News – Another Eclipse

The Eclipse initiative, through which high quality Black theatre is produced for touring to major regional theatres across the UK, is to be funded for a further three years. The Eclipse consortium has thus far involved Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Nottingham Playhouse and The New Wolsey, Ipswich. They will this year be joined by West Yorkshire Playhouse. Over the next few years, the project will see each of the four partner theatres commissioning new work from established Black British writers.
The Rep will be the lead venue for 2006, with a new adaptation of Three Sisters by Mustapha Matura. In subsequent years, the project will also see the commissioning of emerging Black female writers and the production of additional smaller Eclipse productions that can tour to smaller venues. Steven Luckie, who will stand down as producer of Eclipse Theatre this year, said, There are very few examples of quality Black British female writing, compared to that of men& and, more significantly for the Eclipse Theatre project, no examples from Black British female playwrights. We therefore need to readdress this balance and aim to commission three emerging writers in 2006.