Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch to kick off another fantastic award winning Blueprint festival.

Last year Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch launched their first Blueprint festival, their largest-ever talent development project. The inaugural festival provided a space for artists to take risks and develop bold new work. It gained three award nominations for two productions, and the festival itself won a prestigious Off-West End ‘One Offie’ Award!

Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch have now bought Blueprint Festival 2023, which continues to push creative boundaries, with a particular lens on underrepresented stories and voices. This week-long festival of new ideas takes place from today, 10 – 14 October with an eclectic mix of theatrical delights…

Beginning life as a rehearsed reading in last year’s festival, A Different Class returns as a community touring production on our main stage. Written by Essex-raised playwright Kenny Emson, the play is an exploration of mental health, masculinity and working-class culture set in the 90s Essex “boy-racer” scene.

Acclaimed actor-writer Sudha Bhuchar takes over the QBar for her playful one-woman show, Evening Conversations, a meditation on her life as a middle-aged, middle-class, multicultural mother of millennial sons. This critically acclaimed 4-star play is “A beautiful and honestly told story — something that all ages and backgrounds can relate to in their own way… Bhuchar is a captivating storyteller.’ West End Best Friend

BLINK Dance Theatre’s Foodaholix neurodiverse and learning-disabled director-performers will blow right through the fourth wall with their foyer takeover bringing a colourful and creative interactive exhibition of food-themed activities. Expect twerk-a-luscious Burger Drag and walk-about food memory mayhem with their iPad MC! Come and party at their Silent Disco sensory rave.

Anna Marsland and Bertie Darrell bring the first outing of a new queer piece entitled The Freak, 

exploring how queer appearances are sought to be made palatable for heteronormative consumption. Where does our tolerance for queerness lie? And, if society can accept the differences it does not stand?

Experience the extraordinary as students from Royal Central School of Speech and Drama’s BA Experimental Arts and Performance program invite you to Usher. This original piece of theatre made exclusively for Blueprint will take audiences on a captivating and immersive promenade performance through the enigmatic and concealed spaces of Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch.

Sára Märc, on exchange as part of our International Future Laboratory programme, curates a guided walk outside the Theatre’s walls to explore what it means to live in Havering during the climate crisis in Walking on Deep Time & Air.

Discipline-defying practitioner and experience designer MunotidaChiyanga invites audiences to [Don’t] Try This At Home that defies classification inspired by professional wrestling. Experience the adrenaline, the drama, and the glory of professional wrestling like never before.

One of the Theatre’s Co-Creative Directors, Kate Lovell, worksin collaboration with artist Jo Cox to present Defiant Journey, a multi-sensory and interactive experience built around original compositions played live on a purple glittery electric cello. This new piece of work is a sonic-saga exploring the experiences of disabled and neurodivergent people living under austerity and through the cost-of-living crisis.

Open the Front Door will present three innovative digital works created by disabled artists with experience of shielding. This series features artists who are pushing at the boundaries of what theatre can and should be. Open the Front Door can be enjoyed from the comfort of your armchair, bed or kitchen table.

With a mix of fresh talent and returning favourites, the Theatre cannot wait for you to experience the diverse range of theatrical performances this October. Whether you’re a seasoned attendee or a first-timer, Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch are ready to welcome you with open arms to join them for an unforgettable week.

All tickets are just £5*plus 65p QNext Fee with the exception of the three free films (Open the Front Door) and Usher. To book your place and for more details, visit queens-theatre.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01708 443333.

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