Tron Theatre Announces Reopening Plans And Autumn Programme

After an 18-month hiatus, when output has been limited to digital platforms and socially distanced outdoor pop-ups, the Tron Theatre has announced re-opening plans and a new programme of live performance. Funded by the Scottish Government through the second round of grants from the Performing Arts Venues Relief Fund administered by Creative Scotland, the programme heralds a welcome return to rehearsing and developing work to be performed on the main stage, and enjoyed by in-person audiences. As with the original PAVRF grant funding, the financial support allows previously furloughed staff to be brought back to work, as well as offering a considerable number of freelance opportunities for creatives hardest hit by the sector shut-down.

Artistic Director, Andy Arnold will devise and direct a brand new version of one of Shakespeare's last plays, The Tempest (29 October -13 November, Press Performance: Saturday 30 October, 7.30pm) in collaboration with Movement Director Kerieva McCormick. Working with a cast of eleven Scottish-based female/female identifying actors, none of whom have been cast in a Tron production before (and many who were auditioned as part of the large open audition process the Tron undertook earlier in the year), The Tempest will be staged during the COP26 summit in a way that embraces a more environmentally-friendly approach to producing work and capitalises on the extraordinary atmosphere of the Tron's stripped-back main auditorium. In a play about the exploitation of male power and greed and the colonisation of other lands and their indigenous inhabitants, introducing an exclusively female voice to the stage subverts its interpretation, bringing a new energy and nuance to the language.

This will be the second year without the Tron's iconic all-singing, all-dancing pantomime, however family audiences with children under 12 will be in for a treat with a limited run of a newly commissioned festive show, Olive the Other Reindeer (14-24 December, Press Performance: Wednesday 15 December, 7.30pm). Olive first made an appearance in the 2016 panto The Snaw Queen and, with this new script, Johnny McKnight will give the shy but plucky little caribou the spotlight as she tries to spread festive joy and goodwill to all children by getting Santa's outdated naughty list scrapped.

In the spirit of collaboration and support to our cultural neighbours, the Citizens Theatre, who are currently without a building, we've given over our main auditorium to Dominic Hill and his team for a new double bill, Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett with Niall Buggy; and a specially commissioned companion piece by Linda McLean, Go On with Maureen Beattie (30 September - 9 October, Press Performance: Saturday 2 October, 7.30pm). Together these stripped-back and intimate productions offer a raw and emotional experience that speaks to our own sense of mortality with a wry, dark humour.

After a year like no other, Tron CREATIVE remains committed to providing opportunities and support for artists through a busy programme of artistic development workshops, residencies and advice sessions and will continue to offer a welcoming environment to create exciting new work that will populate future Tron programmes. As well as a full BUILD programme, two LabWeek opportunities will be launched this season. LabWeek WINTER has an application deadline of 1 November and a brand new WRITER'S LabWeek in partnership with Playwrights' Studio Scotland will offer a week-long residency to a playwright and space to experiment with new text in the rehearsal room.

Tron PARTICIPATION will reprise one of their early lockdown successes, Suitcase Stories, with a brand new, festive audio adventure from The Audio Story Company. This will pop-up in shopping centres, at schools and on doorsteps across the city during the month of December. Additionally, Tron Young Company are creating a site-specific sound piece Retro/Future, that will launch on the 12 November as the COP26 summit comes to a close. Created with Martin O'Connor and Danny Krass in collaboration with young people from Columbia, and project partners Letters to the Earth and UNA, Clutha, Goddess of the Clyde guides a journey that looks to the future from the past, and to the past from the future.

In addition to a raft of Covid-19 mitigating measures that we'll be implementing for the re-opening designed to keep our audiences safe, including creating space between ticket bookings in the auditorium, a new pre-order system for refreshments and enhanced cleaning regimes, we've also reviewed and simplified our pricing policy, scrapping concession types and now offer customers the opportunity to choose what to pay from three different price point options. We'll also be shifting our main auditorium performance start time to 7.30pm in our bid to encourage greener theatre-going and reduce our impact on the environment.

As Sam Gough, Executive Director says of the operational changes:
'We are hugely excited to be opening our doors again. The Tron may look and feel a little different from when we last welcomed audiences, some of the changes reflect our desire to keep customers as safe as possible in the current climate, but many were planned before the pandemic and have been introduced to make the theatre more accessible to more people and to make the experience of coming to the Tron even more wonderful. We can't wait to see you all.'

The re-opening programme will go on-sale on Wednesday 8th September at 11am with all performances available to book online or by telephone. The Box Office will re-open to visitors on Monday 13th September 2021.

Andy Arnold, Artistic Director says of the Tron Theatre's re-opening:
'Our Glasgow audiences have been without the opportunity to experience live performance for too long now but we've worked really hard to secure funding for productions, participation and creative development and prepare our beloved theatre building in order to be able to welcome people back for an Autumn season of work, albeit not yet on the same scale as pre-Covid, but ambitious, exciting and hopeful for a new era of theatre-making and theatre-going.'

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