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VAULT Festival 2015

Vault Festival 2015 Following the enormous success of last year’s festival, VAULT returns to Waterloo’s Leake Street tunnels from 28 January-8 March. Specifically, dance and physical theatre are one of VAULT’s areas of excellence this year with a wide programme of powerful and provocative shows taking over the venue.

Six weeks of live entertainment will see Heritage Arts present a carefully curated, high quality multi-arts programme across seven different spaces under Waterloo station. This year’s highlights include the London premieres of radical theatre company Filter’s Macbeth as well as True Brits, a brand new play from Rich Mason Productions and HighTide Festival Theatre. They are joined by multidisciplinary and interactive Artful Badger’s first ever narrative production and the comedian and performance artist Yve Blake.

With more than 30,000 tickets available, 500 individual events and over 80 artistic groups, the line-up comprises some of the most exciting emerging artists and companies in a programme of music, performance, dance, comedy, discussions, debates and one-off late night events, all taking place in a secret maze of underground tunnels behind a single door.

Acts this year include masculine-feminist pop sensation Dani Frankenstien, Superbolt Theatre’s epic man versus monster adventure Jurassic Park, one-man-shows from the likes of Move To Stand, Rolemop Arts, Matthew Bellwood, Jessica Burgess, Tristran Bernays, cabaret from taxidermist Charlie Tuesday Gates and her gang, ensemble theatre from Dumbshow, d’Animate, Edinburgh sensations House of Blakewell and many many more.

The Festival Director has ensured the event has a pulse of many voices – there are 500 individual events happening at VAULT, chosen by mixture of invitation, public submission and charitable competition, so each day has a unique heartbeat. The programming philosophy looks for passion and ability and VAULT’s learned that artistic groups grow in knowledge by observation and practice. It is now the longest, biggest, broadest, most central performing arts festival in London, all behind one magical door in Waterloo.

Frantic Assembly’s Othello

In a co-production with Theatre Royal Plymouth, Frantic Assembly’s explosive Othello will hit the Lyric Hammersmith in the capital from 13 January 2015 following a successful UK tour. The company are said to have radically transformed the Shakespearian classic with its high energy choreography and approach to working artistically.

Frantic Assembly’s acclaimed and award-winning Othello is an electrifying take on Shakespeare’s most brutal and gripping thriller-tragedy. Frantic’s Artistic Director Scott Graham has restaged this timeless story of paranoia, jealousy and murder, setting it against the backdrop of Yorkshire during the race riots of 2001, exposing prejudice, danger and fear. Othello is directed by Scott Graham, with design by Laura Hopkins, lighting design by Natasha Chivers, sound design by Gareth Fry, soundtrack by Hybrid and additional choreography by Scott Graham and Eddie Kay.

Frantic Assembly’s celebrated physical style combines movement, design, music and text, and recent production highlights include The Believers and Beautiful Burnout by Bryony Lavery, Dr Dee (Manchester International Festival and ENO), Lovesong by Abi Morgan and Stockholm by Bryony Lavery. Frantic Assembly are also movement directors on The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, winner of 7 Olivier Awards, currently running in the West End and on Broadway.

Frantic Assembly was formed in 1994 and since then the company has sought to collaborate on original ideas with today’s most exciting artists. Frantic Assembly has toured widely throughout the UK, building its reputation as one of the country’s most vibrant companies. Internationally Frantic Assembly has performed, created and collaborated in 28 different countries.

In addition to its productions Frantic Assembly operates an extensive Learn & Train programme introducing 6,000 participants a year to the company’s process of creating theatre, in a wide variety of settings. Frantic Assembly also delivers Ignition, an innovative vocational training project for young men aged 16–20 years, particularly targeting those with little previous experience of the arts.

Royal Court And The Guardian Collaboration

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.

Martin Harvey – Wacky For Wind In The Willows

What better way to celebrate the festive period than with the Royal Opera House’s “The Wind in the Willows” at the Vaudeville Theatre. Martin Harvey joined this year’s production to take on the role of Ratty…

Harvey’s extensive dance career has included numerous principal roles with the Royal Ballet from Mayerling, Onegin and La Fille Mal Gardée, to Manon and Romeo and Juliet. Harvey’s acting credits include his award-winning performance as Johnny Castle in the West End production of Dirty Dancing, as well as multiple roles in New York, including Richard Eyre’s production of Carmen for the Metropolitan Opera, Twyla Tharp’s Come Fly Away and David Michalek’s Portraits in Dramatic Time.

What’s your dance background?

I started dancing at around four years old in a local school and then I went to the Royal Ballet School at the age of 11 where I trained until [I was] 16. I then started in the Royal Ballet Company at 16. That sounds like a lot of ballet but I did most forms of dance, but specialised in ballet.

What was a typical day like?

A typical day included three to four hours of dancing with ballet class, a pas de deux class, and loads of other forms of dance and choreography. It also included four hours of academic work every day. So that was eight hours a day, six days a week. We would also go Morris dancing on a Sunday. You usually had dance homework as well where you would do stretches and practice on your own. Dance cramming, like trying to do the splits until you split.

What’s a typical day like for you now?

So different. I live in Harlem, Manhattan in New York. On a typical day, I get up and spend time with my wife and our Yorkshire Terrier. I then meditate for about 45 minutes to an hour. I do it as part of my warm up as an actor; meditation spills into actor training but I also do general meditation. I then go and take a class at Steps in New York, normally an hour and a half of ballet or something physical. I will then go for an audition or do some voiceover work or a commercial. I then teach a ballet class for students and in the evening, I go to The Pit in New York and either do a three hour drop-in class or an hour and a half comedy improve.

Have you always wanted to be a performer?

I think that’s got to be true. When I was three (I don’t remember this but my Mum has told me) I used to bang on our TV, it was this little black and white TV and I would sit down next to it and bang on it and ask how I would get inside! So clearly I wanted to do something like that!

When did you start performing professionally?

My first professional gig was when I was seven. I played Michael Darling in Peter Pan at the Aldwych Theatre in London with Bonnie Langford. This production went on tour so I was travelling on tour when I was seven with Tinkerbell, The Lost Boys and Bonnie Langford! After that I worked every year until I went to the Royal Ballet School. I would say that acting was my first love before dance but I think that both arrived at the same time and you can’t distinguish between them as they are both necessary to each other.

What are your rehearsals like for Ratty?

Sweaty, detailed, exhausting and hilarious.

What are the best and worst parts of the creative process for you?

The best part of any creative process is the laughter. The worst part is when it’s not creative. When it’s going well and everyone’s laughing it’s brilliant, but when it’s not creative, that’s just it and the issue is it can’t always be creative.

What are you most looking forward to about the performances?

We get to see our audience quite a lot and seeing the kids really enjoy it and watching their parents so excited about the kids’ reactions is brilliant. It’s like a chain reaction and it is so brilliant to watch. For the actor in me, I get to spend two hours living in a fantasy land! I look forward to seeing kids’ faces light up and also I get to be a kid for two hours and be as wacky as Ratty!

What’s the best thing about performing?

That’s the best thing about performing, but the whole reason I do what I do is characters. Even when I am dancing, singing, performing, I am living and seeing through someone else’s eyes. It’s the ultimate escapism. Some people go swimming or running but for me, when I’m performing I’m completely in a moment, completely immersed in fantasy land. Spending time living life through someone else’s eyes.

What’s one thing you would change about the industry?

Omg, do I only get one?!

What is your advice to an aspiring dancer?

If you love it, don’t look back and don’t take no for an answer.

The Hunger Games Is Coming To London

The Hunger Games Stage Show 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 theatrical experience – as it is being referred to – will be produced by award-winning Broadway producer and Imagine Nation co-founder Robin de Levita, UK promoter Harvey Goldsmith, Triangular Entertainment’s Warren Adams, Brandon Victor Dixon of WalkRunFly Productions and entertainment executives Robert Harris and R&R Media’s Gary Ricci.

De Levita recently created groundbreaking presentations for two Holland stage shows. For the sold-out Dutch musical Soldier of Orange, the audience sits in a 360-degree rotating auditorium that turns from set to set. ANNE, the first authorised play in 55 years based on The Diary of Anne Frank, uses rotating life-size stage sets. As a result it seems de Levita and the rest of the production team are the perfect partners for extending The Hunger Games into a live experience.

Creative genius, world-class production values and state-of-the-art technology will combine to provide a uniquely immersive experience for fans around the world, with a tale that resonates so deeply with global audiences, now for an innovative next-generation studio.

The first two installments of the Hunger Games film franchise have grossed more than $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office. Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1, the first of the two-part final installment, will hit cinemas in late November. The stage show is just the latest extension of Lionsgate’s popular, Jennifer Lawrence-starring story, with the company considering a theme park among other business opportunities.

Rhiannon Munson-Hobbs – Showgirl Stardom

Rhiannon Munson-Hobbs After graduating from London Studio Centre’s Intoto Dance Company, Rhiannon toured the UK with various dance groups and appeared in numerous TV and corporate events. She recently finished her first season as resident showgirl and cancan dancer at La Nouvelle Eve in Paris, and has been booked to work with other companies in Paris so will continue to perform there over the winter season.

When did you begin dancing, where and why?

I started dance when I was six at an after school club where we learnt ballet and tap. To be honest, I only went because my best friends at the time went too. We eventually got put forward to do our exam, I loved getting shiny new satin shoes and having my hair done in a bun with a little ribbon. From then on, I was hooked.

How long have you been performing? Did you start young?

I performed in various events with my dance school whilst I was younger, but my first real experience was performing with The National Youth Ballet of Great Britain when I was 16. It was the first time I’d had to go through a real audition experience, and once the season started we had summer intensives at Elmhurst and Tring, which was a whole new world to me. We worked with brilliant choreographers such as Drew McOnie and Jo Meredith, and were lucky enough to dance at theatres such as Sadler’s Wells and the Birmingham Hippodrome. It sounds silly, but up until then I hadn’t really realised that dance could be a career, not just a hobby. The following year I successfully auditioned to be in One From The Heart’s production of Cinderella, and working with professional dancers and performers made me realise that I wanted to do this for a living.

Where did you train and what was a typical day like?

I trained at London Studio Centre where I studied all dance techniques; ballet, contemporary classes such as Limon, Graham and Cunningham, Matt Mattox jazz technique, hip hop, commercial, lyrical jazz, as well acting and singing. We also had lectures four times a week and at the end of my three years of vocational training I graduated with a BA (Hons) in Theatre Dance. A typical day started at 9am and finished around 5pm.

What is a typical day like now?

My day is now much more nocturnal! At La Nouvelle Eve [where I recently worked in Paris] we have two shows a night, six nights a week. We have to be in work to warm up and get ready by 6.30pm as the first show starts at 8pm, and the second is at 10pm. The show normally finishes around midnight, and once you’ve showered, prepped your costumes for the next day and taken your make up off it’s usually around 12.30am. To chill out after the show we’ll normally go for a drink somewhere local, or maybe go for a bite to eat. Getting to sleep in the early hours of the morning means that I don’t usually wake up until around midday the following day. Usually I meet up with friends, explore somewhere new in Paris, or go to one of our favourite cafes or shops – vintage shopping around Pigalle and Abesses is amazing, and there’s hundreds of little cafes or restaurants to check out.

Do you still take classes? How do you keep on top of your technique?

The show at La Nouvelle Eve keeps us very much in shape and it’s quite technical, but there are dance studios in Paris where you can go and train during the day as well – my favourite class to do at the moment is Yanis Marshall’s at Studio Harmonic, because it’s so so different to the style of dance we do in our cabaret show.

What’s the best part about performing in Paris?

The lifestyle is absolutely incredible in Paris, and I love that there are so many cabaret shows to discover and enjoy. There are so many things about my job that I love. Meeting and working with different people all the time is great. The fact that it allows me to travel is awesome too, I doubt I would have spent seven months living in Paris otherwise. Seeing progression and growth in kids you’ve taught over the years is also wonderful but nothing will beat the feeling of being on stage – when you’re waiting for the curtain to open, with your make up and costume on, your friends around you, with the lights on you, a packed audience waiting to see you dance. It’s an amazing feeling. I loved watching people’s reaction to the cancan at La Nouvelle Eve. I think a lot of people don’t know what to expect, seeing the shock and amazement on their faces reminds me just how lucky I am to be part of their Paris experience

What advice would you give to someone aspiring to be part of the dance industry?

Work hard and be a nice person. The dance world is so small that everyone knows everyone. If you’re the sort of person no one wants to share a dressing room with, after a while people just won’t work with you. Working hard goes without saying – you have to keep learning, keep improving, keep up your technique classes and also keep remembering why you decided to do this in the first place. There’s nothing more compelling to watch than someone on stage who is clearly enjoying themselves.

What’s next for you?

I want to stay in Paris for a while; I’ve completely fallen in love with cabaret, and with being a showgirl. I’ve booked a few more jobs out there to keep me busy over winter and I’ll be back working at La Nouvelle Eve and with another company next season.

Bugsy Malone To Re-Open The Lyric Hammersmith

Alan Parker’s world renowned musical Bugsy Malone is set to re-open the Lyric Hammersmith next year, when the venue completes its multi-million pound redevelopment. The revival, which is directed by the Lyric’s Artistic Director Sean Holmes, will run from 11 April and is the first professional production of the musical to be staged in the UK for more than a decade.

Set in the Prohibition era of New York, the show tells the story of rival gangsters Fat Sam and Dandy Dan as they wreak havoc with the help of custard pies and destructive splurge guns. After penniless ex-boxer Bugsy Malone falls for aspiring singer Blousey Brown, the question on everyone’s lips is will he be able to resist seductive songstress Tallulah and stay out of trouble, while helping Fat Sam defend his business? Based on the acclaimed film of the same name, Bugsy Malone features music and lyrics by Paul Williams, choreography set by rising choreographer Drew McOnie and designs by Jon Bausor.

The newly refurbished venue, which is undergoing its first major reconstruction for 35 years, will also feature the Reuben Foundation Wing, a two-storey extension that will house a wide range of new facilities including dance, TV and recording studios, a screening cinema and a digital play space. For Artistic Director Holmes, Bugsy Malone is the perfect show to open the new Lyric. The project has taken years of planning and fundraising, and two years of construction work on site, but 2015 will see something special unveiled. The team at the theatre maintain that there won’t be another producing theatre in London quite like it and there will be no better place for young people and emerging artists to develop their creative talents.

Billy Elliot’s Live Screening

The recent live screening of the much-loved Billy Elliot the Musical has topped the UK and Ireland cinema box offices, with takings of £1.9 million. The screening, which was broadcast live from London’s Victoria Palace Theatre to more than 500 cinemas on 28 September, beat new releases such as The Equalizer and The Boxtrolls to the top spot, and was the widest ever cinema release of a live event. This is fantastic news for musical theatre fans – and the industry – in expanding the reach of the musical for new and perhaps unanticipated audiences.

The musical, written by Lee Hall with music by Elton John, is an adaptation of Hall’s 2000 film. It is directed by Stephen Daldry with choreography by Peter Darling. The story, set in the mining town of Newcastle during the Margaret Thatcher era tells the story of a young boy’s quest to train at the Royal Ballet School against the odds of social, economic and personal difficulties.

25 former and current Billy Elliots, including the three original performers – James Lomas, George Maguire and Liam Mower – took part in a special finale of the show, which was broadcast to eight countries. Encore screenings of the performance went on to take place at more than 350 cinemas on 2, 3, 4 and 5 October and a DVD of the special event will be released on 24 November.

Billy Elliot the Musical is produced in the West End by Universal Stage Productions, Working Title Films and Old Vic Productions in association with Tiger Aspect, and is based on the Universal Pictures/Studio Canal film. The popular musical is currently booking until 19 December 2015, but by expanding its reach through cinema, who knows how long it could run for!

The Railway Children Returns To London

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.

Directed by Damian Cruden, with design by Jo Scotcher, lighting by Richard G. Jones, music by Christopher Madin and sound by Craig Vear, the adaptation was first produced by York Theatre Royal at the National Railway Museum, York, where it enjoyed two sell-out and critically acclaimed seasons in 2008 and 2009. The production then opened at Waterloo Station in the former Eurostar terminal in July 2010, and won the 2011 Olivier Award for Best Entertainment, before opening in Toronto in 2011 in a temporary theatre built at the base of CN Tower in Roundhouse Park.

The Railway Children tells the story of Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis, three children whose lives change dramatically when their father is mysteriously taken away. They move from London to a cottage in rural Yorkshire with their mother, where they befriend the local railway porter, Perks, and embark on a magical journey of discovery, friendship and adventure. The much loved classic was first published in 1906 and has subsequently been adapted for the stage and screen, most famously in the 1970 film version directed by Lionel Jeffries and starring Jenny Agutter, Bernard Cribbins, Dinah Sheridan and Sally Thomsett.

The Railway Children is booking until 1 March 2015.

OKLAHOMA! To Tour

Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning musical OKLAHOMA!, freshly directed by Rachel Kavanaugh and with new choreography by Drew McOnie, will tour the UK and Ireland next year, opening at the Derngate Theatre, Northampton, in February 2015.

This new production of one of the great classic American musicals will be led by Belinda Lang (School for Scandal, Ladies in Lavender) as Aunt Eller, Gary Wilmot (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Pajama Game, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang) as Ali Hakim, Ashley Day (The Book of Mormon, The Wizard of Oz, High School Musical) as Curly, Charlotte Wakefield (The Sound of Music, MAMMA MIA!, Spring Awakening) as Laurey and Nic Greenshields (Guys and Dolls, Billy Elliot, The Phantom of the Opera) as Jud Fry, accompanied by a live orchestra.

OKLAHOMA!, with music by Richard Rodgers and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, was based on Lynn Riggs’ play Green Grow the Lilacs; it was the first musical written by the duo. It was originally produced on Broadway in 1943 and the Academy Award-winning film was released in 1955.

Set in Oklahoma, US in the early 1900s, the musical tells the story of two sets of star-crossed lovers. Cowboy Curly loves Laurey, Aunt Eller’s niece, but Curly’s rival is the mysterious Jud Fry. Their stories are told with the help of some of the best loved songs in musical theatre repertoire, including Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’, I’m Just a Girl Who Can’t Say No, People Will Say We’re in Love and Oklahoma.

Presented by Music & Lyrics Limited, this award-winning nationwide consortium is comprised of the UK’s major independent touring theatres. It aims to champion music theatre in all its forms and provide extended life to productions created by the UK’s major producing theatres. It is committed to presenting major musical productions to large and enthusiastic audiences.