James Dacre News

Royal & Derngate Northampton today announces that it will premiere a season of original musical theatre as part of its upcoming Made in Northampton 2021 season.

Royal & Derngate and The National Youth Theatre have announced a new partnership committed to providing outstanding vocational learning opportunities in theatre for up to 500 young people aged 14 to 21 in Summer 2021.

The vaccine news continues to be promising, and every day a new understanding of the timeline to a return to “normal” comes out - as you’ll see below, Dr. Anthony Fauci thinks that normal could be as early as Late Summer/Early Fall, and that would be a situation where audiences aren’t required to be masked or socially distanced.

Royal & Derngate's Generate Talent Development programme is thrilled to announce Gen-Fest; a weeklong online festival this autumn dedicated to supporting the work of Northamptonshire artists.

Following the success of Burn Bright's digitally commissioned pilot, Better In Person, the empowering not-for-profit led by Tori Allen-Martin and Sarah Henley, is continuing the series with the next instalment which will amplify Black women's voices and stories, alongside launching a new initiative, Connect.

Royal & Derngate today announced that it is releasing a concept album on 27 March for a new digital musical commissioned for online and social media distribution called #ZoologicalSociety and written by multi-award-winners Vikki Stone and Katie Mulgrew. The release will be launched with a live concert performance at BEAM 2020, the UK's leading showcase of new British musical theatre, taking place at Royal & Derngate. In line with the announcement, a short film by award-winning animator Tim Wheatley has been released to introduce each of the musical's characters and the album will be available to stream or to download from all leading streaming services including Spotify, Amazon and Apple alongside Royal & Derngate's website.

Following preview performances in Northampton in July and a successful Edinburgh Festival Fringe run at the Pleasance Beyond last summer, award-winning theatre company The Wardrobe Ensemble's co-production of The Last of the Pelican Daughters returns to Royal & Derngate this spring as part of the Made in Northampton season and ahead of a UK tour.

Given the turbulent times that we live in, a new stage adaptation of Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin would seem like a smart choice for an ambitious theatre (or theatres, as this is a co-production with York Theatre Royal, in association with Oxford Playhouse).

Royal & Derngate Northampton and York Theatre Royal, in association with Oxford Playhouse, today announced that their world premiere of Alone in Berlin, translated and adapted for the stage by Alistair Beaton from Hans Fallada's acclaimed novel, will feature illustrations by Jason Lutes, from his epic graphic novel Berlin and songs by Orlando Gough performed by cabaret singer Jessica Walker.

Canadian photojournalist Paul Watson is haunted by the words he heard a dead soldier say as he took the photo, in 1993, that would win him the Pulitzer Prize and reshape American foreign policy. Playwright Dan O'Brien, struggling with ghosts of his own, reaches out to Watson, and the two forge a friendship as they reckon with the traumas that have shaped their lives. a?oeThe Body of an American' is a bold, radically theatrical and poetic true story that ranges from Afghanistan and Iraq to the Canadian High Arctic. Two actors play more than thirty roles in an exhilarating new form of documentary drama. The Winner of the inaugural Edward Kennedy Prize, the Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play, and the PEN Award for Drama.

Royal & Derngate, Northampton, and New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, have announced Tori Allen-Martin and Alex Cardall as the cast for their co-production of the new musical, The Season, by 2018 MTI Stiles + Drewe Mentorship Award winners, Jim Barne and Kit Buchan, playing in Northampton and Ipswich in November. The production will be directed by Tim Jackson and designed by Amy Jane Cook.

In 1981 at Kibeho College in Rwanda, a young girl claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary who warned her of the unimaginable: Rwanda becoming hell on earth. She was ignored by her friends and scolded by her school but then another student saw the vision, and another, and the impossible appeared to be true.

In 1981 at Kibeho College in Rwanda, a young girl claimed to have seen a vision of the Virgin Mary who warned her of the unimaginable: Rwanda becoming hell on earth. She was ignored by her friends and scolded by her school but then another student saw the vision, and another, and the impossible appeared to be true.

Theatre Royal Stratford East today announces the full casting for their co-production with Royal & Derngate, Northampton, of Our Lady of Kibeho, written by Katori Hall. Marking 25 years since the Rwandan genocide, this powerful drama now has its London premiere at Theatre Royal Stratford East in a remount of James Dacre's critically acclaimed production at Royal & Derngate earlier this year. Reprising their roles are Michelle Asante (Sister Evangelique), Michaela Blackburn (Evas), Pepter Lunkuse (Marie-Claire Mukangango), Michael Mears (Father Flavia), Rima Nsubuga (Vestine), Ery Nzaramba (Father Tuyishime), Ewart James Walters (Nkango Mukamazimpaka) and Leo Wringer (Bishop Gahamanyi). They will be joined by Aretha Ayeh (Immaculee), Pérola Congo (Therese), Taz Munya (Alphonsine), Liyah Summers (Anathalie) and Mitchell Zhangazha (Emmanuel).

Royal & Derngate, Northampton's acclaimed theatre, is celebrating a run of London transfers, with five productions playing over this season. Three productions move to the West End, whilst Our Lady in Kibeho, directed by Artistic Director James Dacre is being restaged for a six-week season at the Theatre Royal Stratford East and The Lovely Bones tours nationally and internationally, visiting Hackney Empire and Rose Theatre Kingston.

Musical Theatre Network and Mercury Musical Developments, in partnership with Royal & Derngate, Northampton, today announce the dates of BEAM2020, the third presentation of their biennial industry showcase of new British musical theatre, and that it will take place outside London for the first time.

The world premiere of Anthony McCarten's (The Theory of Everything, Bohemian Rhapsody, Darkest Hour) play The Pope at Royal and Derngate looks at a turning point moment in the Catholic Church - the retirement of Pope Benedict XVI and his replacement with Pope Francis. Two popes living, but more than that, the retirement was a challenge to the idea that a pope should die in office - an idea that had been unchallenged for 700 years.

Theatre Royal Stratford East today announces Nadia Fall's second season as Artistic Director to run from Autumn 2019 to Summer 2020.

Award-winning theatre company The Wardrobe Ensemble today announce that it will take a brand-new production to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this summer. The production will mark the company's return to Edinburgh following its The Scotsman Fringe First Award and The Stage Edinburgh Award winning, smash-hit production Education, Education, Education, which will have its West End debut at Trafalgar Studios this summer, and The Stage Award winning 1972: The Future of Sex. Created as part of the Royal & Derngate's Resident Ensemble programme and developed in partnership with Complicite, The Last of the Pelican Daughters will preview at Royal & Derngate's Royal stage on Thursday 25 and Friday 26 July, before playing at Pleasance Beyond 31 July - 25 Aug 2019.