24:7 Theatre Festival Set for Next Weekend

For the fourth year running 24:7 Theatre Festival will collaborate with 'You Are Here' Festival in Australia to create new, exciting theatre.

Since 2004 24:7 has been about developing and connecting people as well as celebrating new writing and unique ideas. This year is no different.

Distant Sounds is a cross-arts collaboration, designed to connect writers and musicians. A writer from the UK, Joyce Branagh, has responded to a piece written by Australian musician Tom Woodward, whilst Australian writer Tasnim Hossain has drawn inspiration from a piece composed by British composer Richard Scott. The plays and music will be performed during 24:7's Big Festival Weekend 2015, which runs from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th of July.

Manchester based writer Joyce Branagh says: 'White Roses by Tom Woodward has lyrics which tell quite a specific story, and so that story, the conversation within the lyrics, kind of sank into my bones, as I listened over and over again to the song. I then let my imagination loose to create the characters, to people the story which was already unfolding.'

The successful international collaboration started in 2011, when Kathryn Worthington, then 24:7's Festival Director, attended the Atelier for Young Festival Managers (EFA) in Turkey and met fellow attendee, David Finnegan, the then co-artistic director of You Are Here.

Kathryn says: 'There's a great deal of overlap between what we do - new/emerging artists, in non theatre spaces, with very little cash - and at some point (probably after a glass of wine or three!) we just thought, well, why not? Why not try and do something together, before we try and find money, let's just try doing what we can. Something that shares styles and ideas and talent, and would allow the writers to say they had been "internationally produced".'

The first script swap happened in 2012, and since then the collaboration has continued year on year. Last year's huge success of War Stories, written by Australian award-winning playwright Emma Gibson and Salford-born Rob Johnston, was selected for HOME's Re:play Festival 2015, and is currently being developed to tour.

And as this year's Big Weekend will be the last festival in its current format, 24:7 aims to make this the biggest collaboration of the series yet.

Annika Edge, 24:7 General Manager, says: 'What started as a random creative impulse has grown and been nurtured by everyone involved - it's turned into something so much more than we could have imagined. Everybody is incredibly proud of this year's Distant Sounds collaboration; it's going to be something very different to what we have seen before!'