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ARTISTIC DIRECTOR ROUND UP JUNE 2025

So…….the things we new to be true were true……..and you thought so too.  We were so thrilled with the feedback from our audience and critics alike for our last production Things I Know To Be True.  An overwhelming endorsement about the play, the performances and the creative team.  Such a touching play and a beautifully written text, which resonated with so many in the audience. Our thanks to Lynda Lewis for what Shakespeare would call ‘a palpable hit’ for her debut as a director with us. You will all be pleased to know that Lynda is already considering what play she would like to direct for us in 2026; she is definitely part of the artistic team.  My thanks also to everyone associated with this production.  It was a terrific piece of work.  It was special for us to present yet another play involving physical theatre, in the style of Frantic Assembly this time, and so pleasing that our audience are really understanding the connection between movement and text.  When characters physically lean on each other with choreographed movement, they are demonstrating leaning on each other as characters, relying on each other, trusting each other as they are lifted and carried.  It enhances the way we tell stories, the way our understanding of characters is deepened and Dan Walsh our Movement Director is becoming an intrinsic part of this storytelling.  He is a masters graduate in this art form and we are benefiting from his experience and talent in almost every production we stage.

Next up is another staging of work by John Godber – the man whose talent saved and grew the fortunes of Hull Truck Theatre Company.  His plays have become some of the most popular to be staged alongside Shakespeare and Ayckbourn and anyone who witnessed our offering of his play Bouncers will be delighted to know that we are now staging Up ‘n’ Under as our next production in June. It initially premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe and became a significant success for Hull Truck, both financially and in setting a standard for their future productions. If you love sport and love rugby come, if you love theatre, come.  If you love both you will be in heaven!

Directed once more by Lorna Middleton, who is such a fan of his writing, she knows how truthful his writing is.  You can’t act it, you have to live it and that of course is the basis of all great theatre.  No ‘acting’ required. We shall relish the prospect of an auditorium filled with laughter. Book early. 

Following this in July will be Doctor Faustus, a new adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s classic masterpiece by David Fletcher.  David’s vision for this play is to present a text to the creative team and invite them to complement it with everything they had always wanted to try in the auditorium but had never had the opportunity to.  They have responded to this challenge with a mighty creative list of ideas and whatever is legal and possible we shall do!  The music and soundscape is being crafted and composed by Jonathan Fletcher – himself a masters graduate in music composition. Jonathan is a UK-based music composer, orchestrator, music producer, and sound designer who has worked internationally.  You will have heard his amazing compositions for such productions as Macbeth, so this will be something special to hear from the moment you enter the auditorium.

Someone asked me about this level of creativity and did I love working with people who think ‘outside the box’.  I replied that actually I prefer to work with people who don’t see a box in the first place.  

Alongside these main house productions, we are launching our first ever youth theatre in 2025 – The Loft Theatre Youth Ensemble – who are holding taster sessions in June and a summer school in August, prior to the term starting in September on Saturdays.  Led by two masters graduates – Dan Walsh, the Loft’s movement director and teacher – and Laura Hayward-Smith a Loft actor and teacher with international experience – they will be sharing with students every dimension of making great theatre.  Many youth theatre groups focus on musical theatre and although there will be elements of this in the Loft’s offering, it will cover a wide range of other creative elements too.  If you know of children who you think would benefit from this to explore their inherent talent or to build social confidence and friendships, then please sign up and have a taste of what is to come in the autumn term.  A great opportunity on your doorstep!

We have made some changes to our autumn programme of main house productions and have a contemporary play in September by David Eldridge, one of our most important voices currently writing for the theatre, a unique ghost story, premiering and opening on All Hallow’s Eve by Loft playwright Giles Allen-Bowden and an Irish masterpiece in December by Brian Friel, who is considered to be one of the greatest living dramatists of our age, often referred to as the Irish Chekhov.  A feast of theatre to tempt you.  My strategy has always been to start with ‘the play’s the thing’ and if you start with good ‘bones’ as your foundation, you are already in the strongest shape.

I am working with the director team on plans for 2026 and in the coming months we shall begin to announce the plays and the readings and auditions to attract all the creatives in our company front of house, on stage and back stage to be part of making great theatre.  We shall continue to strive towards professional standards and to aim to present high quality theatre to you. Great writing tells the truth through powerful story-telling and it makes us feel connected to something bigger than ourselves.  That matters. It can strengthen us, educate and excite our minds.  There are many, many plays available to us.  It is not the availability that counts, it is the choices we make that count. I want to stage plays that have been a great professional success and spend a lot of time in auditoria in London to check this out.  It’s such a tough job, but hey….. Putting together a balanced programme is tricky and one that represents the best of what we do and who we are. That is where the challenge lies. 

Come and share theatre in the company of others and keep Leamington’s only live independent theatre company flourishing for years to come. Your support is written large in our history.  We love the opportunity every month to tell compelling stories on a stage.  A novel can tell you everything you want to know about what the author is trying to say, but plays are, by definition, incomplete texts. They are instructions for performance, like musical scores and they need players to become music.  We hope to ‘play’ for you for many years to come.

 

SUE MOORE : ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
JUNE 2025