The Royal Opera House is delighted to be featured as part of this year’s Open House Festival. Taking place on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 September 2023, the festival celebrates the greatest architecture across London. The Royal Opera House will be open from 10 am across the Open House Festival weekend and we encourage everyone to explore the public spaces of our iconic venue.

As part of the festival, we’ll be offering a series of free tours of the Royal Opera House. Led by our expert guides, these tours will showcase the incredible history of the theatre, focusing on how the Royal Opera House has transformed from the 18^th century to now. Please note, this tour does not enter the backstage areas of the theatre.

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Courtesy of Peter Dibdin.

The 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe draws to a close today, Monday 28 August 2023, having brought together artists, arts industry, media and audiences from nearly 170 countries, with 2,445,609 tickets issued across the festival.

288 venues hosted a diverse selection of work from Scotland, the UK and the rest of the world, with 67 countries represented, and performance showcases from 17 countries. They were joined by nearly 500 of the world’s finest street performers, buskers and street artists, who brought vibrancy and joy to the Mound and Royal Mile as part of the Fringe street events.
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Returning for its eighth edition this year at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, The Comedians’ Choice Awards 2023 – run by the British Comedy Guide, announce this year’s winners. Renowned for nominations being made solely by performers taking part in the festival, the awards are the only ones to do so – making the process that much more special and revered amongst comedy peers. The awards are broken down into three main categories – Best Show/Best Performer/ Best Best Person, with nominations whittled down to an eventual winner. Congratulations to all nominees and winners, continue reading to find out this year’s results.

Best Show

Julia Masli: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

Performing at Monkey Barrel 4.

After being surprised on stage with the award, Masli said: “Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha”.

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Sky Arts has renewed its partnership with the National Theatre as Headline Sponsor of NT Live as it approaches its 15^th anniversary next year. National Theatre Live films and distributes world-class theatre straight from UK stages to cinema screens around the world. Sky Arts has been a key partner and headline sponsor of NT Live since 2017, supporting the National Theatre’s aim to widen access to the best of British theatre nationwide.

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The Stage Debut Awards today reveals the much-anticipated nominees for its annual awards ceremony celebrating the best emerging theatre talent in the UK. This year’s 45 nominations across 8 categories celebrate an array of talented individuals from performers to composers and designers through to writers, lyricists and directors.

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The highly anticipated performing arts celebration spotlighting dynamic musicals and award-winning plays in London’s West End, makes its return this summer. Marking its 5th-year anniversary, the campaign offers audiences the opportunity to get tickets to the best of West End theatre at accessible prices by booking between 21 August to 3 September.

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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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