Up, up and away as DEparture Lounge returns to Derby

The hugely successful summer festival of fresh, new and exciting performance returns for a fourth year, from Thursday, July 21 until Sunday, July 24.

DEparture Lounge, produced by In Good Company, a professional development programme for artists making work in the East Midlands, will once again see Derby Theatre transformed into a lush garden stage, a festival site where audiences and artists alike can see the very best in contemporary performance, support regional artists to take flight and get involved in lots of inspiring workshops and discussions.

Performance highlights of include: Clothes Swap Theatre Party, a DEparture Lounge premiere, a fun-filled, fashion focused piece of theatre full of fizz by Forward Theatre, an interactive piece that involves audience participation and actual clothes swapping - audience members should bring along a bag of old clothes to swap them at the event; All of Me by multi award-winning artist Caroline Horton, a trashy and funny play about a who woman who thinks about dying – a lot; Tanja by Strawberry Blonde Curls, an impassioned call to arms, a play and a campaign around the subject of asylum seekers that blends drama, spoken word, puppetry, sign language and verbatim theatre; A House Repeated by Seth Kreibel, a unique interactive performance game which explores imagined buildings without leaving your seat, and Celebration, Florida (pictured) by Greg Wohead, two unrehearsed performers stand-in to replace a person you miss or an experience you can’t stop thinking about.

On Sunday, July 24, the final event of the festival will be Scratch that Itch: Summer Sun, an opportunity for audiences to see a selection of brand new work from some of the most exciting artists in the region, a platform where artists will present and showcase new ideas in front of an audience –and where audiences can feed into the development of the next big thing!

Workshop, discussion and participatory highlights include: The Future of Theatre, a snapshot into some of the most dynamic venues in the UK, including Battersea Arts Centre, ARC, Stockton and Camden People’s Theatre as well as Would Like to Meet, a kind of artist and venue speed dating session, so that artists can tell programmers about their work.

On the Sunday of the festival, there are two fantastic family-friendly shows, Jessie and The Cloud Machine by The Barrowman (also on the Saturday) and The Moon and Me by Egg Box Theatre, an interactive and inspiring theatre experience for young audiences and young space explorers aged 2-5 alike.

Tickets for DEparture Lounge 2016 are available on 01332 593939 or visit www.derbytheatre.co.uk