THE SHOW

PITCH is a bold, joyful exploration of football and the queer community. It is the winner of the Pleasance Charlie Hartill Reserve and is co-produced by November Theatre, The Pleasance and Sarah Verghese Productions

Created from interviews with queer football fans, players & teams, PITCH is a testament to the queer experience of football. Through physical theatre, tender writing, and the real voices of those we’ve met along the way, our audience will watch us play (some for the first time), ask why there is still such a disparity in the men’s game vs the women’s, and chant chants you’ve never heard before… 

November Theatre (The Stage’s Top Picks of 2022 - Edinburgh Fringe), imagine a future in which queer representation in football is more than just a debate over a rainbow armband. Expect a hat-trick of true stories, dirty tactics and dancing!

CAST 

Elizabeth Hope  

Elijah Harris 

Meg Lewis 

Ethan Pascal Peters 

Eleanor Rattenbury

CREATIVE TEAM

Conceptualised by Nell Bailey and Ellie Roser 

Text Written and Devised by the Company 

Director - Nell Bailey 

Set & Costume Designer - Ellie Roser 

Lighting Designer - Martha Godfrey 

Sound Designer - Esther Kehinde Ajayi

Movement Director - Maisie Newman

Producer - Sarah Verghese 

Technical Stage Manager and Associate Sound Designer - Emily Darley 

THE STORY

This play was born in Edinburgh. We - that’s Nell Bailey (Director) and Ellie Roser (Designer) - were having a summer of football: the women’s euros, a group of queer friends who were always up for pints and a match, and a cast who were willing to silence their phones through tech so we didn’t miss the Wembley final. As we saw the joy that football brought the queer community flowing around us we started to conceptualise a show that celebrated that. 

From this grew the seeds of PITCH. November Theatre has long been interested in how we grow community off stage as well as on, and PITCH became a portal for holding community in an active, non-theatre related way. We decided we wanted to make a show where the actors and team could train together whilst rehearsing, and could play with the wider queer (and non-queer) community to hear their stories.

We found that people loved the idea. We met amazing creatives and incredibly generous teams who were willing to give us their time in London, Bristol, Liverpool, Nottingham and Glasgow. We spoke to people at the top of the WSL and women’s professional football, we spoke to journalists, we joined a team in London and we are still talking to people every week, every day. 

What exists now is our show - a show we hope will shift and change as we continue to meet with people and the news continues to shift around football.

THE ASK

Making theatre is incredibly difficult in the current economic climate, and November Theatre is committed to ensuring that everyone we work with gets a fair wage for their work on the project, which is especially important in light of the current cost of living crisis. 

This is the premiere of this show, and as a group of emerging theatre-makers who are all part of the queer community, taking our work to the Edinburgh Fringe is a necessary and exciting step for developing our careers and the show. Edinburgh Fringe is a significant opportunity for emerging companies to connect with regional and international programmers to secure further life for their work. Combined with regional UK shows we will be well placed to find a future for PITCH and return the project to those whose voices feature in it. 

Not only that, but every donation allows us to take the show to a wider audience, raising awareness of the key issues explored in the piece. We need to raise £7,000 to help cover:

• paying our actors and creative team fairly
• 3 weeks of rehearsal in London prior to the festival
• accessible captioning for performances
• November tour costs (accommodation, travel, venue costs etc.) including: 

- London - Pleasance Theatre - November 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th

- London - Hockey Marshes Sports Centre, date tbc

- Bristol - Loco Club - November 17th and 18th 

Truly every pound/dollar helps us get us closer to our goal.

We also have a series of rewards for those of you who donate, so please take a look. Thank you for any help you can give.

OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP

Every little bit helps, but if you can't donate, you can definitely still help us out! Please make noise about our campaign and our show. Share it on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and bring it to the attention of all your friends. 

You can follow us: @NovemberTheatre on Instagram and @Novtheatre on Twitter

Tickets on sale for Edinburgh Fringe here