BROADCASTING ON WEDNESDAYS 20^TH MAY AND 27^TH MAY

 Produced by the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield:

THE UNDERSTUDY

By Henry Filloux-Bennett, based on the best-selling novel by David Nicholls

STARRING

Stephen Fry, Mina Anwar, Layton Williams, Emily Atack, Russell Tovey, Sheila Atim MBE, Sarah Hadland & more

The Understudy is a brand new radio play that will be broadcast in two parts on Wednesday 20^th May and Wednesday 27^th May to raise funds for the theatre industry which is facing a devastating impact from the Covid-19 health crisis. The Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield will split proceeds of this project with charities including the Theatre Development Trust (SOLT and UK Theatre), Acting for Others and Equity Charitable Trust.

Coming together at a time that matters the most, the stellar line-up of actors currently confirmed to perform in The Understudy includes Stephen Fry, Emily Atack, Sheila Atim, Layton Williams, Russell Tovey, Sarah Hadland, Mina Anwar and many more. The cast and creative team involved in The Understudy will take part completely in isolation and actors will record their lines at home that will be brought to life by an exceptional sound design team.

 The public will be able to tune in to listen to The Understudy by buying a ticket, all of which will go to help individuals and organisations struggling because of Coronavirus.

Based on the novel by the best-selling author David Nicholls, The Understudy tells the story of an underdog – a failed husband, a failing father, a failing actor, and the impossible choice he’s going to have to make between stealing the show and stealing another man’s wife. Directed by Giles Croft, this is a stage adaptation written by Henry Filloux-Bennett that was originally commissioned by The Lowry. The sound, music and effects will be brought to life by Alexandra Faye Braithwaite, Annie May Fletcher and Sophie Galpin.

Commenting on this timely project, Stephen Fry said: “I am just so delighted to be working on Henry Filloux-Bennett’s superb adaptation of David Nicholls’s The Understudy. I do hope lots of you will listen in and combine a good time with support for our wonderful theatre industry.”

David Nicholls comments: “I’ve always had soft spot for The Understudy and was hugely excited to see it come to life on a new online stage, and with such a great team. So much is changing, at such speed and I’m full of admiration for the way it’s now being reimagined. I can’t wait.”

A spokesperson for SOLT and UK Theatre said: “We welcome this initiative and are delighted that money raised will be donated to support theatres across the country – particularly outside London where the industry needs it most. It has never been more vital that our industry pulls together, and it is fantastic to see artists and performers using creativity and ingenuity to help support the theatre workforce through this difficult time.”

Synopsis

Actor Stephen McQueen has just landed a dream West End role. Well, that’s not quite true – he’s going to be is understudying film star (and 12^th Sexiest Man in the World) Josh Harper in the brand-new show ‘Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know’, but still…Whilst he’s waiting for his time to shine, he reflects on his career – one that has spanned everything from (non-speaking) Rent Boy 3 in ‘The Bill’ to his recent starring role as Sammy in the (low-budget) regional tour of ‘Sammy The Squirrel’s Seriously Silly Safari’.

With this new job Stephen’s stage career may be destined for the dizzying heights, but not everything is going quite as well. Stephen’s wife left him two years ago, wondering if he’d ever grow up; his daughter wonders when he’ll get an actual job; worst of all, he’s starting to fall for the leading man’s wife.

Part 1 of The Understudy will be released on Wednesday 20^th May and Part 2 of The Understudy will be released on Wednesday 27^th May. For more information, see www.understudyplay.com

Title                                   The Understudy

Dates                                 Part 1: Wednesday 20^th May 2020

Part 2: Wednesday 27^th May 2020

Website                            www.understudyplay.com

Social Media                    @theLBT, @ActingForOthers,

Writer                               Henry Filloux-Bennett

Director                            Giles Croft

Sound and Music            Alexandra Faye Braithwaite with Annie May Fletcher and Sophie Galpin

Produced by                     Lawrence Batley Theatre with support from Anthology Theatre

Cast:  Stephen Fry,Russell Tovey  Emily Atack,,Sheila Atim, Layton Williams, Sarah Hadland, Mina Anwar

Jake Ferretti, Sasha Frost, Marie Lawrence, James McNicholas,  Lizzie Muncey

HighTide reveals further details on the industry leading response to the crisis and announces stellar cast for Love In The Time of Corona

The cast for the five monologues written for Love In The Time of Corona, as part of HighTide’s Lighthouse Programme, have now been released. Aisha Zia’s (No Guts No Heart No Glory, UK tour, BBC 4, Fringe First Award winner) piece will be performed by Jade Anouka (Last Christmas) while Katie Lyons (Manhunt, ITV) takes on Olivier Award nominee Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s work in the first of the monologues to be released on Thursday 9 th April.

Sophie Melville (Bang, S4C) will share Ben Weatherill’s (Jellyfish, Bush Theatre and National Theatre, now in development with BBC) piece, BAFTA nominee Dawn King’s will be presented by Shobna Gulati (Coronation Street, ITV) and spoken word artist Debris Stevenson (Poet In Da Corner, Royal Court and UK tour, Evening Standard Best Newcomer nominee) will perform her own monologue.

All five of the writers of Love In The Time of Corona are currently developing full-length plays for Suba Das’s inaugural HighTide Festival in 2021.

Filmed and edited through support from HighTide’s sponsor Lansons, one of the world’s leading reputation management companies, the first of these digital productions created by HighTide will be available for free from next week on their channels.

The scripts will also be available royalty free for actors and directors to make their own digital versions and will be showcased on HighTide’s social media channels. HighTide’s Lighthouse Programme consists of free, brand new projects and programmes for artists, audiences and communities, specifically created to bring light in the weeks ahead.

HighTide are the first NPO to launch such a comprehensive programme of support for the sector, offering a range of programmes to help artists. These strands reflect the values that sit at the heart of HighTide: to introduce audiences to new work that speaks to the times we live in by the most exciting and diverse writers in the UK; to support emerging writers on their journey; and to engage communities in their home region in Suffolk.

Artistic Director of HighTide, Suba Das comments, Over 200 individual artists and companies have engaged with our Lighthouse Programme since we raced to create this new support programme the week that the theatre’s began to close; and our supporters have already donated £16,000 to these efforts, totally smashing all of our expectations. That tells us plainly that what we’re doing matters. It’s a strange and distressing time, but we’re so heartened that we’re helping provide a sense of focus and community. It’s an honour to have world class writing talents like Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Ben Weatherill; and actors such as Jade Anouka and Katie Lyons supporting our efforts. It’s equally important that we’re reaching and supporting an emerging generation who risk losing the opportunity to fully develop their talent with the shutdown in place.

So whether that’s with Dawn King’s livestreamed playwriting classes; or our Cancellation Catalogue through which we hope to rescue some shows that will no longer go to Edinburgh; or the online participatory work we’ll be doing with the Suffolk Young People’s Health Project; we hope that isolation doesn’t also mean silence. The Lighthouse Programme also includes: For writers from the East of England and/or from a socio-economically deprived background, Write That Play is a new programme to help new and emerging writers learn about playwriting craft and work towards completing a first draft of a new play. HighTide writer and BAFTAnominated Dawn King will lead a live-streamed weekly workshop over ten weeks taking the group through playwriting exercises and tasks. At the end of the course, their completed draft can be submitted for notes.

Applications for this exciting opportunity close on Tuesday. Playwright Crisis Support Programme will see HighTide’s incredible alumni, including Luke Barnes, Kenny Emson, Anders Lustgarten, Morgan Lloyd Malcolm, Vinay Patel and Nick Payne, adopt an emerging writer. Over twelve weeks, the small group of writers will be looked after by the HighTide team and an alumni. The focus is artist wellbeing during this period of crisis and individuals goals will be set with each playwright; these could range from completing a new draft, facilitating for a writer to hear their work out loud, navigating the financial support available to freelance artists. Preference will be given to applicants from the East of England and/or from a socio-economically deprived background and applications close on Wednesday.

To further support playwrights moving forward with their practice, HighTide’s newly appointed Associate Artists, Aisha Zia, Chinonyerem Odimba, Chris Sonnex and The Queer House, have committed to regularly reading and feeding back on scripts. The Script Reading Service is open to all UK playwrights during submission windows, however priority will be given to writers who are based in the East of England and/or are from socio-economically deprived backgrounds. A hundred scripts were received in the first submission window last week, further windows will be announced in late April and June. HighTide’s Cancellation Catalogue is for premiere runs of British new writing that were cancelled due to Corvid-19. Giving shows new life where opportunity was ripped away by circumstance, the pieces will be placed on a priority list for programming in the next HighTide Festival in Spring/Summer 2021.

In partnership with the Suffolk Young People’s Health Project (4YP) and Company Three’s groundbreaking Coronavirus Time Capsule programme, HighTide will create an online youth theatre space for some of the most vulnerable and isolated young people in the East of England. With sessions and content delivered by some of the UK’s most exciting theatremakers, and linking up similar youth projects all over the world, Let’s Create seeks to widen participants’ horizons, even during a time of lockdown. Throughout the crisis and in partnership with Nick Hern Books, HighTide will share a regular programme of simple playwriting tasks and exercises created by great playwrights past and present to help keep boredom at bay. The traditional period of a quarantine was 40 days so HighTide will be sharing 40 simple standalone playwriting tasks across their social channels with 40 Plays / 40 Nights. They invite all writers with a wi-fi connection to share their responses for feedback, discussion and celebration.

Twitter @_HighTide_ Instagram @HighTideTheatre Website www.hightide.org.uk

Donations www.hightide.org.uk/support-us/ Write That Play Apply: https://hightide.org.uk/lighthouse-programme/write-that-playplaywriting-programme/.

Deadline: Tuesday 7th April, 10am Playwright Crisis Support Programme Apply: https://hightide.org.uk/lighthouse-programme/playwright-crisissupport-programme/ Deadline: Wednesday 8th April, 10am Cancellation Catalogue Submission: https://hightide.org.uk/lighthouse-programme/cancellation-catalogue/HighTide

HighTide is a theatre company and charity based in East Anglia that has an unparalleled twelveyear history of successfully launching the careers of emerging British playwrights. Their alumni include: Luke Barnes, Adam Brace, E V Crowe, Elinor Cook, Rob Drummond, Thomas Eccleshare, Theresa Ikoko, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Anders Lustgarten, Joel Horwood, Ella Hickson, Harry Melling, Nessah Muthy, Vinay Patel, Nick Payne, Phil Porter, Beth Steel, Al Smith, Sam Steiner, Molly Taylor, Jack Thorne and Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig. They have staged productions with the highest quality theatres across the UK, from the Traverse in Edinburgh, to the Royal Exchange in Manchester, Theatre Royal Bath and the National Theatre in London. They discover new talent, provide creative development opportunities for playwrights and other creatives, and stage high quality theatre productions both in their region and nationally through their festivals and touring. They enable new and underrepresented playwrights to express their visions of contemporary politics and society, demonstrate their creative potential and therein showcase the future of theatre.

Britain’s oldest remaining teddy bear manufacturer is supporting the NHS and the coronavirus fighting fund thanks to a special souvenir bear and his cuddly companions. 

Bevan the Bear, originally created to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the NHS, is making a comeback and will be joined by a selection of Merrythought’s traditional, British-made teddy bears to raise funds for the NHS Charities Covid-19 Appeal and SATH, the company’s local Hospital Trust in Shropshire

The ‘Blue Ribbon’ campaign collection also includes Merrythought’s best-selling London Curly Gold bear, together with  Oxford, Traditional Cheeky and of course Bevan – named after founder of the NHS,Aneurin Bevan. Paying tribute to the NHS frontline heroes, Merrythought has chosen only teddy bears that wear a blue ribbon, with a minimum of 20% of all online sales to be donated to the charities.

“While a Merrythought teddy bear is the ideal companion to get you through challenging times such as these, choosing a special bear for either yourself or a loved one will now also help the NHS and those affected by Covid-19,” said fourth-generation managing director of Merrythought Sarah Holmes.

“Bevan is a particularly special bear for us and we were very proud of our collaboration with Shrewsbuy and Telford Hospital Trust, our local NHS Trust. We now want to build on this to help  the wider NHS as it faces such an unprecedented crisis.

Merrythought, which marks its 90th anniversary this year, is famous for crafting the finest, British-madeteddy bears, which are adored by children and adults across the world.

“We appreciate the difficulties that families and the NHS are facing at the moment, and are keen to see the Merrythought teddy bear giving some financial and emotional support to those affected by Covid-19. Merrythought is very much a business which has been at the heart of the community for the last nine decades, and we hope to continue to be so for generations to come.”

While the Merrythought Shop in Ironbridge has had to close in line with current Government restrictions, orders can still be placed online.

“We are proud that our teddy bears are British made, and we appreciate all the efforts across the community to support British businesses as we all try our best to get through this crisis together.” 

Bevan is on sale for £89, and is available alongside the rest of the Blue Ribbon Collection at www.merrythought.co.uk.