Angel Theatre Company’s Artistic Director John Patterson is offering actors, directors and writers a free career advice session whose aim is to help them adjust to the new landscape post-Covid and navigate it successfully. The event takes place in-person on Sunday April 10th at 7.00pm, lasting for approximately 2 hours with a Q&A at the end of the main session. Hosted by Bread and Roses Theatre in London, SW4 6DZ
Spaces are limited so you’re encouraged to book early to take advantage of this offer.
Book by emailing theangeltheatreco@gmail.com with the subject line YOUR NAME- CAREER SESSION
On Tuesday 8th March, Ardent Theatre Company launched their online Big Give campaign to raise funds to produce Tracy Ryan’s play STRIKE! about the Dunnes Stores Anti-Apartheid strike that took place in Dublin between 1984 and 1987.
Every donation made unlocks the same amount from actor Sir Ian McKellen who has pledged £25,000 towards the project via his Producer Grant scheme.
Ardent said “We’d like to thank everyone who gave so generously and rallied behind us. We’ll be thanking you individually and adding your names to our website to acknowledge your support.
When we planned this appeal we had no idea what was about to erupt in Eastern Europe. Our hearts go out to those who have suffered and continue to suffer. We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
In light of this, The Big Give has allowed us to extend our appeal until Sunday 31st July to give us more time to reach our target and unlock the full amount of funds offered by Sir Ian McKellen.”
If you’d like to help, you can donate here . Remember, if you’re a UK taxpayer if you add Gift Aid in the donation confirmation, your £1 will be worth £2.25 to Ardent!
Thank You to everyone who has donated, in the past and the future!
There was a very interesting item in The Guardian on 12th March (which you can read here– no paywall) which claimed that a new study had determined that cultural activities had no impact upon the educational grades of pupils.
The study, due to appear in the British Journal of Sociology of Education, says in its summation “It is beguiling to believe that increasing pupils’ levels of cultural capital will have a positive influence on school GCSE outcomes. It is tempting to theorise that visits to museums or historic venues might be helpful in igniting interests in history, and that visits to the theatre might similarly cultivate learning in drama. On deeper reflection, it is difficult to plausibly describe mechanisms by which the exposure to certain extracurricular activities would influence outcomes in other school GCSE subjects.”
While acknowledging that reading activities did have a discernable impact upon grade attainment, the study’s questionable assertion that cultural activities have no impact upon exam grades must be challenged as being ridiculously binary.
Cultural visits and activities will introduce children to new people, things, ideas and ways of thinking and relating to the world.
My husband, therapist Juan Carlos Gouveia, explains that children mentally operate exclusively through the emotional side of their mind as they learn up until around the age of 8, which is when the logic part of the mind begins to develop. A productive, modern educational system needs to support and nourish both sides of young people’s minds, and not sacrifice one over the other.
There are many things that our UK education system fails to provide, in its focus on the skills which make our youngsters cannon-fodder for call centres, retail and service industries (it’s an uncomfortable truth but still a truth nevertheless). I’ll come back to that later.
And what about the inequality of the exam process itself? Often criticised as unfit and outdated as GCSEs are, is this REALLY how we want to measure our youngsters’ development?
We all know that some young people sail through exams, whereas others find them a psychological hill to climb. This has little correlation to the actual intelligence of the child, as anguished parents argue every single year, as kids look on, powerless.
It is often glibly said that knowledge is power. However, the real power comes from the understanding of that knowledge, not its simple acquisition.
Perhaps instead of holding the exams as a standard, we should look at changing the model of examination to be less mechanistic and more human. After all, our young people are not machines.
With the disruption and deep emotional upsets that Covid has wrought upon so many young people, isn’t it time to humanise this failing, binary system which seeks to pigeonhole them, all too often incorrectly and with immense damage to their future lives.
With growing understanding of neurodiversity, this too must be brought into the educational system to include rather than exclude those who don’t function just like everyone else.
Young people need support, understanding and connection, not to be told to jump through hoops at the sound of a bell, and then to be told they’ve “failed” if they haven’t conformed to this outdated system of categorising humans, in itself a vague and sloppy process.
A vibrant, dynamic, diverse, creative society is never the product of “cookie-cutter” schooling.
The experience of being alive, being human is so many things – confusing, joyful, sad, terrifying, risky, scary, incredible, awesome, humbling and heartwarming.
I have worked with many teachers in previous times and met many fantastic, caring, hard-working, dedicated and inspiring teachers who are a credit to their profession who give so much to their students. But even these caring professional can only do so much when they are operating within an outdated system which puts tick boxes ahead of talent, scores instead of humanity and organic personal growth.
Wouldn’t it be great if our education system encouraged people to live, as well as work? How? By teaching them THE STUFF THAT REALLY MATTERS. By informing and advising them about things that are relevant to them in their development as functioning members of society, such as to how to maintain a loving relationship, how to ask for help, how to understand a setback, taking care of your own mental health and wellbeing, how to understand people of different views, how to understand and respect your own sexual orientation, how to manage money, how to come to terms with death and grief, how to deal with your own feelings, self-care and self-respect, dispute resolution, how to deal with social media, how to recognise abusive behaviour, peer pressure and how to handle it, how to eat for good health and good mood, how to respect and care for others, what addictions are- and how they can be overcome, how to focus your energy on looking after yourself. And so many, many more.
It is in these unquantifiable, abstract, creative, areas where theatre, art and culture can help young people come to terms with, and better understand, the world and themselves, by encouraging them to think, to question, ultimately to give them the tools to care for themselves better. Young people’s happier lives should be our country’s foremost aim. A better future for them means a better future for us all.
The last thing you want is for me to suggest you spend MORE time on the internet, but here I go, knowing I’m treading on thin ice!
You’ll all know the interesting, useful and often very entertaining TED talks series, and the many offshoot series it has inspired, which utilise the same format and name. In case you’re wondering, the x denotes an independently organised TED event.
If you haven’t come across TEDxBroadway before, then it’s well worth a look.
TED’s YouTube channel has a whole range of TEDxBroadway talks available which you can easily find.
Here’s one to start you off, which I like very much. Broadway set designer David Korins shares three ways to create a space that moves you. Its only ten minutes. Enjoy!
And if you enjoyed that, here’s a TEDxBroadway playlist (there are lots of other too!) to start you off. Dive in!
The rapidly rising physical comedy star Luke Rollason decided to share his good fortune with others, by creating the very inappropriately titled Luke Rollason Memorial Bursary, which provides a small measure of funding, creative support and some snacks, he tells me.
Having announced the winners, you can now see them on stage. All of the winners will be appearing at May/ June’s Brighton Festival. So let’s meet them!
“Gloriously Bonkers” newcomer Freddie Hayes’ debut solo show features puppetry, stand-up comedy, physical theatre, film, singing, dancing and plenty of potatoes – directed by Sh!t Theatre. This is a starch raving mad adaptation of Doctor Faustus and the Seven Deadly Sins… with puppets.
Potatohead tells the story of a humble spud Charlotte, who dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. But how does a couch potato grow to become a golden wonder? With elements of kitsch cabaret and old school entertainment, this original new writing blends surrealist comedy and traditional theatre for a highly entertaining and joyful performance. Potatohead is an unadulterated celebration of silliness.
Aruhan wants to assure you that this is NOT a TED Talk. In this NOT a TED Talk, she will navigate the mammoth headf*ck that is the climate crisis, as well as explore her experiences as a mixed-race British – Kazakhstani woman. Featuring original music written and performed by Aruhan (there’s some absolute bangers in there).
She comes. She invades. She dances. She shoots with her tits. She leaves. Sara Segovia (“total idiot” – audience member) is an intelligence much greater than man, and she has landed on planet earth. BEWARE! What galaxy does she come from? What does she want from us? Will she steal our jobs? The Spanish mutant lovechild of E.T. and a Powerpuff Girl is on a mission to invade. In a cosmically funny, epic hour of clowning sci-fi-fiesta, comedy’s deadliest and most charming new star is “vital, bewildering and intoxicating” (audience member) Sara Segovia is a Spanish-born, Gaulier trained idiot, actor and director. She has performed internationally – from The Spanish National Theatre to Edinburgh Fringe, and a host of sell-out London cabaret nights. Sara is a founding member of the company, Pointy Finger.
All snowflakes are unique. Some snowflakes also happen to be generation-defining artists.
A one-woman sledgehammer breaking the ice of fractured family dynamics with some truly bewildering comedy performance art. Ambitious, absurd and ass-kicking, SNOWFLAKE will also resolve everyone’s centuries of inherited trauma (promise).
You can find out more and book tickets for the Brighton Festival here
