this month's
Ink Pellet contains
THE BIG INTERVIEW: Beyond the Cart
Having ‘retired’ from running their hugely successful company, Oily Cart, Susan Elkin caught up with Tim Webb and Dave Bennett to find out what the future now holds in store.
Hamlet at Leeds Playhouse
Susan Elkin chats to Amy Leach, associate director, about the casting of a female lead and ensuring a contemporary production.
Relaxed Ballet
Birmingham Royal Ballet will be offering its second relaxed performances in early 2019 – a specially adapted production of Beauty and the Beast at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton and Birmingham Hippodrome. Here, dancer Jonathan Payn describes his involvement in the planning of this special production. Please introduce yourself for us: I’m Jonathan Payn, First Soloist […]
Nurturing Young Talent
The Lyric Hammersmith has extended its education outreach work. Susan Elkin went along to find out more.
Proudly Different
Musical Theatre Academy, long since rebranded as TheMTA, is a tiny vocational drama college whose working methods, influence and achievements are out of all proportion to its size. Susan Elkin went to find out how.
EXHIBITION: Razzle Dazzle ‘Em
Graham Hooper takes in a couple of shows looking at the art of distortion and its very practical application
Pause for thought… Christian Knowledge
Susan Elkin puts forward the case for Christian knowledge as an intrinsic part of English lessons
TheatreCraft
Susan Elkin visited TheatreCraft 2018, offering great advice to students looking for careers in the creative industries.
Book Review: Being a Playwright – A Career Guide for Writers
By Chris Foxon & George Turvey Published by Nick Hern Books Iwas delighted when this how-to book landed on my desk. I’m a writer (over 100,000 words a year). I go to the theatre to review several times a week. I’ve long thought I should somehow knit the strands of my life together and write […]
THEATRE REVIEW : Macbeth – National Youth Theatre 2018 Rep Company
The National Youth Theatre Rep Company is a vocational training group of 15 or 16 actors aged 18-25 who present a West End season at the end of their quasi-course. It’s the top tier of NYT’s work. Most participants go straight on to professional work. Abridged to 90 interval-less minutes by Moira Buffini and pithily […]
Big Interview
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Having ‘retired’ from running their hugely successful company, Oily Cart, Susan Elkin caught up with Tim Webb and Dave Bennett to find out what the future now holds in store.
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Moira Buffini, 53, is an award-winning playwright and director whose innovative reworking of Macbeth is part of the current National Youth Theatre Rep Season. Susan Elkin met her to talk about her career so far. Moira Buffini meets me after work in Islington on a chilly, dark autumn evening. Always busy she has been working […]
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Steven Worbey and Kevin Farrell, both pianists, met at Royal College of Music. Worbey and Farrell, their unusual double act – four hands on one piano – combines virtuosic playing with family-friendly humour. Susan Elkin caught up with them in London on their way home to Edinburgh following a working week on a P&O Cruise […]
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Proving disability and deafness can be incorporated into mainstream theatre, Susan Elkin met up with Garry Robson during rehearsals for Our Country’s Good
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Susan Elkin spoke to playwright Jessica Swale, composer Joe Stilgoe and director Max Webster during the rehearsals for a brand-new adaptation of The Jungle Book which opened at Royal and Derngate, Northampton before Christmas and tours nationally this year. Everyone connected with this production mentions the 1967 Disney film, with its songs by George Bruns which have […]
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Crime fiction author Anne Cassidy, who writes for young adults, hit the headlines in 2004 with her controversial novel Looking for JJ – one of over fifty titles she has to her credit. Susan Elkin meets her.
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The Birmingham Stage Comapany, one of the world’s leading producers of theatre for children, is celebrating its 25th anniversary and Susan Elkin met up with its founder Neal Foster We meet in his theatreland London office, a stone’s throw from Piccadilly Circus and not much further from the Garrick Theatre where Gangsta Granny is to […]
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As champions of new writing, the Royal Court plays a vital role in the link between education and the theatre. Here their artistic director, Vicky Featherstone, chats to Susan Elkin Vicky Featherstone’s middle name might just as well be “new writing”. It has characterised everything this dynamic woman, currently artistic director at the Royal Court, […]
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Ben Ofoedu chats with Susan Elkin about his life and career, from global singing star to scene-stealing genie and beyond He bounds beaming up the stairs to meet me in a Mexican café in Soho. He has chosen this establishment because they’ve given him a Gold Card in acknowledgement of his celebrity status. His rather […]
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Annemarie Lewis Thomas, composer, musical director and founder principal of Musical Theatre Academy chats to Susan Elkin