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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Singer, actor, composer and writer Natasha Sutton Williams, 29, is co-founder of the theatre company, Working Birthday. Her one woman show Freud the Musical ran to great acclaim in the recent Vaults Festival and will be part of the Reading Festival in July. Susan Elkin caught up over a coffee. Where do you come from? I can’t […]
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The National Theatre’s major new initiative supporting the development of drama and theatre in primary schools across the country. Developed by professional theatre artists alongside teachers and senior leaders from primary schools across the country, Let’s Play is an ambitious creative learning programme designed to transform creativity and theatre-making in schools. Using a programme of Continued Professional Development […]
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Proving disability and deafness can be incorporated into mainstream theatre, Susan Elkin met up with Garry Robson during rehearsals for Our Country’s Good
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Kevin Wyatt-Lown, Head of Marketing at East 15, outlines their new degree course in Creative Producing, aiming to train individuals in theatre making from behind the scenes.
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In 1988, the Square Chapel in Halifax was a shell of a building. Damaged and seemingly beyond repair, demolition seemed the only option. It was to be saved however by a passionate group of residents who believed strongly in the arts and its importance to the local area. Today the Square Chapel is a wonderful arts centre and as Mark Glover finds out, the spirit that brought the building back to life is evident in its staff, visitors and community
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Institute of the Arts, Barcelona, (IAB), is Europe’s most dynamic international performing arts higher education institution. Founded in 2013 by producer Mark Lethem and performing arts academic Giles Auckland-Lewis, the IAB is based in the cosmopolitan town of Sitges, near Barcelona.
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Susan Elkin chats to Michael Oakley, director of the current Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production of Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare’s Globe.
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Part of the Royal Court’s outreach programme, Susan Elkin finds out about Young Court and the recent schools’ tour of challenging play Cuttin’ It
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There’s art out there, just waiting for you, ready to inspire your pupils and instigate cross-curricular learning. Graham Hooper discoveres a treasure trove of resources – both old and new – and hopes you will take up this fabulous opportunity.
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Susan Elkin visits a new performing arts school in Buckinghamshire enjoying considerable success with its first cohort of graduates.