Regent's Park Open Air New Season Features EVITA and OUR TOWN

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre have today announced their 2019 season.

Opening the season, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning play Our Town (16 May - 8 June) is directed by Ellen McDougall, Artistic Director of The Gate Theatre. Directed by Timothy Sheader, and continuing the 2018 collaboration which brought The Turn of the Screw to the Open Air Theatre stage, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and English National Opera present Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck (14 June - 22 June).

A Midsummer Night's Dream (28 June - 27 July) returns to the theatre for the first time in seven years in a new production directed by Dominic Hill, Artistic Director of the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. To conclude the season, Jamie Lloyd directs Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita (2 August - 21 September) as Jesus Christ Superstar transfers to the Barbican (4 July - 24 August).

Our Town (16 May - 8 June) celebrates what it means to be human, the bonds that hold communities together, and our relationships with the ancient past and the eternal tomorrow. The Pulitzer Prize winning play is directed by Ellen McDougall, Artistic Director of The Gate Theatre. Ellen's credits away from the Gate include:The Wolves (Stratford East); Othello (Shakespeare's Globe); The Remains of Maisie Duggan (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); The Glass Menagerie (Headlong); Anna Karenina (Royal Exchange Manchester) and Ivan and the Dogs (Olivier Award-nomination, Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre/Actors Touring Company/Soho).

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre and English National Opera continue their 2018 collaboration with a co-production of Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hansel and Gretel (14 June - 22 June). Sung in English, members of the ENO orchestra will be conducted by Ben Glassberg, with direction by Open Air Theatre's Artistic Director, Timothy Sheader.

Dominic Hill, Artistic Director of the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, then directs a new production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (28 June - 27 July). Whilst at the Citizens Theatre, Dominic has won Best Director in the Critics Award for Theatre in Scotland (CATS) for Oresteia, Crime and Punishment and Betrayal. He previously directed Peer Gynt at Dundee Rep (in a co-production with National Theatre of Scotland), which won four CATS and transferred to the Barbican.

The 2019 season concludes with Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita (2 August - 21 September) directed by Jamie Lloyd. The musical premiered in the West End in 1978, and features a chart-topping score including Don't Cry For Me Argentina, Oh! What A Circus, Another Suitcase in Another Hall, and the Academy Award-winning You Must Love Me, originally performed by Madonna in the motion picture. As Artistic Director of The Jamie Lloyd Company, Jamie is currently producing and directing Pinter at the Pinter, a season of Harold Pinter's short plays in the West End.

The Regent's Park Open Air Theatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar transfers to the Barbican (4 July - 24 August), ahead of a North American Tour in the autumn. Casting to be announced.

Also announced today are the full tour dates and casting for To Kill a Mockingbird, first produced by Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in 2013, which opens at Curve Leicester on 7 February. Produced by Jonathan Church Productions, Curve and Regent's Park Theatre Ltd the cast is led by Simon Robson in the role of Atticus Finch. The production visits: Milton Keynes; Birmingham REP; Norwich Theatre Royal; Rose Theatre, Kingston; Newcastle Theatre Royal; King's Theatre, Edinburgh; Malvern Theatres; The Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury; Cambridge Arts Theatre; Bord Gais, Dublin; Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford; The Lowry, Salford; Eden Court Theatre, Inverness; and His Majesty's Theatre, Aberdeen.

The role of Scout will be shared by Summer Jenkins and Eve Prenelle; the role of Jem will be shared by Stanley Jarvis, Jaxon Knopf and Theo Josse Wilkinson; the role of Dill will be shared by Billy Marlow, Joshua Pickering and Jack Riley.

Also featuring in the cast are Pearl Appleby (Mayella Ewell), Dave Fishley (Reverend Sykes), Joseph Fletcher (Arthur Radley), Kieran Hill (Heck Tate), Alexandra Mathie (Stephanie Crawford/Mrs Dubose), Ged McKenna (Judge Taylor/Walter Cunningham), John Omole (Tom Robinson), Carl Rice (Bob Ewell), Sarah Tansey (Maudie Atkinson), Paul Woodson (Nathan Radley/Mr Gilmer), Amanda Wright (Calpurnia) and Erica Birtles, Sophie Cartman, Valentine Hanson and Christopher D Hunt (understudies). Music is composed and performed live by Phil King (Luke Potter will perform at certain venues).

Regent's Park Open Air Theatre Memberships are now on sale, and Members' priority booking for the 2019 Open Air Theatre opens at 11am, Wednesday 28 November. Visit www.openairtheatre.com/membership for more information.

Public booking opens at 11am, Tuesday 18 December.

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