Lynette Linton has this morning announced her inaugural season as Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre. The 2019 – 2020 season includes UK debut plays from six playwrights alongside a new production of celebrated poet and playwright Jackie Kay’s first play Chiaroscuro directed by Lynette Linton.
Five Senior Artistic Associates have been announced as actress Adjoa Andoh, movement director Polly Bennett, producers Shawab Iqbal and Tobi Kyeremateng and actress Martha Plimpton. The associates will support an expansion of the Bush Theatre’s initiatives to involve new writers and theatre practitioners in the theatre industry.
The plans continue the theatre’s commitment to inclusivity, where audiences and artists reflect contemporary London. In pursuit of this vision, the Bush will continue to look to debut writers and braid together the work presented on stage with work from its local communities.
Lynette Linton said, ‘This season at the Bush Theatre UK debuts by British and Irish writers will fill our stages. You’ll find extraordinary stories of lived experiences that speak to all corners of our city.
I believe in the Bush’s power to write narratives as well as to develop plays. That’s why I’m opening my first season with a production of ‘Chiaroscuro’, an exceptional play which concludes our ‘Passing The Baton’ programme – a three-year commitment to re-staging masterpieces by artists of colour who have been written out of history. To revive ‘Chiaroscuro’ is not only a great honour but well overdue. We are standing on the shoulders of giants and Jackie Kay is definitely one of those giants.
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The season concludes with Malachi Kirby’s debut play, ‘Level Up’, which celebrates and interrogates youth culture and, for me, braids together the life of our community with the work on stage. Young people will be the heart of this project – from the making of the show to performing on stage alongside Malachi.
By investing in diverse talent, I want to create a space for the next generation. I know I need to be reaching out to 15-year-old Lynette and others like her and saying: ‘You can come in here. This is for you. This is for everyone.’
