From Tuesday 1 – Thursday 24 December Oldham Coliseum Theatre will air a short play responding to a festive theme each day on its Social Media channels.
The Advent Plays are a little sprinkle of Christmas, lasting no longer than 2.5 minutes, perfect to watch whilst you eat the chocolate from your advent calendar at home. Filmed on stage at the Coliseum on a cosy living room set, with props and furniture audiences may have seen in previous Coliseum productions.
The 24 short Advent Plays have been written by 14 writers and feature 25 professional actors.
Writers include: Cathy Crabb (Meat Pie Sausage Roll and Dreamers); Chris Hoyle (Tinned Up); Nana-Kofi Kufuor (My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored); Rob Ward (Gypsy Queen) and Ian Townsend (All The Bens). Familiar faces to Coliseum audiences amongst the actors include: Karen Henthorn (Tinned Up and Spring and Port Wine), Jenny Platt (Jack and the Beanstalk and Meat Pie Sausage Roll), Joyce Branagh (Boomtown Gals), Mitesh Soni (Jack and the Beanstalk and Cinderella) and Will Travis (The Kitchen Sink and Hard Times).
The theatre’s theatrical advent calendar is the perfect pick-me-up on those chilly December mornings. One short play will be released each morning on the Coliseum’s Social Media channels.
Advent Plays is part of a package of digital festive offers from the Coliseum this Christmas. Further offers include: Panto Digital Storytelling, which gives audiences the opportunity to invite Cinderella or Dame Dotty Trott into their homes (virtually) for unique tellings of their famous tales from Saturday 12 December – Saturday 2 January, and Messages from the Dame, a celebration of the achievements of people in the local area with the Pantomime Dame (nominations close on Wednesday 2 December).
Following the Government announcement of the nationwide lockdown on 31 October, Oldham Coliseum Theatre announced on 4 November that the theatre’s doors would remain closed to the public until early 2021, and that the Coliseum would continue its focus on digital, community and schools work.
