The Rep have just announced their spring/summer season. They single out the following highlights:

• David Edgar’s staging of Arthur & George
• Alan Bennett’s latest – The Habit of Art
• Brian Friel’s Olivier Award-winning play Dancing At Lughnasa; and
• A major new production of Michael Frayn’s comic romp Noises Off

There’s also “a series of plays inspired by the issues facing young people today” and quite a lot of dance, including some shows forming part of British Dance Edition 2010.

Next year will see the start of a period of upheaval for the Rep, what with the work on the new library that’ll be taking place. As a spokesperson said to the Birmingham Post:

The first work on The Rep building will start in early 2010 with the demolition of current workshops, rehearsal rooms and hospitality suites. These functions will move to another location.

We will continue to produce shows in the theatre during 2010 and we don’t imagine we will have to leave the building until 2011

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I am currently running an event at the Station Pub in Sutton Coldfield trying to promote and encourage new writing within Birmingham and the surrounding area.  The event stages its second night on the 24th November and I would appreciate it if you could promote it in some way on your blog.  We are especially looking for actors and actresses who would be prepared to donate their time to reading some of the scripts, although I we also need some more scripts for the upcoming event.

The night is called Semper Station and the next one is billed as celebrating the anticipation of Christmas (rather than the event itself).

If you want more info then hie thee hence to the Semper Writer’s Group website. Submissions are required by 15 November.

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Untied Artists. They’ll be at the First Bite Festival on Thursday 12 November showing an extract of ‘Al Bowlly’s Croon Manifesto’.

(Hat tip Nick Booth)

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• First Bite Festival. 12 November. AE Harris. Tickets on the door. £5 (£4 concessions).
• Taking part – The Other Way Works. Friction Theatre. Others (Update – see comment for full line-up. Thanks Katie!).
• Two of the pieces will be selected for commission by mac and Warwick Arts Centre.

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First up, Theatricalia is the work of the ever-impressive Matthew Somerville. It’s ‘a database of past and future theatre productions’ which makes it no less than IMDB for theatre.

Already it contains archives of plays and performers from the RSC, Bristol University Archive, the Royal National Theatre and Birmingham Rep (1913-1971). You can search by play, person or place and edit entries yourself to help the archive grow.

The potential for Theatricalia is a little mind-boggling.

Black Routes is a new UK wide touring network for African and Caribbean music, with Punch Records as one of the founding partners and chair.

Punch’s Ammo Talwar wrote an article in the Birmingham Post explaining the context for the project, particularly how it fits in with what’s happening in Birmingham at the moment.

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Kindle Theatre’s ‘Eat Your Heart Out’ will be at the AE Harris Building from 29 October to 8 November. I’m not quite sure how to explain this so I’m going to do the sensible thing – quote the promo blurb, post the flyer and suggest you grab a ticket.

In the last remaining corner of the human world, three cooks are summoned to create a celebratory meal using only the carcass of their once great kitchen.

…the set will be an apocalyptic junkyard made from Birmingham’s own rubbish and installed by designers Tony Appleby and Claire Wearn. Multimedia design company filmcafe will be creating photographs and lighting inspired by the work of Caravaggio, whilst regional composer-musician Phill Ward will work with Kindle performer-musicians to create a score that reinvents the decadence of the Baroque era. The company are also working food designers Blanch & Shock, to design what promises to be an unforgettable menu

Tickets aren’t all that cheap but James at Stan’s Cafe reckons it looks like being good value for money:

At first glance the casual observer may think the tickets quite dear but there is an insane amount of stuff in the plus, live music and food plus they’ve been working manically hard for ages on it, so essentially it’s three nights out in one go and thus good value I would imagine

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Community Vibe provide “arts work and projects that can have a positive impact on social change and promoting diversity”.

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Here are details about hire of the space.

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2009. | 2 comments |

Sounds interesting though – from the Facebook group:

A new and exciting theatre group for people wanting to explore infinite possibilities of performance physically and vocally and in a range of styles.

With experienced tutors who have brought this group together, this friendly and already established group have one very successful performance under their belt and more to come. But it doesn’t end there… There is always room for more people with the desire to sink their teeth into the performing arts.

Whether you love Shakespeare or Spielberg, Tarantino or Truffaut, the darker side from Edgar Allen Poe to Rob Zombie – classic or contemporary performance – or even musicals – then a collaboration of ideas, from a wide variety of influences awaits you!

If you want to pop along then go along, they meet a Moseley All Services Club on Mondays at 7pm.

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Tomorrow night (Thursday) I’m taking a wander over to Warwick Arts Centre, as are a couple of Birmingham-based outfits, for It Came From Pilot:

Father and son duo, Kings of England perform Where We Live and What We Live For. In 2001 75 year old Peter Bowes had a trans-ischemic attack, a stroke. In this gentle, moving work he and his son remember and imagine the man he once was.

The Other Way Works premier Avon Calling which explores the eternal triangle of mother – daughter – and Avon Cosmetics. Drawing vividly on personal source material Louise Platt reveals an intimate and comic portrait of a woman, a mother and an Avon Lady. Ex-Avon lady.

This is part of Fierce’s programme of stuff at WAC running from Sept-Dec (although no news of what else is upcoming just yet).

A few extras for context:

• PILOT Nights are testing grounds for short, work-in-progress pieces from ’some of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies’. Audience feedback is encouraged
• The Other Way Works are using Avon and Me to collect people’s personal stories about Avon cosmetics. If you want to see what the show has come ‘from’ there’s a video from the March 09 PILOT Nights here
• Kings of England are based in the North West but I’m assured they’re lovely. Their blog makes for a great read too

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Friday, 05/06/09, 19:00

Ten high-backed chairs, some seating elderly people and some seating younger people, spanned the back of the stage area at The Door, the studio theatre at Birmingham Rep. Above this seating arrangement was a large screen, showing slow panoramics of the Birmingham skyline. In front of them, a gently-lit bed with a man lying down, a wheeled trolley next to him and a fan pointed at him.

A short film entitled “Hats” began. The first shot panned out to show a woman, with coarse patchy hair and a massive grin cackling as she tried on the most extravagant yellow hat with massive straw brim. She looked into the camera and said, “Yes. This is me.”

At this point, I have to admit to no longer being able to see very well due to the large amounts of tears gushing down my face – so if my descriptions fall short somehow, I apologise.

Rosetta Life is a charity dedicated to working with people who have life-threatening illnesses.  “The Magical Glow of the Co Op” was a rehearsed reading as part of the Rosetta Live celebrations that featured the work of two hospices; Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice in Selly Park and St Giles Hospice Whittington, near Lichfield. Working together, more than 30 hospice users generated a performance script that looked at the choices people face when dying and the difficulties they face when making these choices.  In the 10 chairs sat 3 professional actors (the fourth was lying on the bed), 6 hospice users and one care professional.  Throughout the reading hospice users took to the stage to perform alongside the professional actors which really added weight and poignancy (as well as some unexpected laughs) to the evening.

The performance finished with an aftershow discussion called ‘The Big Conversation – Let’s Talk About Living’.  The audience were invited to ask questions of the panel of hospice users who had taken part in the perfomance, health care practitioners and the actors who were still in character.  Until then, I had kept my eyes focused on the stage, hoping to hide anonymously at the edge of a row.  However once the lights went up, I really looked at the audience – at those people who had chosen to spend a night in the company of such a taboo subject.   The audience consisted of every economic/social/cultural background you can imagine, all sat in one small venue watching their loved ones perform, or the words of their lost loved one performed by their peers.  And there were no dry eyes.  Not one.

I feel excited that Birmingham East and North PCT were brave enough not only to fund this project, but also to enable Birmingham to become the first UK city that is making steps to talk openly about how it’s citizens positively approach life as it draws to a close, as well as how they want to be remembered. Created in Birmingham has always highlighted exciting and relevant creative ventures linked to the city, and I can’t think of a more perfect project to write about in my first post proper.  Actors, hospice users, venue and funders are all citizens of Birmingham, breaking new and important (if at times uncomfortable) ground.  This was a performance that anyone touched by illness should see, not just the friends and families of those performing.

“The Magical Glow of the Co-op” was just one small part of the Rosetta Live celebration running throughout June. It culminates in a film premiere at The Electric Cinema on 29th June commencing at 6.00pm.  To book, please contact bookings@rosettalive.org – I know I’m going to be there.

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There will be a weekend of themed activities taking place along-side the performance including film screenings curated by 7 inch Cinema and Outer Sight, family stuff and ooh la la even some fancy French cuisine.

Stan’s Cafe presents: 24 Hour Scalextric. 13 – 14th June. Weekend tickets: £5 / £3

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Home of The Wriggler is a lo-fi sci-fi docu-drama: Lo-fi because the lights and sound are all powered by the cast and Sci-fi because the show is set at some indeterminate future time when the Rover brand, the Longbridge plant and cars in general have become the subject of myth and speculation. Docu-drama because the show is founded on interviews, anecdotes, personal experiences and documents about living, working, growing-up, falling in love, making/buying/selling/driving/sitting in cars in Birmingham.

Four actors, dressed down in workwear and parka coats, drive the show on. An exercise bike and twelve speed racer have been customised with dynamos and switches to run seven lights, a kettle and a home-made turntable.

Home of  The Wriggler runs 23rd – 25th April, 7.30pm. Tickets: £10 / £7.

You can read the original text – Griff’s Story here. You can read all the bits they ‘cant find a sensible place for on their website’  in the blog.

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Black Tonic is a new, unusual theatre experience from The Other Way Works, a Birmingham based theatre company formed in 2001. The production is an interactive performance staged in the bedrooms and corridors of the Radisson Hotel Birmingham.

You are invited to unravel an original detective story, where even love can be bought for the price of a cocktail. Check-in at the Hotel reception two by two and journey along the corridors and into the bedrooms to piece together the clues and uncover what makes the hotel tick.

Thursday 2nd – Sunday 5th April 2009
Thursday 9th – Sunday 12th April 2009 (Easter Weekend)
2pm*, 3pm*, 7pm, 8pm & 9pm. *Saturdays only.

Very limited audience (4 places per hour). Booking in pairs recommended.

£15 / £10 Suitable for 18+ Trailer

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Image by Catherine Ashmore

Philip Pullman’s magical story unfolds in a world where young girl Lyra lives in an Oxford very like our own, but strangely different with other people’s souls brought to life as animal companions, known as daemons.

The trilogy has been on my reading ‘to-do’  list for ages now and this has promted me to do so, but I do wish I had read them before finding out about tonight’s ‘Spotlight Special with Philip Pullman’. Catherine Ashmore’s beautiful production images just got uploaded to the REP website, and are definately worth a look.

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These Four Streets tells the stories of over 30 characters living and working in an inner city area. It is a collaboration between six young female writers, inspired by their own meetings and interviews with dozens of local people. The production explores the power of rumour and what it feels like to live in a place that everybody else has given up on.

I was really impressed with the REP website which allows visitors to comment on the production information, giving people a platform to tell their own experiences and opinions.

These Four Streets runs Thu 12 Feb 2009 – Sat 28 Feb 2009 and will tour regionally.

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Performances will take place in five of the reputedly most haunted heritage properties across the Midlands: Highbury Hall in Moseley, Birmingham; The Molineux Hotel in Wolverhampton; Tutbury Castle in Burton-on-Trent; The Old Guildhall in Leicester; and Gainsborough Old Hall in Lincolnshire. Only 20 seats are available at some venues and the maximum capacity at the larger venues is 40.

Tickets are available from Oxboffice.

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Featuring:

• Paul Groves as Cinderella
• Nicky Getgood as Prince Charming

With special guests:

• Tom Watson MP (West Brom) as Baron Tweetup
• Jemima Kiss (Guardian tech correspondent) as Baroness Tweetup, the wicked stepmother

I’m going to be one of the ugly sisters. Follow @twitpanto on Twitter or check this Twitter search every so often to keep up to date.

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As Fiona at Audiences Central says, it’s a bit of fun “and people like to interact with something, rather than just having a marketing message shoved at them”. So congrats to the Hippodrome for that. I got 55 on my first go, by the way. I might have another crack in a sec.

Here’s a link to the Robin Hood game.

Also via Fiona, here’s a link to the game the RSC have put together for their Don John.

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Dereliction, written by local playright Chris Cooper, has been touring the West Mids for the past few months and will get its last outing in a free community performance at Pegasus Primary School, Turnhouse Road, Castle Vale (map) on Thurs 11 Dec.

Dereliction is a study of freedom in a climate of fear, alienation and anger. The play is part of Big Brum’s year long celebration of the Rights of the Child

(via aCtiVe Arts)

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I’ve been thinking ‘bloody hell, the Custard Factory’s busier than usual’. I suspect it’s not, it’s just that all the great stuff going on there is now getting posted on the blog.

At the risk of labouring the oft-repeated point, blogging can help get you noticed.

Anyway, hot on the heels of a recent wodge of CF events, here are the flyers for three more taking place in the Vaad Theatre:

Connecting Routes is an interactive exhibition presented by a group of young people who’ve been exploring Birmingham’s links and role within slavery. On 13/14 December, call or email to reserve places (details on the flyer).

Lost in Space 2 is a ‘trade and business exhibition’ featuring those operating at the Custard Factory. In case you can’t read the lurid green writing on pink background, 5-7pm on 15 December then 10am – 6pm daily until 19 December.

Sorry, I’ve hacked the flyer for PILOT Nights in half to fit it on the page. This looks really good, with 6 theatrical shorts being presented in one evening for a bargain £5. On Thurs 18 December, first act at 7.30pm.

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The Theatre Lab is a place where theatre practitioners can experiment, and try new things, that perhaps they haven’t had the opportunity to practice in their day-to-day work. Each theatre lab has a theme so as to give the day a context, however this does not have to be restrictive. The idea is to experiment and push things to the limits, some experiments may fail some may succeed. The emphasis is on what we discover during the process.

As it is the festive time of year we thought Pantomime had to be the theme for this months Theatre Lab

Every year pantomime explodes on to the nations stage with four weeks of twice daily sell out audiences.

What is its secret? What are its ingredients?

These are questions we will be trying to answer.

So come along and find your inner dame, principal boy or Villain.

To book a place please visit our website www.caketheatreworkshops.co.uk or email Ian at info@caketheatreworkshops.co.uk

Date Sat 13th Dec

Times 10 am – 5 pm

Place TBC

Cost £8.00

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The Decypher Collective presented a work in progress back in 2007 but this here is the finished article.  The collective:

originally formed after taking part in huge grime workshops put on by Punch Records and the Rep theatre. Hailing from various crews and production houses from all over Birmingham these intervals came together to develop the UKs first ever example of Grime Theatre

It’s the list of people involved that made my ears prick up though – Punch, Polarbear, Charlie Dark and Mark de Clive Lowe.

Here’s the trailer:

And here’s the flyer:

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Spoken word/hip hop lyricist Polarbear will be performing ‘If I Cover My Nose You Can’t See Me‘ will be at The Door from 14 to 16 October.  See the vid to see what Polarbear’s about:

and here’s the flyer:

I’ve heard a rumour about some aftershow parties somewhere but I’ve not had anything confirmed, so let’s just keep that between us for now.

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Hounded by talking dogs and harassed by his plate-smashing mother, life in St. Petersburg is hard for Poprishchin until he falls truly, deeply…and madly in love. Little Earthquake presents an imaginative new stage version of Gogol’s gripping story, recently voted by Penguin as one of the best books ever written

Gareth Nicholls from the company has been good enough to upload to Scribd plenty of pictures and the press release for further info.  The show’s flyer is up too but to save you time here’s the back of that:

Little Earthquake have a Facebook group too.

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Director Jane Packman and the woods project team will be working in Highbury Park during September to create a promenade performance in the park at nightfall. We invite you to a “work in progess showing” on Thursday 2nd october at 7pm to see the work so far. Please wear sturdy footwear. We will guide you by torchlight around Highbury, encountering stories and characters as we go.

Jane has a very occasionally updated blog at janepackman.co.uk, although it doesn’t shed any more light on what will be happening.  That’s no prob though, cos it looks interesting anyway.  Just hope it’s dry.

Photo by HPF.

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dedicated to developing and promoting new dramatic writing in the West Midlands

For their new project they’re:

inviting writers to submit a short (10 minute) play in response to the “Beijing Map Games” exhibition at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

Images from the exhibition will appear shortly on www.scriptonline.net.  Writers are asked to select an image and write a 10 minute play in response to its themes.  Five plays will be selected and performed at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, in front of the exhibition, on Saturday 22nd November 2008

The deadline for submissions is 24 October.

Additionally, Script are:

offering free 2½ hour writing workshops for writers in the Chinese community to provide an introduction to playwriting.  The two workshops will utilize the images from the Beijing Map Games exhibition and explore the ways in which they could be interpreted dramatically

Those are on 4 October.

For more info have a snoop around the Script website.

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Intriguing events are unfolding between the dusty bookshelves.

Night time strangers exchange unexpected messages, books fall open on empty pages, and a writer is eating his words.

Silence creeps through the maze of lettered corridors.

Some people come here to lose themselves, others to be found.

The Library at Night is not for every Reader

I have no idea what it will involve but it looks kinda cool.  Places are free but, because of the nature of it you’ll need to book – just call 07530 939 380 or email needleandthreadtheatre@yahoo.co.uk.

Here’s the flyer:

© chrisunitt for Created in Birmingham, 2008. | 4 comments |

Beaten Tracks and Peaceful Paths
A devised theatre production inspired by Birmingham’s people and places.  Two people can look upon the same picture or hear the same story and interpret it in completely different ways.  But what do we have in common, what unites us all?

Tuesday, 19th August – 7 pm
The Custard Factory Theatre
Tickets £1, available on The Door

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The next PILOT Night takes place on Thurs 28 August 2008 at the Custard Factory and a call has gone out for submissions.  You’ll have to be quick though – the closing date is Thurs 31 July.

PILOT Nights are a motley assortment of new, untested shorts from some of the UK’s most exciting theatre companies. Each last between 10 and 20 minutes and together present a glorious mix of comic, touching and peculiar performance. The bar is open all night and musicians play in the intervals. The audience are invited to get a drink, enjoy the show and stick around to let the performers know exactly what they thought.

(Spotted on Audiences Central)

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