A NEW theatre has opened in Southampton City Centre, offering new original shows and lots of rehearsal facilities for performance communities in the city.
Nuffield Southampton Theatre opened last week with a debut of ‘The Shadow Factory’. The innovative show about Woolston factory, that manufactured the Spitfire aircraft during World War Two, premiered on Thursday night, with established guests like Hollywood actor Tom Hiddleston in attendance.
The official opening event was held on Saturday, inviting members of the public to take tours of the new venue, watch snippets of the shows the theatre has to come and activities to encourage children to get involved with drama and performance.
The event focused on spontaneous entertainment, with actors and performers dotted around the venue throughout the day and performing off the cuff in every corner of the venue.
Some performances were improvised, asking visitors to give them situations to recreate and others were scripted scenes. Ranging from musical performances to a couple sat in the café that surprised visitors by bursting into a shouting argument that was actually a rehearsed scene.
Nuffield Theatre is working very closely with Solent University – students from the Performance and Musical Theatre courses were involved with the opening night show, photography and art students created pieces inspired by ‘The Shadow Factory’ that are on display and TV and Film students have made short documentaries that accompany the live shows.
The theatre is offering a variety of rehearsal spaces that Performance students are using to rehearse and their final year show of ‘Madagascar’ will be performed at the theatre, who will not only provide a venue but assist with ticket sales and promotions.
Nuffield Theatre is showing a variety of world premier’s in 2018, including a stage version of David Walliam’s ‘Billionaire Boy’ this Christmas.
To find out more about booking tickets to see ‘The Shadow Factory’ and see the accompanying exhibition, click here. For more on what’s coming up at Nuffield Theatre go to nstheatres.co.uk.
by Sophie Luckett (@sophie_luckett) and Sophie Long (@sophieelong_)
