Stage 3 is Northern Stage’s smallest auditorium, dedicated to the new and the experimental and featuring theatre, music, comedy, spoken word, poetry and scratch nights. When the theatre first opened, more than 40 years ago, it was the foyer and box office area.
5 July sees the launch of the Curious LGBTQ arts festival with Northern Stage Is Curious, an evening of new writing and performance which features Proud Words (New Writing North’s LGBT+ reading and writing project for young people), an extract of Shorty by Hester Chillingworth and a sharing of Petrichor, a new work by ZENDEH.
On Friday 16, Fun in the Oven, a multi-disciplinary theatre company based in Newcastle and specialising in physical theatre, dance and storytelling, presents Canary, its debut full-length show. The Canary Girls, a motley crew of Munitionettes, are "doing their bit" for the war effort when an air raid on their shell shop rocks their world as they embark on a cordite-fuelled journey through euphoric emancipation, forbidden friendships and anarchic dreams.
On 10 and 11 October, Aine Flanagan Productions, Seiriol Davies and The Young Vic present How to Win, a hit of the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe. Henry Cyril Paget, 5th Marquis of Anglesey, was one of the Earth's wealthiest men until he lost it all by being too damn fabulous. A ripped-up new musical about being too weird for the world but desperately not wanting it to forget you.
On 26 October, Young People’s First in Three returns, a showcase of the best in new writing, comedy, theatre, music and everything in between from young local artists under 25.
On 1 November, Dende Collective in association with Mark O’Thomas and Andrea Vicari, supported by the Economic and Social Research Council, Newcastle University and Durham University, present a workshop performance of The Austerity Playbook, a new piece of musical theatre which will push the boundaries of how the arts can work with, alongside and as a fundamental component of research.
Then on 2 and 3 November, ARC Stockton, Harrogate Theatre, HOME Manchester, Norwich Arts Centre, Oxford Playhouse, Unity Theatre Liverpool and West Yorkshire Playhouse present Daniel Bye’s latest work, Instructions for a Border Crossing.
On 4 November, there is stand-up comedy from Sofie Hagen, who presents Dead Baby Frog.
There’s a children’s show (for age 6 to 12) at 1:30 on 8 and 10:30 on 9 November. Great Odds asks what does it mean to follow a dream when you don’t fit in and the odds are stacked against you?
On 14 November, Playing Up returns, an evening of new work by local writers.
Finally on 15 November, theatre-meets-gig that smashes pop and politics in a futuristic Hadron Collider in Morale is High (Since We Gave Up Hope) from Manchester’s Powder Keg, exploring the effects of pop culture, political policy and inane day-to-day actions on whom we choose to vote for.