Cheryl Martin
Born in Washington, DC, Cheryl’s lived all her adult life in her adored adopted city, Manchester.
Formerly Contact’s Associate Director, New Writing/New Work, she’s won several awards: Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards as both writer [Best Community Production: Heart and Soul, Oldham Coliseum] and director [Best Studio Production: Iron by Rona Munro, Working Girls/Contact]; an Edinburgh Fringe First as co-director and producer of Traverse Theatre’s Breakfast Series The World Is Too Much; a 2015 Lloyd’s Bank regional award for the immersive play she directed for Community Arts Northwest, Rule 35 [devised with refugee detainees from Yarls Wood]; and was longlisted for the Polari Book Prize for her collection of poems, Alaska [Crocus/Commonword].
Her one-woman show, Alaska, was part of 2015’s Domestic II, 2016’s A Nation’s Theatre Festival at The Albany in London, 2015 + 2016’s Flying Solo Festivals at Contact, and shown on her first visit to the Plymouth Fringe Festival as part of a national tour. Her current show has been developed through Divergency…
Who Wants to Live Forever
A jazz fantasy about loss, love and hope set among the stars. Combining science fact, real-world psychological observation, and autobiography with lots and lots of live jazz vocals to ask why some stars shine more brightly than others, human and celestial, and why people love to watch them fall.
Created through heightened, imagistic language in a non-linear, impressionistic monologue, Who Wants To Live Forever has been made by Writer/Performer Cheryl Martin + Director/Deviser Darren Pritchard. The full-length premiere of the show will be presented as part of PUSH Festival at HOME in January 2017.
Developed as a Divergency micro-commission with support from hÅb + STUN (Sustained Theatre Up North); supported through the Black Gold Arts Festival and an Artist Residency at Lawrence Batley Theatre Cellar.
I was deeply moved… Utterly devastating personal moments felt like they were being shared with only me. Cheryl is an incredibly powerful performer, she paints pictures so vividly, and this story in particular leaves me aching.
Afreena Islam, Artist