The annual Stroud Theatre Festival gets underway on the 14th September, with 35 shows held in eight venues performed by leading local and national theatre companies.

Now in its sixth year, the festival is a celebration of theatre, with performances held over three days in the Gloucestershire town. The 2018 festival will continue to follow in the path of previous years, with diverse performances from a variety of theatre groups. “2018 promises to be another fantastic three days of theatre,” said event organiser John Bassett.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to be welcoming such a broad range of performers to the town for what is a real celebration of performing arts. The programme includes new takes on classic works, dramas, comedies, children’s shows, workshops, street theatre, stand up, and much more. This year ticket prices will be £6 for each show and the ‘Stroudie Special’ will be back in place to allow you to get six shows for the price of five,” added John.

The 2018 festival will feature workshops at the Museum in the Park, which John says will be one of the highlights of the festival. He continued: “There are workshops on the Saturday and Sunday that will be held at the museum. On the Saturday we’ll be running a half-day workshop for children to learn songs, write stories and immerse themselves in art. On Sunday the museum will hold a workshop for adults led by playwright Robert Cohen.

“If you've ever thought of creating a one-person show, Robert will help you build a framework to get started. Over the course of the two hours, Robert will be encouraging participants to seek inspiration – in history, in literature, in current events and of course in their own experience – before helping them to identify a structure and a strategy to go away and start creating. It promises to be a great event. Tickets are only £8, which represents great value.

“We’re bringing together as many theatre companies as we can for this year’s event. This year we’re particularly excited with the variety of performers that will appearing at the festival, we’ve got everything from stand-up shows, to new takes on Shakespeare and classic theatre productions. Some performances are music based and we’ve also got shows for children to enjoy. There will be a real mix of shows, some will make you laugh whereas others are more serious.

“The idea of the festival is to celebrate all the different types of theatre and the diverse range of performers. Theatre means different things to different people, we want to open doors for people who think theatre isn’t for them.”