Posted on July 17th, 2018
The Foyle foundation has awarded HighTide a grant of £40,000 towards a two year programme of theatre performances and activities to develop audiences in Lowestoft
Steven Atkinson, Artistic Director of HighTide has today announced that HighTide is to start work in Lowestoft, Suffolk with the intention to launch a fourth annual HighTide festival there in 2021.
Steven Atkinson said: ‘HighTide in Lowestoft will be a platform for local artists and venues working in the easternmost town of the UK. Thanks to the Foyle Foundation, we will now start developing plans for HighTide Festival Lowestoft with local artists and audiences, and we will also start to regularly tour HighTide productions to Lowestoft, beginning with Tallulah Brown’s Songlines to The Seagull this August.’
Emma Butler Smith, CEO of the Marina Theatre, said: ‘We’re really excited to welcome HighTide to Lowestoft. There’s a real uplift in the cultural offer and activity for this area and HighTide will play a part in the renaissance of the town. As well as access to great new theatre on our doorstep, Lowestoft has a wealth of local talent and energy, which we’re sure will get right behind – and into – HighTide In Lowestoft.’
Jayne Knight, Arts Development Manager Suffolk County Council, said: ‘We are delighted that HighTide is developing its work in Lowestoft. The town has three theatres, one of the most successful cultural education partnerships in England, a rich cultural heritage and ambitious plans for the future. HighTide’s work with the town will be part of these ambitions.’
HighTide productions have helped launch the careers of writers including Ella Hickson, Nick Payne, Vinay Patel and Jack Thorne. The HighTide Festival has been the launchpad for many acclaimed new plays, such as Al Smith’s Harrogate, which recently transferred from their Aldeburgh festival to the Royal Court in London, and received an Evening Standard Award nomination. In 2017, HighTide launched a successful second festival in the Greater London borough of Waltham Forest. And in 2018, the company announced a programme of five productions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as their third annual festival season. At the core of these festivals are new writers demonstrating their potential through full productions and commissions provided by HighTide.
Each HighTide festival showcases local artists and HighTide Festival Lowestoft is intended to showcase the potential of emerging artists in Lowestoft and the surrounding area. HighTide Festival Aldeburgh 2018 is headlined by Songlines, a new play by Aldeburgh resident Tallulah Brown. Songlines will also headline HighTide Festival Walthamstow 2018, alongside The Extinction Event, created by Waltham Forest resident David Aula and Simon Evans, and Busking It by Danusia Samal, another Waltham Forest resident. In the Aldeburgh Festival, there will also be a work-in-progress reading of Mouthpiece by Kieran Hurley, which HighTide will associate produce with the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh this December.
HighTide’s first production in Lowestoft at The Seagull is a song-laced coming of age tale, Songlines, by Aldeburgh-based writer Tallulah Brown. Set in Reydon, it features live folk music from the award-winning band TRILLS. Songlines will be staged at The Seagull on August 29th 2018.
HighTide’s work in Lowestoft is supported by Arts Council England and forms part of HighTide’s strategy as a National Portfolio Organisation in the period 2018 – 2022. Further HighTide productions and other activities in Lowestoft will be announced throughout the next two years.
