this month's
Ink Pellet contains
A Final Haunt
After 33 extraordinary years, Susan Hill’s The Woman in Black will haunt the stage of the Fortune Theatre for the final time, as the production ends in the West End on Saturday 4th March 2023. PW Productions announce that after 33 extraordinary years in London’s West End, the theatrical sensation that is Susan Hill’s THE […]
Reaching for the Moon
Susan Elkin paid a visit to Half Moon theatre in London’s East End to chat with CEO Chris Elwell about their extensive education outreach and innovative theatre programmes. Half Moon Theatre sits in the heart of Limehouse in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, spitting distance from the DLR and mainline station. Formerly a pretty […]
National Youth Theatre Rep Company
The National Youth Theatre’s Rep Company is celebrating its first ten years and Susan Elkin paid a visit to learn more. Each year a group of fifteen or so talented NYT members, aged 18 to 25, are selected by audition to join this company. In just a few months they rehearse three shows, many of […]
Apprenticeships
An important and often overlooked route into the industry, especially for many non-performing roles. Susan Elkin has some suggestions. Theatre is like an iceberg. For every role on stage there are probably at least half a dozen technicians you can’t see. And the industry has been telling us for decades that there are skills shortages […]
School Shows
Never underestimate the power of a school production – for every single person involved. When you meet former students, sometimes from decades back in my case, it’s usually taking part in Oliver! or A Midsummer Night’s Dream that they reminisce about with shining eyes. Most importantly it’s a terrific bonding exercise. We hear a lot […]
New Perspectives
With three separate Lucian Freud exhibitions currently on, Graham Hooper took time to visit and here is his review of these contrasting shows. LLucian Freud would have been 100 this year, and that’s a good excuse to look back over his life and work, but especially his work, as the two have a rather nasty […]
Grandad Anansi – Half Moon Theatre
Predicated partly on Black History Month, Elayne Ogbeta’s muliti-layered play presents Grandad (Marcus Hercules) and his primary school age granddaughter, Abi (Jazmine Wilkinson) in his garden. Like everything else in this show, the garden designed by Sorcha Corcoran, is beautiful with lots of colour, light and plants that Grandad knows by name and talks to. […]
Theatre Review – The King of Nothing – Little Angel Theatre
Ben Glasstone’s charming, witty account of The Emperor Who Has No Clothes works well for two main reasons. First it is one of the most perceptive stories ever written, dealing as it does with vanity, self delusion, conformity and truth. It’s both topical and timeless. Second, we have a cost of living crisis and the […]
Book Review – Activist
by Louisa Reid Published by Guppy Books Cassandra, narrator of this powerful verse novel, is a reluctant sixth former in a prestigious mixed school, formerly all boys, where toxic culture simmers. Driven by her own experience, and by nature a feisty “shouter” she campaigns forcibly for acknowledgement that some of the boys at school treat […]
Book Review – A Poetry Pedagogy for Teachers: Reorienting Classroom Literacy Practice
by Maya Pindyck and Ruth Vinz, with Diana Liu and Ashlynn Wittchow The thrust of this detailed, well-researched, quite academic book about the poetry in classrooms is that we shouldn’t teach students to search for meaning so that “the poem becomes a specimen for examination under the microscope of interpretative practices”. Instead we should experience […]
Charles Dickens
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It takes a brave person to turn The Pickwick Papers into a play but it’s been done! LESLEY FINLAY spoke to playwright Nicola Boyce who wrote it and actress Rebecca Wheatley who is acting in it...
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How to stage Dickens's wonderful novel? ELENA MOZZATO found out at Bristol Old Vic...
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The works of Charles Dickens are a screen writer’s dream – with copious character notes, wonderful storylines and dramatic tales. LESLEY FINLAY attended a series of talks that explored this side of the writer...
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A new exhibition in the British Library explores Charles Dickens’s interest and fascination with the supernatural. LESLEY FINLAY takes a look….
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Sometimes it takes time to understand the brilliance of Charles Dickens. This happened to PAUL WADEY, the Head of English at Gad’s Hill Place, the school which was once the writer’s final home. Here, he shares his Dickens journey…
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Lesley Finlay enjoys another look at Hard Times and marvels at the skill of the Dickens's storytelling...
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There is so much going on in 2012 and for us literary types the highlight will be the chance to immerse ourselves in Charles Dickens, to read, to learn and to visit a host of events to mark the bicentenary of the great writer’s birth. LESLEY FINLAY takes a look at the author’s life and times, and introduces some of the events taking place…
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Anthony Horowitz is one of our most celebrated children’s authors. He is also an outspoken advocate for reading and literacy. LESLEY FINLAY enjoyed a chat with him…
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Keith Gaines examines Michael Gove's drive to add more facts into the education system. But has the Education Secretary got his facts right..?