posted September 01, 2001 16:38            

MATTHEW BOURNE TO DIRECT NEW COMPANY

Matthew Bourne has formed a new company to create most of his stage work and film projects. Bourne will be Artistic Director of NEW ADVENTURES, which will produce or co-produce a wide range of work including large-scale theatre spectaculars, smaller scale experimental pieces and original film and television projects.

ADVENTURES IN MOTION PICTURES continues to tour extensively under the management of Katharine Dore and her company, Katharine Dore Management Limited, which was formed in 2000. Matthew Bourne remains as Artistic Director of AMP and will participate fully in its continued success.
However, all future work created by Matthew Bourne will be made for his own company, NEW ADVENTURES, or on a freelance basis, such as his recent work as choreographer on Cameron Mackintosh’s hit production of MY FAIR LADY at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane.

Bourne and Dore’s final production together, the award winning THE CAR MAN, can continue to be seen throughout the USA, starting this month, as AMP embarks on its first major tour of America. THE CAR MAN will continue to tour next year to new territories such as France, Japan and Australia. It is hoped that a major new performing Company will be formed in 2003 to once again tour Matthew Bourne’s multi-award winning SWAN LAKE.

NEW ADVENTURES has Scott Ambler and Etta Murfitt as Associate Artistic Directors and designer Lez Brotherston as Artistic Associate. The company will have its headquarters at The Old Vic Theatre, where Bourne is now an Associate Director.
Several projects and co-productions are already in the planning stages; Matthew Bourne is currently in negotiations with The National Theatre to launch the Company’s inaugural production in The Lyttleton Theatre, as part of their experimental TRANSFORMATIONS Season, next summer. Details and venues for further major projects will be announced shortly.

As a freelance artist, Matthew Bourne will renew his MY FAIR LADY partnership with director Trevor Nunn in a new production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s SOUTH PACIFIC, at the Olivier Theatre, in December of this year. He is also developing a stage production for Walt Disney Theatricals, based on the Disney animated classic THE LITTLE MERMAID. Later this year, Channel 4 will screen a documentary “special” made by Landseer Films touching on Bourne’s career and male dancing in particular. BOURNE TO DANCE will be screened as a prelude to C4’s Christmas airing of the film version of AMP’s THE CAR MAN, captured earlier this year at Pinewood Studios.

MATTHEW BOURNE SAID… “ I am tremendously excited by the freedom and opportunity that this new company represents for me. I chose the name NEW ADVENTURES because of its combination of an obvious link with the past and the promise of exciting things to come.
I am extremely happy to be continuing my relationship with The Old Vic, a building with unprecedented links to the history of British dance, music and theatre; and am very grateful to Sally Greene and The Old Vic Board for the use of office space at the venue. I hope that NEW ADVENTURES will become an important part of the life of The Old Vic, both as a resident Company and as a presenter of regular productions upon its famous stage”

Matthew Bourne and NEW ADVENTURES
Can now be contacted at
THE OLD VIC THEATRE
WATERLOO RD, LONDON, SE1 8NB