Guildhall School announces 2019/20 Drama productions

Highlights include:

• Celebrating women directors and playwrights as three-quarters of directors and two-thirds of writers are women
• A diverse range of stories exploring themes including race, family relationships, sexuality, gender and climate change
• World premiere of Antigone (working title) written by Olivier Award winner Stef Smith and directed by O’Loughlin  
• Productions created in collaboration with the School’s renowned Production Arts and Music departments

Guildhall School of Music & Drama presents an exciting line up of drama productions for the 2019/20 academic year in the first season programmed by new Vice Principal & Director of Drama Orla O’Loughlin.

As a multi-award-winning director, who this week has two acclaimed shows (Mouthpiece and What Girls Are Made Of) opening as part of the Traverse Festival, Orla O’Loughlin brings the very best professional creative teams to work with Guildhall School actors and production arts students. Orla herself directs the final production of the season: the world premiere of a 21st-century reimagining of Antigone written by Olivier Award winner Stef Smith. It is the first in a series of new plays commissioned by Guildhall School’s Drama department which will be written specially for the School’s final year actors.

The productions are created in collaboration with students from Guildhall School’s renowned Production Arts department, recognised as providing some of the most innovative vocational theatre training in the UK.

Collaboration with the School’s Music department is another key part of the season, particularly showcased in the Musical which will return in the summer term. Further details about this production will be announced at a later date.

All productions offer the chance to see outstanding young actors on the brink of their careers, with Guildhall Acting Graduates going on to become some of the most high-profile names in theatre, film and television, celebrated playwrights and theatre industry leaders.

Orla O’Loughlin, Vice Principal & Director of Drama at Guildhall School says: “Programming my first season as Vice Principal & Director of Drama at Guildhall has been a real labour of love. Getting to know the extraordinary students here is a huge privilege and I am excited to see how this programme of representative contemporary work will meet their exceptional talent, tenacity and potential.

I am proud to launch this ambitious season which is ultimately a celebration of stories. Stories about pain and joy, conflict and hope, loss and progress. Stories for now. I am especially delighted that the programme will include work both devised by the students and also specially commissioned for them, and to know that they will be working with some of the most exciting professional creatives making theatre in the UK and beyond.

As we work to more closely align drama training with current industry practice I am excited by the opportunity and challenge this season will offer our students, staff, professional creative teams and audiences as we begin this next thrilling chapter of the Guildhall story.”

Red Velvet
14–19 October 2019, Milton Court Studio Theatre

The first play of the season takes audiences to 1833 Covent Garden. Edmund Kean, the greatest actor of his generation, has collapsed on stage whilst playing the title role in Othello. A young, black American actor is asked to take over the role. As the public riot in the streets over the abolition of slavery, how will the cast, critics and audiences react to the revolution taking place in the theatre? Lolita Chakrabarti’s Olivier-nominated play is a thrilling re-imagination of Ira Aldridge, the first black actor to play Othello on the London stage.

The Wheel
21–26 October 2019, Milton Court Theatre

Zinnie Harris’ award-winning, epic 2011 drama takes place within the chaos of war, as a man is banished and his daughter is left to wander. A rash decision by a woman to return the child to her father sparks an incredible journey across time, continents and war zones. In their need to survive, both of them transform in ways that blur the boundaries of history, geography and humanity.

Provok’d: A Restoration
29 November – 4 December 2019, Silk Street Theatre

As a group of actors come together to rehearse period scenes, a rising sense of anarchy bubbles up as they question which stories deserve to be retold. Restoration Comedy collides with original rap and hip hop, challenging the parallels between a vicious and vibrant moment in theatrical history and a contemporary questioning of sexuality, gender politics and race. This production is written and devised by the Company of Guildhall School.

Gut
31 January – 11 February 2020, Milton Court Studio Theatre

The Spring term opens with Gut: a razor-sharp psychological thriller by Frances Poet which was shortlisted for the 2015 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and won the Writers Guild Award for Best Play of 2019. When devoted parents Maddy and Rory leave their 3-year-old boy Joshua with his grandma for the weekend, an everyday event turns potentially sinister. As a result, the new parents’ trust even in those closest to them begins to crack, with fear and doubt taking them to a devastating breaking point.

The Royale
3–13 February 2020, Milton Court Studio Theatre

Electrifyingly told over six rounds and set in a boxing ring, The Royale is a powerful re-imagining of the story of Jack Johnson, the boxer who – at the height of the Jim Crow era – became the most famous black man on Earth. This play is by award-winning American writer Marco Ramirez, author of Songs of Anarchy and Orange is the New Black.

Earthquakes in London
10–15 February 2020, Milton Court Theatre

Written by Doctor Foster’s Mike Bartlett, Earthquakes in London switches between 1968 and 2525, telling the story of three sisters’ dislocated lives whilst their dysfunctional scientist father predicts global catastrophe. It includes burlesque strip shows, bad dreams, social breakdown, population explosion and worldwide paranoia.

Antigone (working title)
20–25 March 2020, Silk Street Theatre

This 21st-century re-imagining of Sophocles’ Antigone tells the story of a city in turmoil as political and familial power struggles wreak tragedy upon tragedy. This epic, lyrical and utterly contemporary exploration of the classic Greek play mixes ancient legend with modern perspective, resulting in a powerful exploration of generational impact, sisterly devotion and how we find hope in the most desperate of places. A world premiere written by Olivier Award winner Stef Smith.

Summer Musical

Guildhall School’s Musical returns in the summer term, in collaboration with the Music department, and will be announced at a later date.

Tickets: £10 (£5 concessions) for Red Velvet, The Wheel and Provok’d: A Restoration are on general sale from 5 August 2019 (priority booking for Guildhall Circle members from 29 July). Tickets for Guildhall School drama productions taking place in Spring 2020 go on sale in December 2019.