Guest Author - Page 6

Here we are, at the Royal Albert Hall, performing Sunset Boulevard. This really is a dream come true.

As our Recovery Season at the Orange Tree Theatre continues, it’s worthwhile considering what exactly we are recovering. A standard definition of recovery is a return to normal. And there were probably many who hoped that there would be a swift return to business as usual after a horrible but aberrant period.

Set in a northern pocket of New Jersey in a world before social media usurped dog as man’s best friend, Jersey Boys can be summed up in one word: Famiglia.

Open relationships have provided great material for increasing numbers of LGBTQ+ writers over the last few years.

At Sadler’s Wells we have an ambitious mission: ‘make and share dance that inspires us all.’ Core to our work on Sadler’s Wells Digital Stage is thinking a lot about the ‘us all’ bit of this mission. How can we best use this space to genuinely provide access to world-class dance experience to us all?  

I’m writing this from the back of the MAST studios in Southampton, where we’re currently in technical rehearsals for Fantastically Great Women Who Changed The World.

I don’t know why I’m starting this article with an admission that I had never really been ‘that into Shakespeare’. It is the sort of casual assertion which leaves a ghostly trail of incredulous disappointment upon the face of the poor actor you have annointed your confessor - they will never really respect you again.

The characters of Brian and Roger were birthed by me and Harry Peacock on a TV set back in 2014. Hanging around between takes, we started to improvise and pretend to be these two divorced middle-aged men, trying really hard to see the positive side of their situation.

My stage play The Sugar House uses the metaphor of gentrification of a former Sydney harbourside sugar refinery to explore the legacy of change for a woman who has come from poverty but now lives a completely transformed middle-class lifestyle

From the moment I first performed in an amateur production of The Addams Family musical back in 2014, I fell in love with the show - with all its weird and wonderful (much-loved) characters, heart-warming story and spectacular score.

From its first run at Glasgow’s Tron theatre in 2018, and its 2019 UK tour, writer and co-director of Pride and Prejudice* (sort of) Isobel McArthur’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s iconic novel is retold by five young female servants with Georgian petticoats: all wearing marigolds and Doc Martens.

The great thing about radio drama is that we can paint complex scenes and invoke whole new worlds through the power of storytelling, using sound alone.

For me, The Shark is Broken - or The Shark, as we call it - is the realisation of a perennial ambition: to bring theatre work from a Fringe environment to the West End.

Papatango runs on one simple belief: all you need is a story. Ever since we were founded in 2009, that motto has been at the heart of our work. Everything we do is aimed at providing pathways into theatre, especially playwriting, for people who might otherwise struggle to make or experience new work.

When I told people I was going to start a professional producing theatre in Reading the reaction was often the same: a sort of bemused smirk.

My observations at the time of writing and developing Rice was that stories about Asian and South Asian people, whether told through stage, screen or books, tended to focus on family narratives and also stories about the particular ethnic community the characters are from. This meant that if there were Chinese protagonists, then most of the other characters were probably Chinese, they were probably relatives.

Over my 20-year career as a director for theatre, the world we live in and how we communicate has changed beyond recognition. When I first began directing, only a tiny handful of people I knew had mobile phones; now we live a vast proportion of our lives in the digital world and our phones function as a ‘place’ we inhabit, communicate and connect within.

In the words of Cosmo Brown, 'Make 'em laugh' - and how life-affirming to hear waves of laughter ripple through Salisbury Playhouse this week. At times over the past few months, the building has felt like a ghost ship, but now it's awake, buzzing and alive with people having a great night out.

Theatre is the purest form of magic. Heightened with anticipation, we step into a darkened space with a sense of wonder and fascination unmatched anywhere else.

On 14 March, 2020, Rebecca Taichman's original production of Paula Vogel's Indecent played its second preview performance at the Menier Chocolate Factory.