All stories by Susan Elkin on BroadwayStars

Monday, March 11, 2019

Let’s be clear about foundation courses by Susan Elkin

I’ve thought and written a lot about performing arts foundation courses lately. It’s the time of year when students are looking at possible options for September and course providers are…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 02:00PM
Tuesday, March 5, 2019

BOOK REVIEW: 100 Acting Exercises For 8-18 Year Olds by Susan Elkin

If you work with under-18s developing performance skills (along with confidence and all those other useful transferables) then Samantha Marsden’s new book is likely to be very helpful.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Tuesday, February 19, 2019

Hurrah for pub theatres by Susan Elkin

Let’s hear it for pub theatres. Unheard of when I was a London teenager in the 1960s, there are now over 70 of them across the capital and they’re beginning to mushroom in other big citi…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Tuesday, February 12, 2019

How to become a stage manager by Susan Elkin

Should you take a full degree or just top up an existing qualification? Susan Elkin finds out why the quality of the

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AM
Monday, February 11, 2019

‘Audiences still come to listen’: Let’s make sure plays remain audible by Susan Elkin

I’ve seen several plays recently (no names no pack drill) in which I have missed an occasional line. There is nothing, I repeat nothing, wrong with my hearing.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Monday, February 4, 2019

Do you keep your theatre programmes? by Susan Elkin

So what do you do with theatre programmes aka playbills (in the USA)? They make nice souvenirs of an evening out but what if you’re in the theatre working three or four times a week? You�…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AM
Tuesday, January 29, 2019

The dead Mockingbird debacle by Susan Elkin

To Kill a Mockingbird. Oh dear. The production which originated at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park in 2015 before touring nationwide including to the Barbican, is now dead. It was due …

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM

How a foundation course can be your stepping stone to drama school by Susan Elkin

For school leavers who have their minds set on a career in the performing arts but are not ready for the transition

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 09:38AM
Monday, January 21, 2019

Reviewing student shows – or not… by Susan Elkin

Surely it’s part of good, thorough training to prepare students for the critical world by letting them experience it before they graduate – even if you invite in only those critics you c…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Tuesday, January 15, 2019

What to ask before choosing a postgraduate theatre course by Susan Elkin

A daunting array of options are available for further training. Susan Elkin asks course leaders across the country for their best advice

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AM
Monday, January 14, 2019

How not to alienate critics by Susan Elkin

Theatre critics have diaries bubbling with commitments. There’s some sort of press night or performance almost every day and often more than one. Clashes are surprisingly common. Getting t…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Monday, January 7, 2019

Drama school is excellent preparation for any sort of career by Susan Elkin

Parents often tell me they’re worried about offspring who want to train for a professional performing arts career. They fret about future uncertainty, especially unemployment. My advice to…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:07PM
Saturday, December 29, 2018

Lies, damned lies & advertorial by Susan Elkin

Yes, I know we’re in a fiercely competitive industry. Everyone trying to make a living in it has to do everything possible to promote themselves and their wares. Social networking might ha…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Come on critics, it’s a play not a funeral by Susan Elkin

I often see top “A team” critics looking miserably impassive as if they’d rather be anywhere but in the theatre. Is there some code of practice that I’m not party to which requires y…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 12:00PM
Tuesday, December 11, 2018

How to fill out the perfect UCAS application for a drama course by Susan Elkin

As the deadline for UCAS applications approaches, Susan Elkin speaks to the tutors who will be receiving them to find out what

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AM
Monday, December 10, 2018

Christmas shows and all who sail in them by Susan Elkin

This year, for the first time in decades, I decided that I’d choose my own Christmas shows and arrange to review them rather than waiting for editors to impose them on me. And I’m having…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Monday, December 3, 2018

An open letter to Joanna Lumley – about lavatories by Susan Elkin

Joanna Lumley, given all your aforementioned useful qualities, you could get attention from lots of influential blokes and get this thing off the ground in a way that I can’t. How about a …

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Monday, November 26, 2018

Learning about the craft of theatre by Susan Elkin

Theatrecraft, the annual careers fair, which I attended last week, is doing a fine job by getting around a thousand young people through the door every time.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Monday, November 19, 2018

‘The idea is to find people with real potential’: Accessible vocational training at Lyric Hammersmith by Susan Elkin

It isn’t every day I stumble across a strong new vocational training opportunity which is almost free to the participants. I refer to the Lyric Ensemble which piloted in the 2017/18 academ…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Tuesday, November 13, 2018

What are T levels and what will they mean for theatre? by Susan Elkin

New two-year technical programmes are planned to equip young people for employment. Susan Elkin gauges opinion on how the courses will work,

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AM
Monday, November 12, 2018

BOOK REVIEW: Practical advice on auditions, sound, light & precarity by Susan Elkin

Three new practical how-to books have landed on my desk along with one rather more academic title.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Surprises that derive from the spice of life by Susan Elkin

I think variety is the best thing about my life and work. In the last two weeks, I’ve seen a children’s show at Chichester, amateur takes on Our Country’s Good and Follies, three youth…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Monday, October 29, 2018

‘If it’s show “business” then we need to be more businesslike’: Audiences deserve punctuality by Susan Elkin

Every effort should be made for every show to start on time. Shows run late far too often and I reckon that’s usually avoidable.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 10:00AM
Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Rule-bound schools are hard to work in by Susan Elkin

I used to love visiting schools. Having taught for many years in secondary schools myself and visited, in various capacities, literally hundreds since I became first a part-time and then a f…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM

How important are drama school buildings? by Susan Elkin

As a number of institutions get set to unveil state-of-the-art facilities, Susan Elkin speaks to school principals about the value of well-appointed

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AM

Can the National Student Survey help you pick your drama training? by Susan Elkin

Ranking institutions according to levels of student satisfaction, the annual survey often appears to exclude high-performing drama schools. Teaching staff from around

SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AM
Wednesday, October 10, 2018

There’s nothing passive about these LIPA grads – aka Lago Theatre Company by Susan Elkin

Lago Theatre Company is a fine example of how theatrical entrepreneurialism – aka “making your own work” – can work, and work well for new or newish graduate actors.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Sunday, September 30, 2018

How to enjoy a night at the theatre – or maybe not… by Susan Elkin

So that journalistically useful wo/man from Mars arrives in Britain in 2018 and decides to go to theatre but needs a few tips. Here’s the deal.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Thursday, September 27, 2018

‘This new development has the potential to change many lives’: A new view for Mountview by Susan Elkin

Last week I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of Mountview’s jaw-dropping new £28m building in Peckham – just 48 hours before Mountview management were granted full possession and…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Saturday, September 22, 2018

Sizing up the casting issues by Susan Elkin

You are not supposed in 2018 – George Orwell’s Thought Police have certainly arrived – to notice or comment on the body shapes of actors.

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM
Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Engaging in books about Shakespeare, puppetry, Brecht & more by Susan Elkin

When the Arden Performance Edition of Othello arrived recently from Bloomsbury (Methuen Drama) the friend who was staying with me was incredulous. “Surely they don’t think you need a cop…

SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime