The Royal Court theatre and the Guardian newspaper are set to collaborate on a web-based play series. Directors, playwrights and journalists are all headed to collaborate on a new series of short plays, which will be available to watch online. Making these theatrical works more readily available to audiences all over increases the reach of the arts and puts it in greater stead for the long term.
To be named Off the Page, the collaboration between the Royal Court and the Guardian will begin with a piece which sees playwright Laura Wade and director Carrie Cracknell collaborate with food blogger Jack Monroe and Guardian social affairs correspondent Amelia Gentleman. The short play is named Britain Isn’t Eating, and is available on theguardian.com starring Katherine Parkinson and Kyle Soller.
Subsequent short plays will cover topics such as music, fashion, politics, sport and education and are all around five minutes long. They will also feature actors including Rafe Spall and Tobias Menzies, alongside playwrights such as Chloe Moss and Tim Price, and directors including Christopher Haydon and Hamish Pirie. Guardian journalists taking part in the project also include Aditya Chakrabortty and Hadley Freeman.
For the Royal Court’s artistic director Vicky Featherstone, the partnership between the Guardian and Royal Court is truly ground-breaking in its approach to producing theatre, and reflects the strengths and vision of each organisation involved. Playwrights and theatremakers are continuously looking for inspiration and new challenges to feed their work, and for Featherstone this is frequently found in the pages of newspapers.
The collaborations between the Guardian and Royal Court theatre look set to be innovative, entertaining and inspiring with lots feeding in to each short work.
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
The Hunger Games phenomenon is heading to the London stage. The unique theatrical experience based on the popular young-adult novels and Lionsgate film franchise will launch in summer 2016 in a new purpose-built theatre next to Wembley Stadium in London. The company is partnering with Dutch media company Imagine Nation and US-based Triangular Entertainment, who will use innovative and immersive staging techniques to bring the dystopian story to the stage.
The award-winning production of The Railway Children will return to London this year from 16 December, in a specially built venue at King’s Cross station. Mike Kenny’s stage adaptation of E. Nesbit’s novel The Railway Children will be moving to a purpose built 1,000 seat theatre, complete with a railway track and platforms, and with a state of the art heating system. The York Theatre Royal production, which is in association with the National Railway Museum, will once again feature a live 60-tonne steam locomotive and Gentleman’s Carriage.
Australia’s Queensland Ballet is set to debut the Olivier and Evening Standard award winning production of ‘La Sylphide’ at the London Coliseum from 4–8 August 2015. Over 30 years since it first captivated the capital’s audiences, the legendary production of August Bournonville’s ‘La Sylphide’ will return to London, performed by the internationally acclaimed Australia’s Queensland Ballet in their London debut.
Wilton’s Strike!, a new dance platform, is offering emerging dancers and choreographers the opportunity to develop a piece of work with Wilton’s Music Hall and to perform on its historic stage. Wilton’s is the world’s oldest surviving Grand Music Hall and London’s best kept secret, so this opportunity to work within the building is an incredible opportunity.
The recent performances of the New English Ballet Theatre were a breath of fresh air for its spread of audiences. Opening night at the Peacock Theatre, London, saw a multitude of audiences vying for a taste of the company’s work, still reasonably new and fresh on the dance and ballet scene. The cast were all a credit to the company, well trained dancers who ate up the stage.
Directed and choreographed by Will Tuckett, the Vaudeville Theatre will see the Royal Opera House production of The Wind in the Willows return to London’s West End this Christmas, running from 26 November 2014.
The line up has been revealed for West End LIVE 2014, and it looks set to delight each and every visitor. Last year more than half a million people descended on Trafalgar Square for West End LIVE, and this year’s event promises to be even bigger and better. Now in it’s tenth year, the celebration of the West End’s top shows is a staple in the capital’s performing arts calendar. It will take on the square on 21 and 22 June.
The Roundhouse, Camden, has announced a new multi-arts festival, named ‘Roundhouse Summer Session, in some of the best live entertainment for London this summer. Whilst lots is going on inside, outside visitors can enjoy Camden Beach, the Roundhouse’s very own seaside resort, all of which is taking place throughout July and August. On the terrace, Camden’s biggest outdoor space, there will be 150 tonnes of the finest sand, deck chairs, beach huts, live music and some of the best food pop-ups in the city.
O Snap, a co-production of Het Lab Utrecht, tanzhaus NRW and supported by Take-Off: Junger Tanz Dusseldorf and Grand Theatre/Jonge Harten Theaterfestival Groningen is set to run from 22-23 May at the Unicorn Theatre in London. Aimed at participants aged 13 and above, O Snap is a dance performance about finding your own identity in an overloaded world.