Biannual festival of new theatre from the Midlands returns.
First Bite Festival returns in 2017 and it’s bigger than ever, this time taking place across three events at three venues including the mac, Birmingham. For the first time, the theatre festival will visit the East Midlands with dates in Leicester and Derby. Over the course of the festival, 18 local companies will present new ideas and extracts from shows, offering audiences the chance to discover them before anyone else.
All the companies taking part are based in the Midlands and several have taken inspiration from local characters and stories, including Noctium, who draw on the story of pioneering Coventry-born sound designer Delia Derbyshire (composer of the Doctor Who theme) and The Bone Ensemble, whose cabaret about chocolate takes inspiration from the infamous Cadbury-Kraft merger. The companies will have the opportunity to meet each other and regional industry professionals over the course of the day as well as gather feedback on their performances.
First Bite has been showcasing and promoting the best of Midlands theatre talent since 2009 and is programmed by China Plate, an independent theatre studio committed to nurturing original, exciting theatre that plays with form and has narrative at its heart.
Three of the companies performing in First Bite will be chosen to receive a commission of £3,000 to develop the work and present it at its next stage at Bite Size Festival at Warwick Arts Centre in Autumn 2017. Previous shows supported by 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 JOAN, by Milk Presents, which won a number of awards including a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last summer.
For more information visit www.chinaplatetheatre.com