With the critically-acclaimed Equus and The Funeral Director currently touring the UK, English Touring Theatre today announces the full tour dates for its Autumn 2019 Season. The company, in a co-production with Royal & Derngate, present the revival of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running directed by the 2018 winner of the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award, Nancy Medina. Then, in a co-production with Sheffield Theatres, they present the world première stage adaptation of Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive.
Two Trains Running opens at Royal & Derngate on 4 September, with previews from 31 August, and runs until 14 September. Following this it tours to Southampton, Oxford, Doncaster, Ipswich, Guildford and Derby
Reasons to Stay Alive opens at Sheffield Theatres on 18 September, with previews from 13 September and runs until 28 September. Following this it tours to Bristol, Huddersfield, Newcastle, Manchester, York and Leeds.
Richard Twyman, Artistic Director of ETT, and Sophie Scull, Executive Producer, said today, “We’re looking forward to an Autumn Season that will see us produce two important and iconic pieces of work for audiences across the country, while deepening our partnerships with Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST), Royal & Derngate and Sheffield Theatres.
Firstly, we will be working with Royal & Derngate and the RTST to produce August Wilson’s seminal American classic of injustice and social upheaval, Two Trains Running. Nancy Medina one of our brightest talents will direct the first UK production in over 20 years, a play that deserves its place in the canon, as one of the great American plays of the 20th century.
We're also incredibly proud to be collaborating with Sheffield Theatres and the uniquely brilliant talents of choreographer Jonathan Watkins and playwright April de Angelis to bring Matt Haig’s beautiful and astonishing book, Reasons to Stay Alive, to theatrical life for the first time.
We are so looking forward to continuing our commitment to touring bold, finely crafted and utterly unique work nationally: collectively these shows will be seen by audiences in Bristol, Derby, Doncaster, Guildford, Huddersfield, Ipswich, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Northampton, Oxford, Sheffield, Southampton and York.”
English Touring Theatre and Royal & Derngate Northampton present
Two Trains Running
by August Wilson
Directed by Nancy Medina
UK tour: 31 August - 27 November 2019
Press night at Royal & Derngate Northampton: Wednesday 4 September, 7pm
There’s a controversial new president in the White House, and racial tensions are on the rise.
It is Pittsburgh, 1969, and the regulars of Memphis Lee’s restaurant are struggling to cope with the turbulence of a rapidly changing world. The diner is in threat of being torn down, a casualty of the city’s renovation project that is sweeping away the buildings of a community, but not its spirit.
The iconic American playwright August Wilson paints a vivid portrait of everyday lives in this defining moment of American history. When Two Trains Running opened on Broadway in 1992, its legendary première won TONY and Drama Desk Awards.
Directed by the 2018 winner of the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award, Nancy Medina, this major revival will introduce this Pulitzer Prize shortlisted modern classic to UK-wide audiences for the first time.
#TwoTrains2019
Supported by a grant from The Royal Theatrical Support Trust.
August Wilson (1945–2005) was an American playwright. He won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for his play Fences and earned a second Pulitzer Prize for The Piano Lesson. His other notable works include Seven Guitars, Gem of the Ocean, Jitney and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
Nancy Medina was the 2018 winner of the RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award and the 2017 Genesis Future Director Award winner for the Young Vic. She is an acting tutor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and Course Leader for a post-16 Professional Acting Diploma at Boomsatsuma. Her Directing credits include Collective Rage: A Play in 5 Betties (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama), When They Go Low (NT Connections/Sherman Theatre), Yellowman (Young Vic), Curried Goat and Fish Fingers (Bristol Old Vic), Dogtag (Theatre West), Strawberry & Chocolate (Tobacco Factory Theatres), Dutchman (Tobacco Factory Theatres), Persistence of Memory (Rondo Theatre) and the forthcoming Half a God of Rainfall at Kiln Theatre.
English Touring Theatre and Sheffield Theatres present
The World Première of
Reasons to Stay Alive
By Matt Haig
Imagined for the stage by Jonathan Watkins
Text written by April de Angelis
Directed by Jonathan Watkins
UK tour: 13 September - 16 November 2019
Press night at Sheffield Theatres: Wednesday 18 September, 7.45pm
‘Life is waiting for you. Hang on in there if you can. Life is always worth it.’
At 24 Matt’s world collapsed under the weight of depression. This is the true story of his journey out of crisis; a profoundly uplifting exploration of living and loving better. The first theatrical adaptation of Matt Haig’s frank and funny bestseller. This play with music and movement, imagined for the stage by Jonathan Watkins, celebrates what it means to be alive.
#ReasonsPlay
Matt Haig is a British author for children and adults. His memoir Reasons to Stay Alive was a number one bestseller, staying in the British top ten for 46 weeks. His children’s book A Boy Called Christmas was a runaway hit and is translated in over 25 languages. His novels for adults include the award-winning The Radleys and The Humans. He won the TV Book Club ‘book of the series’, and has been shortlisted for a Specsavers National Book Award. The Humans was chosen as a World Book Night title. His children’s novels have won the Smarties Gold Medal, the Blue Peter Book of the Year, been shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and nominated for the Carnegie Medal three times.
April De Angelis’ work includes Wild East (Young Vic), The Village adapted from Lope de Vega’s Fuenteovejuna (Theatre Royal Stratford East), My Brilliant Friend adapted from Elena Ferrante’s novels (Rose Theatre Kingston), Rune (Old Vic Stoke), After Electra (Plymouth Theatre Royal and Tricycle Theatre), Jumpy (Royal Court and Duke of York’s), Catch (a collaboration with four other female playwrights) and Wild East (Royal Court), A Gloriously Mucky Business (Lyric Hammersmith), Calais (Paines Plough/Oran Mor), Country (Terror Season, Southwark Playhouse), an adaptation of Wuthering Heights (Birmingham Rep Theatre), A Laughing Matter (Out of Joint Theatre Company, National Theatre), The Warwickshire Testimony (RSC, The Other Place), The Positive Hour (Out of Joint Theatre/National Tour) and Playhouse Creatures (Sphinx Theatre Company, later revived by The Old Vic Theatre).
Jonathan Watkins directed and adapted KES (Sheffield Crucible Theatre, UK) a full-length dance-theatre production of the book ‘A Kestrel for a Knave’ by Barry Hines and created the first dance adaptation of George Orwell’s modern classic 1984 for Northern Ballet (UK Tour and Sadler’s Wells Theatre, May 2016). 1984 won Best New Dance Production at The Southbank Sky Arts Awards 2016 and was broadcast on the BBC with a DVD release by Opus Arte. Other credits include; Silent Vision, Stop Me When I’m Stuck, In The Presence of Others (Royal Ballet at Linbury Studio Theatre), As One (Royal Ballet), Diana and Actaeon for the production Metamorphosis: Titian (Royal Opera House/BBC Imagine film), Beyond Prejudice, Free Falling (Curve Foundation, Edinburgh Fringe Festival), NOW (New York City Ballet), Anger Fix (Sadler’s Wells), From Within and Onwards (Royal Ballet School), Push, Pull and all in-between and Osmosis (Hong Kong Performing Arts Centre), Together Alone (Ballet Black), Eventual Progress (Ekaterinburg Ballet Theatre, Russia), Present Process (Ballet Manila, Philippines), A Northern Trilogy (Northern Ballet), and Crash (Texas Ballet Theatre). He also worked as Movement Director on Road by Jim Cartwright (Royal Court Theatre), People by Alan Bennett (National Theatre), The Machine (Manchester International Festival/Donmar Warehouse/New York Park Avenue Armoury), Aristocrats and Coriolanus (Donmar Warehouse). On film Route 67 for The Slice Project. Sofa, which he also directed, and Bunker for Channel 4’s Random Acts series. He produced and directed the Iphone Dance Series, a collection of Iphone shot dance films and recently directed the Saint-Petersburg Film Festival selected short Imperfect Perfection.
TOUR DATES
TWO TRAINS RUNNING
Royal & Derngate Northampton
31 August – 14 September 2019
Press Night: Wednesday 4 September, 7pm
Box Office: 01604 624811 / www.royalandderngate.co.uk
Nuffield Southampton Theatres
17 - 21 September 2019
Box Office: 023 8067 1771 / www.nstheatres.co.uk
Oxford Playhouse
24 - 28 September
Box Office: 01865 305305 / www.oxfordplayhouse.com
Cast, Doncaster
1 – 5 October 2019
Box Office: 01302 303 959 / www.castindoncaster.com
New Wolsey Theatre
8 – 12 October
Box Office: 01473 295900 / www.wolseytheatre.co.uk
Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
15 -19 October 2019
Box Office: 01483 44 00 00 / www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk
Derby Theatre
22 – 27 October 2019
Box Office: 01332 59 39 39 / www.derbytheatre.co.uk
REASONS TO STAY ALIVE
Sheffield Theatres
13 – 28 September 2019
Press night: Wednesday 18 September, 7.45pm
Box Office: 0114 249 6000 / www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
Bristol Old Vic
1 – 5 October 2019
Box Office: 0117 987 7877 / www.bristololdvic.org.uk
Lawrence Batley Theatre
8 – 12 October 2019
Box Office: 01484 430 528 / www.thelbt.org
Northern Stage
15 – 19 October 2019
Box Office: 0191 230 5151 / www.northernstage.co.uk
HOME Manchester
29 October – 2 November 2019
Box Office: 0161 200 1500 / www.homemcr.org
York Theatre Royal
5 – 9 November 2019
Box Office: 01904 623 568 / www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
Leeds Playhouse
12 – 16 November 2019
Box Office: 0113 213 7700 / www.leedsplayhouse.org.uk
NOTES TO EDITORS
English Touring Theatre is one of the UK’s leading touring companies, winning the UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production in 2014, 2015 and 2016 and the 2017 Manchester Theatre Award for Best Visiting Production. ETT works with exciting artists to stage an eclectic mix of new and classic work for audiences throughout the UK and internationally; theatre that is thrilling, popular and engaged in the contemporary world. ETT celebrates the diversity of the nation, creates connections between audiences nationally and places an examination of contemporary English identity at the heart of everything it does. ETT passionately believes that everyone, wherever they are in the country, deserves to have access to world class theatre.
In 2019 ETT have produced the world première of Cougar by Rose Lewenstein, directed by Chelsea Walker in a co-production with the Orange Tree Theatre and the UK tour of The Funeral Director by Iman Qureshi with Papatango. ETT’s major revival of Equus by Peter Shaffer in a co-production with Theatre Royal Stratford East, directed by award winning director Ned Bennett, is currently running at Theatre Royal Stratford East before embarking on a UK Tour.
www.ett.org.uk
Facebook: EnglishTouringTheatre
Twitter: @ETTtweet
Instagram: EnglishTouringTheatre
Youtube: ETTonYT
Sheffield Theatres is the world-famous Crucible, a Sheffield landmark with a distinctive stage and a reputation for producing brilliant drama, the Studio, an intimate, versatile space that puts you right at the heart of the action, the beautiful Lyceum, the gleaming traditional theatre that hosts the best of the UK’s touring shows. It’s a place to try your hand at acting; a space for artists to practise and hone their craft; a place to play, explore, imagine, create. It’s a place for everyone.
www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
Facebook: Sheffield Theatres
Twitter: @crucibletheatre @SheffieldLyceum
Instagram: sheffieldtheatres
Royal & Derngate is the main venue for arts and entertainment in Northamptonshire, with audience members for live shows and films numbering 378,000 last year, and an additional 115,000 seeing its work on tour at over 85 venues. Named Regional Theatre of the Year in The Stage Awards in 2011 (and nominated again in 2016), the theatre won the UK Theatre Award for Best Presentation of Touring Theatre in 2015 and Best Touring Production in 2016 for The Herbal Bed, and The Stage Ensemble Award and a Fringe First for Education, Education, Education in 2017.
Alongside touring nationally and internationally Royal & Derngate’s Made in Northampton productions have transferred to the West End and Broadway as well as Shakespeare’s Globe, the National Theatre, Hackney Empire and the Lyric Hammersmith. The venue also presents a diverse range of visiting productions on both the Derngate and Royal stages, featuring musicals, dance, comedy and music, including a residency from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Royal & Derngate’s award-winning, nationally recognised Get Involved programme engages with over 21,000 participants each year, including schools, families and communities in Northamptonshire and beyond, and its two-screen cinema welcomed over 82,000 audience members to the best in world, independent, British and mainstream film. Meanwhile, the theatre’s Generate artistic development programme supports hundreds of local and emerging artists and practitioners each year.
www.royalandderngate.co.uk
Twitter: @royalderngate
Facebook: royalandderngate
RTST Sir Peter Hall Director Award
The Royal Theatrical Support Trust (RTST) - a charity that promotes British theatre - operates an annual award scheme for up-and-coming theatre directors: the RTST Director Award. The Scheme provides a rare opportunity for an up-and-coming director to direct a fully-funded production of a play as part of a main season of productions at a mid-scale British regional theatre. The RTST Director Award is designed for the benefit of directors who have already built up a track record of professional directing experience and who are ready for the opportunity provided by the Scheme to progress to directing a production in the main house, or a comparably high-profile auditorium, of a regional theatre.
The Scheme involves a collaboration between the RTST and a regional theatre selected by the RTST. The RTST makes a significant grant to the participating regional theatre to be applied towards the costs of the Award winner’s production. It is a condition of the grant that the regional theatre facilitates the implementation of the Scheme and the realisation of that production.
www.rtst.org.uk
Twitter: @RoyalTheatrical
