In October 2024, our city-centre Barnfield Theatre hosted Elevate Festival, a week of performances, masterclasses and socials inviting South-West artists to meet, share, and hone their craft. Read on to discover reflections from festival participants and Sam Parker, our Artist Development Producer.
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
And just like that, Elevate Festival is done!
Highlights of our new annual celebration of local artists included: opening with Scaffolding (from our Elevate Associate Company Documental Theatre) upon its return from a triumphant Edinburgh run; launching our Elevate short plays night (pictured); co-hosting an artist social with our friends at Theatre Royal Plymouth; trialling lunchtime slots with our sold-out Newsicals and the delight that was Play, Pint, Pasty; and of course, we played host to the inspiring Squeeze Box gang who were with us on residency. Needless to say, there were many more wonderful moments, but to mention everything would defeat the purpose of a ‘highlights’ section.
You can still see our full programme and all the brilliant artists and organisations we worked with by hitting the button below.
Elevate Festival Programme
Inspirational, and a brilliantly supportive environment full of passionate creatives being given space and time.
Elevate Festival Participant
Photo by Lillie Sherry
Building on the legacy of the Futures Festival, but very much our first offer of this kind since relaunching our artist development work as Elevate, there was no way of telling how audiences or artists would respond to our varied programme. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are enormously grateful for the support we have had from our Elevate Associate Artists, Elevate members, our wider arts communities, and local stake-holders and partners. These programmes only work with all those things in place, so thank you!
Loved meeting theatre makers in the community and seeing that there ARE opportunities and a network.
Elevate Festival Participant
Things like this also wouldn’t work without having everyone in the building behind it – and from the get-go, staff right across the theatre have been doing their utmost in supporting the realisation of the festival. It really has been a team effort. (And all alongside the small matter of launching the rocket of a show that was The Commotion Time too…)
So after a bit of rest and reflection, we will now turn our attention to what’s next. Elevate will continue to take shape in response to conversations with Elevate members and audiences and we are already cooking up more ways to work with and support local artists. Stay tuned!
Written by Sam Parker, our Artist Development Producer
Photo by Lillie Sherry
Elevate Festival has been a fantastic resource for local creatives. I love it.
Elevate Festival Participant
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