this month's
Ink Pellet contains
The National Plan for Drama and Theatre Education
Following feedback from drama teachers, educators and other interested parties, The National Plan for Drama and Theatre Education document is now completed and you can find a direct link to the pdf here. This is a mammoth achievement and a feat of collaboration. It has been widely circulated including to the DfE Team, whose members are also […]
BROADWAY LICENSING GLOBAL OFFERS UK TEACHERS FREE PERUSALS FOR HARRY POTTER AND THE CURSED CHILD SECONDARY SCHOOL EDITION
The Critically Acclaimed Show Has Now Been Adapted for UK Secondary Schools (London)—Broadway Licensing Global London, Sonia Friedman Productions, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions are thrilled to announce that secondary school teachers can now sign up for a free perusal script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Secondary School Edition. BLG London […]
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 […]
Homepage
-
When a play deals so obviously with the story of pain, deep tragedy and explores the sheer baseness of human nature, one does wonder why we go to the theatre to see it. That could well be the story of this production of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, the adaptation of John Boyne’s award-winning […]
-
Experimental theatre maker TIM CROUCH, pushes boundaries and flies in the face of convention. His ideal dinner party follows the same lines – stand back and be inspired! The venue would be Wooda Farm, nestling on the side of a valley near Crackington Haven in north Cornwall. My old friends Max and Gary farm sheep […]
-
JEREMY HERRIN is the artistic director of Headlong. Here, in between a hectic working schedule, he directs his own, imaginary dinner party...
-
Published by Simon Pulse The world of literature usually mirrors the new trends and fashions, but there will always be places for the classic supernatural thriller and the timeless romance. For this reason, a book that is able to seamlessly combine both of these genres is instantly shaping up like a must-read, and Scott Westerfield’s […]
-
This little tome should be kept in your drawer/briefcase pocket/tablet case for those moments of despair and frustration that hit all teachers at some time. Featuring 100 ‘meditations for teachers’ and a commentary on each, Jonti Mark’s self-published book brings together words from some of the most famous teachers, educators and historical figures to inspire, […]
-
Published by Nick Hern Books An hour glass on the book’s front cover suggests encapsulating quintessential qualities in the slightest of vessels – and in this slim volume of reflections on Shakespeare the ground-breaking grandee of the stage sets out to do just that. In medieval times a monk would ponder mortality by keeping a […]
-
In the dystopian world Pale is set in, dead people can go to work. Dead children can go to school. Dead people can even come back from the dead. All you need is to be given the Lazarus Serum quickly after you die and that’s it. But there is a catch – you become pale, […]
-
I wasn’t really sure what to expect of The Caucasian Chalk Circle, because I didn’t know what the play was about. I did have knowledge of Bertolt Brecht, however, as I had studied some of his techniques in my drama lessons at school. In the play, a kingdom is torn apart by war, and the royal […]
-
This wonderful, imaginative and eye-catching production has rightly won awards aplenty and extended its run at the specially-built theatre at Kings Cross Station.
-
If there was ever evidence needed that an actor’s lot is hard work, here it is. This physical production brings clowning, slapstick and acrobatics together in a hilarious fast-paced laugh out loud couple of hours. Created by Mischief Theatre, the team behind The Play that Goes Wrong, the same mayhem follows as Conley Polytechnic Drama […]