Today, the Almeida Festival kicks off at the Islington venue. Now an annual summer event, the Almeida Festival features exciting new work from emerging artists and theatre companies, as well as two shows from the Young Friends of the Almeida.
Here’s a taster of what you could get involved in over the next few weeks:
Access All Areas: your chance to explore the Almeida Theatre building, including the backstage areas, between 12 and 5pm on Saturday 7 July for free. There are also workshops in performance and writing, lighting and costume, which cost around £8.
The Team – Roosevelvis: from NYC, the Theatre of the Emerging American Moment company is a three-time Edinburgh Fringe First Award winner. Roosevelvis is a work-in-progress exploration of American culture and the powerful men who control it.
Custom/Practice – A Midsummer Night’s Dream: an arresting production of the classic text, delivered alongside an integrated educational outreach programme, this version of AMND is moves from a bleak inner-city school detention room to a fantastical world of lovers, forests and fairies.
Inspector Sands – Mass Observation: another award-winning theatre company with a taste for trying out new things, Inspector Sands shows include visual, aural, textual and physical elements to tell stories. In this case, it’s an examination of two cogs in a machine: one enjoying Coronation Day in 1937; the other trying to pick up his grandfather from a retirement home in time for a Jubilee party in 2012.
Inua Ellams – Knight Watch: the last of our highlights takes place outside the Almeida, at Spa Fields in Clerkenwell. Performance poet Inua Ellams will use the city as his set, performing outdoors for the first time in a story of loyalty, control and gang culture.
The Almeida Festival runs from 2 to 28 July at the Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, Islington, London, N1. Tickets range from £15-£5, or you can get access to the entire festival for £70. Visit www.almeida.co.uk/festival2012 to find out more.
