Edinburgh Project 2022

The Arts Team at Mulberry are delighted to announce the launch of the Edinburgh Project 2022 and the premiere of two Mulberry Theatre Company plays at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland; the biggest arts festival in the world. Mulberry Theatre Company (MTC) took its first production; Mehndi Night in 2007 and to date has produced five original plays  for the Festival Fringe. The Unravelling (2009) earned Mulberry the accolade of the first British state school to receive the prestigious Fringe First award and after the resounding success of Cry God for Harry, England & St George (2018), the company will this year take two plays, a student and an alumni production for the first time.

Students will be invited in the coming weeks to start the process of devising and developing ideas for the play with Director of Arts Sam Maynard and to contribute in a variety of ways exploring Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a stimulus. By June the cast will be selected to start rehearsing the play, develop their characters and bring the story to life. This unique and exciting project will give eighteen Year 9, 10 and 12 students the opportunity to travel to Edinburgh in August 2022. As well as the student performers, leading up to and during the festival a student production team will stage manage, provide technical support and assist with catering, marketing and front of house duties.

The alumni company have begun meeting for weekly evening workshops from November 2021 at the Mulberry & Bigland Green Centre. They are currently researching and developing ideas and themes for the alumni play with Arts Project Manager Afsana Begum. Keep an eye out for the launch of the Mulberry Arts website on 21st February which will provide regular updates from rehearsal rooms of both student and alumni productions and more information about past MTC productions. We would love to hear from staff members who would like to support and accompany the trip to Edinburgh in August (2-14). Food, travel, accommodation, and tickets to theatre shows will be provided. Please email abegum1@mulberryschoolstrust. org if you would like to find out more and/or to submit an expression of interest.