Curtains!!! Project: A sidestep into the Old Stagers from Canterbury

The Old Stagers is an amateur Theatre Company that I have recently come across during my research into the Theatres of Canterbury for my Curtains!!! Project. One of the venues which I have looked up and researched at great length is the Theatre Royal Canterbury and whilst looking at the Times Digital Archive found reference to this group going back over a hundred years.

Formed in 1842 The Old Stagers hold a very strong claim on being the longest surviving amateur Theatre Company, originally founded by the Honorable Frederick Ponsonby it was set up to provide extra events for Canterbury's Cricket Week. According to their own website the actors were the cricket players! This of course left them little time to rehearse and on their website they talk about how they would rehearse on the green and in the tents. However reviews of these performances from 1908 onwards give these performers great respect and commend them for providing a lot of fun during the evenings before the next days cricket.

I cannot imagine a better day out really than a fine Kentish Ale in Canterbury watching the Cricket in the August Sun and then a piece of theatre in the evening. Sounds like my sort of Summers Day.

The next Canterbury Cricket Week is in August and the Old Stagers Website is advertising dates of August the 2nd until August the 7th.

For more information on Kent Cricket please go here.

For tourist information on the beautiful city of Canterbury please look here.

Xtofer

Part 3 of Pantomime Documentary

Here is part 3 of my Pantomime Documentary.

http://headtheatre.mypodcast.com/2009/11/Panto_Part_3-259733.html

Please Enjoy.

Xtofer

First Jude... Now Sienna Miller... but its not good news

Oh deary me, things are not so great for Sienna Miller the latest Brit to hit Broadway. Performing 'After Miss Julie' a couple of theatres down from former boyfriend Jude Law and fellow Brit Actor Daniel Craig everything could have been set for a British domination of the American stage that would have proved that once again England is setting the acting standard, alas it was not to be. Whilst Johnny Lee Miller is getting good solid reviews for his part in the production the same cannot be said of Sienna. Critics have called her 'Wooly' in this country being kind to a woman who is no veteran of the stage but in America they have savaged her. Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal said:

"A model turned second-tier movie star, all she does is stalk around the stage striking vampy poses. She has no more business playing a classic stage role than I have posing for the cover of Vogue."

High praise indeed but not as high as the praise the New York Times gave her, critic Ben Brantley says:

"If Julie is written as clashing chords of conflicted impulses, Ms Miller plays them like a novice at a piano, plunking down each note loudly and individually."

So poor Sienna Miller, she still has till the 6th of December in the show, providing it doesn't get shut first, and I get the feeling more American criticism is on its way.