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 01:00PMThe message of course – and, thank goodness, most companies are already well aware of it – is that if you want your show reviewed, both this one and the ones you’ll produce in the futu…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PMIn the last week or so I’ve seen three outdoor shows and got soaked to the skin twice. It’s what you do in Britain – part of summer’s rich tapestry.
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AMClearing is the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service system for matching spare places to students who need them in the few weeks
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 05:26AMShakespeare’s plays really are uniquely life changing and if this collaboration between PQA and SSF means that more young people will have access to their power then that can only be a Ver…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 10:00AMIt all feels to me a bit manic and contrived – a sort of industrial over compensation for several centuries of doing plays according to the conventions of the social period in which they w…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 08:00AMLast week I revisited two examples of theatre changing the lives of young people. Everyone in this industry – and those who directly or indirectly manage funding for such organisations �…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 12:00PMI’ve written about audition fees many times before and make absolutely no apology for doing so again. I shall keep relentlessly banging this drum until something changes. The post Ban a…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PMThe Broadway Theatre, Catford is a fabulous building and I’d like to see it become an integral part of people’s lives as it was for me when I was a Lewisham child.
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PMProfessional and Career Development Loans were a lifeline for students like these. Now that such loans have gone many of them will simply not be able to pursue the career they want – irres…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PMBrush up your Shakespeare? Well yes, Cole Porter, I had plenty of chances to do just that last week when I attended Shakespeare performances on three consecutive evenings.
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 12:00PMThough university degrees offer fewer contact hours than drama schools, they can provide a firm grounding in theatre for school-leavers who are
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AMLast week I attended the 2018 Theatre Book Prize award ceremony. From a shortlist of five titles, Nicholas Hytner won with Balancing Acts (published by Jonathan Cape) – and the ever-engagi…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AMThis is a blog in praise of pit bands – all those hardworking talented musicians who lurk mostly out of sight in orchestra pits or are hidden away behind a curtain somewhere upstage.
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PMAccess to the arts is more vital as schools under funding pressure cut drama provision. Susan Elkin looks at the extra-curricular and
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 12:56PMLast week I had the most uplifting theatrical experience of the year – so far. I saw Swan Lake at Royal Opera House in the company of 2,000 primary school children.
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AMWhether you’re a school leaver embarking on a theatre career or a working performer who wants to top up on stage skills,
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AMI write a lot about the performing arts I watch other people engaging in. Last week, for a change, it was my turn. I went to Benslow Music in Hitchin for three days – for the sixth or …
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PMAttending the first show of 2018 made me wonder, not for the first time, why we mad Brits persist in doing outdoor theatre. This is not Verona, Seville or Avignon, after all.
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 01:00PMWith no course currently available to fill the gap between leaving school and moving on to postgraduate training, Susan Elkin seeks out
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 06:14AMI don’t think it matters whether you’re writing for a national newspaper, your own website or a small organisation which doesn’t pay for reviews. The important thing is that you can, a…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 11:00AMSpecialist theatre, drama or music education at 16-19 level doesn’t have to be pricey or far away from home – and it
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AMThe shelf I reserve for newly arrived theatre books is beginning to groan so it’s obviously time for a round-up. There’s a lot of Shakespeare on the pile and I was especially pleased to …
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 10:00AMIf you have only 30 places to offer on a massively oversubscribed acting or musical theatre course then you must award them to the thirty applicants who have the potential to be industry-rea…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 09:00AMThe thing is this: If I knew that many people in the performing arts industries are hostile towards, or despairing about (or both) what they see as the government’s dismissal of the arts i…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 09:00AMGetting into a drama school is notoriously difficult, with prospective students often feeling unprepared for auditions. Susan Elkin explains how foundation courses
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AMThe purpose of my visit was very specific to the Watermill Theatre. The forthcoming production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Paul Hart, and building on the success of last year�…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 10:00AMPuppets are on the up – War Horse and Pinocchio being just a couple of recent examples. So now is a better
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 08:00AMNo one should have to pay for the “privilege” of applying for any sort of course. Charging audition fees is such an exploitative disgrace that I can see no reason why it shouldn’t be m…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 12:00PMIn presenting a dance classic to pre-schoolers, how far should it be simplified and changed to suit the audience? I’m a great
SOURCE: The Stage Registration at 02:00AMHow do we get the word out – really out – about fringe theatre in general and pub theatres in particular. There’s cutting-edge work going on all the time at, for example, the Finboroug…
SOURCE: mytheatremates.com at 10:00AM