this month's
Ink Pellet contains
Dear in the spotlight
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.
Training Central
Royal Central School of Speech and Drama is the UK’s largest drama school and has more than eleven hundred full time students. Susan Elkin provides an insight.
Reading Charter
Susan Elkin chatted to Cressida Cowell, new Children’s Laureate, about her journey and aspirations for her tenure.
Youthquake
This Autumn, Zest Theatre’s Youthquake, described as part show, part TED Talk and part party will be staged in 12 venues nationwide. The devised play, inspired by young people across the UK, is Artistic Director Toby Ealden’s most ambitious project yet and gives a powerful insight into the hidden lives and minds of Teen Britain. Here we catch up with director Toby Ealden to find out more.
LAMDA Examinations
Ensuring they remain as relevant as ever, LAMDA have introduced new syllabi for Communication, Performance, Group and Introductory. Susan Elkin spoke to LAMDA to find out more.
Into Film Festival
Now in its 7th year, the Into Film Festival returns this autumn bigger and bolder than ever, with free screenings and special events.
The Lion King
As Disney’s The Lion King celebrates its 20th anniversary in London, we look at the education opportunities available with Nancy Shakerley, Education and Outreach Manager at Disney Theatrical Productions
Play them classical music
A lifelong lover of classical music, Susan Elkin extols its virtues and implores you to expose your students to more of it, for their benefit and possibly yours!
Modern Attractions
Taking in two current shows at the Tate Modern, our exhibition correspondent Graham Hooper was moved by the forces at work.
The Worst Witch – Vaudeville Theatre
Transferred from Royal and Derngate Northampton, which produced it last year, to the Vaudeville for a short West End summer run The Worst Witch is humane, funny and beautifully staged.
Library
Ink Pellet’s book review section covers an eclectic selection of new fiction, teachers’ guides, audio books and classics.
Many of our reviews are written by teachers, so we have an expert eye on how texts will work in the classroom. We hope to create a useful archive of reviews so that you can use this as a reference. If you would like to join our panel of reviewers, please join in or email the editor Lesley.finlay@inkwellpress.co.uk We hope the section inspires you to share new fiction with your pupils or to revisit old favourites yourself
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Mark Glover speaks to Rebecca Winwood, Special Projects Producer at Huddersfield’s Lawrence Batley Theatre and discovers a venue that cares deeply for its community, working closely with other initiatives to bring art to its surrounding areas. I’ve been living in the North of England for six months now having swapped the sweeping fields of the […]
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Susan Elkin went to the UK offices of Theatre Rights Worldwide five floors above Regent Street to talk to TRW vice president, Drew Baker, about licensing and performing musicals. If you have written a musical – perhaps for your own students – then maybe you’d like it to have an afterlife in other schools. If […]
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Two separate exhibitions this autumn have similar themes. Graham Hooper visited both and gives us his insight into the friendship and relationships, as presented through art. One academic year ends, another begins. Older colleagues retire and new staff fill their roles. Students leave school for college and leave college for work or another course. This […]
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Susan Elkin pleads the case for writers and publishers to help stretch the vocabularies and minds of young readers. I’m going to quote it in full: “[young readers] should be bombarded with words like gamma rays, steeped in words like pot plants stood in water, pelted with them like confetti, fed on them like Alphabetti […]
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Thirty years ago, Nick Hern launched Nick Hern Books, one of Britain’s leading publishers of plays and drama books. Susan Elkin spoke to him. How did you get interested in drama in the first place? I did three plays at my prep school because I was told to: I played Prince Hal in Henry […]
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This year’s Carnegie shortlist has been announced with schools and reading groups around the country shadowing the process and providing valuable feedback. Susan Elkin is our guide. The CILIP Carnegie Medal, awarded annually for a children’s book, is the prize that most authors writing for young people covet above all others. The judges are librarians from […]
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For over 20 years Mousetrap Theatre Projects has helped nearly 200,000 young people experience theatre in London through trips to West End shows as well as practical drama workshops. Mark Glover finds out how the charity continues to make venues in the capital more welcoming and the challenges that teachers face when trying to book […]
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Susan Elkin rounds up some of this year’s options. Some are residential. Others work on a daily attendance basis. Some (such as Dorset Opera Summer School: www.dorsetopera.com/summerschool) lead to a large semi-professional scale production. Others simply present work for family and friends at the end of the week. The summer school mix available across the […]
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If you think the Royal Opera House is all, and only, about toffs enjoying an abstruse art form in very expensive seats then you couldn’t be more wrong. Susan Elkin went along to Thurrock to find out more. The company’s very active Learning and Participation team works very hard indeed to include and develop people […]
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The new-look Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough plays an important role in the engagement of young people in the area. Mark Glover speaks to Associate Director Diana Logan about the recent refurbishment, strong teacher relationships and how youth engagement is a life-long project on the North Yorkshire coast. As a seaside resort Scarborough is as […]