From 15-20th February 2010.
Leading new-writing theatre company HighTide are honoured to have been invited to perform at the National Play Festival in Brisbane, Australia’s leading event for showcasing new unproduced plays by the best national and international practitioners. HighTide productions Stovepipe and Fixer have been selected as representatives of the best international new writing produced in the last year.
Stovepipe by Adam Brace premiered in HighTide Festival 2008, and transferred to London as a site-specific production with the National Theatre and Bush Theatre in March 2009. The production received five-star reviews from The Sunday Times, Time Out and Indepdent on Sunday, was listed as one of the Ten Best Theatre Productions of the Decade by The Sunday Times, and is currently nominated as 2009’s Best Off-West End production by Whatsonstage.com.
Fixer by Lydia Adetunji prmiered at HighTide Festival 2009 and marked Lydia’s playwrighting debuet. Lydia’s screenplay Necropolis was fourth on the 2008 Brit List, an industry poll of the best unproduced screenplays in the country.
Adam Brace and Lydia Adetunji will attend the Festival thanks to HighTide’s ongoing support from The Old Possum’s Practical Trust.
“This is the first part of HighTide’s 2010 British / Australian Cultural Exchange Programme that will next see two Australian writers attend HighTide Festival 2010 in Suffolk. Thanks to our partners the Old Possum’s Practical Trust, I’m planning to make this Exchange an ongoing annual part of HighTide’s work – that we premiere a writer’s play in the UK and enable its Australian premiere. It is an exciting and unique opportunity.”
Steven Atkinson, Artistic Director HighTide.
About HighTide
Since our inaugural 2007 Season, HighTide has existed to source and develop emerging artists from across the world, first producing these gifted new practitioners in our Suffolk Festival and then providing a much wider platform through a full production and run at a major theatre.
We continue to develop an audience for new, contemporary theatre in the east of England through high-quality producing and competitive ticket prices. We work to develop artists based in the region and invite the leading national new artists to create and premiere work in eastern England. We export our productions and artists across the UK and internationally as representatives of Suffolk culture.
The HighTide Festival takes place annually in Halesworth, Suffolk over the first May bank holiday weekend. HighTide is a registered charity and we are grateful to the many organisations and individuals who support our work including Arts Council England East, the Old Possum’s Practical Trust and Lansons Communications.
“HighTide is an important and effective company for staging new works, and I am proud to introduce them to a national audience”
Nick Hytner, Artistic Director, National Theatre
Please visit www.hightide.org.uk
About The National Play Festival
The National Play Festival is produced by Playwriting Australia.
PlayWriting Australia is the national peak body for playwriting with a mission to support the development and promotion of great new Australian writing for performance. We work to discover creative artists, improve and enhance playwrights’ skills and boost national networks in order to see more Australian work on stage and in print.
The National Play Festival is Australia’s leading market for showcasing new unproduced plays. The annual Festival is a key event for producers and presenters from across Australia to preview leading new Australian and international playwriting talent. Works showcased at the Festival in previous years have gone on to be selected for production around the country, and include Helly’s Magic Cup by Rosalba Clemente (Windmill Performing Arts), Rock, Paper, Scissors by John AD Fraser (Tamarama Rock Surfers), Concussion by Ross Mueller (Sydney Theatre Company and Griffin Theatre Company) and Savage River by Steve Rodgers (Griffin Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and Tasmanian Theatre Company).
Please visit www.nationalplayfestival.org.au
