Yellow Leaf Theatre brings brand new drama right to your doorstep
“Yellow Leaf Theatre is becoming established as a producer of high quality, low tech small scale tours. Little wonder: the three founders – Vanessa Rosenthal, Chris Wilkinson and Alan Meadows, all in their sixties – have worked for decades as actors, writers, directors. They have an awesome combined C.V... If you want to benefit from years of theatrical experience, seek out Yellow Leaf.” (Ray Brown, writing in the British Theatre Guide, 2006)
If you want to hear more about Yellow Leaf Theatre, an article in the Times by Heather Nicholson entitled “The Rich Drama of our Later Years” describes the origin and some of the thinking behind the company.
For third party opinion on Yellow Leaf Theatre’s work see Comments from Others and Audience Response.
The company is currently standing back to consider its future direction. Meanwhile, the members have hardly been idle…
Parallel Projects by Yellow Leafers
While mainstream Yellow Leaf productions are currently on hold, the founder members are busy on other projects (See below and in News).
ALAN MEADOWS is combining with old friends Cottongrass Theatre to direct the premiere of ‘The Unknown Land’ by Caroline Small. The source material is the extraordinary events around Polar Exploration in the days long before the advent of modern equipment; indeed even before Scott and Amundsen.
In 1845 Sir John Franklin led an expedition to the northern polar regions in search of the North-West Passage. They were “splendidly equipped for seven years with silver cutlery and 1000 bound volumes of Punch.” No-one returned.
Over many years a series of rescue missions gradually unearthed remains, documents and tales from the local Inuit people that spoke of extraordinary heroism and perseverance, but also of terrible suffering and possibly even cannibalism.
These experiences, together with haunting Inuit legend and live music fashion a journey into An Unknown Land which is not only the uncompromising polar region but also the interior landscape of the human mind and spirit.
The show features live music from long-established folk singer Keith Kendrick.
‘The Unknown Land’ opens on June 29th as part of the Ashbourne Festival. For booking details and tour schedule see Cottongrass Theatre website
Recent Work
We premiered ‘Scribbler and Spouse’ – a new comedy by the award-winning Yorkshire writer, James Robson – at the Pomegranate Theatre in Chesterfield in 2007, followed by a national tour that stretched into 2008, ending with a week of performances in the autumn at the Brockley Jack in London. (See review by Sandra Giorgetti in The British Theatre Guide).
Shows on the Shelf
Published texts of past productions – Modelling Spitfires, Double Dutch, Old Skool Ties and Bobbles & Bowls are now available from the Scripts page of this site.
To send us a message see here
Yellow Leaf Theatre is funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council, England.