Month: July 2015

Townsend Productions in association with Harrogate Theatre and Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

By Stephen Lowe, based on the book by Robert Tressell

Adapted for two-hander by Neil Gore

Directed by Louise Townsend

Musical Director of arrangement of songs: John Kirkpatrick

Designer: Fine Time Fontayne

Lighting Design: Brian O’Carroll

Cast: Neil Gore and Jonathan Markwood

NATIONAL PRESS NIGHT:

Monday 12th October at 7.30pm -The CLF Art Café, Block A, Bussey Building, Peckham

Followed by a Q&A with playwright Stephen Lowe and actor Johnny Vegas (subject to availability)

Townsend Productions is delighted to announce that it will be staging their acclaimed two hander production of Stephen Lowe’s version of Robert Tressell’s The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists at the Bussey Building in Peckham from 5-31 October at 7.30pm.

The production, which is produced in association with Harrogate Theatre and Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre, is the first part of a double bill of political plays to be performed at the Bussey Building throughout October and November. From 2-14 November the company will be staging their latest production United We Stand, which tells the story of the controversial Shrewsbury 24 and the imprisonment of Ricky Tomlinson and Des Warren.

Using instrumentation, songs of the period, movement, physicalisation, comedy and characterisation to create the spirit and clarity of the political message, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists shares with its audience a year in the life of a group of painters and decorators, as they renovate a three-storey town house for Mayor Sweater. It traces their struggle for survival in a complacent and stagnating Edwardian England. These workers are the “philanthropists” who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.

Combining Townsend Productions’ trademark cast of two playing multiple roles, grand theatrical style and wit with popular and political songs arranged by renowned folk musician John Kirkpatrick , the production, remains as vivid and as relevant as when it was written almost a century ago.

Stephen Lowe’s version of the story was first seen in 1978, when Joint Stock Theatre Company toured the country playing to packed houses. The play was revived at the Half Moon Theatre, London in 1983 and again for a touring production by the Birmingham Rep in 1991. Stephen’s plays have been staged at London’s Royal Court (Tibetan Inroads, Moving Pictures and Body and Soul) Royal Shakespeare Company, (Divine Gossip/ Ostrovsky’s The Storm) Hampstead Theatre (Revelations) as well as premieres at most of the leading repertory theatres. His work has been staged by directors/ producers including Alan Ayckbourn, Richard Eyre, Steven Daldry, Danny Boyle, Jonathan Church, Annie Castledine, and Thaddeus O’Sullivan. His television work includes his BBC-2 adaptation of Stendhal’s Scarlet and Black starring staring Ewan McGregor and Rachel Weisz, and the four-part BBC2 psycho-thriller Tell-Tale Hearts starring Bill Patterson Stephen also written over 100 episodes of Coronation Street.

Lowe said about the production, “After 30 years involvement with ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ since my original version with Joint Stock in 1978, I’ve seen many productions from Alabama to Perth, Cape Town to Nottingham, and each time performers and audiences alike have felt the piece to be totally relevant and ‘of the time’. This new two handed version follows that tradition and speaks out to the present economic and political

reality in a clear, uncompromising but hugely entertaining way, through the energetic and brilliant performances of the two performers and storytellers.”

The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ excellent cast features Neil Gore (Song of Singapore, Chichester Festival Theatre and the West end) and Jonathan Markwood (Return to the Forbidden Planet, National Tour).

The production is directed by Louise Townsend, designed by Fine Time Fontayne, lighting by Brian O’Carroll and features music by John Kirkpatrick, one of the most prolific and acclaimed figures on the English folk scene.

Throughout the run there will be post show discussions on the play and it’s relevance to today’s society with amongst others playwright Stephen Lowe, Megan Dobney (General Secretary of SERTUC), actors Johnny Vegas and Liz Carr, Christine Blower (NUT) and Doug Nichols (Gen Sec GFTU)

The production is produced in association with Harrogate Theatre and Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre and sponsored by Southwark Socialists, part of the Independent Socialist Network and has the backing of the unions UNITE, NUT, Unison, RMT, GMB and Amiel Melburn trust.

For more info visit www.townsendproductions.org.uk

 

LISTINGS

Dates: Monday 5- Saturday 31 October at 7.30pm

Venue: The CLF Art Café, Block A, Bussey Building, 133 Rye Lane, Peckham, SE15 4ST

Ticket prices: £12 (Concessions £10; Mondays all tickets £5)

Box office details: 07812 063 409 or online at http://www.clfartcafe.org

 

Freedom Studios present the world premiere of

BRIEF ENCOUNTERS AT BRADFORD INTERCHANGE

A new play by Rav Sanghera

Director: Tom Wright Set Designer: Emma Williams

Dates: 6-10 October -Bradford Interchange Train and Bus Station

From Freedom Studios, the producers of the acclaimed Home Sweet Home and The Mill – The City of Dreams comes Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange, a new site- specific promenade production inspired by the people who work and travel through Bradford’s iconic Interchange station.

Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange will run at the Bradford Interchange from the 6-10 October.

Directed by Tom Wright (The Container, Young Vic and Home Sweet Home, Freedom Studios) the debut play by Sheffield playwright Rav Sanghera will take the audience through familiar and hidden parts of the Bradford Interchange train and bus station celebrating the city’s warmth, welcome, humour and grit in a series of intertwining stories.

From the cleaner who is always there to listen, to the asylum seeker who sits outside the station asking for help, Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange tells five powerful stories where cultures collide and connect, love blooms in different places and everyday people interact, meet, work, start and end journeys.

To research the play, playwright Rav Sanghera has spent time absorbing the comings and goings at Bradford Interchange, interviewing bus and train station staff, people who work in the shops and its many passengers. He has also talked to organisations which support people new to the city and individuals about their experiences of arriving in Bradford

Director Tom Wright said

“When I started out as Freedom Studios’ Associate Director three years ago, I encountered Bradford for the first time, as an outsider. As I met Bradfordians from across the City’s many different communities, they all told me the same thing; they were fiercely proud of being part of such a diverse city, a city which embraced

difference. Here, they could be part of a community based on their background, but also part of the wider city, without having to compromise on either.

When Rav approached us with the idea of using Bradford Interchange; the meeting point of trains, buses, taxis, rental bikes and pedestrians, and so the potential meeting point of people from dozens of different backgrounds, to celebrate everything which makes Bradford special, it made sense that this would be the perfect location to stage a theatrical celebration of the city. “

Bradford-based Freedom Studios is an award-winning intercultural theatre company, which connects different people and communities through story-telling and making theatre. Engagement is intrinsic to their work, and communities are at the heart of what they do.

The production will be designed by Emma Williams (Refugee Boy, West Yorkshire Playhouse and Touring). The cast will be announced in the coming weeks.

Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange will run at the Bradford Interchange from the 6-10 October.

Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange is supported by the Arts Council Bradford Metropolitan District Council and is part of the Shine Festival 2015

For more info visit www.freedomstudios.co.uk

 

LISTINGS

Dates: Tuesday 6 – Sat 10 October 2015

Address: Bradford Interchange Bus and Train station, Bridge Street, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD1 1GY

Performances:1:45pm, 2:05pm, 2:25pm, 7pm, 7.20pm, 7.40pm, 8pm and 8.20pm

Running time: 1hr

Audience Numbers: 12

Ticket Prices:

Adults £10/Concessions and under 16s £5 Tickets available from: https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/93797

Please note that Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange is a promenade performance.

The production is supported by the Arts Council of England and Bradford Metropolitan District Council

 

A new play aimed at young children is set to give a delightful new twist on a traditional fairy tale as well as tackle the issue of homophobic bullying by spreading a positive message about diversity and acceptance.

Devised by the critically acclaimed Action Transport Theatre, Happily Ever After is inspired by the Dutch children’s book King and King by Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland – banned and challenged in some countries – which tells the story of two princes who fall in love and live happily ever after. The new play will premiere at the Unity Theatre from 17-19 September as part of Homoptia 2015 and then do a short tour in the North West.

Happily Ever After uses Action Transport Theatre’s trade-mark highly visual, wordless storytelling and comedy clowning to engage children in high quality art. The production, which successfully toured to eight primary schools in Cheshire in 2014, will be supported by expert wrap-around activities which have been created in collaboration with LGBT Youth North West and will enable parents and schools to tackle homophobia whilst promoting mutual respect, equality and diversity amongst primary school children

Directed by Action Transport Theatre’s artistic director Nina Hajiyianni and featuring a cast of international actors, Happily Ever After aims to help raise awareness amongst primary school children around homophobia, gender expectations and ‘difference’, promoting respect and understanding, and equipping children, parents and teachers with a vocabulary around same sex relationships.

Nina Hajiyianni said about the new play, ’There is an absence of gay identities in theatre and wider culture for young children at primary school age yet homophobic bullying in secondary school is still rife, and more and more families now include same sex adult parents or carers or have other family members who are gay. Where are those children’s lives validated or represented in art? Not to mention for younger children who identify as gay themselves. The play powerfully but unintentionally addresses this and the subject of same-sex marriage but not in a heavy handed preachy way.

The production simply and expertly plays with the conventions and symbols associated with ‘the fairytale’ and gently subverts the assumed norm, which usually involves a prince and princess. The show is a word-less production which fuses clowning, physical theatre and dance, drawn from European theatre trends.”

Through the production and working with LGBT Youth North West we hope it will introduce children to the concept of diversity at a young age and also help to reduce the negative experience of “coming out” that most lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people experience during school years.”

In May a teacher and an assistant principal at a North Carolina elementary school resigned after the teacher’s decision to read his class King and King was met with a parental backlash.

Almost two thirds of young people have experienced direct homophobic bullying in schools according to a recent survey by charity Stonewall. Nine in ten secondary school teachers and more than two in five primary school teachers say homophobic bullying occurs in their school with the word ‘gay’ often being used as an insult.

Action Transport Theatre exists to put new writing and young people at the heart of UK Theatre. Based in Ellesmere Port, Action Transport Theatre is the only specialist new writing and dedicated young people’s theatre company in Cheshire. The company is driven by its mission to present theatre that is innovative, surprising, challenging and, most importantly, by, for and with young people.

LGBT Youth North West is a regional organisation that seeks to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans young people in the North West of England. LGBT North West do this by offering Services for Young People across the region as well as Training and Consultancy opportunities from workshops for young people through to bespoke training for professionals working in the youth sector.

Happily Ever After will open at Liverpool’s Unity Theatre from 17-19 September and then tour to Z-Arts in Manchester (25-26 September) and Ellesmere Port’s Whitby Hall Studio Theatre (2-3 October). The production will tour nationally in 2016 and 2017.

Happily Ever After is aimed at children aged 5+

For further information on Action Transport and LGBT Youth North West visit www.actiontransporttheatre.org and www.lgbtyouthnorthwest.org.uk respectively.

 

CREATIVE TEAM

Director – Nina Hajiyianni

Devised by Action Transport Theatre

Designer –Rebecca Palmer

Cast – Ady Thompson, Paul Curley, Eve Shotton and Bruno Mendes

Listings

17-19 September (17th at 6pm, 18th at 1.30pm and 19th at 11am & 2pm) -Unity Theatre, Liverpool

Tickets: £6 Box Office: 0151 7094988 or www.unitytheatreliverpool.co.uk

25-26 September (25th at 10am and 26th at 2.30pm) -Z-Arts, Manchester

Tickets: £8 (£6 concessions) Box Office: 0161 2326089 or www.z-arts.org

2-3 October (2nd at 1pm & 3rd at 2pm) -Whitby Hall, Ellesmere Port

Tickets: £6 Adults, £4, £18 family ticket Box Office: 0151 3572120 www.actionstransporttheatre.org/whitby-hall/whats-on

Northern Broadsides present

SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER

By Oliver Goldsmith

Director: Conrad Nelson

Designer: Jessica Worrall

Lighting Designer: Mark Howland

Musical Director/arranger: Rebekah Hughes

Cast: Jon Trenchard, Lauryn Redding; Guy Lewis, Alan Mcmahon, Howard Chadwick, Gilly Tompkins, Oliver Gomm, Andrew Price, Hannah Edwards, Andrew Whitehead and Robert Took.

Touring: Friday 29 August-Saturday13 December 2014

Fresh from the critical acclaim of An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides are set to take to road again this autumn to stage Oliver Goldsmith’s much loved 18th century comedy of manners She Stoops To Conquer.

Directed by Northern Broadsides’ Resident Director Conrad Nelson, the production will open at the Viaduct Theatre, Halifax from the 29 Aug to 6 September and then tour the UK until 13 December.

Relocated, in true Northern Broadsides style, from the West Country to the North of England, Goldsmith’s 1773 play is a celebrated story of class, courtship and dysfunctional families. Tongue-tied, uptight Charles Marlow needs a lesson in the art of love. He longs for a wife, but finds it easier to have a bit on the side. Barmaid Kate seems fair game – but there’s more to her than meets the eye.

Set against the increasingly chaotic proceedings of one very long night, She Stoops to Conquer is filled with ludicrous misunderstandings, larger than life characters, outrageous frocks and wigs and plenty of mischief and mayhem.

Designer Jessica Worrall said about the look of the production- “I want to create something that emphasises the constraining nature of the play’s rural society setting but avoids over literal representation. 18th Century folding screens concealed a multitude of mostly unsavoury activities- two giants versions of these will function as the ‘walls’ of the piece and frame the action, creating an almost chamber piece atmosphere. The screens, covered with enlarged digital prints of Gainsborough landscapes, will bring the exterior world inside. The rural setting of the piece and its ’distance’ from London, still deemed to be the centre of society, is a really important element in the design and the over-scaled landscaped walls of ‘Raleigh Hall’ drip with the heads of stuffed animals.

I’ve taken this heightened realism into the costumes. Using references from noted 18th century satirical cartoonists such as Gilray and Rowlandson traditional costume design has been combined with vivid contemporary colours and fabrics to create a world where Thomas Gainsborough and William Hogarth meet Vivienne Westwood with a large amount of taxidermy thrown in for good measure.”

Directed by Conrad Nelson, the She Stoops to Conquer cast will feature Jon Trenchard (A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Swallows and Amazons, Bristol Old Vic and A Government Inspector, Northern Broadsides); Lauryn Redding (An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides); Guy Lewis ( Twelfth Night, Regent’s Park); Alan Mcmahon (Wind in the Willows, Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Howard Chadwick (A Government Inspector, Northern Broadsides ); Gilly Tompkins (Brassed Off, York Theatre Royal, Octagon Theatre and the Touring Theatre Consortium and Rutherford and Son, Northern Broadsides); Oliver Gomm (The School for Scheming, Orange Tree Theatre); Andrew Price (1984, Northern Broadsides); Hannah Edwards (Inherit the Wind, New Vic, Stoke); Andrew Whitehead (An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides) and Robert Took (Don’t Shoot The Messenger, Mikron Theatre).

The production will feature designs by Jessica Worrall (We are Three Sisters and Wars of the Roses, Northern Broadsides), lighting by Mark Howland (An August Bank Holiday Lark, Northern Broadsides) and music by Rebekah Hughes (The Grand Gesture, Northern Broadsides).

Northern Broadsides is a unique theatre company with a true Northern voice. Their work is characterised by a high degree of theatrical inventiveness and robust performances from a large ensemble cast of multi-talented and charismatic northern actors who all perform in their natural voices. For the past 22 years, they have delighted audiences here and abroad with a growing classic repertoire which has won them many awards and a loyal following worldwide.

She Stoops to Conquer will open at The Viaduct Theatre, Halifax from 29 August to 6 September and then tour to Lancaster, Kingston, Oxford, Harrogate, Cheltenham, Winchester, Scarborough, Leeds, Stoke, Liverpool, York, Huddersfield and Salford Quays. Tickets will be on sale for most venues in the coming months.

For more info visit www.northern-broadsides.co.uk

 

LISTINGS

Fri 29 Aug – Sat 6 Sep at 7.30pm (Mat: 6 Sep at 2.30pm)

Viaduct Theatre, Dean Clough, Halifax -Box Office 01422 255 266 or www.deanclough.com

NATIONAL TOUR DATES

Tue 9-Sat 13 Sep Dukes Theatre, Lancaster

Tue 16-Sat 20 Sep Rose Theatre, Kingston

Tue 23 – Thu 27 Sep Oxford Playhouse

Tue 30 Sept -4 Oct Harrogate Theatre

Tue 7 – Sat 11 Oct – Everyman Cheltenham

Tue 14- Sat 18 Oct – Theatre Royal Winchester

Tue 21 – Sat 25 Oct – Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough

Tue 28 – Sat 2 Nov – West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds

Tue 4 – Sat 14 Nov – New Vic Theatre, Newcastle-under-Lyme

Tue 18 -Sat 22 Nov – Liverpool Playhouse

Tue 25-29 Nov – York Theatre Royal

Tue 2 – Sat 6 Dec – Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield

Tue 9 – Sat 13 Dec – The Lowry, Salford Quays

Monkeywood Theatre in association with The Lowry presents the world premiere of

BY FAR THE GREATEST TEAM

Four new stories by Ian Kershaw, Sarah McDonald Hughes, Andrew Sheridan and Lindsay Williams

Director: Martin Gibbons

Designer: Lois Maskell

Music: Ben Almond

Dramaturg: Suzanne Bell

“One City. Two Teams”

This September, Manchester’s award winning Monkeywood Theatre, in association with The Lowry, are set to stage the world premiere of By Far The Greatest Team, four new Manchester stories by four outstanding writers exploring and celebrating what it means to be a football fan in Manchester.

By Far The Greatest Team will kick off at The Lowry, Salford Quays, from the 17-20 September.

Told in a game of two halves, the production tells four new stories about Manchester City, Manchester United, identity, community, and belonging and gets to the heart of why the beautiful game has such an impact on our lives, season after season.

Each new play will be rooted in the truth about people’s lives and will challenge the usual stereotypes about football.

The imaginative new production will see the Quays Theatre at The Lowry, where Monkeywood Theatre are Associate Artists, transformed into a football stadium, recreating the atmosphere of a match day in the city.

The four new plays will be written by Manchester City fans Ian Kershaw (Murder in the Mist, Oldham Coliseum and Channel 4’s Shameless) and Sarah McDonald Hughes (Flesh, Royal Exchange and Once in a House on Fire, The Lowry, Maine Road, BBC Radio 4) and Manchester United fans Andrew Sheridan (Award winning Winterlong, Royal Exchange and Soho Theatre) and Lindsay Williams (Dreamers, Oldham Coliseum, Eastenders and Emmerdale). The production will be directed by Monkeywood Theatre’s Co-Artistic Director Martin Gibbons.

Martin Gibbons said about the new production

“I love football and I love theatre; I love the experience of watching football, the live, immediate, communal experience. Thousands of people holding their breath or celebrating a last minute goal…I want theatre to evoke that pure, emotional, in-the-moment response too.

Manchester is a football city, two clubs and thousands of fans, stories, histories. The BFTGT plays are four separate stories, but we have woven them together so that, I hope, the experience of watching them mirrors the experience of a massive football match – light and dark, tragedy and comedy, life and death. More than that, I hope that the audience feel that they are part of something, a community of people all going through this emotional, visceral experience together.”

Alongside the production and with support from The Lowry, The National Football Museum, Manchester City Football Club and Manchester United Museum and Tour Centre, there will be an exciting programme of creative engagement activities in the city, including an art installation based on the themes of the play, opening at the National Football Museum in September.

Monkeywood Theatre is a Manchester theatre company making and touring innovative, accessible and high quality new plays. Monkeywood Theatre makes plays that are rooted in their Mancunian community and increasingly they work collaboratively with artists and audiences to make their work. A key focus of their work is in attracting, engaging and retaining audiences who do not usually attend theatre. The company are Associate Artists of The Lowry and four times Manchester Theatre Award nominees.

Casting will be announced in the coming weeks.

By Far The Greatest Team is supported with funding from Arts Council England through Grants for the Arts and in partnership with The Lowry and the National Football Museum.

 

Listings

Venue: The Lowry, Pier 8, Salford Quays, M50 3AZ

Dates: 17-20 September

Times: 8pm, Mat: 3pm 19 & 20 September

Tickets & Box Office Details

Tickets: £17 (includes £2 booking fee)

Concessions: £2off

Box Office: 0843 2086010

Group Bookings: 0843 2086003 Website: www.lowry.com

The production is supported by Arts Council of England and The National Football Museum

This October Watford Palace Theatre will be producing the world premiere of Coming Up, Neil D’Souza’s evocative, playful and magical new play about family ties, and how quickly we can become disconnected from ourselves. The play was commissioned by Watford Palace Theatre (WPT) and will be directed by Artistic Director Brigid Larmour.

Coming Up tells the story of Alan, who returns to Mumbai on business after more than 30 years. Between meetings and expense account dinners, he visits the Aunt and Cousin he used to know, and makes an unexpected discovery.

The play is one man’s odyssey in search of his Father and ultimately, himself, against the backdrop of a changing world, where old power structures are shifting, and a once third world country is beginning to stand tall.

WPT Artistic Director Brigid Larmour said about the play:

“Like everything we do at Watford Palace it is an original piece, seeking to reflect the diversity and complexity of our identities in contemporary Britain. It is an ensemble storytelling piece, marrying text-based new writing with physical theatre – part of an ongoing collaboration with Movement Director Shona Morris, a Watford Palace Theatre Creative Associate. Five actors will transform into a rich range of characters – from vicars to 7 year olds to Aunties to tigers – on a magical journey between present day Mumbai and a Mangalore village in the 1940s, from upscale restaurants to a lonely clearing in the jungle.”

Neil D’Souza added:

“In ‘Coming Up’ I wanted to explore my own complex relationship with India – a country I am bonded to by blood, yet with which, like many British Asians, I have had a distant, somewhat fractured connection with over the years.

The play itself partly grew out of its title – as, growing up, I would often hear Indians visiting us, say ’India is coming up’. Today you see it in the hyper-modern airports, the hyper-chic shopping Malls, and in the expectations of its people sniffing prosperity on the wind.

I also wanted to write about the Indian Catholics – a small, yet significant minority in India whose stories remain largely untold. I hope that by using 5 actors to portray more than 25 diverse, sometimes fantastical, characters, we can borrow the ‘magic of theatre’ to bring some of the ’magic of India’ on stage.”

Coming Up’s cast will feature the play’s playwright D’Souza’s (How to Hold Your Breath and Khandan (Royal Court; The Man of Mode,(National Theatre) and Tintin, Watford Palace Theatre/West End);Ravin J. Ganatra (A Passage to India, Shared Experience ); Clara Indrani (The Deranged Marriage, Watford Palace Theatre); Goldy Notay (Happy Birthday Sunita, Watford Palace Theatre and the film It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, directed by Gurinder Chadha, Bend it Films) and Mitesh Soni (The Good Person of Sichuan, Mercury Theatre).

Movement Direction is by WPT Creative Associate Shona Morris, whose previous collaborations with Brigid Larmour include Love Me Do by Marks and Gran, and Jefferson’s Garden by Timberlake Wertenbaker.

The production is designed by Rebecca Brower, Associate Designer on Bugsy Malone (Lyric Hammersmith) and Peter Pan (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), and designer of Heartbreak Beautiful Hertfordshire County Youth Theatre at WPT).Lighting is by Prema Mehta (Jefferson’s Garden and Fourteen (WPT), Now this is Not the End (Arcola Theatre) and Music is by Arun Ghosh. (The Deranged Marriage, Rifco and WPT).

Casting for Coming Up will be announced in the coming weeks.

Coming Up will premiere at Watford Palace Theatre from Saturday 10 – Saturday 24 October 2015

* Listings

Performance times Saturday 10 – Saturday 24 October, 7.30pm (except Wednesday 14 October, 7pm) Matinees: Saturday 17, Wednesday 21, Saturday 24 October, 2.30pm Running time: 120 minutes (including interval)

Q+A: Monday 19 October

Captioned: 22 Oct

Audio described: 24 Oct at 2.30pm Tickets: Previews Saturday 10 – Tuesday 13 October: £12 Monday to Thursday & Matinees: £20, £17.50 and £11.50 Friday & Saturday: £22.50, £19.50, £15 and £12 Concessions – £4 off Mon-Thu £2 off

Rumour/16-25 – £5

Senior Citizens: £10 on matinees Box Office: 01923 225671 and www.watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk

 

York’s budding artists get trained up

Preparations underway for a unique TakeOver arts festival in the National Railway Museum

TakeOver, York’s annual arts festival run entirely by young people, will find itself a new home this October in the National Railway Museum, capitalising on York Theatre Royal’s residency at the museum in 2015 during the theatre’s £4.1m redevelopment.

A York Theatre Royal initiative, the TakeOver Festival involves young people aged 12-25 ‘taking over’ the theatre and replacing all staff, including the artistic director, production manager and front of house team, for a week every year.

TakeOver’s Board, which replicates the York Theatre Royal’s Board of Trustees, meets throughout the year to guide the development of the festival, which has given new generations hands-on experience of running a theatre every year since 2009. It has inspired the development of similar TakeOver projects in cities across the UK and Europe.

In 2015 TakeOver will be a unique multi-arts festival, created in collaboration with the National Railway Museum. It will immerse its audiences in the museum’s vast collection, which forms a vital part of York’s rich heritage. The festival’s mission is to welcome the inquisitive, the adventurous and the imaginative, and to challenge spectators of all ages to expect the unexpected.

It will run from October 24th to October 31st, taking place throughout each day and during some evenings. A second TakeOver week is planned next spring in the new York Theatre Royal building.

The programme of performances in this year’s festival will respond to the unique playing spaces of the National Railway Museum, with commissioned work planned to consider subjects such as travel and journeys, real and allegorical. Because the festival concludes on Halloween, spine-tingling displays are also promised.

Following the critical acclaim attracted by York Theatre Royal’s community production In Fog and Falling Snow, which in its first act saw audiences guided around several areas of the vast museum, the TakeOver planning team have chosen to use the National Railway Museum’s existing exhibits wherever possible.

Lizzy Whynes, who graduated from York St John University this year with a first-class degree in Theatre, will be the festival’s Artistic Director. Her theatrical experience ranges from performance – in theatre, dance and art installations – to being a facilitator, dramaturge and manager in arts projects. In the run-up to the festival she will shadow Damian Cruden, Artistic Director at York Theatre Royal, who will help her develop and materialise her vision for a festival of this scale.

“I’m so excited to be curating a festival at the National Railway Museum. It allows me and the team to be imaginative, creating and programming work within unexpected spaces and transforming the museum into a hive of creativity,” said Lizzy.

“I want to make a multi-arts festival, showcasing something from every art form to be displayed alongside the museum’s fantastic collection and allowing our audiences to be immersed in everything they see. This is a once-in-a-lifetime mentorship and I’m thrilled to be a part of it,” she added.

TakeOver’s Festival Producer will be Rebecca Phillips, whose theatre festival experience across the UK includes a stint at the Birmingham Cabaret Festival. Rebecca will be mentored by Liz Wilson, Chief Executive of York Theatre Royal, and Liam Evans-Ford, Associate Producer, as she manages the production of the festival.

Paula Clark is York Theatre Royal’s Creative Skills Promoter and co-ordinates the festival team. She said: “This is a new and exciting challenge for the TakeOver Festival but, as has always been my experience of the young people who’ve worked on the festival over the years, they are not the slightest bit fazed and are full of energy and ideas.”

The festival team are all set to take over the National Railway Museum this autumn, creating the liveliest and most exhilarating celebration of youthful artistic expression that York has ever seen. Watch this space!

 

Experience the first rush of love as Shakespeare’s most famous couple meet and marry in fearless defiance of their rival families. Vibrant and fizzing with life, celebration is blown apart by tragedy in this production directed by Jonathan Humphreys.

Charlie Bate plays Pastor in her professional stage debut. Morfydd Clark plays Juliet. Her theatre credits include Violence & Son (Royal Court) and Blodeuwedd (Theatr Genedlathol Cymru). For television her credits include Arthur & George, A Poet in New York and New Worlds; and for film, Love and Friendship, The Call Up, Pride Prejudice & Zombies, The Falling, Madame Bovary and Two Missing.

Joanna Croll plays Lady Montague/Sister. For theatre, her work includes The Mousetrap (60th Anniversary UK Tour), The Widowing of Mrs Holroyd (New Vic Theatre, Stoke), Oh what a Lovely War! (Northern Stage), The Odyssey, The Seagull Project and Hamlet (The Factory), Private Lives (Iceni / Norwich Theatre Royal ), and Wicked Women (Arcola Theatre). For television, her work includes Luther, Sirens, Best: His Mother’s Son, Sensitive Skin, The Girl in the Café, Dirty War and Fallen; and for film, Hereafter, Venus, Good Vibrations, Lady Godiva and Fakers.

Freddie Fox makes his Sheffield debut as Romeo. His theatre credits include The Judas Kiss (Duke of York’s Theatre), Hay Fever (Noel Coward Theatre), Cause Célèbre, A Flea in Her Ear (Old Vic) and The Last 5 Years (Barbican). His television work includes Russell T Davies’ Cucumber and Banana; The Mystery of Edwin Drood, The Shadow Line, Any Human Heart, Worried About the Boy and Parade’s End; and for film, Pride, The Riot Club, The Three Musketeers, St Trinian’s 2: The Legend of Fritton’s Gold and the forthcoming Frankenstein.

Michael Hodgson plays Capulet. For theatre, his work includes The Shoemaker’s Holiday, The Mouse and His Child (RSC), Catch 22 (Northern Stage), Brilliant Adventures (Royal Exchange), Can’t Pay Won’t Pay (Told By an Idiot) and The Pitman Painters (Live Theatre, National Theatre, West End, Manhattan Theater Club). For television, his work includes The Dumping Ground, Vera, George Gently, The Tide of Life, Touching Evil, Grubs, Spooks, and as series regulars in 2000 Acres of Sky and 55 Degrees North; and for film, In Bruges, One Way Ticket, First Knight, The Last Minute and Wonderland.

Rachel Lumberg returns to Sheffield Theatres to play The Nurse. She previously appeared in This is My Family (also tour), The Full Monty (also tour and Noel Coward Theatre) and The Way of the World. Other theatre includes Dandy Dick (UK tour), ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Calendar Girls (tour), The Devil Inside Him (NTW), The Rise and Fall of Little Voice (Vaudeville Theatre). For television, her work includes New Tricks, A Lump in My Throat, Sunburn, Wanted, Tears Before Bedtime, The Accused and A Dance to the Music of Time; and for film, South Kensington and Emma.

Simon Manyonda plays Mercutio. For theatre his work includes Light Shining in Buckinghamshire, King Lear, Greenland, Welcome to Thebes (National Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dreaming, Julius Caesar (RSC), Wildfire (Hampstead Theatre), The Mamba (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Antony and Cleopatra (Liverpool Playhouse) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Hammersmith). For television, his work includes Suspects and Whitechapel; and for film, World War Z, Julius Caesar and How It’s Done.

Jonathan Humphreys was resident director at Sheffield Theatres from 2010 – 2011 having been awarded a Regional Young Theatre Director bursary. His directing credits for the company include Boeing Boeing, The Village Bike and Happy Days. His other theatre work includes Krapp’s Last Tape, Spoonface Steinberg (Hull Truck), Moscow Live (HighTide), Father’s Son (NT Studio), Mojo Mickybo (Arcola Theatre/Trafalgar Studios), Even Rats Can Tapdance (Royal Court International Residency), Observations (Theatre 503 at Latitude) and The Freelancers (Old Vic New Voices 24 Hour Plays). His first film, The Send Off, was commissioned by BBC HD and was part of the official selection at the London Short Film Festival and Emden International Film Festival.

Sheffield Theatres Listings
Crucible Lyceum Studio 55 Norfolk Street, Sheffield, S1 1DA
Box Office 0114 249 6000 – Mon – Sat 10.00am to 8.00pm
On non-performance days the Box Office closes at 6.00pm.
A transaction fee of £1.50 (£1.00 online) applies to all bookings made at the Box Office (excl. cash)
www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

Romeo & Juliet
17 September – 17 October

The Distance
29 October – 14 November
Show Boat
10 December 2015 – 16 January 2016

www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk
Twitter: @crucibletheatre @SheffieldLyceum

WILL YOU BE THE NEXT DR SEUSS?

A children’s workshop inspired by the Dr Seuss classic The Cat In The Hat is to be held at Darlington Civic Theatre on Tuesday 28 July.

A children’s workshop will be taking place on Tuesday 28 July at 10am at Darlington Civic Theatre.

Join author Tracey Iceton and artist Yvonne Preston in creating your own book inspired by The Cat In The Hat; create some whacky rhymes and a cover for your new creation. The purrfect way to spend a morning.

From the moment his tall, red-and-white-striped hat appears around the door, Sally and her brother know that The Cat in The Hat is the funniest, most mischievous cat they have ever met. With the trickiest of tricks and craziest of ideas, he turns a rainy afternoon into an amazing adventure. But what will mum find when she gets home?

The Cat in The Hat was first published in 1957 as Dr. Seuss’s second book for children. It marked the transition of Theodor Seuss Geisel from successful advertising executive and political cartoonist, to world-famous illustrator and children’s author. The curious and intricate rhyming found in The Cat in The Hat is still adored decades later with over 250 million copies sold worldwide in more than 20 different languages.

The Cat In The Hat workshop is at Darlington Civic Theatre on Tuesday 28 July. Tickets are £5.50. Recommended age 4 to 7. To book, call the box office on 01325 486555.

TWO OF TELEVISION’S LEADING MEN TAKE ON ICONIC ROLES IN

A MAJOR NEW STAGE PRODUCTION AT LEEDS GRAND THEATRE

 

IAN KELSEY AS ANDY DUFRESNE

 

PATRICK ROBINSON AS ELLIS ‘RED’ REDDING

IN

THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION

On announcing he was to bring an end to his role as practice manager Howard Bellamy in BBC One’s Doctors, there was immediate speculation as to what would be next for Ian Kelsey – now, the Yorkshire-born actor is heading back North to star in The Shawshank Redemption at Leeds Grand Theatre.

Ian leaves his starring role in a closely guarded story line this November to play Andy Dufresne, a banker who, having been handed a double life sentence for the brutal murder of his wife and her lover, finds himself incarcerated in the notorious Shawshank penitentiary.

 

Joining Ian is television’s Patrick Robinson whose impressive TV career has spanned more than two decades. Patrick is best known for his role as staff nurse-turned-consultant Martin ‘Ash’ Ashford in BBC’s Casualty.

Unflinching in his protests of innocence, Andy strikes up an unlikely friendship with the prison fixer Red, played by Robinson, and things take a slight turn for the better. However, when Warden Stammas decides to bully Andy into subservience and exploit his talents for accountancy, a desperate plan is quietly hatched.

Based on the 1982 novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by celebrated author Stephen King, the playexamines desperation, injustice, friendship and hope behind the claustrophobic bars of a maximum security facility.

The 1994 feature film, regularly voted the number one all-time movie, starred Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne andMorgan Freeman as Ellis ‘Red’ Redding and was nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor for Freeman.

The Shawshank Redemption is at Leeds Grand Theatre from Monday August 31^st to Saturday September 5^th.

Tickets are on sale now priced from £18.50 to £35.

Book online at leedsgrandtheatre.com or call Box Office on 0844 848 2700.