Derby Theatre’s summer festival of fresh, new theatre for emerging artists, Departure Lounge, is to return for a sixth year.
The theatre will be transformed into a festival site where audiences can take part in arts and industry-related workshops as well as see new work.
It will run from Thursday 19 until Sunday 22 July and will be produced by In Good Company, the theatre’s professional development programme for artists making work in the East Midlands.
There will be new work from Annie Siddons and Jess Green along with the première of the first In Good Company commission from Dante or Die.
For the first time, there will be international work at the festival, with Canadian company Theatre Replacement bringing together writers and singers from around the world in Town Choir.
The theatre will again be the East Midlands host for National Theatre Connections, an annual festival of new writing, performance, workshops and more for youngsters aged from 11 to 19. As part of the festival, which runs from Tuesday 10 until Saturday 14 April, Derby Youth Theatre will perform Blank by Alice Birch.
During the summer season, touring productions will include Pilot Theatre and York Theatre’s version of Bryony Lavery’s adaptation of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock from 15 until 19 May, the Original Theatre Company stage version by Rachel Wagstaff of Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong from 11 until 16 June and the Classic Thriller Company’s presentation of Edgar Wallace’s The Case of the Frightened Lady from 17 until 22 September.
Looking ahead to the autumn, the theatre will stage Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party from 26 September until 20 October and alongside it will run Atiha Sen Gupta’s Abi—part of the Retold series of one-woman plays—from 29 September until 20 October.
Full details of the summer season are available at the Derby Theatre web site.