What is Reve(a)l Productions?
Reve(a)l Productions: Connecting Communities through Performance
Reve(a)l Productions aims to support the growth and development of people who are marginalised or disadvantaged using Social & Community Theatre (Applied Theatre) and putting on devised ‘Shows with Meaning’ in local community settings. We work flexibly on a range of projects and funding. Audiences may be small and connected to the performers or in a wider setting – the performances bring a message to the audience that is critical to the development of the performers in changing their lives and the lives of people in the audience.
Reve(a)l Productions provides opportunities for adults and young people from all walks of life to explore drama and co-create performance as a tool for action, empowerment and transformation, both as an individual and in wider communities. We recognise that performance is immediate and an outcome of a process that involves action research, collaboration, discovery and play. Reve(a)l Productions offers individuals, groups and communities the circumstances to create meaningful experiences – journeying together through storytelling, movement, voice work, and performance.
Reve(a)l Productions has worked – and will continue to work inclusively with varied communities. We work in any location/neighbourhood with people of all ages and backgrounds.
Who is Reve(a)l Productions?
Joanna Procter
Reve(a)l Productions’ principal is Joanna Procter. Joanna has been a Social & Community Theatre facilitator for over thirty years. Joanna has directed professional theatrical productions in London, Grenoble, Edinburgh, Milan, and Paris, amongst other places. She began her conventional theatre career working with the likes of Andrew Lloyd Webber, French and Saunders, and Phillip Pullman; but her personal experience of overcoming the effects of trauma led her towards Social & Community Theatre. Joanna works with individuals and communities who have endured suffering and abuse, and helps them find their voice in order to resolve their issues. This has become her life’s work.
She has worked extensively with both children and adults, from the ages of eighteen months to one-hundred and two. Some of the communities Joanna has worked with are war affected youth in Sierra Leone, refugees and migrants in Athens and London, ex-offenders, veterans in rehabilitation, serving soldiers, people recovering from addiction, adults and children with special needs, homeless people and youth-at-risk, throughout England. Her extensive CV testifies to her wide experience in the field of empowering and restorative theatre.
Joanna’s CV below also shows her most recent and current work projects.
Members of the current team:
Marika McKennell: Writer, Actor
Marika is responsible for writing Life’s A Carnival, devising and developing it with Joanna and Ken Hinds and June Tuitt on whose lives it is based.
Marika is a London-based writer, actress, spoken word poet, and teacher. She writes from her experience of living and working in diverse North and East London communities, drawing on her own mixed heritage. She has considerable experience of writing and performing in the context of black youth culture. Marika’s spoken word poetry is informed and inspired in equal parts by her mixed heritage and the diverse cultural influences that make up her hometown. She has performed poetry around London and gained a place on the Royal Court writer’s course. Marika has acted on both stage and screen, most recently in ‘Drinking Concrete’ at the Royal Court July 2016 and ‘Story of Our Youth’, Shaftesbury Theatre. In 2015 Marika was awarded an NSDF commendation of acting excellence for her role as Lou in her play, ‘Mind theGap’.
Sola Adebiyi: Facilitator, Youth Mentor, Professional Storyteller, Author and African Martial Artist
Sola brings expertise in applying creativity through story and movement into training, coaching, youth development and facilitation. He is Director of Narrative Mindfulness Ltd and associate practitioner with Reve(a)l Productions.
Roberto Atiko: Actor, Facilitator
Robert’s primary work is that of an actor and I also work as a greenwood carpenter and as a rites-of-passage mentor and facilitator.
Nick White: Producer, Writer, Performer – Wassail Theatre
Nick is an experienced producer, writer and performer and leads Wassail, a Somerset-based theatre company. For Wassail he has produced and written many shows performed in community settings. He produced, wrote and performed in Somerset Charabanc, working closely with Joanna and is currently performing Heartbeat with Joanna on doorsteps around Somerset.
Stephen Moss: Producer
Stephen is a director of the company taking responsibility for funding applications, project management and finance for our projects. Stephen has been supporting the use of the arts in both mental health recovery and organisation development. He has 30 years’ experience of delivering and managing complex organisation and management projects. Recently, he has worked at the forefront of developing new models of commissioning in the public sector, developing commissioners and supporting commissioning strategy across health and social care. Stephen is a trustee of two charities serving young, vulnerable people through the arts and mentoring respectively, one based in Hackney (Immediate Theatre) and one with a presence in Tottenham (ABandofBrothers).
June Tuitt: Co-Facilitator
June is first and foremost a mother and grandmother with a close-knit family. “I have a son with autism and I have experience of mental health issues and worked on the frontline of street and gang violence and the criminal justice system.” She is a founding member of Haringey Communities Against Violence, and sits on the Haringey Independent Stop and Search Monitoring Group and the Scrutiny Board of British Transport Police. She is a facilitator of a program called Parents Together and mentors students at College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London. She and her 15yr old son were recently in a BBC documentary called “Our Borough”. Her aim is to part of the solution for eradicating youth violence “…positive change in our community and beyond.” June has been involved in devising and developing Pattern Up, a play about issues relating to youth violence in the African Caribbean community; she also played a lead role in the play over 18 performances.
Aniajah Miller-Tuitt: Sound Technician
Aniajah is a young man who has overcome significant challenges and has stepped up and into Reveal Productions as our resident sound man. He has worked on ‘Pattern Up’ and is now working with June and Joanna in delivering the ‘Mind Over Matter’ drama workshops in 16 schools in North London.
Social & Community Theatre Experience
2021 – 2022 (current)
Joanna is directing a new cabaret-comedy-musical, The Saviour, set in a Yeovil fish and chip shop. The story follows the relationship between two sisters, as they try to save their dying family business. The Saviour will be performed in the heart of Somerset in December 2022 as an alternative Christmas show.
Joanna received a grant from Arts Council England to research and develop a play exploring grooming and the ‘normalisation’ of sexual abuse and how shame and compliance locks the child into the so-called ‘normalisation’. Is it possible to create safety and growth from these experiences?
“Care As You Are“, Joanna’s film about the emotional impact of caring for a parent or spouse with dementia, has been developed into an e-learning programme which will go live with Somerset County Council Social Care. The programme will be offered more widely this year.
2020 – 2021
Joanna directed a Somerset site specific show with Nick White and Wassail Theatre. Apples & Angels was performed at Burrow Hill in Somerset throughout September 2021.
‘Mind Over Matter’ School workshops: Reveal Productions CIC is working with Edmonton Community Foundation, who are in partnership with 30 local schools in North London, to deliver sixteen 1-day workshops in North London schools. The drama workshops, delivered by Joanna and co-facilitator June Tuitt, will support 10-11-year-olds to build confidence, trust and resilience, and learn how to be strong in difficult times. Each day ends with a short performance and we are working with the schools to plan a follow-up in the classroom. Workshops continued in 2022.
Active Mentoring:
Joanna has been helping and supporting young and older people to achieve healthy growth and build self-confidence. You could call this working from the ‘Inside-Out’. What we often see with this approach is a new and strengthened sense of identity and resilience. This has involved working with feelings of grief, anxiety and rage. Clients have included children, young people, families, and adults dealing with a range of issues. This is part of an ongoing approach adopted within applied theatre work using EFT and drama techniques.
2020
Response to COVID-19
August 2020 – The Red Shoes: 2 outdoor performances with Sarah Mooney directed by Joanna – see video under projects
Sierra Leone – Wood Green Online Arts Platform Joanna ventured into Online In person facilitation (see projects page). This project began with an exploration of culture, place and the impact of lockdown, COVID-19 and connecting African Caribbean – African Community experiences. This was the start of a longer-term engagement, aiming to create joint creative expression through online channels.
Joanna directed (and appeared in) ‘Heartbeat’: Lockdown has created a situation for many where we have been cut off and isolated from one another and the familiar way of life that we knew. Live performances were stopped and online connection took over, but as the weeks and months passed, people craved that live, visceral contact.
Heartbeat is a joint project with Wassail Theatre, funded by Arts Council England. The project aims to create theatre which is tactile, intimate, and touching (in the heartfelt sense!). Performances create a sense of fun and connection, bringing joy and recognition to the local community.
Funded by the Arts Council England and Westhill Endowment Trust, Pattern Up The Play completed its second run in February 2020.
Joanna worked with dramaturg Mongi Mthombeni and writer Marika McKennell to develop the original script and embolden the story. The cast worked with Rubs Stevenson to incorporate African dance into the play and actor Jae Marcus X developed a number of acapella songs based on traditional African chants and gospel. New actors Jeremie Kadi and Amaarah Roze joined the cast.
Pattern Up toured to 8 locations (9 performances) in early 2020 and was performed in theatre settings, including the Arcola Theatre, Hackney and McQueen’s Theatre at Karamel, Wood Green, as well as at City Hall (Greater London Authority Council Chamber), a church hall, a community college, an Academy High School, and an Alternative Education Provision.
2019
Joanna directed Somerset Charabanc 2019 “Egg Day” in association with Wassail Productions and Somerset Wildlife Trust. This year, the Millers Cart drawn by Suffolk Shire horses, blazed a trail through Westhay Nature Reserve with the audience on board and exploring the land where the action took place; a story of greed and deception against the backdrop of climate change and conservation.
2018-19
Joanna completed work on Pattern Up the play, the result of the ‘Lifes a Carnival’ project. A readthrough May 18 highlighted the enthusiasm of some 40 members of the local community, as well as providing valuable feedback on where the script can be improved. Funding for this phase was provided by Arts Council England and Westhill Endowment. Joanna devised Pattern Up over 18 months with ken Hinds and June Tuitt, community activists in the Tottenham African Caribbean community and directed the production. Pattern Up was performed 9 times in all, mainly at community centres in North London, the College of Haringey, Enfield and NE London (twice) and two venues in Leicester where June grew up. Approximately 600 attended the performances. After each show the cast held a discussion with the audiences and gave information about the proposed work of Communities Against Violence Haringey, a grassroots community organisation founded by Ken, June and other community activists in Haringey, North London. See Current projects page.
Joanna directed a one man show for the Coker Arts Festival with Nick White and Wassail Productions. Based on the character “Pete” from “Somerset Charabanc” it followed his character (played by Nick) and his girlfriend “Babs” (a puppet with personality) around the villages of East and West Coker, performances taking place in pub, meadow, playground, cafe and even a butcher shop!
Joanna, made a film with Mary Renouf, her partner from imaginAge. “Care As You Are” is about the emotional impact of caring for parent or spouse with dementia. The film was being written by Mary and directed by Joanna. Joanna working with dementia expert Jane Dalrymple, is working closely with commissioners and carers’ groups in Somerset to create a series of workshops based on the film as a development tool for professional carers, health workers and community groups in order to stimulate carers to meet and talk about the content – to normalise the conversations about caring for a relative or spouse with dementia and the impact it has.
2017
Arts Council England funded the research and development phase of “Life’s A Carnival” (resulting in Pattern Up” the play) and workshops and interviews in the community were held, whilst writer Marika McKennell and Joanna developed the script with input from June Tuitt and Ken Hinds two community activists from Tottenham whose lives the play is based upon.
Joanna started a new venture – imaginAge – a website and YouTube channel for older age people to create and watch creative content together based on ‘connections’. Connecting with nature and connecting through events in people’s lives’. We are also making short videos ourselves.The first was filmed as part of dementia week in Langport, Somerset with a group of people in a care home, their spouses, carers and a group of children and was on the theme of ‘kites’.
The Somerset Charrabanc rides again! The Arts Council funded Wassail Productions to produce an extended version for 2017’s Langport Festival in September. Joanna directed the production and this year there was additional community involvement in the production in additional to the professional actors.
2016 – 2017 ongoing
“Life’s A Carnival” Joanna is developing and working on a show pivoting around the lives of Ken Hinds from the heart of Tottenham, London – a mediator between police, community and gangs, and with a powerful story to tell – and June Tuitt, a lone mother from that community, who has raised 7 boys and girl, whose boys have experienced issues relating to being stabbed, stop and search and mental health. The aim is to develop the show in a way that shows that there is an alternative to cycles of racism, exclusion and violence. We are adding in workshops to engage local community to develop the themes and have been joined by a mother living in Tottenham.
A key development is that the production will promote Communities Against Violence in Haringey, a grassroots organisation aiming to engage members of the community to divert young people away from knife crime and gangs.
2016
Joanna developed an innovative approach to local storytelling in Somerset, working with Nick White, Wassail Productions, funded by the Arts Council. Working with 4 actors and Nick White, writer, a show was devised and performed in September taking a ‘mythology’ of the Somerset Levels as the basis for the show. “The Somerset Charabanc” was performed on a large Millers Cart, drawn by two Suffolk horses, which wound its way around Langport and Muchelney, as the audience were invited to witness an ‘illicit’ wedding and the resolution of a dramatic and fateful event 100 years ago connected to the flooding of the Levels (all performed on the moving cart carrying the audience across the Levels!)
2016
Lomakatsi: delivered drama-based activities to a group of young people at an acute mental health ward in Edgware. Also has been co-opted onto Lomakatsi’s practise advisory group.
2015-16
Funding received to direct a play developed with the writer, to be performed for community audiences. The play ‘With Full Conviction’ incorporated the idea of how a spiritually-focused community might come into being through a collective search for the truth in the context of exclusion, social conflict and responsibility. Production was directed by Joanna and rehearsed over 3 months, and was performed by non-professional actors who drew on their own experiences of exclusion. The 1 hour 15minute play was performed over 3 nights to great audience acclaim in Brighton and Bognor Regis.
2015
Delivered a one-day drama workshop for 25 Young Carers in Somerset, developing confidence, creativity and group working, acknowledging the qualities of being a young carer and using drama to create scenes together
2015
Working with a group of local Somerset people affected by memory problems and their carers – the ‘Forget-Me-Not Cafe’ – providing songs, stories and improvisation on memories shared
2015
Facilitating workshops on a staff engagement process for Kids Company
2014-2015-2016
Facilitation of drama sessions to support rehabilitation of wounded soldiers and veterans recovering from injury and illness, with an emphasis on improving confidence, social skills and interaction with strangers. Help for Heroes, Tedworth House Recovery Centre, Wiltshire.
2014
Kids Company. Staff Workshop, Bristol co-produced a staff development day with 87 people using drama to create a ‘positive organisation’ that supports intensive educational and therapeutic services for children and young people. (Kids Company promotes and supports emotional wellbeing children and young people.)
2013
Creation of drama workshops for ex-offenders to support an ongoing programme of personal empowerment, in both London and Somerset. Coaching for a concert performed by the client group. Sponsored by Key 4 Life; a charity that creates solutions to help reduce youth offending and gang warfare using a programme to rehabilitate young people pre and post release.
2013
Romeo and Juliet – directed and adapted a version of Shakespeare’s play to highlight the theme of ‘gangs and choice’. Alperton Community School, Wembley.
2013
Facilitated an arts week for special needs primary school children incorporating drama and art and puppets. Manor School, London (Working during World Book Day for a week on large arts project with a final performance)
2012
Taught crime prevention to special needs children through Drama. Vernon House, Village School, Woodfield and Manor Schools, London (Sponsored by Wembley Crime Prevention in promoting crime prevention awareness for vulnerable children and young people)
2010-2012
Drama workshops for Sir Oswald Stoll, a charitable organisation for ex-servicemen and women. (Stoll provides rehabilitative support to vulnerable and disabled ex-Service men and women)
2012
Every Chick Tells Tales – Wrote and directed original work for young women at risk. Sponsored by Wembley Crime Prevention and Brent Council.
2011
Co-wrote and directed The Notebook – performed at The Imperial War Museum – London – sponsored by ABF – The Soldiers’ Charity
2010
Wrote and directed Edges, an original work, for Ex-Military and homeless people, for ‘The Warrior Programme’
2010
Five Original One-Acts – wrote, directed, and produced Working with Youth and Community – War affected youth Sierra Leone, Africa sponsored by The Leverhulme Trust and Environmental Foundation for Africa
2010
Theatre Research Project for Refugees/Migrants- Athens, Samos, Patmos, Greece. World Stages Now
2008
Odysseus and The Sirens – adapted and directed recovering addicts for The Swan Project, a charity supporting recovery for alcoholics in Bristol.
2006-8
Remembering Medea Tour – Marseille, The Alps, France. World Stages Now. Co-wrote and directed theatre to raise awareness of the plight of African migrants.
2009
Conducted a drama workshop with The Coldstream Guards, in London, using voice and bodywork as well as improvisation to create a final performance for their peers and senior officers. This was considered to be part of army training to promote self-confidence in guardsmen, to help the platoon bond as a unit more efficiently.
2004 – 2007
Conducted drama workshops using voice, body work, improvisation and creative writing – particularly the use of storytelling – as a tool for engagement amongst the elderly, particularly those with memory loss and other related issues. St Vincent’s House a residential home for the elderly in Hammersmith, London St Vincent’s House.
2002
Conducted training workshops in film making with vulnerable youth. Taught all aspects of film making, from script writing, pre-production and directing, to all aspects of post-production including editing. YCTV (Youth Culture TV), London
1998 – 2004
Created workshops for children and young people at festivals created by (ISTA), International Schools Theatre Association in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Egypt and Belgium. Directed pieces focusing on a chosen theme to create a performance within the international schools community.
2002 -2003
The Tricycle Theatre, London working with refugee children from different countries in ongoing workshops using a variety of drama techniques to build and support them with language, communication and integration skills through drama.
2001
Conducted a workshop for the children’s festival at The Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford. Devised a participatory show and educational workshop around The Tempest, Midsummer Nights Dream for young children to introduce them to Shakespeare.
Education
2015
Certified Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) Practitioner, AAMET accreditation
2013
Mediation Course, Peaceworks, Sussex
2008-2011
MA in Applied Theatre (Drama in Education and in the community) The Royal Central School of speech and Drama, London – Distinction
1990-1991
MA in The Arts, Language and Education, University of Sussex
1981-1983
Diploma in Directing and Stage Management, The Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London
Other
2001-2009
Christmas and Summer Shows for Tadpoles and Pippa Pop-ins School, London, as an early learning drama specialist working with very young children.
2000
Directed ‘Talking Heads’ by Alan Bennett, Cour de Vieux Temple, Grenoble, France.
1994–2000
Teaching drama, theatre and creative writing, University of Grenoble, Stendhal 3, France.
1996
Series of Shakespeare lecture/workshops, University of Lausanne, University of Geneva, Switzerland.
1986
Directed ‘Blood and Ice’ by Liz Lochhead, Ex-Machina Productions.
Directed ‘A Dramatic Portrait of Sylvia Plath’ touring in London, The Provinces, Edinburgh and Milan Festivals.
Directed ‘Seduced’ by Sam Shepard, The Cambridge Mama’s, University of Cambridge.
1985
Directed ‘Sherlock Holmes and The Sumatran Devil’ for Polka Children’s Theatre with Philip Pullman, London.