HighTide announces artistic director Steven Atkinson's final season

HighTide Theatre has announced its programme for the coming year, the last for outgoing artistic director Steven Atkinson.

As part of the 2019 Edinburgh Fringe, HighTide has partnered with Assembly Festival to present the new programme Disruption: the future of new theatre. Running from 31 July to 26 August at Edinburgh's Assembly Roxy, the season will be composed of nine shows, including Kenny Emson's Rust, directed by Eleanor Rhode (which then transfers to Aldeburgh and Walthamstow, and runs at the Bush Theatre from 26 June to 27 July).

HighTide is now welcoming applications from independent theatremakers to co-produce two productions in the Disruption season, with those shows then transferring to Aldeburgh and Walthamstow. The closing date for applications is 4 January 2019.

Atkinson said: "For my last season at HighTide we're disrupting how we make theatre by combining three productions that we have commissioned ourselves written by Sophie Ellerby, Kenneth Emson and Eve Leigh, and we're now inviting emerging artists to create two further productions with us that will develop what a HighTide show can be."

Also headlining at the Aldeburgh and Walthamstow festivals will be the world premiere of Sophie Ellerby's LIT, directed by nabokov artistic director Stef O'Driscoll. Exploring the turbulent years of a lovelorn teenager, the show is co-produced by Nottingham Playhouse and will transfer there later in 2019.

The previously announced co-production of Eve Leigh's The Trick, directed by Roy Alexander Weise, will tour following its premiere at the Bush Theatre in February. The piece will visit North Wall Arts Centre, Salisbury Playhouse, Marina Theatre, Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall, Watford Palace Theatre, Birmingham REP and finish at York Theatre Royal from 12 April.

Dates and the full programme for the HighTide festival in Walthamstow are to be confirmed, while HighTide Aldeburgh will run from 10 to 15 September, with the full line-up to be announced next year.