Friday, April 11, 2014
Polka Theatre, London: This robust and original piece is about confronting demons, whether that means living with the fear of what is happening to your dad in a 2014 war zone or facing the M…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:08PMThursday, April 10, 2014
Rose Theatre, Kingston: This stylised, acrobatic retelling with music is a lively account of Jacqueline Wilson's late Victorian Foundling Hospital story. It takes the eponymous Hetty�…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:53AMAre we training too many students? It’s the showcase season – and there are dozens and dozens of them. I see at least one a week and sometimes more at this time of year although…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:39AMMonday, April 7, 2014
Assembly Hall Theatre, Tunbridge Wells: The Famous Five meets pantomime is the essence of Scooby-Doo on stage, and its cartoon nonsense, enacted by a strong cast, certainly makes children la…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:57AMIt is often alleged – by people who are happy with cavalier generalisations – that 21st century drama schools don’t teach Shakespeare and his contemporaries properly and that today’s…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:25AMSaturday, April 5, 2014
11 young auditionees took their chance to impress Sylvia Young and fellow judges to earn a scholarship to attend her theatre school, writes Susan Elkin
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:23AMThursday, April 3, 2014
Last week I had a short break in beautiful Bath to celebrate a landmark wedding anniversary. But I’m never quite off duty so I also took the opportunity to visit The Egg, famous children�…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:51AMMonday, March 31, 2014
I am a passionate believer in the importance of theatre for young audiences as no regular reader of these columns could fail to have noticed. Let me explain why. First: it has immeasurable t…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:45AMThursday, March 27, 2014
Stageworks is an independent college based at St Neots in Cambridgeshire. It offers classes for children from age 3 along with two full-time courses: a two year (level 3 – equivalent to s…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:56AMWednesday, March 26, 2014
Unicorn Theatre, London: This gently witty account of Margery Williams' charming book, loved by children for several generations, explores the power of play and imagination to transcend…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:59AMMonday, March 24, 2014
For decades people have been bewailing the lack of vocational training in Ireland – to me and to anyone else who will listen. And I have met dozens of Irish students training in the UK&#…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:47AMThursday, March 20, 2014
Duchess Theatre, London: Demonstrating the talents of 12 male and 12 female actors, this showcase is a good example of how to select high quality, often quite original pieces which really sh…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:04PMOn Monday, matters theatrical and educational took me to two different venues for two contrasting shows both related strongly to learning and development. In the morning I went to Ravensbour…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:01AMMonday, March 17, 2014
I’ve had my eye on The Lir Ireland’s National Academy of Dramatic Art – at Trinity College Dublin – for some time because for so long there was no conservatoire level training i…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:38AMFriday, March 14, 2014
Polka Theatre, London: This pleasingly original show features some fine singing which stays impressively in tune even when a pre-rehearsed class of children is lined up on stage to join in.
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SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:56AMThursday, March 13, 2014
Well, having spent most of my life determinedly keeping my feet on the ground, both literally and metaphorically, it was quite an experience for me to be enjoying a (very) bouncy floor and l…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:16AMTuesday, March 11, 2014
Criterion Theatre, London: This straightforward showcase gives us the work of 28 students in 15 duologues so most actors appear only once. And congratulations to whoever thought of starting …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:04PMMonday, March 10, 2014
Olympia was definitely the place to be this weekend. The Perform Show and Move It were the usual exuberant, buzzy three day events. I dropped in on Friday afternoon. It’s one of my annual…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:52AMFriday, March 7, 2014
Redbridge Drama Centre: Thunder rumbles, blackboards, doubling as flats on castors, whizz about and hideous masked creatures menace the audience.
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SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:13AMThursday, March 6, 2014
The other day, at another venue, I picked up a brochure about Cecil Sharp House, the Camden Town headquarters of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. As always, the mere mention of it t…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:33AMMonday, March 3, 2014
Last week I saw Strangeface Theatre Company’s Shooting the Moon at Theatre Royal Margate and reviewed it for The Stage. It was a charismatically intriguing and interesting experience wit…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 03:45AMFriday, February 28, 2014
Theatre Royal, Margate: This quirky, wordless, engaging four-hander tells the episodic story of the French film pioneer Georges Melies in a series of "unreliable dreams" from his d…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:59AMThursday, February 27, 2014
Earlier this week I saw a production of Howard Brenton’s fine play, Anne Boleyn and I was really pleased to catch up with this sparky, thoughtful Jacobean ghost story, having missed it at …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:47AMWednesday, February 26, 2014
Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury: The usual irreverent energetic slickness we've come to expect from the Reduced Shakespeare Company makes this show another comic corker. Imagine the thre…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:32AMMonday, February 24, 2014
Last week I had the very great pleasure of seeing Merry Opera Company’s Kiss Me Figaro. It’s at Riverside Studios until 2 March and then touring until June 28. This musical rom-com is ab…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AMThursday, February 20, 2014
The very first piece I wrote for The Stage, nearly twenty years ago, was about the behaviour of school parties in the theatre. Interestingly I have needed only very rarely to revisit the sub…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:41AMMonday, February 17, 2014
Orchard Theatre, Dartford: This is a new Horrible Histories show and the third in the Barmy Britain series and, although there is some familiar material, most of it is fresh and really enhan…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:02AMI’ve long been a passionate advocate of theatre for young audiences (as you might, just might, have noticed). As well as seeing dozens of shows by touring companies every year I’m a regu…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:28AMThursday, February 13, 2014
The Canterbury High School: This text-reduced, gender-reversed take on one of Shakespeare's more problematic plays is a funny and poignant introduction to the canon, aimed at 8-13 year …
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:12PMUnicorn, London: This ingenious, quasi-feminist, uncompromising reworking of Dr Faustus for 21st century young audiences is entirely written in iambic pentameter, which gives it unusual lyri…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:19AMOn Monday I had the privilege of attending the London press night of the Bristol Old Vic/Handspring fresh, innovative, rude and hugely enjoyable A Midsummer Night’s Dream which runs at The…
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 04:00AM 
