Have yourselves a Merry little Christmas!

We would like to wish you a happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year from all at Monkeywood Theatre!

2011 was a busy year for us again and 2012 looks set to be even more full-on. We began the year by taking part in The Library Theatre’s Re:Play Festival at The Contact, performing Last Orders in the intimate Jabez Clegg bar. We have so much fun performing our short play about new starts, last chances and near misses and were delighted to see the audience enjoyed it just as much. The play gained 4* reviews and has been listed in the top productions of 2011 by Whatsonstage northwest and Public Reviews.

In March we premiered Once in a House on Fire, developed with The Lowry, supported by Arts Council England and funded through grants for the arts. The production sold out four performances at The Lowry studio and added an extra night in The Lowry’s Quays Theatre. We were overwhelmed by the positive emails and tweets from the audience and thrilled by the reviews we received. Following The Lowry we toured the play to The Civic, Barnsley and The New Continental, Preston, ending in May.

In June we had the opportunity to meet talent from across the north. We held open auditions inviting actors who we had never previously worked with to meet with us and were delighted by the high standard we saw. We look forward to being able to work with some new faces in the future.

The second half of the year has been spent working behind the scenes, busily preparing for 2012. In addition to this, Sarah and Martin have been busy with their brand new baby girl! Sarah gave birth to May Gibbons-Hughes in October and we’re so excited to have a mini monkey be part of the team.

In December we were thrilled to learn that our planned 2012 tour of Once in a House of Fire will be supported by Arts Council England and funded through grants for the arts. Now we just can’t wait to get cracking with it! We will be touring to new venues and returning to some of our old favourites. We will release the dates, venues and ticket information in the New Year.

As well as the Spring/Summer tour, we will be beginning Research and Development on a new project, which we will announce in the spring. There will be another exciting project happening simultaneously which we will launch in February. Phew! We will post any opportunities to work with us on our casting page, but please email us at info@monkeywoodtheatre.co.uk if you are performing and would like us to attend your production.

We’d like to thank you all for your support in 2011 and look forward to seeing you in 2012.

Francesca, Sarah & Martin (and baby May!)