OperaUpClose Residency at MAST Mayflower Studios
OperaUpClose is delighted to announce that we have become a resident company of MAST Mayflower Studios. Southampton will now be our base from which we produce operas touring to theatres, site-specific venues from castles to warehouses, and schools across the country.
This is an exciting development in our relationship with the city; our first visit was in 2017 with The Magic Flute, followed by our Olivier Award-winning production of La Bohème in 2019. In March 2020 Madam Butterfly was performed in Southampton just a week before the pandemic paused live performance.
Our new home in this innovative and creative hub will enable us to collaborate with the team at MAST Mayflower Studios and other resident partners, providing opportunities for local audiences to experience high-quality opera. We will also be working with Southampton Music Hub and Southampton University to offer creative participation programmes for young people across the South-West.
OperaUpClose will continue to tour to venues across the UK, reaching up to 15,000 live audience members each year. Following a grant from the second round of the Culture Recovery Fund, we are thrilled to have MAST as our new base from which to develop, rehearse, and premiere many of our productions. In 2022, we plan to open our tour of Donizetti’s Mary, Queen of Scots and our ambitious new production of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman in Southampton.
Sara Scott, Executive Director of MAST Mayflower Studios said: ‘We are delighted to welcome OperaUpClose and other cultural organisations into MAST to be resident in the venue, providing a vital creative hub for the city. We are committed to offering opportunities for local theatre makers to develop and explore their craft, telling local stories for our community.’
Robin Norton-Hale, Artistic Director of OperaUpClose said: ‘We're thrilled to join MAST right at the beginning of what we know will be a really exciting journey and to have the opportunity to work closely with other organisations and the community in Southampton. We know from our early days producing out of offices in pub theatres the exciting ideas, and the connection with audiences, which develop from being in the same building where performances take place, and that is something we have missed as a touring company. This partnership means OperaUpClose can combine performing all over the country with being truly rooted in a place and community.’
About MAST Mayflower Studios
MAST is a multi-art form cultural hub presenting and producing theatre, dance, musicals, music, comedy, circus, cabaret, spoken word, visual arts, family shows. They support artists living, making work, or with a connection to Southampton and Hampshire.
MAST is community-led, with engagement and consultation at the heart of everything they do. They work with the best touring companies and local artists to present a diverse, vibrant, high-quality artistic programme, alongside their own MAST productions and co-productions.