Birmingham Hippodrome and New Earth Theatre are working together on Cultivate – a residency for B/ESEA* artists in the Midlands.
We are delighted to announce that Cultivate will be hosted at Birmingham Hippodrome on Friday 20 November. Cultivate is a full day residency, delivered in partnership between New Earth Theatre and Birmingham Hippodrome, for B/ESEA* artists based in the Midlands to develop their artistic practice and continue building an artistic community. Join us for a full day immersed in workshops, food and connection.
Schedule:
- Friday 20 November
- 9.45am – Arrivals
- 10am – 10.30am – Welcome Workshop with New Earth
- 10.30am – 1pm – Explore The Hungry Ghost with Mei Leng Yew
- 2pm – 4.40pm – Demystify Shakespeare with James Cooney
- 5pm – 6pm – Dinner
Sign up for the residency here!
*We use the term B/ESEA to mean those who identify as East Asian or South East Asian living and working in the UK. East and Southeast Asian descent includes: Brunei, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, North Korea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam and their Diasporas. We acknowledge multiple ethnic and/or cultural backgrounds connected to ESEA identity.
More about the workshops:
Join playwright Mei Leng Yew for a workshop exploring her debut play, The Hungry Ghost, which recently celebrated its world premiere at the Bush Theatre in London, produced by New Earth Theatre. Through close analysis of select scenes and an exclusive look at Mei Leng’s early notes, participants will delve into its themes, characters and Mei Leng’s creative process. The session offers an opportunity to hear first-hand about how the script developed over the rehearsal period in the run up to its recent sold-out run and they will consider the choices that shape a play, and discover how personal experiences, cultural influences and theatrical storytelling can come together in the making of a new work.
Mei Leng Yew is a British writer of Malaysian-Chinese heritage. The Hungry Ghost is her debut play. In 2025, she was shortlisted for the Women’s Play for Playwriting for her play Down Side Up. She is an alumna of the Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab, the Royal Court Intro to Playwriting Group and New Earth Theatre’s Writers Plus Academy. She is also a trustee of MAMA Youth Project, a charity that empowers diverse young people to work in Film & TV. Mei Leng is passionate about stories that are set in unique, highly personal worlds with characters who find joy in unusual places.
Join James Cooney in a workshop that aims to explore and demystify Shakespearean texts. We will explore how we might play with them as actors and theatre makers and how Shakespeare’s texts might excite us as BESEA artists and how our positionality can ignite these texts in new and original ways.
James Cooney is a British-Filipino Actor/Director/Writer, and holds an MA in Actor Training and Coaching from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (RCSSD). As a director, James has directed for New Earth Theatre’s Performers and Performing Shakespeare Academies. He has also been a director and assistant director for educational institutions including RCSSD and Italia Conti, and was the co-lead facilitator for the Elevate Ensemble at Southampton’s Mayflower Theatre. He has worked as a lecturer, facilitator and acting coach at RCSSD, Italia Conti, ArtsEd, Performers College, LAMDA and Open Door.
As an actor, James was nominated for Best Performance at the Off West End awards for Bottleneck by Luke Barnes, and was the lead actor in award-winning short film Cushy by Cat Jones. He has worked extensively with The Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in Hamlet, King Lear, Cymbeline, Troilus and Cressida, The Taming of the Shrew, Measure for Measure, Henry VI: Part One, and Hamlet: Hail to the Thief. Other theatre credits include The 47th (Old Vic), Romeo and Juliet (Almeida), Henry V (Shakespeare’s Globe and Headlong) amongst others.
James is the co-founder of Ace Audition Coaching, as well as Viewpoints London.
We’ve worked with New Earth Theatre on a number of projects. You can read more about our latest work with them for their New Earth Theatre Maker Academy Plus – a six-month part time course for Midlands based East Asian and South East Asian performers and theatre makers. You can read more about it here!
