Lily McLeish
Co-founder of womxn artists’ theatre collective Fizzy Sherbet Lily McLeish tells Giverny Masso about its new podcast, which was recently launched to showcase the work of female-identifying and non-binary writers from across the globe...
How did you get into theatre?
I’ve always been interested in photography, film, literature, dance and music. Theatre wasn’t something I knew much about until I went to university in Cologne, where one of my professors led an English-speaking theatre company. I fell in love with the art form, because it drew together all the things I’m excited about. Then I started an internship with Katie Mitchell at the Schauspiel Köln theatre. I’ve spent most of the past eight years working with her, first as assistant director and then as associate, on productions in Europe and the UK.
What projects have you worked on recently?
There are two strands to my career. For the work with Katie, we do amazing big multimedia, live cinema shows for theatres. One of the most recent was Orlando, based on Virginia Woolf’s novel and adapted by Alice Birch, at the Schaubühne in Berlin. In my other strand of work, solo directing, I made the show While You Are Here with choreographer Jonathan Goddard and writer Eve Leigh. Another important piece of work I made recently was the play Scrounger with Athena Stevens.
How did Fizzy Sherbet begin?
It started in 2016. I was working with playwright Tamara von Werthern, who wanted to create a platform for female writers. We felt there was a real gender inequality in theatre and were inspired by Lucy Kerbel and what she was doing with Tonic Theatre. We did a global shoutout – any female writer in the world could send in work – and then we put them on as a series of readings, with six or seven plays per night. It was about creating an atmosphere of networking, and getting to know a writer and their work.
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Why did you launch the podcast?
When lockdown happened, I went into hibernation. Then I thought: “This is long term”, and started to consider what I could do that would benefit from being on a digital platform as opposed to a live piece of theatre. I spoke to Tamara about Fizzy Sherbet and we opened it up to the other five amazing women on our team: producer Steph Weller, producer Ameena Hamid, actor and writer Josephine Starte, director Anna Girvan and director and dramaturg Sandra Theresa Buch. We had the option to do it as live readings on Zoom or as a podcast, which felt really interesting and exciting. We opted to do that because it would also give us the opportunity to interview the writers.
Who is involved in the podcast?
In the pilot series we are presenting plays from seven writers with roots from around the world: Marie Bjorn, Babirye Bukilwa, Eve Leigh, Amy Ng, Buhle Ngaba, Josephine Starte and Tamara von Werthern. Each play will be presented alongside an interview with the writer and a special guest who will add another dimension to the content of the play and the writer’s work. The podcast offers a way of working across borders that I hadn’t experienced before. We’ve found something really wonderful that can continue long after theatres reopen. This is a permanent thing, rather than being just for the lockdown period.
CV Lily McLeish
Training: English literature and art history, University of Cologne (2008-11); workshops with Young Vic director’s network (2015-present)
First professional role: Director of Footfalls at the Severins-Burg-Theater, Cologne (2008)
Agent: None
Fizzy Sherbet’s podcast pilot series is releasing new episodes until October 5: fizzysherbetplays.com
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