^{Chapterhouse presents its summer 2013 season of open-air garden theatre}

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Chapterhouse Theatre Company is a professional touring theatre company, bringing its wide range of experience to venues across Britain. The company prides itself on fully accessible, traditional, but innovative productions. We now enter our twelfth season of productions, with a selection of ever-popular Shakespearean plays, adaptations of fine, classic English novels and our beloved children's show, featuring Milky-White the cow touring country houses and gardens throughout Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland. More details about our current productions for Summer 2012 can be found on our home page.

From a first year of performances at some thirty venues, with Romeo and Juliet, the company has established itself as one of the most successful and acclaimed touring companies in the country. In previous years, the company has toured a variety of shows, including Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and Much Ado About Nothing, together with performances of classic works such as The Mystery Plays, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. What's more, in 2004, the company produced the first West End show ever to tour open-air, ART, directed by Nigel Havers. 

2009 marked our tenth anniversary year, with ever-popular tours of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. The new tradition of our children's show continued, with Louisa's adventures in fairytale storytelling taking on the tale of Cinderella. Our children's shows have proved incredibly popular, and children and adults alike seem to love the dressing up and sing-a-longs that go with the show. For children of all ages we also presented the sequel to our King Arthur tales with a new production of Merlin the Magician (no connection to the BBC series),  a magical adventure full of sword and sorcery as Merlin guides the Knights of the Round Table on their quest for the Holy Grail. Scripted by award winning writer Laura Turner, this was a thrilling evening's entertainment. Laura also provided the adaptation for our most ambitious tenth anniversary project; a brand-new production of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Rich in romance, betrayal, loss and love in the English countryside, this proved the perfect summer evening's entertainment, and we returned to Austen the following summer with our production of Pride and Prejudice.

Chapterhouse now perform at over 140 different locations around Great Britain, Northern Ireland and Ireland for their garden theatre season, including many of the most beautiful settings for open-air theatre imaginable. Every venue has something different to offer, and in recent years, we have performed at Chirk Castle, Exbury Gardens, the Royal Estates of Sandringham, Balmoral and Windsor, and Castle Ward in Ireland.

Two tours of theatres in 2003 (A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet) and 2005 (Macbeth) were very successful and attracted audiences from both the regular theatre-going public and schools, many of which took part in workshops aimed at expanding pupils understanding of the plays through either text study or acting classes based on the play’s themes. 

So, what more is there left to say than what better way to spend a summer evening than picnicking with family and friends in the grounds of some of the most beautiful gardens in the UK and Ireland and joining Chapterhouse for an evening of

theatre under the stars

Richard has always had an interest in the theatre and music. In his youth he was a chorister and a self-taught musician. Following college, he was a member of avant-garde/jazz band 4,000,000 Telephones, releasing a number of acclaimed records and touring the UK and Europe. He became interested in theatre production in the ‘90s,when he produced for The Lincoln Mystery Plays, the Lincoln Shakespeare Company and numerous regional music events. At Bishop Grosseteste College in Lincoln he studied Drama and Rural Studies: a combination that has informed his career in producing theatre largely in the countryside. His favourite things are collecting things other people don’t want (he has a selection of autographs from Doctor Who and Dr Finlay’s Casebook), cinema and musical theatre. His daughter Grace, of whom he is very proud, is now in her fourth year of uni studying medicine and they share a mutual love of House, ER and of course, Doctor Who.

After training in IT and Administration, John joined the company in 2001, and has since become a valuable member of the office team. He currently designs the publicity material, turns the office PC’s off and on again when they go wrong and gets to be involved in all aspects of office admin. Away from work, he enjoys listening to an eclectic mix of music, watching films, reading science fiction, trawling the internet, World of Warcraft, football and pondering the vastness of the universe. And beer. Don’t forget the beer.

Chelsea Jay Buckthorp is Chapterhouse’s Press and Publicity Officer. She is an English Literature graduate from Kingston University London, where she specialised in Shakespeare in Popular Culture. Prior to Chapterhouse, she worked in bookselling and events for Waterstones and is a regular contributor at The Lincolnite, an online news and events provider. As well as working within the media she also enjoys creative writing and is currently working on a soon-to-be bestselling children’s novel with her friend (well we can all dream, can’t we).

Rebecca began her professional career in theatre at the age of 15. Her interest in all things creative started much earlier than this; she was a keen artist, musician and writer and used these mediums as her creative outlet. She went on to study Theatre and Performance at Warwick University. Following training, she began her career as an actor; taking roles in theatre, television and voice-over. Since 2005 Rebecca has been a professional theatre director and later, Artistic Director for a number of companies/projects. Her main work is with Chapterhouse, directing their open air tours during the summer and theatre tours during the winter. For her more random creative thoughts, Rebecca uses a different outlet: Distraction Theatre Company and The Terror Tours. Two companies set-up by herself and Co-Producer, Katherine Glenn. She has also been the Artistic Director of the Lincoln Shakespeare Festival.

Laura TurnerLaura has been working as a playwright since graduating from the University of York with a BA in English Literature with First Class Honours in 2009. Her first commission was from Chapterhouse to script their 2007 children’s show Jack and the Beanstalk & Hansel and Gretel and she has been writing for the company ever since. Her adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility has toured twice previously with Chapterhouse’s open-air summer tours. In recent years, Laura has worked with Travelling Light and Show of Strength theatre companies, had her work showcased at the Lincolnshire New Writing Writing Festival and was selected to participate in Hull Truck Theatre Company’s PlayWrite programme. After completing a BBC New Talent training programme in 2010, Laura was one of fifteen new writers commissioned by the BBC to write for the third series of E20, a spin-off of EastEnders. Last year, she became Features Editor of online magazine A Younger Theatre and recently took part in Hull Truck Theatre’s 24 Hour Play event, scripting a one-act play entitled BOO! Laura has recently been selected to participate in the Royal Court Theatre Young Writers’ Programme and is currently working on an adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma for Chapterhouse’s forthcoming summer tour. 

Mark trained as an actor at The Drama Centre London and has many years experience in the theatre. He has now worked on and off for Chapterhouse for the past 10 years. He started as an actor for them, appearing in Twelfth Night as Orsino, in A Midsummer Night's Dream as Bottom, as Lord Capulet in Romeo & Juliet, as well as many other roles. He is now the production manager at Chapterhouse.

Jason Addison - Production Manager & Lighting Designer

Jason is from Lincoln and started his professional career working with Chapterhouse in 2005 as a Production Assistant and Technician on Romeo & Juliet. He revised this role in 2006 touring with Romeo & Juliet, Twelfth Night and Goldilocks on their national theatre and garden tours. Following this he joined Rhubarb Theatre and most recently PEEL in the role of Technician, working his way up to Production Manager and Lighting Designer. Highlights of this were Thomson Cruises and Warner Leisure Hotels including BBC's Strictly Come Dancing. This has enabled him to do the job he loves and travel the world at the same time. Jason is thrilled to be back at Chapterhouse and touring with their spring tours of Sense and Sensibility and Cranford. He would like to thank his friends and family for their continued support and hopes you enjoy the production.

Should you experience any problems, or notice any errors, please contact theoffice@chapterhouse.org