Sheffield People's Theatre Stage The World Premiere Of Chris Bush's WHAT WE WISHED FOR

Fairy tales and modern life. You're not safe from monsters in either. Sheffield People's Theatre return to bring myth and magic to the Crucible stage, and explore the lessons each generation passes on to the next. What We Wished For reunites Chris Bush and Emily Hutchinson following their previous collaboration on A Dream - the Sheffield People's Theatre production for 2016.

With 71 cast members from across Sheffield, aged from 12 to 89 years old, taking part in 237 hours of rehearsals, playing 120 named characters in the production, this is one of the Sheffield People's Theatre's most ambitious projects to date. Three wardrobe volunteers will assist with the 672 items of costume on 5 rails - 2 for men, and 3 for women; and the company will utilise 126 individual prop items.

Chris Bush is a Sheffield-born playwright, lyricist and theatre-maker. She was the 2013 Pearson Playwright in Residence for Sheffield Theatres and is currently an Artist in Residence at the Oxford Playhouse. Past work includes A Dream, The Sheffield Mysteries (for Sheffield People's Theatre at the Crucible), A Declaration from the People (National Theatre), Larksong (New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme), ODD (Royal & Derngate, Northampton: concert performance), Sleight & Hand (Summerhall, Edinburgh/Odeon Cinemas/BBC Arts), TONY! The Blair Musical (York Theatre Royal/Tour), Poking the Bear (Theatre503), The Bureau of Lost Things (Theatre503/Rose Bruford), Wolf (National Theatre Studio: reading), Dickensian, Goodwill to All Men, We're all in this Together and 20 Tiny Plays about Sheffield (all Crucible Studio). She has won the National Young Playwrights' Festival, a Brit Writers' Award, the Perfect Pitch Award, two Spotlight Emerging Artists' Awards and a Kevin Spacey Foundation Artist of Choice Award.

Emily Hutchinson is Creative Projects Manager at Sheffield Theatres. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and gained a BA (Hons) Drama and Education. Hutchinson has a number of directing credits at Sheffield Theatres, most recently the Sheffield People's Theatre productions of A Dream, Hospital Food by Eugene O'Hare and Hearts by Luke Norris, which transferred to National Theatre's Temporary Space in July 2014 as part of the National Theatre Connections Festival.

Photo credit: Mark Douet