Melissa Johns

On Wednesday 28th June The Lowry, Salford, welcomed industry professionals to a full-day showcase and networking event to experience a first look at brand new work being developed by The Lowry’s 2023 cohort of Developed With artists and Associate Artists.

The Lowry, Salford, is launching a callout for six independent artists or companies based in the North of England to join its 2022-24 Developed With programme.

Hot off the stage of the Donmar Warehouse where she starred opposite Kit Harrington in Henry V, Melissa Johns is a disabled actress whose iCloud account was hacked in 2018, leading to the release of intimate photos. Her play, Snatched, is autobiographical, documenting her struggle as a disabled woman to come to terms with societal expectations of sexuality and femininity.

The National Theatre have today released the trailer for the upcoming NT Live broadcast of Henry V filmed live on stage at the Donmar Warehouse. Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) plays the title role in Shakespeare's thrilling study of nationalism, war and the psychology of power.

The Donmar Warehouse is presenting Shakespeare's Henry V, led by Game of Thrones star Kit Harington. Performances run through 9 April 2022.

New photos have been released from Donmar Warehouse's production of Shakespeare's Henry V.

With Tim Price’s new stage adaptation of Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure currently running, the Donmar Warehouse today announces full cast and CATALYST trainees for Donmar Associate Director Max Webster’s production of Shakespeare’s Henry V. 

With Tim Price's new stage adaptation of Ruben Östlund's Force Majeure currently running, the Donmar Warehouse today announces full cast and CATALYST trainees for Donmar Associate Director Max Webster's production of Shakespeare's Henry V.

Following its Housewarming programme - open hearted work that celebrated connection and community, This is Now invites artists and audiences to join a yearlong conversation about who we are and who we want to be; to think deeply about the important questions of our time, and to find refuge in coming together to imagine our way through the world we live in, right now.

This past week saw the release of Dear Tomorrow – Hope From Home, an exciting collaboration by Actors Touring Company and Northern Stage. The virtual project consisted of six video-letters of hope and optimism, released each day from 22 February to 27 February, and written by six different writers, performed to six different actors.

Box of Tricks and Sky Studios have announced that the two winners of the inaugural Screen/Play Award are Conway McDermott and Sarah Tarbit. Each writer will be awarded £10,250 to write a 70-minute stage play and a 20-minute screenplay inspired by a single central idea to be developed with support from the two partners throughout 2021.

Following the success of last Autumn's Dear Tomorrow, part of The Signal Fires project which celebrated the vibrancy of touring theatre across the UK, Actors Touring Company (ATC) has joined forces with Northern Stage for Dear Tomorrow – Hope From Home.

Less than three months into her role as Artistic Director, Natalie Ibu announces her inaugural season at Northern Stage. THIS IS US promises to bring audiences stories, no matter what, through a bold programme of collaborations, commissions and curated work that celebrates the collective, connection and community.

Today, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) announces the U.S. and U.K Jury members for this year’s BAFTA Breakthrough initiative, supported by Netflix.

Manchester-based theatre company Box of Tricks and Sky Studios' Innovation Hub, based in Leeds, have teamed up to announce the launch of the inaugural  Screen/Play Award, a ground-breaking initiative to unearth exceptional writers from the North of England.

The Lowry today announces a new cohort of artists who will be supported by its prestigious Artist Development Programme over 2020.

Sandy Grierson returns to the London stage in othellomacbeth, taking on the roles of Cassio and Macbeth in one show. No stranger to doubling, Grierson previously played the roles of Faustus and Mephistopheles in the Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed production of Doctor Faustus in 2016, the parts decided with the lighting of matches. Taking us through his thoughts on and experience with Shakespeare, Grierson shares Jude Christian's vision of the two plays and just why they chose (and to an extent needed) to 'f*** with them a bit'.

'But men are men...' Gender is taking centre stage in the current climate, telling her story not history. From new writes like SIX and The Old Vic's Sylvia, to the reframing of classics from a female perspective, the Liverpool Everyman's female led Othello and the Globe's Imogen prove the relevance of these texts to modern audiences. Elayce Ismail and Jude Christian's othellomacbeth is a hybrid of these: retelling two of Shakespeare's greatest plays, with the emphasis on the women and new additions. While bold it may be, the result is a mixed bag of 'confused events, new hatch'd to [this] woeful time'.

Casting is today announced for the Lyric Hammersmith and HOME's production of othellomacbeth, which runs 14-29 September at HOME in Manchester and 05 October - 03 November at the Lyric Hammersmith.

Determined to avoid a term in jail, small time criminal McMurphy opts to spend his sentence in a psychiatric ward. As the reality of his incarceration dawns, he comes up against the authoritarian Nurse Ratched, who is not about to give up her regime of discipline and order without a fight. Rebellion and conformity clash, and McMurphy and his fellow inmates learn what happens to the individual when the institution takes control.