Leeds Playhouse this summer: open casting for The Grinch, plus three shows worth knowing about

There’s a lot happening at Leeds Playhouse over the coming months, and the headline for local families is a proper one. The theatre has launched an open casting call for its festive staging of Dr. Seuss’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas! The Musical, which opens in the Quarry Theatre this November, and it’s looking for young performers from across the region to join the children’s ensemble and play the key role of Cindy Lou Who.

If you’ve got a young performer in the house, this is worth a look. The Playhouse is working again with casting directors Keston & Keston, the team behind its searches for Oliver and Charlie Bucket, and crucially, no previous acting experience is needed to audition. They’re after strong singing, acting and movement, and are actively encouraging applicants from underrepresented backgrounds, including disabled performers. Cindy Lou Who is open to girls aged 7 to 10 (including trans girls and non-binary children comfortable being considered for the role), while the wider ensemble is open to children aged 9 to 12. Auditions are via a one-minute video self tape submitted through the Keston & Keston website by 1 June, and there’s a catch worth noting for parents: children need to live within roughly an hour of Leeds and be fully available from October through to mid January. It’s a paid role too. Artistic Director Tom Wright, who’s directing, called the Grinch “a wonderfully imaginative and joyful story” built around a mischievous outsider who discovers the power of kindness and community, which feels about right.

Before all that, though, the Playhouse has a busy summer in store, and it’s the Courtyard Theatre doing a lot of the interesting work. From 17 to 20 June comes Blue Mist, an award-winning, darkly comic play set in a shisha lounge where three friends, jokes, hustles and community gossip collide. Written by Mohamed-Zain Dada and directed by Milli Bhatia, it follows an aspiring journalist trying to make a documentary that gives his community a fairer hearing than the media usually allows. It arrives with a serious pedigree, having been nominated for an Olivier Award and winning Best Stage Production at the Asian Media Awards after its run at the Royal Court. The Guardian gave it four stars and praised how it handles complex ideas with genuine comic energy.

Hot on its heels, also in the Courtyard, is Fireflies at Dawn on 24 and 25 June, and it’s one of the most quietly distinctive things on the bill. Created by Leeds-based Unbound Dance Theatre, it’s an immersive dance theatre piece co-created by blind, visually impaired and sighted dancers, blending contemporary dance with sound, light and touch. The clever bit is the wearable tech, called echome, which turns the dancers’ movements into a live, evolving soundtrack. Founder Sandrine Monin describes movement here as a tool “not just for expression, but for acceptance and growth,” and audiences have come away calling it unforgettable. With embedded audio description woven into the show itself, it’s also a genuinely thoughtful piece of accessible theatre rather than a tick-box version of one.

Over in the larger Quarry Theatre, the big summer production is Brassed Off, running 18 June to 11 July. Directed by Olivier-nominated Amy Leach and marking 30 years since Mark Herman’s beloved 1996 film, this new staging brings the story of a Yorkshire mining town and its threatened brass band to life with live music from two real Yorkshire bands, Horbury Victoria and Wakefield Metropolitan. David Birrell leads as Danny, and four young actors from the Playhouse Youth Theatre join the cast, including one from the satellite programme run with RJC Dance in Chapeltown. Leach calls it “a wholeheartedly Northern celebration of the power of community and art,” which, with live brass filling the Quarry, should land with a real punch.

Across all four, the Playhouse’s commitment to access holds firm, with audio described, captioned, BSL interpreted and relaxed performances offered throughout. Tickets for everything are on sale now via leedsplayhouse.org.uk or the box office on 0113 213 7700.