YORK’S Theatre Royal will be celebrating the green shoots of post-Covid recovery with a two-day season of new work by local artists entitled... Green Shoots.
The two-day season, on June 7 and 8, will feature work by dozens of artists - including poets, performers, singers, dancers and digital artists - from York and North Yorkshire.
It is a follow-up to Love Bites, the hugely-successful show that reopened the theatre following the lifting of restrictions in May 2021.
The theme of Green Shoots focusses on what the Theatre calls ‘rebooting post-pandemic and looking to the future of the planet’.
The theatre has selected 20 commissions, offering £1,000 per commission plus £150 each time they are performed.
The theatre’s Creative Director Juliet Forster said: “Love Bites last year was a joyous event that will live long in my mind, not just because we were re-opening after 14 months of enforced closure, but also because our stage was filled to overflowing with the tremendous talent and ingenuity of local artists.
“It was moving, spectacular, surprising, thought-provoking and funny in equal measures. We have created this opportunity with Green Shoots because we are excited to see what they will do next.”
The commissions were asked to respond to the title Green Shoots in any way that can be interpreted – pieces might be about hope, recovery, new beginnings, revolution, new life, growth, the environment or anything else that can be imagined as a response.
Green Shoots will be performed on the main stage as part of the Rumours & Rebels season on June 7 and 8.
The line-up will include ‘Hang On Little Tomato’, about a young woman growing her very first tomato plant; ‘Spring in my step!’, a ‘contortion and acro-dance piece’ about how it feels when the sun shines again after a long winter; and ‘All the World Is Green’, about lonely retirees meeting by chance at a local concert in their Yorkshire Dales village and finding love unexpectedly entering back into their lives.
Other pieces will include Green Shoots, a solo dance exploring the emotions of starting over again; and Her Face/My Face - a look a what do you do when you no longer recognise the face that looks back at you in the mirror.
Green Shoots season, June 7 and 8, York Theatre Royal. Box office: 01904 623568/ yorktheatreroyal.co.uk
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