HighTide announces it is to recruit an Ensemble who will work across the company’s 2010 Season

Today, HighTide’s Artistic Director Steven Atkinson announced that the leading new writing company HighTide will enter its fourth Season of work with a new emphasis on creating an Ensemble of actors who will collectively realise three new HighTide productions.

The HighTide productions are Ditch by Beth Steel, Lidless by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig and Moscow Live by Serge Cartwright, which will all receive their World Premieres at HighTide Festival 2010 in Halesworth Suffolk on April 29 2010. These productions will transfer across the UK later in 2010. The Ensemble will rehearse these three plays in tandem throughout April, and beyond these plays the Ensemble will receive personal development training and work with HighTide Resident Playwrights and Directors-on-Attachment on Research and Development projects in the Genesis Laboratory, HighTide’s new Studio based at the Tabernacle in Notting Hill.

The Ensemble will be jointly directed by Steven Atkinson (HighTide’s Artistic Director), Richard Twyman (Associate Director of the RSC Histories Season) and Jonathan Humphreys (National Theatre Staff Director). The Ensemble will work with takis (Design), Matt Prentice (Lighting), Christopher Shutt (Sound), Tom Mills (Music), and John Tucker (Voice), to collectively produce the HighTide productions and artist development work in 2010.

Throughout 2010, there will be a flexible approach to actors working in the Ensemble. The underlying principle is that each member commits to acting in a production at HighTide Festival 2010, and they are then offered opportunities to get involved in HighTide’s other work, including the Genesis Laboratory in the Tabernacle, Notting Hill, HighTide Readings, Artistic Residencies at the Aldeburgh Music in Snape Maltings and transfers of the HighTide Festival 2010 productions. Becoming a member of the Ensemble requires a commitment to its principles, rather than one based on availability or experience.

Principles of the Ensemble:

– The Ensemble exists primarily to offer actors the priceless incentive of consistent and regular activity, aware that acting is a craft that needs to be honed and practised above all else. It will offer an environment that engenders trust and the freedom to play; through regular work.

– The Ensemble offers access to the next generation of theatre directors and writers, and thus the opportunity to forge lifelong relationships;

– The Ensemble will receive focused training from theatre industry leaders on their acting skills through the Genesis Laboratory Research and Development programme.

“HighTide’s unique in that we have a single design team that works across all our shows. That sense of identity and quality is integral to our work, and I wanted to extend that to how we work with actors. The 2010 Ensemble will be a family, and we will work to the common aim of rehearsing and opening three new world premieres at the same time, and then continuing to develop and perform these plays in 2010. It’s a unique challenge to everybody at HighTide and that sense of teamwork is what makes our shows quite unique.”
Steven Atkinson, Artistic Director

Directors of the Ensemble

As HighTide’s Artistic Director, Steven Atkinson has produced three Seasons of acclaimed work, which have included collaborations with the National Theatre and Bush Theatre, and Stovepipe, which the Sunday Times listed as one of the Ten Best Theatre Productions of the Decade. He will direct this Season’s production of Lidless, following his 2009 production of another American World Premiere Muhmah (HighTide Festival 2009).

National Theatre Staff Director Jonathan Humphreys (Gethsemane, The Pitman Painters, All’s Well That Ends Well) makes his HighTide directing debut with Moscow Live.

Richard Twyman directs Ditch, following his triumphant Royal Shakespeare Company production of Henry IV Part II as part of the RSC Histories, which he Associate Directed and which won Olivier Awards for Best Revival, Best Ensemble and Best Costume.

Casting the Ensemble

We are open to receiving unsolicited CVs from actors to join.

For further information please contact Greer at [email protected]

Please visit www.hightide.org.uk for more information