First Bite Festival Will Kick Off Next Week

Ten brand new work-in-progress shows by companies and artists based in the Midlands will have their first outing for audiences and industry professionals at this year's First Bite festival. The free online micro-festival, produced by independent theatre studio China Plate, will take place over a week in four lunchtime events hosted by Georgie Jones.

Each event offers an exclusive taster of a few different works-in-progress over 30 - 40 mins, and includes a chance to hear from the artists themselves and offer them feedback to help further develop the work. The annual event has been promoting Midlands talent since 2009, with all the shows chosen through an application process run by China Plate. This year, successful applicants received £700 towards the creation of a new idea and their online sharing of the work.

Shows include a physical piece about fatherhood rooted in the traditions of Indian classical dance form Bharatanatyam, a queer fantasy adventure set to a synth-pop score, and the forgotten story of a group of lesbians who helped and comforted so many people during the AIDS crisis.

Two of the pieces seen at the First Bite online festival will be commissioned by the festival partners and programmed at the Bite Size Festival at Warwick Arts Centre in April 2022, receiving a further £3,000 as well as two fully-supported development weeks. China Plate will act as producing, development and creative mentors. The development weeks will take place across the First Bite partner venues and organisations: Attenborough Arts Centre, In Good Company, Warwick Arts Centre and/or Midlands Arts Centre. Previous artists who have been commissioned through First Bite/Bite Size include Caroline Horton, Georgie Jones, Steph Ridings, and Paul O'Donnell.

Also on the menu are three new pieces of digital work made by young companies and artists as part of Take a Bite - an initiative providing Midlands based 18-23 year olds with professional development opportunities within the UK arts scene.

All events are free to watch, but audiences must register in order to receive the viewing link.

Rosie Kelly, Senior Producer at China Plate said, "Following what has been an incredibly challenging time for the arts sector, it is fantastic to see so many brilliant, new ideas for shows being developed by artists working across the Midlands, and we can't wait to offer audiences' an exclusive sneak peek of this work in progress"

Established in 2006, China Plate is one of the UK's most prolific independent producers of contemporary theatre, producing work that engages 35,000 audience members annually. The company's central mission is to 'challenge the way performance is made, who it's made by and who gets to experience it.' China Plate has worked with some of the UK's most talented artists, including Caroline Horton, Inspector Sands, David Edgar, Chris Thorpe, Rachel Chavkin, Rachel Bagshaw, Urielle Klein-Mekongo and Contender Charlie. They are Resident Producers at Warwick Arts Centre, partners in the Rural Touring Dance Initiative (RTDI) founded to bring contemporary dance to rural venues around the UK, partners in the ACE Ambition for Excellence funded Musical Theatre Development Consortium led by Royal and Derngate Theatres, Northampton and Derby Theatre's Performing Arts Producing Hub.

The festival runs Tuesday 28th September - Friday 1st October 2021, 1:30pm.

Online, register at Bit.ly/FirstBiteFestival2021

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