this month's
Ink Pellet contains
Manchester School of Theatre
In this month’s feature on drama schools, Susan Elkin takes a look at the opportunities available at the Manchester School of Theatre.
ROH Apprenticeships
Offering another route into the industry, apprenticeships are flourishing and Susan Elkin examined the opportunities offered by the Royal Opera House.
Fourth Monkey expands to Bristol
Fourth Monkey Actor Training Company is offering a course in Bristol. Susan Elkin talked to founder and artistic director, Steve Green about this new development.
NDT Broadgate
So just how do you support an industry which is on its knees – economically, theatrically and emotionally – after a pandemic which has almost felled it? Step forward New Diorama Theatre, its artistic and executive director David Byrne, and – most importantly – British Land, a real estate investment company with British holdings worth £10.3 billion. Susan Elkin investigates.
EXHIBITION: Brutal Beauty
Making use of alternative mediums, Jean Dubuffet’s career spanned many genres and the latest retrospective at the Barbican caught Graham Hooper’s eye.
ENO Outreach
Determined to reach out to a wider, younger audience, the ENO is actively engaging with schools and supporting those recovering from illness. Susan Elkin discovered more.
Teaching Shakespeare
Don’t ignore the bard, implores Susan Elkin.
Book Review: The Lamplighters
By Emma Stonex Published by Pan Macmillan In 1900 three lighthouse keepers disappeared from a lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides. And that mystery is the inspiration for Emma Stonex’s oddly compelling and highly original novel set in 1972 and later. Three men, Arthur Black, principal keeper, William “Bill” Walker, assistant keeper, and the much younger […]
THEATRE REVIEW: Animal Farm – National Youth Theatre Rep Company
Very clearly reimagined as muscular, vibrant, ensemble-based physical theatre, supported by John Elliott‘s relentless, menacing soundtrack, this riveting take on Animal Farm opens with a mock Pathé News item. It’s immaculately voiced by Will Stewart, who also does a simpering, comfort-loving pragmatic Mollie, and introduces each character. Then we’re into the timeless story about the […]
Vivid Direction
Matthew Parker is a theatre director. His recent Henry V in the Roman Amphitheatre for Maltings Theatre, St Albans wowed Susan Elkin, herself a Henry V veteran, so she met him to find out more. I fell in love with theatre when I was four years old – and it was for life”, Matthew tells me, […]
Big Interview
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Susan Elkin visited prolific author and former Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson to discuss her life, work and new tutorial course, Writing Children’s Picture Books.
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Matthew Parker is a theatre director. His recent Henry V in the Roman Amphitheatre for Maltings Theatre, St Albans wowed Susan Elkin, herself a Henry V veteran, so she met him to find out more. I fell in love with theatre when I was four years old – and it was for life”, Matthew tells me, […]
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Alexia Khadime is a talented actress of stage and screen, taking time to support others during the enforced closure of theatres. Susan Elkin caught up with her for a chat.
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Producer, social commentator, author and now performer, Susan Elkin met the West End Producer to chat about his alter ego and recent successful Edinburgh run.
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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.