DEparture Lounge, Derby Theatre’s summer festival of new work, is to return for a fourth year.
One of the highlights will be the première of Forward Theatre’s Clothes Swap Theatre Party, a “fun-filled, fashion-focused piece of theatre full of fizz”. Audience members should take a bag of old clothes to swap at the event.
Caroline Horton will present All of Me, a “trashy and funny play” about a woman who thinks a lot about dying; Rachael Young stages I, Myself and Me, a “poignant piece of theatre which explores our fascination with coupling and those living with single-status shame”; and Annie Siddons will perform How Not to Live in Suburbia, a “brutal, hilarious and poignant show about a single mother, artist and proud urbanite dealing with accidentally finding herself living life in the suburbs”.
Strawberry Blonde Curls will present Tanja, a play and a campaign around the subject of asylum seekers that blends drama, spoken word, puppetry, sign language and verbatim theatre; Seth Kreibel will stage A House Repeated, an interactive performance game which explores imagined buildings without leaving your seat; and Greg Wohead’s Celebration, Florida features two unrehearsed performers who “stand in to replace a person you miss or an experience you can’t stop thinking about”.
DEparture Lounge is produced by In Good Company, a professional development programme for artists making work in the East Midlands. Past and present associate companies will deliver work-in-progress and performance pieces during the festival. There will also be workshops, discussions and keynote speeches.
For the 2016 festival, Derby Theatre has teamed up with a new venue and performance space, The HopBarn in Southwell, Nottinghamshire to offer Package Holiday which gives an emerging theatre company the chance to develop its work and preview it at DEparture Lounge.
LaPelle’s Factory from Nottingham, an In Good Company associate, will present Desperados, a “wry smirk and scuffle against the grinding monotony of the modern world”.
Creative producer Ruby Glaskin said, “what’s truly remarkable about this year’s festival is the number of shows made by East Midlands artists—a real testament to the talent and creativity in the region.”
DEparture Lounge runs from Thursday 21 until Saturday 24 July.