Work by emerging playwrights, directors and theatre makers will be celebrated in the REP Foundry Festival at Birmingham REP.
The festival offers an opportunity to see work by “fresh, new voices from the West Midlands” and features artists on the REP’s Foundry programme, an artist development scheme.
The festival runs from 13 until 24 November. Week one features Yours Sincerely, a queer comedy by Will Jackson about Kylie Minogue; a trio of interconnected monologues about three inner city teenagers on the verge of becoming adults, Arinze Kene's Little Baby Jesus and a performance by Jumprov, “the UK's first ethnically diverse improvisational theatre company”.
In week two, there will be a series of REP Foundry double bills. Claire Thill’s Dead Endings is a work in progress that examines the link between a life lived online and mental ill health while Exhale, written and performed by Zeddie Lawal, is a coming-of-age tale that explores faith, sexuality and forgiveness.
Finley-Rose Townsend will direct Mr Muscles, a play written by her grandmother Sue Townsend, “an intimate true story of friendship and loss”, while Michael Southan’s Subtitled tells the story of fledgling artist and music lover Claire who finds out about her inherited deafness.
Written and performed by Rinkoo Barpaga, Made in India Britain gives an insight into a man's life as he tries to fathom out exactly who he is as he delves deep into his past, and Lorna Nickson Brown's Butterflies is a woman's autobiographical journey through cancer and beyond, examining the impact a cancer diagnosis can have on mental health.
Further details about the festival are available at the Birmingham REP web site.