resemble a warehouse on the edge of a border, and after making their journey to the theatre, audience members will reach an arrivals area where their tickets will be checked and processed, and they’ll cross the border to Be//Longing.

We’re now beginning our bespoke communications campaign, using specially created social channels to engage with targeted accounts on a peer to peer level whilst putting the initial story in all of the right hands.

As you can imagine, we are incredibly excited to see and promote the production. Do come and see it.

Tom x

Donmar Warehouse Presents: Julius Caesar

Sundae was thrilled to be asked to handle the publicity campaign for Donmar Warehouse’s Julius Caesar. This was the first in the on-screen versions of their phenomenally successful, groundbreaking all-female Shakespeare Trilogy, both directed by Phyllida Lloyd. The film was released in cinemas on 12th July, and had its World Premiere at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where it was nominated for two awards.

The diverse all-female cast was a unique and important angle for the trilogy, one that we were really keen to emphasise throughout the campaign. The meta element of the play, with the cast assuming the role of prisoners who were acting in the Trilogy, came about as a direct result of the Donmar Warehouse’s association with the remarkable prison charity Clean Break, which aims to rehabilitate female prisoners and women with experience of the criminal justice system through the restorative power of theatre.

The three plays were recorded in October 2016 at the Donmar Warehouse’s pop-up theatre at Kings Cross with Phyllida Lloyd directing. The on screen version was shot  live over two nights, and used separately shot hand-held material to break up the formality of the live camera ‘capture’, and GoPros hidden in the stage or worn by the actors.

The critical reception for the original theatre run gave us a fantastic foundation to build on. We secured a wide range of fantastic film reviews, with 4* reviews from outlets including The Stage, and Screen International.

We delivered a targeted campaign reaching the national film and entertainment press, whilst harnessing the Donmar’s Young + Free  which offered reduced price tickets to under 25s , was carried through to the cinema release, intended to diversify Shakespeare’s audience. The cast was led by our greatest living Shakespearean actors Dame Harriet Walter, with Jade Anouka, Karen Dunbar, Jackie Clune and Jennifer Joseph.

We achieved a great spread of interviews, including a major double page spread interview with Dame Harriet in the Radio Times, leading to print and online pickup in the Guardian, an interview with Phyllida Lloyd on Monocle 24 Radio and a feature with Shiloh Coke for British Blacklist,

A junket at the EIFF gave us an opportunity to really amplify the regional ties to the film, namely through Scottish comedian and actress Karen Dunbar, winning coverage on BBC Radio Scotland and a double page spread in The Sunday Mail.

The first phase of the campaign was a huge success, with 64 pieces of coverage achieving a total potential reach of over 460 million.

(Images: Julius Caesar by Helen Maybanks)

A royal success for King Lear: The Film

Throughout 2016 we have had the absolute pleasure of working on the multi-platform release of King Lear: The Film for digital arts commissioning body The Space. Captured at the Royal Exchange Theatre, a co-production with Talawa Theatre Company, where it played to sell-out crowds, the production was critically acclaimed, with the Guardian calling it ‘as close to definitive as can be’, so, as you can imagine, we were super excited to be on board.

Award-winning actor Don Warrington has been highly praised for his brutal and powerful portrayal of King Lear, which resonates particularly as the UK’s awareness of the impact of Dementia on family bonds and decision-making grows. The film has already seen support from the downright lovely folk at Dementia UK, Alzheimer’s Society and Lewy Body Society who ran news stories and engaged with us on social media.

Meanwhile the casting of King Lear’s family as black reminded us that the presence and influence of black people is potentially un-documented in our ancient history. The casting also addresses the debate about the lack of availability of roles for black actors in the UK; we were able to ignite a discussion about diversity in the industry, with titles such as Digital Spy and the Metro as platforms.

There were three exciting stages of release for King Lear. First off, the film was made available to everyone with access to the internet on BBC iPlayer as part of a series called Shakespeare Lives – in the digital age. We wanted to spread the word to as many people as possible that Lear was stream-able, and we were able to support the launch with a huge spread of press coverage including the Daily Mail, BBC News and the Stage.

King Lear: The Film then went on tour. It was shown at thirteen cinemas across the country, all completely free to encourage students to attend. We hit the regional press to let the locals know and managed to secure 43 regional pieces of coverage.

At 7pm on Christmas Day, King Lear added a generous slice of culture into the mix on BBC Four. We sat back, digested our excessive amounts of turkey and looked on with immense pride as our ‘Pick of the Day’, in many leading national publications, yet again took centre stage.

Deservedly, the interest in King Lear: The Film increased across all three stages of its release, with the screening previewed in titles such as Sunday Times: Culture, Daily Telegraph, i, Financial Times, Sunday Express, Daily Mail, What’s on TV, Total TV Guide and the Times.

We are so happy to say that we are continuing to work with the Space in 2017; keep a lookout for the specifics… ‘cos they be comin’ to ya on the fly.

Tom x

(Images: Jonathan Keenan)

Jumping on board with the The Railway Children…

We’ve been working hard on the stage to screen film of E Nesbit’s The Railway Children – and it’s been such a wonderful campaign to be part of.

The Olivier Award winning production was filmed by Genesius Pictures in the unique Signal Box, a custom built theatre at the National Rail Museum in York. This production featured the train from the original 1970 film, which made it extra special.

We launched press and publicity campaign late last year, in addition to looking after all social media marketing for the film, which was shown on Easter Monday in over 400 cinemas.

We gained exciting national and all-important regional coverage through interviews, competitions, reviews, video content, features and listings. Some of my favourite pieces appeared in The Guardian, The Londonist, Evening Standard,The Mail On Sunday, The New Day, The Mirror, Top 10 Films, The Skinny, Metro. In addition there were hundreds of regional pieces of coverage, which were produced working with the local cinemas and the film’s marketing director Jane Smith.

I loved producing and delivering the social campaign, in particular creating videos for social media from BTS footage and tailoring our posts to ensure they worked perfectly for The Railway Children’s very specific audience.

It was very exciting for me personally to work on The Railway Children, as it was my first experience following a film from production through to launch. I found it so insightful seeing the film grow from initial plans to then gaining coverage in some of my favourite publications such as The Guardian.

It was also an absolute pleasure to be part of the press launch at The Courthouse Hotel, Soho; everyone who attended loved the film and the whole event was a massive success.

There are still lots of encore screenings making their way to various cinemas in the UK, be sure to jump on board and catch it if it is calling in to your home town.

Becca x

(Images: Andrew Lamb and Anthony Robling)