It’s Autumn and that means Croydonites is back very soon.

In fact the theatre and performance festival is back x 2, because they are hosting their first ever Fringe Festival from Thursday 31 October until Sunday 3 November, before the main festival takes over for most of November – from Wednesday 6th until Sunday 24th.

Autumn is going to be packed with awesome theatre and performance and with the Fringe programme already announced, you can now start booking your tickets.

Directors Anna Arthur and Katie Hurley are joined this year by Sophie  Eustace. We catch up with all three to find out more.

Croydonites Fringe: left – Artopia; right – Improv the dead.

Croydonist: This year you have a fringe and a festival – what’s the difference?

Anna: We have been thinking about a fringe festival for a few years now. The difference between the fringe and the main festival is that the fringe has a lot more going on in a shorter space of time. You could (if you so desire) see up to 6 shows a day so it’s a lot more intense! Also, the programme is selected through an open call. We had 46 applications and selected 20 with the help of a panel comprised of local artists, audience members, writers from CroydonWrites (our critical writing programme) and our previous and current young producer. Our main festival is very much focused on theatre and performance, the fringe has a much wider range of shows ie. standup comedy, music and film as well as new writing and performance. The big difference for the artists is that they take a share of the box office when it comes to fringe, although there are no costs to them whereas in Edinburgh artists pay a lot to perform including venue and equipment hire, marketing, travel hotel etc.

Croydonites Fringe: left – Amy Gwilliam; right – Queer Croydon meet The Keys.

Croydonist: Where are the performance spaces this year?

Anna: Well, that is very exciting! We have our own venue this year which we are calling Studio 55, it’s a unit in Centrale Shopping Centre on the lower floor (unit 55 to be precise). It’ll look like a little studio theatre with a small seating rake, black drapes and a front of house area, we cannot wait! We are also returning to our favourite venue The Front Room in St Georges Walk, as well as Stanley Arts and the Braithwaite Hall. Two new places we are working with this year are the Venue on Middle Street and the Green Dragon. Eventually we’d like to fill every venue in Central Croydon with shows, just give us time!

Croydonist: What are you most looking forward to about the Fringe?

Katie: EVERYTHING! As Anna mentioned we have such a variety of genres this year, there really is something for everyone, it’s hard to choose. We’re opening on Halloween with a zombie sketch comedy performance and closing with a band on a sunday afternoon. There’s a walking tour, a treasure hunt for children and families, side splitting comedy, a choir, two Edinburgh transfers, films, spoken word, Q&A’s – it’s jam packed.

Just the general atmosphere and buzz of the weekend will be pretty great to be honest.

Croydonites Festival: left – James Rowland; right – Hurly Burly Theatre.

Croydonist: What are you most looking forward to about the Festival?

Sophie: ‘We Can Be Heroes’ is going to be really special. It’s a lip-syncing dance show performed by a cast of up to 30 local people, taking place in Whitgift Square on Super Saturday (as we’re calling it!) on 2 November, during our fringe weekend. It’s the first time we are working with a full community cast too.

We are also bringing two free outdoor works to North End that day (Working Boys Club & Big Mob Walkabout) another first for us. Then we have our commissions. 8 locals will present short works in CroydonBites. Chardine Makaveli-Singh and Nathan Brown-Bennett from last year’s CroydonBites will be returning after developing their ideas further and Simon Manyonda is presenting the next instalment of his debut solo show ‘Blessed, Tryna Shake This Curse’.

We have an amazing dance double bill featuring award winning Sarah Baltzinger and Isaiah Wilson from Luxembourg supported by locals Elise Antonia and Marlon Matenhese. Richard DeDomenici is returning with All of Us Strangers: Redux, short extracts filmed with a local cast in their original location. Hurly Burly Theatre visits for the first time with their opera for toddlers (yes, it’s a thing), and master storyteller James Rowland comes direct from Edinburgh. Then we round off with dance maverick and national treasure Wendy Houstoun and the hottest thing in immersive theatre right now, Deadweight Theatre with their show for one person at a time The Manikins: a work in progress.

Yes, we know, we’ve created a monster.

Croydonites Festival: left – Big Mob Walkabout; right – Sarah & Isaiah MEGASTRUCTURE by Bohumil Kostohryz.

Thank you to Anna, Katie and Sophie for chatting with us. Check out the programme and book your tickets on their website here. Be sure to follow them on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for more updates.

Photos courtesy of Croydonites.

Posted by Julia