This month, Curve will play host to its inaugural INSIDE OUT Festival, a celebration of the region’s talent, with over 150 local artists and companies participating in a programme that contains 22 new shows (including 8 brand new Curve commissions), masterclasses, and free music, dance and spoken word performances within a brand new pop-up performance space for the Festival, the Inside Out Park, constructed from 20 years’ worth of Leicester theatre props and furniture. This first Festival is supported by partners including BBC Writersroom, the National Theatre, IdeasTap, The Actors Centre and many more.
I’m hugely proud of all of the work in the Festival, including extraordinary local artists and companies such as Aakash Odedra Company, Metro-Boulot-Dodo, Rachael Young, John Berkavitch, Impulse Collective, Off The Fence, The Gramophones and Maison Foo. The ambition, quality and variety is utterly incredible, and I truly feel the Festival captures an idea of what the future of theatre will be, which feels entirely apt in one of the country’s youngest and most diverse cities
The festival marks the culmination of my first two years at Curve, creating a range of formal mechanisms for engaging with the region’s rich and varied talent, ranging from the establishment of our Associate Artist programme; and the appointment of our first Playwright In Residence; through to our Affiliate Community Groups Programme, which sees Curve host its own in-house breakdancing academy and gospel choir. These new areas of work enabled over 12,000 creative people to engage with Curve in 2013; and have helped bring an additional £500,000 of investment in the arts into the region. And on to the future!
Suba Das Directs 