Now in its third year, the Springboard Festival 2025 promises to be bigger and better than ever.
We are excited to present eight evenings of fabulous and varied entertainment in the form of short one act plays, poetry/spoken word, music, film, literary discussion and visual art. The festival brings together amateur and professionals in one space, with in-house Criterion company performances and community/Criterion collaborations alongside external artists, musicians and poets from Coventry and Warwickshire.
We have also made it more affordable than ever, with season tickets at only £20 and individual evening tickets at £10 and £5 for the under 25s. Tickets are available now.
Our season ticket is the most cost-effective and flexible ticketing option as it gives you possible access to see any performance across the whole week of the festival, subject to seating availability. You may want to come along to all eight evenings, selected evening's programmes, individual performances on a selected evening, or you may want to see a repeated performance again on different evenings. All of these options are possible with a £20 season ticket.
The programme each evening runs from 7:30pm to 10pm and will involve a mixture of theatre plays, music, and spoken word, plus we also have a film and a literary festival on selected nights. Theatre plays run in length from 15 minutes to 35 minutes maximum and will be repeated three times across the festival.
The programme is subject to some change and new acts will be added, but provisionally the programme so far involves the following acts. Please click on the links for each day for more information about each performance. Timings and further information for each will be added as we get closer to the opening night.
Saturday 10th May 'City of Exiles'
Criterion Theatre: 'The Passing' by Wendy McNeilly, 'Aunty' by Maxi Di Poet, 'Scapegoat' by David Court and 'Through A Stained Glass Darkly' by Anne-marie Greene
Poetry/Spoken Word: Zsofia Hacsek, Alison Manning and Shaniece
Music: Lauren South
Sunday 11th May 'Transformative Action'
Criterion Theatre: 'Through A Stained Glass Darkly' by Anne-marie Greene
Literary Festival: Anne Harrison, Paul Gitsham, Ann Evans and Nirmal Puwar.
Poetry/Spoken Word: Wendy Barzetovic
Music: Rebecca Mileham
Monday 12th May 'A Broader Community'
Community: Coventry Vision Writing Group
Criterion Theatre: 'No Place Like Home' by Alexandra Taylor and 'Through A Stained Glass Darkly' by Anne-marie Greene
Poetry/Spoken Word: Amy Rugg
Music: Nowhere Club
Community Theatre: Side By Side Theatre Company
Criterion Theatre: 'No Place Like Home' by Alexandra Taylor, 'Aunty' by Maxi Di Poet and 'Scapegoat' by David Court
Poetry/Spoken Word: Andrea Mbarushimana
Music: Carol Whitworth
Wednesday 14th May 'Poetic and Dramatic'
Criterion Theatre: 'Scapegoat' by David Court, 'One Thousand and One' by Camilla Whitehill and 'Aunty' by Maxi Di Poet
Poetry/Spoken Word: Word Weavers Collective, Emilie Lauren Jones
Thursday 15th May 'Rebirth and Renewal'
Criterion Theatre: 'No Place Like Home' by Alexandra Taylor and 'There is Always a Choice' by Andrew Sharpe
Poetry/Spoken Word: Alison Manning, Ann Atkins
Music: Nyotaa Izeidi
Film: Mama Said with Q&A with John Bernard
Friday 16th May 'Unmute and Reclaim'
Criterion Theatre: 'There is Always a Choice' by Andrew Sharpe, 'The Passing' by Wendy McNeilly and 'One Thousand and One' by Camilla Whitehill
Poetry/Spoken Word: Rowan McDonnell, John Bernard, Shaniece
Music: LiGi, Nyotaa and Credo, Kimberley, Serena
Criterion Theatre: 'One Thousand and One' by Camilla Whitehill, 'The Passing' by Wendy McNeilly , and 'There is Always a Choice' by Andrew Sharpe
Poetry/Spoken Word: John Bernard, Neslihan Ozar
Music: Nowhere Club, Lauren South
EDI Assessment
The Criterion Theatre is committed to producing diverse and inclusive art and serving as a catalyst for community creation. Each day of the festival will see multiple acts of contrasting and complimentary genres. It will include drama, new writing, poetry and spoken word, multi-media perfomances and musical offerings, plus there will be accompanying art exhibitions and installations. There is an explicit intention within programming to include as wide a diversity of stories, and to be as inclusive, as possible.