Bunbury Banter Theatre Company
ABOUT US:
The Bunbury Banter Theatre Company was born from a desire to make theatre accessible to all and particularly those who are currently unaware of it due to social, physical, personal or financial hardship.
We believe in the art of storytelling and allowing our projects to be driven by the narrative and inspired by the heritage and culture of folklore. Performing an exciting mix of pieces, using various mediums, our projects are high quality, thought provoking pieces not to be missed!
"let us whisper in your ear and take you places your imagination rarely visits....."
THE WORK WE DO CURRENTLY
Bunbanter (our nickname) works to deliver imaginative, immersive and engaging theatre of all kinds specialising in the area of new writing. We aim to make theatre of all types accessible to new audiences and new talent alike while following our ethos of strong storytelling and accessibility to all.
We currently produce an ongoing series' of short atmospheric radio dramas...With which we are continually breaking new barriers of quality and honing the art of capturing people’s attention through the airways. We work with a large number of new writers, superb Directors and Editors with varying genres of plays. Our aim with the plays is to achieve the level of production quality found on BBC Radio while staying true to our mission of exploring the medium in a collaborative and exciting way.
We also teach the next generation about drama and audio work by delivering workshops and classes both ourselves, and for schools and organisations various. We have our own Saturday Theatre School and Summer Schools, which works across the various subjects including singing, dance, drama and media classes. Different from many other organisations, we focus on our student’s confidence and development while encouraging them to try out different experiences such as radio and TV, stage combat, musical theatre and productions on a professional stage. Due to being a working company our education department benefits from working with theatre professionals who are not only aware of the current trends but making them!
THE ONGOING SERIES OF RADIO PLAYS:
Bunbanter’s main aim is to make drama accessible to all and to do this, we specialise in working with new writers to make audio drama, produced in repertory, within a series format aired both online and on local, national and international radio.
Inspired by the morality of folk and fairy tales of old, Bunbanter radio plays are like no other!
Each short play, set in a series genre, has the same strong narrative running through them and all have the unique, quirky Bunbanter style. Although our radio plays are child friendly they are predominantly produced for adults so they can be dark, unpredictable and weird. Our tales are new writing; promoting the mix of our storytelling heritage with the new society of today.
From humble beginnings, Bunbanter has produced over seventy new radio plays supporting both undiscovered talent and new writing with every series. As a company, we continually strive to improve our practices and develop our education programmes and in 2008 our radio plays were nominated for a Channel 4 Talent Award.
EDUCATION
Bunbanter Education aims to encourage theatrical diversity and accessibility of drama and audio drama, especially targeting those who are currently unaware of it due to social, physical, personal or financial hardship.
As a working company, we pride ourselves on using members of the profession as our workshop leaders. These professionals use their experience to extend the knowledge, abilities and focus of all their students. Using members of the profession enables us to continuously be on the pulse of what is happening in the theatre including current productions and trends.
All this aside, those who work with us at Bunbanter Education are also experienced and highly original teachers with the ability to help, encourage and discipline all their students. All our staff are subject to thorough reference and CRB checks.
Bunbanter Education offers a variety of classes and workshops and have recently launched their new radio workshops “Whisper in your Ear” and Bunbanter Saturday and Summer Schools. We work with schools, colleges, local drama groups, organisations, individuals and anyone who has a passion for drama.
THE FUTURE
The Ongoing Series of Radio Plays
Fringe radio is a growth industry with tremendous potential, and Bunbanter prides itself on being at the forefront of this emerging field. As part of our ethos we continue to make our ongoing series of short radio drama which are aired worldwide. These provide people with instantly accessible access to our storytelling and therefore the world of audio theatre, regardless of personal circumstance.
In future we intend to increase the number of radio stations who have access to our plays and therefore widen the possible audience listener base and improve our general accessibility. To support the stations who help us, we only ask for a donation of what they can afford and intend on gaining our funding for the production of the series elsewhere.
By increasing our listener base we open up the opportunities to offer sponsorship and advertising to companies, institutions and clients.
We also sell our plays to individuals to further fund the production of the plays. In future we would like to look into publishing past series and pushing the sales generally.
Theatrical Projects In the past we have been involved with various sound festivals and audio events. We would like to continue and expand this area of the company pushing the boundaries of recorded sound in both live events and in the way record. Specialising in new writing, in future we are also intending on staging a series of theatrical events from performed readings to question & answer sessions and slowly moving forward towards a full theatrical production. It is important to us that this is a process which evolves alongside the company’s audio work and that, as with all our work, collaboration, accessibility and strong audio storytelling are at the focus of each production.
Commissions and Commercial Production
Due to the nature of our work we would like to use our back catalogue to secure us commissions for future projects. In order to begin this process we are currently in pre-production for a Pilot Series to be offered to some of the more major companies such as the BBC.
In future we also intend to offer commissioned series to councils, charities and other institutions as a new and innovative method to aid issue awareness for example; a series inspired by mental health. (see Hackney Proposal)
We also intend on using our expertise to expand our production towards the commissioning of quirky commercials and breaking into the ringtone market.
Education
Our Bunbanter Saturday School has been running since 2009 and continually goes from strength to strength. We currently have approximately thirty students who regularly attend and over the past two years have staged several new musicals written for our students and created radio plays and commercials as well as participated in masterclasses taught by industry professionals in subjects such as stage combat and breakdancing. In future we intend on increasing our numbers and continuing to offer flexible payments and scholarships to encourage accessibility regardless of financial hardship.
We currently offer schools a variety of workshops including our new ‘Whisper In Your Ear’ and ‘Sound Effects’ workshops aimed at introducing a new generation to radio drama and theatre. With this, alongside our PPA cover, we offer schools and institutions a wide variety of opportunities and in future we are intending on pushing these and increasing the number of classes which actually take place.
Aside from the workshops and Saturday School, we also have our Summer School and a variety of future plans including a Youth Theatre and eventually ‘The Bunbanter Foundation’ a charity set up to aid and support those who cannot afford classes/training.
LONDON OFFICE: Flat 6
42 The Grove
Isleworth
TW7 4JF
Phone:020313 77994
Email: info@bunbanter.com
Website: www.bunbanter.com
