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Free theatre competition taster readings offer a flavour of Europe

03/11/2016

Members of the public are being offered the opportunity to vote for a winning play which will be performed at the University of Wolverhampton’s Arena Theatre before touring around Europe.

The University of Wolverhampton’s Arena Theatre received a £150,000 grant to work in partnership with three other institutions across Europe in Italy, Romania and Spain to promote new work in theatre.

Co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union, the Playwriting Award for POP Drama competition has been judged with four short-listed entries selected out of 300 scripts entered from across Europe.

Readings from the four successful plays will be staged at the Arena Theatre every Monday for the next four weeks: 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th November at 7.30 pm giving the audience the chance to vote for the prize winning play.

Neil Reading, Manager at the Arena Theatre, said: “We’re bringing a taste of Europe back into Wolverhampton for the next month. The audience will get the chance to vote for the winning play in this wonderful partnership competition which has seen four potentially award winning plays translated into four different languages.

“We are committed to developing new artists and new work and this project has given us a great opportunity to discover unknown, exciting new talent from across Europe and put their work on the stage. The winner of the competition will have their play produced professionally next season with the potential for it to be developed into a full-scale production that will tour Italy, Romania and Spain alongside the publication of the play in those three languages.”

Anyone interested in attending the ‘People’s Choice’ readings should register on www.popdrama.eu for the FREE events which will include pizza, soft drinks and wine.  People who attend all four readings will be entered into a prize draw to win a trip for two to see a London show early next year.

The Arena Theatre has partnered with the Centro Diego Fabbri in Italy, Universitatea de Arte Din Targu-Mures in Romania and Fundacion CajaGranada in Spain working with the University of Wolverhampton’s Faculty of Arts who will deliver the English section of the award.

ENDS

For more information please contact the Media Relations Office on 01902 32 2736 or 01902 518647.

Date Issued: 3rd November 2016

For more information please contact the Corporate Communications Team.

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