Artistic Director, Paul-Ryan Carberry and Executive Director, Paul Virides today announce Escape to the Forest their inaugural season for Iris Theatre, the resident theatre company of the Actors’ Church in Covent Garden.
Iris Theatre’s annual season of outdoor theatre, which takes place across the grounds of the Actors’ Church, opens with A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Carberry, marking his first production as Artistic Director of the company. Following this is Teresa Burns’ new adaptation of Robin Hood directed by Rafaella Marcus.
In addition, Iris Theatre launch PLATFORM, an initiative to champion emerging artists, that will see the company host a series of showcase nights that will run throughout 2020 featuring performers from a variety of disciplines. The first PLATFORM artist is musician Dylan Wynford on 14 March, with further artists to be announced. Also, applications open for Start – a new development scheme for those early in their theatre careers and those getting into theatre for the very first time. The scheme offers mentorship across two disciplines: startDIRECTING and startDESIGNING.
Paul-Ryan Carberry, Artistic Director, said today, “After a fruitful collaboration with the company in 2018 with The Three Musketeers it’s wonderful to be launching my first season as Artistic Director of Iris Theatre. Our first priority is finding new ways to support emerging artists as well as those taking the leap from early to mid-career, and the new Start and PLATFORM initiatives are our first steps towards that goal. I’m also thrilled to be welcoming amazing talent to Iris in Rafaella and Teresa for Robin Hood, and to be directing A Midsummer Night’s Dream for our summer season. In difficult times theatre must bring people together, and we hope that audiences around London join us to Escape to the Forest this summer.”
A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs 17th June to 18th July 2020.
Robin Hood runs 23rd July to 30th August 2020.
