Actress Lucy Aarden is part of #IsolationEnsemble, a company formed by director Abbie Riddell to raise urgent funds for theatres across the UK.
Tories announce a £100 million bailout… for zoos!
No news of government help for theatre as Tories announce a £100 million bailout… for zoos! Yes, that’s right. You couldn’t make it up!
Measuring love: Rent is a musical of not just a generation but of a pandemic
Rent recently marked its 24th anniversary since its Broadway opening. Every year I try to write something. This year, in particular, it seemed important to.
Are the OnComms the template for theatrical awards in ‘the new normal’?
The current circumstances mean that there are questions about whether there will even be a usual theatre awards season next winter/spring, especially as there may, ostensibly, be little to give awards for. However, one scheme has stepped blinking into the light.
How important is theatre photography to the success of a show?
Theatre photography is one of the most important ways to promote a new production and simultaneously one of the elements audiences – and probably most creatives – actively think least about.
‘An entertaining & fresh take on Shakespeare’s canon’: BARD FROM THE BARN – Barn Theatre (Online review)
The Barn Theatre in Cirencester has built on its broadcast earlier in lockdown of Henry V to develop a sequence of thirty-five monologues from Shakespeare’s plays.
Series one begins with the theatre itself and a stirring speech from Henry V, but as …
Please help, Oliver Dowden: Theatres are on their knees
I’m sharing the message that I’ve sent to Oliver Dowden, the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).
Large West End production compan…
‘If our pub landlord closes, where will the theatre go then?’: Artistic director Lisa Spirling on dual threats to Theatre503
‘In terms of the future, we want 503 to be resilient and it feels like our community of audience and artists believe in the necessity of an organisation such as ours. At the same time, there are no guarantees.’
‘We have to do something else indefinitely but keep the keys to the building & look after them’: Royal Lyceum artistic director & playwright David Greig in Edinburgh
The more you think about the invitation to the audience – as you say ‘come, be blocked off behind screens, we will spray you and present shows where actors stand apart, and we will try to encourage you not to sing along’, it’s like an anti-theatre.
I asked my MP: Where is the support for theatre?
Love London Love Culture’s Emma Clarendon expresses her thoughts on the painful neglect of theatre during Covid-19, including a template response from her local, Cabinet Member MP.
‘I don’t want to bank on a saviour that might not come’: Hartshorn-Hook producers on their plans to reopen The Great Gatsby
‘It feels to me like, with The Great Gatsby, we had an opportunity, and resulting from that a duty, to use the show to work out some of the key things that might help the industry as a whole.’
‘It’s important to remain positive’: Brixton House’s Owen Calvert-Lyons on the future of fringe theatre post lockdown
Head of theatre and artist development at Brixton House (formally Ovalhouse*) Owen Calvert-Lyons talks about life during the lockdown, the post-Covid future for fringe theatre and streaming.
Do you know the 5 types of opening numbers used in musicals?
Analysing the opening moments of any musical tells you a lot about the writer’s intentions for the evening to come.
Lost Labour of Love: ‘All I had to do was turn up & say the words wot Shakespeare wrote, didn’t I?’
Knowing that some 600 people had applied the week previous to that, I had no great expectation that I would be selected but, to my amazement, I was offered the part of Costard.
11 actresses I’d love to see onstage more often post-lockdown
While there might not be quite as many meaty stage roles for actresses as there are actors (is that changing?), the plethora of acting talent I’ve seen over the past 10 years made this quite tricky to narrow down.
In Praise of Love… & Zoom: How can a classic play be shown in a medium never designed to present it?
In Praise of Love is a complex play which relies on a claustrophobic gathering of people in one place and the tensions which come from hiding their feelings.
Over the past two weeks they have brought…
‘A fly on the wall with your favourite musical theatre performers’: Sunday in the Club with Oscar – H CLUB ★★★★ (Online review)
Part informal chat, part performance, this series of bi-weekly Sunday evening sessions is designed to support creatives in the entertainment industry during this strange and challenging time.
‘There are so many talented writers out there deserving of opportunity’: Composer Darren Clark on launching new UK Musicals platform
As his new digital sheet music store New UK Musicals launches, I talk with multi-award winning composer and lyricist Darren Clark about the site and his career.
The cinefication of theatre predates lockdown: What are the implications?
For better or worse, the association between theatre, television and film has only grown closer in the last ten years, not just with artists moving between the different genres but also in the adoption of cinematic technique within productions.
I feel I personally have to advocate for Shakepeare’s Globe even more strongly
Reading that the Globe may struggle to come back from this current crisis without the help of donations and emergency funding didn’t seem quite real.