Born and Bread – In Production

If Brighton was a table that stretched out along the sea…
Who sits at the table? What’s on the menu? And what stories are told across the table?
After listening to the stories of over 100 locals, 36 workshops, dozens of extra rehearsals, an R&D sharing and several re-writes of the script, we now have a finished script, songs and funding from the Arts Council to bring Born and Bread to life.
We have four shows planned at Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts; a matinee and an evening performance on each date where we will feed our audience as part of the show:
- Saturday 30 September 2023, 2.30 pm and 7.30 pm
- Sunday 1 October 2023, 2.30 pm and 7.30 pm
Thanks to Arts Council England and Unity Theatre Trust for supporting this project.
“It made me feel like I’m alive again. It helped tremendously to build my confidence around people. It’s a huge progress for me and I’m so grateful and thankful to BPT who welcomed me and gave me this opportunity.”
Born & Bread R&D cast member
The Development Process
The idea for Born and Bread grew from our 2019 People’s Inspiration Meeting where we invited people from across the City to share ideas for new shows. These ideas were explored in our weekly theatre workshops in 2020 before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The concept for Born and Bread was developed by Naomi Alexander, Tanushka Marah, and Luan Taylor from these workshops.
Throughout 2022 Jack Parris, our Associate Director led the creative process to develop Born and Bread into a show. We went out and about across the City talking to people and listening to their stories about food, belonging, and identity. We spoke with over 100 people from all parts of Brighton. The script was born out of these stories, written and directed by Jack Parris, alongside our Guest Director Tanushka Marah.
We worked with local artist Sarah Sayeed on the sound design for the show, and Hastings-based artist Ben Pacey on the lighting and set design.
Participants were actively involved in shaping and contributing to every aspect of the production.
We performed the R&D show at The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts (ACCA) to a sold-out audience in July 2022. 100% of the audience wanted to see us develop the show into a full production. Our Associate Director Jack Parris worked with BPT’s Dramaturg Lou Cope to rewrite the script. We workshopped material at our weekly workshops with cast members.
“Just like bread, it (Born and Bread) has taken the raw ingredients of sometimes very raw actors, and brought out unexpected talents in a brilliant way – and it has given each of us a new joy, and a feeling of connectedness in a city that is sometimes very lonely. And there is no greater joy than making other people happy – BPT does all that and more.”
Born and Bread participant
The photos below were captured by Rosie Powell at our work-in-progress sharing of Born and Bread at ACCA in July 2022.
Cast & Creative

Naomi Alexander
Producer, Director and Dramaturg
Naomi started work on Brighton People’s Theatre in 2015 and established it as a Community Interest Company in 2017. She did this because she was fed up with how out of touch theatre often is and wanted to do something to change this. She has a background in both community development and theatre. She has worked for organisations such as the Hangleton and Knoll Project, Locality, Battersea Arts Centre and The Old Vic. She is a 2019/2020 Clore Leadership Fellow for Theatre and a member of Battersea Arts Centre’s Co-creating Change Network.

Luke Barnes
Script Editor
Luke Barnes is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter and theatre-maker using live performance and film to tell stories and make a good night out that’s also useful as humans and as a community. Highlights include: Freedom Project (Leeds Playhouse), The Jumper Factory (Young Vic), The Sad Club (National Theatre), No One Will Tell Me How To Start A Revolution (Hampstead Theatre), All We Ever Wanted Was Everything (Bush Theatre, Paines Plough Roundabout with Middle Child), Bottleneck (Soho Theatre with HighTide), Chapel Street (Bush Theatre), Weekend Rockstars and Ten Storey Love Song (Hull Truck with Middle Child), and The Saints (Nuffield Theatre).

Lou Cope
Dramaturg
Lou Cope is a Performance Dramaturg with over 15 years of experience in working with artists, organisations, and academic institutions to creatively and collaboratively develop both their processes and productions. Shows Lou has worked on have won: 2 Olivier awards, The Benois Prize for Dance, The Critics Choice Award, UK Theatre Award, Total Theatre Award, Amnesty International Freedom of Speech Award, ACTA Eastern Eye Award, Herald Angel Award & a Lustrum Award. She is also Dramaturg in Residence for South East Dance and works as an Organisational Dramaturg to a number of companies. She is an alumna of the Clore Pulse Leadership course.

Lauren Lambert-Moore
Stage Manager
Lauren (She/Her) is a director, stage manager and theatre maker. Credits include ‘Far Out’ – Director and Co-Producer (VAULT Festival 2023) nominated for VAULT Origins Award. ‘Tempest’ – Assistant Director & Stage Manager (Pleasance London), ‘All Roads’ – Stage Manager – Attic Theatre (London Tour). Lauren is a graduate of Central Saint Martins, East 15 Acting school and the National Youth Theatre.

George Long
Assistant Director
George is a soon-to-be graduate of Drama, Theatre & Directing at the University of Chichester. Alongside working for BPT, his debut one-act play ‘Staying’ which he has written and directed is being performed at the Interact Festival in Chichester (June 2023). He has also written, directed and acted in various productions while at university. Outside of theatre, George has produced charity fundraisers for Cancer Research UK and TOFS (Trachea Oesophageal Fistula Support) and has experience of SEN disability awareness. George is also trained in active listening, trauma within arts practice and mental health crisis prevention.

Tanushka Marah
Movement Director
Tanushka was the founder and Artistic Director of Collisions which toured for ten years in theatres and outdoors across the UK and abroad. She was a winner of The Genesis Young Vic Young Director Awards in 2002. Her production of Medea toured international festivals in Cyprus and Albania. Tanushka now works as a freelance director and movement coach and has directed many plays including Dracula, Beauty and the Beast, Macbeth, and Animal Farm. In 2017 she worked with Brighton People’s Theatre as a guest director on Tighten Our Belts. Tanushka runs a youth theatre company Windmill Young Actors, whose production of Berkoff’s Agamemnon won The Outstanding Theatre Award at Brighton Fringe 2017. Find out more about Tanushka here.

Ben Pacey
Lighting and Set Designer
Ben has over 20 years experience of design and lighting design for theatre, dance, devised performance, and galleries/installations designs. He is excited about collaboration, communication, participation, sharing, stories, experiences, and ideas. His work has been seen in theatres, opera houses, tunnels, art galleries, community centres, shopping centres, warehouses, wardrobes, woodland, the internet, and a palace. Find out more about Ben here.

Jack Parris
Writer and Director
Jack is a performer, theatre-maker, writer and facilitator. Prior to his work with BPT, Jack worked as a teacher, musician and actor and experimental film-maker Egg (2016), The Hex (2017) and Words (2018). Jack retrained in Theatre Laboratory at RADA in 2019 and now his practice focuses on co-creating physical theatre through play using embodied approaches influenced through his time working with David Glass Ensemble, Theatre Re, Peta Lily, Gabrielle Moleta Company and Gecko. Jack currently works with the devising ensemble Kreants, Saksi Bisou and Bunkum, whose recent experimental film Dangling Man was in the official selection at the London International Film Festival and the Montreal Film Festival.

Sarah Sayeed
Sound Designer
Sarah Sayeed is a musician, composer, sound designer and writer with over 15 years of experience working collaboratively with a range of artists and organisations.As a musical artist, her practice focuses around contemporary works that are influenced by a plethora of styles and musical traditions. Sarah has created compositions and sound designs across Western classical choral works, Indian and Bengali classical vocals, instrumental pieces and her first love: contemporary jazz, soul and hip hop. Sarah plays instruments tanpura and shruti, and is the lead vocalist in international duet Myth of Her with violin and electronic artist Anne Eltard (Copenhagen, Denmark). Find out more about Sarah here.

Lillian Waddington
Assistant Director
Lillian is an award-nominated theatre director born and bred in Brighton. Her practice celebrates inclusivity and challenges theatre’s boundaries in small and big ways. Highlights include: In A Cave A Voice – Director (Brighton Fringe 2022, nominated for the Brighton International Fringe Encore Award). My Period The Cockblock – Assistant Director (Vaults Festival 2023, nominated for Show Of The Week).

Dani White
Assistant Stage Manager
Dani is a freelance stage manager who has trained at the University of Chichester and The BRIT School for Performing and Creative Arts. During this time she has worked on a variety of shows in a variety of roles. Most recently she has completed a Stage Management Placement at SpongeBob the Musical UK Tour. Other Theatre credits include Deputy Stage Manager ‘ Buckets’ ( Showroom Chichester), Lighting Operator ‘ 60 minutes of Mood Swings’ (Showroom Chichester & Brighton Fringe 2023), Followspot for LP Creatives ‘Cinderella’ (Leatherhead Theatre) Followspot for LP Creatives ‘Snow White’ (Leatherhead Theatre) Assistant Stage Manager ‘2020 The Musical’ Tour (Camberley, Leatherhead and Sevenoaks) Deputy Stage Manager ‘ Taming of The Shrew’ (The BRIT School, Brit Theatre), Assistant Stage Manager ‘RENT’ (The BRIT School, Brit Theatre).