Set on empowering the next generation of artistic leaders, Artistic Directors of the Future, founded by award winning founder and artistic director Simeilia Hodge-Dallaway seeks to demystify leadership roles; ‘celebrating the Black, Asian, Middle Eastern and Ethnic Minority talent which exists in our community.’ Formed 6 years ago, the charity’s impact has been significant within the theatre industry, conversations geared towards diversifying leadership a key factor in regards to advocating for change. Reflecting on the charity’s impact so far, Simeilia tells us more about the organisation’s journey, their Board Shadowing programme and Diversifying Boards event and her hopes for the organisation moving forward.

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Fancy frills and festive frivolities welcome energised audience members into the kooky world of one of York’s most famous panto houses!

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In a world where statistics show that one in three young people suffer from mental health issues, Reasons to Stay Alive challenges the way we visualise depression and anxiety, and shares honestly what an individual must overcome to find inner peace.

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Sharp movements and diverse creativity sees both these choreographic morsels take audiences on a journey through entrapment, as well as the power and purpose of identity.

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Packed with gripping tension and cultural divides aplenty, Arthur Miller‘s hard hitting play about identity and masculinity pushes our protagonists deep into disgruntlement, and soon to be violence. If you wonder what it is like to allow jealousy to build up inside your physique, and the consequences of letting it spread, then this performance is truly for you.

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A childhood gaming favourite turned into a political hierarchy, Noughts and Crosses takes audiences on a high speed dramatic journey through love, loss and life threatening betrayal. The performance has a Romeo and Juliet style innocence, however is laced with the kind of mistrust and social divides you are likely to see in the Hunger Games Saga. District 1 represented by the influential Crosses squeezing their grasp on the poor, in this case the Noughts, towards the lower citizens of District 12.

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Packed full of classical charm and dynamic vocal artistry, Macbeth takes audiences on a journey through Scotland’s civil war, yet adding the rich flavour of Verdi’s operatic genius. The English Touring Opera, conducted in this performance by Gerry Cornelius, incorporates the bloodthirsty and murderous Shakespearean favourite and balances it alongside the bellowing yet crisp tones sang by the vocalists.

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Grease is well and truly the word in this Yorklight interpretation of the funky classic we all know and love, although does fall a little short of the soaring bar set by the original film. Filled with glittering set pieces, colourful attire and hair that is so gelled into place it looks as if the cast has to use olive oil to keep it at bay, creates the perfect staples for this jiving 50s musical.

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Out in an abandoned back alley, four girls play in the muck. They inhabit different eras across the twentieth century but through the gap in a wire fence they’re born again into a timeless no-man’s land as their childhood selves. This is the wasteground of Charlotte Keatley’s play, an abstract and non-linear setting where all four characters can see themselves as equals. Their camaraderie is discarded here, forgotten in the main action of the play which pits women against one another.

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The hints of a troubled city create a current under-running Rona Munro’s 1991 play Bold Girls, not so much dominating the action rather than leaking through.

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