April De Angelis News

Eighteen new plays for the inaugural New Play Commission Scheme (NPCS) have been announced by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) in partnership with HighTide theatre company, UK Theatre and the Independent Theatre Council.

From modern day inequities to porn addiction, betting shops, spiritual and sexual liberation and an octopus taught to believe in God, 17 new plays have been longlisted for the 40th anniversary of Soho Theatre's Character 7 sponsored Verity Bargate Award.

The National Theatre has announced two further productions to be staged this winter, Shakespeare's Othello and Kerry Jackson a new play by April De Angelis, both going on sale to the public on 21 July.

Jonathan Dove's comedy opera, Flight, lands at the Royal College of Music's (RCM) Britten Theatre next month with a special production by acclaimed director Jeremy Sams. In what will be the 35th staging of Flight, Jonathan Dove will also be involved in the unique creative direction of this production.

The Duke's Theatre Company returns after their critically acclaimed adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. It promises to delight audiences with Shakespeare's most celebrated and comic fairy tale.

Theatre Royal Stratford East today announces its 2022/23 season. The season includes Anthony Neilson's poignant and comical delve into the nature of mental illness, The Wonderful World of Dissocia, directed by Emma Baggott, which opens in September 2022.

WGGB has agreed a groundbreaking set of principles to govern the digital broadcasts of stage plays by the Royal Court, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre.

The New Play Commission Scheme (NPCS), led by WGGB in partnership with HighTide Theatre, UK Theatre and the Independent Theatre Council, has been designed to respond to the decline in new theatre commissions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Dallas Opera has secured the cabin and announced takeoff for Flight, the opera based on the real-life story that also inspired Steven Spielberg's The Terminal. The Dallas premiere of Jonathan Dove and April De Angelis' contemporary masterpiece opens at the Winspear Opera House on Friday, March 4, 2022.

Final details have been announced for KHT50: Barstools to Broadway from the King's Head Theatre the celebration taking place from 14 – 19 February, marking the successes of the world-renowned pub theatre's first 50 years with a series of readings of plays that started their lives there, with cast and creative teams with links to the playwrights and original shows.

Royal & Derngate will present An Improbable Musical as part of its Made in Northampton 2021/22 season. With a brand-new show created at each performance, An Improbable Musical sees world renowned theatre company Improbable take to the Royal stage in Northampton from Friday 25 February to Saturday 5 March, ahead of an autumn tour. 

It's not always easy to relate personally to the storylines of classic operas—a prince is given a magic flute to protect him on a journey through a mythical land, a Roman diva must give herself to her captor or sentence her true love to death, a cursed clown's daughter sacrifices her own life to save her father.

In the best-case scenario, by the end of the 21st century, the Earth will “only” become warmer by 1.5 degrees Celsius. Realistically, it will be much hotter. Severe heat waves and rising water levels are only two of the main symptoms of this; coral reefs will disappear almost entirely and animal species will go completely extinct. Seas will swallow cities whole. Polar bears will become a fever dream.

Leading playwrights and WGGB members Caryl Churchill, April de Angelis, Nick Dear, David Edgar, David Eldridge, Lee Hall, Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti, Lucy Kirkwood, Bryony Lavery, Simon Stephens, Sir Tom Stoppard, Jack Thorne and Roy Williams OBE have backed new digital principles for theatre launched today.

Royal & Derngate today announced four further productions to complete its 2021/22 Made in Northampton season. A new production of Joe Penhall's biting contemporary satire Blue/Orange is brought to the stage this autumn by the producing team behind Ralph Fiennes' hugely successful Four Quartets which is soon to transfer to the West End.

Taking place in the grounds of the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, the event will address the climate emergency, and features guests including Glenda Jackson, Lemn Sissay OBE, Dr. Helen Czerski and Kiran Landa. The event is free to attend and will begin at 6pm.

A director with a reputation for developing new writing, Holly directed Headlong's Hedda Tesman by Cordelia Lynn at Chichester Festival Theatre and The Lowry, Salford. She was an Executive Producer on Unprecedented, the BBC Four, Century Films and Headlong critically acclaimed drama anthology, directing House Party by April De Angelis and Penny by Charlene James for the series.

Since 2001, MTC has awarded a total of 100 commissions through the Sloan Foundation Program. Learn more about this year's commissions here!

What drives a person to rebel? What is the journey a citizen has to take before they decide to disobey the laws of their own country? From psychiatrists to vicars, classroom assistants to actors - What is their story?

Two lovers, each with hidden secrets, struggle to prosper as gin hawkers. At a time in the 18th century when the average Briton drank 1.5 litres of gin every day, women were being locked up in cells to sober up and disorder was breaking out on every street corner, panic spreads among the upper classes who look to the magistrates, the Church and even their tipsy Queen to restore sobriety.