Regent's Park Makes INTO THE WOODS Feat. Waddingham, AS YOU LIKE IT, et al. Available for Download in 2011

Digital Theatre today announces William Shakespeare's As You Like It - their second collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company; the critically acclaimed Regent's Park Open Air Theatre production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into The Woods, and the sell out West End production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons as their next three downloadable productions which will also be available to stream from £6.99 www.digitaltheatre.com.  As You Like It will be available from today followed shortly by Into The Woods and All My Sons. 

Digital Theatre's partner theatres are The Almeida Theatre Company, the Bush Theatre, English Touring Theatre, the Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, The Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Exchange Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Young Vic.  

AS YOU LIKE IT
Unable to act on their feelings and forced into exile in the Forest of Arden, lovers Rosalind and Orlando become entangled in a beguiling game of love, lust and mistaken identity.  One of Shakespeare's great comedies, As You Like It subverts the traditional rules of romance. Gender roles nature and politics are confused in a play that reflects on how bewildering yet utterly pleasurable life can be.
 
Directed by Royal Shakespeare Company Artistic Director Michael Boyd, As You Like It is designed by Tom Piper, lighting by Wolfgang Göbbel, music by John Woolf, sound by Andrew Franks, movement by Struan Leslie and fights by Terry King. 
 
Michael Boyd said:  "After completing sold out seasons at Stratford-upon-Avon and the Roundhouse, I am delighted that, with Digital Theatre's input, the life of As You Like It can be extended.  It's great that audiences who were not able to purchase tickets in the UK will now be able to access our production to watch at their leisure."
 
The cast comprises Charles Aitken as Oliver, David Carr as Charles the Wrestler, Dyfan Dwyfor as William, Christine Entwisle as Phoebe, Geoffrey Freshwater as Adam/Corin, Mariah Gale as Celia, James Howard as First Lord, Ansu Kabia as Le Beau, Richard Katz as Touchstone, Debbie Korley as Hisperia, Forbes Masson as Jaques, Sandy Neilson as Duke Frederick, Jonjo O'Neill as Orlando, Dharmesh Patel as Lord Amiens, Peter Peverley as Jacques Du Boys/Dennis, Sophie Russell as Audrey, Clarence Smith as Duke Ferdinand, KaTy Stephens as Rosalind, James Traherne as Sir Oliver Martext and James Tucker as Silvius.
 
INTO THE WOODS
 
Into the Woods takes the stories of The Brothers Grimm and gives them a dark and humorous twist.  The popular tales of Red Ridinghood, Jack (of Beanstalk fame), Cinderella and Rapunzel are interwoven with that of the Baker and his Wife and their quest to have a child.  However this re-telling goes beyond 'happily ever after' as the familiar characters find themselves in unfamiliar circumstances and hopes and dreams are questioned and revisited.  

Celebrating Stephen Sondheim's 80th birthday, the 2010 season at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre closed with Sondheim and Lapine's 1987 musical Into the Woods co-directed by Timothy Sheader and Liam Steel. With designs by Soutra Gilmour, movement by co-director Liam Steel, musical supervision and direction Gareth Valentine, lighting by Jon Clark, orchestrations by Chris Walker and sound by Mike Walker, Into the Woods became the highest selling single production at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.  Earlier this month it was announced that Into the Woods has received two Laurence Olivier Award nominations - Best Musical Revival and Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical for Michael Xavier.

The cast (in order of appearance) comprises Eddie Manning as the The Narrator, Helen Dallimore as Cinderella, Ben Stott as Jack, Mark Hadfield as Baker, Jenna Russell as Baker's Wife, Gaye Brown as Cinderella's Stepmother, Amy Ellen Richardson as Florinda, Amy Griffiths as Lucinda, Marilyn Cutts as Jack's Mother, Beverly Rudd as Little Red Ridinghood, Hannah Waddingham as Witch, Gemma Wardle as Cinderella's Mother, Billy Boyle as Mysterious Man, Michael Xavier as Wolf and Cinderella's Prince, Valda Aviks as Grandmother, Alice Fearn as Rapunzel, Simon Thomas as Rapunzel's Prince, Mark Goldthorp as Steward, Sophie Caton as Snow White/Harp, Marc Antolin as Woodsman, with Judi Dench as the voice of the Giant.

ALL MY SONS
 
All My Sons tells the story of Joe Keller, a successful, middle-aged, self-made man who has done a terrible and tragic thing: during World War II, rushing to meet an order from the Army, he knowingly sold them defective airplane parts which later caused the planes to crash and killed 21 men. He framed his business partner for this crime and engineered his own exoneration; now, his son is about to marry the partner's daughter, the affair is revisited, and his lie of a life is unravelled.
 
Directed by Howard Davies and designed by William Dudley, the universally acclaimed All My Sons which enjoyed a sell out season at the Apollo Theatre in London's West End last year, has lighting by Mark Henderson, music by Dominic Muldowney and sound by Paul Groothius.  The Laurence Olivier Award winning All My Sons was produced in the West End by Kim Poster for Stanhope Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions, Eric Falkenstein, Robert G. Bartner and Norman Tulchin, Simon Meadon, Dan Frishwasser. Earlier this month it was announced that All My Sons has received two Laurence Olivier Award nominations - Best Revival and Best Actor for David Suchet.
 
The cast is led by David Suchet as Joe Keller and Zoe Wanamaker as Kate Keller.  They are accompanied by Stephen Campbell Moore as Chris, Olivia Darnley as Lydia Lubey, Steven Elder as Dr Jim Bayliss, Claire Hackett as Sue Bayliss, Daniel Lapaine as George Deever, Jemima Rooper as Ann Deever, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Frank Lubey and Ted Allpress as Bert.
 
CATALOGUE OF DIGITAL THEATRE PRODUCTIONS
 
English Touring Theatre's Far From The Madding Crowd, an adaptation by Mark Healy from Thomas Hardy, directed by Kate Saxton with a cast including Rebecca O'Mara, Phil Cheadle and Stephen Billington.
 
The Container, presented in association with The Young Vic and Amnesty International, highlighting the plight of illegal immigrants coming to the UK, written by Clare Bayley, directed by Tom Wright, designed by Naomi Dawson.
 
Jez Butterworth's Laurence Oliver Award nominated Parlour Song, directed by Ian Rickson at the Almeida, with a cast comprising Amanda Drew, Andrew Lincoln and Toby Jones. 
 
Kathryn Hunter's acclaimed one woman show Kafka's Monkey by Franz Kafka, in an adaptation by Colin Teevan, directed by Walter Meierjohann, which enjoyed a sell-out season at the Young Vic.
 
Mark Ravenhill's Over There, part of The Royal Court Theatre's 2009 Off The Wall season, written by Mark Ravenhill and directed by Ravenhill and Ramin Gray, with a cast of twin brothers Harry Treadaway and Luke Treadaway.  

The Royal Shakespeare Company and Told by an Idiot's The Comedy of Errors, created for schools and family audiences, directed by Paul Hunter. In addition Digital Theatre offer a behind the scenes documentary to download.
 
Robert Delamere and Tom Shaw launched Digital Theatre in 2009 and to date the site has users from over 120 countries worldwide.  With the support of Equity, BECTU and the Musicians Union; Digital Theatre produces theatre productions filmed in front of live audiences for users to stream or download and keep at www.digitaltheatre.com    
 
Digitaltheatre.com has been built with a variety of technologies to provide the user with the best platform for delivery.  The entire application is hosted in a secure and scalable environment with servers running the latest Windows and Adobe software. Adobe Rights Management ensures top level digital copyright protection.  SSL site encryption provides high-level security guaranteeing the privacy of customer and payment information. 

In addition to the newest downloads, Digital Theatre is also pleased to announce Gulf Stage, a unique digital project with the British Council in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage (Qatar), and The Cultural Development Centre  - a member of the Qatar Foundation.  Six original theatre productions from the participating countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council Youth Theatre Festival (GCCYTF, Doha, Qatar 2010) - UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait - were digitally captured alongside a professional development workshop in digital film making, in a pioneering initiative to preserve contemporary Gulf cultural heritage.
The six productions, subtitled into English, along with an accompanying documentary are available to view online for free at www.digitaltheatre.com/gulfstage

Photo Credit: Catherine Ashmore

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