Award-winning theatre company brings brand new plays by Leighton Buzzard people to the stage

National award-winning touring company Barrel Organ is set to host a free public performance featuring a variety of excerpts from brand-new plays created by the local community, performed by professional actors.

The performance will be at Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre on Thursday, August 17.

Since last year, Barrel Organ (Nothing, CONSPIRACY) has been collaborating with participants in Leighton Buzzard and the surrounding areas to find new, collaborative ways of telling stories theatrically and building community.

After engaging in a series of weekly open-access workshops with brilliant artists and theatre-makers, those involved have worked together to write and direct in their own short plays, to be performed for anyone who wants to join in the fun. The short plays will be performed by professional actors, and will be presented in a relaxed atmosphere open to all.

Texts to be presented in the performance have been written collaboratively by local people aged eight to 80, from a variety of groups across the town. They take on a variety of themes, including parent-child relationships, ageing, and ambition, with references to Leighton Buzzard sprinkled throughout.

The project is led by Barrel Organ's Associate Director Dan Hutton, an alumni of Cedars Upper School and Leighton Buzzard Drama Group, who grew up in the area and now works as a professional theatre director. He has worked with organisations across the country, including the Royal and Derngate, Cambridge Junction, Leeds Playhouse, Liverpool Everyman and New Vic Theatre.

He was joined for the project by local facilitator Millie Barber, as well as experienced practitioners who have worked with organisations like the National Theatre, Royal Court Theatre, The Yard, New Diorama Theatre, and Shakespeare’s Globe, as well as internationally.

The project has been generously supported by the Bedfordshire and Luton Community Foundation, Arts Council England, and Leighton-Linslade Town Council. Barrel Organ would like to thank everyone in the Leighton-Linslade community who has supported the project so far.

Tickets are free, and audiences are encouraged to book early on the Library Theatre website to avoid disappointment.