New Adventures Announces The Full Cast For World Premiere Of Matthew Bourne's Romeo and Juliet
New Adventures is delighted to announce full casting for the world premiere of Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet which will open at Curve on Mon 13 May, as part of a UK tour to 13 venues.
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 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 features a 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 who will come to this production direct from the USA Tour of Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella.
In addition there are sixteen young artists 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 Leicester will be five young cast members making their debut with New Adventures:
Cerise Bedder was born and raised in Leicester and trained at Dupont Dance Stage School. She auditioned for the show as it was an amazing opportunity and she knew as soon as she walked in the room, she wanted to be part of it.
Megan Ferguson was born in Kettering and lives in Market Harborough. She is training with Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance. Her biggest goal is to one day be part of Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures and it is a dream come true to be in one of his productions.
Emily Galvin was born in London and lives in Essex. She trained at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. A long-time admirer of New Adventures’ work, she was hugely excited about the possibility of being able to perform with such a prestigious company. She is passionate about acting and loves the story telling in New Adventures’ productions. She really admires the way the company members can evoke such strong reactions from audience members.
Christian Knight was born and raised in Leicester and trained at Addict Dance Academy & Dupont Dance Stage School. He has always wanted to work for such an amazing and inspirational company. Seeing the advert for the Young Cast auditions was a dream come true!
Alexander Love was born and raised in Leicester and trained at the Centre for Advanced Training in Nottingham and Wigston School of Dance. After his amazing experience performing with New Adventures in Lord of the Flies in 2014 he knew he wanted to be part of Romeo and Juliet.
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 the company has 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.