The Royal Shakespeare Company is to hold its first Midsummer Mischief Festival at Stratford to celebrate the 40th anniversary of its building The Other Place.
The festival will be held over midsummer and will commemorate the life of Buzz Goodbody, the RSC’s first female theatre director and the leading figure in establishing The Other Place as the first studio theatre in Stratford.
Events will include four new plays commissioned by the RSC which discuss whether “well-behaved women rarely make history”; an exhibition celebrating the work of Buzz Goodbody at The Other Place; and a free, one-day event in the theatre gardens with live music, performances and theatre craft workshops.
The four plays will be presented in two programmes in a purpose-built temporary studio on the Courtyard Theatre stage.
The first programme, directed by RSC deputy artistic director Erica Whyman, features Revolt. She said. Revolt again by Alice Birch and The Ant and the Cicada by Timberlake Wertenbaker.
The second programme will be directed by Jo McInnes. It comprises I can hear you by E V Crowe and This is not an Exit by Abi Zakarian. The plays will be performed in repertoire from 14 June until 12 July.
As part of the Festival programme, the RSC and Ohio State University have commissioned a co-production of The Tempest directed by Kelly Hunter, especially developed for children and young people with autism.
The hour-long, specially adapted production will be performed during the day from 24 June until 5 July on The Other Place stage.
The Other Place began life as a tin shed in 1974. In 2004 it closed to make room for The Courtyard Theatre, the temporary auditorium which was home to the RSC during the transformation of the Royal Shakespeare and Swan theatres.
With the opening of the new theatres in 2010, the 1,000 seat Courtyard Theatre was no longer required, making room for the return of The Other Place.
The RSC’s ambition is to reopen The Other Place in 2015 as a home for new work. The company hopes it will be a vibrant, creative building which will embody the spirit of the original.