Fully Amplified
The Podcast
Winner - Silver, British Podcast Awards 2022 (Fiction Category)
Winner - Silver, Anthem Awards 2022 (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Category)
Runner Up - International Women’s Podcast Awards 2021 (Moment of Touching Honesty Category)
Winner - Bronze, ARIAS Awards 2022 (Grassroots Category)
“The lively discussions placed alongside well written monologue pieces which are more than ably performed, make for an engaging half hour listen”
[2nd from bottom]
★★★★ - “as a community these podcasts reveal how much we really don’t hear. So, start listening.”
[The Reviews Hub]
“You are never supposed to grow ever. You just weren't, but guess what? You're still here, and you're blooming, and you look fantastic, and you smell beautiful.”
Fully Amplified is an original drama-documentary series exploring the untold stories of over 30 women and non-binary people from all walks of life, brought to you by some of the UK’s most dynamic writers. In each episode, a new writer partners with a different community for conversations filled with honesty, laughter and revelation, interweaved with blistering new writing inspired by their stories.
From the realities of love in all its forms, to family, activism, and the struggle to find your place in the world, Fully Amplified brings you extraordinary stories of survival, injustice, hope, and the sweet delight of a home cooked meal. Stories that demand to be heard.
A Reduced Listening Production (ep.1-6) for Futures Theatre, commissioned and developed by Futures Theatre. All further episodes were commissioned and produced by Futures Theatre.
All episodes suitable for ages 14+
#FullyAmplified
Trasncripts are available of each episode for the Deaf and hard of hearing. If you’d like a trasncript, please contact us on info@futurestheatre.co.uk
Bonus Episode 8: I See You
Directed by Caroline Bryant
Performed by Sarah Lewis Obuba
Futures Theatre is proud to present "I See You", a podcast special exploring the experiences of women who have survived domestic abuse. Reflecting on their experiences of isolation and loneliness, they discuss the transformative power of writing and sharing their experiences with others. Throughout the episode, professional actors perform excerpts from the women's creative writing, letting their voices be heard, celebrating their courage, and contributing to the ongoing healing process.
Episode 1: Black Mermaids
Featuring Aunty by Tanya Loretta Dee
Directed by Jade Lewis
Performed by Sharon D Clarke
It’s time to share with you how my Gift was given.
When it came.
How it arrived.
What it did.
It’s Aunty’s last day on Earth. She knows this because she was told by the Greek God, Thanatos, on the Isle of Thanet. But she’s not afraid. This is a story about the gifts we pass on, healing in our community, and connectivity to nature.
Inspired by and featuring conversations with a community of Black, Brown and Diaspora women from Margate.
Episode 2: Waiting For An Excuse To Turn
Featuring Hunger by Ava Wong Davies
Directed by Mingyu Lin
Performed by Chloe Ewart
“They won’t care that you were born there,” she says. “That doesn’t protect you.”
Ava Wong Davies' piece is built off a series of conversations had with British East and South East Asian women in the wake of a recent uptick in anti-Asian violence. Fusing fantasy and realism, it is an exploration of vulnerability, identity, and home.
Episode 3: When Two Armenians Meet…
Featuring Old Dough by Abi Zakarian
Directed by Caroline Bryant
Performed by Jessie Bedrossian
Food is love.
Food is life.
Ojen wakes up in the early hours to find the women of her family taking over her kitchen. The noise, smells, tastes and sounds fill up her small flat with memories: of her past, of her heritage, and of distant horrors that bubble just underneath the surface.
Drawing on her own Armenian heritage and celebrating the lives of the Bedrossian women OLD DOUGH is a story by Abi Zakarian about the power of memories, food and resilience in order to preserve a culture and heritage in the face of genocide and denial.
Episode 4: Still Gay As Hell
Featuring Snow Globe by babirye bukilwa
Directed by Caroline Bryant
Performed by Shaniqua Okwok
i thought this would be heaven. i thought this would be safe. i thought this was the dream. But when i peeled myself off the bedroom floor dehydrated from the hangover of co-dependency i realised i don’t have a home. why did her love pang greater that all the rest? and why do i hate myself even more.
An exploration of internalised misogyny within queer femme bodies and the womxn they romantically love, inspired by conversations with Queer Black women and non-binary people.
Episode 5: Not Just Two People In Love
Featuring Geometries of Love and Power by Marinella Mezzanotte
Directed by Tian Brown-Sampson
Performed by Shin-Fei Chen
Does it matter who falls first, who falls most, who helps most? That’s what two people should ask each other on a first date.
In Geometries of Love and Power, one narrator voices the experiences of multiple women, each in a relationship with a man of a different ethnicity to her own, as they navigate the intersections of race and gender.
Inspired by conversations with a multi-racial group of women on their experiences of interracial relationships.
Episode 6: The Belly of the Wolf
Featuring Belly of the Wolf by Alexandra Wood
Directed by Caroline Bryant
Performed by Laura dos Santos
Everyone knows you can’t trust wolves. They’ve got the gift of the gab, they’re charming and worldly, but more fool you if you trust a wolf, only got yourself to blame.
Written in response to conversations with survivors of domestic abuse, Belly of the Wolf is a disorientating fairytale of one woman’s journey to recover who she is, and a celebration of their strength, resilience and power.
Bonus Episode 7: Hidden Disabilities
Featuring writing from Destiny Adeyemi, Sasha Bond, Grace Bryant, Imani and Jade Wilkinson
Directed by Caroline Bryant
Performed by Marième Diouf
In this bonus episode, Futures invited 5 participants from its creative engagement programme to write their own original pieces on the theme of gender inequality and being unique.
Production Credits
Fully Amplified episodes 1-6 were a Reduced Listening production for Futures Theatre. The producer was Katie Bilboa, the Executive Producers were Amanda Castro and Jack Howson, with production assistance from Olivia Melkonian and Kai Stone. Fully Amplified was created by Caroline Bryant and commissioned by Futures Theatre. Further episodes were commissioned and produced by Futures Theatre.
Sound design for episodes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6 & 8 by Nicola T. Chang. Episode 4 by Lillian Henley. Episode 7 by Rafaela Pancucci.
Our huge thanks to Mags Creative for their advice and support.
Partially funded by Arts Council England, CAF Resilience Fund, National Lottery Community Fund & the Smallwood Trust.
In line with our commitment to make our work accessible for all, Fully Amplified is available for free.
If you’d like to support our work further and help us continue working with fantastic artists and communities, please consider making a donation.
