"It's been a bruising couple of years for all, which is why committing to creating and presenting ground-breaking new work that makes sense of the moment is so important right now. This season programme sees some stories from close to home and others from countries including Iraq through our podcast series, Zimbabwe through our collaboration with Fifth Word on We Need New Names and presenting the UK premier of The Swearing Jar which started out as a  Canadian play. On equal footing to these productions, we are committed to providing meaningful support to the pool of  brilliant early and mid-career artists in the East Midlands  through our New Associates programme for which we are currently recruiting our 2023 / 2024 cohort, and our Open Pitch Programme which gives people who do not consider themselves as artists the bespoke support they need to tell their stories." Angharad Jones

 

We announce 2023 shows in lead up to 50th anniversary

•We kick off 2023 with the UK premiere of The Swearing Jar a Canadian play featuring live music, recently released as a film

•The digital thread continues with the launch of Where I Belong a podcast telling stories of Baghdad and Nottingham, two UNESCO cities of literature

•Six actors of Zimbabwean heritage will perform in the UK tour of We Need New Names, adapted from the novel by NoViolet Bulawayo in a co-production with Fifth Word

•The company continue to support Midlands artists, and announce learning disabled and autistic theatre company Unanima as their new affiliate company 

•The East Midland's theatre company will be celebrating their 50th anniversary year from October 2023

We have a bumper crop of creative projects for 2023 in the lead up to our 50th anniversary year, which starts in October 2023. They include presenting the UK premiere of a Canadian play with songs, launching a new podcast, presenting the world premiere of a novel adaptation, and engaging with people across the East Midlands as creatives through a huge range of support and development.

Artistic Director Angharad Jones will direct the tour of The Swearing Jar, a Canadian play which features original live music by Kate Hewlett that was adapted and released as a film in 2022. The bittersweet comedy will tour from February to April. Following on from the successful podcast PlacePrints, Where I Belong (to be released in February) pairs six writers from the company's home city of Nottingham with six writers from another UNESCO city of literature, Baghdad, to create a set of short story duets released as a podcast. Following in April is the UK tour of a world premiere of We Need New Names, adapted from the novel by NoViolet Bulawayo. Adapted by Mufaro Makubika, directed by Monique Touko and with a cast of six actors of Zimbabwean heritage, the show is in collaboration with Fifth Word, where Angharad Jones was formerly Artistic Director.

We continue to nurture early career artists in the East Midlands, and have appointed an affiliate company: Mansfield-based Unanima Theatre - a company of learning disabled and autistic young adults, who will join us as an affiliate company for the next three years. We will provide support and investment, including making new work, and collaborating with them to better understand and provide pathways and opportunities. We will continue to support artists as New Associates through a bespoke year-long professional development programme, which feature a combination of artistic development and mentoring as well as behind the scenes skills in governance, leadership, and managing their practice. In addition, we will pilot an alumni programme to facilitate peer networking and support for previous members of the programme, and two first-time artists will be given the opportunity to develop their first piece for public sharing with Open Pitch. The first of which, entitled The Road to Zandra, is a play that will be debuting in Nottingham and is inspired by the true story of a road repairer who finds solace in drag after struggling through a difficult time in his life. The show, which is written by New Perspectives' Participation Director Jayne Williams, will be performed at the Squire Performing Arts Centre in Nottingham on 31 March and 1 April 2023.

Across the year, we will continue to bring artists together, hosting a residency and using New Perspectives as an engine room to drive cross-art form experimentation and fuel new work. With plans for new projects already stretching into 2026, collaborations will seek to find new ways to integrate digital technologies and reach new audiences.  Our 50th anniversary season starts in October 2023 with a fresh new piece that will tour rural spaces.