Hi! I'm Alexandra 'Alex' Donnachie (she/her) and I'm a South London born and bred 6ft tall half-Scottish caffeine fuelled...
ACTRESS
I am an award-winning actress and award-nominated writer and theatre maker. My writer-performer credits include: twenty-eight (DEM Productions: Theatre 503); When We Died (Carbon Theatre: Vaults Festival 2020, Edinburgh Fringe Online 2021, Bruntwood Prize long-listed); 3 Years, 1 Week and a Lemon Drizzle (UK Tour, Edinburgh Fringe 2018).
Further acting credits include: Atomic 50 (Blackhorse Workshop); Return to Elm House (Battersea Arts Centre); The Suffragettes with Lucy Worsley (BBC One/Book Lapping Productions; BAFTA Winner 2019). I also appear in numerous audio dramas for Big Finish and Audible and play series regular, Jacqueline 'Jackie' Tate in the Dark Shadows audio drama series. I even got to write an episode for Series 3, due for release later this year.
In June of this year, I was awarded the Best Performance Award by Annie Rowe CDG for my portrayal of Kathy in short film, Trish: As Seen on TV. I am currently developing my fourth full-length play and the screen adaptation of When We Died.
and... WRITER.
You can read a little more about some of the plays I've written below but I've also written a number of opinion pieces and blogs for various publications in my time. You can read some of those here!
I also...FACILITATE & TUTOR.
I have over ten years of experience working as a LAMDA tutor, working with young people hoping to grade at introductory level, right through to Grade 8 (Gold). I specialise in the Reading for Performance, Acting, Verse and Prose and Speaking in Public syllabi and also offer one-off or regular one-to-one monologue preparation sessions and public speaking tutorials.
As a facilitator, I regularly work in primary and secondary schools across the UK, often on behalf of companies like KIT Theatre, delivering the thrilling Inspiration Days or The Old Vic, running workshops which delve into the wide range of skills and jobs needed to develop any of their main house theatre productions. More recently, I have been leading sessions which I've designed alongside my own projects. This includes an ACE funded series of workshops geared towards students in higher education and which focus on safeguarding in writing and theatre making.
If any of the above sounds even a little bit interesting and you'd like more information, don't hesitate to get in touch!
THE WORK I MAKE, WRITE AND SORT OF PUT TOGETHER
The work I make myself mostly focuses on telling real stories (usually my own, sometimes somebody else’s and more often than not, a mix of everybody’s) in new and exciting forms. Always fun and never without the help and support of my friends and colleagues who specialise in all areas of theatrical magic.
WHEN WE DIED
We're going to Edinburgh!
To take WHEN WE DIED to Edinburgh for the Fringe was always the plan and we were gutted not to try and be there in 2020 for obvious reasons but even then I'm not sure we could have imagined we'd be programmed at Summerhall! This is honestly a hugely exciting 'F*ck yeah!' moment for me, both professionally and personally. I'm half-Scottish so Edinburgh (and its surrounding areas) are very special to me and it does feel like a second home so to be going back this year with a play and team I'm so proud to be a part of is very, very brilliant. Planning on being at the Fringe? Well, tickets are now available to book HERE
Before you go...
Whilst we were thrilled to receive the offer to take the show to Summerhall, as it stands, myself and the exceptional creative team, including our producer - without whom this would never be happening - won't be getting paid so we are fundraising. If you think you or somebody you know might be in a position to contribute towards the cost of taking WHEN WE DIED to EdFringe, click the button below or visit carbontheatre.org.uk/donate for a full breakdown of what your donation could go towards, and for information on how to donate. Thank you so very, very much!
We were incredibly lucky to finish our run at the 2020 VAULT Festival right before the country went into its first national lockdown. My Bruntwood Playwriting Award long-listed play, When We Died (directed by Andy Routledge and produced by Carbon Theatre), received lots of lovely ★★★★ reviews and kind words (see below!) and the team couldn’t be more chuffed or grateful.
‘Donnachie is really terrific… It’s quietly hold-your-breath gripping.’
– Lyn Gardner for Stagedoor.
Read Lyn’s full review here or find out more about the production, its stellar creative team and read more reviews here.
Almost a year to the day after we opened at VAULT Festival, the team behind When We Died was awarded a grant from Arts Council England to adapt the play for film with Manchester based Eight Engines and create 4 workshops centred around safeguarding and protecting the wellbeing of creative teams and audiences alike when making trauma-based theatre. We were thrilled to have the film stream online throughout August 2021 as part of the Edinburgh Fringe's digital programme.
In 2023, exactly three years to the day since we ended our run at the 2020 VAULT Festival, the When We Died team, complete with some new faces, brushed off the cobwebs and took the play on tour across the UK. Check out some of the venues we were lucky enough to visit with the show and, in some cases, its accompanying workshops. Come back soon to find out more about our upcoming summer plans:
Town and Gown, Cambridge
The Dukes. Lancaster
Harrogate Theatre, Harrogate
Greenwich Theatre, London
Jermyn Street Theatre, London
The Core, Corby
THE HELLENIC GAMES
Over the last few months, I've been working with my friends and co-creators Michael Armstrong and Daniel Millar - in addition to an incredible team of theatre makers and performers and some of the best access consultants who are working in theatre today - to develop a large-scale immersive family theatre show with integrated accessibility. We're aiming for the production, which explores the Olympic and Paralympic values, to open in Summer 2024 alongside the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In November 2022, thanks to a grant from Arts Council England and endless support from Battersea Arts Centre and Wimbledon Library, we ran a 2-week R&D which culminated in a sharing to a group of 30 young people from a local primary school and their teachers. We also invited along a number of our friends, colleagues and mentors who specialise in making and supporting immersive and family theatre. We received incredible feedback across the board, as well as really useful tips on how we can make what we've made even better moving forward.
With that in mind, we're now looking to run a 2nd R&D later this year before we enter rehearsals in 2024. If you're a producer or programmer brave enough to let us take over your venue with a couple of hapless athletes, a handful of olives and a whole pandora's box full of family theatre magic, please do get in touch. We have plenty of documentation to share with you, including the link to a short film which gives a glimpse into what we were able to achieve in just 2 weeks!
You can contact us via my website or email the team at admadatheatre@gmail.com
Photo credit: Alex Hedley
Photo credit: Kate Donnachie (Company Member)
twenty-eight
twenty-eight (directed by Jessica Lazar, produced by D.E.M. Productions - and written by me), is a play about motherhood, creativity and theatrical form, opened at the brilliant Theatre 503 in February 2022 - having originally been set to storm stages in 2020 - to lovely audiences and even lovelier feedback. I'm super proud of this play for very many reasons, not least because it was my first commission.
Watch this space for news of future runs and iterations. And in the meantime, why not have a watch of one of our trailers?
Photo credit: Darren Bell
Film credit: Emily Lunnon
DARK SHADOWS
I've been a part of the Dark Shadows (Big Finish Productions) universe for a few years now having played series regular Jacqueline 'Jackie' Tate in the audio drama series since 2014. Jackie means the world to me and voicing her is one of the best jobs I've ever had. So, imagine how chuffed I was when I was asked to write a Jackie-heavy episode for the upcoming series. It will still be a while before the series is available to listen to, but keep your eyes - and ears - open!
3 Years, 1 Week and a Lemon Drizzle
3 Years, 1 Week and a Lemon Drizzle is an autobiographical play which I created and perform with my younger sister, Kate. The play is about how our close sibling relationship was affected by an eating disorder when we were teenagers.
The play enjoyed a small UK tour and a run at Edinburgh in 2018 where we received lovely reviews like this one. And this one.