The New Theatre is a playhouse

Theater (structure)

A theater or theatre is a structure where theatrical works or plays are performed or other performances such as musical concerts may be produced. While a theater is not required for performance , a theater serves to define the performance and audience spaces...

 and production company

Production company

A production company provides the physical basis for works in the realms of the performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, and video.- Tasks and functions :...

 based on University Park campus, Nottingham

Nottingham

Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is funded in part by the University of Nottingham Students' Union

University of Nottingham Students' Union

The University of Nottingham Students' Union is the students' union at the University of Nottingham, England. The Students' Union is housed in the Portland Building on University Park campus a building shared with some non-Student Union activities...

 and constitutes one of the Union's 10 Student-Run Services. It is the only entirely student-run theatre in England.

Organisation and Structure

The New Theatre is housed in the Archaeology and Classics building of the University of Nottingham

University of Nottingham

The University of Nottingham is a public research university based in Nottingham, United Kingdom, with further campuses in Ningbo, China and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia...

. In 2001 an extended foyer was added to the building, due to a generous donation from Mr Wallner, an alumnus of the University.

All aspects of the theatre are run by the 16 members of the New Theatre committee, although the producer and director of individual shows are given a large degree autonomy with regards to their productions.

Committee

The theatre's productions are open to the public and any student at the University of Nottingham can become a member. Once you are a member, you can receive a discount on theatre tickets and get involved in any aspect of running the theatre. Each semester a 'proposals meeting' is held by the committee at which any member/s can suggest a play that that they wish to direct. Once the upcoming season's plays are chosen by the committee, auditions are held by the production team of each play. As soon as the plays have been cast at the 'casting meeting', production teams are given a budget by the theatre treasurer and allowed a certain amount of autonomy, with the support of the Productions Co-ordinator on hand if they need it.

Each play is expected to break even but many make a profit that is then channeled back into improving the theatre's facilities and offering.

New Theatre at the Fringe

Each year, the New Theatre takes an 'official' show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and supports any number of shows being performed and produced at the fringe by its members. In 2007, these shows included an adaptation of 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'(New Theatre), 'Dearly Deported' by Charles Brafman (Ankle Productions) and 'Slippery Soapbox: Spotbanded Skat' (ShutYOface Productions).

In 2008 the New Theatre took two shows; an ensemble devised piece ('Crossing The Rubicon', C Soco Chambers Street 12pm), and a piece of new writing by Anthony Lau ('Cross-Stitching', C Soco Chambers Street 1pm) officially. Also performing were Ribcaged Productions Ltd ('The Bear Who Paints'), Ankle Productions ('The Third Condiment'), Chimera Theatre Group ('Vivien') and Cicero Productions ('Written Off', their casts and crew being New Theatre members and alumni.

In 2009 the New Theatre took Warehouse 364, written and directed by Andy McNamee, who stepped into a role for one performance when a cast member was unable to perform.

In 2010 the New Theatre took another two shows; Only One Wing, written by Lizzie Bourne and directed by Andy McNamee, and The Retreat, written by Jenni Herzberg and directed by Becky Caitlin.

In 2011 the New Theatre took another two shows: Beef written by Rose Williams and directed by Liz Stevenson, Chasing Dragons written by Adam H. Wells and directed by Dan Rae-Scott.

In 2010 and 2011, Paulden Productions (co-founded by former New Theatre president Matt Leventhall) took FRESHER: The Musical to the fringe, where it won several accolades, including Musical Theatre Matters award for "Best New Musical".

New Theatre at NSDF

In 2007 and 2008 New Theatre entered a number of shows into the National Student Drama Festival

National Student Drama Festival

The National Student Drama Festival was founded in 1956 by the Sunday Times arts columnist - the festival's first artistic director - Kenneth Pearson, the Sunday Times theatre critic Harold Hobson, and NUS president Frank Copplestone. The Sunday Times Editor, H.V...

 competition. In both years two productions were selected by the NSDF judges as finalists and were performed at the Festival in Scarborough. In 2008 the theatre's shows 'Disco Pigs

Disco Pigs

Disco Pigs is a 2001 Irish film directed by Kirsten Sheridan and written by Enda Walsh, who adapted it from his 1996 play of the same name. Cillian Murphy and Elaine Cassidy star as Cork teenagers who have a lifelong, but unhealthy, friendship that is imploding as they approach adulthood.-Plot:The...

' and 'Proof

Proof (play)

Proof is a play by David Auburn originally produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club on 23 May 2000. It then went to Broadway on 24 October 2000 at the Walter Kerr Theatre, and was directed by Daniel J. Sullivan, with Mary-Louise Parker as Catherine, Larry Bryggman as Robert, Ben Shenkman as Hal, and...

' won 6 awards between them, with the theatre also receiving the 'Judges’ Award for Promoting Student Theatre'.

"The NSDF, however, is about drama, not drama students, and a university with no theatre studies at all had two shows in performance. Nottingham University presented an in-the-round version of Enda Walsh’s violent, despairing Disco Pigs, and a polished production of the American David Auburn’s recent West End success Proof. Directed by a student of industrial economics, a cast consisting of a physicist, an English major, a sociologist and a student of Spanish and Portuguese became convincing Chicagoans in a coolly filmic study of family relations. The linguist Anna Wheatley won the Spotlight award for best actress as the daughter who bears the curse of inheriting her father’s mathematical genius, and Guy Unsworth, who designed the atmospheric set as well as directing the excellent cast, won the Directors’ Guild award." (Robert Hewison,© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.)

In 2011, four separate shows from New Theatre were selected by NSDF, from a total of 13 shows nationally. These included: After the End, Orphans, Bluebird and This Wide Night. The company went on to win four awards at NSDF 2011: three Judges' awards for acting, one to Douggie McMeekin (Orphans), and two to Meg Salter and Lucy Bromilow (both for This Wide Night) respectively, and Best Design for After the End.