Hackney Empire’s Young Producers celebrate up and coming talent at the National Theatre’s free annual festival River Stage for its fourth weekend, from Friday 30 June to Sunday 2 July.
Creator, curator and critic, Scully, hosts the weekend on Friday night, bringing cutting edge sounds from across the city. Award-winning UK hip-hop dance company, Boy Blue, returns to River Stage for an explosive set of street dance to kick off the weekend. DJ Mimi Rich and DJ Pebz will get you dancing on your feet once the sun’s gone down.
On Saturday, audiences are invited to create moments of radical joy with The Pappy Show in an exciting interactive movement workshop. Steel-band icons Metronomes make their debut performance at River Stage and Hackney Empire platform emerging creatives in a number of showcases, including Pure Vibez: Emerging Artists, Young Producers Games, Alter Ego 2023 and more. Rappers Maaz and BXGGZ ramp up the energy at the South Bank, followed by Kali Claire, who – having worked with the likes of Swag Did It, Not3s, and Mabel – will bring her R&B sounds to the stage.
On Sunday, Pure Vibez Poets invites audiences to listen to a special spoken word poetry performance by Ade Oyejobi, Charlene The Poet and Dillon Kalyabe. Battersea Arts Centre’s Beatbox Academy will bring their crew of singers, rappers, spoken-word artists and beatboxers to fire up the weekend, while HE Creative Futures Showcase close the River Stage festival with epic songs, scenes and dances from Hackney Empire’s Artist Development Programme, which sees 45 young people create an original musical in just two weeks every summer.
Behind the scenes, four Young Technicians alumni will be working backstage on the NT’s River Stage Festival this year. Supporting the sound, lighting and stages teams, they will see the festival from planning to fruition and help with setting up DJ decks and mixing live bands, operating lighting effects and managing busy turn arounds. Launched in 2017, Young Technicians is the NT’s flagship technical training programme for young people aged 14-18, offering in-depth training and practical skills development for free to young people from Matteo, 18, who is a National Theatre Young Technician alumni currently working on River Stage said:
“I am working on the River Stage as a Young Technician alumni and I couldn’t be more excited. I attended the Young Technicians Course at the National Theatre in January 2022 and have been excited about backstage theatre ever since! I wanted more work experience so applied to work on the River Stage. I couldn’t wait to start and we have been fully emerged into the production process. I’m having so much fun and looking forward getting stuck in!”
KERB brings their open-air street food market to the National Theatre once again, opening from May to September. London’s longest banqueting table will be ready for visitors to tuck into seasonal street food specials such as pork belly and chicken thigh Portuguese bifanas, fluffy Korean bao buns, Venezuelan cachapas, Japanese ramen, Nashville fried chicken, Indian thalis, Sicilian style deep pan pizzas and wildly flavoured ice cream.
This year’s River Stage partners are The Glory (9–11 June), James Cousins Company (16–18 June), Shubbak Festival (23–25 June) and Hackney Empire’s Young Producers (30 June – 2 July).
River Stage will run from Friday 9 June until Sunday 2 July 2023. Please find the full programme details here.