this month's
Ink Pellet contains
A Final Haunt
After 33 extraordinary years, Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black will haunt the stage of the Fortune Theatre for the final time, as the production ends in the West End on Saturday 4th March 2023. PW Productions announce that after 33 extraordinary years in London’s West End, the theatrical sensation that is Susan Hill’s THE […]
Reaching for the Moon
Susan Elkin paid a visit to Half Moon theatre in London’s East End to chat with CEO Chris Elwell about their extensive education outreach and innovative theatre programmes. Half Moon Theatre sits in the heart of Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, spitting distance from the DLR and mainline station. Formerly a pretty […]
National Youth Theatre Rep Company
The National Youth Theatre’s Rep Company is celebrating its first ten years and Susan Elkin paid a visit to learn more. Each year a group of fifteen or so talented NYT members, aged 18 to 25, are selected by audition to join this company. In just a few months they rehearse three shows, many of […]
Apprenticeships
An important and often overlooked route into the industry, especially for many non-performing roles. Susan Elkin has some suggestions. Theatre is like an iceberg. For every role on stage there are probably at least half a dozen technicians you can’t see. And the industry has been telling us for decades that there are skills shortages […]
School Shows
Never underestimate the power of a school production – for every single person involved. When you meet former students, sometimes from decades back in my case, it’s usually taking part in Oliver! or A Midsummer Night’s Dream that they reminisce about with shining eyes. Most importantly it’s a terrific bonding exercise. We hear a lot […]
New Perspectives
With three separate Lucian Freud exhibitions currently on, Graham Hooper took time to visit and here is his review of these contrasting shows. LLucian Freud would have been 100 this year, and that’s a good excuse to look back over his life and work, but especially his work, as the two have a rather nasty […]
Grandad Anansi – Half Moon Theatre
Predicated partly on Black History Month, Elayne Ogbeta’s muliti-layered play presents Grandad (Marcus Hercules) and his primary school age granddaughter, Abi (Jazmine Wilkinson) in his garden. Like everything else in this show, the garden designed by Sorcha Corcoran, is beautiful with lots of colour, light and plants that Grandad knows by name and talks to. […]
Theatre Review – The King of Nothing – Little Angel Theatre
Ben Glasstone’s charming, witty account of The Emperor Who Has No Clothes works well for two main reasons. First it is one of the most perceptive stories ever written, dealing as it does with vanity, self delusion, conformity and truth. It’s both topical and timeless. Second, we have a cost of living crisis and the […]
Book Review – Activist
by Louisa Reid Published by Guppy Books Cassandra, narrator of this powerful verse novel, is a reluctant sixth former in a prestigious mixed school, formerly all boys, where toxic culture simmers. Driven by her own experience, and by nature a feisty “shouter” she campaigns forcibly for acknowledgement that some of the boys at school treat […]
Book Review – A Poetry Pedagogy for Teachers: Reorienting Classroom Literacy Practice
by Maya Pindyck and Ruth Vinz, with Diana Liu and Ashlynn Wittchow The thrust of this detailed, well-researched, quite academic book about the poetry in classrooms is that we shouldn’t teach students to search for meaning so that “the poem becomes a specimen for examination under the microscope of interpretative practices”. Instead we should experience […]
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As well as what's new in theatreland, have a look at the competitions that your pupils could take part in...
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Art galleries have to do more than hang pictures on walls, they have to deliver education programmes, to innovate, and be relevant. They may also have to save towns in decline. Along with these pressures, the scramble for Arts Council money came on top. LESLEY FINLAY profiles some of the lucky winners…
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We asked two artistic directors their views of the continuing appeal of Shakespeare..
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Globe Education has teamed up with Deutsche Bank in an innovative partnership that gives students the chance to enjoy Shakespeare for free. The season, called Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank, has brought 50,000 students to Shakespeare since its inception five years ago. Here teacher TRACEY PHILLIPSON shares her experience of the play alongside students Tugce Yigit and Emily Redif…
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LESLEY FINLAY caught up with actor and comedian Richard Blackwood as he seeks to right the wrongs of his troubled past in Shrek The Musical…
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We love film at Ink Pellet, because it can really bring a text to life and stimulates imagination in even the most intransigent of pupils. The education charity FILMCLUB is helping more young people understand the power of film, as its head of schools SABRINA BROADBENT argues…
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Our Keith Gaines (good grammar school boy) has a ponder about the Government's Social Mobility Strategy...and finds it wanting.
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Anthony Horowitz is one of our most celebrated children’s authors. He is also an outspoken advocate for reading and literacy. LESLEY FINLAY enjoyed a chat with him…
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Our reviewer IRFAN SHAH was bowled over by the innovative The Mill - City of Dreams, that tellls the story of an old Bradford wool mill and its people...