Further Events Announced For Almeida For Free Summer & Smoke

Further events are today announced for Almeida For Free - Summer & Smoke, the Almeida Theatre's free festival for anyone aged 25 and under taking place from Tuesday 3 - Thursday 5 April.

Added to the programme are masterclasses from director Ned Bennett, designer Soutra Gilmour, live performances from Summer and Smoke cast member Anjana Vasan and poet Solomon O.B, and a closing night party curated by Gaggle Collective. The events run alongside three performances of Rebecca Frecknall's production of Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke performed entirely for free to 25s and under.

In the lead up to the festival, the Almeida Participation team is running an outreach programme, connecting with local youth organisations and schools to provide workshops, tickets and opportunities to perform on the Almeida stage as part of the Almeida's commitment to engaging with new audiences.

This year's festival has been made possible through the generous support of The Taylor Family Foundation. The Taylor Family Foundation, set up in 2007 by Ian and Cristina Taylor, supports charities giving opportunities to children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to improve their chances of attaining success; improving access and engagement in the performing arts and helping the homeless and struggling families to overcome their challenges. http://www.thetaylorfamilyfoundation.co.uk/

Tickets for the newly announced Almeida For Free events go on sale at 5pm on Thursday 15 March.

Also announced today is a day of general public performances of Séance, Darkfield's unnerving exercise in suspense and surprise, on Friday 6 April. This sits outside of the Almeida For Free festival and the performances are available to anyone (tickets £5). General public tickets for Séance go on sale at 10am on Tuesday 13 March, alongside tickets for Ontroerend Goed's £¥€$ (LIES) which runs for three weeks in August.

A small room with an international reputation, the Almeida began life as a literary and scientific society - complete with library, lecture theatre and laboratory. From the beginning, the building existed to investigate the world. Today, the Almeida makes brave new work that asks big questions: of plays, of theatre and of the world around us. It brings together the most exciting artists to take risks; to provoke, inspire and surprise audiences; to interrogate the present, dig up the past and imagine the future. The Almeida makes argument for theatre as an essential force in an increasingly fragmented society.

Founded by Pierre Audi in 1980, his successors were Jonathan Kent and Ian McDiarmid in 1990, and Michael Attenborough in 2002. In summer 2013, Rupert Goold joined the Almeida as Artistic Director. Under his leadership, notable productions have included American Psycho: a new musical thriller (transferred to Broadway); Ghosts (transferred to the West End and won three Olivier Awards); Chimerica (won eight Olivier Awards and transferred to Broadway); King Charles III (transferred to the West End, won the Olivier Award for Best New Play, transferred to Broadway, toured the UK and Sydney, and received a BBC television adaptation) and Oresteia (transferred to the West End and won the Olivier Award for Best Director). 2017 saw West End transfers for Hamlet, directed by Robert Icke and Ink, directed by Goold, and Icke's new adaptation of Mary Stuart is currently running at the Duke of York's Theatre before touring to Bath, Salford and Cambridge. The Almeida was named London Theatre of the Year at the 2018 Stage Awards.

In summer 2015, the Almeida presented Almeida Greeks, which included three new productions of Oresteia, Bakkhai and Medea, and live durational readings of The Iliad and The Odyssey which were both live streamed achieving ground-breaking levels of online engagement.

In May 2017, the Almeida launched Figures of Speech, a major digital film project interrogating the vitality of speech and rhetoric, and what visionary leadership sounds like. The third series of films will be launched in spring 2018 at www.speech.almeida.co.uk. The Almeida is grateful to the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and a range of generous individual supporters for making this project possible.

3000 £5 tickets are available to audiences aged 25 and under each year for Almeida productions.

The Almeida Theatre is a registered charity and is dependent on the support of individuals, companies, trusts and foundations. Our small auditorium, even when sold out, only provides 40% of the funding we need to operate. We therefore need to raise more than £2m each year to realise our artistic ambitions, reach new audiences, and secure the financial future of the theatre.

The Almeida is grateful to its Principal Partner Aspen, in its third term as the Almeida's most significant corporate supporter. Aspen was established in 2002 and is a leading global insurance and reinsurance company. www.aspen.co

The Almeida is grateful for the support of Arts Council England.