How does a co-production work?

Wed 25 Jan 2012

York Theatre Royal is proud of it's creative partnerships, but how does a co-production with another company differ from an in-house production?

Co-productions can mean many things - sometimes it just means a theatre company provided financial support for another project, or let them rehearse in its space, but mostly there is some other form of collaborative involvement.

Rehearsals are currently under way for York Theatre Royal's and The Touring Consortium Theatre Company's latest co-production, The Diary of Anne Frank.

The Touring Consortium have been our partners on a number of productions, including the Olivier Award winning The Railway Children and last years To Kill A Mockingbird.

The way our partnership works is that the show is produced very much as a York Theatre Royal production - Rehearsals take place in our rehearsal rooms, the set and costumes are produced by the wardrobe department and we handle all the marketing, publicity and ticket sales for the time it is here.

The Touring Consortium are then responsible for managing the production on it's national tour: transporting set and costumes, organising venues, finding places for the actors to stay and running the show day by day.

The main difference between this and a normal in house production is that Anne Frank is being directed not by one of our artistic team, but by Nikolai Foster, Artistic Director of The Touring Consortium. Also, there is a second stage managment team who are present during all rehearsals and who are then responsible for managing the production when it's on tour.

With a large cast, including Christopher Timothy as Otto Frank and Amy Dawson as Anne, The Diary of Anne Frank will be opening at York Theatre Royal on Fri 17 Feb before going on its national tour.

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