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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.

 

SHANE RICHIE AND JESSIE WALLACE

 

TO STAR ON STAGE TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME                 

 

IN MULTI MILLION SELLING AUTHOR PETER JAMES’ SMASH HIT NEW COMEDY

 

THE PERFECT MURDER

 

MARRIAGE CAN BE MURDER………

 

UK TOUR 2016

 

Following the conclusion last week of the sell-out run of No.1 best-selling crime author Peter James’ Dead Simple, he and producer Joshua Andrews are pleased to announce that Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace will appear on stage together for the very first time in the 2016 production of The Perfect Murder, coming to Newcastle Theatre Royal from Monday 22 – Saturday 27 February 2016.

 

Victor Smiley and his wife Joan have been married for a long time. But their marriage has reached crisis point and Victor has decided there is only one way to get Joan out of his life forever… but he’s about to get a nasty surprise… As a young Detective Roy Grace starts to investigate his very first homicide case, dark forces intervene and Grace begins to fear that nothing is quite as it seems quite as it seems ……..

 

Directed by Olivier award winner Ian Talbot and adapted by award winning writer Shaun McKenna, this highly acclaimed dark comedy thriller delighted and frightened audiences across the country in 2014, with its darkly funny and gripping storyline and it reopens at the Cheltenham Everyman on February 2^nd 2016.

 

International bestselling crime thriller novelist Peter James has had numerous No.1 best sellers around the world, has sold over 16 million books of his Roy Grace series, and is published in 36 languages. The Perfect Murder spent 15 weeks at No 1, remaining for 50 weeks in the iBooks Top 10 and his most recent novel, You Are Dead, is currently in its 8th week in the Sunday Times Top 10, having reached No.1 earlier this year.  Peter James says of today’s announcement:

 

“It has always been my dream that one day the curtains would rise in a theatre and a play of my work would be performed.  That dream came true in 2014 after a chance meeting with my old friend, producer, Joshua Andrews. The first run of The Perfect Murder, was a sell out success and we have followed that this year with an even more successful run of my best-selling book Dead Simple. To now have Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace star in The Perfect Murder really is another dream come true. Shane has been a fan of my books for a while, as I have been of Shane. He and Jessie have been loved on television by huge audiences over a number of years, which just goes to show how great they are together and I can’t wait to see Shane and Jessie planning to murder each other on stage every night!

 

Producer Joshua Andrews added; “I am thrilled that Shane and Jessie have chosen The Perfect Murder as the production in which to star on stage together for the very first time, as they really are ‘perfect’ casting for Victor and Joan. Peter and I are very much looking forward to working with them on this short tour and hopefully we might see a limited London run at the end of that.”

 

Shane Richie and Jessie Wallace will be starring in The Perfect Murder during their break from EastEnders. The award winning actors, who have starred together in EastEnders for the last 13 years and are also both well known for their numerous other TV and Theatre credits, are equally excited by their upcoming stage debut together;

 

They said: “We are really looking forward to working together on stage as it’s so different to TV.”

 

Shane added: “It’s an honour to be attached to Peter James work as I’m such a fan of his books!”

 

Jessie said: “As soon as I read the script, I knew I had to do it! “Watch out because sparks are going to fly and it’s the perfect murder!”

The Perfect Murder will open at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham on February 2^nd 2016. Tour details and additional venues follow, with further venues and full casting to be announced later this year.

 

The Perfect Murder is adapted by Shaun McKenna from the novel by Peter James, directed by Ian Talbot, booked by The Booking Office and produced by Joshua Andrews and Peter James.

 

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s classic musical, The Phantom of the Opera has kept audiences enthralled for nearly 30 years, and it remains in good hands at Her Majesty’s Theatre with the current West End company. Led by Geronimo Rauch in the iconic title role, opposite Harriet Jones as the object of his obsession, Christine Daae, and Liam Tamne as love rival Raoul, the Phantom cast in its entirety is one of the best I’ve seen, and while one would like to keep them around for many more years to come, it’s inevitable that all things will change with time and that we must change with it.

New beginnings are on the way with the show’s approaching cast change, which means saying goodbye to some company members, but welcoming some new faces to thePhantom family. Before then though, the current cast will be coming together for an exclusive and unmissable one-night-only live performance in the aptly-named cabaret, New Beginnings… No More Talk of Darkness.

The Phantom company will be appearing at the Prince of Wales Theatre’s popular downstairs space, the Delfont Room, for a late-night cabaret show following the evening’s performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre on Thursday 6th August 2015. New Beginnings… No More Talk of Darkness is presented by the company as the first event in the 2015 Late Night Cabaret Season at the Delfont Room, in aid of TheatreMAD for The Make A Difference Trust.

The musical cabaret will feature Phantom cast members performing an eclectic mix of songs that includes some classic songs and other, lesser-known songs too. Featured in the set list is one of the numbers from Maury Yeston’s Phantom (performed by Cover Phantom/Swing Kieran Brown and Cover Christine Lisa-Anne Wood), along with song selections from such musicals as Love Never Dies, Witches of Eastwick, Chicago, and more. The cast will also be performing a modern acoustic twist on a song from their version of Phantom, as well as some Rodgers & Hammerstein numbers, some German Lieder, some Rock, ukeleles and so much more!

The evening’s entertainment will be compered by the phantastic Kieran Brown and also features Scott Morgan as musical director of the cabaret.

The Make A Difference Trust is a long-running West End charity that brings together the theatre industry and its supporters to raise funds for HIV and AIDS projects that raise awareness and provide care, support and education in the UK and Sub-Saharan Africa; as well as supporting those in the entertainment industry facing hardship as a result of long term chronic illness. They have enjoyed a long working relationship with The Phantom of the Opera, the two having collaborated on fundraising cabarets numerous times over the years. Previous cast members have also performed for the benefit of MADTrust in such musical cabarets as the 2011 event, A Complicated Love and the follow-up night in 2012,Jubilation, both staged at the Delfont Room too.

New Beginnings… No More Talk of Darkness is the latest in a series of superb Phantom cabarets for MADTrust. It offers fans the chance to see members of the Phantom cast as they’ve never seen them before, out of costume and out of character and delivering unique, up-close and personal performances in the intimate cabaret setting of the Delfont Room. Even better, fans get to do some good by supporting a worthy charity like MADTrust at the same time.

New Beginnings…No More Talk of Darkness takes place at the Delfont Room at the Prince of Wales Theatre on Thursday 6th August 2015. Doors open at 10.30pm, show starts at 11pm.

Tickets start at £17, and are available to buy in person at the Prince of Wales Theatre box office, by calling 0844 402 5110 or by visiting www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk.

Further details can be found on Facebook at New Beginnings…No More Talk of Darkness.

 

ROYAL COURT: TOTTENHAM AUGUST 2015

·         As part of its three year engagement with community groups, artists, young people and businesses in Tottenham and Pimlico, the Royal Court Theatre is to host a series of events and performances to take place across Tottenham this summer.

·         The events are incorporated under TOTTENHAM’S OWN, TOTTENHAM PRESENTS andTOTTENHAM FIRSTS.

TOTTENHAM’S OWN is a celebration of work made by the local community and will include workshops and performance nights for home grown talent in the Tottenham area.

Under this strand, the Royal Court Theatre will be working with Tottenham residents in collaboration with theBruce Grove Youth Club, Haringey Shed and The Wellside Project to create new pieces of theatre inspired by issues important to the area.

TOTTENHAM’S OWN will also feature the return of the performance night for Tottenham artists, Platform Tottenham which will invite artists of all genres to perform in front of an audience at Haringey Irish Centre’s main hall.

TOTTENHAM PRESENTS is part of the Royal Court Theatre’s efforts to bring world class art to Tottenham residents.

For TOTTENHAM PRESENTS Quang K Van will lead an opening ceremony of the programme with a promenade dance performance performed by community dancers and drummers across Lordship Rec. There will also be a special appearance by students from Pimlico Academy who the Royal Court are currently working with through their engagement with the SW1V area.

Royal Court Associate Designer Chloe Lamford will be leading two design workshops focussing on design for theatre and visual culture more broadly.

Selina Thompson will also bring her full length theatre piece Chewing The Fat to Haringey Sixth Form Centre.

TOTTENHAM PRESENTS will also include The Five Step Plan: The Massacre of the NHS and How to Fix It, a newly devised piece of theatre by The Tottenham Community Cast of Michael Wynne’s recent verbatim play about the NHS, Who Cares. Directed by Debbie Hannan the piece is an impassioned plea for the future of their community, combining personal testimony and fiction.

TOTTENHAM FIRSTS will include a strand of events by leading theatre makers from around the UK where they will try out new ideas and previously unseen work for Tottenham audiences. Rob Drummond, Rachel Mars, and Islington Community Theatre will all perform new pieces.

The events will take place in parks, community centres, schools and theatres and will feature a range of performances, workshops and collaborations with residents from Tottenham.

TOTTENHAM’S OWN
A celebration of work made in by the local community.
This strand of events includes:

Bruce Grove Youth Club
with Hamish Pirie
Taster session: Friday 24 July from 3pm
Join in: Every Wednesday from 29 July – 26 August, 2pm – 4pm
Sharing of work Friday 28 August, 1pm
Bruce Grove Youth Club, 10 Bruce Grove, N17 6RA
Free

Royal Court Theatre Associate Director Hamish Pirie will work with Bruce Grove’s young people aged 11 – 19 on a piece of theatre about the issues that matter to them.

Based in Tottenham, Bruce Grove Youth Club delivers a range of activities for young people.

The sessions will culminate in a free sharing of work on 28 August at 1pm at the Bruce Grove Youth Club.

Hamish Pirie is Associate Director at the Royal Court. For the Royal Court his directing credits includeViolence and Son, Who Cares and Teh Internet is Serious Business.
His other theatre credits include I’m With The Band and Demos, Quiz Show, Love With A Capital ‘L’, 3 Seconds, Most Favoured, Bravo Figaro and The Last Bloom (Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, where he was previously Associate Director) and Salt Root and Roe (Donmar Warehouse’s Trafalgar Studio season).

For more information, tickets and to book your place in the sessions, email:[email protected]

Haringey Shed’s Children’s and Youth Company
Join in: Monday 3 August – Saturday 15 August, 9am – 4pm
Sharing of work on Saturday 15 August, 2pm and 4:30pm
White Hart Studios, Haringey Sixth Form Centre, White Hart Lane, N17 8HR

A Royal Court writer and director will work with Haringey Shed’s children’s theatre (ages 7-10) and Youth Company (ages 11-16) to create their summer show. There are spaces available for members of the public between the ages of 7 and 16 to join in.

For 15 years Haringey Shed has been delivering performing arts workshops in Haringey and surrounding boroughs. They provide inclusive workshops where participants have the opportunity to learn performing arts skills in an environment where everyone is encouraged to realise their potential.

For more infomation, tickets and to book your place in the sessions, email[email protected]

Children’s Workshops with The Wellside Project
Join in: Tuesday 18, Thursday 20 and Friday 21 August, 10am – 1pm
Sharing of work Friday 21 August, 1pm
Parish Hall at Holy Trinity Church, Tottenham, Philip Ln, N15 4GZ
Free

The Wellside Project, which seeks to bring people together to serve their community, present a series of workshops for children exploring why they love Tottenham and what it means to them.

Suitable for ages 7-12

For more information and booking email [email protected]

Platform Tottenham
Friday 28 August, 8pm
Haringey Irish Centre, Main Hall, Pretoria Rd, Tottenham, N17 8DX
Free

The second performance night for Tottenham artists of all genres who want to share their work with a friendly audience.

Tickets available on the door.

Submissions should be sent in to [email protected] by 21 August. Entrants must be over 18.

Soup Stories
Your kitchen
Whenever you choose

Royal Court Theatre Associate Director Hamish Pirie wants to tour the kitchens of Tottenham, tasting your homemade dishes, hearing your stories and chatting about the role of food in different countries and cultures. He might even do the washing up…

TOTTENHAM PRESENTS
World class art on your doorstep.

Opening Ceremony: Bunny Dance
Saturday 1 August, Gather from 6pm for a 6:30pm start
Beginning at Lordship Hub, Lordship Recreational Ground, Lordship Lane, Harringay
Free and unticketed

An invitation to move and an invitation to party.

Quang K Van’s Bunny Dance plus special guests performance from our sister project in Pimlico, the Pimlico Academy Performing Arts BTEC, with If You Don’t Stand For Something, You’ll Fall For Anything.

Choreographer and dancer Quang K Van will lead an ensemble of local drummers and dancers through the Lordship Rec in a promenade performance. In creating the piece, Quang has taken inspiration from the East Asian legend of the Moon Rabbit and the energy of the people of Tottenham. 

Community dancers are invited to join in the procession.

Quang K Van’s dance credits include Miaan, SisGo, Innocence (Scottish Dance); Blake Diptych, Disgo(Darkin Ensemble); View from the Shore (Jacky Lansley Dance); O (Michael Clark Company); Mystere(Cirque du Soliel); Interview, Flying the Rainbow (Oxytoc Dance Project); Tchaikovsky Trilogy, Hamlet, Midnight Express, Romeo & Juliet, Kermesseni Brugge, The King, HC Anderson (Peter Schaufuss Ballet);Othello, XXX CLOSEUP, Where I End & We Begin, Ultimate Ophelia, Loose Ends, Magma (Skanes Dansteater); Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (Adventures in Motion Pictures). His opera includes Skin Deep(Opera North); Ariodante (English National Opera).His theatre includes Teh Internet Is Serious Business(Royal Court).

For more information and to join, email [email protected].

Entrants must be 16 and over. No experience necessary.

Design Workshops
With Chloe Lamford
Location TBC
Monday 7 and Monday 14 September, 7pm – 9pm

Royal Court Associate Designer Chloe Lamford will host two workshops introducing elements of design for theatre but also looking at visual culture more broadly.

No theatre experience or knowledge is necessary – just an interest in any form of visual expression, from street art to sculpture.

Chloe Lamford’s credits for the Royal Court include, Roald Dahl’s The Twits, How to Hold Your Breath, God Bless the Child, 2071, Teh Internet is Serious Business, Open Court, Circle Mirror Transformation. Her other theatre credits include Salt Root & Roe (Donmar/Trafalgar Studios); Praxis Makes Perfect(National Theatre Wales); Lungs (Schaubühne, Berlin); and 1984(Headlong/Almeida/West End/tour). Her awards include Theatrical Management Association Award for Best Theatre Design (Small Miracle); Arts Foundation Fellowship Award for Design for Performance: Set & Costume.

For more information and to join, email [email protected].

Chewing The Fat
By Selina Thompson
White Hart Studios, Haringey Sixth Form Centre, White Hart Lane, N17 8HR
Friday 7 and Saturday 8 August, 8pm
Tickets £3

Chewing the Fat Workshop
By Selina Thompson
White Hart Studios, Haringey Sixth Form College
Saturday 8 August, 3pm
Free

Glitter, chicken legs and lots of rice pudding: Selina invites you to her own version of a midnight feast, somewhere between the confessions made over coffee at weight watchers, and sloppy drunken story-telling over a 3am kebab.

Chewing The Fat began at the University of Sheffield as Selina’s dissertation piece. After performing at Emerge Festival (Leeds) in 2012, she was invited to develop the work into a full length piece at Theatre in the Mill, Bradford – supported by West Yorkshire Playhouse.

Since then, the work has toured to ARC Stockton, PULSE Ipswich, returned to the University of Sheffield for a sell-out performance and has been invited to perform for two weeks as part of Northern Stage’s prestigious programme at Kings Hall.

Selina Thompson’s recent work includes: Pat It And Prick It And Mark It With A B (National Theatre Studio / Compass Festival, Leeds), Dark & Lovely (East Street Arts) and It Burns It All Clean (West Yorkshire Playhouse / FIERCE Festival).

Book at royalcourttheatre.com or call 020 7565 5000.

The Five Step Plan: The Massacre of the NHS and How to Fix it.
Directed by Debbie Hannan
Saturday 29 August
Performances throughout the day times TBC
Secret NHS Location, to be announced
Tickets £3

The NHS was a key electoral issue for Tottenham residents. In the aftermath of the General Election where and what should be done next?

Combining personal testimony and fiction, a community cast (including several Tottenham residents) have collaboratively devised a piece that makes an impassioned plea for the future of the NHS in their community. This is an immersive piece that will take place in a secret NHS location. Performance times TBC

Debbie Hannan’s directing credits for the Royal Court include Primetime 2015, Who Cares (as Co-Director)and Peckham The Soap Opera. As Assistant Director for the Royal Court her credits include How To Hold Your Breath, Teh Internet is Serious Business, The Nether, Primetime 2014, Birdland and The Mistress Contract. Other directing credits include Notes from the Underground (Citizens Theatre), Panorama, Roses Are Dead, You Cannot Call it Love (The Arches), Yellow Pears (Swept Up) and Grimm Tales, Nights at the Circus (Theatre Paradok). She was a previous trainee director at the Royal Court.

Book at royalcourttheatre.com or call 020 7565 5000.

TOTTENHAM FIRSTS
Leading theatre makers from around the UK try out new ideas and previously unseen work for Tottenham audiences.

The Hole of My Heart
by Rob Drummond
Friday 21 August, 7.30pm
Beehive Pub, Stoneleigh Rd, Tottenham N17 9BQ
Tickets £3

When Rob was eight years old doctors found a hole in his heart and advised his parents he had only a few months to live.

Join him now in his thirty fourth year as he investigates his past medical health and examines the possibility of knowing his future with the help of human genome scientists in America who, for three thousand dollars, will tell him how he is likely to die.

Rob Drummond’s theatre credits include Mr Write (National Theatre of Scotland), Rob Drummond: Wrestling  (The Arches), Bullet Catch (The Arches) and Quiz Show (The Traverse).

Book at royalcourttheatre.com or call 020 7565 5000.

Ask
In collaboration with Islington Community Theatre
Saturday 22 August, 3pm and 7pm
Bernie Grants Art Centre
Running time: 45 mins
Age guidance: 11+
Free but ticketed

On 23 June 2014, fifteen year old Helawit went to her friend’s birthday party in north London. They watched a film, ate pizza and made terrible rap videos on their phones.

On the same day, on the other side of the world, Helawit’s dad – a British democracy activist – was kidnapped, hooded and illegally rendered to Ethiopia.  A year later, he’s still there – held in solitary confinement and facing a death sentence for crimes he didn’t commit.

Ask is an intimate new scratch play created and performed by Helawit, a long-standing member of Islington Community Theatre, and her friends.  It’s about what it means for your dad to go missing in one of the most important years of your life and why the British Government won’t ask for him back.

Islington Community Theatre is one of the UK’s leading companies making theatre with young people. The ICT is currently at the National Theatre performing their newly devised piece, Brainstorm created by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim and the company.

www.islingtoncommunitytheatre.com

A free post-show discussion will take place after the 7pm performance.

Book at royalcourttheatre.com or call 020 7565 5000.

Our Carnal Hearts and Sing It! Spirit of Envy
by Rachel Mars
Saturday 5 September, 5pm
St Mary’s Church, Lansdowne Rd, Tottenham, N17 9XE
Free but ticketed

Two pieces by Rachel Mars which continue her work on the theme of envy in song and text.

This fairy comes round your house.
You, she says, are in luck.
Ask for anything you want. Anything in the world and I’ll give it to you. But whatever you ask for, your neighbour gets the same thing, but double.
Great. You say. Fine.
Cut out one of my eyes.

Our Carnal Hearts is a celebration of envy. A place to whoop at our own fragility and delight against our better nature. A show that seeks to prove that envy makes us better.

Sing It! Spirit of Envy! is a short song piece about greed and envy, solo pursuits and communal contentment. Made anew with a pop-up choir of local singers each time it is performed, it puts two joyfully waggling fingers up to glib, economic politco-bullshit speak.

Rachel Mars plus special Tottenham guests The New Tottenham Singers.

Rachel Mars is a performance maker with a background in theatre, live art and comedy. Her theatre credits includes The Way You Tell Them (CPT, Summerhall, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Contact Theatre, Machynlleth Comedy Festival, further UK Touring and Wildside Festival, Montreal, The Butterfly Club, Melbourne), The Lady’s Not For Walking Like An Egyptian (Ovalhouse, Royal Exchange, Norwich Arts Centre, The Albany, further touring Autumn 2015) and Sing It! Spirit of Envy! (Buzzcut Festival, Forest Fringe, Lyric Hammersmith, Machynlleth Comedy Festival).

The New Tottenham Singers are a non-audition choir based in North London, open to all, which aims to unite and represent the wider community through a joy of singing.

There will be an open rehearsal day for The New Tottenham Singers on 29 August at Bernie Grant Arts Centre from 2pm – 6pm. For more details email [email protected]

Book at royalcourttheatre.com or call 020 7565 5000.