I just wanted to thank you all for all of the time, energy and commitment that you all gave to Hamlet over July, August and September, and of course for the period since January 2007.

Alex and I are so very proud of what we have all achieved by working together on this project and it is thanks to in no small part to that dedication which you all have shown, but it is equally down to the time, energy, brilliance and genius that Tim Carroll has brought, and it is he who we all have to thank for the success and experience we have all had with this project.

Tim, The Factory would in no way be what it is today without you. Thank You!

And so, we have seen what possibilities can occur by pursuing a way of working, and a shared commitment to exploring and challenging; of bringing together like-minded, passionate individuals in Theatre and seeing where it takes us, in its own time and by its own rules.

September 2008 marked 20 months since The Factory's inaugural session, the first anniversary 'gala' performance of Hamlet at a sold-out Shakespeare's Globe, and a run of performances that saw us as always trying new things, with new people, in new and unknown spaces.

It is also nearly a year since we began The Factory's Writers Studio, bringing together actors and writers to create some brilliant pieces of work and ways of working with one another, and again a focus of challenging ourselves and testing what we need and don't need to give something special to an audience.

Finally, this month also marks the first time since starting, that The Factory's program of rehearsals, performances, Writers Studio, Jam Sessions and the like will experience a small hiatus.

Based on a number of emails and Facebooking, am acutely aware that this may come as a disappointment to a number of you, and that those who were not involved in the July - September period of Hamlet have been itching to resume work at our Wednesday and Thursday nights. ( and of course those who were in Hamlet are also keen to jump straight back into sessions.)

But let me explain briefly where Alex and I find ourselves at this particular point in The Factory's development.

Firstly, at the very beginning, we wanted to see what might come from getting a bunch of talented people from the industry to collaborate on a project without the constraints of a fixed rehearsal period and create a place for serious, fun, and insightful learning, in-between and alongside outside projects and work.

As we have all seen, the ethic of this company and the fruits of its labour should be something we are incredibly proud to be a part of. The way in which it has grown creatively, the experiences that it has provided us all and the popularity of what we are doing inside and outside the industry has seen the company grow from a room of like-minded individuals sitting in a circle on a cold January night in 2007, to a company that is now almost universally known and talked about throughout London's Theatre community, has played countless theatrical venues, as well as taking theatre to places that have rarely, if ever seen theatre.

We have forged strong links with New York, have been described in the press, (both London an national) as "The Factory: the super-cool company" "heart-in-the-mouth theatre" "a theatrical coup!" and have consistently, week after week attracted the fittest, hottest, young audiences that every subsidised company in this country would piss all over themselves to get, as well as seeing a fantastically varied cross-section of ages and backgrounds. All without any box-ticking, focus on youth, race, demographics and social-engineering that has nothing to do with what we do, - which is to put exciting live experiences that challenge and inspire those who come to see it.

Build good theatre, and the audiences will come. As Kevin Kostner said ( or at least something along those lines).

Our focus has been all along, the process and the work. The audiences and the response from within the industry has fully justified what we have done...which was to Just Do It and not go through all the bullshit that has depressingly now become the accepted way of creating theatre.We have seen what can be achieved in a year and a bit, and we have so many more ambitions.

The demand for a place like The Factory is clear from all of you and all the emails we get about how-to-join. The demand to see theatre, the like of which we are producing is clear from these last 12 months.

Myself, Alex, our producer Liam Evans-Ford, and Sarah Bedi have worked tirelessly for all these things to have been possible.
All our time and energy has been completely consumed by the surprisingly huge amount of work and money required every single day to put on shows and to provide rehearsals, sessions and master-classes.

Alex and I haven't stopped for two years to achieve this, and we have loved (almost) every minute of it, but we have only been able to keep our heads above the water, which means we have had been able to get the shows on and keep the sessions ticking over, but absolutely no time to really get the infra-structure and funding that is now required for what The Factory has become in such an unimaginably short amount of time.

It is overwhelmingly clear to us now that if we are to honour what has been achieved and take The Factory to the next level of its necessary development, and to allow the natural and inevitable growth of talented collaborators and possibilities, then we need to divert all the time and energy we have been driving into keeping people busy with sessions each week, and put it into making sure that there is the money and the resources available to actually take that work forward, out of the rehearsal room and into the next Factory productions.

Top of our priorities is funding.
Over the coming months we are instigating an intense period of trying to achieve funding and sponsorship.

Alongside that, we need to find a consistent space of our own that will house all the sessions and can serve as an office base and wider space for the Factory community to gather.

We will be organising The Factory's first Try-Outs. This is the opportunity to all that have applied to be a Factory Member.
In turn we will be strengthening the concept for new and existing members, of exactly what it means to be a member of The Factory.

We are working hard at providing industry and non-industry related 'perks', discounts and offers for all members.

Early 2009 will focus on taking the new writing pieces from the rehearsal room to the public.

We are developing and planning for an American trip for 2009.

These are all huge tasks and as ever, The Factory's success and development depends entirely on what you as members put into it. Help and time are always appreciated and needed. We have already started to develop teams and committees from current help from members, but always need more hands and heads.

Do please email me if you are able to help in any way, in terms of time and work, but also ALWAYS let us know of any leads, contacts, donors, and ideas you may have that could help the company.

I would reiterate that money and space are our biggest challenges and necessities.

With all this behind-the-scenes activity, please take comfort and be assured that we will be resuming Factory services as quickly as possible, and so we are looking at January as being the month in which all activity, new and improved, resumes.
This of course may seem like an eternity to many of you, but we are also keen to provide the odd, sporadic master-class / special guest-lead session to keep your appetites whetted, as and when we can, so do check any updates.

My final request is that you all make use of factorymember.com a lot more during this period.
It is there to keep us all up to date, connected, inspired and to hammer out the kind of discussions and ideas that we hammer out in the rehearsal room.

Much of our success on achieving funding depends on proving that we are a vibrant, active and wide-ranging community of artists who are engaged in the industry for the right reasons.

If you haven't created factorymember online profile with a photo etc. or contributed to the site recently......get to it!

(This letter, as with everything on the site is here to be responded to with thoughts, feedback, ideas, criticisms.


Thanks again for bringing The Factory this far. Here's to the next 12 months!



Tim & Alex