GENSOCIAL
TAMASHA THEATRE Company and Titilola Dawudu have announced Hear Me Now: Audition Monologues – Volume 2.
It has been the most collaborative and connected piece of work that I have created and been a part of
Titilola Dawudu
With a focus on actors and writers who are either ethnically diverse and/or deaf and disabled, Volume 2 follows the success of the 2018 smash, Hear Me Now: Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour.
The new volume will feature over 100 brand new monologues.
Conceived in 2016 by Tamasha and writer-producer Titilola Dawudu, the book of short monologues was a first of its kind, bringing together playwrights and actors in creative workshops to generate better audition material for ethnically diverse actors than the largely stereotypical characters generally found in published play texts.
Hear Me Now Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour was published in October 2018 and by December of the same year, was Oberon’s biggest selling book.
The Hear Me Now team are currently in talks with Methuen Drama, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing PLC who acquired Oberon Books in December 2019, to publish the second volume.
Dawudu, writer-producer and co-creator of Hear Me Now said: “Hear Me Now has now become more than the sum of its parts.
“It has been the most collaborative and connected piece of work that I have created and been a part of.
“To be able to produce a second volume, work with so many artists and publish so many stories – all during a pandemic – is very special.”
Fin Kennedy, Artistic Director of Tamasha commented: “It’s been wonderful watching the Hear Me Now project grow from an animated discussion between Titi and the Tamasha Playwrights group, into the force it has become today.
“We regularly hear how Volume 1 has empowered actors inaudition rooms around the country, and given early career writers their first break.
“A new volume prioritising D/deaf or disabledactors and writers, as well as those from beyond London, is a natural evolution for the format.
“We can’t wait to get started with our venue partners around the country, and sharing 100 new speeches in our new edition in a year’s time.”
The new volume will see the coming together of ten theatres and regions from across England, as well as 100 actors, 50 writers, five dramaturgs, 10 facilitators, signers, access workers, audio engineers and directors.
The theatres include: Belgrade Theatre (Coventry); Unity Theatre (Liverpool) with support from 20 Stories High; Beyond Face (Plymouth/Devon).
Hear Me Now: Audition Monologues – Volume 2 is scheduled to be published in early 2022, after a year-long engagement with actors and writers, and has been 100 percent funded and supported by Arts Council England.
