Shakespeare North Playhouse gets its long-awaited grand opening this Friday, marking the occasion with a free-to-attend outdoor ceremony.
Promising a festival of noise, glamour and silliness, the new £30m venue, the only 17th-century style timber theatre outside of London, will use the opening ceremony to pay tribute to the local heroes who have brought the building to life.
All The Joy That You Can Wish will begin on Prospero Place (directly outside Shakespeare North Playhouse) at 6pm and last approximately one hour. There’s no need to book, but it’ll almost certainly get busy.
Following that, performances on Saturday and Sunday have been curated by Preston-born acclaimed playwright, actor and Liverpool City Region Culture & Creativity Artist of the Year, Ashleigh Nugent—taking place in the 470-seat Cockpit Theatre, inspired by Inigo Jones’ original theatre design.
The Open Up series will then see an eclectic mix of free performances that span dance, drama, classical music, rap, DJs, workshops and tours marking the anticipated opening.
Some of the Open Up highlights include:
- Cast your words inside a candle with Abigail Conway
- Candle Burning Ceremony in the Cockpit Theatre (Sunday only)
- Assisting Faith Bebbington in the creation of a Syorax cloak using waste materials from the weekend.
- Capoeira on the Piazza (Saturday only)
- Drumming in the Sir Ken Dodd Performance Garden (Saturday only)
- Ruff Making with Tamasine Seibold
- Taking Flight Dance workshops with Movema (Saturday only)
- A Snapshot Tour of the building with team members from Shakespeare North Playhouse.
- Words:
- Bradley Lengden
- Published on:
- Thu 14 Jul 2022
