Blackeyed Theatre

Adrian McDougall, founder and director of Blackeyed Theatre has been working with Artemis founder Niki Robinson since 2002. They first worked together on a pantomime at South Hill Park - Aladdin - which starred Adrian and with Niki on the producers team. That same pantomime also featured an 11 year old Brad Clapson in the children’s chorus!

Fast forward 18 years - and Niki and Adrian have had the pleasure of working together and supporting work many times.

Blackeyed produces highly acclaimed shows which tour nationally and internationally. Our students watch their new show every autumn in the Wilde Theatre (all our students will see a minimum of three shows a year as part of their education), and enjoy their fantastic education packs, as well as Q&A sessions with the casts.

Blackeyed are resident in the arts centre where we are based - and they are a fantastic on hand opportunity for students to not only watch their work - but observe and understand the roles in producing and the processes. They can speak to Adrian and his team, pick their brains and use the information to inform their coursework.

In 2020 - Blackeyed will be collaborating with Omni Theatre (owned by Artemis directors brad and Rosie) to produce a national tour of Brads new musical ‘Just Judy’. When the musical premiered in the Wilde Theatre in 2019, it co starred several Artemis College students (including Emily Rose as one of the Young Judy characters).

In Adrian’s own words;

Blackeyed Theatre is one of the UK’s leading touring theatre companies, with over twelve years experience of bringing exciting, high quality work to over a hundred towns and cities across the UK, from Eastbourne to Dundee. This is, of course, my opportunity to say how great our work is and how we inspire audiences. But saying it and doing it are two very different things. So I prefer to let our audiences have the final say. Take a moment to read their feedback.

“My belief is that theatre can and should be sustainable, both commercially and artistically”