Following her time with the prestigious Royal Court Young Writers programme, Catriona Kerridge won a place on the ArtsLab summer residency in 2012, where she wrote the first draft of Fast Track. Here she tells us more about her journey as a writer:
Being part of ArtsLab is something I will always cherish. Something happened over those weeks, something clicked. The rhythms created by the actors working next door with Christopher Sivertsen and Lucy pounded into my writing and eventually combined with the chuckles of Tom Wainwright: Fast Track was born. After ArtsLab came a full production of Fast Track at the North Wall in October 2014. So what else have I been up to? I’ll try and share some fun moments.
I’ve had one of my characters doing a Hitler salute and another singing Karaoke at the National Theatre Shed, part of the Women Centre Stage Festival hosted by Sphinx Theatre. Another highlight was SWINES where an audience member won their proudly won dream job this show was created in collaboration with Bad Host at 47/49 (now called Ugly Duck). I co-wrote a play with Louise Gooding featuring a talking Parrot and a song about spaghetti: Mirror Me was performed at Barking Theatre, Greenwich Theatre and Pleasance Edinburgh. I had a chicken stuffed with cocaine roasted in an oven during Flustered at the Southwark Playhouse (Salt Theatre, Write at the Heart:1).
I have also discovered the theatre scene in Beijing thanks to working with Shuang Zou and Lanterna Visions, who I hope to continue collaborations with. Most recently, I have been working a lot with pigeon masks at Talent Lab, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg, on Claire Thill’s project, Two Pigeons Perching on a Bench. Next up I am working on a play that I started writing during the Sheffield Theatre Writers Group. This play has been kindly supported by the Peggy Ramsay Foundation, so the plan is to write it and get it heard. Additionally I am still continuing my journey with Sphinx Theatre and hope to bring more women centre stage.
My journey as a writer is one that is unpredictable and entertaining. As I discover my voice, I discover so many new things. I continue collecting ideas and carry them around with me hoping that one of them will explode or be forced in to the open by a stranger who makes it feel incredibly urgent. I let strangers talk to me, I watch, read, I Google (and hope no one ever releases my search history), listen to music and I write and depend on schemes such as the North Wall’s ArtsLab.
