Evie Manning

Woooo!!! Yess! We won The Community Award with @thestageuk !!!! Absolute genuine elation 💙 Building and working with and for working class communities is the beating heart of what we do and it’s soooo brilliant for our work to be recognised by the theatre industry. In 2025 we built the most brilliant communities for our shows Public Interest & Demand the Impossible and celebrated all the people we’ve worked with in bradford & Cardiff over the last 17 years in our book, we are so moved and honoured to do the work we do. AND SO BUZZING TO RECEIVE THIS AWARD !!! 🥳🥳🥳 Hope we get to party with some of you soon! 💜💙❤️🩵 (love how these pics get more chaotic with our natural high ha!)

SCRAPS! Wrote and directed my first short film this year. A film about navigating sex, relationships, partying and growing up from the perspective of a 14 year old girl, our deeply talented lead @lillyssutcliffe How teenagers take care of each other and how sometimes the best thing to do is suspend being a kid just a bit longer It was pretty profound making this 7 months pregnant on international women’s day weekend with so many skilled, funny, smart women taking care of each other on set & lots of supportive men & boys too ❤️ I learnt so so much from the incredible team, from focus puller to make up, to our brilliant DOP Owen, I loved watching everyone work so intently focused on their own specialism and what that collaboration brought to life as a team. I couldn’t have loved the shoot more - because of the expert crew. Hollie, our badass producer made it feel effortless but there was so much work and care in the seams Our teenage cast were brilliant, fun and pro and quick and smart, we had such a good time alongside deep discussions about consent & sex. We screen it in 2 weeks at Pictureville as part of @bradford_2025 City of Film & i’m bricking it! SCRAPS Scarlett @lillyssutcliffe Adam @get.atm3 Shaun @j_ashurst2025 Producer @holsabet @cosmosquarefilms Casting Director @clairebleasdalecasting Director of Photography @owencantcan Sound Designer Markus Andreas Original Music @bobrob1985 Production Designer @ciara_lils_makes_things Costume Designer @sarahlilliebespoke Colourist @luis.in.colour Associate Director @haider_mb_ Editor @jackkingfilm Focus Puller @typicalyorkshireman 2nd Camera Assistant @beanie_baker25 Camera Trainee Oli Greenwood Gaffer @theo_kirkpatrick Spark @aracelilopes_ Location Sound Recordist @bobrob1985 Foley Rob Wilkes Houghton Make up @kelly.gmua Art Director @rimmer_design Intimacy Coordinator Sadie Gains 1st Assistant Director @louisarosemack 2nd Assistant Director @laurashack21 Runners @eden_vaughan @patrickbshaw Casting Assistant Tiwonge Cohn Stills @danieljohnsongray Commissioned @bradford_2025

DO IT YOURSELF - Making Political Theatre by Common/Wealth is out and ready to buy today! 🎉 Here's our manifesto. 📢 Created for the artists, activists and organisers who believe in using art to speak up against injustice, fight back and make change! Our first book shares everything we’ve learned over 15 years of making political theatre - grounded in our working-class communities and collaborators. Written by @evieooo1 , @rhi_annon_white and Jenny Hughes, with contributions from: Casper Ahmed, Shatha Altowai, Camilla Brueton, Simon Casson, Ali Dunican, Alexander Eley, David Evans, Mariyah Kayat, May McQuade, Seherish Mahmood, Ezra Nash, Saoirse Teale, Gary Owen, Jon Pountney, Andy Purves, Catrin Rogers, Wojciech Rusin, Jane Slee, Balvinder Sopal, Mo'min Swaitat, Rachel Trezise, Chantal Williams, Michelle Wren, Aisha Zia. With thanks to members of: Speakers Corner, Sounding Board, Performance Collective & Youth Theatre Lab. Thanks also to Michael Sheen for the a wonderful foreword! 📖 Order from any good bookshop, or via the @manchester_university_press website. (link in bio!). Don't forget to tag us with a picture of your copy (@commonwealth_hq ) and add #DIYMakingPoliticalTheatre. 💫 Design: @watsonmemic #PoliticalTheatre #CommonWealthTheatre #CommonWealthBook #Bradford #Cardiff #CommonWealth

We have written a real life book!!! So so proud of us! Evie & Rhiannon both crying with happiness this morning in Bradford & Cardiff holding these beauties. We would love you all to read it, so many people have been part of the journey of Common/Wealth and we hope it speaks to a lot of people, we hope it’s useful and mostly we hope it builds some HOPE in these scary times we’re in. Hope that we can speak up about injustice, fight back against the bastards and change the worlds we live in 💗💗 Out properly on the 23rd September! £15 in all good bookstores online - or ask your local bookshop to order it in 💗 If you’re a close collaborator we have a cheeky discount code so we can pass that on 😝 Ahhh over the moon!!! Excuse Evie’s hair, she’s got a 3 month old baby lol 😂

Thank you to @thestageuk for this brilliant write up. 2025 is a massive year for us with Demand the Impossible (next month, get your tickets!), Public Interest and publishing our first book!! So it’s excellent to have this in-depth feature about our work, the why and how we make it. And a look back at some of the work that’s made us really proud ❤️ Here’s some screenshots, article is behind a paywall although if you sign up you get 5 free reads a month, full article link in our stories!

Our book, DO IT YOURSELF - Making Political Theatre - is available to pre-order now! 🎭 Made for artists, activists, and community organisers - our book is a step-by-step guide to making political theatre, grounded in working-class communities and stories. If you want to make creative, political, powerful art, and fancy a look behind the scenes at how Common/Wealth works - pre-order DO IT YOURSELF now, through the link in our bio! 'An inspiring, galvanising read for anyone who makes theatre, or who is sick of feeling helpless to affect change.' - @gobsquadartscollective Published by @manchester_university_press and available to pre-order via their website. Written by @evieooo1 , @rhi_annon_white & Jenny Hughes and our guest contributors: Casper Ahmed, Shatha Altowai, Camilla Brueton, Simon Casson, Ali Dunican, Alexander Eley, David Evans, Mariyah Kayat, May McQuade, Seherish Mahmood, Ezra Nash, Saoirse Teale, Gary Owen, Jon Pountney, Andy Purves, Catrin Rogers, Wojciech Rusin, Jane Slee, Balvinder Sopal, Mo'min Swaitat, Rachel Trezise, Chantal Williams, Michelle Wren, Aisha Zia. Thank you to the members of: Speakers Corner, Common/Wealth Sounding Board, Performance Collective and Youth Theatre Lab for their contributions, and Michael Sheen for the rousing foreword! Design by @watsonmemic .

PUBLIC INTEREST … So proud of this show, feels like the biggest achievement, to have got the company to this point in Bradford where we’re really in our purpose - making political theatre performed by the strongest working class talent and incredible young people with activated politics and heart at big scale. Gives me hope. This show was always about the bigger why - to join the fight and show solidarity with all the people serving sentences for crimes they didn’t commit and all their families heartbreak because of our outdated classist racist systems … our collaboration with @jengba_ has been the thing of dreams, all creative people driven by love and change. The idea was it would be part club night part courtroom and be a ‘making of’ which through our research and the impossible stories we were hearing became the making of a music video - something that represents freedom, joy and expression being used to trap people - so we set out on an epic casting quest to find the most talented rappers & artists in the land. And found the most beautiful people, a cast this special as individuals and as a collective have brought the most incredible energy to the show - and never lost sight of the why. Everyone involved has been doing it with the spirit of @jengba_ and the fight against injustice fuelling them on. Also had the most incredible creative team who’ve brought so much big picture and detail to life @ziaahmedx @designersaschagilmour @castalle @maymcquade @kirstyhousley @j3.beats @wojciech_rusin @kloedean @cachethake @madiomatseone @tomrobbinsuk Dermot Daly, Andy Purves on stunning lighting and again every one always had the why at the forefront of the making. Common/Wealth has really levelled up to create this one with backing of @bradford_2025 - @panda_p0pz producing KING @saoirseteale Casting queen and directing our extraordinary supporting cast @mollly.h on epic design dreams @mariyahkx holding strings and producing amazing Know Your Rights @maymcquade producer & creative extraordinaire @alidunican holding us all together and telling the story far and wide. Couldn’t be more proud of Common/Wealth right now- make way for the Common/Wealth movement!!! ❤️❤️❤️