Acclaimed play set to tour city’s schools
A specially-staged production of the National Theatre’s award-winning play, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, is touring Sunderland schools.
The production will be seen bysecondaryschoolsinthecity as part of a 12-week tour.
The tour forms part of the National Theatre’s drive to introduce new audiences to theatre, in a three-year partnership working with local theatres and schools.
This tour has been brought to Wearside in partnership with the Sunderland Empire.
Schools which will see the play include St Anthony’s Catholic Girls’ Academy, St Robert of Newminster Catholic School, St Aidan’s Catholic Academy, Southmoor Academy, Sandhill Academy and Sunderland College.
The school tour is a 90-minute version of the play followed by a question and answer session for students with thecompany.Itisaccompanied byalearningprogrammewhich includes professional development for teachers led by the NT and Curious Incident movement directors Frantic Assembly,aswellascurriculum-based resources and workshops.
Sunderland Empire and Sunderland Culture are collaboratingwiththeNationalTheatre to develop local audiences and engagement in theatre and reachnewaudiencesinthecity.
They are working closely to identify schools to take part in the programme, host training sessions for teachers and provide logistical support.
Helen Smith, Director of Sixth Form at St Anthony’s Catholic Girls’ Academy, said staff and students were thrilled with the production.
She said: “The whole experience has been amazing, it has been fantastic to have the National Theatre here and the performance was absolutely outstanding,reallymoving,the acting was just out of this world and for something like that to happen in our own school, has just been unbelievable.”
One of the students added: “I thought it was excellent, it really challenged your mind and made you think about how people react differently to different situations.”
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time brings Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel to life on stage, adapted by two-time Olivier Awardwinning playwright, Simon Stephens, and directed by Olivier and Tony Award-winning director, Marianne Elliott.