Edinburgh to Offies: Why Francesca Moody is Hot Right Now
by JBR
When Francesca Moody stepped up to collect the 2014 Off West Award for Best Female on behalf of Phoebe Waller-Bridge for her one-woman show Fleabag, there were probably only a few people who didn’t know who the impish blonde dynamo was. Recently named new-writing powerhouse Paines Plough’s new Assistant Producer, Francesca, Chesca to her closest circle, has established a name for herself as the next big thing in producing, and anyone who wasn’t familiar with her name before the Offies will doubtless have her in their sights now. In an achingly cool Borough coffee shop, a huge, battered, three-seater sofa seems about to envelop the tiny Chesca as she curls up in it. Nestled into her corner, this elfin-like bundle of energy, with petite features, blonde pixie cut and daring slash of scarlet lippy, Chesca looks more like a fashion plate for a magazine feature on Shoreditch-style than the hippest new producer in town. She talks nineteen-to-the-dozen, punctuating with exclamation points that feel like spears and barely pausing for breath or to take a sip from her ‘Muncher’ - a blend of banana, soya-milk and honey.
To those in the know, Chesca has been a hot property for some time. All through Edinburgh 2013 this fizzing livewire was the talk of the Fringe. She had four productions running at the 2013 Festival, the all-conquering Fleabag, Where The White Stops, Gardening for the Unfulfilled & Alienated, and Jekyll & Hyde. Between them they notched up two Fringe Firsts, one Stage award, one nomination for Best Ensemble, four transfers to London and an uncountable number of 5 star reviews. Since then, Fleabag has romped to triumphant success, raising Chesca’s currency in all the right circles. Not bad for someone who considers herself just starting out.
Racing around the Royal Mile, powering up from Assembly Roxy to Underbelly Cowgate and back down to Pleasance Courtyard, Chesca cut an impressive figure in Edinburgh, dazzling everyone with her energy and reputation for playing as hard as she worked. She does seem to thrive on the whirlwind that is Edinburgh.
“Most young theatre companies cut their teeth in Edinburgh; it’s a really good chance to expose yourself to an international audience, expand your partisan audience, meet programmers and producers and all those things.”
I point out she was the talk of the Fringe. “Bless you, babes,” she laughs, before revealing, “After 2012, I felt really dragged down by the whole thing. Not in a bad way, I had a really positive experience, but the show was really a hard sell. I swore I wasn’t going back to Edinburgh.” In 2012, Chesca produced NOLA for Look Left, Look Right, “It was verbatim theatre, issue based. I thought it was brilliant, but not for everyone. So, I came out thinking I wasn’t going to do Edinburgh this year. Then, two months after, I talked to Undeb, the Welsh theatre company I run with Alex Vlahos (Merlin, Privates), and we were interested in launching the career of the company, and the career of the writer, Brad Birch. And that’s how Gardening for the Unfulfilled & Alienated came about. Then, I worked with DryWrite, producing Mydidae at the Soho Theatre. The girls, Vicky [Jones, director] and Phoebe [Waller-Bridge, writer and actor] - we had an amazing creative synergy. Phoebe was asked to do a comedy story-telling night, so she wrote this fifteen minute piece. Then one night, they mentioned to me that people had said she should take it to Edinburgh.” That short piece was the genesis for Fleabag. Chesca giggles excitedly, becoming more animated as she explains, “I don’t think they had any idea of the consequences of saying that to me! I set up a meeting with Underbelly and they loved it and things moved really, really fast. It’s all very well having reams of time, and R&D and rehearsals to work through things, but sometimes, when you’re forced, that’s when you come up with really good ideas.”
Chesca trained initially as an actress at RWCMD. With her energy and personality, it’s not difficult to imagine she would have been very good if she’d continued on that path. “When I left Welsh Col, I went into a bit of a hole. I was getting auditions, but wasn’t getting work. I had to move back home, and my parents live outside of London and I’m a real city girl.” Was that hole responsible for her moving into producing? “A friend, Alex Waldmann, had just done a Shared Experience show in Edinburgh, but he was trying his hand at producing. I was working as a venue manager at C Venues, and we bumped into each other and went to see loads of theatre together. Then, back in London, he asked me to work with him.” Recalling the circumstances, Chesca laughs self-deprecatingly. “I think the only reason he asked me was because I was under 25 and I could apply for this award from IdeasTap! But, we got on really well so we started working on a project, which I didn’t really do very much on. That got Arts Council money, and it taught me about selling a show and the need for administration, and how to talk about your work in the right way. Off the back of that, a couple of friends asked me to work with them. So I did a lot of Associate Producing - I don’t, even now, know what that means! Then Alex Vlahos asked me to do something with Undeb which is how I became their producer. Someone else asked me to work with them on an Edinburgh show...” As she lists each individual occurrence, it becomes clear to both of us that, at the time, she made no connection between each one, but in hindsight, there’s a very clear development of her skills and passion for producing. “So, a year after graduating from Welsh Col, I went to Edinburgh with two shows! It was a weird experience for me - suddenly I was a producer and had no idea how I’d got there! When I got back, I thought ‘Hmmmm, maybe I should take it a bit more seriously.’ I figured I had nothing to lose!”
For a second, as Chesca takes another sip of her Muncher and I drain the dregs of my double espresso, she pauses for breath, and a realisation dawns; “I like having something to do!” she exclaims. “I’ve always needed to be busy, at school, at college, I always like having something to do, so perhaps the life of an actor didn’t really suit me.” Realistically though, Chesca clams it is only in the last year that she has taken producing seriously. “It was last year in Edinburgh,” she smiles, once again acknowledging the personal affinity she feels with the Festival, “that I really went ‘er..I’m a producer, I’m not an actor’. I’m having so much fun doing it, every day is different. There’s no sense of loss. It got to the point where I just couldn’t be bothered to go to an audition. It seemed like a waste of my time - I could be doing so much work in the office in the time it would have taken me to get there. It was a big decision, but it wasn’t a sad one. I think acting is a brilliant thing, I still love it. If someone put me on stage now, I’d do it although I’d probably be crap as I don’t have the muscle for it anymore. You have to have such tunnel vision to be an actor. All my actor friends are writing letters all the time, meeting people all the time, developing their practice. And I wasn’t doing that - I was focussing on developing my practice as a producer. I really think that acting and producing are the two least compatible things. Acting and directing, sure. But with acting, you need to keep all the magic. With producing you lose all sense of the magic. You gain a lot, but you lose a lot. I have a more secure sense of my identity now. I always knew I wanted a career. At first it was acting, now it’s producing. Everything is more achievable for me as a producer. In acting, I felt like I was dancing around Lady Luck. Now I’m making my own luck. My work is my play, and that’s the pleasure. You have to embrace that, you have to take everything you can from this incredible atmosphere.” If the ripple that ran through the Offies ceremony when Francesca Moody stepped up to collect yet another award for Fleabag is anything to go by, this is a little woman making very big waves.
Josh Rochford @joshrochford
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