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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David Troughton, currently playing the eponymous Mr Tom, took time out during rehearsals to chat with SUSAN ELKIN about his extensive career – from Exeter to Ambridge via Stratford. I catch David Troughton, 65, in a break between rehearsals for Goodnight Mr Tom. We’re at Open Air Theatre in Regents Park just before the move down […]
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Susan Elkin joined authors and educationalists at the Action for Children’s Arts Awards in London and hopes you will follow her lead in supporting this worthy body to help campaign for greater access to creativity and the arts for young children In November a large group of people passionate about the arts and what they […]
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Now in its ninth year, Little Voices has been helping children find their singing voices, with the added benefit of developing their confidence in other areas. Susan Elkin investigated this award-winning enterprise. Everyone can play a musical instrument. And each of us has our instrument with us continually. Anyone – and of course that includes […]
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In the latest of our regional theatre spotlights, we feature the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds – a thriving cultural centre, developing strong links with schools and the wider community Looks aren’t everything. From the outside West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds is not the most beautiful building in the world resembling, as someone noted when […]
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SUSAN ELKIN visited TheatreCraft at the Royal Opera House to join hundreds of young people investigating ‘other’ career opportunities in the theatre It’s dead easy – if you’re eight or eleven or fourteen, say – to catch the theatre bug. You see adults, and occasionally children apparently having a ball on stage and suddenly you […]
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Graham Hooper took time out to visit the Tate Modern and was drawn to an installation by Harun Farocki reflecting a century of industrial life What is generally assumed to be the earliest example of film ever made was 120 years old last year, in 2015. Taken in France, lasting a mere 46 seconds, it […]
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Think again if you feel that you are not too familiar with Carole Kings music – I did, and was amazed at how many classic songs she had penned, initially with her husband, Gerry Goffin, and later, in her own right. Her story confirms that with true determination, which started at a young age, together […]
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William Shakespeare’s genius has been an inspiration to so many generations. Romeo and Juliet is one of the most powerful love stories ever told, and has been portrayed in many guises for over 400 years. John Humphrey’s production of this iconic play initially was a little bewildering as to the message he wanted to convey, […]
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The novel has acquired iconic status since its publication in 1981. And David Wood’s sensitive dramatization, after opening at Chichester, enjoying two West End runs and now touring until the end of May, is rapidly going the same way. And it gets better each time I see it. Evacuee Willie Beech, abused by his mentally […]
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By Katy Wix Published by Oberon Books Regularly seen showcasing her comic talents on our small screens, this second volume of short comic monologues from Katy Wix offers a wonderful collection of witty, original audition speeches or showcase pieces. Although essentially written for women, many of these can be applied/adapted for male performers too. Each […]