Mesa Community College Theatre & Film Arts presents National Theatre Live’s broadcast of

The Audience.

Nominated for three Tony Awards®, The Audience sees Helen Mirren reprise her Olivier Award-winning performance as Queen Elizabeth II, following her Academy Award® win for the same role The Queen. Encore screenings of the original West End production of The Audience, captured live in London in 2013, feature an exclusive Q&A with Stephen Daldry and Helen Mirren.

‘Helen Mirren is smashing. Her Majesty will see you now’ New York Times

For sixty years, Queen Elizabeth II has met with each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a private weekly meeting. This meeting is known as The Audience. No one knows what they discuss, not even their spouses.

From the old warrior Winston Churchill, to the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair right up to today’s meetings with the current incumbent David Cameron, the Queen advises her Prime Ministers on all matters both public and personal. Through these private audiences, we see glimpses of the woman behind the crown and witness the moments that shaped a monarch.

The Audience has received three 2015 Tony Award® nominations for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play (Helen Mirren), Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role (Richard McCabe) and Best Costume Design (Bob Crowley). The production has also been nominated for 6 Outer Critics Circle Awards (including Outstanding New Broadway Play), 4 Drama League Awards (including Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play) and 2 Drama Desk Awards (including Outstanding Actress in a Play).

Encore screenings feature a live performance recorded during the original run of the production in London’s West End in 2013, and feature the original West End cast.

National Theatre Live is the National Theatre’s ground-breaking project to broadcast world-class theatre to cinemas in the UK and internationally. National Theatre Live launched in June 2009 with a broadcast of the National Theatre production of Phèdre with Helen Mirren. They’ve since broadcast more than forty other productions live, from both the National Theatre and from other theatres in the UK. Their broadcasts have now been experienced by over 5.5 million people in over 2,000 venues around the world, including over 650 venues in the UK alone.

Though each broadcast is filmed in front of a live audience in the theatre, cameras are carefully positioned throughout the auditorium to ensure that cinema audiences get the ‘best seat in the house’ view of each production. Where these cameras are placed is different for each broadcast, to make sure that cinema audiences enjoy the best possible experience every time.