ABOUT
Portsmouth Road Productions was originally formed in 2016 under the name Blueleaf Theatre. It's aim was to produce new work of outstanding quality championing emerging artists. However, progress was halted in 2020 with the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic stopping live performances. The company took time out to re-evaluate its purpose, the type of work it wanted to produce; re-assessing the new theatre landscape and what the future could look like. This period of reflection allowed us to re-discover the honest, emotive and dynamic work that we wanted to create and that, now more than ever, there was a desperate lack of a support network for young and emerging artists. As a result, Blueleaf Theatre became Portsmouth Road Productions.
OUR GOALS
PRODUCTIONS: Our aim is to produce world premieres of new, provocative work that addresses societal issues. This can be in any form, plays, musical theatre the consistent theme is that the work clearly demonstrates that it challenges our societal views or tells a story of those in society we have not heard before, in particular on stage. We believe empathy is central to this, allowing an audience to empathise with a character(s) is key, in particular those who perhaps on the face of it, society dictates that they shouldn’t.
PATHWAYS: In conjunction with producing new work we place great responsibility on ourselves to develop the next generation of theatre makers and help the careers of young artists. We aim to achieve this through a mixture of training/employment on full-length productions, workshops (online & in person) and new work development programmes (involving a variety of artists).
PROGRESS: Much has been reported and commented on about the progress needed to broaden the accessibility of the theatre industry in order to reflect the society we live in. As an organisation we aim to contribute to this by taking action through widening accessibility across participation in our productions and events whether that be employees or audiences. We feel as a company that words are easy and action is harder, therefore year on year we will produce evidence of this progress and what our goals are to improve this environment.
Marcus Marsh
Artistic Director
Marcus is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Portsmouth Road Productions, He is formerly Associate Producer of The British Theatre Academy and Associate Director at Stockwell Playhouse.
Credits as Director include: Love & Information (Hen & Chickens Theatre), Contractions (Etcetera Theatre), Streamlined (Online), Stuff (National Theatre Connections), Orpheus Descending (Stockwell Playhouse), Hedgehogs & Porcupines (Old Red Lion Theatre), Flights of Fancy (The White Bear Theatre), 15 Minutes of Fame (Canal Cafe Theatre/Union Theatre) That Moment (UK Tour & C Venues, Edinburgh)
Credits as Assistant/Resident Director include: Goodnight Mister Tom (Southwark Playhouse), FOX (Old Red Lion Theatre), Annie Jr (UK Tour), Spamalot (Hampton Hill Theatre).
