Theatre company increases free podcasts of its hit plays

A theatre company has received Arts Council England cash to support its podcast series, developed after the team had to cancel its spring tour due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Badapple Theatre, which is based in North Yorkshire, was due to mark 21 years of success by touring to rural venues across the UK with new production Elephant Rock.

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The company’s slogan ‘Theatre on Your Doorstep’ has now been reworked to ‘Theatre on Your Desktop’ and the team has already released series one Back to the Land Girls.

The funding will be used to develop this further, adapting a number of previous plays into podcast series as well as commissioning three new short plays that are upbeat and resonant for the company’s core rural audiences.

More than £300 has also been raised in Friends membership donations and will be used to support the new venture.

All podcast episodes will be free to listen to.

Artistic director Kate Bramley said: “Our audiences are always at the heart of what we do and we hope this will find new ways for us to connect with and support them.

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“We also recognise that the skills learned and outcomes of this ‘pilot’ could redefine the way we work more successfully.

“The project will provide work to a number of Yorkshire based freelance actors, writers and professionals and funding will also be used to provide virtual sessions to the company’s youth theatre groups.”

Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the company toured more than 90 professional performances annually as well as running a youth theatre, youth summer school and adult amateur performance from its rural base.

Artistic director and writer Kate Bramley - formerly of Sir John Godber’s Hull Truck, Peter Schumann’s Bread & Puppet Theater - has a 20-year pedigree as a writer, director and rural touring innovator, using music, puppetry, dance and ‘live-baking’.

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Music director Jez Lowe is a SONY Radio Academy Award Winner for the Radio Ballads, BBC Radio Aria Award for ’Lone on a Wide Wide Sea.

To listen to series one Back to the Land Girls head to:

https://badappletheatreonyourdesktop.podbean.com or visit