ETT ANNOUNCE TRAILER STORY
– A TOURING OUTDOOR PERFORMANCE SPACE
ETT (English Touring Theatre), today announces Trailer Story – a travelling outdoor performance space touring across the UK presenting national and local artistic programming and community events, finding a safe, joyous, and locally focused way to bring people together in public spaces to celebrate theatre. The project is inspired by ETT’s origins as Century Theatre, who toured the UK in a pop-up space, and will tour to Newcastle and Keswick in July and August 2021, in partnership with Northern Stage and Theatre by the Lake.
Trailer Story will present weekend-long programmes of events, performances and community happenings across the UK, beginning with a residency in Newcastle city centre 30 July – 1 August, with support from NE1 Ltd, and Crow Park in Keswick 5-8 August, with support from the National Trust. Performances will be housed in a touring truck, usually used to tour production sets around the country, but reimagined as a space for artists and audiences to meet, built with sustainability at its core and allowing for socially-distanced performances.
Richard Twyman and Sophie Scull today said “Trailer Story sits at the heart of our plans for 2021. It’s a project that harnesses ETT’s rich history, transformed and re-invented for the present day. Our touring truck is inspired by the company’s origins – when Century Theatre toured to towns and cities in a fleet of trucks converted into a performance space called ‘The Blue Box’ – but responds to the impact of the pandemic on our communities. We want to provide a safe and joyful space to come together and celebrate live arts, and the immense diversity and talent of our country’s artists. We hope to make Trailer Story an annual platform for national and local theatre-makers, performance artists and musicians to share their work with audiences outdoors – empowering communities and celebrating imagination.
ETT celebrate the nation’s diversity, resilience and community spirit with an exciting range of programming that travels with the truck. Trailer Story also offers a platform for local artists in each area to take over the space, making the festival unique to each location. Programming and full list of artists involved to be announced.
Trailer Story is designed by Jon Bausor with Tina Torbey
In recent months, ETT have also released Children’s Children – a series of five monologues, curated by Amber James, exploring the interaction of the past with the present, and celebrating Black history, and That Podcast– a twelve part magazine-style podcast series that tells the story of a nation and a world in rapid transition. For further information, visit https://ett.org.uk/
ETT Listings
020 7450 1990
ABOUT ETT
ETT (English Touring Theatre) are a UK based international touring company. We create theatre of outstanding quality, imagination and ambition; work which interrogates and celebrates contemporary England and reflects the diversity of our nation. Staging a balance of new and classic work, we make theatre that is imaginative, responsive and alive: sparking dialogue and fostering connectivity. We are proud to tour shows that reach the widest possible range of audiences across the UK and beyond, engaging in a national and global conversation. ETT won the UK Theatre Awards Best Touring Production in 2014, 2015, 2016 and Best Play Revival in 2019.
Twitter: @ETTtweet
Instagram: EnglishTouringTheatre
YouTube: ETTonYT
Northern Stage is a place to laugh, discover, challenge and learn – a place to think and rethink. Backed up by industry-leading facilities and a dash of Geordie genius, we reach beyond the ordinary, every time. A theatre where ideas meet and futures change, every year thousands come to create and share unique live experiences – it’s so much more than a night out. Northern Stage believes in the social, emotional and political power of theatre to challenge the status quo. A spirit of rebellion runs through all our work and we champion boldness and accessibility. northernstage.co.uk
ABOUT THEATRE BY THE LAKE
Theatre by the Lake, hailed by The Independent as ‘the most beautifully located and friendly theatre in Britain’, opened in 1999. It is a short stroll from Derwentwater on the edge of Keswick, amid the magnificent western fells of the Lake District, which now enjoys UNESCO World Heritage status.
The Theatre has two stages, a 400-seat Main House and 100-seat Studio, and presents up to nine of its own productions throughout the year as well as hosting a variety of festivals and visiting companies, playing to over 120,000 people per year. Led by Artistic Director Liz Stevenson and Executive Director James Cobbold, Theatre by the Lake is the only Arts Council funded producing theatre in Cumbria, generating a further £2.5m through sales and fundraising each year to support work onstage and the provision of inspiring community engagement programmes for people of all ages.
Theatre by the Lake closed in March 2020 due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, but continue to provide a programme of digital and outdoor events until their proposed reopening in Autumn 2021.
Theatre by the Lake (as Cumbria Theatre Trust) is a registered charity, number 516673
TRAILER STORY
Newcastle 30 July – 1 August 2021
Keswick 5 – 8 August 2021