New Perspectives Announces 18 New Associates For 2024/5

New Perspectives have announced their New Associates for 2024/5. Artists from across the East Midlands will receive a year-long programme of bespoke support, training and mentorship from the award-winning, Nottingham-based company, working with New Perspectives' core team of 7. Owing to the large number of applicants - over 75 - New Perspectives have selected 18 artists across 9 disciplines (Director, Writer, Theatre-maker, Stage Manager, Actor/Performer, Producer, Comedian, Dramaturg, Poet) as their 2024/5 cohort.

The New Associates are: Grace Carter, Serenah Cole, Sophie Jane Corner, Helen Crevel, Doug Deans, Emma Gray, Hannah Harris, Michelle Mother Hubbard, Meera Joshi, Ishi Khan, Omar Khan, Martha Kent, Daniel McVey, Eden Peppercorn, Jessy Roberts, Rukus, Esme Sears, and Hollie Westwood. For more information on the cohort, please visit www.newperspectives.co.uk/meet-our-new-associates-for-202425

New Perspectives are delighted that the cohort represents a range of ages, ethnicities, and artistic disciplines including:

• A range of disability and neurodiversity, with 67% identify as having a disability, as being neurodiverse, or having a long-term, chronic health condition

• An age range from 20s to 60s, with a third being over 35 years

• A Global Majority of 55%

The New Associates programme is aimed at early-mid career artists and practitioners working in theatre and live performance, based or working in the East Midlands region. Previous New Associates have included theatre makers, directors, actors, writers, spoken word artists, dancers and artists who work between disciplines. Over the course of one year, they will work closely with the New Perspectives team to develop their work and career, learn from their skills and gain valuable insights into their leadership and governance.

Opportunities made available over the year include:

• tailored support on a particular project or skill set including, where appropriate, rehearsal space, mentoring, dramaturgical support and marketing, funding and touring expertise

• attendance at masterclasses, skills sessions and professional development opportunities

• opportunities to observe board meetings, and take part in planning sessions to act as a sounding board for new ideas

• invitations to company rehearsals, readings, workshops and participatory events throughout the year

• access to staff and board expertise and networks

• possibilities to collaborate with other New Associates as creative peers

The shape of the programme will vary depending on what is required by each artist. New Perspectives are aiming to offer New Associates the specific support they need as an artist to take a crucial next step.

Artistic Director Angharad Jones said, "This has been our most competitive round to date and the standard of applications was outstanding. We are thrilled that we have been able to build a cohort from a variety of disciplines with a geographical spread representational of the East Midlands, reflecting the society we live in and that amplifies the voices of previously underrepresented voices in the industry. We know that it's more difficult than ever to start and sustain a career in the arts and we are immensely proud of the work that we do through New Associates. The relationships we have formed through the programme feel very special and it's a joy to see what artists go on to do and the collaborations we see through the network. The East Midlands is bursting with talent and it's a privilege to be able to support this ecology and look for ways to provide employment and support beyond the programme."

The NA Alumni group now has 52 artists who have participated in the talent development programme across the last five years. Recent New Associates include Actor AK Golding who has recently wrapped on the feature film The Colour Room opposite David Morrisey and is currently in Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, adaptation by Zoe Cooper at The Orange Tree; Playwright Emma Louise Howell (I REALLY DO THINK THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE, Mercury Theatre) who was shortlisted for BBC Writersroom 2023; Amy Crighton who was the recipient of Rose Theatre's 2023 Peter Hall Emerging Artists Fellowship, recently associate director on The Boy at the Back of the Class and previously literary assistant at The Bush; Natalie Chan who won a Fringe First Award for producing This Is Not A Show About Hong Kong; Natalie Simone who was Assistant Director on the Young Vic's recent production of Nachtland by Marius von Mayenburg; Actor Abigail Pidgeon who toured in recent New Perspectives rural tour, Model Village by Anita Sullivan; Andy Mandoiu who collaborated with fellow New Associates Adam Iqbal and Dylan Bull to produce their productions performed at Derby Theatre and Attenborough Arts Centre.

New Perspectives is an East Midlands based company celebrating 50 years of touring high-quality productions to venues of all sizes across the UK, from mid-scale theatres to village halls. With a strong rural core, they create productions to fit spaces of any size in order to bring new work that is unexpected and thought-provoking to a wide range of audiences. In 2021, Angharad Jones was appointed as their Artistic Director/CEO; assistant director of the company's award-winning production of The Fishermen. Since her appointment, Angharad has directed The Great Almighty Gill (Edinburgh Festival & UK Tour 2022); a script-in-hand reading of Lucy Kirkwood's Maryland; the first UK tour of Canadian play with songs The Swearing Jar by Kate Hewlett (UK Tour 2023); the New Perspectives 50th Anniversary tour of Model Village by Anita Sullivan (UK Tour 2023). In addition, she returned to co-direct the UK revival of LAVA, including a 4-week run at Soho Theatre, for Fifth Word - the company she co-founded and ran with Laura Ford for fifteen years.

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