First Bite Festival launched

Midlands companies chosen to present extracts and new ideas as part of a one day festival of fresh new theatre.

Ten regional theatre companies will test brand new material, present work in progress showings and seek audience feedback at the 2015 First Bite Festival. Held at mac birmingham and delivered by award-winning independent theatre studio China Plate, the one day festival provides an opportunity for artists and companies to develop and perform new ideas in a supportive and nurturing environment, to an audience of theatregoers and regional industry professionals. For the first time this year, applications from artists were sought from across the East and West Midlands.

As with every First Bite Festival since the first in 2009, two of the programmed companies will go on to receive a commission of £3,000 to develop the work and to present it at its next stage at Bite Size Festival at Warwick Arts Centre in November 2015.

Previous shows commissioned from the First Bite Festival include Caroline Horton’s award-winning You’re Not Like The Other Girls Chrissy, which has toured since 2010 and viewed by over 10,000 people, and Our Fathers by Babakas, which won critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2013 and has toured internationally.

The festival will be held at mac Birmingham, Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham, West Midlands B12 9QH on 2nd May. Tickets £10 full day, £6 afternoon/evening only. For tickets and full details call 0121 446 3232 or visit www.macbirmingham.co.uk