producer

“There are currently no openly gay or bi players at any level of male professional football in Britain” – Stonewall.

Tom’s sixteen. His family home is falling apart. His mum has left and his depressed Dad can’t pay the bills. The only light in Tom’s life is football: he lives and breathes it. Going pro is Tom’s chance to make life better, for everyone… but Tom has a secret, one that could cost him his career.

We follow Tom as he weighs his dreams against each other because, in professional football, you can’t have both. STUD is a funny, defiant, inspiring piece that explores gender, ambition and what it takes to make dreams come true.

“Funny and touching and fearlessly truthful, STUD is more than timely, it’s what this world – wrestling as we are with masculinity in crisis – is crying out for” – Rikki Beadle-Blair

Stud premiered at VAULT Festival 2018. A video recording of Stud was commissioned by League Football Education and distributed UK-wide through their nationwide educational programme for all young professional footballers in the UK.

Stud was supported by Arts Council England, Lyric Hammersmith, Team Angelic, Arts Ed, Core Arts, Arch 5 Hackney, ALRA, Double Pass and Sheffield Wednesday.

PRESS & AWARDS
★★★★ “genuinely affecting… this show allows us to imagine that things can change” Reviews Hub
Acting Inspired podcast interview with Paloma Oakenfold
London Live TV interview

CAST
Tom: Joey Phillips
Dad/Coach/Adam: Liam Bergin

CREATIVE TEAM
Writer & Director: Paloma Oakenfold
Producer: Hannah Tookey
Movement Director: Natasha Wort
Designer: Anna Kezia Williams
Lighting Designer: Rajiv Pattani
Sound Designer: Nick Manning
Dramaturgs: Ola Ince & Rikki Beadle-Blair
Stage Manager: Meg Hird

Photography by Bernadette Baksa.