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 […]
News
Meet John Hopley, the editor of Ink Pellet. He is a bit of a traditionalist (Jane Austen, the Brontes, Shakespeare, Dickens…) who is developing a love of modern teen fiction.
These are just some of our occasional musings on life in the arts world in Stage Whispers, the every day tale of everyday magazine folk…
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The buzz word in the stem world is all about code: educators and industry leaders are realising research and development is being inhibited because students are not being taught coding. Many students are not even taught how to use PowerPoint, Publisher or Word to their full capacity. Coding is the language of computers and will […]
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A group of enterprising English teachers fed up with spending enormous amounts of time researching approaches to work have set up their own resources website called www.teachliterature.co.uk. Nicky Madigan told Ink Pellet why they had set up the site: ‘We found that we were spending enormous amounts of time researching authors and contextual information, devising […]
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You cannot beat a bit of of Bertolt Brecht. Chichester Festival Theatre’s acclaimed production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui opens at the Duchess Theatre in London on September 25 and features Henry Goodman reprising his award-winning performance in the title role. The play is set in Chicago during the Great Depression – the […]
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We all have a story to tell or a poem to sing. The problem is to find the voice to sing it,’ says Michael Morpurgo, chair judge of the Wicked Young Writers’ award. The competition, in its fourth year, is now open for entries. It was established to link the important messages of Wicked with […]
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On the 9 September, international entertainment marketing agency AKA launched a new website for teachers called Hot Tickets For Schools to coincide with the start of a new academic year. This intuitive website is a fantastic new tool for education professionals which simplifies school trip research and bookings for the UK’s top theatre, shows, events […]
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The early start to a Saturday morning was rewarded with a vibrant and energetic performance of The Winter's Tale at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. LESLEY FINLAY explains why you should get a ticket - quick!
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Reflections in art: Jane Austen's House Museum celebrates bi-centenary with an exhibition...
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Jonathan Lloyd is onto pastures new after seven years at the Polka Theatre...
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Sport in Ink Pellet? What is the world coming to? We just couldn’t ignore this news that England superstar Kevin Pietersen has launched an online coaching course to help fans of the real beautiful game to keep fit, perfect their technique and pick up top tips on how to achieve his signature moves including the […]