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 […]
A Day in the Life
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Chickenshed, whose slogan is “Theatre changing lives” is an inclusive theatre company in north London which also runs further and higher education courses. Since 2000 it has established 19 “sheds” in the UK and two in Russia to develop inclusive theatre elsewhere. Susan Elkin talks to Lou Stein who took over as director in April.
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Simon Stephens is one of Britain’s best known playwrights. The National Theatre production of his adaptation of Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time has been seen live by over a million people.
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Samantha Lane, Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Little Angel Theatre, Islington chats to Susan Elkin
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Gill Lewis, 48 who trained and worked as a vet, is the author of novels about animals often being treated badly by humans usually for political or economic reasons. Her books for young adults include Moon Bear, White Dolphin and Sky Hawk all published by OUP. Her latest is Gorilla Dawn about rebels, industrialisation and […]
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Artistic Director Paul Roseby has expanded the National Youth Theatre beyond all recognition with a great team of directors, writers and staff working closely to enable his creative vision and here takes us through a typically busy day It’s the wrong side of 7am. John Humphries wakes me up. I switch him off. Sorry John, […]
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Actor Jeremy Swift has graced our screens and stages over the years and won a role in the television series of the moment, playing Spratt in Downton Abbey. Now he is back on stage as Mr Perks in The Railway Children. Here he shares a snapshot of a day in rehearsals...
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One of the most revealing articles is what we call the ‘last page’. Over the years Ink Pellet featured Six of the Best, and now we alternate between A Day in the Life and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. LESLEY FINLAY dusted down the archives and chose excerpts from her favourite interviewees about A Day in their Life...
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Author Jenny McLachlan is about to leave her job as a teacher to become a full-time writer. Here she gives us a glimpse into a typical day as she prepares to make that change...
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As Artistic Director of Paines Plough, life is busy enough for JAMES GRIEVE. But when you add directing into the mix, it’s even more interesting. Here, he describes a ‘typical’ day towards the end of rehearsals for Brian Friel’s Translations...
