this month's
Ink Pellet contains
HARMONY IN DIVERSITY
International soprano and Artistic Director of Pegasus Opera Company, Alison Buchanan, speaks to Nilgün Yusuf. Fans of Bridgerton may have seen Alison Buchanan sing in the spinoff series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (2023) easily located on YouTube if you missed it. “That was a high point” the singer reflects. “I loved the show and the whole process. They treated me like artist.” Bejewelled […]
TAYLA KENYON
Tayla Kenyon is a producer, playwright, actor, teacher and workshop facilitator whose award-winning debut play FLUFF is a play text at the National Theatre. Her new play, Tell Me Where it Hurts, explores Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder andis currently on tour. “There weren’t masses of theatres in Hemel Hempstead where I was brought up, although we […]
Let’s fill this country with artists
Mountview is multiplying and now has seven CertHEs across the country. By Nilgün Yusuf. It’s been a long-held view that to make a career in the performing arts, you must move to London. But with sky high rents and the prohibitive cost of capital living, this is not an option for many young people. Mountview, […]
Poetry for Life
Having curated the Poetry Arena at Latitude for ten years from 2006, poet Luke Wright revisited the festival this summer to present excerpts from his latest book, Later Life Letter, and IP caught up with him later for a chat. Inspired by the likes of Blur’s Country House and the tapes of Monty Python, Luke […]
Into Film Supporting Literacy
This year’s Into Film Festival will take place between 6-27 November 2026, and will once again help educators bring learning to life for 5-19-year-olds across the UK by inspiring young people to watch, understand and make films in new and creative ways. Welcoming almost half a million pupils and their educators each year, education charity, […]
Beyond Laughter
Actor, comedian, broadcaster Rufus Hound, 47, has starred in the West End and presented primetime TV. Susan Elkin spoke to him. When I catch up with Rufus Hound he is eating a bowl of noodles between the matinee and the evening show where he is appearing as William in Jack and Sarah at the Mill […]
Matilda the Musical – Writing challenge
“Change My Story” is the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) flagship education programme accompanying the UK and Ireland tour of Matilda the Musical. Inspired by the musical’s themes of empowerment and literacy, the initiative aims to reach thousands of young people in cities hosting the touring production Roald Dahl’s delightful, subversive novel Matilda champions reading and […]
OHMI Trust
The OHMI Trust’s objective is to enable children and adults with physical impairments to play the instruments they want to play, when they want to play them and where they want to play them (whether at school, in the home or in a professional ensemble). OHMI Trust Music-Makers is a Birmingham-based charity, founded in 2011. Its primary […]
Learn with Mischief
Learn With Mischief is a new, free to use education resource designed for secondary students, and aims to inspire the next generation of theatre-makers and comedians, from the team behind The Play That Goes Wrong. Classrooms usually work better if there’s laughter. We teachers are inclined to get so earnestly involved in “delivering” the curriculum […]
Italia Conti
Italia Conti was an actor and teacher. In 1911 she founded the training school which bears her name. It has trained Naomi Campbell, Pixie Lott. Russell Brand, Noel Coward, Peter Duncan, Jack Hawkins, Lesley Manville and Layton Williams among thousands of others across twelve decades. One of the fifteen members of the Federation of Drama […]
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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Mountview is multiplying and now has seven CertHEs across the country. By Nilgün Yusuf. It’s been a long-held view that to make a career in the performing arts, you must move to London. But with sky high rents and the prohibitive cost of capital living, this is not an option for many young people. Mountview, […]
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Having curated the Poetry Arena at Latitude for ten years from 2006, poet Luke Wright revisited the festival this summer to present excerpts from his latest book, Later Life Letter, and IP caught up with him later for a chat. Inspired by the likes of Blur’s Country House and the tapes of Monty Python, Luke […]
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This year’s Into Film Festival will take place between 6-27 November 2026, and will once again help educators bring learning to life for 5-19-year-olds across the UK by inspiring young people to watch, understand and make films in new and creative ways. Welcoming almost half a million pupils and their educators each year, education charity, […]
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Is it time for a more integral, Black History 365 approach? Nilgün Yusuf Black History Month is a time to recognise and celebrate black figures in history who would otherwise be overlooked. It’s where students learn about inspiring figures such as Mary Seacole, the Jamaican British nurse during the Crimean War; Walter Tull, the first […]
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Ahead of its upcoming new UK tour, The Boy at the Back of the Class author Onjali Q. Raúf chatted with Ink Pellet about its increased relevance in today’s fractured society and the associated education resources developed for schools. First published in 2018, The Boy at the Back of the Class has won many awards […]
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The 2026 Young Playwrights Award is now officially nation-wide! Do you have an idea or a story to tell? Can you imagine it performed live, by actors on a stage? It’s time to start your playwriting journey. The Young Playwrights Award is a free, open-access competition for any teenager in the UK interested in writing a play, […]
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With half of the world’s languages threatened to fall silent by the end of the century comes the first ever UK festival Voiced: The Festival for Endangered Languages, celebrating the power of language and art by highlighting endangered global and local languages through a creative festival. Throughout October, the Barbican, London will be filled with an explosion of voices and […]
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The National Theatre has announced its autumn programme for schools across the UK, deepening its work with young people to support its continued ambition to reach every child in the UK before they leave school. Over 90% of state secondary schools are already signed up to access the National Theatre Collection to stream world-leading theatre directly […]
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Following feedback from drama teachers, educators and other interested parties, The National Plan for Drama and Theatre Education document is now completed and you can find a direct link to the pdf here. This is a mammoth achievement and a feat of collaboration. It has been widely circulated including to the DfE Team, whose members are also […]
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The Critically Acclaimed Show Has Now Been Adapted for UK Secondary Schools (London)—Broadway Licensing Global London, Sonia Friedman Productions, Colin Callender and Harry Potter Theatrical Productions are thrilled to announce that secondary school teachers can now sign up for a free perusal script of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Secondary School Edition. BLG London […]