Verbalise at Kendal Brewery Arts

Rose Condo is a multi-award-winning poet and spoken word artist, who carefully blends poetry and prose to create live shows she performs with aplomb. Her 2019 creation The Empathy Experiment, for example, received critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe and was crowned Best Spoken Word Show at the Greater Manchester Fringe. It was also shortlisted for Best Spoken Word Show at the 2020 Saboteur Awards.

The exciting news is that at this Verbalise special, Rose Condo will be giving a scratch premiere extract of her brand-new show as well as performing work from The Empathy Experiment as well as her shows How to Starve an Artist and The Geography of Me.

The original unabridged script of The Empathy Experiment forms part of Rose’s debut collection, After The Storm, which was published by Salford-based Flapjack Press (who run Word Central) and contains all three of Rose’s acclaimed and award-winning poetry theatre shows, opening with The Geography of Me, which takes the audience on a trip through foreign and familiar lands, recounting hilarity and heartbreak, followed by How To Starve An Artist, a series of poems and stories about creative nourishment and how to feed your inner artist.

Now based in Prestwich, Canadian-born Rose Condo studied Theatre & Drama at the University of Winnipeg in Canada before heading to the University of Leeds to do a Masters in Theatre & Development Studies. She has won numerous poetry slams, was longlisted for the inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship, and has performed with the likes of Hollie McNish and Wigan-based poet Louise Exactly (aka Louise Fazackerley @LouisethePoet).

Alongside the guest reader, there will also be an open mic, with nine performers each getting four minutes’ stage time – writers from all disciplines are welcome, including storytellers, songwriters, novelists and comedians. Verbalise has been going since 2009 and is one of Brewery Arts’ most beloved community events, where emerging voices meet world-renowned artists on a shared stage. There is a no hate speech policy, and the performers and audience respect each other with people new to reading their words encouraged and welcomed.

Proceedings will be overseen by Verbalise host and co-founder Ann Grant, who has hosted live events in pubs, festivals and theatres across the UK. She has been the South Cumbria Poet Laureate, and she’s a workshop facilitator who enjoys collaborations and writing for wellbeing.

This event will take place in the Malt Room with Cabaret Seating, doors are at 7pm. You can even enjoy a tasty pizza before the performance starts, with orders taken from the comfort of your table and brought straight to you. Pizza orders must be made before 7.40pm on the night.