Monday, 7 June 2010
News from the Four Corners of the Earth
News from Everywhere:
The 4th oldest working theatre in the UK, The Kenton Theatre in Henley-on-Thames, is currently raising money to keep itself open. The freehold is currently up for sale and the venue needs £220000 by the end of July to keep the venue open and has received support from locals in the form of a BBQ fundraiser this past Bank Holiday Monday raising £4000. For more information on this story please go here. For more information on the Kenton Theatre please go here.
Charlie Sheen may or may not be allowed to teach budding actors and help the non profit theatre Theatre Aspen in Colorado USA. This will be decided today 7/6/2010 by a judge due to Sheen's current legal woes. More information available here.
Romeo and Juliet is currently being shown at the Leicester Square Theatre but with a difference, set in 1930s fascist Italy this production brings a rawness to the text and a true violent undercurrent provided by the background story of a young Jew and daughter of a prominent Fascist leader falling in love. The review by Libby Purves of the Times Newspaper can be found here.
Catherine Zeta Jones may miss out on her chance of winning a Tony Award because of her current viral infection. Being unable to speak or sing she has had to miss several performances and right around now the Tony voters are going to see the shows and actors nominated, if they cannot see her perform then they won't be able to vote for her. Further information is available here.
A South Coast Theatre Group, the Oasis Youth Theatre from Southampton, won the All-England Theatre Festivals top prize and named the best theatre group in England. They will move onto the finals of the UKs top theatre group in Scotland. However they need to raise £7000 to get there, there is more information on the competition and their fundraising here.
The Telegraphs Rupert Christiansen covers the rebuilding work of both the Old Vic and National Theatre at this link here.
In Ottawa Canada the fringe festival is ready to go ahead with over 70 productions being shown. More information can be found here.
Xtofer
Just A Small One: Teatrino
Included in the "Guinness Book of World Records" 1997 as the smallest historic theatre audience in the world of the theatre Vetriano measures only 71 square meters, but is full of all that is required to put on a theatrical production. Built in 1890, it features a trapeze and two tiers of balconies. In the 1980s fears over the structural integrity of the building forced it to close. Thanks to the FAI delegation of Lucca, the property was acquired by the Foundation and is committed to restoring the theatre and make it fit for use again. It currently hosts events in collaboration with the Academy of TEATRO ALLA SCALA.
Released Soon: Routledge Drama Anthology and Sourcebook Maggie B Gale 04/08/2010
Covering 5 sections of the theatre this sourcebook will look at the evolution of the modern era of theatre beginning in the 19th Century. The 5 sections span; Naturalism and Symbolism, The Historical Avant-Garde, Early Political Theatre, The Performance of Ideology and Contemporary Performance. Featuring extracts from theoretical writings and reviews, parts of plays and introductions by the editors Maggie B Gale and John Deeney. Professor Maggie Gale is the chair of Drama at Manchester University and has had two books already printed on woman within theatre and contributed to several books on the history of theatre. John Deeney is the head of Drama at MMU, Manchester Metropolitan University, and has written books on Mark Ravenhill and is very well respected in his field. This book looks to be a must for many students as well as those interested in the history of the theatre. Perhaps this will be another essential textbook for anyone studying drama although there are plenty out there already, I believe that books like this which annotate and analyse other sources are a boon for any student but to a certain extent cannot match the freedom and experience of finding theories and techniques through reading as much material as possible. So yes its good there is another book that gives us this sort of information but don’t we need our theatre students to research more themselves? In closing I will say that my opinion above is not a knock on the editors or Routledge themselves just on the fact that these sorts of books should be the start of someones research and not the only source of research which ultimately has been my experience of many students work.
Out on the 4th of August it is available at amazon.co.uk in paperback here for the price of: £28.49 and FREE delivery
Xtofer
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