Storyhouse is heading outside this summer with a busy programme of exciting events which will appeal to audiences young and old.
The Storyhouse Outdoors season will include children’s shows, comedy, music and storytelling, all taking place within the atmospheric surroundings of the Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre village.
The wide-ranging selection of events has been designed to create a fantastic festival feel and complement the annual open air theatre season which this year features productions of Romeo and Juliet, Little Women and Stig of the Dump.
Some of the Storyhouse Outdoors events are free, while others cost just £10 or under. And there are concessions for Storyhouse Members.
The shows and other activities will either be staged within the open-air theatre space itself or will take place in the Grosvenor Park tepee where unreserved seating will be at Bavarian beer hall-style tables.
The tepee bar will be open daily for visitors to drop in and enjoy a drink, while Grosvenor Park’s famous wood fired pizza oven will be fired up and ready to go to enhance the experience for those attending evening events.
The special programme starts on Thursday 14 July when Amy Antrobus and Toria Wooff take to the temporary stage inside the tepee for an enchanting night of acoustic sounds.
Me + Deboe take to the stage on Sunday 7 August. Expect witty lyrics and sumptuous vocal harmonies from the Chester duo who have also composed the music for this season’s Romeo and Juliet.
And Dave Roberts and Anna Jane Haughton are set to appear at an acoustic evening on Saturday 21 August, with more acts still to be announced.
All the acoustic evenings are programmed in association with Mai 68 Records who co-produced the popular Storyhouse Sessions earlier this year.
Comedy fans’ comedian of choice Daniel Kitson is set to command the main Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre space on Sunday 17 July. The show has already sold out.
And the tepee is the venue for an unmissable Comedy Night on Sunday 28 August. Danny McLoughlin, who recently supported Jason Manford on tour, will act as host and perform, with the rest of the line up yet to be announced.
The Storyhouse Young Company takes over the theatre-in-the-round on Wednesday 20 July and Thursday 21 July with a thrilling, twisted performance of Rob Drummond’s play Flesh.
Faced with the challenge of having no knowledge of where they are, who they are, and being away from the modern world, insanity grows among a group as tribal instincts kick back in.
Storyhouse Outdoors is also staging a series of shows aimed at a pre-school audience and their families.
Goofus Theatre appears at Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre on Friday 29 July with Lily and the Heron. Puppetry and music are used to tell a tale of bravery, courage and magic.
Lily finds the world too noisy and busy and has stopped speaking. But one day she meets an amazing friend who her needs her help. Can Lily find her courage – and with it, her voice?
Rapunzel will invite young audiences to let down their hair on Friday 5 August when Mr and Mrs Theatre Company presents a unique adaptation of the famous Grimm fairytale, complete with music, circus and a lot of family fun.
Bonkers balloon sculptures and high energy comic performances are on the cards when The Great Balloon Show arrives at Grosvenor Park on Friday 12 August. The theatrical experience with a difference features a great 80s soundtrack and an award-winning clown.
And on Friday 19 August, The Pied Piper Theatre Company presents DIG! A gentle first theatre experience, perfect for youngsters aged six months to toddler, DIG! uses music, rhyme and singing to bring to life a world of growing plants, busy bugs, wriggling worms and ever-changing weather.
In addition to the special events there will also be a free weekly programme of Storyhouse favourites bursting out of the building and into the park every Monday during July and August.
Rhymetime will be staged weekly in the magical surroundings of the Grosvenor Park tepee.
And Storyhouse Languages, held on Sunday 26 June from 1.30-4.30pm, will offer an afternoon of music, storytelling and performance from some of Chester’s vibrant and diverse international community. The bar will be open and people are invited to bring their own picnic and enjoy the fun which will include Portuguese stories for children.
Storyhouse Producer Helen Redcliffe says: “This is the first time Storyhouse has created a programme of additional events around Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, and I hope it will add to a real festival feel for what I know is going to be fantastic summer in the park.
“I’m really excited with the line-up which we’ve brought together, from wonderful acoustic evening sets to brilliant comedy to visits from some really entertaining, inventive and inspiring theatre companies.
“The storytelling and theatrical experiences are aimed at the littlest theatregoers and their families.
“And we’re also taking elements of Storyhouse’s wide-ranging regular programme of events and taking them into the great outdoors for the summer months. I can’t wait!”
For more details and to book visit www.storyhouse.com
ENDS
For more information, contact:
Nancy Davies
Marketing and PR Manager
Storyhouse
07886 743531
LISTINGS
ACOUSTIC NIGHTS
Amy Antrobus and Toria Wooff
Date: Thursday 14 July
Time: 8pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park tepee
Tickets: £10/£9 Storyhouse Members
Me + Deboe
Date: Sunday 7 August
Time: 8pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park tepee
Tickets: £10/£9 Storyhouse Members
Dave Roberts and Anna Jane Haughton
Date: Saturday 21 August
Time: 8pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park tepee
Tickets: £10/£9 Storyhouse Members
COMEDY
Daniel Kitson
Date: Sunday 17 July
Time: 8pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
Tickets: SOLD OUT
Comedy Night
Date: Sunday 28 August
Time: 8pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park tepee
Tickets: £10/£9 Storyhouse Members
PERFORMANCES
Flesh by Rob Drummond
Date: Wednesday 20 – Thursday 21 July
Time: 7pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
Tickets: £5/£4.50 Storyhouse Members
Lily and the Heron
Date: Friday 29 July
Time: 10.30am/11.30am/1pm/2pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
Tickets: £5/£4.50 Storyhouse Members
Rapunzel
Date: Friday 5 August
Time: 12noon/2pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
Tickets: £5/£4.50 Storyhouse Members
The Giant Balloon Show
Date: Friday 12 August
Time: 11am/12noon/2pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
Tickets: £5/£4.50 Storyhouse Members
Dig!
Date: Friday 19 August
Time: 10.30am/11.30am/1pm/2pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
Tickets: £5/£4.50 Storyhouse Members
WEEKLY EVENTS
Rhymetime
Date: Monday 25 July, 1, 8, 15 and 22 August
Time: 10.30am & 11.30pm (1 hour duration)
Venue: Grosvenor Park tepee
Tickets: FREE, book ahead (50 spaces)
Storyhouse Languages
Date: Every Monday during July and August
Time: 1.30-4pm
Venue: Grosvenor Park tepee
Tickets: FREE
About Storyhouse
Storyhouse is one of the UK’s foremost cultural centres incorporating a library, theatres and a cinema. It is one of the country’s most successful arts buildings, with more than one million customer visits each year.
The pioneering new library within Storyhouse, where members of the community work alongside city librarians, boasts the longest opening hours of any UK public library and is open every day until 11pm. It runs over 2,000 sessions a year for marginalised communities
The company also runs a highly successful theatre company and the country’s most successful regional open-air theatre, in the city’s Grosvenor Park and Moonlight Flicks open air cinema.
Storyhouse currently holds the official title as the UK’s Most Welcoming Theatre and was the overall national winner in the 2018 Guardian Public Service Awards
Website: www.storyhouse.com To subscribe, visit https://www.storyhouse.com/subscribe Twitter: @storyhouselive Facebook: www.facebook.com/storyhouselive Address: Hunter Street, Chester, CH1 2AR To become a member: https://www.storyhouse.com/storyhousecard
About Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
The award-winning Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre, located in Chester, is a purpose-built venue with an annual summer repertory season. Founded in 2010 by Storyhouse, it is the only full-time, site-specific professional open-air theatre company outside London.
The company produces all its work in-house under artistic director Alex Clifton.
The open-air theatre designed by the company is built each summer in Grosvenor Park, a public park in Chester. Performances are staged ‘in the round’, with the audience seated on all sides of a central stage. In 2011 the theatre switched from a traditional built stage to a more Shakespearean ‘thrust’ stage, made from woodchip. Covered seating to around 40% of terraces was introduced in 2012. In 2015, the original horseshoe shape was replaced by full ‘in the round’ seating.
Website: www.grosvenorpark.co.uk
Twitter: @storyhouselive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Grosvenorparkopenairtheatre/
Address: Vicars Lane Chester CH1 1QQ