NST has two venues in Southampton: NST City and NST Campus. NST City opened in 2018 and includes a flexible 450 seat main house theatre, a 133 seat studio, screening facilities, rehearsal and workshop spaces and a bar and restaurant. NST Campus, is a 500 seat end on auditorium situated on the University of Southampton’s Highfield Campus, with a café and bar.
We have developed a profile and reputation that reaches well beyond Southampton, fundamentally repositioning ourselves within the national landscape as a commissioner, developer and producer of high quality theatre, whilst acting as a major cultural force for good in Southampton.
Alongside the production and presentation of theatre and wider performing arts, an integral part of Nuffield’s artistic programme is our Creative Programmes. These encompass an extensive range of community engagement, youth participation and artist development reaching over 24,000 people annually.
In 2018 we were nominated for three awards at the UK Theatres. In 2017, we won The Renee Stepham Award for Best Presentation of Touring Theatre for our brand new adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr Fox and in 2015, we were awarded Regional Theatre of the Year at The Stage Awards.
NST City opened in February 2018 with our world premiere production of The Shadow Factory, which will return due to popular demand in 2019. In 2018, NST produced a musical adaptation of Billionaire Boy, followed by a national tour in 2019; a production of A Streetcar Named Desire, which opened in Southampton and then toured the UK; and an international collaboration with 14-18 NOW and the South African company the Isango Ensemble to create SS Mendi: Dancing the Death Drill, which is transferring to the Royal Opera House in 2019; a co-production of Don Carlos starring Tom Burke; and a new musical comedy adaptation of Assemblywomen called Women In Power, which was written by a chorus of female writers including Jenny Éclair, Jessica Phillips, Shappi Khorsandi, Suhayla El-Bashra and Wendy Cope.
In addition to these main house productions, we have put together a studio-touring network of regional theatres, and have overseen the tour of the JMK winning production of The Mountaintop.
NST is an Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation and a registered charity, receiving additional core funding from the University of Southampton and Southampton City Council.