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 […]
Big Interview
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Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks has been hailed as one of our greatest modern novels. The sweeping story has been adapted for stage so AL SENTER took the opportunity to catch up with the author...
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From an early, tough childhood in Greenock, author Cathy MacPhail is now anticipating the UK release of the film of one of her books. LESLEY FINLAY enjoyed a chat with the acclaimed children’s writer...
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Years of training as a child helped Faye Tozer to land a part in one of the biggest pop bands in history. But when the inevitable demise happens, what next? The actress, singer and dancer told LESLEY FINLAY how she did it...
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Russian artist SLAVA POLUNIN is changing our perception of clowning, pulling together elements of the genre’s heritage to create acclaimed spectacles. He shares his art with Ink Pellet…
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The National Youth Theatre's artistic director and CEO PAUL ROSEBY describes the work of this new company...
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An interview with writer and actor Ben Crystal should be heard, which is a notion that replicates his view on how schools should approach the teaching of Shakespeare. He speaks with wonderful cadence, almost as if the practice of speaking in iambic pentameter to which he has become accustomed in his work has infiltrated his […]
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Roxana Silbert is the artistic director of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre which is re-opening in September. LESLEY FINLAY spoke to the dynamic woman who came to a career in theatre relatively late...
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Author William Sutcliffe has an established career as a writer for adults. So what made him take his first steps in to young adult territory, with a novel that explores the knotty political issue of the West Bank? LESLEY FINLAY interviewed him to find out more….
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Scarlett Strallen comes from a theatrical family so a life on the stage always beckoned. LESLEY FINLAY caught up with the West End musical star whose joie de vivre is infectious…
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It is possible to make a career in the creative industries – it just takes some courage and determination but Blue Apple Theatre’s writer William Jessop knows all about that as LESLEY FINLAY discovers…