New HighTide artistic director Titilola Dawudu launches first season

HighTide’s new artistic director and CEO Titilola Dawudu has announced her inaugural season with the Suffolk-based new writing company.

It opens this week (22 April) with the world premiere production of Vikki Stone’s Caroline: A New Musical. Based on the true story of the pirate radio revolution, the show runs until 2 May at New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, before touring to Hornchurch, Peterborough, Colchester and Bury St Edmunds.

Marking the first production from the East Anglian Touring Consortium (EATC), it’s directed by New Wolsey Theatre’s artistic director Douglas Rintoul, with co-direction from Alex Thorpe and dramaturgy by Dawudu.

Later in the year, HighTide and Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch will present the world premiere of The Disappearing Man, renewing HighTide’s collaboration with writer Kenny Emson following his play RUST from HighTide’s 2018 Festival. The production will be directed by Thorpe and open in Hornchurch in October, before touring to Blackpool Grand Theatre and Guildford’s Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, concluding at Key Theatre, Peterborough. And June will see the premiere of A to B by Tia-Renee Mullings, produced by JFR Productions in association with HighTide and Soho Theatre.

This year also sees the launch of HT Studios – billed as a “reimagined approach to writer development at HighTide” to create a “clear pipeline for writers to develop work and help them build sustainable careers”. Meanwhile, the newly expanded associate artists residency will support Tassa Deparis, Nayantara Nayar, Sonny Nwachukwu and Rosa Torr with mentoring from Dawudu and support from the HighTide team.

The new My Story project will launch at the First Light Festival in Lowestoft in June, bringing together local participants to create a series of audio works capturing contemporary life in the town. The audio pieces will also be available online via QR codes located at East Point Pavilion and The Seagull Theatre throughout the summer.

And also announced today, Kirsty Bushell, Cal-I Jonel, Jonathan Massey, Saher Shah, Jacob Sparrow, and Joanna Taylor will form the 2026 Jerwood HighTide Writers Group. Now in its third year, the programme offers participants a paid, year-long course led by playwright Kelly Jones, culminating in the presentation of an extract from their new plays at HighTide Rising in early 2027.

Dawudu, who succeeded Clare Slater at the company, said: “It’s remarkable that, as a small organisation, we’re working with such an array of writers with connections to the East of England. This season is about highlighting the incredible talent of writers across the four regions we work in, at every stage of their artistic journeys.”