Drama, film and exhibition programme at new-look Arts Centre Washington with new artists wanted

Theatre highlights start on Thursday, September 28 with Speed Dial. The “explosively physical comedy thriller” concerns connection and forgiveness and is set to the sounds of 70s vinyl.

Thursday, November 30 brings Penguin. The powerful show sees narrator Hamzeh taking the audience on a tour of his village in Syria, the Za’atri camp in Jordan – and around Gateshead. Hamzeh invites the audience to be his childhood friends in a show full of beauty and humour

Two plays are specifically aimed at families. Mischief & Mystery in Moominvalley is on Saturday, November 11 at 11am and 2pm, with Moomin puppetry, an ingenious pop-up book set, original music and interactive play for those aged four to seven.

The other family show is A Town Called Christmas, Tuesday, December 5 to Sunday, December 10 for those aged three upwards.

Buckle up for a rollercoaster of magic, music and mayhem as our hero crash-lands in a crumbling town where only the long-forgotten fables, a cantankerous caretaker and a glitching robot remain. Can they save the day, and the town called Christmas?

This Autumn brings the Sunderland Shorts Film Festival, a screening of A Bunch of Amateurs with Sunderland Film Club and the premier of Hollowed Ground by Lonely Tower; a brand new documentary about mining in the North East released to mark 30 years since Wearmouth Colliery closed.

Exhibition highlights include Trout Memo, by McDada (Peter McAdam), who explained: “Trout Memo will be a multi-media exhibition consisting of extracts from dream journals, flash fiction, poetry, cartoons, small sculptures, photography and collage.”

Trout Memo will occupy ACW’s main gallery from October 6 to November 4.

On November 24 the Washington Open Exhibition 2023: Spotlight opens giving a platform to local artists.

Matt Blyth, culture and heritage officer at Sunderland Culture, said: “A winning artist will get the chance to have their own exhibition in our gallery space.

"The winner will be selected based on the quality of their work by a panel formed by Arts Centre Washington’s staff, community groups and visitors’ responses both in venue and on social media.”

The deadline for submission is October 21. Visit www.sunderlandculture.org.