New Artistic Director Rob Drummer today announces the relaunch of Company of Angels as Boundless Theatre along with his first production as Artistic Director – ‘Natives’ by Glenn Waldron which opens at Southwark Playhouse in March 2017.
On announcing the relaunch Rob Drummer said, “It’s with huge excitement that we today relaunch Company of Angels under its new name Boundless Theatre. We feel the word Boundless perfectly reflects our ambition to present bold, fearless and enterprising theatre without limits and to break down barriers to engagement and access. It also seems appropriate that as an international company, based in a post-Brexit UK, we choose a name that reflects our commitment to working with partners from all around the world. In light of this, I am delighted that my first production as Artistic Director – ‘Natives’ by Glenn Waldron – is a global story which follows three teenagers in three different continents.”
For fifteen years, Boundless Theatre has produced and toured new plays, nationally and internationally and created projects and experiences that young adult audiences share in. It nurtures and empowers the next generation of artists, brings plays, diverse perspectives and ideas from Europe and engages with a range of artistic forms beyond theatre-making.
Its award-winning productions have included ‘Hannah and Hanna’ (which toured to India, Malaysia and Phillipines), ‘Truckstop’, ‘Apples’ and in 2015, with the Young Vic and New Wolsey Theatre, it co-produced the critically acclaimed ‘World Factory’, developed by METIS.
Current Boundless Theatre programmes include a partnership with Théâtre National de Toulouse and Théâtre National de Belgique introducing 14–16 year olds to contemporary plays in translation, and a collaboration with Drama Centre London providing guidance to its MA Dramatic Writing students on how to write for young audiences. Over the course of the next year, Boundless Theatre will also work with an advisory group of 15–25 year olds who reflect the audience and artists it works with. This group will be engaged in every aspect of the company’s work and will be a vital influence on decisions that are made relating to programming, artistic development and the wider work of the company.
Since 2001, over 50 organisations, embassies, cultural institutes, trusts and foundation have funded Boundless Theatres’ work and between 2015 and 2016 it attracted over 5,000 audience members and participants, of which more than 10% were outside of the UK. All of this takes place with a core team of just two full-time and three part-time staff.