Theatre / News

Bristol Old Vic opens doors to new digital theatre

By Martin Booth  Thursday Apr 16, 2020

Cultural venues across the city are joining forces to create a new arts channel to share content online in the coming months.

As well as being part of this channel, Bristol Old Vic have opened the curtain to an innovative digital theatre platform, Bristol Old Vic At Home, which aims to maintain a close connection to both its audiences and artists during the current lockdown.

“Bristol Old Vic’s programme extends far beyond creating the shows which have been so wonderfully supported by the city over the last ten years,” said artistic director Tom Morris.

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“Equally important is developing talent from across the region through the Bristol Ferment programme, and bringing creative opportunity to all parts of our community through our Young Company, outreach activities and school and heritage resources.”

Morris said that during the coronavirus pandemic, “it is more important than ever to celebrate creativity in everyone and to support the sense of community through which it can best flourish”.

He added: “These things are happening spontaneously across Bristol with new digital networks springing up in every postcode.

“It is part of our job as the city’s theatre to ensure that this energetic and generous spirit is extended to the most isolated and the most vulnerable too.”

Bristol Old Vic At Home will replicate the three strands of the theatre’s year-round programme:

  • Its engagement department is now online with the Family Arts Hub, full of educational resources for those who need them.
  • Talent development goes online with Open Stage Online, with the theatre’s first callout for participants and collaborators to generate the most wide-ranging and imaginative content it can.
  • And its artistic programme goes online with the Bristol Arts Channel, launching in May alongside the Colston Hall, Watershed and others, dedicating different nights of the week to different art forms.

For more information about Bristol Old Vic At Home and to get involved, visit www.bristololdvic.org.uk/at-home.

Main photo: Bristol Old Vic

Read more: Banksy creates news ‘working from home’ artwork

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