Mama Quilla Productions—Arts for Change

Theatre, film, digital art installations, workshops and print

Artistic Director/Executive Producer: Kay Adshead

Powerful passionate committed piece of theatre that if seen widely enough may change hearts and minds. – The Guardian

 

This is political theatre at its best. – Scotland on Sunday

 

Political theatre is alive again.  – Evening Standard

Mama Quilla works with organisations in the community and educational establishments, creating bespoke workshops, often culminating in short public performances. Put Yourself in Our Shoes explored and illuminated the everyday lives of refugee women. Buried Pasts, working with refuge and non-refugee women, explored our histories and uncovered common stories of flight and seeking refuge.

We organise platforms and days of debate and performance. A Night Out of the Asylum, at The Tricycle Theatre Kilburn, raised awareness of the plight of women and children in Detention Centres in the UK. Working Girls, at the Crossroads Women’s Centre, debated whether working women would be safer if prostitution were to be decriminalised. A special matinee of War Song, exposing rape as a weapon of war, performed by students of Barking College at the Broadway Theatre, was followed by The Mothers’ Campaign, sharing their stories of fleeing war and persecution, often forced to leave behind their beloved children and family members. We Women Speak the Words of Ordinary Libyans, at The Broadway Theatre Barking, spotlighted the situation of ordinary Libyans just before Gadhafi’s demise, and provoked debate around the issues of military interventions. Theatre of Protest, at The Roundhouse, with over 8o performers and 8 new commissions, explored the phenomenon of global protest.

We donate performances to support human rights causes. A special benefit performance of The Bogus Woman, hosted at the Human Rights Action Centre by Amnesty’s Women’s Action Network, raised money for legal advice sessions for asylum seekers. Mama Quilla contributed a workshop performance of Ice Cream from Bites at the Stop Violence Against Women forum. Mama Quilla contributed readings from The Bogus Woman to the Women in Exile conferences in Oxford and London. The Bogus Woman is a continuing resource in the Campaign to Close Campsfield.

We currently have two signature workshop programmes:

• Making Drama Out of Our Own Lives was initiated at the Drill Hall in the 1990s and creates original work of a very high standard, with people of all ages and very different backgrounds and experience.

• A Play in a Day Workshop uses source material, to devise a short, but polished performance, around the important  issues of the day . We have facilitated three of these events at The City Lit, Keely St.

When worthy community organisations request our help, in creating, or running a workshop programme, and are themselves unfunded, we may waive fees.