Wildcard Announces Digital Programme WILDCARD: FULL HOUSE

Award-winning theatre company, Wildcard, have today announced 'Wildcard: Full House', a six-month programme with a focus on supporting emerging artists, digitally. The programme will include:

• Free webinars with practitioners including director Ned Bennett (Equus and An Octoroon), playwrights Tanika Gupta (A Doll's House, Hobson's Choice), Simon Stephens (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Seawall), Oladipo Agboluaje (New Nigerians), and dramaturg Deirdre O'Halloran.

• A new submission window for online play readings.

• A commitment to 'Wildcast', the popular Wildcard podcast.

• An online release of their award winning Fringe show, Electrolyte.

Webinars

The programme begins on 16th May with the first webinar by playwright and dramaturg, Patrick Hughes. The webinars, covering different aspects of theatre creation, will initially focus on playwriting before broadening out to directing masterclasses and other disciplines. The confirmed practitioners so far include Oladipo Agboluaje, Ned Bennett, Tanika Gupta, Patrick Hughes, Paul Smith, Simon Stephens and Deirdre O'Halloran.

Online Play Reading Submissions

In addition to webinars, Wildcard have also opened submissions for a new online play reading scheme - the culmination of which will be three fully rehearsed, play-readings. The readings will be performed online and made free to the public. The process will also include a chance for viewers to offer feedback to the chosen writers at the end of each session via an online form.

The first play reading will take place on Friday 29th May at 1:30PM. Submissions are open from 11th to 25th May and should be sent to submissions@wildcardtheatre.co.uk.

Electrolyte to be streamed free

The new scheme also sees the virtual return of the multi-award-winning production: Electrolyte. The gig-theatre hit won the Mental Health Fringe Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2018 which led to a partnership with the Mental Health Foundation. To mark the charity's annual awareness week (18-24 May), Electrolyte will be made available online via www.mhfestival.com.

Workshop series to continue

Donnacadh O'Briain, director of Electrolyte, continues his Weekly Acting Workout in a digital setting on a Pay What You Can basis. The workshops are fully interactive and follow the scheme he laid out for the hugely successful precursors at Wildcard Studios.

Podcast

Lastly, the programme sees the continuation of the popular podcast 'Wildcast'. Since the Covid-19 crisis began, Wildcard have put out a special episode explaining all the financial assistance that is available with guests from Equity and Jozara.co.uk. The next episode, available on 5th May, features interviews with Olivier, EMMY and TONY award-winning producer Richard Jordan and Tracy Brabin MP (Shadow Minister for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) as they attempt to make sense of what theatre will look like in the future.

James Meteyard, Artistic Director of Wildcard said, 'these are challenging times and it's clear that as an industry we have to adapt to survive. We're thrilled to be able to announce our Full House programme: an ambitious scheme of digital work that focuses on skills sharing and artist development. At its core is connection with one other and growing together during a time that feels determined to drive us apart. We hope that, wherever anyone is, they enjoy engaging with our work, whether as watchers of Electrolyte, participants in the workshops, or simply just downloading the podcast.'