Month: January 2021

LGBTQIA Loneliness and Exclusion Project Is Taking Shape

We’re collaborating with Exeter University, The Intercom Trust and artist Nathalie McGrath to help create a new play with people living in the South West, exploring the long history of LGBTQIA loneliness and exclusion.

Mistreatment and exclusion from society has meant LGBTQIA communities have created their own spaces for solidarity, creativity, and dialogue. Dr Charlotte Jones and Dr Fred Cooper from the University of Exeter will work with organisations and individuals in Devon and Cornwall to discuss and investigate the issues LGBTQIA people are facing. Playwright Natalie McGrath will write the new play together with LGBTQIA communities, through a series of creative workshops held in collaboration with the Intercom Trust, the main charity in the South West supporting LGBTQ+ people through training, activities, and legal issues.

The performance will be part of a week-long festival, with corresponding events, workshops, discussion forums, and stalls.

Yusuf Niazi Appointed Associate Director

We’re thrilled to announce that Yusuf Niazi will join the Northcott team as Associate Director. Yusuf is a Theatre Director, Movement Director and Workshop Facilitator from Birmingham, who graduated from Mountview Academy, trained at Middlesex University and has directed shows in theatres across the UK and internationally.

Passionate about taking important themes and embedding them into good stories, Yusuf is also dedicated to increasing representation of members of the LGBTQ+ community, Black, South Asian and East Asian people in his work.

Treasure Island will be streamed online!

Le Navet Bete’s version of Treasure Island at the Northcott Theatre was one of the few productions nation-wide able to play to a live socially-distanced audience over the Christmas period. With standing ovations and rapturous applause, audiences praised the show for offering much-needed laughter and some escapism after a difficult year. Unfortunately, when Devon was placed into Tier 3, the run was cut short. But not before it was filmed and made ready for global online release through a trailblazing partnership with Creative Industries Federation.