Curve Launches #RainbowsOfHope Campaign

Leicester's Curve theatre has today launched a new campaign inspired by the recent #RainbowsOfHope social media trend - and now your design could be featured in the set of its Christmas production, the regional premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Wizard of Oz (28 Nov 2020 - 16 Jan 2021).

The Coronavirus lockdown has seen children across the country offering a message of hope, unity and happiness to the nation, by sticking pictures of rainbows to their windows and sharing these on social media with the hashtag #RainbowsOfHope.

By sending your own Rainbows of Hope to the theatre on thewonderfulwizardofoz@curvetheatre.co.uk you could see your artwork on stage at Curve later this year. You can also share your picture on social media using the hashtag #RainbowsOfCurve.

As well as asking people to submit Rainbows of Hope, the theatre is also encouraging people to get creative by drawing their own versions of iconic characters and scenes of The Wizard of Oz, which will help inspire the work of designer Colin Richmond's set.

Speaking about the initiative, Curve's Chief Executive Chris Stafford and Artistic Director Nikolai Foster said:

"The Wizard of Oz's iconic torch-song imagines a beautiful place "somewhere over the rainbow". In these challenging times, it's been life-affirming to see children around the country painting rainbows to put on their windows as beacons of hope, optimism and joy.

"Working with our Curve Wizard of Oz set designer Colin Richmond, we'd like to use these children's drawings of rainbows and Oz to help inspire the set design of our Made at Curve production. We imagine our Oz as a world sketched by a child, as seen through Dorothy and Toto's imaginations. You might see your work on stage at Curve this Christmas and it will help inspire our design process.

"We'd love you and your children to read L. Frank Baum's wonderful novel or watch the legendary Judy Garland film and send us your drawings of Oz, rainbows, the Yellow Brick Road, the Wizard, the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, Poppy fields, the great Gates of Oz and the Wicked Witch of the West, her scary lair and flying monkeys. - we would like to see your versions of these characters and places and how they fire your imagination."

Based on the classic 1939 MGM film, Curve's production of The Wizard of Oz will include the iconic songs Somewhere Over The Rainbow, If I Only Had A Brain and Follow The Yellow Brick Road, as well as new music and songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

Running 28 Nov 2020 - 16 Jan 2021 at Curve this Christmas, the magical family musical will be directed by Curve's Artistic Director, Nikolai Foster, whose previous Christmas productions include West Side Story, White Christmas - which ran at Curve and in London's West End - and Scrooge the Musical.

Tickets for The Wizard of Oz are on sale now. To find out more and book, visit www.curveonline.co.uk