A rehearsed reading and concert presentation of new US musical The Regulars will be the headline event at Hope Mill Theatre’s third annual LGBTQIA+ arts festival Turn On Fest in January.
Featuring music, lyrics and book by trans writer Will Shishmanian, the folk music flavoured musical is being produced by the Manchester venue and developed by Hope Mill Theatre with director Miss Hazel Jade.
Hope Mill Theatre will bring the musical’s creators over from America to work with a company of 10 actors for the preview concert which will then enter the workshop and development process in early 2023.
Commenting on the production, Miss Hazel Jade said: “I am unbelievably thrilled to showcase Shish’s (Will Shishmanian) beautiful songs at Turn On Fest and continue developing The Regulars with Hope Mill! It is a dream to share the world of Amberland with Manchester audiences.”
Following on from the 2020 launch of Turn On Fest and this year’s online event, the festival will welcome back live audiences from 22-38 January 2022.
Unveiling details of Turn On Fest 2022, Hope Mill Theatre’s artistic director Joseph Houston said: “We are thrilled to be bringing Turn On Fest back to live audiences in 2022. While we were glad that we managed to go online with this year’s festival, we felt the loss of not being able to bring artists and audiences together, especially within the LGBTQIA+ community, that we serve.
“We have an extremely exciting line up of shows and events this festival and as always we are happy to be working with an array of partners including Superbia, Trans Creative and Hive North.
“Hope Mill Theatre has become known for its musical productions and championing new work so we are truly honoured to be working alongside the creators of a new trans musical, The Regulars and can’t wait to start the journey of bringing this show to life.
“Since launching the festival in 2020, so many amazing queer artists have already gone on to really exciting careers in the arts, we built this festival both as a spring board for new creatives as well as an opportunity to showcase the best queer art the region has to offer, and I can tell you, there’s an abundance. So Turn Up and Turn On!”
As part of the festival, Hope Mill Theatre will also be collaborating with Trans Creative to double bill The Regulars with new Trans writing. Other highlights will include: Turn On Fest Scratch Night, an evening of LGBTQ+ live theatre presented by Hive North and Hope Mill Theatre; Turn On The Mic, an evening of LGBTQIA+ song hosted by musical theatre performer Duncan Burt; and Turn On-The Prom, a prom style event featuring live performances and special guests.
Angela Thomas
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