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The New Theatre Royal – Gathering for local ...

The New Theatre Royal – Gathering for local groups & artists

New Theatre Royal is opening its doors to the local amateur groups and local cultural venues to share ideas for the cultural future of the city. All interested parties are welcome to come along on Friday 8 April at 6pm to the New Theatre Royal, Guildhall Walk.

New Theatre Royal wants local groups to be engaged in its rebuild and see how its development welcomes local groups both now and in the future. New Theatre Royal sees itself not only as a receiving theatre but also as a hub where emerging companies can network and develop. Currently NTR houses two locally sourced associate artists – Jam Jar Dance Company (an emerging contemporary dance group who are developing work for a schools tour in the autumn) already half way through their residency and is creating an associate residency with University of Portsmouth students.

An in-house writing hub has recently been set up with New Writing South and Portsmouth City Council which earlier this week offered budding local writers the opportunity to listen to Simon Brett (writer of After Henry, The Charles Paris crime detective series) and share ideas. Next time the hub will invite an agent and author to explore how best to get published. The theatre has four thriving youth theatre groups and the latest Living Memories project with Portsmouth Football Club, written by local writers and performed by local actors, was a great success – audiences are now demanding its return.

In May NTR is inviting audiences to an open rehearsal by You Need Me, an exciting new international theatre company in development with the Corn Exchange Newbury, for the preview of their new work, Certain Dark Things, before it goes to Edinburgh Festival. The show returns for a full performance at the end of August. At the open rehearsal Portsmouth audiences will be helping shape the work. This is a key part of the process of developing new work and is a fabulous opportunity for our own emerging artists and local amateur groups to share in and experience. Through this opportunity Portsmouth learns as does the company.

Opportunities for trying out ideas and training for actors and directors is invaluable for their development. As Punchdrunk’s artistic director, Felix Barratt, said of the Battersea Arts Centre: “It is a place where you can really take risks… And making mistakes is the only way you move on as an artist. They (BAC) encourage you to go farther than you normally would. There’s a sense that you’re accepted, that nobody is going to judge you.”

New Theatre Royal’s rebuild will not only mean we can attract innovative companies such as Pilot Theatre, KneeHigh, Theatre de Complicite and Royal Shakespeare Company but also will be a centre where new work will be created and new skills learnt. The addition of a Creative Learning Space in the rebuild is essential to this ambition. Portsmouth people from all walks will be welcomed to use the space to learn new skills, develop their work, explore their heritage and try out ideas before they may be performed on the stage (which will also return – after 39 years).

The plans for the rebuild are near completion and it is anticipated that work will start in November this year. Whilst the project takes shape New Theatre Royal is not going dark but is creating an NTR@ brand and will be hosting shows and workshops in the theatre and around the city. New Theatre Royal sees it as a wonderful opportunity to get work out and about around the city. Our follow up Living Memories project is already in planning and looks at Journeys – why and how people take and took journeys to Portsmouth. A Young Writers Group (aged 13-16) with New Writing South is being formed in September and it is proposed that they will be part of the writing team on the project. PULSE, a fringe festival in June, is part of this initiative.

New Theatre Royal is a founder member of HOUSE, a collaborative group of regional theatres from Brighton to Oxford who have joined forces to support and share emerging artists across the region – it is crucial that Portsmouth is part of this as it will provide wonderful opportunities for our own performing artists to emerge.

Creating work in Portsmouth ensures NTR develops a Made in Portsmouth brand and will transform the profile of Guildhall Walk.

All community groups and local cultural venues are encouraged to come along to the New Theatre Royal on Friday 8 April at 6pm to share ideas for the future. For more information please contact Charlotte Mackie on 023 9277 8990 or email marketing@newtheatreroyal.com


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