With rehearsals well underway for Ashley Ali’s play ‘Life After Life’ - the company’s second production to stage, Co-founder Christopher Woodward takes time out of rehearsals to talk about the success of Likeminded over a year on since their first production with its sell-out shows in Liverpool. 

Whilst Likeminded looks like a solid company now, it wasn’t always easy. “Likeminded was built on a monologue, a one man show. We didn’t think it would open so Many opportunities as it has done. Most people in theatre didn’t think it was ideal to have our first production as a one man show and a original work. I’m glad that we were confident in our decision and ignored the doubters which ultimately proved them wrong. I wouldn’t say Likeminded is a success yet, because we are still babies. If you think about it, we have only had one production to our name. But we are keeping creative all the time, pushing the boundaries that no one else is doing and being original in our ideas and vision ”.

Following the sell out shows of ‘The Man With No Identity’ Christopher and his team wasted no team in embarking on their next project. The trio decided to develop the play into a book “We then decided to publish it into a book for the people who never had the chance to see it, again the support was unreal and we sold out of books in the first two weeks”.

Their next project titled ‘One Sided Love’ was downloaded by over 400 people, which led them to turning the script into a radio drama which is still in progress. Christopher said “We recently released a free download of the script for my second play One-Sided Love, over 400 people downloaded it and the feedback was that good that we have turned it into a radio drama which we are currently working on”.

Whilst Christopher and Ashley remain at the forefront of Likeminded’s activities along with Andrew Smith, without the help of others they wouldn’t be where they are today “we work with all types of people in the creative field from bloggers, artists journalists you name it we work with everyone who has the same passion as we do and with an urgency to succeed, and we’re forever grateful for their help and belief in this company”.

Christopher and the team are always looking to diversify into different production sectors, their latest adventure ‘Unspoken’ a short film.  The film is based around cyber bullying and looks to convey how important it is to understand how your actions can impact others.  

Looking forward Christopher and Likeminded are thinking ambitious, and why shouldn’t they. Christopher said “During the next 12 months we have got fantastic projects coming up from all of us. Firstly, we have Ashley Ali’s play ‘Life After Life’ taking places over October 12th and 13th, at the new Hope Street Theatre. We have also the radio drama One-Sided Love which we are hoping to bring it to stage early next year. We also have two more short films currently in production at the moment which we are looking forward to showcase. We have another project called Theatre Addict which will help young upcoming playwrights have the opportunity to have their play performed, more information will be available on this great project very soon”.

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR LIFE AFTER LIFE HERE

Words by Adam Leighton
Images by Andrew Smith