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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Jacqui O’Hanlon, 56, is Royal Shakespeare Company’s Director of Learning and National Partnerships. Susan Elkin spoke to her for Ink Pellet. Jacqui O’Hanlon is a petite powerhouse of passion for Shakespeare and everything his writing can do – it enhances every other aspect of life. Most enlightened teachers know a child who has suddenly blossomed […]
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Allie Esiri has been described as a “poetry powerhouse”. Susan Elkin met her to talk about her work. “People like poetry” says Allie Esiri whose anthologies have cornered 20% of the entire UK poetry market. “They hear a poem, say, at a wedding or funeral, and are moved so they want more. And I think […]
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Scott Graham, Artistic Director of the Ignition programme from Frantic Assembly, gives an insight as to how they are attracting and engaging new participants. Some 15 years ago we ran a workshop for professional performers where we hired a nightclub for two days to make work inspired by the site. We invited people to apply […]
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Ross McGregor, 38, is the founder of Arrows and Traps theatre company. His recent plays have been about Holst, Payne and Persephone. Susan Elkin met him. How did you get into drama? I’ve stammered since I was 4. When I was about 14 and a pupil at an all-boys’ boarding school in Hertfordshire, which wasn’t […]
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Inspiring the Future of Theatre is a joint initiative by Society of London Theatre (SOLT), UK Theatre and charity Education & Employers, launched to nurture new generations of theatre-makers and audiences from school age, connecting schools with their local theatres. What is Inspiring the Future of Theatre? Theatre and the performing arts are part of […]
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Graham Hooper made a long-awaited trip to Compton Verney in Warwickshire to discover a venue full of promise and perfect for school visits. Compton Verney is a good two-hour drive from home, and today in the lashing rain I find myself hoping that it’s going to be worth it. It’s a venue that I’ve been […]
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Susan Elkin, a stalwart of hundreds of pantos, implores you to continue introducing live performance to your cohorts through this quintessentially British institution. As we embark on the season of mists, mellow fruitfulness and new pencils my thoughts turn to pantomime. Oh yes they do… I’ll say that before anyone else does and get it […]
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This is a magnificent show. Chichester has a strong track record of productions, particularly musicals, which then transfer into the West End. I shall be very surprised if this one doesn’t soon join the list. It pounds along with very familiar Gershwin numbers, such as Embraceable You and Naughty Baby. Bobby Child (the ever-fabulous Charlie […]
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Perhaps we need an occasional, unashamedly populist show with catchy melodies to cut through the tuneless intensity and darkness of most 21st Century musicals? Identical is based on Erich Kastner’s 1949 novel, The Parent Trap. Identical twins Lottie and Lisa were separated in infancy and brought up by their divorced parents. Neither knows of the other’s existence […]
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Two young women meet and gradually fall in love. Katie (Erin Siobhan Hutching) is profoundly deaf and a user of signing. Alana (Lara Steward) gradually learns it. As they get to know each other better they shift between oral language and signing because Katie can speak a little. The issues come thick and fast. One […]