Full casting for Matthew Bourne's new Romeo and Juliet
New Adventures is delighted to announce full casting for the world premiere of Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet which will open at The Lowry on Tue 11 June, as part of a UK tour to 13 venues.
Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet is a passionate and contemporary re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic love story. Bursting with youth, vitality and Matthew Bourne’s trademark storytelling, Britain’s brightest young dance talent join the New Adventures company for this World Premiere production.
As part of New Adventures’ ambition to support the next generation of on-stage talent Romeo and Juliet will feature the finest emerging male and female dancers from around the UK. The search began in April 2018 with a call-out for young dancers currently in training aged between 16 and 19. Attracting over 1000 applications and following a UK-wide audition tour, Young Cast members will perform at each venue alongside the New Adventures company.
Matthew Bourne said today “New Adventures’ Romeo and Juliet will be a celebration of youthful energy, talent and creativity both on and off-stage and, uniquely, in all aspects of Choreography, Design and Music through the appointment of a series of “Young Associate Artists”. As we enter our fourth decade as a company I’m finding the development of young talent ever more important and fulfilling. Our new company of “Romeo and Juliet” features a staggering 98 young dancers making their debuts with us; some are joining us as part of their third year of training, others have come through our Company initiatives such as “Swan School”, “A Summer Adventure” and of course, our production of “Lord of the Flies” which inspired so many young men to seek careers in dance. This time we have focused on nurturing young male and female dancers, and I have been overwhelmed by the talent that we have had to choose from throughout the UK. I’m particularly happy to be working alongside my Young Associate Choreographer, Arielle Smith, an exceptional young dancemaker of great maturity and vision. In turn, after 30 years as a professional choreographer, I look forward to being refreshed and inspired by what this team of young artists will bring to Shakespeare’s classic tale of tragic conflict and young love”.
Joining the full time cast in Salford will be six young cast members making their debut with New Adventures: Katie Agarwal, Georgia Collier, Orla Collier, Brandon Hunter, Patrick King and Kayde-Samuél Wright.
Katie Agarwal was born and raised in Oldham. She is training at Vale Studios. She was really excited when she heard about the Young Cast auditions and saw it as a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience training with Matthew Bourne and other Young Cast and perform with the New Adventures company.
Georgia Collier was born in Bury and lives in Manchester. She is training at The Lowry. It has been a dream of hers to work with Matthew Bourne and his team and now that she has the opportunity and it has become a reality, she couldn’t be happier.
Orla Collier was born and raised in Kendal. She is training with Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. She auditioned to be part of the Young Cast for “Romeo and Juliet” because she wanted to learn what it’s like to be part of the creative process for a new production and to have the amazing experience of dancing on stage with the New Adventures company.
Brandon Hunter was born in Lancaster and lives in Heysham. He is training at The Lowry and with Mclaren Dance Company. He sees this as a great way to learn, develop and further progress with his dancer career as well as the opportunity of a lifetime to perform with the New Adventures company.
Patrick King was born in Sunderland and lives in Kirkby-in-Furness. He is training at The Lowry. He auditioned for the Young Cast to meet new people, gain new experiences and overcome both mental and physical challenges (which he did when he fell ill with appendicitis the day after the Young Cast auditions!).
Kayde-Samuél Wright was born in Manchester and lives in Chester. He is training at The Hammond School. He has always dreamt of being a part of New Adventures, so he saw the Young Cast auditions as the perfect opportunity to improve his skills and hopefully gradually make his way up into the professional company.
New Adventures is committed to finding and developing diverse young talent from across the UK. Since “Lord of the Flies” in 2014 New Adventures has been supporting young dancers from this production on their journey into training and professional work. The company have delivered various initiatives, including Swan School, two week-long intensives designed to prepare graduate level dancers for the audition process.
Continuing New Adventures’ commitment to developing off-stage talent we have recruited a team of Young Associate Artists to work alongside the Artistic team in the creation of this world premiere production. Arielle Smith joins as Young Associate Choreographer; Elin Steele as Young Associate Set & Costume Designer and Ali Hunter as Young Associate Lighting Designer.
Romeo and Juliet is Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne, collaborating with his entire New Adventures Associate Artistic team; Etta Murfitt, Associate Artistic Director, set and costume design by Lez Brotherston; lighting by Paule Constable; sound by Paul Groothuis; and new orchestrations of the Prokofiev score by Terry Davies, played live at every venue by The New Adventures Orchestra conducted by Brett Morris.
As previously announced the title roles of ‘Romeo’ and ‘Juliet’ will be played by six New Adventures rising stars and two exciting new dancers making their professional debuts.
Creating the role of Juliet will be Cordelia Braithwaite, currently performing as ‘Cinderella’ on the international tour; Seren Williams, who joined New Adventures in 2016 with Matthew Bourne’s award-winning production of “The Red Shoes” and Bryony Harrison who is making her debut with New Adventures on tour with Matthew Bourne’s legendary production of “Swan Lake”
The role of Romeo will be created by Andrew Monaghan, currently ‘The Pilot’ in “Cinderella”, Paris Fitzpatrick who is playing the ‘Angel’ in “Cinderella” and João Carolino who joined the company in 2017 with “Early Adventures”
Making their professional debuts with the company are Harrison Dowzell, as ‘Romeo’, who auditioned for the Young Cast in Nottingham, and Bryony Wood, as ‘Juliet’, discovered during the Young Cast auditions in Southampton. Both are in their graduate years at Performers College and Tring Park School for the Performing Arts respectively.
They are joined by leading New Adventures artists, Madelaine Brennan, Daisy May Kemp, Danny Reubens and Daniel Wright who will create the “adult” world of “Romeo and Juliet”.
Ben Brown, Reece Causton, Jackson Fisch, Kate Lyons, Stephen Murray and Mark Samaras who will come to this production direct from our USA Tour of Matthew Bourne’s “Cinderella”.
In addition there are sixteen young artists making their debut with New Adventures: Natasha Chu, Gaby Conn, Monique Jonas, Sharol Mackenzie, Hannah Mason, Asher Rosenheim, Catrin Thomas, Chris Thomas and Roisin Whelan; along with Benjamin Derham from Canterbury, Cameron Flynn from Aberdeen and Billy Scott from Plymouth who all performed in the Young Cast in the acclaimed New Adventures production of “Lord of the Flies” in 2014; and Alexander Fadayiro at Central School of Ballet, Jana Baldovino at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and Stanley Duventru-Huret at Urdang Academy who are completing their third year of dance training while on tour with Romeo and Juliet.
Listing Information
Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet
Dates: Tue 11- Sat 15 June 2019
Times: Tue – Sat 7.30pm, Thu & Sat at 2pm
Tickets: From £33.50