Pins and Needles Productions was formed in 2009 by Emma Earle and Zoe Squire who met while training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
Our first show as a Director/Designer partnership was A Clockwork Orange which we adapted for five actors, performing to sell out houses in the Alma Tavern Theatre, Bristol.
This was followed by a new writing project for Directors’ Cuts at Soho Theatre for which we teamed up with writer Oliver Lansley. Ernest and the Pale Moon was one of four pieces showcased at Soho.
We then went on to develop Ernest and the Pale Moon into a one hour studio play with Les Enfants Terribles and decided to take the show to Edinburgh in the summer of 2009. Following a sell out run, we then booked a UK tour in early 2010.
In winter 2010 we created our first Christmas show The Elves and the Shoemakers, which we adapted from the Brothers Grimm story. The show played for three weeks at The Brewery (Tobacco Factory) and was the first Early Years Christmas show to play at the venue.
In 2011 we secured Arts Council funding and once again joined forces with Oliver Lansley on Flies, a surreal black comedy about one man’s acute phobia of flies. Following a successful run at the Tobcco Factory in October, we plan to tour the show in late 2012.
To close 2011 Pins and Needles co-produced Holly and Ivan’s Christmas Adventure with the Lyric Hammersmith, also written by Oliver Lansley. Based on an original idea by Pins and Needles, and with a beautiful original score by Tom Elstob, Holly and Ivan’s Christmas Adventure is about two toys who fall off Santa’s sleigh on Christmas Eve and must find their way to their owners’ stockings before morning.
Pins and Needles are proud to be the Associate Company of the egg, Theatre Royal Bath.
