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The People’s Passion – now available

We are very pleased to announce that next week The People’s Passion is now available to download!

A powerful piece of theatre and worship, The People’s Passion brings together a whole congregation to witness the events of Jesus’ last week. There are parts to play for groups and parts for individuals, music to underscore the text and moments of reflection. Riding Lights provides the script, you provide the cast.

This is an instant passion play which any church can create, bringing people together to tell the Easter story, with just a little preparation and no rehearsal.

The resources include:

Organisers Handbook with full instructions for creating the event
Full script & licence to perform The People’s Passion
Powerpoint slides of the script
Music underscore
Artwork for publicity

The People’s Passion will also soon be available as a hard copy, including a printed guide and memory stick that holds all of the digital resources. The download costs £40. The hard copy version will incur a charge for postage and packing.

The People’s Passion is a great way to gather your community together for a unique experience of the Easter story. Riding Lights has performed The People’s Passion at our annual Summer Theatre School, at Spring Harvest, and with a smaller group of about 20 people at Friargate Theatre. It works equally well with different numbers of people.

You can find out more at ridinglights.org/peoples-passion.

09/26/2017 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News Tagged With: Easter, Lent, Resources, The People's Passion

Where Adventure Begins: partnering with New Wine

We are very pleased to announce that in 2018 Riding Lights will be partnering with New Wine to produce a new show all about growing faith in the family.

Touring the UK from January to March 2018 Where Adventure Begins is a brilliantly entertaining show – real, touching and hilarious – an unmissable piece of theatre to deepen our understanding of ‘family’.

Here’s the trailer which is being show at New Wine events this summer:

Meet Jake, Jasmine and Ellie as they re-live their childhood and teenage experiences of Christian faith at home and at church.
Nobody knows how it will turn out, but everyone’s agreed that we need to keep together on the adventure of faith.

To find out more about hosting a performance for your church contact Jo Foster on 07855 403029 or email jo.foster@new-wine.org.

Head over to www.new-wine.org/adventurebegins to find out more and see the performance dates already booked in.

08/02/2017 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News, Tour Tagged With: church, Family, Nation Tour, New Wine, trailer, video, Where Adventure Begins

Summer School 2017: Tutors announced

We can now announce the tutors for all seven of our courses at this year’s Summer Theatre School.

There’s lots of familiar faces for any of you who are returning for 2017, though we are also very pleased that Abigail Oscroft, our new youth theatre director, will be leading Riding Lights Express along with Summer School regular Sally Maddison.

Here’s a quick summary of the courses and tutors:

RIDING LIGHTS EXPRESS (age 14-18)
Tutors: Sally Maddison & Abigail Oscroft

A dynamic, fast-moving, physical theatre production all in one week. This year the Express company will bring their energy and comic imagination to George Orwell’s satire Animal Farm.

FACE THE MUSIC (age 14-18)
Tutors: Erin Burbridge, Tim Burnage & Edith Kirkwood

Sing, dance and act your heart out all week with a production of the 1961 Broadway classic How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER (age 19-25)
Tutors: Jonathan Bidgood & Owen Kingston

This course will not only create and perform some topical comedy sketches and stand-up routines but it will also learn how to film them. Devise it, script it, perform it, film it.

STAGE BY STAGE (age 19-90)
Tutors: Jon Boustead & Kelvin Goodspeed

Join this ambitious ensemble as they stage a play in a week, focusing on vivid characterisation and story-telling techniques. Stage By Stage will collaborate with members of Riding Lights Express to deliver a climactic production of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.

THE FULL WORKS (age 19-90)
Tutors: Rich Hasnip & Peter Hutchinson

For those who enjoy the fun and freedom of devising their own performance, through improvisation and exploring comic characters and situations. If you would like to create a sharp show, poking ‘serious’ fun at some of our current follies and foibles then this is the course for you!

THREE ENTERPRISE (age 19-90) – COURSE FULL
Tutors: Paul Birch & Paul Burbridge

Calling writers: three short comic plays will be written at the beginning of the week. Calling actors: performing skills will be honed in readiness. Calling directors: who will learn some trade secrets and practice them by staging these new plays… written, directed and performed by Three Enterprise.

TECHNICAL THEATRE (Age 16 – 90)
Tutor: Ollie Brown

This highly practical courses returns! Discover how to stage-manage a show successfully, rig and operate lighting and sound, as well as work with a director to bring one of the Summer School shows to life and to light.

So, has a particular course caught your eye or peaked your creative interest? If so, you can apply here.

06/05/2017 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News, Summer School

Applications Open: Roughshod 2018

Applications are now open for volunteers for our 2018 Roughshod company.

Here’s a bit more about what we’re looking for…

Actors wanted (M/F) for a seven month community tour in 2018.

Actors-Wanted-600px Riding Lights Roughshod is our dynamic young theatre company – taking faith inspired theatre into the heart of local communities all around the UK. Each year Roughshod creates and tours dynamic, challenging, spiritually centred performance to the places that need it most, performing everywhere from churches to care homes, primary schools to prisons.

We are looking for bold actor/facilitators with a range of skills who are interested in performing and running workshops in a wide variety of settings. All successful applicants will be supported in the rehearsal period with a training programme that equips our actors with top voice coaching, prison and schools work as well as workshop leading.

Please consider the company’s christian ethos before applying

Closing date for applications: Thursday 15 June 2017.

Auditions: will take place in York on 21 & 22 June 2017.
Second round audition dates: 10 July 2017
(Please Note: there has been a change to the first round audition dates)

Applications are now closed.

For more info call: 01904 655317 or email: roughshod@rltc.org

05/22/2017 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News, Roughshod Tagged With: roughshod

Baked Alaska On Film

Baked Alaska has been adapted for film and is available for FREE download.

After touring in 2015 we received multiple requests for a film version of the production. While not every play is suitable for filming, we thought Baked Alaska was the perfect candidate, not least because of the topic. Climate Change is an issue which isn’t going to disappear any time soon, and a film of Baked Alaska would be an excellent resource for churches, for ‘green’ groups and schools to help keep the discussion going.

As the project developed we realised the best way to create an engaging, useful resource would be to split the play up into seven short excerpts, each approaching this complex issue from a different angle, from big business to biblical parables, from international stories to home truths here in the UK.

For Schools and Small Groups

Working with Lat Blaylock from RE Today we have created accompanying resources for schools. For small groups the Rev. Jim Roberts has written the discussion materials. You can find the full series of films alongside these resources at: ridinglights.org/baked-alaska

Watch The Films

The seven episodes draw together themes from the show to highlight the breadth of the issues that arise from climate change. Risky Business, the second film in the series, retells Jesus’ parable of the rich fool for a today’s world of investments and oil companies.

You can also find and download the full set of films on our vimeo page.

05/04/2017 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News Tagged With: Baked Alaska, church, Climate Change, filming, schools, video

Crosslight: Trailer

Next week our 2017 passion play, Crosslight, goes into rehearsal. We’re delighted to welcome Sarah Finch, John Holden-White and Matthew Rutherford back for a second tour.

We also have a brand new trailer using some of Tom Jackson’s stunning photos and Jonathan Bidgood’s excellent music from the show. Take a look…

You can find your closest performance of Crosslight at ridinglights.org/crosslight or give us a call 01904 613000.

03/03/2017 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News, Tour Tagged With: Crosslight, National Tour, passion play, trailer

Roughshod: Bases for 2017

Our 2017 Roughshod company will be on the road from the 19th March, touring to communities across the UK for 6 months. Below is a list of the places they will be working in.

Roughshod: Reactive is a transformative tour-de-force, shaking things up with an explosive mix of comedy, drama and powerful storytelling. Whether they’re running workshops in schools, youth groups or prisons, or perhaps performing in churches or out on the streets, they reach some 25,000 adults and young people each year.

In 2017 Roughshod will be based in…

LORETO COLLEGE (MANCHESTER)	Mar 19 – Mar 26
NEWCASTLE	Mar 26 – Apr 02
NEWBURY	Apr 02 – Apr 09
Mini-Tour	Apr 09 – Apr 16
Easter Break	Apr 16 – Apr 30
SWINDON	Apr 30 – May 07
SHEFFIELD	May 07 – May 14
GILLINGHAM	May 14 – May 21
PLYMSTOCK / BUSH CONFERENCE	May 21 – May 28
NORTHERN IRELAND	May 28- Jun 11
HULL	Jun 11 – Jun 18
BRISTOL	Jun 18 – Jun 25
TEIGNMOUTH	Jun 25 – Jul 02
SALISBURY / WISBECH	Jul 02 – Jul 09
MAIDSTONE	Jul 09 – Jul 16
NEWCASTLE	Jul 16– Jul 23
RL SUMMER THEATRE SCHOOL	Jul 30 – Aug 6
SCARGILL ARTS FESTIVAL	Aug 6

You can find a full list of public performances of Roughshod: Reactive here.

02/22/2017 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News, Roughshod

Summer Theatre School 2017

29 July to 5 August 2017 - Summer Theatre School

Announcing our 2017 Summer Theatre School…
Taking place at Queen Margaret’s School, Escrick (near York) on the 29 July to 5 August.

This year we’ll be laughing out loud, as we have some fun with Comedy and Satire. Join us for a high-energy week of theatrical merry-making as we revive some classics and create some brand new work to chuckle over.

New courses for 2017

Our 2017 courses include favourites like Face The Music and Stage By Stage, as well as the return of our devising course for adults, The Full Works. We also have a brand new course Three Enterprise, bringing writers, directors and actors together.

Do you fancy stretching your theatrical muscles or learning some technical skills? Whether you are a writer, a performer or a director, there’s a space at Summer School for you to fill!

Take a look at full list of courses here.

Applications are now open, and if you book before January 31st 2017 you can get a 10% early booking discount.

12/31/2016 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News, Summer School Tagged With: comedy, satire, Summer School, York