December 2009 Archives

How glad I was when towards the end of last year in November the editor of The Stage suggested that we start an Education and Training blog.

I’m sure I don’t need to spell it out. Education and training underpins almost everything the performing arts industries do - very little new talent would be coming through at the bottom without all the teaching and development work offered to children and teenagers, and of course that includes the whole range of backstagers as well as the onstagers.

Aspiring professionals need training, actors need to train and backstage workers or performers often want or need to top up their training. And, at the same time, theatre companies, venues and other organisations work very hard to provide professional-led education opportunities to learners of all ages and at all levels. Many trained professionals work as educators too - which squares the circle, as it were.

All of which is why The Stage is so deeply committed to spreading the word about performing arts education in all its forms.

Each week in the paper we devote several pages to training and the paper covers many education matters in all its sections.

And now there’s this twice-weekly blog. As 2009 ends I notice that it sailed through its centenary last month. This blog about blogging (and other things) is the 118th.

2009 has been a good year on the performing arts education front. I’ve written and blogged about Glyndebourne, RSC, National Youth Theatre, Intermission St Saviours, National Theatre, Ambassadors Theatre Group, Trestle, Graeae and dozens of others. I have featured several new drama schools, new courses in existing drama schools, the vexed question of how to fund training, awards, scholarships, training franchises, conferences, courses, careers fairs, dozens of training books… and a whole lot more.

Did I mention books? The Stage itself is now publishing education e-books as an indication of its ongoing commitment to this vital part of the sector. The Stage Guide to Schools for Young Performers 2010/11 is just out. My colleague John Byrne’s The Stage Guide to Performing in Casinos is an excellent book. Earlier in the year we published our series of five guides to working backstage with an introductory book and titles on Craft & Construction, Costume & Makeup, Lighting & Sound and Stage Management. There are more of The Stage Guides in preparation.

You could call it ‘Education, education, education…’

Happy New Year, happy learning and training and do post lots (and lots) of comments here in 2010.

The dominance of musicals In London and on Broadway in the first decade of the 21st century says something about the continuing popularity of the genre. Unsurprisingly there’s a lot of it about in drama schools and other training establishments. Many mainstream schools now produce an annual musical and music theatre features in theatre studies and other syllabuses.

So there’s clearly there’s a need for background information. Enter the second edition of Paul Terry’s Musicals in Focus (Rhinegold Education) which details the history of the musical and examines its different forms in an impressively accessible way, but without any dumbing down.

First he discusses the musical’s origins in ballad opera, operetta and American variety shows. Then he visits ‘pioneers’ such as Vincent Youmans’s No No Nanette , Jerome Kern’s Show Boat, Cole Porter’s Anything Goes and Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.

After that it’s on to the Golden Ages and detailed discussion of shows such as Oklahoma, West Side Story and Cabaret.

And what about new directions the musical has taken more recently, such as basing a show on a classic novel like Les Miserables, a film such as The Lion King or a time-honoured, iconic myth/legend/truth (depending on your own beliefs) such as Jesus Christ Superstar? He also considers compilation musicals such as Buddy, Mama Mia and We Will Rock You where the show is built around a group of songs

This is a very comprehensive little book - and a handy adjunct to training at any level - with a helpful glossary and list of resources at the end.

• Musicals in Focus (Rhinegold Education)

Well, Christmas is here and, wearing my Stage reviewer’s hat, I have at last completed my mega-round of children’s Christmas shows. I saw ten this year in less than a fortnight. Cinderella at Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone earlier this week was the last.

As ever I am struck by the enormous amount of learning, education and training which, one way or another, is bound up in these shows.

For many children it’s a first taste of live theatre. I saw, for example, a morning performance of Bill Davies’s exquisite take on The Railway Children at Brook Theatre Chatham in the rapt and excited company of a large party from Hempstead Junior School, Gillingham. They were learning a lot about Edwardian life and steam trains as well as about theatre.

I saw the delightful Petrushka at Little Angel Theatre, Islington with a party of 4 to 6 year olds from a local school all having a whale of a time, learning without realising that they were. Sadly I failed to engage any of them in conversation to find out where they were from and in these days of paedophile-panic one has to be a bit careful.

For the youngest children, mostly with their mothers or grandparents, there was Christmas Baking Time at Lyric Hammersmith which, among other things, is a bread making lesson. Something Else at Chelsea Theatre is a pre-school story about loneliness which teaches diminutive audiences the importance of kindness while Charlie and Lola’s Best Bestest Play at Hampstead Theatre is about siblings and thinking about others.

Well we’re into Christmas week and most schools have broken up. I wonder how many millions of children have taken part in their first public performance during the last week or two.

I was amused by some advice for teachers temporarily reborn as theatre directors recently published in the magazine Teachers. Produced by a contract publisher for the Department for Children, Schools and Families (will the Tories give us back an education department?) the magazine comes in two versions, one for secondary teachers and the other for primary. Under the title ‘I will Survive’ each article consisted of six tips for teachers-turned-directors.

Sensible stuff in its rather basic way (‘Make sure the children have gone to the loo before the start,’ ‘Have plenty of radio mike batteries and ‘If you’re using a piano make sure it’s tuned’) but the general ambience is about how to muddle through in the usual British spirit of amateurism.

I’m at that miniature joy, Little Angel Theatre in Islington for its Christmas show, Petrushka. Like most of the children in the audience I am completely blown away by the magic of this piece at the place which very reasonably styles itself “the home of British puppetry”.

Can there be a more educative performing arts venue in London, given than Little Angel does education and training at so many levels?

So who did write Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Measure for Measure and more than thirty other plays? Not to mention 150 fabulous sonnets. I’ve always taken the view - and shared it with hundreds of students over the years - that it doesn’t matter much whether it was a Warwickshire glover’s son by name of Shakespeare, The Earl of Oxford, Francis Bacon or anyone else. I’m just thankful (to put it mildly) that someone did.

Not that the laid back attitude of someone like me stops academic and actorial (have I just coined that word? If so I rather like it) speculation. Among the latest little pile of Shakespeare-related books on my desk I find, for instance, The De Vere Code: Proof of the True Author of Shake-Speares [sic] Sonnets by Jonathan Bond. The book presents evidence for Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, having penned the sonnets, arguing that the dedication to the first edition in 1609 is an elaborate word puzzle containing six ciphers.

Well, it’s a good read and the argument is skilfully presented. Whether you buy the conclusion is up to you.

Can it really be 10 years since I attended an exuberant event to celebrate the launch of Youth Music - now UK’s largest children’s music charity providing funding for music projects and activities? Well they tell me it was November 1999 and I suppose they know. I must be getting… but let’s not go there.

Originally founded with a generous tranche of government money (well done, David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education) since 1999 YM, under Christine Coker’s ongoing leadership, has provided over two million children and young people with free access to a range of music-making projects and activities. For many, being given the chance to experience the power of music has been a life changing experience.

Eighteen year old Rob from Cumbria, for example, said of his YM opportunity: “The day I walked in and met everyone changed my life and I felt great. I think being part of the group could help anyone. It’s one of the greatest things I have been part of.”

So credit where it’s due. Because of Youth Music there are now more high quality music-making opportunities for a wider range of children and young people than there used to be, from learning rock guitar or beatboxing to classical violin and everything in between. And now two Very Big Names have agreed to be YM Ambassadors. Flautist Sir James Galway (above) and percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie are putting their shoulders firmly to the YM helm. Both have long shown commitment to music education. In 2003, for example, they founded the Music Education Consortium with cellist Julian Lloyd Webber and the late composer Michael Kamen. It has successfully lobbied the government for greater music education provision.

YM’s laudable aim is to have reached 3 million young people by the end of 2010. Bring it on. Anything which encourages youth music making gets my vote. And I think it is a fine use of National Lottery money, distributed via ACE, which is YM’s main source of funding.

Tech Music Schools has a new department - Keyboardtech - and it’s officially open now that James Taylor has cut the red ribbon. And as you would expect they held a bit of party to celebrate.

The organisation’s partnership with Hammond Organs meant they could kick off with a demonstration of the XK-33 organ by Malcolm Deacon - the same model that students will have access to in the Hammond Lab at Keyboardtech. Then prospective and current students heard a wide range of music from student and tutor bands, followed by a performance by the James Taylor Quartet, joined by session drummer Ralph Salmins.

The audience also watched a master class hosted by Head of Keyboardtech, Kevin Webster, with Malcolm Deacon and James Taylor.

Tech Schools has come a long way since French-born Francis Seriau started by teaching drumming in his home 25 years ago. Today it comprises Drumtech, Vocaltech, Guitar, Bass Guitar and Keyboardtech and operates in six European companies. In the UK it is based in state-of-the-art buildings in Acton, West London very close to where it all began chez Seriau who still directs the organisation. Its slogan is: “Don’t expect convention. Expect results.”

In 2009 Tech Schools awarded 9 scholarships in partnership with sponsors. Three are UK-based and one - to Louise Murphy for vocals - is sponsored by The Stage. Murphy’s first diary entry about her training is due to feature in this week’s paper (10 December) and there will be more in the New Year as we follow her progress.

The next open day for prospective Tech Schools students is on 23 January with shows at 11am, 1 pm and 3pm. You need to book if you want to go. Phone 020 8749 3131 or use the website.

If you want to be part of National Youth Theatre next year, you have until January 8 to get your application in.

Members aged 13-21 are selected on the basis of a workshop audition or interview in the case of technical applicants.

When NYT started in 1956 it was the world’s first youth theatre and perhaps the best possible accolade is the number of organisations which have replicated the model, or something similar, across the world ever since. Imitation, as they say, is the sincerest form of flattery.