News Story
The cast and creatives of Primary Playmaker Showcase: Tenth Anniversary | Steve Hay, Daisy Ann Fletcher, Kate Spencer, Lauren Carter, Ben Newman and Herb Cuanalo
Rehearsals are now underway for a very special Primary Playmaker Showcase at Oxford Playhouse next week.
Now in its tenth year, Primary Playmaker is The Playhouse's Creative Education flagship scheme. Working with over 300 Oxfordshire primary schoolchildren, the project supports the literacy learning of Year 5 and 6 pupils through a series of workshops that focus on drama, theatre craft and writing. Over ten sessions primary school children use drama-based games and practical skills, such as performance and improvisation, to devise their plays.
Our annual Showcase performance sees a selection of scripts from each participating school brought to life on stage by a team of professional theatre makers, performed to an audience of all participating pupils.
We’re delighted to be joined this year by actors Herb Cuanalo, Daisy Ann Fletcher, Steve Hay and Kate Spencer.
Daisy and Kate will be familiar faces to our Oxford Playhouse audiences, with Daisy recently performing as Ursula the Unsure in our pantomime Sleeping Beauty, and Kate, returning for her third year of Primary Playmaker, appeared in our 2023 Playhouse Plays Out Tent tour production Mind the Monsters. Local Oxford-based actors Herb Cuanalo and Steve Hay make up the final two members of this year’s cast. Herb was part of the originating Creation Theatre Rep Company, having recently performed in Hansel & Grettel at The North Wall, and Steve Hay is a familiar face within the Oxford theatre scene, appearing in many productions and showcases in venues across the city.
Directing each of this year’s selected plays are Lauren Carter and Ben Newman. Ben is our current MCS Resident Director, a one-year scheme for emerging theatre directors, and Lauren an alumna of the same scheme (2023-24), returning to co-direct the Primary Playmaker Showcase for a second time.
Characters including dragons, cavemen, frogs... and humans too, our professional team are having so much fun bringing each of the brilliant, imaginative plays to life.
We’re so excited to share what they’ve come up with!
