Shall we kick off with a bit of frivolity? Oh why not? A public relations person’s lot is not a happy one: it really isn’t all glamour and glitz. But sometimes, sometimes, you get to fraternise with the very best in the business, and such a thing happened to the team at Wales Millennium Centre. Now it’s a fantastic venue that has rightly scooped many awards. But I am delighted to say the team got up close with an award-winning star – the building’s…errr..lavatory. Yes ladies and gents (geddit?) Wales Millennium Centre won the top national category of Platinum and the UK Entertainment Sector award in the Loo of the Year Awards. On a more serious note: the awards also recognised the brilliant work the cleaning staff do to keep the loos spick and span, so congratulations Cleaning Supervisor Leon Phibben and your team. It’s no mean feat when 5,000 people in a day can traipse through your facilities. For further information about Wales Millennium Centre visit: www.wmc.org.uk. Next up, it’s great to give a ‘shout out’ to the Russian State Ballet and Opera House which is winding up its tour of Carmen and La Traviata. There is still a chance to see this wonderful company perform these old favourites (in French and Italian). For information and tickets visit: www.opera-tickets.co.uk.
Let’s make some noise now with the vibrant Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers who are currently on tour until May. If they have passed you by it’s a full-on spectacular of drumming using huge taiko drums, masked choreography with inventive lighting, perfect timing and humour. This year, 2014, marks the 20th year of performing in the UK, so if you haven’t seen them, check out the full tour list at: www.taiko.co.uk
Over to the Art World now with news of a new exhibition showing a rare print and its copper etching plate feature by JMW Turner at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Wirral. The print, The Felucca, is the first of only 30 ever made and is part of the Liber Studiorum series, Turner’s argument for the supremacy of landscape painting. Together with the copperplate original and the first five prints of the series, it forms a glimpse into Turner’s lifelong determination to raise the profile of landscape art. Comprising some 30 watercolours, paintings and prints, the exhibition is drawn from National Museums Liverpool’s own Turner collection, one of the most outstanding in the country. Themed chronologically, the exhibition explores Turner’s endeavours to challenge the widely-held assumption that landscape was inferior to historical painting. It was in doing this that he produced some of the most thrilling, evocative paintings ever known. Turner: travels, light and landscape runs until June 1 at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight Village, Wirral L62 5EQ. Entry is free.
Ahhh! Who remembers the rom-com Shakespeare in Love? Now Ink Pellet is not a huge fan of films that stretch reality but the 1998 film starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes ‘did it’ for me. Now, as you probably know by now, the stage play is opening in London. Bringing a top creative team together that includes Lee Hall (who adapts the screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard) and Cheek By Jowl’s Declan Donnellan (director) and Nick Ormerod (designer) the major opening is sure to keep us warm through the summer. Actors Tom Bateman (The Duchess of Malfi) and Lucy Briggs-Owen (Fortune’s Fool) take the roles of Will and Viola. The story tells the tale of Will Shakespeare who is tormented by writer’s block until he finds his muse in the form of passionate noblewoman, Viola De Lesseps. Their forbidden love draws many others, including Queen Elizabeth, into the drama and inspires Will to write the greatest love story of all time, Romeo and Juliet. Tickets for Shakespeare in Love at the Noël Coward Theatre are now on sale online at www.shakespeareinlove.com or by calling the box office on 0844 482 5141.
And finally: All you budding writers, why not dust down that old play script and submit to Tobacco Factory Theatres’ Script Space competition? Back for its seventh year, Script Space is an open competition that invites submissions of new, unperformed plays from UK-based writers for tailormade development opportunities. The Bristol theatres have become renowned for their diverse and unique productions and the competition entries should ideally fit into this, with something they’ve never seen before. A spokesman said: ‘We’re interested in plays about anything, by anybody, for any audience. We’re looking for writers who’ve got something that speaks to us about our lives today, about the world in which we live – be it the absurdity, tragedy or the beauty of it – with clarity, intention and heart.’ The prize gives the author a chance to take their work to the next stage of development. For further details on what this means visit: tobaccofactorytheatres.com/plus/makers/development/scriptspace