Hall and Barton in RSC text and verse talk
Shakespeare heavyweights Sir Peter Hall and John Barton will be discussing their experiences in a talk called Working on Text and Verse.
Both men have been working on the text since the Royal Shakespeare Company began in 1960.
They will be looking back on their work, focusing on how the text can help an actor and ways in which they have shared, learnt and changed the way they now operate.
Other directors with whom John Barton has worked during his long association with the RSC have been invited to share their insight, including Gregory Doran and Trevor Nunn. At the moment neither has confirmed his availability.
Working on Text and Verse will be held next Sunday (June 27th) at 3pm in the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford. Tickets cost £10 (£8 for RSC members and £5 for 16- to 25-year-olds).
What a carry-on as Falstaff meets the merry wives
Stafford Festival Shakespeare which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this week stages The Merry Wives of Windsor set in 1958—the year of the first Carry On film.
Eric Potts, who played Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night at Stafford Castle last year, takes the role of Falstaff. Coronation Street fans will remember him as baker Diggory Compton.
The creative team which produced Twelfth Night, including director Peter Rowe and production designer Rodney Ford, also return.
Musical director Greg Palmer provides the score and choreography is by Francesca Jaynes who worked alongside Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton on films such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland.
The Merry Wives of Windsor runs at Stafford Castle from Thursday (June 24th) until Saturday, July 10th.
Belgrade hits back of the net with new season
Musketeers, Morse and a match feature strongly in the new autumn/winter programme at Coventry's Belgrade Theatre.
The first home-produced show of the season, We Love You City, kicks off from September 25th until October 16th in the theatre's studio space B2.
The show is a co-production with Coventry-based theatre company Talking Birds and will focus on the day Coventry City won the FA Cup.
The Belgrade's second production of the season will be The Three Musketeers and the Princess of Spain, produced in association with English Touring Theatre and Traverse Theatre Company, Edinburgh. This surreal adaptation of Alexandre Dumas' classic story plays on the main stage from October 9th until 23rd.
All the Moves, written by award-winning playwright Chris O'Connell, will be in B2 between November 4th and 13th. The play has been commissioned to mark the establishment of the Young Company, the latest offshoot of the Belgrade's Community and Education Company and comprises eight of the theatre's most promising young performers.
Alan Pollock's wartime love story One Night in November is back to mark the 70th anniversary of the Coventry blitz. The play will again be directed by the Belgrade's artistic director Hamish Glen, but this time the action is on the main stage from October 30th until November 13th.
The Belgrade's Christmas panto, produced in association with Imagine Theatre, will be Cinderella. Coventry favourite Andy Hockley will be one of two dames. It runs from November 30th until January 8th.
The festive cheer continues in B2 with the return of The Cheeky Chappies with their new show The Cheeky Chappies' Christmas Cracker from December 14th until 23rd. Written by and starring Paul Nolan and Robert Wilkinson, the show will be directed by Hamish Glen.
Touring productions begin with Alex Jones's I'm a Minger which will play in B2 between September 6th and 11th. The play follows Katie as she battles bullies and searches for love, and asks tough questions about the rise in suicide as a choice for teenagers today.
London-based theatre company Tamasha return to the main stage with House of Bilquis Bibi from September 7th until 11th.
Rock Around the Clock with Roxanne Pallett takes audiences back to the '50s from September 14th until 18th before Annie, starring Su Pollard, plays on the main stage from September 21st until 25th.
Inspector Morse takes to the main stage in a new murder mystery, House of Ghosts, from September 27th until October 2nd while in B2 A Play, a Pie and a Pint allows audiences to enjoy five new plays by five of the UK's leading writers - with a pie and a pint thrown in. That's on various nights between the end of September and October 30th.
All-male Shakespeare touring company Propeller bring the Bard's most villainous king, Richard III, to the main stage from November 18th until 20th while in B2, Call Mr Robeson tells the story of Paul Robeson, actor, singer and civil rights campaigner, on November 27th.
Alan Pollock's second play of the season is Too Much Pressure which plays in B2 from January 29th until February 19th. Directed by Hamish Glen, this new play provides a snapshot of Coventry in 1979 - a time when the manufacturing industry was in decline and many young people were turning to music as a way out.
Along with We Love You City and One Night in November, this completes the Belgrade's autumn-season trilogy of plays marking pivotal moments in Coventry's history.
Gardens dream of midsummer magic
1623 theatre company, which specialises in presenting Shakespeare in non-traditional theatre spaces, will be looking at the history of Belper River Gardens in a site-specific performance inspired by the plot and characters of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
The promenade performance through the gardens of the Derbyshire town will remember the early days when boating arrived in Belper for the first time in 1905 and will also celebrate the gardens' recent regeneration.
Midsummer Magic will be staged from Wednesday until Saturday (June 23rd until 26th) at 7.30pm at North Mill.
Tickets are free but must be reserved on 08456 058 058.
Lincolnshire drama group in the limelight for Sir Elton
Budding actors from Spalding-based Limelight Youth Theatre are one of 10 drama groups to earn their place to perform excerpts from the musical Billy Elliot at a gala at the Victoria Palace Theatre, London.
The Lincolnshire youngsters beat off competition from 115 other groups across the UK after the launch of Billy Youth Theatre, which marks Billy Elliot's fifth year on the West End stage.
To warm up for their performance in front of celebrities including Elton John, who co-wrote the musical, Limelight Youth Theatre will be performing at Lincoln Theatre Royal from Wednesday until Sunday, July 21st until 25th.
Director Darren Maddison comments, "Rehearsals are going extremely well and the cast are enjoying the experience immensely.
"It's very challenging for them but Lincoln will be truly wowed by the hard work and achievements of all the children involved."
What's on this week
- London Classic Theatre Company take Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, with a free after-show discussion, to Buxton Opera House tomorrow (Monday);
- a cast of 20 singers, dancers and musicians will Rock Around the Clock at Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall from tomorrow until Wednesday;
- Theatre Royal Bath Productions tour the West Yorkshire Playhouse version of Alan Bennett's The History Boys to the Theatre Royal, Nottingham from tomorrow until Saturday;
- Scottish company Grid Iron acrobatically stage Douglas Maxwell's Decky Does a Bronco at Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry from tomorrow until Saturday;
- everyone's favourite brother and sister are at Nottingham Playhouse in their first stage show, Charlie and Lola's Best Bestest Play, on Tuesday and Wednesday ;
- Jonathan Ansell takes his first leading role in a stage musical in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Jim Steinman's Whistle Down the Wind at Wolverhampton Grand from Tuesday until Saturday;
- Derby LIVE Community Theatre and Big Adventures Theatre Company get together to dramatise Cranford the Musical at Derby Theatre from Wednesday until Saturday;
- Enrico Caruso's escape from the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906 is recalled in Caruso and the Quake at Newark Palace Theatre, Nottinghamshire on Friday;
- two versions of A Midsummer Night's Dream will be performed in the open air this week, with Oddsocks taking their Elizabethan pageant wagon to Thoresby Riding Hall, Nottinghamshire on Friday while Shakespeare's Globe return to the Pavilion Gardens, Buxton for the fourth successive year from Friday until Sunday;
- Ayub Khan-Din's Rafta, Rafta, a co-production with Bolton's Octagon Theatre, continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until Saturday;
- Northampton writer D C Moore's new play Town continues in the Royal, Northampton until Saturday, July 3rd; and
- Greg Hicks continues in the title role of King Lear in the RSC production at the Courtyard Theatre, Stratford until Thursday, August 26th, Mariah Gale and Sam Troughton continue in Romeo and Juliet until Friday, August 27th, Antony and Cleopatra continues until Saturday, August 28th; Mike Poulton's new adaptation of Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur continues until August 28th (press night June 17th); and a new version of Hamlet designed for young audiences continues until September 11th.