Guildford & Scarborough Get Closer???
Date: 21 July 2003
Scarborough's Stephen Joseph Theatre (SJT) and Guildford's Yvonne Arnaud have announced a new partnership to produce tours of SJT shows. Guildford has previously been a major stop for outbound Scarborough productions of
Bedroom Farce, Snake in the Grass and the
Damsels in Distress trilogy which subsequently transferred to the West End. Playwright and SJT artistic director
Alan Ayckbourn says the aim of the new collaboration is to "provide first class tours of all the original productions of my new plays and also major revival of the back catalogue". Ayckbourn's 64th play,
Sugar Daddies, premieres this week at Scarborough and will visit Guildford in January 2004. While it's nothing new for regional theatres to team up on projects, this announcement suggests that such partnerships are becoming increasingly formalised. Earlier this year, two other provincial powerhouses, the West Yorkshire Playhouse and Birmingham Rep, announced plans for two high-profile co-productions - Alan Bennett's
The Madness of George III, starring Michael Pennington, and Arthur Miller's
A View from the Bridge - which will swap for extended runs between Leeds and Birmingham this autumn (See
News, 19 May 2003).
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