Artistic Director Of Sheffield Theatres Robert Hastie Announces His Inaugural Season

Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres Robert Hastie today announces his inaugural season. The new season opens with Hastie directing William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar bringing Shakespeare back to the Crucible; this will be followed in the Studio by the winner of the new annual RTST Director Award Scheme Kate Hewitt directing the regional première of Nina Raine's Tribes.

Sheffield People's Theatre will then stage Chris Bush's new play What We Wished For, which reunites Bush and director Emily Hutchinson following this year's A Dream. Hastie renews his collaboration with rising talent playwright Chris Thompson for the world première of Of Kith and Kin - they previously worked together on Thompson's first full length play Carthage at the Finborough Theatre. Of Kith and Kin is a co-production with the Bush Theatre, and the production will run there after performances at Sheffield Theatres.

Director Sam Yates makes his Sheffield Theatres debut with Eugene O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms; and then Tamara Harvey returns to Sheffield Theatres to direct Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in a new version by Peter Gill. This is a co-production with Theatr Clwyd where Harvey is Artistic Director and will open there ahead of its run in Sheffield.

The year is then completed with a major revival of the classic The Wizard of Oz which Hastie will direct at Christmas, continuing the tradition of a much-loved musical revival for the festive season.

Also announced today, with a desire to put accessibility at the heart of his work for the company, Hastie has removed booking fees from all tickets, so there will be no additional charges on top of the ticket prices. In addition, there are 10,000 tickets priced at only £15.00 across Sheffield Theatres' 2017 season. Also, students studying drama or performing arts at school or college in Sheffield can now claim a free ticket to see work on the Crucible stage.

Robert Hastie said today, "I am delighted to introduce my first season of work as Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres. I have been in Sheffield for a few months now and I have been overwhelmed by the warmth of the welcome I've received. This is a great city and I feel privileged to take on the artistic leadership of two of its most iconic buildings. Like many people here, I was greatly saddened by the recent death of founding director Colin George, and reminded that his legacy is the pride this city takes in its world class theatres."

"This season is about great plays that say something about all of us - our lives and loves, the leaders we choose, and the families we don't. Our doors are open to everyone and in uncertain and divisive times, the importance of spaces where we can come together to share stories and debate ideas has never been greater. Our theatres are places where we can hear other points of view and discover more about the strangers we live alongside. Everyone is welcome. They are safe places and they are thrilling places."

"We've dropped our lowest ticket prices and there are 10,000 £15 tickets across the season. We're also scrapping our booking fees. And we are saying to young people with an interest in theatre and to the schools they attend: we share your passion and we support it. If you study drama or performing arts at GCSE or A-level in Sheffield, you can come to the Crucible for free. The idea of culture and creativity having a vital place in education is under sustained attack. I do not accept that, and we will do everything we can at Sheffield Theatres to inspire and nurture a passion for theatre in our city's young people. It's vital that we put our money where our mouths are about the value of live performance."

On sale to Centre Stage Members Sat 19 November 2016 On General Sale Sat 26 November 2016 www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk Twitter: @crucibletheatre @SheffieldLyceum

CRUCIBLE

JULIUS CAESAR By William Shakespeare

Directed by Robert Hastie 17 May - 10 June

Press night: 23 May at 7.00pm

'Beware the Ides of March...' A hero returns. An assassination is foreseen. A city is turned upside-down. Shakespeare's searing political thriller asks, when the majority choose a dangerous leader, what should the honourable citizen do?

Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres Robert Hastie directs. He was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

He most recently directed Breaking the Code (Royal Exchange, Manchester), Henry V (Regent's Park Open Air Theatre) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, the inaugural production in Artistic Director Tamara Harvey's first season at Theatr Clwyd. He is Associate Director of the Donmar Warehouse, where his recent work includes acclaimed productions of My Night With Reg by Kevin Elyot (also West End - Hastie was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards; and the production was nominated for Best Revival at the Olivier Awards), and Splendour, by Abi Morgan. Hastie recently completed the first stage of the Donmar Warehouse's ten year long My Mark project with Michelle Terry, undertaking and filming interviews in schools nationally to document the views of those eligible to vote for the first time in the 2025 general election.

His other directing credits include Carthage, Events While Guarding The Bofors Gun (Finborough Theatre), Sunburst (Holborn Grange Hotel), Sixty-Six Books: In The Land Of Uz, Middle Man, David and Goliath, Snow In Sheffield and A Lost Expression (Bush Theatre).

As an actor, his work included productions with the National Theatre, RSC, Chichester Festival Theatre, Glasgow Citizens Theatre, Cheek by Jowl, Frantic Assembly, Northampton Royal & Derngate, Headlong, Birmingham Rep, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith, Derby Playhouse, Playful Productions, Liverpool Playhouse, as well as the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield.

STUDIO

Regional Première

In association with the Royal Theatrical Support Trust

TRIBES

By Nina Raine

Directed by Kate Hewitt; Designed by Amanda Stoodley

29 June - 22 July Press night: 3 July at 7.45pm

'This is the first time you've ever listened to me properly and it's because I'm not speaking.' Billy was born deaf into a hearing family. Until he meets Sylvia, he never felt he wasn't being listened to. Kate Hewitt directs this regional première about the need we all feel to belong, and to be understood.

Originally commissioned for The Royal Court Theatre, Tribes was directed by Roger Michell, and enjoyed a sell-out run and won an Offie Award for Best New Play. It was also nominated for both Olivier and Evening Standard Awards for Best New Play. It had its North American première at the Barrow Street Theatre in New York in 2012 where it won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play, the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award, and the Off-Broadway Alliance Award. It has also been produced in Hamburg, Budapest, Sao Paolo, Zargreb, Wellington and Melbourne. There are thirteen upcoming productions in the USA including at the Steppenwolf, Chicago.

Nina Raine's plays include Rabbit (Old Red Lion, Trafalgar Studios and Brits Off Broadway festival in New York - Charles Wintour Evening Standard Award for Most Promising Playwright, Critics' Circle Award for most Promising Playwright), and Tiger County (Hampstead Theatre - also directed). She dramaturged and directed Unprotected (Liverpool Everyman, for which she won both the TMA best Director Award and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award for an Outstanding Production on a Human Rights Theme). She has also directed for The Royal Court Theatre - Shades and Jumpy (also Duke of York's Theatre); and Longing (Hampstead Theatre).

Kate Hewitt directs. Her theatre work includes Kiki's Delivery Service, Tomcat (Southwark Playhouse), Romeo and Juliet (NYT at Ambassador's Theatre), Portrait (Edinburgh Festival, UK Tour and Bush Theatre's RADAR Festival), and in 2014 she won the JMK Director's Award and her winning production was Far Away (Young Vic). As associate director, her work includes Charlie and The Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Medea (Headlong Theatre Company UK tour 2012-13), Electra (Gate and Latitude Festival 2011), and the forthcoming One Love: The Bob Marley Musical (Birmingham Rep).

Hewitt was selected as the winner of the RTST Director Award Scheme - a new, annual initiative that offers the chance, through a competitive process, for an emerging director to create and direct a fully-funded production of a play at a selected regional theatre. The inaugural Scheme is being run by the Royal Theatrical Support Trust in collaboration with Sheffield Theatres. After a national call-out for the entries, the Scheme involved workshops and interviews with a prestigious Selection Panel that comprised Chair Daniel Evans (Artistic Director Chichester Festival Theatre), Ian McKellen, Dawn Walton, Richard Wilson and Penelope Wilton. Sheffield Theatres' Artistic Director, Robert Hastie, was also involved in the final selection process.

About The RTST Director Award

The annual RTST Director Award Scheme was launched by the RTST in February 2016. It involves a collaboration between the RTST and a regional theatre, and a competitive process among eligible emerging directors to find a winner who will be given the opportunity to direct a play at that theatre. The candidates for the RTST Director Award 2016 were required, when entering, to submit in writing ideas for directing a play at Sheffield's Crucible Studio Theatre. The play could be any play of the candidate's choosing provided it was the work of an internationally renowned dramatist (living or dead), and in English, and it required no more than eight actors. A short-list of 7 candidates was chosen by the Selection Panel to go forward to the final stage of the selection process where they demonstrated their directing skills in workshops with actors. The workshops took place in London over the weekend of 28/29 May in facilities 'donated' by law firm Bristows LLP. The Selection Panel observed and judged each candidate's workshop performance, and the Award winner, Kate Hewitt, and the official runner-up, Rebecca Frecknall, were finally selected on the basis of interviews. Visit the RTST website for more information: rtst.org.uk/directoraward2016/. The RTST intends to run the Scheme annually, and to work with different regional theatres.

CRUCIBLE

World Première

A Sheffield People's Theatre production

WHAT WE WISHED FOR

By Chris Bush

Directed by Emily Hutchinson; Designed by Kevin Jenkins; Movement Director Darragh O'Leary 19 - 22 July Press night: 20 July at 7.15pm

'They say this town's gone to the dogs. No, it's gone to the wolves round here.'

Fairy tales and modern life. You're not safe from monsters in either. Sheffield People's Theatre return to bring myth and magic to the Crucible stage, and explore the lessons each generation passes on to the next. What We Wished For reunites Chris Bush and Emily Hutchinson following their previous collaboration on A Dream - the Sheffield People's Theatre production for 2016.

Chris Bush is a Sheffield-born playwright, lyricist and theatre-maker. She was the 2013 Pearson Playwright in Residence for Sheffield Theatres and is currently an Artist in Residence at the Oxford Playhouse. Past work includes A Dream, The Sheffield Mysteries (for Sheffield People's Theatre at the Crucible), A Declaration from the People (National Theatre), Larksong (New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme), ODD (Royal & Derngate, Northampton: concert performance), Sleight & Hand (Summerhall, Edinburgh/Odeon Cinemas/BBC Arts), TONY! The Blair Musical (York Theatre Royal/Tour), Poking the Bear (Theatre503), The Bureau of Lost Things (Theatre503/Rose Bruford), Wolf (National Theatre Studio: reading), Dickensian, Goodwill to All Men, We're all in this Together and 20 Tiny Plays about Sheffield (all Crucible Studio). She has won the National Young Playwrights' Festival, a Brit Writers' Award, the Perfect Pitch Award, two Spotlight Emerging Artists' Awards and a Kevin Spacey Foundation Artist of Choice Award.

Emily Hutchinson is Creative Projects Manager at Sheffield Theatres. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama and gained a BA (Hons) Drama and Education. Hutchinson has a number of directing credits at Sheffield Theatres, most recently the Sheffield People's Theatre productions of A Dream, Hospital Food by Eugene O'Hare and Hearts by Luke Norris, which transferred to National Theatre's Temporary Space in July 2014 as part of the National Theatre Connections Festival.

STUDIO

World Première

A Sheffield Theatres & Bush Theatre co-production

OF KITH AND KIN By Chris Thompson

Directed by Robert Hastie; Designed by James Perkins

14 September - 7 October Press night: 19 September at 7.45pm

'He can't call you both Dad. One of you should be Dad and the other one Daddy, surely?'

You can choose your friends... Chris Thompson's gripping new dark comedy takes us to the heart of what happens when we choose our family too.

Chris Thompson made his professional writing debut with Carthage at the Finborough Theatre - also directed by Hastie. His other work includes Albion (Bush Theatre). He previously won the Channel 4 Playwrights' Scheme (formerly the Pearson Playwrights' Scheme) and was invited to take part in The Royal Court Theatre's Studio Writers' Group. Robert Hastie directs.

Bush Theatre

The Bush Theatre is a world-famous home for new plays and an internationally renowned champion of playwrights. They discover, nurture and produce the best new playwrights from the widest range of backgrounds, and present their work to the highest possible standards. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Madani Younis, the Bush Theatre looks for exciting new voices that tell contemporary stories with wit, style and passion and they champion work that is both provocative and entertaining. The Bush has produced hundreds of groundbreaking premières since its inception in 1972, many of them Bush commissions, and hosted guest productions by leading companies and artists from across the world. The Bush is widely acclaimed as the seedbed for the best new playwrights, many of whom have gone on to become established names. Having developed an enviable reputation for touring its acclaimed productions nationally and internationally, the award-winning theatre is currently undertaking a £4 million building redevelopment and a year's programme in the community. The theatre will unveil its new second studio space, revamped backstage facilities and a new front-of-house area in spring 2017.

For more information, please visit: www.bushtheatre.co.uk

CRUCIBLE

DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS By Eugene O'Neill

Directed by Sam Yates

20 September - 14 October Press night: 25 September at 7.00pm

'If I could, in my dyin' hour, I'd set it afire an' watch it burn...'

Ephraim Cabot's sons work from morning till night, believing his farm will one day be theirs. But everything changes when the old man returns from town with a new wife. Once banned in Britain, this is a haunting and erotic tragedy from Nobel Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill.

Eugene O'Neill (1888 - 1936) was one of the greatest American Playwrights. His many works for the stage include Beyond the Horizon, The Emperor Jones, Anna Christie, Strange Interlude, Mourning Becomes Electra, The Iceman Cometh, Long Day's Journey into Night and A Moon for the Misbegotten. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936.

Sam Yates directs. His work for the stage includes Murder Ballad (Arts Theatre), Cymbeline (Shakespeare's Globe), East is East (Trafalgar Studios and UK tour), The El. Train (Hoxton Hall), Outside Mullingar (Ustinov at Bath Theatre Royal), Billy Liar (Royal Exchange), Cornelius (Finborough Theatre & 59E59 New York), and Mixed Marriage (Finborough Theatre); and for screen, The Hope Rooms (Winner Grand Prize Future Filmmaker Award, RIIFF 2016), and Cymbeline, All's Well That Ends Well and Love's Labour's Lost (The Complete Walk, Shakespeare's Globe).

STUDIO

A Sheffield Theatres & Theatr Clwyd co-production

Anton Chekhov's UNCLE VANYA in a new version by Peter Gill

Directed by Tamara Harvey; Designed by Lucy Osborne

18 October - 4 November

'My life has gone completely off course...'

To what, and to whom, do we devote our lives? And what happens when we ask, was it worth it?

Tamara Harvey directs this poignant comedy, in a heartbreaking new version by Peter Gill, which was commissioned by Theatr Clwyd. The production will be performed in the round.

Anton Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian playwright and short story writer. His principal works for the stage include Ivanov, Platonov, The Seagull, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.

Peter Gill (b.1939) is a Welsh playwright, theatre director and actor. As a playwright, his works include, The Sleeper's Den, Over Gardens Out, Small Change, Kick for Touch, Cardiff East, Certain Young Men, The York Realist, Original Sin, Another Door Closed, Versailles and As Good a Time as Any. His adaptations for the stage include A Provincial Life, The Merry-Go-Round, The Cherry Orchard, Touch and Go, As I Lay Dying and The Seagull.

Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd, Tamara Harvey directs - which sees her return to Sheffield Theatres following her recent production of Pride and Prejudice. She has directed in the West End, throughout the UK and abroad, working on classic plays, new writing, musical theatre and in film. Her inaugural production for Theatr Clwyd was Much Ado About Nothing, followed by the première of Elinor Cook's award-winning new play, Pilgrims. Her previous credits include the world premières of From Here To Eternity (Shaftesbury Theatre), Breeders (St James Theatre), The Kitchen Sink, The Contingency Plan, Sixty-Six Books and tHe dYsFUnCKshOnalZ! (Bush Theatre), In the Vale of Health (a cycle of four plays by Simon Gray), Elephants and Hello/Goodbye (Hampstead Theatre), and Plague Over England (Finborough Theatre & West End). Other theatre includes Bash (Trafalgar Studios), Whipping It Up (New Ambassadors), One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Gielgud & Garrick Theatres), Educating Rita and Smash (Menier Chocolate Factory & Theatre Royal Bath), Romeo and Juliet (Theatre of Memory at Middle Temple Hall), Much Ado About Nothing (Shakespeare's Globe), Dancing at Lughnasa (Birmingham Rep), Bedroom Farce (West Yorkshire Playhouse), The Importance of Being Earnest (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey), Closer (Theatre Royal Northampton), Tell Me On A Sunday (UK Tour) and the UK première of Tennessee Williams' Something Cloudy, Something Clear (Finborough Theatre). Harvey directed the Shakespeare scenes that form an integral part of Anonymous, the feature film by Roland Emmerich; has twice been on the panel of the George Devine Award for Most Promising Playwright, and is a Trustee of the Peggy Ramsay Foundation and of the National Student Drama Festival.

THEATR CLWYD is one of the foremost producing theatres in Wales - a beacon of excellence looking across to the Clwydian Hills yet only forty minutes from Liverpool. Led by the new Executive team of Tamara Harvey and Liam Evans-Ford, they are a champion of world-class drama, new writing and family friendly work. They have three theatres, a cinema, cafe, bar and art galleries, offering a rich and varied programme of theatre, visual arts, film, music, dance and comedy. They work extensively with their local community, schools and colleges as well as creating award-winning work for, by and with young people. Over 200,000 people a year come through their doors and in 2015 Theatr Clwyd was voted the Most Welcoming Theatre in Wales. www.theatrclwyd.com

CRUCIBLE

THE WIZARD OF OZ By L. Frank Baum

With Music and Lyrics by Harold Arlen & E. Y. Harburg

Background Music by Herbert Stothart

Dance and Vocal Arrangements by Peter Howard

Orchestration by Larry Wilcox

Adapted by John Kane for the Royal Shakespeare Company

Based upon the Classic Motion Picture owned by Turner Entertainment Co. and distributed in all media by Warner Bros.

Directed by Robert Hastie; Designed by Janet Bird

7 December 2017 - 13 January 2018 Press night: 13 December at 7.00pm

'Somewhere over the rainbow, way up high, there's a land that I heard of, once in a lullaby'

The technicolour classic that takes the whole family to the Emerald City and back again. Robert Hastie directs.

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