Our Story
The Courtyard Players was formed in 2015 by the coming together of working class actors who wanted to
bring socially important and relevant productions to a wider audience; one of the main reasons for the establishment of this group was the lack of opportunities and funding for the type of drama we as a group wanted to write, stage and perform in. When writing, our mantra has always been
“Make them think, and if you can make them laugh along the way, then even better"
Since then the group has written and performed several other shows. "Pub Quiz" premiered at the 2018 Liverpool Fringe Festival and delighted audiences with the story of five former university friends forced back together to help win a pub quiz. A heartwarming tale of what actually makes you happy, this was Chris Daley's directorial debut. Bringing new members into the fold, it was a great experience to work with new great actors, including Josephine Sherlock who was nominated for Best Supporting role at the first ever Liverpool Fringe Festival awards.
Our Story
We love telling stories. That's who The Courtyard Players are.
Chris Daley and Adam J S Smith met whilst training at Brian Timoney's Method Acting Studio and along with two other of their students decided to form The Courtyard Players. Having already heard how difficult it was to get cast in upcoming plays, they decided to remove the middle man and just write their own. Beginning with the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the group self financed their debut show of “Jumping the Barriers”.
This tells the story of a chance meeting on a train between a wealthy young graduate and a homeless northerner, and how this dramatic mirror casts light on the inequality of our society. Based on a real experience Adam had a train journey with a homeless drifter, the show was a big success at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, gaining 5* reviews and recommendations across the last two weeks of August.
In 2019 we had our most ambitious project yet - taking a brand new show and an old favourite to multiple festivals across the country. Keen to work with Josephine again after the success of Pub Quiz, Chris approached her about writing together.
The result was"What Are You Wearing?" a comedy based on two women dating in the 21st century and all the joys and woes that entails. An ambitious production using actors playing multiple roles with a limited set, we were very proud with how well this new show was received. We also felt it was time to bring "Jumping the Barriers" back to the stage and decided to run both plays back to back at the Liverpool Fringe Festival 2019. Both were a big success with both being nominated across the board for the the 2019 Liverpool Fringe awards with "What Are You Wearing?" winning 'Best Show'
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Not satisfied with that, The Courtyard Players took both shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival the same year. Doing two shows a week was a bit challenge but the rewards far outstripped the hardships. Both shows played to sold out performances and got great reviews across the board.
We've partnered with the amazing talents over at Grin Theatre to be part of their fantastic 'Rainbow Monologues'. Focusing on LGBT issues, they've done some amazing work in lockdown and it's great to see so many people still managing to be creative under such difficult circumstances. Our very own Chris Daley can be seen performing "Something Different" and Adam Smith can be seen performing their latest monologue "Worst of Both Worlds", also written by Chris. And if that wasn't enough, Courtyard Players old boy Luke Morgan can be seen in "Supernova"
