ETT launches National Touring Group with In Extremis

According to a press statement from the company, “The NTG will tour three large scale, high quality productions between 2014-2016, especially to areas of low cultural participation and who rely on touring for their arts provision.”

It continues: “After a highly successful UK tour of the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
production of Anne Boleyn in 2012… the group were determined to continue providing their audiences
with this kind of ambitious work, and carry on the momentum that this
tour created in building drama audiences throughout the country.”

NTG, led by English Touring Theatre, applied and won a grant of £1.14m from Arts Council England (ACE) to carry out the project.

The new company’s first tour will be the Globe’s production of Howard Brenton‘s 2006 play In Extremis, the love story of Abelard and Heloise, which will play at venues across the UK in Spring 2014.

The production will reunite the original creative team (also responsible for Anne Boleyn) including director John Dove and designer Michael Taylor.

The NTG partner venues are the Blackpool Grand, Darlington Civic Theatre, Hall for Cornwall, Cambridge Arts Theatre, Theatre Royal Brighton, Marlowe Theatre Canterbury, Malvern Theatres and the Wolverhampton Grand.

ETT director Rachel Tackley said: “ETT is thrilled to be leading this major new initiative in giving audiences nationwide the chance to see work of outstanding quality and ambition. The formation of the NTG is a natural progression in our relationships with these much loved venues and audiences, and we very much look forward to giving a further life to shows which deserve to be seen across the country.”