YOUNG VIC ANNOUNCES NEW WORK FOR SPRING 2022
Kwame Kwei-Armah, Young Vic Artistic Director, announces upcoming work for Spring 2022:
· The Collaboration, written by Anthony McCarten and directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, explores the complex and captivating relationship between Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, starring Jeremy Pope and Paul Bettany as the iconic artists.
· The Tony Award-winning Oklahoma! transfers to the Young Vic direct from an acclaimed run on Broadway and U.S. tour. Provocative and probing, this revival from Daniel Fish reimagines the show for the 21st century.
· Deirdre McLaughlin directs a show in the Clare Theatre as the 2021 Genesis Future Director Award recipient. The award forms part of the Young Vic’s commitment to nurturing artists as they explore their craft.
· Five Plays brings together five directors and five writers, to make five-minute plays. James Barnes, David Furlong, David Gilbert, Abigail Sewell and Khadifa Wong direct works by babirye bukilwa, Gael Le Cornec, Martin Crimp, Erinn Dhesi and Mufaro Makubika.
· Following over twenty years supporting early-career artists, the Young Vic’s Directors Program will be reimagined as the Creators Program, a home for multi-disciplinary, anti-disciplinary and hybrid artists.
· Creative Headspace #2 will see the Young Vic support up to 50 members of the Genesis Network with a paid opportunity to be creative on the Young Vic’s TikTok channel, with support and workshops on working in the medium.
Kwame Kwei-Armah said: “There is a moment at the beginning of every theatre show when you and your fellow audience take a collective breath before diving into a story that could change you or your perspective irrevocably. To my mind, the work and projects announced today channel this energy. As we offer them, I ask that together we take a breath, listen carefully, and be open to reimagining what we thought we knew.
Tony Award-winning Oklahoma! unlocks a fresh perspective on a great American musical, whilst The Collaboration invites us behind the iconography and fame, and inside the intimate friendship between two artists. These stories ask us to lean in closely and challenge our preconceptions.
At the same time, Sue Emmas and the Directors Program take an exciting new step: rebranding as the Creators Program. This new iteration innovates how we support anti-disciplinary and hybrid theatre-makers’ work and self-expression – as just one example, we launch Creative Headspace #2 by inviting artists to explore the medium of TikTok. We also take this moment to celebrate the 100 writers and directors who have participated in Five Plays, as we announce the latest group of artists to experiment with their craft in our house. Later next year Deirdre McLaughlin, our 2021 Genesis Future Directors Award recipient, will be supported to make a fully-resourced production at the Young Vic.
Across all our work, we safeguard our accessible ticket pricing model, despite the financial challenges of the last 18 months, with 10% of tickets going free to schools, community members who experience barriers to access and early-career artists. Our commitment to channeling our work in the digital space continues, and we will be sharing more information about how audiences around the UK and globally can join us soon.
So, I invite you to join us– whether you’re an artist, audience member or supporter – as together we take the bold step of inhabiting someone else’s world, receiving their perspective and being open to change. We’ll see you there as the lights go down – it’s going to be thrilling.”
The Collaboration
By Anthony McCarten
Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah
16 February – 2 April 2022
Main House
“Boxers are like painters, both smear their blood on the canvas.”
New York, 1984. Fifty-six-year-old Andy Warhol’s star is falling. Jean-Michel Basquiat is the new wonder-kid taking the art world by storm. When Basquiat agrees to collaborate with Warhol on a new exhibition, it soon becomes the talk of the city.
As everyone awaits the ‘greatest exhibition in the history of modern art’, the two artists embark on a shared journey, both artistic and deeply personal, that re-draws both their worlds.
Paul Bettany (The Avengers, Wandavision) is the iconic Warhol and Jeremy Pope (Hollywood, Scandalous) plays the magnetic Basquiat in the world premiere of Anthony McCarten’s thrilling new drama, directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah.
The Collaboration is Written by Anthony McCarten, and Directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah, with Set and Costume Design by Anna Fleischle, Sound Design by Emma Laxton and Projection Design by Duncan McLean.
Further cast and creative team to be announced.
Relaxed Performance: 8 March, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance: 10 March, 7.30pm
Audio Described Performance: 18 March, 7.30pm
The Collaboration goes on sale to Soul Mates and Friends 16 December 12noon.
Public booking opens 21 December 12noon.
The Bard SummerScape production of
Rodgers & Hammerstein’s
Oklahoma!
In association with Eva Price, Sonia Friedman Productions and Michael Harrison
Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs
Original Choreography by Agnes de Mille
Directed by Daniel Fish
26 April – 25 June 2022
Main House
This is Oklahoma! as you’ve never seen it before, re-orchestrated and reimagined for the 21st century. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, Daniel Fish’s bold interpretation transfers to the Young Vic, direct from an acclaimed run on Broadway and a U.S. tour.
Oklahoma! tells a story of a community banding together against an outsider, and the frontier life that shaped America. Seventy-five years after Rodgers and Hammerstein reinvented the American musical, this visionary production is funny and sexy, provocative and probing, without changing a word of the text.
“A smashing Oklahoma! is reborn. Daniel Fish’s wide-awake, jolting and altogether wonderful production is thrilling!” – New York Times
Oklahoma! is Directed by Daniel Fish, with Orchestrations, Arrangements & Music Supervision by Daniel Kluger, Choreography by John Heginbotham, Set Design by Laura Jellinek, Costume Design by Terese Wadden, Lighting Design by Scott Zielinski, Sound Design by Drew Levy, Projection Design by Joshua Thorson, and Casting by Jacob Sparrow, with Associate Director Jordan Fein, and Associate Set Designer Grace Laubacher.
Cast and additional creative team to be announced.
Audio Described Performance: 24 May 2022, 7.30pm
Captioned Performance: 9 June, 7.30pm
Oklahoma! goes on sale to Soul Mates 7 December 12noon, and Friends 16 December 12noon.
Public booking opens 11 January 2022, 12noon.
Deirdre McLaughlin is named the 2021 Genesis Future Directors Award recipient.
The Genesis Future Directors Award provides an early-career director with an opportunity to explore and develop their craft whilst creating a fully-resourced production in the Clare at the Young Vic, as part of the artistic programme. The award will provide Deirdre McLaughlin with mentoring and support from the theatre’s unique creative network, which includes Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah, Associate Artistic Director Sue Emmas and Genesis Fellow and Associate Director Jennifer Tang.
Established in 2012, previous Genesis Future Director Award recipients include Diyan Zora, Dadiow Lin, Caitriona Shoobridge, Lekan Lawal, Debbie Hannan, John R. Wilkinson, Nancy Medina, Leo J. Skilbeck, Bryony Shanahan, Ola Ince, Rikki Henry, Tinuke Craig, Finn Beames, Matthew Xia and Ben Kidd.
Show title to be announced, with tickets on sale at a later date.
Due to the nature of the Genesis Future Directors Award, there will be no press night.
The Genesis Future Directors Award program is made possible by the Genesis Foundation.
Five Plays
Five Plays brings together five directors and five writers, to make five, five-minute plays. This year sees James Barnes, David Furlong, David Gilbert, Abigail Sewell and Khadifa Wong direct works by babirye bukilwa, Gael Le Cornec, Martin Crimp, Erinn Dhesi and Mufaro Makubika.
Five Plays is Designed by Shankho Chaudhuri, with Casting by Annelie Powell.
Five Plays was launched in 2013, and to date has worked with 100 writers and directors. Each iteration sees five writers writing a five-minute play, rehearsed and staged over five days with five different casts. Five Plays is just one of the ways the Young Vic works with early-career directors and theatre-makers to develop their craft.
Young Vic Creators Program
Sue Emmas, Associate Artistic Director of the YV and Creators Program lead, said: “When David Lan joined the Young Vic, he identified a need for directors training and established the Directors Program. For over two decades, the program has evolved and grown thanks to the extraordinary support of the Genesis Foundation, and we now support nearly 2,000 directors, designers and producers through the Network.
Since Kwame arrived at the Young Vic in 2018, we’ve been thinking about how the program can evolve to best articulate his vision for the Young Vic – one which supports and encourages the multi-disciplinary theatre-maker. How artists see themselves and how they want to make work is changing, and we want our artist development work to reflect that.
In early 2022, we launch the Creators Program as a space for multi- and anti-disciplinary artists. We expand scope of the existing program to match the breadth of skills of our members, and the aspirations they have for the future of theatre-making. The Creators Program will invite artists to cross art forms, and to take on a variety of roles within those forms. We want to continue to equip artists for the reality of today and the future. Many of the existing core strands of the program will continue – workshops, assistantships, making work through the Genesis Future Directors Award – but we will be thinking about the focus or lens through which we imagine these opportunities. We will continue to provide paid and free opportunities, but we will find ways for them to serve a wider range of skills and disciplines.”
Through the Creators Program we aim to:
· Celebrate multi and anti-disciplinary artists and processes
· Challenge and re-imagine future practice
· Support a wider range of opportunities for creating work
We will be building on and extending the legacy of our partnership with the Genesis Foundation who have provided leadership support for our talent development program over the past twenty years. The three vital offerings of the Genesis Network, the Genesis Fellowship and the Genesis Future Directors Awards will continue to provide exceptional opportunities for artists to develop their craft.
John Studzinski CBE, Founder & Chairman, Genesis Foundation, said: “Since 2003 the Genesis Foundation has made a substantial commitment to the Young Vic’s Directors Program supporting three vital strands: the Genesis Fellowship, the Genesis Future Directors Award and the Genesis Network. The original Genesis Directors Project was, and remains to this day, a pioneering initiative with few precedents around the world. Almost two decades on, our continued partnership has created a thriving and unparalleled program that will now engage with even broader and more diverse talent. We look forward to being part of the Young Vic’s new Creators Program alongside Esmée Fairbairn Foundation”.
We’d also like to welcome Esmée Fairbairn Foundation as a lead supporter of the Creators Program. All year-round creative activity – from workshops to public forums and discussions – will be made possible with their generous support.
Alison Holdom, Funding Manager – Arts and Heritage Lead, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, said: “Esmée Fairbairn Foundation is thrilled to be supporting the Young Vic’s Creators Program, a new approach to talent development which will equip a diverse generation of theatre artists from all backgrounds and disciplines with the skills, experience and networks that enable them to thrive.”
More information about the Creators Program, including the program of events, workshops and opportunities available to artists, will be shared in early 2022.
Creative Headspace #2
Creative Headspace #2 will see the Young Vic support up to 50 members of our Genesis Network with a paid opportunity to be creative on the Young Vic’s TikTok channel, with workshops and support around working in the digital medium.
Creative Headspace is designed to support early-career theatre-makers, and was created in response to the last year when opportunities for freelancers early in their careers have been reduced. This project, intended to be quick, informal and in the spirit of the medium of TikTok, follows on from the Young Vic’s first Creative Headspace initiative in January 2021, when 300 members of the Genesis Network were given paid opportunities to think about their craft and making theatre. This next iteration will encourage theatre-makers to experiment with the form of TikTok. The project forms part of the Creators Program mission of equipping artists for the reality of today and the future, including developing skills in digital arts and production.