NYT CPD & Summer Season
National Youth Theatre’s latest Teacher CPD Event will take place on Thursday 1 June when the NYT will be opening up their rehearsal room to educators, giving them the opportunity to watch an open rehearsal of Dennis Kelly’s DNA in advance of its limited run at the home of National Theatre. Led by Sean Hollands, this session will offer an insight into the National Youth Theatre’s practice when working with young performers. The session will also provide an opportunity to discuss the rehearsal process and staging of the production with a cheese and wine reception.
The NYT has launched its 2017 summer season with ‘50 Plays in a Day’ to mark 50 years of commissioning new writing for young people. The full line up of readings can be found at www.nyt.org.uk/whats-on/50plays. The initiative marked the launch of NYT’s 2017 season which will include their first ever ‘East End season’ at the Yard Theatre and will feature Olivier Award-winning Jessica Swale’s Blue Stockings, the premiere of The Host, a new play commission by NYT in response to 23 June 2016 and the European refugee crisis by Nessah Muthy and the return of Mohsin Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. In September they will take a 50-strong cast to Wilton’s Music Hall to bring back Peter Terson’s iconic play about football hooliganism, Zigger Zagger, 50 years after it was first commissioned. For autumn, the company will return to the Ambassadors Theatre for a fifth year with a brand new female-led adaptation of Jekyll and Hyde exploring women’s roles and rights in Victorian society, by Evan Placey who wrote their 2015 hit Consensual. The second REP show, which marks an exciting new collaboration, will see NYT present Frantic Assembly’s award-winning modern-day Othello under the direction of Frantic’s Associate Director Simon Pittman. More information and tickets at www.nyt.org.uk
Orlando – The Queer Element
An immersive cinematic journey into the science of gender. Clay & Diamonds, the British Film Institute, and National Trust present ‘Orlando: The Queer Element’. This live cinema event is inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando and its 1992 film adaptation. Time travelling audiences will wind along Orlando’s journey through gender. As it unfurls across history, explore the instability that abounds in those mysteries: ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. Together, you and your students will explore how we define these terms in a thrilling cross-curricular event. The production draws together learning in Science, PSHE, English, Drama, History, Art and Film and can be adapted to suit Key Stage 3, 4 or 5.
The performance company predominantly train at Fourth Monkey while students from the Masters in Design at the Royal College of Art contributed original works to the set design. This show includes performances for schools’ audiences as well as the general public. The schools’ performances are at Hanbury Hall, Worcestershire (14, 15, 16 June) and at Knole House, Kent (28, 29, 30 June0, with the opportunity for teachers to attend INSET delivered by science, arts & heritage professionals. This training is designed to introduce key elements of the show as well as develop teachers’ creative classroom practice
and cross-curricular methodology.
Tickets available by calling the
box office on 020 7928 3232.
www.clayanddiamonds.com/orlando-schools
The Wind in the Willows
This summer, the spectacular new musical The Wind in the Willows brings an explosion of anarchy, humour and heart to the world-famous London Palladium where it runs from 16 June to 9 September, starring leading comedian, actor and presenter Rufus Hound as the amazing Mr Toad, with EastEnders and Shrek star Neil McDermott as Chief Weasel. They will be joined by West End stars Simon Lipkin as Rat and Craig Mather as Mole, Coronation Street and Boy Meets Girl star Denise Welch as Mrs Otter and West End legend Gary Wilmot as Badger.
Based on Kenneth Grahame’s much-loved classic, the major new musical reunites Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes and Olivier Award-winning composer and lyricist duo George Stiles and Anthony Drewe. This riotous comedy follows the impulsive Mr Toad whose insatiable need for speed lands him in serious trouble. With his beloved home under threat from the notorious Chief Weasel and his gang of sinister Wild Wooders, Toad must attempt a daring escape leading to a series of misadventures and a heroic battle to recapture Toad Hall.
www.windinthewillowsthemusical.com
Box office: 0844 874 0665
Teachers’ Conference: Shakespeare and Creativity
A Teachers Conference: Shakespeare and Creativity is being organised by The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in collaboration with The British Shakespeare Association, taking place at The Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon on Thursday 3 August to Saturday 5 August 2017. Designed for teachers of English and Drama in primary and secondary schools, this short course will allow you to immerse yourself in Shakespeare with expert lectures, directing workshops, activities to take back to the classroom, performances of Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, pre- and post-show discussions and Q&A sessions plus a visit to Shakespeare’s Birthplace.
Full programme and booking form can be found at www.britishshakespeare.ws/event/bsa-and-sbt-teachers-summer-school/ or email learning@shakespeare.org.uk