National Theatre to Feature OTHELLO, AMEN CORNER, and More in 2013

Forthcoming productions at The National Theatre, announced today by Nicholas Hytner, include plays familiar, rare and new: Shakespeare's Othello, Gorky's Children of the Sun,James Baldwin's The Amen Corner;Marlowe's Edward II, Pirandello's Liolà, Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude and Georg Kaiser's From Morning to Midnight. Tori Amos and Samuel Adamson's musical The Light Princess will premiere in October, and there will be a new adaptation of Emil and the Detectives for family audiences at Christmas.

The Shed, a temporary venue in front of the theatre, will present new work by theatre- makers familiar to the NT as well as emerging voices. Artists working in The Shed include Carrie Cracknell, Rob Drummond, Marianne Elliott, Nadia Fall, Polly Findlay, Matthew Herbert, Rufus Norris, Nick Payne, Tim Price, Tanya Ronder, The TEAM and debbie tucker green. A Visitors' Festival in September will celebrate the breadth of talent outside London.

The 50^th anniversary of the National Theatre Company's first performance at the Old Vic in October 1963 will be marked in the autumn by a unique performance broadcast from the Olivier Theatre on BBC 2 and two Arena documentaries on BBC 4, as well as the publication of a book, The National Theatre Story by Daniel Rosenthal.

The first phase of construction work for the NT Future redevelopment project - a new production centre, the refurbishment of the Cottesloe (which will close in February and re-open in April 2014 as the Dorfman) and the creation of the Clore Learning Centre - has begun. £9million remains to be raised for the project's successful completion; an audience appeal has been launched.

The NT productions of War Horse and Alan Bennett's People will spend a record 38 weeks on tour in the UK in 2013/14. War Horse is now running in Australia and on a North American tour and opens in Berlin in the autumn, while One Man,Two Guvnors visits Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong this spring. National Theatre Live broadcasts have to date been seen by over one million people in 23 countries, with 250 venues in the UK; forthcoming screenings include This House, People and Othello. Four NT productions will be playing simultaneously in the West End this spring: Alan Bennett's Untold Stories, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, War Horse and One Man,Two Guvnors. In 2012 the National's audience reached 3.2million globally, and in London represented 35% of total play-goers.

Ben Power and Bijan Sheibani will collaborate on a new production of Romeo and Juliet, which will tour London primary schools and visit The Shed. Connections has commissioned ten new plays for performance by 230 school and youth theatres around the UK.

Olivier Theatre

Nicholas Hytner directs Shakespeare's OTHELLO, with Adrian Lester in the title role and Rory Kinnear as Iago, opening on 23 April. The cast also includes Jonathan Bailey as Cassio, Lyndsey Marshal as Emilia and Olivia Vinall as Desdemona.

James Baldwin's THE AMEN CORNER will be directed by Rufus Norris, with Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Sharon D Clarke leading the cast; the production, part of the Travelex £12 Tickets season, opens in June.

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