Freedom Studios to Present BRIEF ENCOUNTERS AT BRADFORD INTERCHANGE in October

From Freedom Studios, the producers of the acclaimed Home Sweet Home and The Mill - The City of Dreams comes Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange, a new site- specific promenade production inspired by the people who work and travel through Bradford's iconic Interchange station.

Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange will run at the Bradford Interchange from the 6-10 October.

Directed by Tom Wright (The Container, Young Vic and Home Sweet Home, Freedom Studios), the debut play by Sheffield playwright Rav Sanghera will take the audience through familiar and hidden parts of the Bradford Interchange train and bus station celebrating the city's warmth, welcome, humour and grit in a series of intertwining stories.

From the cleaner who is always there to listen, to the asylum seeker who sits outside the station asking for help, Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange tells five powerful stories where cultures collide and connect, love blooms in different places and everyday people interact, meet, work, start and end journeys.

To research the play, playwright Rav Sanghera has spent time absorbing the comings and goings at Bradford Interchange, interviewing bus and train station staff, people who work in the shops and its many passengers. He has also talked to organisations which support people new to the city and individuals about their experiences of arriving in Bradford

Director Tom Wright said

"When I started out as Freedom Studios' Associate Director three years ago, I encountered Bradford for the first time, as an outsider. As I met Bradfordians from across the City's many different communities, they all told me the same thing; they were fiercely proud of being part of such a diverse city, a city which embraced difference. Here, they could be part of a community based on their background, but also part of the wider city, without having to compromise on either.

When Rav approached us with the idea of using Bradford Interchange; the meeting point of trains, buses, taxis, rental bikes and pedestrians, and so the potential meeting point of people from dozens of different backgrounds, to celebrate everything which makes Bradford special, it made sense that this would be the perfect location to stage a theatrical celebration of the city. "

Bradford-based Freedom Studios is an award-winning intercultural theatre company, which connects different people and communities through story-telling and making theatre. Engagement is intrinsic to their work, and communities are at the heart of what they do.

The production will be designed by Emma Williams (Refugee Boy, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Touring). The cast will be announced in the coming weeks.

Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange will run at the Bradford Interchange from the 6-10 October.

Press night will be on Tuesday 6th October at 7pm, 7.20pm & 7.40pm.

Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange is supported by the Arts Council Bradford Metropolitan District Council and is part of the Shine Festival 2015

For more info visit www.freedomstudios.co.uk.

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