Nestling in the stunning Devon countryside, Exeter is an exciting and growing city that serves a large catchment of 551,000 homes within a 45 minutes drive-time.  

Based on the University of Exeter campus, the Exeter Northcott Theatre is a magnet for thousands of people of all ages who are interested in attending live performance.  From families introducing their younger members to theatre for the first time to a lively retired community that loves the classics, we cater for everyone.  As a University city there is no shortage of people of all ages who are adventurous and eclectic in their tastes as well as schools who value the opportunity to bring their students to see a live show as part of their learning.  We also have an audience who enjoy live music, stand-up comedy and personal appearances by well known figures.   Whatever their age or interest our audiences are always enthusiastic, welcoming and informed; visiting artists always tell us that our audience is a joy to perform for and it is a pleasure for us to serve them. 

Add to this our beautifully designed, intimate auditorium which works for performance on a range of scales, support from our excellent technical and marketing teams and all the delights of Exeter and Devon to enjoy while you're in town and the Exeter Northcott is well worth including on any tour schedule.

If you are interested in bringing your work to the Exeter Northcott check out our latest brochure to get a sense of our programme and check out images of our auditorium and stage (see image swapper above).

We are passionate about live performance and delight in finding imaginative, talented artists who will excite our audiences.  Our aim is to put together a vibrant, high quality programme that will interest a broad range of people of all ages in live music, dance, comedy and theatre performed by a combination of emerging and established regional, national and international artists.  To this end, we are interested in hearing about work in all of the following areas:

Theatre

We programme classic and contemporary drama, new writing, experimental and physical theatre - we are interested in shorter runs as well as full weeks.  Recent and upcoming companies include: Theatre Alibi, Out of Joint, English Touring Theatre, Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory, Scamp, Handspring Puppets (South Africa), Cube Theatre and Miracle Theatre.

Dance

Contemporary dance, classical and contemporary ballet - our stage is perfect for dance, we are a favourite venue for dancers and have a strong dance audience.  Recent and upcoming companies include: Richard Alston Dance Company, Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company, Mark Bruce, The Featherstonehaughs, Ballet Wales and Champloo Dance.

Family Theatre

We programme work for all age ranges, particuarly quality adaptations of childrens' books but our audience will also try a story they have never heard of - we have particularly developed strong early years and school audiences.  Recent and upcoming companies include: Tall Stories, Theatre Hullabaloo, Travelling Light Theatre, Stuff and Nonsense.

Music Theatre

We are always on the look out for quality imaginative musical theatre including shows that feature excerpts from well-known musicals.  Recent and upcoming companies include: Fascinating Aida; Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance; Barbershopera; Showstopper!

Stand-up Comedy

We have a strong comedy audience and generally sell out, we are keen to bring our audiences the best comedy available in the UK circuit, we are part of the annual city-wide Laugh Out Loud Festival which takes place in late January/early February.  Recent and upcoming artists include: Punt & Dennis, Michael McIntyre, Mitch Benn, Robin Ince, Marcus Brigstocke, Simon Amstell, Richard Herring.

If you want to send us your information you need to know the following:

We are currently programming September - December 2012 and also beginning to think about January - July 2013.

E-mail is the best way to contact us - reviews, recommendations from venue managers who know your work and links to a good website with video footage and audience feedback are really useful.  If we haven't seen your work we need to know why you think it will work on our stage and for our audience.  It is helpful to know what other venues you have relationships with, what you need by way of technical time and of course what you are looking for financially.  Our most common deals are a guarantee versus a split - this shares the risk and ensures we all all work together to maxmise audiences.

We will read and acknowledge all e-mails so you know that your information has been received but unfortunately, being a very small team, we do not have the time to contact you beyond this initial acknowledgement unless your show is something we think we will be able to include in the season that we are working on. 

Please do not call us to check we have received your information or discuss your show with us, we are very unlikely to have the time to speak to you or to return your call.  We realise this is frustrating but there are simply not enough hours in the day!

We will try and get to see as much work as possible to help with programming so do let us know when you are performing.  Once again we will only be able to respond if we are able to come along.

If you are an emerging company bear in mind that we have a large, wide stage and 460 seats.  The theatre works well for smaller scale work as the front section has 142 seats and we successfully present smaller shows using this section of the auditorium only.  We are keen to offer our audiences more cutting edge work that often tours to smaller scale venues if it complements the work of our partner venues in the city.

If we programme your work it is because we think there is an audience for it and we will be committed to working with you to get as many people to see your show as possible; we will expect you to support us in this.  Our marketing team are very experienced and happy to offer advice so it's worth talking to them early about how to communicate to audiences about your show.  Our technical staff are very knowledgeable and the sooner you contact them about your needs the better the presentation of your show will be on the day.