New Partnership with the National Theatre to support its Public Acts programme delivered across the country
The Foundation is delighted to announce a three-year partnership with the National Theatre to support its Public Acts programme delivered across the country.
The Foundation is delighted to announce a three-year partnership with the National Theatre to support its Public Acts programme delivered across the country.
Through this partnership, our funding will support the delivery of the NT’s Public Acts programme, showcasing how the creative and social care sectors can work together on a national scale to make lasting impact in communities. Funding will support Public Acts to build community engagement across the country, create large-scale productions with community groups and support new research for the programme.
Public Acts is the NT’s nationwide initiative to create extraordinary acts of theatre and community. The programme produces ambitious new works of participatory theatre and is built on sustained partnerships with theatres and community organisations across the country who share our vision of theatre as a force for change.
The NT has been working with six community groups in Doncaster since 2019 to deliver weekly workshops with participants to help build confidence, learn new skills and build towards a celebratory musical production. The third Public Acts production, The Doncastrian Chalk Circle, will be taking place at Cast in Doncaster on 27th – 29th August, featuring over 100 local performers alongside professional actors.
To mark the fifth anniversary of Public Acts, a new multi-venue nationwide production of The Odyssey will also begin in April 2023. The Odyssey will be told in five episodes created and performed by artists and communities from four partner organisations: Cast in Doncaster, Sunderland Culture in partnership with Sunderland Empire Theatre in Sunderland, Restoke in Stoke-on-Trent and Trowbridge Town Hall in Trowbridge. The fifth and final episode will be staged on the Olivier stage at the National Theatre in August 2023, featuring community performers from all four nationwide companies as well as members recruited through partners Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch and Trybe House Theatre in London.
Public Acts is also supported by Arts Council England’s Strategic Touring Fund, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Garfield Weston Foundation, The Mosawi Foundation and The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust.
The development of new music theatre is supported by the Genesis Foundation through the Genesis Music Theatre Programme.
“We are delighted to partner with the National Theatre to support its Public Acts programme. This partnership will bring communities together and unite them through the creativity and power of theatre. This is a ground-breaking and ambitious partnership for the Foundation and we are thrilled to be able to support the NT's initiative which reaches out to communities far and wide and aims to have a meaningful impact on people's lives.“
“We are hugely grateful to have the funding support of The CareTech Foundation to help deliver our Public Acts programme and create an even bigger impact within communities across the country. Over the next three years, Public Acts will be expanding to work with even more partners across the country and this new partnership will enable us to deliver in-depth work with more community groups as part of the National Theatre’s nationwide commitment to create opportunities for everyone to take part in theatre.”
