Theatre by the Lake in Keswick in the Lake District has had at its helm Executive Director Patric Gilchrist and Artistic Director Ian Forrest since before the current theatre building opened in 1999.

Conrad Lynch has taken over as both Artistic Director and Chief Executive after working alongside his predecessors for the last few months. Not long after announcing his first season in his new post, he spoke to us about his future plans for this Cumbrian theatre.

BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme speaks to director Theresa Keogh and artistic director Jack McNamara of Nottingham-based New Perspectives Theatre Company about their new rural touring production of M R James's classic ghost story Oh Whistle and I'll Come To You adapted by David Rudkin and also about recently working with best-selling crime writer John Harvey on Darkness, Darkness with Nottingham Playhouse.

In December 2016, the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield will stage its first professional pantomime, Cinderella, written by Andrew Pollard and directed by Joyce Branagh.

Joyce was preparing to start rehearsals for Cinderella when we spoke to her, but she had also just directed a fifteen-minute version of Wuthering Heights for JB Shorts, a regular evening of short new plays which has just moved to new Manchester venue 53two.

Cinderella will be at Lawrence Batley Theatre from 9 to 31 December 2016.

(Photo of Joyce Branagh in Boomtown Gals by Lucas Smith)

Freedom Studios is an inter-cultural theatre company based in Bradford, West Yorkshire which is about to open a new play by Tajinder Singh Hayer set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy version of Bradford called North Country at The Wild Woods in the heart of the town where it is set.

Alex Chisholm, the play's director and recently appointed co-Artistic Director of Freedom Studios, spoke to BTG editor David Chadderton about the play and about the philosophy behind Freedom Studios.

North Country will be at The Wild Woods in Bradford from 26 October to 5 November 2016.

(Rehearsal image of Alex Chisholm by Maria Spadafora)

Performance poet Luke Wright is is currently touring with a solo verse play directed by nabokov's Joe Murphy called What I Learned From Johnny Bevan.

Luke plays Nick, an arts journalist, who is transported by current events back to memories of his days in university in the mid-'90s when his friend, after whom the play is named, changed his life.

In this episode, Luke speaks to BTG editor David Chadderton about the show, politics, New Labour, festivals, acting awards and poetry.

Luke tours the UK until December 2016 with What I Learned From Johnny Bevan. For details of where he will appear, see the gigs page on his web site.

(Photo credit: Guiseppe Cerone)

Stephen Sondheim's musical Sweeney Todd—the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a co-production between Derby Theatre and Mercury Theatre Colchester directed by Daniel Buckroyd.

In this episode, BTG Midlands editor Steve Orme speaks to the two lead actors in the production: Hugh Maynard who plays Sweeney and Sophie-Louise Dann who is Mrs Lovett.

Sweeney Todd is at Derby Theatre from Friday 30 September until Saturday 22 October. It then transfers to the Mercury Theatre Colchester from Wednesday 26 October until Saturday 12 November.

(Rehearsal image of Hugh Maynard and Sophie-Louise Dann by Robert Day)

Halifax-based Northern Broadsides has paired up with York Theatre Royal for a revival of J B Priestley's When We Are Married, directed by Northern Broadsides artistic director Barrie Rutter.

Playing the role of Clara Soppitt, actress Kate Anthony, best-known for playing Pam Hobsworth in Coronation Street, spoke to BTG editor David Chadderton during rehearsals about the production and her part in it as well as some of the differences between acting in theatre and TV and the importance of getting on with your fellow actors while touring.

When We Are Married is at York Theatre Royal until 24 September 2016 before touring to Hull Truck Theatre, Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds, Rose Theatre Kingston, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, Cheltenham's Everyman Theatre, New Vic Theatre in Newcastle-under-Lyme, Liverpool Playhouse and Northern Broadsides' own Viaduct Theatre in Halifax, where it closes on 4 December.

(Rehearsal photo of Kate Anthony by Nobby Clark)

Theatre in Scotland: A Field of Dreams is a compilation of 35 years of reviews from The Scotsman's lead theatre critic Joyce McMillan, edited by former Traverse Theatre artistic director Philip Howard.

From the heart of the Edinburgh Festivals of 2016, Joyce shared with BTG editor David Chadderton her extensive knowledge and insightful analysis of Scottish theatre and its development in conjunction with political and social changes in Scotland and across the UK since the 1970s.

Philip Fisher and Richard Jordan discuss Richard's exciting new multimedia theatrical collaboration with Apple Corporation in Chicago and also Edinburgh trends and the very best that Edinburgh has to offer.

Philip Fisher joins the three leading Scottish theatre critics, Joyce McMillan, Mark Fisher and Neil Cooper, to talk in detail about Anything That Gives off Light in the Edinburgh International Festival, Diary of a Madman at the Traverse and World Without Us at Summerhall, as well as identifying a plethora of other shows that are well worth catching.

David Chadderton talks to Nir Paldi, co-artistic director of Theatre Ad Infinitum whose show Bucket List was previewed at Latitude Festival before opening in its final form at the Edinburgh Fringe.

(Photo credit: Alex Brenner)

Philip Fisher talks with Kate O'Flynn, who is starring in what is likely to be the pick of Edinburgh 2016, John Tiffany's production of The Glass Menagerie in the Edinburgh International Festival, about the play, her stage career and working with Mike Leigh.

(Photo Credit: Johan Persson)

Philip Fisher interviews Dave Malloy about bringing Ghost Quartet to Summerhall Roundabout and the impending Broadway opening of his musical Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.

(Photo Credit: Ryan Jenson)