News from the Four Corners of the Earth Monday the 19th July 2010

The Guardian Newspaper of the UK has hailed the recently knighted Sir Nicholas Hytner the director of the National Theatre as number 39 in their Media100 list. He rises 4 places from number 44 in last years list. For more info on this list and to read his entry please click here.

The Theatre buildings at risk register is one of the best organisations in the UK at the moment, they look after our beautiful theatre buildings and list the ones most at risk. Sadly since the recession more theatres have had to enter the list and the latest news is that 5 Welsh theatres are at severe risk. This piece from WalesOnline chronicles the story of these theatres, which includes one of the last two standing purpose built music halls the Palace Theatre in Swansea. Please click here to learn more.

Amateur Theatre group the Tower Theatre Company has announced it has permission to build a new Theatre building in Shoreditch on top of the site of the first London Theatre where Shakespeare's work was debuted. For more information please go here.

The Stage has a great review of the Latitude festivals theatre arena. As ever at Latitude there was plenty of cultural events, the one that most interested me though was the improvised musical which played to packed crowds in the cabaret tent. For more info please go here.

Acclaimed Bollywood director Vipul Shah is returning to his roots of the great Indian Theatre alongside that of his wife Shefali Shah a famous Bollywood actor. For more information on this story please click here.

As anyone who reads my blog will know, as a director I love exploring different types of theatre space and writing about them as well. Here is a great article by Dan Rebellato of the Guardian newspaper in which he asks what our problems are with the proscenium arch. It is an excellent read. Please click here.

The One on One festival is in full swing with 10000 performers performing individual pieces of theatre/dance/music in a one on one situation. Much like the smallest theatre in Times Square NY, see previous posts, this festival attempts to breakdown the space between a performer and the audience and get them to interact so there is a deeper involvement in the show for the audience member. The BBC has a great article up about it here.