China Plate Announces Spring 2020 Season

Innovative producing studio China Plate today announces its latest body of touring theatrical productions, in-development work and wider industry engagement for spring 2020 and beyond. The centrepiece of the new season is Wuthering Heights, a new co-production with Inspector Sands, Nuffield Southampton Theatres and the Royal & Derngate in Northampton in association with Oxford Playhouse.

Conceived by Inspector Sands Co-Artistic Director Lucinka Eisler (who will direct) and Ben Lewis (who has written the script), the production is the company's first mid-scale show. Channelling Emily Brontë's piercing wit and fierce emotion, it promises a retelling of this classic story of obsessive love and revenge in a thrilling new version for our times.

Another highlight of the season, Caroline Horton's acclaimed ALL OF ME (the possibility of future splendour) returns to the stage with a string of dates across the UK this spring. Winner of The Stage Award for Excellence and The Mental Health Fringe Award when it premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2019, the honest, intimate work considers the cyclical and difficult nature of ongoing recovery, looking specifically at the tension between wanting to live and wanting to die.

It follows Horton's celebrated Mess, in which the protagonist Josephine celebrated her imperfect recover from anorexia, a condition shared by the writer. In ALL OF ME, Horton confronts the question of what happens after the final curtain call. A collaboration Alex Swift (Mess, How To Win At History) and sound designer Elena Peña (Mess, Misty), the work was created with the assistance of Professor Matthew Broome (Director of the Institute for Mental Health), Dr Alexandra Pitman (Senior Clinical Lecturer at University College London), and STOP Suicide, an award-winning Mind campaign based in Peterborough and Cambridge.

China Plate's two previous hit shows, The Shape Of The Pain and Status, also announce international touring dates for the summer. Created by Rachel Bagshaw and Chris Thorpe, The Shape of the Pain is a Fringe First award-winning show solo show about trying to communicate the experience of chronic pain and desire to another person. The show will headline a festival at the Sophiensaele in Berlin in July. Status, by Thorpe and director Rachel Chavkin, is another Fringe First-winner about national identity in a time of national crisis. It will be performed in Paris, France and Mannheim, Germany in May, plus Porto, Portugal in September - October 2020.

The midlands-based production company are also pleased to be developing a new musical about the fight for Civil Rights in 1960s Britain and the third show in the trilogy by Chris Thorpe and Rachel Chavkin. Created by Christopher Haydon, Roy Williams and Tim Sutton, The Bus Boycott captures an often-forgotten chapter in the fight for civil liberties in the UK. Set in the 1960s, this uplifting show featuring Ska and Calypso has much to teach us about how we live today. Show 3 (Working Title) is the third part in a celebrated trilogy of works by playwright Chris Thorpe and Rachel Chavkin. The first part, Confirmation, considered how the individual accumulates and processes information, including internalised confirmation bias. The follow-up, Status, looked at the creation of nationally-accepted narratives and who accepts or rejects these. Show 3 ties together these two strands by looking at how different nations, all with their different national stories, co-exist. Chris and Rachel's starting point for the show was a visit to the United Nations in New York to meet a woman tasked with overseeing negotiations for a nuclear arms non-proliferation treaty in the 1990s.

Continuing the company's commitment to artistic development and engagement, they are also holding two Digital Discovery days. Held at the New Theatre Royal Plymouth on 20 March and Birmingham Hippodrome of 1 April, the free day-long sessions will help theatremakers at all stages of their careers explore how to unlock the digital potential of their work. The company are also hosting the last day of their innovative training programme The Optimists on 21 March, aimed at tutoring theatremakers in creating work in a professional context and building their professional networks. Alongside this, China Plate have been supporting Rhum and Clay on their first midscale touring show, War of the Worlds, which embarks on a UK tour throughout the spring.

Finally, the company are happy to announce they've just finished recruiting for their new Young Producers programme. In partnership with Warwick Arts Centre, the free training initiative is designed to give Coventry-based 16-21 year olds an introduction into producing arts events with the combined support of an Independent Producing Company and one of the country's leading arts venues. The project aims to give them an insight into all aspects of producing from managing a budget to project evaluation. They'll meet producers and other professionals in the sector, see arts events and also put their skills into practice through creating Warwick Arts Centre's first Youth Takeover Festival in June 2020. Young Producers is supported by Coventry City of Culture Trust, ESF Community Fund, Arts Council England, Arts Connect and Baron Davenport's Charity.

Speaking about the spring programme, Directors Ed Collier and Paul Warwick said: "Spring 2020 is an extremely important moment for China Plate with the launch of our first full middle scale show, Wuthering Heights, a huge tour of Caroline Horton's award-winning All Of Me and a busy international season with Status and The Shape of The Pain touring across Europe. We're also thrilled to be embarking on our Young Producers scheme in partnership with Warwick Arts Centre inspiring the next generation of producers in Coventry in the lead up to Coventry City of Culture next year. Finally, don't miss our free Digital Discovery Days aimed at theatre makers looking for great hacks to broaden their digital reach!"

For more details visit www.chinaplatetheatre.com

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