There will be three professional pantos in Newcastle this year: joining the Theatre Royal’s Aladdin (27th November to 19th January) and the Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre’s Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood (7th December to 6th January) will be the first ever panto from Dance City, Jack and the Beanstalk (5th to 8th December), featuring aerial artists, dancers and storytellers.
The show, aimed specifically at younger children, stars four of the North East’s finest children’s performing artists including a special appearance by one of the stars of CBBC’s Wolfblood, Rachel Teate. She will appear in the successful BBC show for a second series being filmed in 2013, but before that she will be jumping onto stage at Dance City for this special Christmas production. She also appeared in the Tracey Beaker spin off show, The Dumping Ground for CBBC and played Juliet in Romeo and Juliet for the Customs House.
Ruth Johnson joins the cast with theatre credits including Shhh!...A Christmas Story (Northern Stage), SILK (ZENDEH), The Wind and the Willows and The Prince and the Penguin (both Northern Stage).
Ian Maclaughlin is best known as a member of The Suggestibles, the North East’s popular improvised comedy group. His theatre credits include The Glass Slipper (Northern Stage) as well as TV appearances in The Return of Tracy Beaker (BBC) and The Paradise (BBC).
Actress and aerialist Rebecca Hollingsworth joins the Jack and the Beanstalk cast with theatre credits that include The Tiger’s Bride, Great Expectations and Animal Farm (all Northern Stage).
The production of Jack and the Beanstalk has been created by Dance City in association with Seven Stories.
The show runs at Dance City on 5th to 8th December at 1.15pm on Wednesday, 10.30am and 1.15pm on Thursday and Friday and on Saturday at 10.30am, 1.30pm & 5pm.