New talent heading to The Carriageworks this summer

Caption: Refresh Theatre’s Alice comes to The Carriageworks in June

A mix of award-winning artists from around the country and the finest homegrown talent will all be performing at The Carriageworks in Leeds following the unveiling of its summer season.

Reinforcing the reputation the theatre has quickly established for being one of the country’s leading venues for showcasing the UK’s best new theatremakers, the summer programme features a varied mix of productions and performers to appeal to all tastes.

Highlights of the season include Beady Eye’s Everything Must Go (Friday 21 May, 7.45pm). This unusual and highly original production has been showered with critical praise and awards, including a Total Theatre Award for Devised Performance and The Arches Brick Award 2009. The show is a funny, inventive and moving tribute to performer Kristin Fredricksson’s late father. It comes to Leeds as part of a UK tour that will include being performed at London’s prestigious Barbican Centre.

This is followed by Refresh Theatre’s Alice (Saturday 5 June, 7.30pm). With its Liverpool premiere quickly selling out, this visually stunning new show mixes physical theatre, evocative soundscapes and multi-media projections, along with a bit of circus and origami for good measure. The piece uses the imagery of Alice in Wonderland to create a funny and uplifting autobiographical story performed by the company’s Artistic Director Alice Robinson.

The Emerge Festival (Monday 21 – Saturday 26 June, various times) was started with the belief that some of the best new theatre in Britain is coming out of Leeds. The second edition of this annual event aims to make a big noise about the great work being made in the city and region. It will provide a platform for emerging theatremakers to try out ideas and connect with new audiences. Throughout the week-long event there will be performances, workshops and showings of work in different stages of development. The full-line up will be announced soon at www.emergefestival.org.uk.

The Carriageworks is one of the lead partners in the festival, along with stage@leeds, Seven and other organisations and agencies from across the city. The festival kicks off at the city centre venue with a specially-commissioned performance by Red Grit, Red Ladder Theatre Company’s actor training project. Bittersweet Sunshine (Mon 21 – Tues 22 June, 7.30pm) is Yorkshire playwright Ben Tagoe’s first commission for the company. Emerge has been funded by a grant from Arts Council England.

Leeds City Council executive member for Leisure Councillor John Procter said:

"The Carriageworks has quickly become renowned for being real hotbed of new performing talent and that is a real source of pride for everyone involved. The summer season shows once again that the theatre is dedicated to nurturing and developing the best new companies and artists around. Fans of inventive new theatre should definitely head to The Carriageworks this summer.”

For further information on the summer season at The Carriageworks visit the website at

Notes to editors:

1. Press tickets and interviews available on request. Tickets available from the Box Office on 0113 2243801 or online at www.carriageworkstheatre.org.uk. Tickets for Everything Must Go: £8 (full) / £8 (concessions). Tickets for Alice: £10 (full) / £8 (concessions). Tickets for Emerge: most events £3, Red Grit performances £6.

2. The Carriageworks is a thriving theatre at the heart of Leeds’ Millennium Square. It showcases the best new national and regional performance with a dynamic programme of theatre, dance, comedy and film. At the same time it provides support to young and emerging theatre makers, offering them a key platform to develop their work. The Carriageworks also gives opportunities for members of the local community to take part in a variety of high quality arts activities, and is home to the Leeds Civic Arts Guild. This is an umbrella group of performing societies offering the opportunity for local people to experience making theatre in a fully-functioning professional venue.

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact:
Roger Boyde, Learning and Leisure Media Relations Officer,
Tel 0113 247 5472, Email: roger.boyde@leeds.gov.uk

Thumbs up for new meals deal

The council’s new meals at home service has been given the thumbs up by its customers, according to a recent customer satisfaction survey.

Nearly 200 customers responded to the survey, which aimed to find out how the service is performing now that it has been rolled out city-wide.

The new meals at home service provides freshly cooked meals seven days a week, 365 days a year. Instead of being cooked en masse and kept warm for long periods of time, the meals are now cooked in special vehicles whilst on their way to customers’ homes. The scheme was piloted in the north east of the city about 18 months ago and was so well received that it has now been rolled out across the whole city.

All of the 198 people who completed the survey praised the staff who deliver the meals, agreeing that they are polite, helpful, clean and smart. When asked if the meals were delivered between the target times of 11.30 and 1.30, 192 people said that they were on time; 180 were satisfied with the variety of meals delivered and 185 said that the portions were big enough; 191 people said that their meal was hot on delivery.

Everyone was impressed that their meals got through during the bad weather earlier this year, and said that the attendants were ‘wonderful’.

Councillor Valerie Kendall, deputy executive member with responsibility for adult social care said:
“Hot, tasty, nourishing food is a vitally important part of achieving and maintaining a healthy and happy old age.

“This new seven-day-a-week scheme is part of our commitment to improving standards of care for people in Leeds, and I'm delighted that our customers are so pleased with the service they are receiving. Families and carers are also benefiting from greater peace of mind in the knowledge that someone is visiting their relative every day of the week.”

One of the customers surveyed said:
“The people who deliver are lovely. They deliver with a smile and always make time for a little chat.”

Some other comments made were that the variety of meals could be improved and that sometimes vegetables arrived slightly under-cooked. Others said they would prefer brown-bread sandwiches, or sometimes to have a salad. All these comments will be taken into consideration for future improvements to the service.

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact;
Claire Macklam, Leeds City Council press office (0113) 395 1578
Email: claire.macklam@leeds.gov.uk