The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, the charity that supports the world’s largest performing arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and the biggest arts festival in the Southern Hemisphere, Adelaide Fringe are coming together to form an arrangement that will see both organisations amplify one another’s efforts for the benefit of artists and the international arts community.

Each organisation’s respective CEO will sign a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) that outlines the details of the arrangement on August 11 during this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  The MOU came to fruition from a collective belief between the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and Adelaide Fringe that organisations who share common objectives have the potential to positively influence the personal development of the Fringe festival artists and workers and thereby increase outcomes for each organisation.  The MOU will be signed by the South Australian Minister for Arts, Andrea Micheals MP and Scotland’s Culture Secretary Angus Robertson.

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Artistic Director of MGC, Michael Grandage today announces that the seventh MGCfutures Bursary Programme will open for applications from 12pm today, 10 August, and close on 12pm on 31 August. MGCfutures is a charity, formed in 2013. The bursaries programme was launched in 2016 for arts practitioners who show a commitment to their chosen career and look to progress to the next stage of their development.

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Kumiko Mendl, founder member of leading British East and South East Asian (BESEA) theatre company New Earth Theatre, today announces her decision to step down from her role as Artistic Director after 11 years, leaving the company in 2024.

New Earth Theatre was founded in 1995 by Mendl, David K.S. Tse, Tom Wu, Veronica Needa and Kwong Loke under the name Yellow Earth Theatre.  Since becoming the Artistic Director in 2011, Mendl has championed the work of British East and South East Asian artists and communities; spearheaded a rebranding to New Earth and established strong creative support systems for BESEA artistic and community networks.

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Today, Friday 04 August 2023, marks the official start of the 76^th Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which will run until Monday 28 August 2023.  Artists from 72 countries will be represented at the Fringe this August, with 973 shows from Scotland and 469 from Edinburgh itself!

The vision of the Fringe is to give anyone a stage and everyone a seat, and this year the average ticket price is less than £12, allowing audiences to experience a variety of work at a relatively low cost.  There are also 439 free shows at this year’s Fringe, and another 614 using the ‘pay what you want’ or ‘pay what you can’ model.

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Sadler’s Wells’ Barclays Dance Pass now has 20,000 members, with 1,000 young people enjoying £10 tickets for Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet this month through the scheme.

Launched in January 2020, Barclays Dance Pass is Sadler’s Wells’ ticket scheme offering £10 tickets to 16 to 30-year-olds as part of a major partnership with Barclays. Barclays Dance Pass makes available 10,000 tickets per year at £10 each to those registered with the scheme. No booking fee applies, and registered Barclays Dance Pass holders can purchase two tickets per production.

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Today, National Theatre and Audible have released a new podcast, New Voices, featuring ten plays from shortlisted and winning New Views playwrights. The New Voices series aims to celebrate and platform the next generation of writing talent from across the UK.

The plays, originally written by young people for the National Theatre’s New Views programme, have been adapted especially for audio as part of the Audible Original podcast, New Voices. Audible and the NT have worked with these new writers to support them through the adaptation process and give them first-hand experience of the commissioning, audio development and audio recording process.

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After months of anticipation, Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group is excited to announce that its first-ever immersive experience on Roblox – Cirque du Soleil Tycoon – is now available to all community members. In partnership with the leading metaverse game developer, Gamefam, families around the globe can now experience Cirque du Soleil’s newest contemporary circus show, ECHO, and raise the Big Top from the comfort of their homes.
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Rob Madge.

A Spotlight On, a streaming home for theatre content, aims to shine a light on everyone who contributes to the magic of theatre.

A Spotlight On has continued to collaborate with its audience since its launch in April 2023, and after being inspired by its growing community, A Spotlight On has now decided to remove the paywall on more than 100+ pieces of our content.

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Today, 1 August 2023, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society is pleased to announce a new strategic partnership with Nouveau Riche Productions. The partnership aims to understand how to address barriers to participation for Black and/or Global Majority artists at the Fringe.

The partnership will initially last six months and will focus on the shared ambitions of Nouveau Riche and the Fringe Society in providing support, resources and signposting for under-represented artists who face barriers to participation, and/or experience unsafe working environments, when taking part in the Fringe – specifically artists who identify as Black and/or Global Majority.

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Legendary drag artist, songstress and performer Divina De Campo, is today announced as the host of the Stage Debut Awards 2023 in association with Ambassador Theatre Group.

The Stage Debut Awards is the only dedicated awards recognising breakthrough theatre talent. Taking place on October 1 2023, the prestigious event brings together the previous 12 months’ most exciting and emerging performers and creatives in a special ceremony celebrating their outstanding professional debuts.

Divina is currently performing in the nationwide tour of The Sponge Bob Musical. Since competing in the very first season of RuPaul’s UK Drag Race in 2019 she has starred in a series of major theatrical productions, most recently enjoying critical acclaim cast as Mary Sunshine in Chicago and also in her award-winning role in the revival of cult musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Upcoming, Divina will lead the cast of Snow White at The Wyvern Theatre in this year’s pantomime as the evil Queen Morgiana. With a solid history in musical theatre, Divina has secured her status as a multi-faceted theatrical tour de force.

Divina comments: “I am so proud and honoured to be hosting The Stage Debut Awards this year because they really do shine a vital light on those at the start of their careers. This awards ceremony gives an important platform to the breakthrough talent in the industry and it lets the rest of us know they’re coming for us! I can’t wait to celebrate with all the deserved nominees on the night.”
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