February 2010 Archives

Anything which encourages music education and high standards in performance gets my vote, especially if the emphasis is classical because it’s something few children will discover unless enthusiasts fling open the doors and push the kids through. So three cheers for Orchestra Europa, a musical organisation whose focus is education. It has two aims: to top up the UK’s flagging mainstream music education and to offer performance opportunities to young music college students, just embarking on their performance careers.

Orchestra Europa was established in 2006 by British conductor Scott Ellaway, still only 27 years old. He’d seen a similar scheme in action in 2005 with Miami’s New World Symphony, the brainchild of conductor Michael Tilson Thomas. This orchestral academy boasts 600 alumni in professional orchestras in the US and around the world.

OE’s members are mentored by established orchestral musicians, and in turn, they visit schools on a regular basis to enhance the children’s musical experiences. OE has a partnership with the King Solomon Academy in Marylebone.

King Solomon Academy is a non-denominational, non-selective community school. Its pupils are from multiple ethnic backgrounds and for many English is a second or third language. In addition to running workshops in the school (approximately three per term), musicians from OE visit fortnightly to help the classroom teachers to teach the music curriculum to their students. The regular, sustained contact means that the children are getting to know the musicians and their instruments. Crucially, it also means that music is starting infuse their lives - properly.

The children from the academy can also attend rehearsals and spend time sitting in amongst the players in the orchestra. In sessions before the rehearsals the teenagers will have been prepared to listen out for various distinctive moments in the music. The hope is that this sort of hands-on experience will inspire a passion for classical music in these children. “Yes, yes YES!” say I, punching the air.

Long-term, the OE plans to stay with these children right from 4 to 18 and to see them through to the point where they might decide to become professional musicians themselves. The OE also hopes that this idea might be catching - and that other professional and amateur orchestras will embark upon similar projects.

This seems a wonderful programme and, as far I know it’s unique in the UK. Want to hear OE in action? Well March 11 at Queen Elizabeth Hall (QEH) on the South Bank is your chance. Now in its second full performing season, and just a year after its first London concert, this pioneering ensemble of conservatoire students will play Smetana, Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev, conducted by Ellaway. Sounds pretty unmissable to me.

The orchestra makes a point of programming mainstream repertoire - “the kind of music that orchestral musicians in a top orchestra are typically expected to play with very little rehearsal,” said Ellaway. The QEH programme opens with Smetana’s athletic overture to The Bartered Bride and closes with excerpts from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. “The Prokofiev has a special place in my heart from the time I spent with Michael Tilson Thomas in his capacity as Music Director of the San Francisco Symphony,” says Ellaway. “These much-loved works by three Slavic composers will display the versatility of Orchestra Europa’s young orchestral players - and the music will sound as fresh and exciting as the day it was first performed.”

Alexander Melnikov is the soloist in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no 1 at QEH on 11 March. The orchestra has also performed with violinist Nicola Benedetti, counter tenor James Bowman and violinist Tasmin Little will play with them in June.

I don’t hear of many education projects which reach so many people at so many different levels. So do get in touch if you know of some which have passed me by. Every such initiative deserves to be trumpeted from the roof tops.

It isn’t often I feel moved to blog about the same drama school twice in seven days. A real credit, then, to Central School of Speech and Drama that it has so many vibrant and interesting projects running just now.

The one which has caught my eye this week is Acting Out, a lesbian, gay, bisexual youth performance project which has received a £10,000 grant from the Big Lottery Fund. CSSD is looking for young people aged 16-25 to take part from next month.

It’s a two week intensive drama project focusing on experiences of coming to terms with sexuality and the reactions of families and friends. During the two week rehearsal period the group will devise a piece of theatre, from the writing process through to a studio based performance at CSSD’s headquarters in London.

The idea, a spokesperson explained to me, is that the final performance will be “a vital key in the sharing process between the LGB actors/writers, their peers and families.” He continued: “Coming out is an experience unique to LGB people, whether that be to friends, family or the prospect of it ahead. It can often be daunting, traumatic, terrifying, funny, enlightening but is rarely boring.” They plan to use dramatic techniques and performance/communication skills to articulate and translate these stories to a broader audience.

The project will run from March 22, 2010 to the performance date of Friday, April 9, with a six day break for Easter. Participants should be available for all these dates. All experiences are welcome, the spokesperson said, stressing that you don’t need to be a performer to take part.

Ben Buratta, Acting Out’s project leader said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive this grant from the Big Lottery Fund. It is so important for young LGB people’s voices to be heard at a time when homophobic bullying and incidents of gay hate crime are on the rise. Participants don’t need to be actors. They could be interested in writing, lighting, sound, costume design or any other aspect of the performing arts. Central is committed to providing a safe space for participants to share experiences, make friends and provide a creative outlet to express themselves with like minded individuals.”

Bruce Wooding, Head of the School of Professional and Community Development at CSSD added: “One of my first jobs in my formative years was as a lesbian and gay youth worker and I am delighted that we are able to establish this initiative at Central.”

Bravo. What an enlightened and enlightening idea. Ben Buratta is the contact (020 7449 1576 Mobile: 07977 124448, Email: ben.buratta@cssd.ac.uk) if you want to know more.

Sometimes when I am writing about vocational training providers I struggle a bit to find good examples in the north - apart from the excellent LIPA and a handful of others. For the record I have yet to be accused of London-centricity or even south-centricity but it is a fact the there are more Conference of Drama School members, for example, in London and the South-East than anywhere else.

Good news then that the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts, has just announced the launch of ALRA North, a northern base for ALRA’s Acting programme - the first CDS Drama School to offer regional training alongside training at its London home. The idea is to provide a centre of excellence which acting students won’t have to travel hundreds of miles to attend.

And they’re going to the centre of Wigan because of its efficient transport links. Cheaper running costs in the north-west mean that they will be able to keep fees down - well below London levels.

There’s a sparkly, refurbished, 8,000 square feet building planned with rehearsal studios, TV and radio studios, an on-site modern café (below) and a library with state-of-the-art IT facilities. A 200 seat performance space with full lighting and sound capabilities is part of the package. Specialised adaptations for recording studios and the performance space are in hand as I write. Otherwise the building is, I’m told, “bright, modern, clean and ready for use.”

ALRA North will be staffed by a mixture of new recruits and existing contacts. Some London staff are to teach at both centres travelling via the high-speed rail link.

The courses offered will be exactly the same as those at ALRA’s London base and continue to be accredited by NCDT and ALRA’s two validating bodies: Trinity College, and the University of Greenwich.

The 3 Year BA Acting will be available at ALRA North from September 2010 and other courses will, the movers and shakers hope, gradually be phased in.

“ALRA North marks a huge leap forward in ALRA’s outreach objectives.” said Adrian Hall, co-director of ALRA since June 2009. “It is building a reputation as a drama school that produces down-to-earth, committed actors, ready to work, and full of character and drive. They aren’t divas. They’re interesting, and interested. ALRA North will give us the chance to draw on an even wider pool of potential students, bringing a greater diversity to the school and pushing it forward into an industry hungry for it.”

Good news for drama training in general, I think and it will certainly help me when I want examples, quotes and case studies. How long will it be, I wonder, before one of the other London CDS schools dives into the same lake now that ALRA has dipped a toe in the water?

It’s always good to hear of a drama school widening the base of what it offers - especially if it relates to backstage at a time when we have such big skills shortages and such a dearth of information about how individuals might train to fill them.

So I was delighted to learn that, from this autumn, the University of London’s Central School of Speech and Drama is launching a sparky new master’s course in Scenography, a discipline that originates in theatre design.

Central’s ‘Scenography Students’ (what a nice alliterative ring that has) will develop skills in costume, set, lighting, sound, new media and the various directions of scenographic performance in sensorial theatre. They will be given access to the drama school’s theatre, studio spaces and black-box studios.

“A growing number of artistic disciplines are recognising Scenography training’s value beyond theatre practice,” said course leader Jo Parker.

“It suits those who want to apply their design skills to performance,” added Simon Donger, course tutor, “as well as those who want to put their theatre design skills to use in non-theatrical arts, such as installations, architecture, and curation.”

So graduates of MA Scenography at Central look set to be multi-faceted designers with a fair understanding of the body in design and how scenography relates to architecture, visual arts, and theatre.

Aldona Cunningham, course tutor, explains Central’s prominence within the field: “Central has close links to the industry and practitioners from a range of scenographic practices - these relationships are invaluable to the teaching staff and the students.”

Well known for its imaginative diversity, Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London already offers undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in acting, music theatre, physical and visual theatre, applied theatre, movement, voice, stage management, puppetry, scenography, sound design, theatre design, drama therapy and drama and media studies teacher training, as well as MPhil/PhD research degrees.

Alumni include the 2009 Linbury Prize-winning scenographer Ruth Sutcliffe, award-winning sound designers Paul Groothuis and Gareth Fry, the influential lighting designer Richard Pilbrow and legendary British stage designer, the late Jocelyn Herbert. Quite a list.

And still they come. Yesterday our new e-book Stage Guide to Stage School Franchises hit the decks running - and, as its fond editor, of course I hope it will be on the best-seller lists by the weekend.

Franchising is really growing within the performing arts industries. Hardly a day goes past without my hearing of yet another interesting promising business offering interesting training, development and income generating opportunities - via some form of franchising.

The latest to land on my desk, this week, is Whizz Bang Pop which runs children’s parties. “I have been a working actress/writer for the last 6 year but I supplement my income by performing at children’s parties,” say Sally Davis. “I have 6 performers that work for me and everyone agrees that it is a great way to earn some ‘bread and butter’ money whilst in the acting world.”

Naturally she wants to expand. “I am currently looking to start up a network of franchises to help the business grow,” says Davis, adding that the job really is best suited to people that want to do something fun and creative - that is performers and creators of performance - rather than generalists simply looking for a franchise business which could be anything from selling greetings cards to running a pizza bar. Any takers out there?

The whole subject of franchising is an interesting one in this industry. At one end of the spectrum is the hugely respected Stagecoach Theatre Arts PLC which has over six hundred schools to teach performing arts skills in the UK and abroad. It too works in the party business and has a number of other strings to its bow such as its charity, Interact, which offers free - and wonderfully liberating - performing arts teaching to children with special needs.

At the other end of the scale are much smaller businesses with only a handful of franchises, but in almost every case they’re growing - despite the recession - and, when they’ve been around for 22 years, as Stagecoach has been, they will, probably, be operating on a much larger scale.

I visited and talked to a number of people directly or indirectly involved in franchising during 2009 when I was preparing Stage Guide to Stage School Franchises - including the movers and shakers in head offices, franchisees, teachers, pupils and parents. I was impressed with nearly everything I saw and heard. Such a lot of commitment, such a lot being achieved and so much fun being had - in, if you add them all up, more than a thousand schools in the UK alone.

And, if you are a performer looking for some income to supplement your erratic earnings - or a career change - this is an avenue well worth pursuing. If I weren’t so busy writing and blogging I might even be tempted to get involved myself. Not that I’m a performer (If you’d seen me dance or act you’d tell me not to give up the day job) but I perhaps I could do the admin?

Have a whizzy day, as Sally Davis would say.

Good to hear of something as popular as hip hop being used to focus the attention of school students, many of whom are disadvantaged. When I was teaching we used rather inelegantly to call it ‘starting where the child is at ’ (and then, by implication moving him/her on).

This term, THEATRE IS is touring Hertfordshire schools to work with around 1000 students on a project which has already been very successful in Norfolk and Essex where 3000 kids have taken part.

This is how it works. First Hip Hop artists from Throwdown UK go into schools with a lively show to inspire the students. Those youngsters are then invited to take part in It’s Our Theatre workshops. There they can learn the creative and entrepreneurial skills required to create their own theatre - but everything they do is firmly rooted in their own culture.

The workshops lead first to a local Slam Night and then to a county wide Slam Night in March. After that, participants can audition to be a part of the creation of a new piece of hip hop theatre scheduled to tour the local area and further afield.

The good news is that in Norfolk and Essex a number of participants have gone on to stage their own events and develop their art.

Take, for example, Intensi-T, a shy drummer who took part in It’s Our Theatre Norfolk. Through the process he discovered a remarkable talent for beatboxing. He learnt how to take advantage of it and setting up events with Encore, a group he established with fellow participants.

Intensi-T has now performed on stage with UK Beatbox Champions to crowds of 15,000 and is one of the UK’s leading emerging beatboxers. Encore now runs regular Slam nights and squares the circle, as it were, by employing the artists who taught them to come back and perform.

Stuart Mullins is the Creative Director of THEATRE IS. He says, “It’s our theatre is all about giving young people ownership of theatre, dragging it kicking and screaming into the 21st century. It’s not just about breeding the next generation of theatre makers, it’s about enabling them to be entrepreneurial with the ability to make a living from their talents.”

Good stuff eh?

Nine months ago I upset a lot of people by blogging about the launch of a new drama school - the Musical Theatre Academy - and reporting that its principal, Annemarie Lewis Thomas, intended to implement a strict policy of employing only successful working performers to teach in her school.

Well I make no apology for revisiting both the school and the subject. Last year I sat in on auditions. Last week I observed a dance class in which Damien Delaney put MTA’s 13 enthusiastic students through their paces in preparation for a show in March.

Delaney, who has just come out of a four year run in Billy Elliot, was in Cats in the West End along with many TV shows and other stage shows. He has also taught in an impressive list of institutions. And Lewis Thomas now has 26 working performer-teachers like Delaney on her books to make sure that her students get what she regards as the best possible tuition.

Hard on the heels of Offstage Choices and TheatreCraft it’s good to hear of yet another organisation pulling out all the stops to tell school students that yes, yes, yes you can work in the entertainment industry. It is a booming business and there are gaping holes in it waiting to be filled by skilled backstage people.

This time it was the RSC at the Courtyard Theatre in Stratford last week. I couldn’t get there unfortunately but I had a very reliable mole in attendance who tells me that concentrating much of the action in the Courtyard auditorium worked to the event’s advantage. “It meant you had groups working in sight of one another giving an impression of the whole (or most of the) backstage content of a production.”

My source was impressed by the way staff put their information across and how realistic they were. They all kept it short and straightforward, demonstrating sound, lighting and hoist equipment equipment and encouraging questions, including some surprisingly technical ones. Small groups made it easier to involve everyone.

He thought front of house staff distinguished themselves too with their ability to put across the importance of this often overlooked sector. The RSC Front of House manager (an ex-musician), for example, got participants involved in a group exercise on how to deal with challenging situations (late arrivals, someone in the circle sick on to the stalls, fire alarm in performance and other all-in-a-day’s- work joys) and wasn’t too territorial to admit that working front of house can be an entrée to backstage work at a theatre.

The most innovative idea - and one of the most interactive - was the production timeline exercise. A timeline is drawn on a large whiteboard with dates in weeks, months and year. On the table is a host of tasks which have to be achieved in the time such as choose director, cast show, market it, hold a tech run through … right up to the after- show party), to be pinned up by staff with suggestions from students.

“Like all the best ideas, it was simple but revelatory,” said my informant. The beauty of it was that it put every other part of the day in context and served as a reminder that what happens on stage is like the tip of the iceberg, just one part of something much greater. It also provided a degree of interactivity that can be difficult to apply to the technical aspects where essential and highly expensive equipment is involved.”

Like the National Skills Academy’s Offstage Choices, the RSC’s events are evidently creating a template for educating and enthusing young people with an appreciation of the range of theatre careers beyond performing. And that can only be a good thing.