HighTide Festival
Encyclopedia
HighTide Festival Theatre is a not-for-profit new writing theatre
company in Suffolk
that produces an annual festival and tours nationally and internationally.
, Royal Court Theatre
, Bush Theatre
and Headlong
.
Every May the company produces an annual festival in the Suffolk market town of Halesworth where several new plays are premiered in a festival-programme that also includes lectures, debates, workshops and education initiatives for young people. The productions then transfer nationally and internationally, including to London with partners who have included the National Theatre
, Bush Theatre
, Old Vic
Theatre, to the West End
, to Edinburgh, and to the Australian National Play Festival.
and Sam Holcroft. Directors included Polly Findlay and Mary Nighy
. Nighy's father, Bill Nighy
became a patron of the company, along with David Hare and Sinéad Cusack
.
Hodges was then joined by current artistic director Steven Atkinson and together they set up HighTide Festival Productions Ltd, a year-round operation that would produce a now annual HighTide Festival, tours and transfers of productions, and rehearsal studios for R&D work by emerging artists and education projects with young people. Mary Allen
former Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House
and Secretary General of the Arts Council of England became Chairman, alongside other notable board members including producer Roger Wingate
and arts fundraiser Joyce Hytner.
, Joel Horwood
, Nick Payne
and the fourth devised and written by You Need Me and Emily Watson-Howes. The Festival also included platform discussions with Tom Stoppard
, Michael Palin
, Asif Kapadia
.
in Suffolk. The production was directed by Steven Atkinson and starred Alan Cox
.
It pungently captures the edgy excitements and disappointments of youth and the atmosphere of seaside, and displays a promise one hopes will be fulfilled. Guardian
and The Bush Theatre. The site specific production took place at The West 12 Centre, Shepherds Bush and transformed an underground basement into modern day Iraq
. The production garnered critical acclaim with The Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday and Time Out awarding it five stars.
A rivetingly intelligent, action-packed play. This is a five-star production in power, ambition and sense of the way we live now. Sunday Times
It was later named as one of the ten best theatre productions of the decade by the Sunday Times and was nominated in the whatsonstage.com awards for Best Off-West End Production.
and Jesse Weaver. An expanded programme saw a collaboration with the Aldeburgh Festival
on One Evening
, a fully staged concert of Schubert’s Winterreise
and Beckett’s text, directed by Katie Mitchell
, and a special performance of David Hare
’s Berlin and Wall, performed by the author together for the first time and directed by Stephen Daldry
. Other special events included a celebration of publisher Faber and Faber's 80th anniversary with staged readings of works by their authors John Osborne
, Harold Pinter
, Alan Bennett
, Tom Stoppard
and David Hare. The programme also included a retrospective on Anthony Minghella
, with a one-off performance of Minghella's radio play Hang Up performed by Harry Treadaway
and Felicity Jones
, and a screening of Shakespeare in Love
followed by a platform talk with director John Madden
.
causing a sensation when he visited Halesworth to open the production. Cowhig's Lidless was produced in a found space in Halesworth; the local Scout Hut and surrounding land was transformed into a Guantanamo Bay barracks. The Festival also previewed works-in-progress by Jesse Weaver, performed by Bernard Hill
and Sam Hodges, and Adam Brace's Midnight Your Time, performed by Diana Quick, which went on to be fully produced the following year.
In partnership with the Genesis Foundation, Steven Atkinson founded the Genesis Laboratory, HighTide's year-round development studio situated in London. Atkinson appointed director Natalie Ibu as Associate Director (Warehouse) to programme the studio, and Sam Hodges stepped back from leading the company with Atkinson becoming an Associate Director.
Theatre's new second space. Olivier Award winner Richard Twyman's production, which starred Danny Webb and Dearbhla Molly, gained critical praise including being named ‘Best Play’ in The Independent (5 June 2010).
What's impressive about Steel's play – and Richard Twyman's compelling production – is the expert control of mood... Dearbhla Molloy is outstandingly good as Mrs Peel The Independent (28 May 2010).
The play went on to be shortlisted for the prestigious 2010 John Whiting Award along with Serge Cartwright's Moscow Live.
with The Theatre Ep, conceived and directed by Natalie Ibu and written by Dominic Mitchell.
If Henrik Ibsen had been alive in the era of Guantanamo, he'd surely have written a play every bit as scintillating as Lidless The Scotsman (21 August 2010).
Steven Atkinson's production later transferred to Trafalgar Studios in London's West End
, with the director winning a second bursary award from the Society of London Theatre to support the production.
made his playwriting debuet with Incoming, American playwright Stephen Belber's play Dusk Rings A Bell received its European premiere, and Adam Brace's Midnight Your Time was fully produced after being workshopped at the previous year's Festival.
To mark the company's fifth birthday, it was joined by five new patrons, each of whom had supported HighTide in its founding years. They were Richard Eyre
, Nicholas Hytner
, Stephen Daldry
, Juliet Stevenson
and Sam Mendes
.
Rob Drummer succeeded Sam Hodges and Natalie Ibu in the new position of Literary Manager.
In March 2011, Arts Council England announced that they would start regularly funding HighTide Festival Theatre as a National Portfolio Organisation from April 2012
.
Absolutely credible and ultimately very moving.Whatsonstage (7 May 2011).
playing Molly when Katherine Kingsley was no longer available. Steven Atkinson's production played in the prestigious Assembly Rooms
before transferring to Watford Place Theatre.
Both actors inhabit their characters with flawless conviction... A show not to miss. The Herald (12 August 2011).
for the Edinburgh Festival. The production has some outstanding reviews and the performance of Diana Quick
was universally praised.
and the Meyer-Whitworth Prize. Fixer has also been nominated for the Meyer-Whitworth and the John Whiting Award, along with Moscow Live. Stovepipe and Lidless have both won producing bursaries from the Society of London Theatre and Stovepipe was nominated in the Whatsonstage.com Awards for Best Off-West End Production. HighTide has won two Corporate Engagement Awards and has been nominated for an Arts & Business Award for its partnership with Lansons Communications.
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
company in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
that produces an annual festival and tours nationally and internationally.
About
Under the artistic direction of Steven Atkinson, the theatre has become an engine room for British theatre by discovering and producing leading new playwrights. Playwrights premiered by HighTide have gone on to be commissioned and produced by theatres including the National TheatreNational Theatre
National Theatre may refer to: -in Africa:*Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi, Kenya*National Theatre in Accra, Ghana-in Asia:*National Theater and Concert Hall, Republic of China in Taipei, Taiwan*National Theatre of Japan in Tokyo, Japan...
, Royal Court Theatre
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
, Bush Theatre
Bush Theatre
The Bush Theatre is based in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 above The Bush public house by Brian McDermott, and has since become one of the most celebrated new writing theatres in the world. An intimate venue renowned for its close-up...
and Headlong
Headlong
Headlong may refer to:* Headlong, a British theatre company* Headlong , a 1980 novel by Emlyn Williams* Headlong , a 1999 novel by Michael Frayn* Headlong , a 1999 novel by Simon Ings...
.
Every May the company produces an annual festival in the Suffolk market town of Halesworth where several new plays are premiered in a festival-programme that also includes lectures, debates, workshops and education initiatives for young people. The productions then transfer nationally and internationally, including to London with partners who have included the National Theatre
National Theatre
National Theatre may refer to: -in Africa:*Kenya National Theatre in Nairobi, Kenya*National Theatre in Accra, Ghana-in Asia:*National Theater and Concert Hall, Republic of China in Taipei, Taiwan*National Theatre of Japan in Tokyo, Japan...
, Bush Theatre
Bush Theatre
The Bush Theatre is based in Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 above The Bush public house by Brian McDermott, and has since become one of the most celebrated new writing theatres in the world. An intimate venue renowned for its close-up...
, Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
Theatre, to the West End
West End theatre
West End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's 'Theatreland', the West End. Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking...
, to Edinburgh, and to the Australian National Play Festival.
Season 2007
HighTide started life as a three day festival, opening on March 6, 2007. Founded by actor Sam Hodges and produced by Lilli Geissendorfer and Moss Barclay, the festival premiered eight short plays, including works by Tom BasdenTom Basden
Tom Basden is a British actor and comedy writer, and a member of the British four man sketch group Cowards. He has written and performed extensively for comedy shows on the BBC and Channel 4 and often collaborates in two-man shows with fellow Cowards member Tim Key.-Education:Basden was educated...
and Sam Holcroft. Directors included Polly Findlay and Mary Nighy
Mary Nighy
Mary Nighy is an English actress and film maker. She was named one of the UK Film Council's breakthrough Brits in 2005.-Work:Nighy is director of Foster Films...
. Nighy's father, Bill Nighy
Bill Nighy
William Francis "Bill" Nighy is an English actor and comedian. He worked in theatre and television before his first cinema role in 1981, and made his name in television with The Men's Room in 1991, in which he played the womanizer Prof...
became a patron of the company, along with David Hare and Sinéad Cusack
Sinéad Cusack
Sinéad Moira Cusack is an Irish stage, television and film actress. She has received two Tony Award nominations: once for Best Leading Actress in Much Ado About Nothing , and again for Best Featured Actress in Rock 'n' Roll .-Background:...
.
Hodges was then joined by current artistic director Steven Atkinson and together they set up HighTide Festival Productions Ltd, a year-round operation that would produce a now annual HighTide Festival, tours and transfers of productions, and rehearsal studios for R&D work by emerging artists and education projects with young people. Mary Allen
Mary Allen
Mary Allen is a British writer, broadcaster, arts administrator and management consultant best known for her controversial and turbulent period as Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House.-Early career:...
former Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
and Secretary General of the Arts Council of England became Chairman, alongside other notable board members including producer Roger Wingate
Roger Wingate
Roger Christopher Wingate was born 29 November 1940 in Montreal. He returned to the UK with his family in 1942. Educated at Clifton College Bristol and London University he took over the Chairmanship of Chesterfield Properties PLC in the mid 60s which was subsequently sold in 1999.Roger Wingate’s...
and arts fundraiser Joyce Hytner.
Season 2008
The second HighTide Festival opened in May 2008 with a new emphasis on full length plays rather than shorts. Four plays were premiered, written by Adam BraceAdam Brace
Adam Brace is a British playwright. His play , performed in promenade, premiered at the HighTide festival in Suffolk before transferring to London for an eight week run in collaboration with the National Theatre. The play is about corporate soldiers and Brace wrote it after a tour of Jordan where...
, Joel Horwood
Joel Horwood
Joel Horwood is an award-winning British playwright has been a member of the Royal Court/BBC 50 scheme and is currently on attachment at Hampstead Theatre. His plays include I Caught Crabs in Walberswick, Mikey the Pikey and Food, all presented on the Edinburgh Fringe. Is Everyone OK? toured...
, Nick Payne
Nick Payne
Nick Payne is a British playwright who studied at the University of York and subsequently at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He is also a graduate of the Royal Court Young Writer's Programme...
and the fourth devised and written by You Need Me and Emily Watson-Howes. The Festival also included platform discussions with Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
, Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
, Asif Kapadia
Asif Kapadia
Asif Kapadia is a British filmmaker of Indian descent. He directed several award-winning films, including The Sheep Thief , winner of the 2nd Prize Cinéfondation for Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival, The Warrior , which won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film and Senna , winner of the...
.
The Pitch
Nick Payne's new short played in the Theatre Tent of the 2008 Latitude FestivalLatitude Festival
The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006....
in Suffolk. The production was directed by Steven Atkinson and starred Alan Cox
Alan Cox
Alan Cox is a British computer programmer who formerly maintained the 2.2 branch of the Linux kernel and continues to be heavily involved in the development of the Linux kernel, an association that dates back to 1991...
.
I Caught Crabs in Walberswick
Joel Horwood's I Caught Crabs In Walberswick transferred from the Festival to Edinburgh Festival 2008. It then toured the UK and concluded at The Bush Theatre, in co-production with Eastern Angles.It pungently captures the edgy excitements and disappointments of youth and the atmosphere of seaside, and displays a promise one hopes will be fulfilled. Guardian
Stovepipe
In March 2009, Stovepipe transferred to London in collaboration with The National TheatreRoyal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
and The Bush Theatre. The site specific production took place at The West 12 Centre, Shepherds Bush and transformed an underground basement into modern day Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. The production garnered critical acclaim with The Sunday Times, Independent on Sunday and Time Out awarding it five stars.
A rivetingly intelligent, action-packed play. This is a five-star production in power, ambition and sense of the way we live now. Sunday Times
It was later named as one of the ten best theatre productions of the decade by the Sunday Times and was nominated in the whatsonstage.com awards for Best Off-West End Production.
Season 2009
The third HighTide Festival in May 2009 expanded to a two week festival, at the centre of which were three world premieres by Lydia Adetunji, Lucy CaldwellLucy Caldwell
Lucy Caldwell is a Northern Irish playwright and novelist.Born in Belfast in 1981 in what she later described as into one of the darkest and most turbulent years of the Troubles: the year the hunger strikes began, when within a few months Bobby Sands and nine others died; when things seemed to be...
and Jesse Weaver. An expanded programme saw a collaboration with the Aldeburgh Festival
Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...
on One Evening
One Evening
One Evening may refer to:* "One Evening" , a story by Samuel Beckett included in The Complete Short Prose 1929-1989* "One Evening", a song by The Jesus Lizard from Head* "One Evening ", a song by Feist from Let It Die...
, a fully staged concert of Schubert’s Winterreise
Winterreise
Winterreise is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert , a setting of 24 poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the second of Schubert's two great song cycles on Müller's poems, the earlier being Die schöne Müllerin...
and Beckett’s text, directed by Katie Mitchell
Katie Mitchell
Katrina Jane Mitchell OBE is an English theatre director. She is an Associate of the Royal National Theatre.-Life and career:Mitchell was raised in Hermitage, Berkshire and educated at Oakham School. Upon leaving Oakham she went up to Magdalen College, Oxford to read English...
, and a special performance of David Hare
David Hare (playwright)
Sir David Hare is an English playwright and theatre and film director.-Early life:Hare was born in St Leonards-on-Sea, Hastings, East Sussex, the son of Agnes and Clifford Hare, a sailor. He was educated at Lancing, an independent school in West Sussex, and at Jesus College, Cambridge...
’s Berlin and Wall, performed by the author together for the first time and directed by Stephen Daldry
Stephen Daldry
Stephen David Daldry, CBE is an English theatre and film director and producer, as well as a three-time Academy Award nominated and Tony Award winning director.-Early years:...
. Other special events included a celebration of publisher Faber and Faber's 80th anniversary with staged readings of works by their authors John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
, Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
, Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett is a British playwright, screenwriter, actor and author. Born in Leeds, he attended Oxford University where he studied history and performed with The Oxford Revue. He stayed to teach and research mediaeval history at the university for several years...
, Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
and David Hare. The programme also included a retrospective on Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
, with a one-off performance of Minghella's radio play Hang Up performed by Harry Treadaway
Harry Treadaway
- Personal life :Treadaway was born in Devon, England, and brought up in Sandford, near Crediton, Devon, with his father, an architect, his mother, a primary school teacher and two brothers - his slightly older twin Luke and their older brother Sam, an artist...
and Felicity Jones
Felicity Jones
Felicity Jones is an English actress from Birmingham. She is best known to television audiences for her role as the school bully Ethel Hallow in the first series of The Worst Witch and its sequel Weirdsister College...
, and a screening of Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love
Shakespeare in Love is a 1998 British-American comedy film directed by John Madden and written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard....
followed by a platform talk with director John Madden
John Madden
John Madden may refer to:*Jack Madden, basketball referee*John Madden , American former football coach and television announcer*John Madden , ice hockey player...
.
Season 2010
The fourth HighTide Festival in May 2010 premiered three productions written by Serge Cartwright, Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig and Beth Steel. The Old Vic Theatre co-produced Steel's play Ditch, with Old Vic artistic director Kevin SpaceyKevin Spacey
Kevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...
causing a sensation when he visited Halesworth to open the production. Cowhig's Lidless was produced in a found space in Halesworth; the local Scout Hut and surrounding land was transformed into a Guantanamo Bay barracks. The Festival also previewed works-in-progress by Jesse Weaver, performed by Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill is a British actor of film, stage and television. In a career spanning thirty years, he is best known for playing Yosser Hughes, the troubled 'hard man' whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's groundbreaking 1980s TV drama, Boys from the Blackstuff...
and Sam Hodges, and Adam Brace's Midnight Your Time, performed by Diana Quick, which went on to be fully produced the following year.
In partnership with the Genesis Foundation, Steven Atkinson founded the Genesis Laboratory, HighTide's year-round development studio situated in London. Atkinson appointed director Natalie Ibu as Associate Director (Warehouse) to programme the studio, and Sam Hodges stepped back from leading the company with Atkinson becoming an Associate Director.
Ditch
Ditch transferred directly from the Festival to the Old Vic Tunnels as the opening production of the Old VicOld Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
Theatre's new second space. Olivier Award winner Richard Twyman's production, which starred Danny Webb and Dearbhla Molly, gained critical praise including being named ‘Best Play’ in The Independent (5 June 2010).
What's impressive about Steel's play – and Richard Twyman's compelling production – is the expert control of mood... Dearbhla Molloy is outstandingly good as Mrs Peel The Independent (28 May 2010).
The play went on to be shortlisted for the prestigious 2010 John Whiting Award along with Serge Cartwright's Moscow Live.
The Theatre Ep
In July, HighTide returned to Suffolk's Latitude FestivalLatitude Festival
The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006....
with The Theatre Ep, conceived and directed by Natalie Ibu and written by Dominic Mitchell.
Lidless
Lidless transferred from the Festival to the 2010 Edinburgh Festival as part of Escalator East to Edinburgh, where it won a Fringe First Award and received 97% capacity across the run. In addition, actress Penny Layden was nominated for Best Actress in The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence.If Henrik Ibsen had been alive in the era of Guantanamo, he'd surely have written a play every bit as scintillating as Lidless The Scotsman (21 August 2010).
Steven Atkinson's production later transferred to Trafalgar Studios in London's West End
West End
West End most commonly refers to:* West End of London* West End theatre- Places :West End may also refer to:Australia*West End, Queensland in Brisbane*West End, Queensland in Townsville*West End, Western Australia in Geraldton...
, with the director winning a second bursary award from the Society of London Theatre to support the production.
Season 2011
The fifth HighTide Festival was open to critics for the first time, with the event attracting wide-spread national and local print, radio, television and online coverage for the first time. The Festival premiered it's first small-scale musical, Nicked, by Richard Marsh and Natalia Sheppard, about the formation of the UK's coalition government. Former Poet Laureate Andrew MotionAndrew Motion
Sir Andrew Motion, FRSL is an English poet, novelist and biographer, who presided as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009.- Life and career :...
made his playwriting debuet with Incoming, American playwright Stephen Belber's play Dusk Rings A Bell received its European premiere, and Adam Brace's Midnight Your Time was fully produced after being workshopped at the previous year's Festival.
To mark the company's fifth birthday, it was joined by five new patrons, each of whom had supported HighTide in its founding years. They were Richard Eyre
Richard Eyre
Sir Richard Charles Hastings Eyre CBE is an English director of film, theatre, television, and opera.-Biography:Eyre was educated at Sherborne School, an independent school for boys in the market town of Sherborne in north-west Dorset in south-west England, followed by Peterhouse at the University...
, Nicholas Hytner
Nicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director. He has been the artistic director of London's National Theatre since 2003.-Biography:...
, Stephen Daldry
Stephen Daldry
Stephen David Daldry, CBE is an English theatre and film director and producer, as well as a three-time Academy Award nominated and Tony Award winning director.-Early years:...
, Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, CBE is an English actor of stage and screen.- Early life :Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth , a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer. Stevenson's father was in the army and was posted to a new place every...
and Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...
.
Rob Drummer succeeded Sam Hodges and Natalie Ibu in the new position of Literary Manager.
In March 2011, Arts Council England announced that they would start regularly funding HighTide Festival Theatre as a National Portfolio Organisation from April 2012
Incoming
Andrew Motion's Incoming toured throughout 2011, with performances including the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival and the Theatre Tent of the Latitude FestivalLatitude Festival
The Latitude Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Henham Park, Southwold, Suffolk, England. It was first held in July 2006....
.
Absolutely credible and ultimately very moving.Whatsonstage (7 May 2011).
Dusk Rings A Bell
Dusk Rings A Bell transferred from the Festival to the Edinburgh Festival with a cast change in Abi TitmussAbi Titmuss
Abi Titmuss, , is a former English nurse turned glamour model, television personality and actress.-Early life:...
playing Molly when Katherine Kingsley was no longer available. Steven Atkinson's production played in the prestigious Assembly Rooms
Assembly rooms
In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there were few public places of entertainment open to both sexes...
before transferring to Watford Place Theatre.
Both actors inhabit their characters with flawless conviction... A show not to miss. The Herald (12 August 2011).
Midnight Your Time
Stovepipe writer and director Adam Brace and Michael Longhurst reunited to stage Midnight Your Time, first at the HighTide Festival and then transferring it to the Assembly RoomsAssembly rooms
In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there were few public places of entertainment open to both sexes...
for the Edinburgh Festival. The production has some outstanding reviews and the performance of Diana Quick
Diana Quick
-Life:Quick was born in London, England. She grew up in Dartford, Kent, the third of a dentist's four children. She was educated at Dartford Grammar School for Girls, Kent. She was greatly aided by her English teacher, Miss Davis, who encouraged her to pursue acting...
was universally praised.
Productions
- Incoming (Aldeburgh Poetry Festival; 4 - 6 November 2011)
- Dusk Rings A Bell (Watford Palace Theatre; 31 August - 1 September 2011)
- Midnight Your Time (Edinburgh Festival; 3 - 28 August 2011)
- Dusk Rings A Bell (Edinburgh Festival; 3 - 29 August 2011)
- Incoming (Latitude Festival; 14 - 16 July 2011)
- Incoming (HighTide Festival; 7 - 8 May 2011)
- Midnight Your Time (HighTide Festival; 30 April - 8 May 2011)
- Nicked (HighTide Festival; 29 August - 8 May 2011)
- Dusk Rings A Bell (HighTide Festival; 28 April - 8 May 2011)
- Lidless (Trafalgar Studios; 10 March - 2 April 2011)
- Lidless (Edinburgh Festival; 5 - 30 August 2010)
- The Theatre Ep (Latitude Festival; 15 - 18 July 2010)
- Ditch (Old Vic Tunnels; 13 May - 26 June 2010)
- Ditch (HighTide Festival; 30 April - 3 May 2010)
- Moscow Live (HighTide Festival; 30 April - 3 May 2010)
- Lidless (HighTide Festival; 30 April - 3 May 2010)
- Stovepipe (Australian National Play Festival; 15 - 20 February 2010)
- Fixer (Australian National Play Festival; 15 - 20 February 2010)
- Muhmah (HighTide Festival; 1 - 10 May 2009)
- Guardians (HighTide Festival; 29 April - 10 May 2009)
- Fixer (HighTide Festival; 27 April - 10 May 2009)
- Stovepipe (West12/National Theatre/ Bush Theatre; 3 March - 26 April 2009)
- I Caught Crabs In Walberswick (Bush Theatre; 11 November- 6 December 2008)
- I Caught Crabs In Walberswick (Edinburgh Festival; 1 - 25 August 2008)
- The Pitch (Latitude Festival; 17 - 20 July 2008)
- Certain Dark Things (HighTide Festival; 1 - 5 May 2008)
- Stovepipe (HighTide Festival; 1 - 5 May 2008)
- Switzerland (HighTide Festival; 1 - 5 May 2008)
- I Caught Crabs in Walberswick (HighTide Festival; 1 - 5 May 2008)
- Lyre (HighTide Festival; 6 - 8 March 2007)
- Lyre (HighTide Festival; 6 - 8 March 2007)
- Assembly (HighTide Festival; 6 - 8 March 2007)
- Ned & Sharon (HighTide Festival; 6 - 8 March 2007)
- VI/VII (HighTide Festival; 6 - 8 March 2007)
- Weightless (HighTide Festival; 6 - 8 March 2007)
- Oscar and Jim (HighTide Festival; 6 - 8 March 2007)
- You Were After Poetry (HighTide Festival; 6 - 8 March 2007)
- Inside Out (HighTide Festival; 6 - 8 March 2007)
Awards
HighTide have been recognised for their artistic excellence and entrepenurial approach business. Lidless won a 2010 Fringe First Award and the play was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn PrizeSusan Smith Blackburn Prize
The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize established in 1978, is for English-language women playwrights. Named for Susan Smith, alumna of Smith College, who died of breast cancer.-Winners:* 1978-79 Mary O'Malley* 1979-80 Barbara Schneider...
and the Meyer-Whitworth Prize. Fixer has also been nominated for the Meyer-Whitworth and the John Whiting Award, along with Moscow Live. Stovepipe and Lidless have both won producing bursaries from the Society of London Theatre and Stovepipe was nominated in the Whatsonstage.com Awards for Best Off-West End Production. HighTide has won two Corporate Engagement Awards and has been nominated for an Arts & Business Award for its partnership with Lansons Communications.