Straight plays “bore everyone” says Graham Norton

by Site Admin on Friday, April 11, 2008
Make first comment on this post

Celebrity, National, STAC productions, Television

In upcoming STAC production, The Blue Room by David Hare, the character of the Model (Emily Portsmouth) has only been to the theatre to see Phantom of the Opera and says “I only like funny things”. The character of the Playwright (Bob Churchill) asks her, “Have you never been to see a proper play? A serious play I mean?”

Their discussion mirrors the argument between Graham Norton and Kevin Spacey. Spacey has attacked the BBC for airing long-running talent shows (How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?, Any Dream Will Do, and I’d Do Anything) which seem to be serial adverts for Andrew Lloyd Webber and various musicals. Norton has defended the BBC as follows:

Maybe [Spacey] should put a musical on and people will go to see that. … I think it would be very bad to do a reality show casting the lead of The Iceman Cometh, called ‘We’d Bore Everyone’.

(more…)

Theatre and film star, McKellen, attacks Singaporean anti-gay law

by Site Admin on Friday, July 20, 2007
Make first comment on this post

Celebrity, National, Newspapers

Currently on tour in Singapore with the RSC’s King Lear, the popular actor Ian McKellen, also widely respected for his forthright stance to upholding gay rights, has blasted the host country for its laws which outlaw gay sex — an “offence” of “gross indecency” which carries no less than a potential ten year prison sentence. The criticisms are said to have stung Singaporean authorities trying to improve the image of the country.

McKellen has become something of a poster boy for British theatre. He perhaps entered the true mainstream with a Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his role in the acclaimed Gods and Monsters, and has since starred as Gandalf in the global success Lord of the Rings trilogy, before triumphantly returning to the theatre.

The text of the Independent article follows below.

(more…)

Elf/pirate to “do some theatre”

by Site Admin on Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Make first comment on this post

Celebrity, International, National, Newspapers

Former Lord of the Rings elf and Pirates of the Caribbean pirate, British actor Orlando Bloom, will debut in In Celebration at the Duke of York’s Theatre tomorrow. It is Bloom’s first ever major theatrical role, he is widely criticized for being bland and unable to act, and he had never heard of playwright and author David Storey before… though perhaps more surprising is that Storey had never heard of Bloom (”No, I’m afraid I hadn’t heard of Orlando”).

Orlando Bloom is interviewed by cultural guru Mark Lawson in the Guardian today.

Deciding that he “really needed to do some theatre because I was feeling a bit thin”, [Bloom] was offered the part of Steven, the quietest of the three brothers in In Celebration, but initially said no. “I was, like, ‘You want me to play Steven? Why? He doesn’t say much, does he?’ I just didn’t get it.” He asked for the showier role, Andrew, but realised the character was too old, and was persuaded that Steven was a good entry into theatre. He believes now that the modesty of the role is an advantage. “I saw the potential for a great ensemble play. I was very conscious of not wanting a star vehicle. I wanted to crack this perception of, ‘Oh, it’s Orl …’” His own name trips him up, as if he’s wary of becoming one of those performers who refer to themselves with ease in the third person. “You know, that it’s ‘Orlando Bloom.’” He completes the name, but with exaggerated distance, as if it were a fictional character “doing some theatre”.

(more…)

Journal covers “Elton’s tale of serial murder”

by Site Admin on Saturday, June 23, 2007
1 comment on this post

Celebrity, International, Newspapers, Publicity, STAC productions

On the day that several STAC members helped out on the company’s stall at the Worcester Arts Fair (see “STAC to attend Guildhall Arts day”), handing out fliers and encouraging new members to join, the Berrow’s Worcester Journal (published yesterday and widely distributed today) covers Popcorn, with an encouraging synopsis of the play.

The text of the article follows below.

(more…)

Germaine Greer on “regional” arts

by Site Admin on Monday, June 18, 2007
Make first comment on this post

Celebrity, International, National, Newspapers

Germaine Greer has a piece in the Guardian today, “Hard as it is for Londoners to believe, the capital isn’t the centre of the arts universe”. It focuses on opera rather than the performing arts more generally but it does open with an assertive push for “regional” theatre, as opposed to the prevailing “Londonocentric” attitude.

Today I am to appear in something called the Big Debate, organised by the University of Central England as part of the New Generation Arts Festival. I am to speak to the (hopefully rhetorical) question whether or not “there is life in regional arts”. Some people seem to think that arts in regional England have been on life support for too long. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport would probably be delighted to hear that the brain stem of regional arts is dead, and funds can now be safely diverted to the Olympics. Region is a baggy word, chosen by the Londonocentric in preference to the word “provinces”. North-western Europe is a region too, a region that we are supposed to belong to, but when it comes to the arts, we couldn’t be more different.