Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre is to present All Our Tomorrows, a festival celebrating 50 years since its youth theatre programme was established.
The festival will showcase a variety of work from up-and-coming young theatre-makers and performers. It will be staged in the Belgrade’s B2 auditorium and at the city’s Shop Front Theatre.
Justine Themen, associate director of the Belgrade’s community and education company, said, “at the Belgrade we offer a broad participatory programme, open to all but targeting those communities traditionally less engaged with theatre.
“The All Our Tomorrows festival aims to support some of these young people to make a step into the profession by sharing their own work and meeting other young emerging artists from across the UK. We’re delighted to be hosting emerging companies from both the city’s universities.”
The Belgrade young company production Rise, which played on the B2 stage earlier in 2017 and features an all-female cast, will be revived at the festival. Inspired by the young people’s own experiences of everyday sexism, Rise follows a group of young women as they hijack a van and embark on a road trip to see their idol Beyoncé in concert.
Gateway Youth Dance Company and Phoenix Academy NE will present Quantum Leap which showcases four short works from its repertoire created by ”some of the country’s leading choreographers” and directed by Martin Hylton.
Emerging Coventry-based theatre company Keychain will stage its modern, urban love story Shine My Nine which asks the question: how far would you go for the one you love? Keychain was founded by Coventry University students who also performed at the Belgrade earlier in 2017.
Surreal humour, physical theatre and original music combine in Clown Funeral’s production of The Murderer, based on the poem by Luke Kennard. The company, formed by Warwick University graduates, took the show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2016.
Tethered to the Light is a play created and performed by the Belgrade senior youth theatre which takes the audience through the stages of grief while examining how technology affects our relationships.
Bristol Old Vic returns to the Belgrade with Beowulf, inspired by the Anglo-Saxon epic poem and using an original score and ensemble theatre to tell the story of one of history’s greatest heroes.
Completing the festival line-up is Zero for the Young Dudes, written by Alistair McDowell for the National Theatre Connections Festival and performed by See and Eye Theatre.
The full programme is available at the Belgrade Theatre web site.
The Belgrade community and education company introduced its first youth theatre group in 1967. Since then the Belgrade’s youth theatre programme has grown and includes five in-house youth groups and two outreach youth theatres for those aged eight to 25.