Pitlochry Festival Theatre, The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh in collaboration with Naked Productions have announced Sound Stage – a new immersive audio digital theatre which from late March will premiere 8 new plays written by amongst others Mark Ravenhill, Roy Williams, Timberlake Wertenbaker, and John Byrne.
Sound Stage is an exciting new audio-digital venture, designed by theatre makers and leading technologists, giving audiences a unique and engrossing online theatre experience of new plays from the best in British theatre which in the future Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh hope to produce on stage.
Sound Stage will operate an online booking system for all productions. Just like booking a ticket for the theatre, audiences will be able to book ahead for a performance and time of their choice.
The first season will feature 8 new co-productions from Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh – and will open with the world premiere of Angela – Mark Ravenhill’s first autobiographical play which explores the way culture high and low had impacted his mother’s life and that of his family. Mark Ravenhill’s previous plays include Shopping and F***ing (Out of Joint and Royal Court Theatre) and The Cut (Donmar Warehouse).
The opening season will also feature new plays by Roy Williams (Death of England and Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads, National Theatre; John Byrne (The Slab Boys, Traverse Theatre and Tutti Frutti, BBC Scotland), who will premiere his first new play since Nova Scotia at the Traverse Theatre in 2008; Timberlake Wertenbaker (Our Country’s Good, National Theatre and Broadway); Lynda Radley (The Interference, Edinburgh Fringe) Jaimini Jethwa (The Last Queen of Scotland, Dundee Rep ); Frances Poet (Ghost Light, National Theatre of Scotland) and Gary McNair (Locker Room Talk, Traverse).
“Pitlochry Festival Theatre is thrilled to share the news about Sound Stage. The original idea came from my experience last year making the audio premiere of Adventures with the Painted People with David, Polly, and the rest of the Naked Productions Team. The quality we could produce remotely blew me away and made me think this is how we can make great work during lockdown. However, this did not solve the problem of how much audiences and the theatre industry as a whole were missing the experience of going to the theatre itself… and so Sound Stage was born. With Sound Stage audience members can come together for the experience of not only listening to exceptional new audio plays written by some of the UK’s best-known playwrights but also the experience of ‘attending’ a virtual theatre. From entering the theatre itself and being ushered to your seat, to meeting people in the interval and staying afterwards to listen to a post-show discussion, Sound Stage will be an exciting new theatrical experience for everyone.
In these difficult times, the pandemic has caused so many to feel isolated and we hope Sound Stage may help ease this feeling by giving people the opportunity to meet new people who share a love of theatre and audio plays. For everyone involved in Sound Stage we know we need to keep growing the cannon and offering artists the opportunity to make exciting new art and we hope that Sound Stage will do this by showcasing the incredible talent the UK has to offer.”
Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director of Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Made possible through support from Creative Scotland and Resilience Funding from the Scottish Government, Sound Stage will open on Friday 26 March with the premiere of Mark Ravenhill’s new play Angela. Tickets will go on sale on Sunday 14th February.
Further details about the plays and casting for the opening Sound Stage season will be announced in the coming weeks.
For further information visit www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com and www.lyceum.org.uk
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