News from the Four Corners of the Earth Tuesday 6/7/2010

Shrek the Musical is heading to the UK in 2011 as previews for the show start in May next year before the show opens on June the 7th. For more information on this story please click here.

An Actor, as yet unidentified, passed away today at the Minack Theatre Cornwall and had to be airlifted away. A tragic situation to happen in the middle of a play, the actor was not onstage but in the changing area of this unique theatre space. For more on this sad story please click here.

Experiments in Freedom: Explorations of Identity in New South African Drama by Anton Krueger has just been released in South Africa and looks at the post apartheid text plays coming out from there. This is a review of this interesting book, just click here.

New Steven Berkoff production 'Biblical Tales' will debut at the New End Theatre on the 3rd of August. For more information click here.

Valhalla! opens tonight at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow. It is the UK premiere of this play which was written by Paul Rudnick the screenwriter known for his films Addams Family Values, In and Out and The Stepford Wives. For the review please click here. For tickets and info on the Tron Theatre click here.

It seems that Chichester Festival Theatre's production of 42nd Street is really running away with some great notices, here is another review of this fantastic show this time from the Financial Times who award it four stars. To read the review please click here.

There is an excellent article on the BBC website about one womans acsension from a poverty stricken South African Township to international Operatic acclaim. It also talks about how she works to improve the situation in her own country. Check it out here. The film made for Newsnight about her features on tonights Newsnight broadcast at 10:30pm on BBC2.

Bollywood Film Legend Aamir Khan has announced his stage show Peepli Live. For more information please click here.

The plans to create a brand new theatre space in Finsbury Park London have been submitted to the local council. Jez Bond the artistic director of this new project has stated he wants to create a powerhouse of theatre in North London. The Park Theatre will apparently be predominantly a producing house. For more information please click here.

Michael Boyd of the RSC has an interview up on the Guardian website click here to read it.

Upcoming Book: Somethings Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination by Misha Berson

Somethings Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination is a book by Theatre critic for the Seattle Times Misha Berson. Berson has spent many years writing about the theatre getting her first start in the San Francisco theatre scene before moving onto Seattle in the early 1990s. Berson has already written several books on the theatre including 'Between Worlds: Contemporary Asian-American Plays' and 'The San Francisco Stage' and has also contributed to several National Theatre journals in the USA. Berson has also taught courses at the University of Washington  and for San Francisco State.

This book is a critical approach to perhaps one of the most popular musicals of the past century West Side Story. West Side Story is a musical that many people will know either from having seen some sort of production of it, school, community or professional, or from having seen the excellent film adaptation. Based upon the story of Romeo and Juliet the piece follows an American boy Tony who is from a Polish background falling in love with a Puerto Rican Immigrant named Maria. Set against the backdrop of 1950s inner city New York this great love story gets mixed up in the street gang politics of Tony's old group the Jets against Maria's brothers gang the Sharks. It is a wonderful twist to Shakespeare's text and allows a lot of humour and energy to be put into the story. It is one of my favourite musicals because of the excellent soundtrack and the dance sequences which are just phenomenal. This musical influenced a lot of choreographers and dancers and without the work of Jerome Robbins in the piece Michael Jackson may not have come up with many of his now legendary dance routines. It is for these reasons that Berson has written this book as a critical analysis of the plot, the way it is staged, the film adaptation and much more with an aim for fans of the play to read but also as an important resource for potential producers and directors of the play. I think it would be something if I was going to do West Side Story I might take out from a Library or see how cheap it was on Amazon because although it looks good on paper I don't know if I would read a book all about just one play that wasn't say for example just a cliffs notes sort of thing. Still it could be very good and anyone who wishes to pre-order it now from Amazon should go here. It isn't released until May 2011 but the american edition comes out in November and to pre-order that one you should follow this link.

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Pilgrims Performance on Saturday the 3rd of July

On Saturday LibraryGirl and myself attended a special free performance by the Pilgrims drama group of Broadwater. Put on in memory of our friend David Arnold, who passed away in April, and to benefit the charity he taught movement for, Carousel, it was billed as a good ol' music hall event. Having in the past whilst we were involved with the Pilgrims suggested and tried some things out on the idea I knew the group had the ideas to pull off an entertaining night. We arrived at Queen Street Church to find it full, so we had to put out a few chairs ourselves. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, something which generally categorises Pilgrim productions and rehearsals, and our compere was the ever impeccable and charismatic Geoff. The show began with a very funny song and dance number with the Pilgrims leader Mavis leading from the head and showing how treading the boards should be done. We were treated to several songs and sketches, an excellent bit of Illusion, from local Illusionist John Beale, dance pieces and even a Goodies skit! It was wonderful seeing the Pilgrims gang all together having fun doing what they do best, old fashioned family entertainment which elicits as many groans as laughs. In some areas it was embarassing some of the jokes they were telling... but that was the point of doing those jokes. I have seen performances where other performers have tried to elicit that reaction but all they got was silence, embarassment to awkwardness in one easy step. This show was a testament to the energy and enthusiasm the Pilgrims have for what they do.

I have heard it said before that you get what you pay for... well I paid nothing to get in and I got a wonderful hour and a half of sing a long fun and entertaining skits. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and look forward to any further Pilgrims productions. Thank you Pilgrims for a great night and I hope your next show is just as much fun.

To find out more about the Pilgrims or to join the group please go to this link and contact the Parish office.

Actors Audition Speeches for all ages and accents by Jean Marlow

Jean Marlow has worked in virtually all aspects of the film and theatre industry from teaching and training at Guildhall, working at the Royal Court Theatre and working for the Walt Disney Company she has done it all. Marlow is also the co-director of The Actors' Theatre School which runs courses for performers wishing to get into drama school giving them a firm grounding to get into the institution of their choice.

This book is one of a series of books that cover monologues for auditions and dualogues for doubles work. I have used these books many times over the last ten years, first in High School then throughout college and University. To say that these books are a familar sight in drama studios and school libraries nationwide is no understatement, these books may be the most popular in the industry. Why? Probably because of the incredible depth and breadth of material suggested within these pages. There are many different age groups and nationalities represented by the various monologues in the book. However something I never looked over when I was first given this book to find a monologue in was the first few bits of information regarding auditioning. This for me puts this book up there as one of the best resources for schools and colleges, because it is exactly the type of information that young performers need to know that they may not get from their drama lessons. These are covered in the articles; About Auditioning and What Auditioners Look For which in my mind answer everything a performer could ask, questions like 'If I don't get chosen what did I do wrong?' and 'How do I apply to Drama School?'. There are also statements from people within the industry on how they cast people and what they want to see when people come to an audition, all very helpful and insightful. Of course this information is from 1995 so the advice is 15 years old but still very helpful and useful.

The monologues range from Shakespeare to Hare and covers many regions and dialects. There is something for everyone. I would highly reccommend this book to anyone who needs a set of audition pieces to hand and in this industry, who doesn't?

To purchase your own copy of this wonderful book then please go here.

News from the Four Corners of the Earth Monday the 5th July 2010

An Art Deco theatre in Vancouver Canada currently going through a $2 million restoration has announced a program of 200 shows in the coming year including films, concerts and live performances. For more information and pictures of this beautiful venue available here.

The Times has a brilliant article up by Matthew Bell regarding Libby Purves and her new position as a critic at the paper. Follow this link here.

Jonathan Kent and Paul Brown are putting together a production of Don Giovanni for the Glyndebourne which is covered by Michael Church in the Independent. Church talks about the history of this piece of Opera and how it is viewed by people and how it is a tough piece to direct. It is a fantastic read, check it out here.

Reviews from Chichester Festival Theatre and Regents Park London from Claudia Pritchard at the Independant. Have a read here.

The Theatre Royal Bath has shut for the next two months to go through a £3 million restoration. To find more information on the work being done and history of the building please click here.

Eastbourne Herald journalist Ian Lucas criticises the Eastbourne Council for their pricing structure for a recent production of the Sound of Music which led to the theatre only having 50% seating occupancy. Pricing for the regional theatre is always going to be a big issue, and also something very hard to get right, and this article has some great statistics and makes some very good arguements against London prices on the South Coast. Check it out here.

Theatre Royal at Halifax has been put up for sale for £1 million with a view to be converted into a hotel, the planning permission is already in place, for more info please click here.

The Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham is to recieve £500000 to restore its Auditorium. For the BBC article please follow this link.

More news tomorrow.

Retro Review: Ivanov Donmar Season 2008

One from the vaults, one of my first reviews from two years ago.

The Donmar Warehouse is one of the leading producing theatres in London; they started in 1992 with the work of famed director Sam Mendes. The Warehouse has consistently had famous and well renowned film actors on the stage with them. In 2007 Ewan McGregor starred in Othello, however due to the massive demands for tickets in the relatively small 250 seat space the manager Michael Grandage announced the West End Season. The West End Season takes productions developed by the Donmar Warehouse and puts them on in the 750 seat Wyndhams Theatre in the heart of London’s West End. The first show was the Chekov piece Ivanov in a new version by Tom Stoppard, starring Kenneth Branagh it kicked off the season with a bang. On the night we attended the theatre was packed to the point where there were only standing tickets left with many people choosing to watch the show from the aisles. This led to the feel of a real event within the theatre, something which is missing in my opinion when it comes to plays. Many speculated this excitement was due to the fact that Branagh was playing the lead, but the Donmar also has a deal on their tickets to make the theatre more accessible to larger audiences. However when the play started and Branagh made his first appearance on stage it was a striking image, this man, this modern day Olivier was taking to the stage in a very complex role and he pulled it off perfectly. From the beginning to the end Branagh portrayed the character of a man falling deeper and deeper into his own melancholy and inevitable insanity with such care and insight it was physically moving. His energy as Ivanov was erratic yet calming, he never let up for a second with his portrayal, the moments when Ivanov was not the centre of attention he was still quietly brooding, even whilst playing the guitar in the drab living room of his neighbours you could see the internal dialogue and anxiety playing in his mind. Branagh was not the only bright star in this production, the supporting cast was fantastic and featured some brilliant performances and familiar faces. Kevin R McNally, famous as Johnny Depp’s first mate in Pirates of the Carribean, gave a fantastic performance as the drunken friend of Ivanov who is always looking for a good business deal. His levity brought a great balance to a piece which was weighed down by the depressing attitude of Ivanov and his nemesis Lvov, played by a fantastic Tom Hiddleston.

The emotional movement of this piece was rapid and played out in a very artistic way. With Chekov there is always an issue with the play being too morbid, too depressing but within this production you could see that Michael Grandage, the director, had made sure that the moments of comedy were exploited fully to give the audience an entertaining experience over all. The biggest praise I can give this production though is that because of the fantastic performances and the wonderful set by Christopher Oram I truly lost myself many times throughout the piece in this world of pre communist Russia. If you get the chance to see any of the other Donmar productions at the Wyndham I recommend you take it, a great night of theatre for a good price.