Our Story
LynchPin was founded in 1999 by director Jack Lynch and actor Edie Campbell. Our first production, the one-woman play Emily Dickinson & I: the journey of a portrayal by Jack Lynch and Edie Campbell, premiered at The Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford in December 1999. LynchPin incorporated in 2005.
Artifice - Classical Plays in Beautiful Places, created by Kate Napier, came under the LynchPin umbrella in 2010, following its first production, The Way to Keep Him by Arthur Murray at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that summer.
ScripTease - rehearsed readings of scripts old and new in local venues - began in June 2009, with a reading of Deborah Brevoort’s The Women of Lockerbie. Over the next 10 years, we performed 113 readings of 89 scripts, of which 26 were premieres of new plays; 9 were in association with Amnesty International Guildford; and 14 went on to be staged as full productions by LynchPIn and Artifice.
We work with established and emerging professionals, with local playwrights and those further afield. In 2013 LynchPin created a local playwrighting group, Write One, led by Guildford playwright Paul Brooks. Nine new Write One plays received ScripTease readings.
LynchPin and Artifice have toured theatres, Literature Festivals, Fringe Festivals, village halls, stately homes, museums, conferences, Universities and living rooms in the UK, Europe and North America, including:
American Museum, Bath
Back Room at the Star Inn, Guildford
Barn Theatre, Smallhythe, Kent
Bollington Arts Centre
Bowhill Theatre, Selkirk
Bramley Village Hall, Surrey
Branoul Literair Theatre, The Hague
Brucemore Mansion, Cedar Rapids USA
Byre Theatre, St Andrews
Cafe Mila, Godalming
Caux Palace, Switzerland
Coe College, Cedar Rapids USA
Council Chamber, Farnham
Croydon Clocktower, London
Eastbourne Arts Centre
Eastgate Theatre, Peebles
Eden Court, Inverness
Emily Dickinson International Society, Burton Taylor Studio, Oxford
Electric Theatre, Guildford
Finborough Theatre, London
Freeword, London
Fortrose Community Theatre
Hemingway’s of Haslemere
Heron Theatre, Cumbria
Komedia, Brighton
The Lamb, Eastbourne
Lightbox, Woking
Mid-West Modern Languages Association, Minneapolis USA
Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
Oaknoll, Iowa City USA
Old Town Hall, Hemel Hempstead
Peaslake Village Hall, Surrey
Performance Lab, Sheffield Hallam University
Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery, Hants
Phoenix Arts Centre, Borden, Hants
The Playground Theatre, London
Presteigne Assembly Rooms, Wales
Riverside Studios, London
Riverside Theatre, Iowa City USA
Royal Society of Literature, Somerset House, London
South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell
Trinity Theatre, Tunbridge Wells
UCL Bloomsbury, London
Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey
Wilfrid Noyce Community Centre, Godalming
Woods Hole Community Hall, Cape Cod USA
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
FESTIVALS
Brighton Fringe Festival
Bristol Poetry Festival
Boulder Fringe Festival, Colorado USA
Cheltenham Festival of Literature
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Edmonton Fringe Festival, Canada
Farnham Flash Festival
Guildford Book Festival
Guildford Fringe Festival
Hay Festival
Knutsford Literature Festival
Ledbury Poetry Festival
Lewes Live Literature Festival
Limpsfield Arts Festival
Prague Fringe Festival, Czech Republic
Ripon International Festival
Swindon Literature Festival
Women’s Arts International Festival, Kendal
ARTIFICE
Back Room at the Star Inn Guildford
Camberley Theatre
Chawton House LIbrary, Alton
Clandon Park, Guildford
Council Chamber, Farnham
Electric Theatre, Guildford
Frensham Pond Hotel, Farnham
Guildhall, Bath
Hatchlands Park, Guildford
Masonic Hall, Bath
Merchants’ Hall, Edinburgh
Mill Studio, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford
Mission Theatre, Bath
University of Notre Dame, London
SUPPORT
With grateful thanks to the following for their financial support over the years:
Irene Prestwich Trust Guildford Borough Council
Renewal Arts UK Phyllis Konstam Memorial Fund
Westminster Productions The Opportunities Fund, Initiatives of Change
Christian Arts Trust Arts Council England
And all those individuals who so generously donated to Crowdfunder and CrowdAid to support Apples in Winter, the Artifice video, and Consider This…
Your financial support is invaluable. If you would like to make a donation, please do so using the following details. Thank you.
Bank: Tide Account Name: LynchPin Productions Theatre Company Account Number: 16518099 Sort Code: 04-06-05 Reference: Donation
Please let us know about your gift - we’d like to be able to thank you: