A Note from Blake, 2 April
02.04.26
Hey Grif-friend,
It’s time for Blake’s Blog round two—now with six months in the trenches, versus the ~12 days I had last time… With all this newly found experience, I’m excited to take you through this little glimpse of Griffin!
With the smashing success of The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin by steve j. spears coming to a close this past weekend, you’d think it’d be a calm, tranquil time at Griff HQ—but alas, we are diving straight back into the thick of it with rehearsals for SISTREN by Iolanthe in full swing. We had a lovely little Griffin x Green Door Theatre Company x SISTREN show team Meet & Greet last week, which was a wonderful chance to catch-up with some returning friends, as well as welcome in some new faces. Just a week and a bit later, the team is feeling ready to smash it out of the park for next week’s opening. We may or may not be attending a Company Run for a little sneak peek next week and as someone who couldn’t manage to snag a ticket last time, I am VERY EXCITED!
Our shows starting with “S” don’t stop there though, as SAVIOR by Happy Feraren is currently in a week of creative development over at ATYP. Alongside director Kenneth Moraleda, Happy has been hard at work making tweaks and changes to make this show the best it can possibly be (thanks to the support of the Griffin Studio Workshop) and it’s certainly paying off! We got to watch a table read of the latest version yesterday and if you ask me (which by reading this far down, you automatically are) the show is going to be AMAZING! Tickets are on sale now by the way I would suggest getting tickets soon 😉
For those of you who missed it, last week we announced the winner of the 2026 Suzie Miller Award: Melanie Tait. As the winner, Melanie will receive a commission and residency with us, along with mentorship from Suzie Miller herself! I am personally super intrigued by Melanie’s work, which will explore ethics in the medical field, a topic that is definitely not something I’ve seen on stage before. Melanie, however, was but one of MANY incredible entries, and due to this, we are so happy to have announced that playwright Vanessa Bates has also been awarded a one-off commission by Suzie. Vanessa’s play will examine the life and political impact of Junie Morosi and we cannot wait to see how it turns out!
That’s probably enough yapping from me, I should get back to preparing my handmade, hyper-specific and unnecessarily detailed Opening Night cards that I am slowly becoming known for around the office. As I miiight have planned a week of leave smack-bang in the middle of opening (whoops), so I am rapidly running out of time! Ohh the woes of an Arts Administrator who gets too much joy from the arts and forgets to administrate.
Until next time,
Blake
