OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR Partners with TheatreCloud.com for Education Project

The producers of Oh What a Lovely War have teamed up with digital hub TheatreCloud.com to launch a unique education project around the forthcoming tour of Joan Littlewood's renowned satirical First World War musical.

As made clear in "Keep the Home-Fires Burning", Ivor Novello's 1915 classic which is one of the period songs included in Oh What a Lovely War, messages from the homefront - though strictly censored - were essential to keeping up morale on the frontline during WWI.

The new Postcards From project invites students and other participants to imagine they are writing such a missive to a loved one caught up in battle, maybe even one of the characters portrayed onstage in Terry Johnson's acclaimed revival. They choose or create a compelling image, write an accompanying message of support and submit their digital postcard online at www.theatrecloud.com/postcardsfrom.

At each tour stop, Theatre Cloud and the Oh What a Lovely War cast will choose their favourite recent submissions, and actors from the play - including Wendi Peters, Ian Reddington and Christopher Villiers - will perform filmed readings of shortlisted postcards at the theatres. These videos will be published on TheatreCloud.com.

At the end of the project, the shortlisted postcard read by the most people - calculated by likes and social media shares - will also win an iPad.

First revived in February 2014 at London's Theatre Royal Stratford East, where Joan Littlewood originally premiered the musical in 1963, Terry Johnson's acclaimed revival of Oh What a Lovely War returns this year by popular demand. Following a second season at Stratford East, from 29 January to 7 February, the musical tours to Richmond, Malvern, Manchester, Cambridge, Bath, Torquay, Guildford, Coventry, Brighton, Leicester, Aylesbury, Birmingham and Truro.

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The Postcards From project is one of a number of activities in the education programme provided by TheatreCloud for Oh What a Lovely War. Other activities include:

• a walking tour podcast
• a new short film with members of Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company
• a discussion and book signing with Littlewood's official biographer Peter Rankin (whose latest, Dreams and Realities, was recently published by Oberon Books)
• page-to-stage workshops
• post-show Q&As

Details on all of these activities, full education pack and other resources are available at www.theatrecloud.com/oh-what-a-lovely-war .

Final deadline for Postcards From submissions is 25 May 2015.