a different drum

Familiar faces in new places

With Roughshod nearly at their last week of tour, and Summer Theatre School not long after, now is probably a good time to give you a glimpse of what we’re planning for the rest of the year (and beyond.) So here goes…

First off, we have a very exciting piece of news! Riding Lights are pleased to announce that we’ll be reviving The Alchemist with the Belgrade Theatre Coventry in February 2014.

Originally produced for our opening season at Friargate Theatre, Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist is a fast and feisty city farce, poking fun at our obsessions and vanity, making us susceptible to any well-worked scam. A tale of double dealing, con-artists and ludicrous disguises, the production received top reviews when it was first performed in York, and we’re delighted to be taking the play to a new audience in Coventry.

Performances run from 1st to the 22nd of February 2014 in the Belgrade’s wonderfully flexible B2 space. We’ll be telling you more about the show soon, but for now, why not take a look at their website?

A second beat of the ‘drum’

We’re also thrilled to announce that we’re able to re-tour a different drum this autumn.

After the show received such wonderful audience responses (including a number of sold out houses) earlier this year, we’ve been keen to extend its life. We’re incredibly grateful to the communities who hosted the show the fist time round, and looking forward to woking with new venues who’ve made this second tour possible.

a different drum will be touring again from the 27th of September to 2nd November. You can see the performances we’ve got booked in so far here.

…plus, we’ve still got a couple of evenings to fill, so if you’re interested in bringing the show to your community – give us a call.

Oh, and don’t forget there’s always Christmas.

07/11/2013 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News Tagged With: a different drum, Belgrade Theatre Coventry, On Tour, The Alchemist

A speedy setup

Before Easter the cast of a different drum proved just how slick they’ve become at setting up the show by filming the video below – lights, staging, sound the whole kit out of the back of the van and into the venue. Alright, We might have sped up the video a smidge, but it’s still pretty impressive…

In fact the cast have been turning churches and halls all over the UK into fantastic performances spaces, just like this for the past 3 months, and there’s still time to catch a performance…

04/12/2013 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News, Tour Tagged With: a different drum, behind the scenes, local performances, video

Dress rehearsal photos – a different drum

Hot off the press, here’s a few photos from the dress rehearsal for a different drum – taken at the Central Methodist Hall here in York (where’ we’ve got a performance of the show on the 13th of Feb)

Click on the images to see a larger version:

In fact, we’ve turned some of them into a trailer\slideshow for your viewing pleasure:

^{All photos by Andrew Dyer}

02/07/2013 By Riding Lights Filed Under: News, Tour Tagged With: a different drum, dress rehearsal, photos

A trip to Eyam

With the story of Eyam right at the heart of a different drum, the character of this immensely pretty Derbyshire village adds an imortant quality to the play. (After all, if the stories being told by the show weren’t true, the acts of selflessness it tells of would loose much of their impact.)

With this in mind, we packed five actors, a director, and a handful of Riding Lights Staff and headed south into Derbyshire to do a spot of research. Below are some photos from the day: