Matthew Bourne’s ROMEO AND JULIET is a passionate and contemporary re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic love story. Bursting with youth, vitality and Matthew Bourne’s trademark storytelling, Britain’s brightest young dance talent join the New Adventures company for this World Premiere production.
As part of New Adventures’ ambition to support the next generation of on-stage talent ROMEO AND JULIET will feature the finest emerging male and female dancers from around the UK. The search began in April 2018 with a call-out for young dancers currently in training aged between the ages of 16 and 19. Attracting over 1000 applications and following a UK-wide audition tour, Young Cast members will perform at each venue alongside the New Adventures company.
Matthew Bourne said “New Adventures’ Romeo and Juliet will be a celebration of youthful energy, talent and creativity both on and off-stage and, uniquely, in all aspects of Choreography, Design and Music through the appointment of a series of “Young Associate Artists”. As we enter our fourth decade as a company I’m finding the development of young talent ever more important and fulfilling. Our new company of Romeo and Juliet featuresa staggering 97 young dancers making their debuts with us; some are joining us as part of their third year of training, others have come through our Company initiatives such as ‘Swan School’, ‘A Summer Adventure’ and of course, our production of ‘Lord of the Flies’ which inspired so many young men to seek careers in dance. This time we have focused on nurturing young male and female dancers, and I have been overwhelmed by the talent that we have had to choose from throughout the UK. I’m particularly happy to be working alongside my Young Associate Choreographer, Arielle Smith, an exceptional young dancemaker of great maturity and vision. In turn, after 30 years as a professional choreographer, I look forward to being refreshed and inspired by what this team of young artists will bring to Shakespeare’s classic tale of tragic conflict and young love”.
As previously announced the title roles of ‘Romeo’ and ‘Juliet’ will be played by six New Adventures rising stars and two exciting new dancers making their professional debuts.
Creating the role of Juliet will be Cordelia Braithwaite, currently performing as Cinderella on the international tour; Seren Williams, who joined New Adventures in 2016 with Matthew Bourne’s award-winning production of The Red Shoes and Bryony Harrison who is making her debut with New Adventures on tour with Matthew Bourne’s legendary production of Swan Lake.
The role of Romeo will be created by Andrew Monaghan, currently The Pilot in Cinderella, Paris Fitzpatrick who is playing the Angel in Cinderella and João Carolino who joined the company in 2017 with “Early Adventures”. Making their professional debuts with the company are Harrison Dowzell, as Romeo, who auditioned for the Young Cast in Nottingham, and Bryony Wood, as Juliet, discovered during the Young Cast auditions in Southampton. Both are in their graduate years at Performers College and Tring Park School for the Performing Arts respectively. They are joined by leading New Adventures artists, Madelaine Brennan, Daisy May Kemp, Danny Reubens and Daniel Wright who will create the adult world of Romeo and Juliet. Ben Brown, Reece Causton, Jackson Fisch, Kate Lyons, Stephen Murray and Mark Samaras will come to this production direct from our USA Tour of Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella.
In addition there are sixteen young dancers making their debut with New Adventures: Natasha Chu, Gaby Conn, Monique Jonas, Sharol Mackenzie, Hannah Mason, Asher Rosenheim, Catrin Thomas, Chris Thomas and Roisin Whelan; along with Benjamin Derham from Canterbury, Cameron Flynn from Aberdeen and Billy Scott from Plymouth who all performed in the Young Cast in the acclaimed New Adventures production of Lord of the Flies in 2014; and Alexander Fadayiro at Central School of Ballet, Jana Baldovino at Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance and Stanley Duventru-Huret at Urdang Academy who are completing their third year of dance training while on tour with ROMEO AND JULIET.
Joining the full time cast in Bradford will be six young cast members making their debut with New Adventures:
Pattarapong Chomchan was born in Thailand but now lives in Manchester and attends the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. He wanted to audition because he has always been inspired by Matthew Bourne’s work. He wanted to put himself to the test before he starts his professional training.
Zac Crowe was born in Blackpool and lives in Kirkham. He is training at the Centre of Advance Training at The Lowry, Manchester. He has many friends in the New Adventures company and has heard from them that they have an absolutely fantastic time. He couldn’t let the opportunity to work with such an amazing choreographer and company pass by.
Bethany Curry was born in Scotland and lives in Beverley, East Yorkshire. She is training at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds. She wanted to audition to be a part of the Young Cast because it is an amazing performance opportunity and the chance to gain experience with a professional company. It’s also exciting to be a part of a brand-new Matthew Bourne production and to work with the young associate artists chosen for this project.
Yvette Levine was born and lives in Bingley, West Yorkshire. She is training at Budapest Dance Theatre Elite Dance Program. It has always been a dream of hers to dance with New Adventures and she jumped at the chance to audition. She is hugely excited to be working alongside the company members and the whole team. She is really grateful for the experience and opportunity to discover herself as an artist.
Hollie Smith was born in Keighley and lives in Oakworth. She is training at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. It’s a dream come true to perform with New Adventures. She hopes the chance to dance with such a prestigious company will not only give her the experience but expand her professional skills to help her with her future dance career. She returns to The Alhambra Theatre having previously performed in pantomime for five years before she went away to train professionally.
Tom Sutton was born and lives in Middlesbrough. He is training at Dance City CAT. He thinks Matthew Bourne is an absolute legend in the contemporary dance world and cannot wait to be in an actual show created by Matthew Bourne.
New Adventures is committed to finding and developing diverse young talent from across the UK. Since Lord of the Flies in 2014 New Adventures has been supporting young dancers from this production on their journey into training and professional work. The company have delivered various initiatives, including Swan School, two week-long intensives designed to prepare graduate level dancers for the audition process.
Continuing New Adventures’ commitment to developing off-stage talent they have recruited a team of Young Associate Artists to work alongside the Artistic team in the creation of this world premiere production. Arielle Smith joins as Young Associate Choreographer; Elin Steele as Young Associate Set & Costume Designer and Ali Hunter as Young Associate Lighting Designer.
ROMEO AND JULIET is Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne, collaborating with his entire New Adventures Associate Artistic team: Etta Murfitt, Associate Artistic Director; set and costume design by Lez Brotherston; lighting by Paule Constable; sound by Paul Groothuis; and new orchestrations of the Prokofiev score by Terry Davies, played live at every venue by The New Adventures Orchestra conducted by Brett Morris.
