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  1. Connections comes of age

    Connections comes of age  

    As NT Connections reaches 21 years, SUSAN ELKIN offers an insight into its continued success and hopes your school will participate next year. I saw and enjoyed Blackout by Davey Anderson at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury in April. It opens dramatically with 30 or so teenagers staring silently and balefully at their phones and then unravels […]

  2. The Power of Youth

    The Power of Youth  

    Susan Elkin visits the Chichester Festival Theatre to chat with Dale Rooks and discovers a strong emphasis on nurturing young talent Chichester Festival Theatre’s recent production of The Enemy of the People featured two boys, alongside Hugh Bonneville and the rest of the cast. Alfie Scott and Jack Taylor are both members of CFT’s thriving […]

  3. Prunella Clough: Unknown Countries

    Prunella Clough: Unknown Countries  

    GRAHAM HOOPER tears himself away from exam marking to take in the retrospective at the Jerwood Gallery in Hastings.

  4. Theatre Review: Running Wild

    Theatre Review: Running Wild  

    Remember Joey from War Horse? Well, meet Oona the elephant. She’s full size and spectacular. Puppeted by four people, three inside her and one on her serpentine expressive trunk, she flaps her ears, rocks her head, farts and responds to everything going on around her. There’s also a magnificent tiger, pounding and snarling, a terrifying […]

  5. Book Review: BU21 by Stuart Slade

    Book Review: BU21 by Stuart Slade  

    Published by Nick Hern Books BU21 by Stuart Slade is the touchingly topical story of six people of all different backgrounds and ways of life and how a single tragic event on Friday the 22nd July 2016 brought them all together. In writing BU21 (which is also the name of the airliner that is shot […]

  6. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF… Lou Stein

    A DAY IN THE LIFE OF… Lou Stein  

    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.

  7. THE BIG INTERVIEW: Evan Placey

    THE BIG INTERVIEW: Evan Placey  

    Playwright Evan Placey chats to Susan Elkin about his Canadian roots, challenging writing and his concerns for the future of drama in schools Within a couple of minutes of our meeting, playwright Evan Placey and I are chatting comfortably about his partner Daniel and life in south London with the little boy (now 20 months) […]

  8. Celebrating 35 years on a Cart

    Celebrating 35 years on a Cart  

    Once upon a time, in 1981, there were two men, a woman and a passion for theatre. Oily Cart, which specialises in theatre for young children and for those with special needs and disabilities (SEND) was on the way. Tim Webb shares memories and reflections with Susan Elkin in celebration of the company’s 35th anniversary. […]

  9. Singing Up for Shakespeare

    Singing Up for Shakespeare  

    Susan Elkin visits Arnhem Wharf Primary, a school committed to the arts, and is inspired by seeing the Ex Cathedra Choir in rehearsal I’m sitting in a classroom at the attractively light, bright and modern Arnhem Wharf Primary School on the Isle of Dogs in Tower Hamlets on a spring Monday morning. 30 eight and […]

  10. Creating a monster

    Creating a monster  

    Adrian McDougall, Yvonne Stone and Eliot Guiralarocca talk to Susan Elkin about Blackeyed Theatre and its forthcoming new show, Frankenstein. “We specialise in touring small scale shows to venues all over the country” says Adrian McDougall who founded Bracknell-based Blackeyed Theatre Company in 2004. The company has just completed a successful six month tour of […]