Season 3 for Script in Hand

They went from strength to strength with new listeners all over the globe during their recent second season. Now Script in Hand will return next week to dissect scripts, talk play texts and explore characters from a heady mix of well-known playwrights paired with lesser known gems. Co-hosted by up-and-coming directors and script enthusiasts Lexie Ward and Meg Robinson, season 3 of Script in Hand will delve into a diverse array of 12 hand-picked plays and will see guest speakers join the duo throughout the season. 

Kicking off with Little Wimmin by the Figs In Wigs, Lexie and Meg are also releasing a special bonus interview with George Spender, Chief Editor of Salamander Street, the publishers behind Little Wimmin, where the listeners can find out all about the world of play publishing.

After covering a collection of fascinating plays such as Guards at the Taj, ear for eye and POSH in Season 2, Season 3 will throw the spotlight on Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti, Scenes with Girls by Mirriam Battye, A Very Expensive Poison by Lucy Prebble and many more. 

Lexie Ward, co-founder of Script in Hand, says; “We’re excited to be back for our third season, covering another batch of diverse and interesting plays. We’re also delighted to reveal our brand new logo in conjunction with our new series, by designer Eleanor Hibbert.

“We’re covering our usual mix of classic and contemporary texts, alongside well known and perhaps lesser known playwrights. It’s our pleasure to highlight plays our audiences may not have heard of before, and we’re really thrilled with the line up we’ve put together for this new season.”

Season 3 will also see an array of special guests grace the ‘podcast couch’ including artistic director of Theatre by the Lake Liz Stevenson, and writer Tabby Lamb, who will provide a backstage pass to the inner workings of her play Since U Been Gone. 

Script in Hand is available across all podcasting platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts, simply search ‘Script in Hand’. Listen again to the whole of season 1 & 2 on demand and join the team for season 3 on March 31st  with a new episode released every Wednesday. 

Find out more on Twitter & Instagram; ‘ScriptInHandPod’ across all social media platforms.

http://www.twitter.com/ScriptInHandPod

http://www.instagram.com/ScriptInHandPod

Sponsored Post Sponsored Post Menu More Info Learn from the experts: Create a successful blog with our brand new courseThe WordPress.com Blog

WordPress.com is excited to announce our newest offering: a course just for beginning bloggers where you’ll learn everything you need to know about blogging from the most trusted experts in the industry. We have helped millions of blogs get up and running, we know what works, and we want you to to know everything we know. This course provides all the fundamental skills and inspiration you need to get your blog started, an interactive community forum, and content updated annually.

Register now

All the town’s a stage

Work continues apace on the new Shakespeare North theatre in Prescot,
Merseyside, with the building on schedule to open in 2022.
Meanwhile, the Bard’s words have appeared in a number of unusual places around
the town.

This is one of four boundary markers to welcome visitors. The crane on the
theatre site can be seen just to the right of the sign.

Younger visitors in particular will enjoy this bewitching water fountain.

A series of quotes have been incorporated into the new paving in Prescot’s
main shopping street.

Inside the new building there will be an auditorium based on theatres created by Inigo Jones. The oak structure has been designed and made by Peter McCurdy who constructed The Globe and Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in London.

Why Prescot? The Elizabethan market town had the earliest known, purpose built freestanding theatre outside London.  Prescot also sits cheek by jowl with Knowsley Hall and Park, home to the Stanley family – the Earls of Derby – who were patrons of Shakespeare and had their own theatre troupes.

A new kind of Shakespeare

Mercutio’s Romeo and Juliet: Anegada Theatre

There are two sides to every love story and in this fascinating retelling,  Anegada Theatreexplores Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet from the perspectives of Mercutio and Juliet, as an unlikely friendship blossoms between the pair.

In this original piece, now available free on youtube, what lies beneath the surface is just as compelling as the glossy facade of Shakespeare’s most famous doomed lovers. Mercutio’s Romeo and Juliet is combines iambic pentameter, free indirect discourse and naturalism to reframe Mercutio’s friendship with Romeo.

Says Tara Anegada, writer and director: “Words are powerful weapons in the play. For Juliet, they affirm her love with Romeo. For Mercutio, they are torturous accounts of what loving Romeo must be like. Words are the only vehicle he has to express his realisation that he loves Romeo.”

Joseph Holmes-Milner, dramaturg and assistant director says: “At the start of the play Juliet is definitely feeling trapped by the world around her and society’s expectations of her. Falling in love with Romeo empowers her to make her own decisions and I think our Juliet is definitely more autonomous than Shakespeare’s original character.”

Barney Hartwill plays Mercutio and Sofia Bassani is Juliet .

All donations made through the website will be split between the cast and crew of this show and The National Youth Arts Trust (NYAT) the partner charity for The Shakespeare Project. The NYAT widens access to the performing arts for young people aged 12-25 from non-privileged backgrounds.

Useful Links

Show Link: https://youtu.be/ofkGKIuW-1Q

Website: https://anegadatheatre.org.uk/

.

Join Britain’s most adventurous orchestra in a streamed show

THE Manchester Camerata is set to get its music performance calendar of 2021 properly underway with a streamed performance of All Time Is Eternally Present, to homes around the country and across the globe on February 26.

The event, which followed government guidelines, was recorded behind closed doors last month at Manchester’s Stoller Hall, and was a determined attempt to create and reconnect with its audiences, by bringing world class music to both a national and global platform.

Described by The Times newspaper as “Britain’s most adventurous orchestra”, this first performance of 2021, includes the internationally renowned Finnish conductor Pekka Kuusisto.

The full programme also features rising star saxophonist and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster, Ulverston’s Jess Gillamperforming Michael Nyman’s Where the Bee Dances; and the new and very powerful style of composition fromBBCLast Night of the PromscomposerDaniel Kidane, whose brand new piece Be Still was commissioned by Manchester Camerata,and is said  tocreate both a sense of inner stillness and calm.

Jess Gillam with Manchester Camerata

Completing the programme are the gentle tones of Dobrinka Tabakova’s Dawn and the never ending expanse of Copland’s Appalachian Spring. 

Manchester Camerata CEO Bob Riley explains: “It would have been so joyous had we been able to capture our first concert of the year with a live audience, but as it stands, to be able to work alongside the astonishing talents of Jess Gillam and Pekka Kuusisto and feature brand new work by the very brilliant Daniel Kidane, is something we are hugely proud of.”

Additional Manchester Camerata recordings captured at the Stoller Hall will also be streamed at a later date.

Mr Riley adds: “We are committed and determined to keep seeking and curating these broadcasting opportunities where we are able to share our work far and wide and subsequently support our musicians and collaborators as much as possible during these challenging times.”

All Time Is Eternally Present streams via HarrisonParrott’s Virtual Circle.

Tickets cost £10 per household and can be purchased here: https://www.emusiclive.com/Manchester_Camerata

Peter Devine 

Workshops for young creatives

A series of weekly online workshops at Keswick’s Theatre by the Lake will provide young people aged between 14 and 18 years old who may not otherwise have access to the theatre industry an opportunity to explore roles in the theatre with practical insight from professionals who work in the field.

As the theatre industry continues to face huge challenges, Theatre by the Lake remains committed to its work with young people to provide opportunities for them to take part in creative activities, develop new skills and to provide insights into theatre-making.

This opportunity will see young budding actors and creative young people working with seasoned professionals, including: Kash Arshad, Director; Tatty Hennessy, Playwright; Oscar Toeman, Director, John Wilkinson, Director; Chi San Howard, Movement Director; providing an extensive oversight of roles within the creative industry in a range of fun and active sessions.

Each theatre professional will lead a workshop in their own specialist field encouraging participants to actively take part and, afterward, quiz them in a Q&A session which will give everyone an opportunity to explore the experts career to date.

The programme has been curated and led by Cumbrian theatre director, Lexie Ward.

These fun and relaxed workshops just require a computer or smart phone and internet connection, and nothing else that wouldn’t be found at home. They run from Monday 8 February – Monday 29 March,

To book the eight week series (at a cost of £48) visit the website (online booking only), or for more information about the programme contact lexie.ward@theatrebythelake.com

A limited number of bursaries are available. For more information and how to apply contact claire.dunk@theatrebythelake.com

Come and visit Japan….

An opportunity to experience authentic Japanese culture is being offered by Théatre Lapis with Kuwento – 物語 (read as Monogatari): Revisited Tales of Japan and the Philippines, an online performance created through the collaboration between artists in the UK, Japan, France and Manila.

Written by Nozomi Abe and directed by Yojiro Ichikawa, it’s a digital storytelling exploration of Japanese folktales told in English, for children and all audiences all over the world. The aim is to raise and increase awareness of Japan, and its culture, and to invite the audience to the world of Japanese aesthetics.

It features three well-known Japanese folktales; The Tale of Princess Kaguya, Momotaro, and The Fisher Boy Urashima. These tales of love, adventure, and wonder — cultural masterpieces and treasures of Japan — have been passed down from generation to generation, imparting wisdom, igniting imagination, and entertaining audiences of all ages.

The online release will be on the Theatre Lapis Youtube page [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-dvcdOiqmr-N06xn57oR_g] from December 18 featuring renowned Filipino actor and master storyteller Bodjie Pascua, international theatre artists Charley Magalit, Earle Figuracion, Natsumi Kuroda, Haruko Sekiya, Juna Shai, Kaya Yuzuki, Sok-ho Trinh, Paul Reynolds, and Melisa Camba.

The project is supported by The Japan Foundation, Manila, and is an international, cross-collaboration among Japanese, British, French and Filipino artists from different corners of the globe. Overcoming challenges of the isolation forced by COVID-19, the project seeks to create innovative ways of sharing stories even in a remote setup.

Théatre Lapis premiered on the New York stage in 2012, and has been creating productions internationally. Its aim is to question traditional boundaries including those that exist between musical and straight plays, between western and eastern cultures, and to seek other frontiers. Théatre Lapis is under the artistic direction of Yojiro Ichikawa.

Inclusive project wins top award for Battersea Arts Centre

Battersea Arts Centre has been named the 2020 overall winner and awarded the Community and Experiencing Culture prize from New London Architecture (NLA). The annual awards celebrate the very best in architecture, planning and development in the capital,  and this marks five awards in recent weeks which pay tribute to the community-driven vision at the foundation of a 12-year collaboration with Stirling Prize-winning architects Haworth Tompkins. The partnership project has opened up the building and led to the development of flagship Battersea Arts Centre programmes such as the BAC Beatbox Academy, the Scratch Hub and The Agency.

The international jury of architects, critics and cultural figures said: “The inclusive nature of the project signifies a new community-centred era for cultural buildings. It wasn’t just a restoration. It was a dedication to innovation, to craft, yet a really thoughtful way of evoking the spaces that were there before. You can read the story of the building by looking at it. It communicates to the visitor on so many levels and does that by being of service to a community.”

Architecture critic Andreas Ruby added:  “I also like the interpretation of what culture is. It’s not this kind of highbrow exclusive club kind of culture where you’re happy to be chosen while others are not. It’s integral and it’s inclusive and a kind of statement for our time.”

Battersea Arts Centre: celebrating creativity

In 2006, Battersea Arts Centre and Haworth Tompkins embarked on an ambitious capital project by applying the principles of developing a new show, Scratch, to the renovation of the building. The aim has been to open up the Lavender Hill premises into a vibrant, welcoming and more accessible hub, and to become one of the most flexible venues for performance in the country. Theatre artists, audiences and the local community have taken part by testing out and feeding back on ideas to reimagine the possibilities for the physical space, which all celebrated the rich and radical heritage of the former Town Hall building. 

During Punchdrunk’s groundbreaking, immersive performance of The Masque of the Red Death in 2007, disused spaces were opened up and audiences invited to follow their curiosity and explore every corner of the Grade II* listed site. Today, performances can take place in any corner of the building, the architectural innovations giving artists the freedom to take creative risks.

Last week, Director Suri Krishnamma and his crew won a Royal Television Society Craft & Design Award for masterfully realising an immersive theatrical journey through Battersea Arts Centre on screen. Performance Live: The Way Out (Arts Council England/BBC Arts/Battersea Arts Centre) was shot in an unbroken, continuous take and described by judges as “an astonishing technical feat” and a “seamless piece of storytelling”. The film is available to watch here. 

Thanks to the National Lottery and a range of corporate and individual funders, the £13.3m redevelopment effort has seen the Victorian fabric of the building conserved while ensuring its future as a resilient cultural hub. A small outdoor seating area has been transformed into The Courtyard, hailed as the UK’s most intimate open-air theatre structure. This allowed Battersea to be one of the very first venues to re-open after the first lockdown, hosting live comedy gigs to in-person audiences during the summer.

In 2015, before the capital project was completed, the building’s flagship auditorium was destroyed by a fire. This devastating set-back provided another moment for evolution. Out of the ashes, the Lower Hall area was redesigned into a new creative co-working space. The Scratch Hub has provided a home for local businesses, start-ups, artists, creative companies, charities and social enterprises in a COVID-secure environment this year.

When restoring the Grand Hall, Haworth Tompkins devised an innovative, lattice structure, inspired by the pattern of the original ceiling, which has made way for a more advanced technical infrastructure. The stunning atmosphere and enhanced audio capabilities of the space allowed Battersea Arts Centre to welcome new partnerships in a year defined by isolation. This includes the London Philharmonia, who made their Battersea Arts Centre debut with a socially distanced, classical concert series, The Philharmonia Sessions. There was also Live from the Grand Hall, two-way live streamed music and comedy gigs throughout October. Audiences tuning in from home were beamed in real-time into the auditorium to interact with the performers.

The process of opening up the building brought new possibilities to the artistic programme, but also renewed Battersea Arts Centre’s link with its heritage as a space for gathering, fostering new collaborations and radical ideas. Since it first opened in 1983, the old Town Hall has been a home to the Trade Unions movement, the campaign for Women’s Suffrage, and the first Black Mayor of London, John Archer. Its existence has also been repeatedly, and fiercely, defended by the local community since first being threatened with demolition in 1965. 

No faith, no hope, no charity: why isolation is making us selfish

Put the kettle on, make a pot of tea, for one. Plan dinner: no need to consider anyone else’s dietary needs and allergies. Eat what I want, watch what I want, listen to what I want. Discuss it all with only the teapot to disagree with me.

And does this self-centredness make me happy? Of course not. Helping others, doing things for others, not only makes you happy, it promotes a sense of purpose and satisfaction, lowers blood pressure, eases physical pain. But altruism is outlawed. I’m not allowed to do anything for anyone else. I can’t make a coffee for a neighbour, I can’t hug a friend who’s sad, I can’t drive my elderly neighbour to the shops. I can’t feed people.

When my sons were young, the house would always be full, with other people’s children, other parents, staying for impromptu meals, staying for sleepovers. Since my divorce, and the boys leaving home, my home has still been open to others. I love to create a comfortable space for friends to stay, I love to cook dinners, to squeeze as many folk as possible around my tiny kitchen table. No matter what THEIR experience, this was making me happy. As did those small kindnesses we do almost without thinking: watching someone’s bag on the train while they go to the buffet car; offering a lift to a hitch-hiker; holding a door open; standing for someone on the Tube.

Work, too, made me happy, using my writing and creative skills to help promote the businesses of invariably lovely people. Now those businesses are closed, or limited, or struggling, and I have no work. I’ve used the time to start writing a book, which satisfies the creative urge, but it’s all about self-satisfaction, and that nowhere near matches the satisfaction of doing it for others. My other great joy came from supporting small, provincial and fringe theatres, previewing and reviewing their productions to raise their profile and, perhaps, sell a few more seats. No payment, the occasional free ticket, but an immense feeling of satisfaction, of happiness.

Lockdown and isolation have left us bereft of faith, hope and charity. There’s no faith in an administration which has fed us lies, bombast and false promise. Hope is being eroded day by day because of that. And charity means so much more than giving money. Charity means love and caring. Charity is the enjoyment in doing my sons’ laundry (“please, bring some dirty washing” I beg them when they’re planning to visit); the warm feeling when I can invite inside a neighbour who’s lost her key; the joy of offering food and companionship to those who arrive at the door.

I’m sure there are couples, and families, who are by now heartily sick of each other’s company, but at least they have more than a teapot to talk to. Solo lockdown is mentally unsettling. I’m a social animal; I need the presence and stimulus of other people to verify my own existence, quite the opposite of Descartes’ I think therefore I am. I’m weary of being the sole occupant of my universe, of having no one else to think about – worry about – apart from me.

The notion of the exclusive support bubble to help single people is fatuous. If we had one person in our lives who wanted to spend time with us, exclusively, we wouldn’t be single. Instead, we have wide circles of friends, for different occasions and different activities, and they each may well have partners and children and extended families. So we sit here and talk to the teapot. “Spend as much time outside as possible,” said a wise friend, and indeed in the spring and summer that was the key to survival, not just the long walks and runs, but the companionship in the neighbourhood as families sat outside in their own gardens and chattered over the fence. Now I open the front door onto an empty street, a wet, cold, grey landscape that entices me out for a short time only.

A wonderful opportunity arose; I offered to take my neighbour’s son to school a few days a week. He’s great company, a pleasure to have around, and it’s a rare opportunity to be useful. His mum is grateful, but the joy is mine. When ‘this’ is over…if only I can resurrect a morsel of hope? …. the kettle will be on, the door will be open, dinner will be on the table. And yes, please, bring your dirty laundry too.

All Manchester wants for Christmas

FIFTY ARTISTS. SIX STREETS. TWENTY-FIVE PERFORMANCES.
ONE GREATER MANCHESTER.
A DIGITAL ADVENTURE INSPIRED BY THE VOICES OF THE REGION.

Created by an eclectic group of professional artists and community participants, the countdown to Christmas from the Royal Exchange Theatre will be filled with stories that celebrate the streets and voices of Greater Manchester in All I want for Christmas. From tales of contemporary city-centre tower blocks to the terraces of Glebe Street in Leigh, each day behind an advent calendar door, a short section of a story will be revealed, stories filled with hope, joy and Christmas magic from some of the most inspiring artists from, and connected to, Greater Manchester. It’s free to watch from Dec 1; just wait for the door to open and the story will begin.

The Royal Exchange, Manchester’s iconic theatre

Audiences will find the six short films scattered across the 24 days of an advent calendar, with an extra performance for Christmas Day. Set in the tower blocks of Manchester City Centre, on Cheetham Hill Road (Cheetham), Gigg Lane (Bury), Glebe Street (Leigh), Henrietta Street (Ashton-Under -Lyne) and Grey Mare Lane (Beswick) are stories of the communities and people who breathe life into these unassuming Greater Manchester streets. All I want for Christmas celebrates the Exchange’s city centre home and the areas of Greater Manchester that are part of the Theatre’s region-wide Local Exchange programme.

Bringing together film makers, directors, musicians, writers, performers, dancers, sound, costume and lighting designers, producers, dramaturgs, community partners and the staff of the Royal Exchange Theatre, All I want for Christmas has been created by artists including Hollywood actors and community ambassadors.  The team includes Gloria Akpoke, Liz Aniteye, Andy Barry, Hafsah Aneela Bashir, Suzanne Bell, Anna Berentzen, Alexandra Faye Braithwaite, Jude Christian, Philippa Crossman, Russell T Davies, Akiel Dowe, Tracey Dunk, Gordon Emerson, Juliana Fapohunda (I M Pact), Sophie Galpin, Annie Giles-Quinn, Conor Glean, Shobna Gulati, Cherylee Houston, Nimmo Ismail, Sonia Jalaly, Kit Jordan, Sabiha Khan, Zak Khan, Kieran Knowles, Nana Kofi Kufuor, Nathan Lea, Debbie Leach, Houmi Miura, Wunmi Mosaku, Ayanda (Yandass) Ndlovu (I M Pact), Farai Nhakaniso, Kate O’Donnell, Emily Paris (I M Pact), Maxine Peake, Ramina Radmard, Hannah Sands, Bryony Shanahan, Gurjeet Singh, Liam Steers, Sophie Stone, Ben Sullivan, Testament, TIME (Terriss Zure (I M Pact)), Chantell Walker, Don Warrington, Roy Alexander Weise, Becky Wilkie, John R Wilkinson, Carys Williams, Benedict Wong, Fred Yeomans and Maria Zemlinskaya.

Free on the Royal Exchange website https://www.royalexchange.co.uk/ and social media channels.  

1 – 25 December 2020
From 10.30am daily

A love letter to playwrights

After gaining a rapidly growing fan-base during its successful first season, Script in Hand will return this autumn to dissect scripts, talk play texts and explore characters from a mix of well-known playwrights paired with lesser known gems. Co-hosted by up-and-coming directors and script enthusiasts Lexie Ward and Meg Robinson, season 2 of Script in Hand will delve into a diverse array of 12 hand-picked plays and will see guest speakers join the duo throughout the season. 

Kicking off with POSH by Olivier award-winning playwright Laura Wade on October 7, Lexie and Meg will be joined by the first special guest of the season, director and JMK Runner Up 2019 Oscar Toeman to discuss what makes POSH the perfect play for the current times.

After covering a collection of beautifully-written plays such as The Nether, Ross and Rachel and Seven Methods of Killing Kylie Jenner in Season 1, Season 2 will throw the spotlight on ear for eye by Debbie Tucker Green, Guards at the Taj by Rajiv Joseph, Mr Burns by Anne Washburn and many more. 

Lexie Ward, co-founder of Script in Hand, says: “Playwrights really are the most talented and genius of folk, and this is basically our love letter to them and their work. We’ve spent our down-time putting together an incredible programme of wonderful scripts and have managed to secure some special guests who will bring a fresh approach and new angle to the discussion. There’s clearly an appetite for a podcast like this and we hope our listeners enjoy discovering new plays or revisiting ones they’re familiar with at a new level.”

Season 2 will also see an array of special guests grace the ‘podcast couch’ including directors Kash Arshad and Alasdair Hunter, and playwright Tatty Hennessy, author of A Hundred Words for the Snow, who will provide a backstage pass to the inner workings of her text. 

Script in Hand is available across all podcasting platforms including Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts; search ‘Script in Hand’. Listen again to the whole of season 1 on demand and join the team for season 2 on October 7 with a new episode released every Wednesday.