In this week’s issue of The Stage:

Little Shop of Horrors actress Ellen Greene talks to Paul Vale about her summer stint on the London stage in the musical Betwixt! and why money doesn’t motivate her career choices

Backstage Focus: Nick Smurthwaite meets Jon Driscoll, the man behind the special effects making audiences gasp in London and beyond

After ATG made headlines when an autistic audience member and his family were made to feel unwelcome at a performance of Wicked, Julia Potts, the company’s head of learning and access, dissects the difficulties staff encounter and opens up the debate

The intention is never to offend, but the complexity and sensitivity surrounding these issues can cause even the most experienced of us to make the wrong call on occasion, precisely because we are trying so hard to do the opposite

Dear John: “How have traditional impressionists’ acts changed to suit the modern television era?”

Training: Susan Elkin rounds up some of the best recent training books for writers and performers

Following three successful years of The Stage’s student reviewer team at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, this month seven students will be appraising non-professional shows on a new website, the-u-review.co.uk, set up by two of their number and with mentoring from Stage festival critics. We meet U-Review founders Chris Wilmott and James Moemken

Actors Touring Company artistic director Ramin Gray talks to Aleks Sierz about the challenges of his latest production and the importance of imagination

Since entering the world of choreography, Andrew McNicol has gained countless opportunities to advance in his profession, working on the National Youth Ballet’s forthcoming production of Joanne Harris’ Chocolat. He talks to Lisa Martland about his career progression

As leading choreographers and dance companies establish initiatives to nurture young dancers and choreographers, Neil Norman looks at the thriving Dance Futures event and Young Creatives scheme, and talks to a graduate of the programme

Insight Focus: As performances get underway in Edinburgh, Ian Herbert takes a look at Europe’s other principal festival in Avignon

Since launching his career with a part in Lark Rise to Candleford, John Dagleish’s next role is about as different as it gets. He talks to Jonathan Watson about how he arrived in the world of E4’s Beaver Falls

As the latest revival of Singing’ in the Rain causes a storm among critics at the Chichester Festival Theatre, Nick Smurthwaite celebrates Betty Comden and Adolph Green, who created the masterpiece from the name of one tune

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday for £1.60. To see how much you could save by taking out a postal subscription, see thestage.co.uk/subscribe

This week’s issue of The Stage looks at Edinburgh’s festivals season, which kicks off this week.

• Michael Coveney laments the position of the International Festival in the pecking order, when it offers so much more innovation and variety than the fringe

• We look at The Stage’s ongoing coverage, from its reviews at thestage.co.uk/edinburgh, our @EdinburghStage Twitter feed, our daily podcast and more.

• Our team of reviewers — Nick Awde, Lauren Paxman, Gerald Berkowitz, Natasha Tripney and Thom Dibdin — introduce themselves and say which shows they are looking forward to.

• Eight festival veterans give their fringe tips

• Interviews with writer/director David Liddy, Idle Motion’s artistic director Grace Chapman, Fringe Society chief executive Kath Mainland and International Festival director Jonathan Mills

• Natasha Tripney looks at the growing number of international companies making their way to Edinburgh

• As the number of children’s theatre shows grows every year, Brian G Cooper looks at what makes a successful kids’ show

• Jeremy Austin looks at Edinburgh’s place in the comedy calendar, and asks whether it still has the power to turn club comics into household names

• We look at some of the young faces who are changing the face of the fringe

• Arts marketer Tim Connor provides some free tips for marketing your show, while performer Maria Hodson looks at when it’s worth investing in someone to do the PR work for you

• As the Assembly moves home once more, Richard Jordan argues the importance of ensuring the fringe does not concentrate in its own “village”

• Video and projector designer Nina Dunn and playwright David Harrower explain what it’s like to make the transition from the fringe to the EIF and vice versa

• Broadcast reporter Matthew Hemley previews the Edinburgh International Television Festival

Also this week:

• Ian Herbert on Hungary’s Gyula Shakespeare festival

• Stuart Matthew Price on why he’s organising a benefit concert to raise money to save the Dress Circle shop

• Sadler’s Wells’ new four-year programme of choreography

• Kevin Berry meets Alex Hitchock, winner of the ABTT Technician of the Year Award

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday, priced £1.60. Subscribing ensures you get every issue delivered to your door - and you could save up to 35% on newsstand prices! For more details, go to thestage.co.uk/subscribe.

With the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony now exactly a year away, this week’s issue of The Stage meets Catherine Ugwu, executive producer of the opening and closing ceremonies for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. She talks about working on four shows that the whole world will be watching.

There is something about the nature of ceremonies that is in some ways different from other kinds of shows — they are about who we are as a country and who we want to be.

Matthew Hemley talks to Glee executive producer Dante Di Loreto, who is responsible for taking the writers’ vision and executing them, even if it involves the cast to be dressed as zombies and dance on a football pitch in front of 1,000 extras.

I am not allowed to say no. My job is to say yes and to figure out how to get it done — I can’t think of anything we have said no to.

Six months after losing his long-standing role in The Archers, Graham Seed tells Maureen Paton how his theatre grounding has survived and prospered since.

Although every actor is looking for a regular earner, which in my case helped me to bring up my children, it could sometimes be difficult to fit a telly role between Archers bookings. And I’ve always needed the full spectrum of acting to satisfy me

Praised for his naturalism on stage, Richard Burbage could portray a wide variety of characters, from Hamlet to Lear — and Shakespeare created many of his greatest roles with the actor in mind, writes Professor Stanley Wells in the latest of our series on Greatest Stage Actors

Also this week:

• This year, the Royal Shakespeare Company launched an initiative in which amateur groups are guided by the company to perform their own productions. Nick Smurthwaite talks to those involved about what they are trying to achieve

• Insight: As performers across the UK and beyond gear up for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Thom Dibdin examines how the event has changed over the years and what new developments you can expect in 2011

• Geoffrey Colman, Central School of Speech and Drama’s head of acting, warns that aspiring students are not the only ones struggling to make the sums work. The schools themselves still have a funding gap to fill

• Dear John: What’s a good theme for my one-person show, and how can I develop it once I have decided?

• Training: As the summer holidays stretch out for those lucky enough to have them, Susan Elkin looks at the projects, groups and opportunities coming up

• Backstage Focus: Backstage workers voice their opinions in the ongoing low pay/no pay debate.

• Midge Gillies reveals how many famous entertainers used their time as captives of the Nazis as a chance to hone their acting skills

The Stage is published every Thursday and is available from major newsagents for £1.60. You can save money by taking out a postal subscription - see www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe

After more than 20 years since the movie, the stars of the new musical version of Ghost, Richard Fleeshman and Caissie Levy, tell Matthew Hemley about that pottery scene, what it’s like to evoke the story’s spirit, and why Unchained Melody had to stay

Unchained Melody flirts with our characters throughout and it’s used in a beautiful way. It’s vital. You couldn’t do the show without it there

A year into his appointemnt as artistic director of Soho Theatre, Steve Marmion tells The Stage how the venue is continuing to expand despite suffering a cut in funding and why the building’s watering hole has an important role to play as a meeting place for artists of different disciplines

I think comedy is a much sniffed at section of the industry, in the same way panto is. But I think it’s really important and, for me, comedy is the gateway drug — it’s the cigarettes that get you on to the hardcore of new writing or opera.

Broadcasting: As the first season of programming under her stewardship begins this summer, Channel 4’s arts commissioning editor Tabitha Jackson tells Matthew Hemley she will focus on contemporary work and collaborate with theatre producers

We live in a vibrant, multicutural, outward-looking country, and we also have a great sense of humour and sense of mischievousness and cheekiness. Where is that in arts broadcasting? It seems to have backed itself into a corner which it may as well try and get out of.

Also this week:

• Insight: As more concerns surface of an exodus of black actors from the UK, Ben Dowell analyses the current climate and whether the glass ceiling is real or perceived

• The arts sector needs to follow the example of the environmental lobby and get to grips with economics if it is to win the argument for public funding, argues NESTA’s Hasan Bakhshi

• Stuart Piper on why actors should always be paid

• Dear John: I have a concept for a new TV show, but are there other ways of launching it besides waiting for a commission?

• Tourists descending on Edinburgh this summer won’t just be in the audience - some will be performing. This year, a glut of stand-ups from the USA will be packing their bags, jumping on a plane to Scotland and wishing they’d brought a sweater. Tony Cooke talks to three of them:

  • Margaret Cho: “You end up living in somebody’s apartment. I was renting a flat from this woman and it was really, really strange. I felt like I shouldn’t see her. Like if I saw her, I should kill her. It was really like Single Asian Female.”

  • W Kamau Bell: “I googled racism, plus UK, and Jeremy Clarkson’s name came up about a thousand times.”

  • Hal Sparks: “Quite frankly, you guys have lowered your standards and let us in.”

• Founder of the Surviving Actors convention and one of the candidate on this year’s The Apprentice, Felicity Jackson explains why she wants to help actors to take control of their lives and find ways to fund themselves, so they can sustain a career in the profession

• John Gielgud’s biographer Jonathan Croall charts the great actor’s debt to Anton Chekhov

The Stage is published every Thursday and is available from major newsagents for £1.60. To save money by purchasing a post subscription, see http://www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe/

With a diverse series of projects lined up until the new year, in this week’s issue of The Stage Ben Daniels tells Mark Shenton that being an openly gay actor has not held him back and he is excited to be working with Michael Grandage at the Donmar Warehouse again:

There is a problem with homophobia in Hollywood. There is at the BBC, too. It’s come up sometimes for some jobs with me, but thankfully someone in the room will say that’s ridiculous. I’ve been around for long enough now that people know I can do it.

…I would never advise anyone to stay in the closet to further their careers — I’m sure it leads to big fat gay ulcers. There are actors I know who won’t come out, and I can see it crippling them as human beings.

As the BBC prepares to air The Hour, its new 1950s period drama series set within the blossoming world of television current affairs, Maggie Brown talks to writer Abi Morgan about the series, and how she feels that she’s moving more to film and TV and away from writing.

A vital part of the industry that operates under a number of different guises, community theatre helps spread the art form beyond the four walls of venues. Susan Elkin meets some of the practitioners.

Also this week:

• As new ways of funding the arts are explored, Simon Tait explains the concept and impact of venture philanthropy and the financial advantages of such an approach

• As new artistic directors are announced at some of the country’s most high profile venues, Mark Shenton looks at the role’s significance at a time of difficulty for the theatre world

• Dear John: How can I make sure my show gets the publicity it deserves?

• Training: Susan Elkin chats to the National Theatre’s artistic director Katie Mitchell about how training in Eastern Europe has influenced her techniques as a director and the impact motherhood has on her choice of professional projects

• We visit two very different exhibitions celebrating women in entertainment

• Renowned lighting design Richard Pilbrow on his new book, A Theatre Project

• Backstage Focus assesses a number of new courses aiming to improving backstage training and skills

• Nick Smurthwaite pays tribute to Terry-Thomas in the centenary year of his birth

The Stage is published every Thursday and is available from major newsagents, priced £1.60. For subscription rates, go to thestage.co.uk/subscribe.

Government cuts and a culture of unpaid work have helped to focus minds on remuneration in the performing arts. In this week’s special edition of The Stage, contributors on both sides of the issue debate whether it is ever wise to offer your services for free, and how much you are really worth.

Contributors include:

• Equity assistant general secretary Stephen Spence
• Journalist and work placement charity founder Martin Bright
• Old Vic producer John Richardson
• Fringe producer Danielle Tarento
• Director Thomas Hescott
• Equity Young Members’ Committee member Karina Cornell
• Fringe artistic director & producer John Plews
• Actor Nick Thomas-Webster

Also, Dear John looks at the issues to bear in mind before considering unpaid or low-pay work, while Matthew Hemley hears from acting luminaries in the broadcasting industry.

• The Stage Newsblog: Low pay/no pay week

Also this week:

• Susan Elkin visits the Birmingham School of Acting
• Dancer Antony Johns on the challenges of moving onto ice for Blackpool’s Hot Ice
• Actor Marc Mulcahey on playing the title role in Black Beauty Live
• Anthony Field celebrates Sondheim’s Road Show as it finally arrives on the London stage
• We reveal the winners of Stage dance scholarships to Stella Mann College and Expressions Academy
• Actor Tristan Sturrock on playing Long John Silver at Bristol Old Vic
• Ian Herbert visits the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space 2011
• Lisa Martland on the lack of celebration of Jerry Herman’s forthcoming 80th birthday

The Stage is available every Thursday from major newsagents, priced £1.60. For subscriptions offers, go to thestage.co.uk/subscribe.

His performance in Stephen Poliakoff’s Joe’s Palace brought Danny Lee Wynter critical acclaim and the attention of casting directors around the world. But, he explains in this week’s issue of The Stage, the fickleness of the industry should never be underestimated, and he soon found himself working as a waiter again

I arrived back to reality as a jobbing actor with a thud. The agent who used to call to see if I was interested in projects is gone. The people I once met I now occasionally see in magazines, as I did before.

Culture minister Ed Vaizey calls on arts organisations to further exploit the possibilities and revenue streams that new technologies offer

The challenge for the coming years isn’t just to make sure we continue to create great art, but also that we take it to people in a way that is relevant

Also this week:

• As venues examine their money-saving options, Sian Alexander of Julie’s Bicycle, a non-profit company working with the arts and creative industries to reduce their environmental impact, investigates the progress being made

• Dear John: I’m about to start previewing our fringe show. How can I get the best from the tryout process?

• Training: A West Country college’s two-year foundation arts course hits the spot, as Susan Elkin discovers

Weekend Schools: As the popularity of weekend schools grows exponentially, children looking to engage in the performing arts and have some fun have more opportunities. Whether you are a parent or a professional wanting to get involved, our supplement explains what it’s all about

Plus, we have a new scholarship opportunity for one young person (aged 6-18) to win a year’s training at a Stagecoach school, worth £1,000. See thestage.co.uk/scholarships

• Director of Marlowe Theatre Mark Everett tells Lalayn Baluch why the £25.6 million redevelopment of the venue will make Canterbury proud

• Any number of sites have been used to stage drama but, as discussed at the Theatres Trust Conference 2011, the challenge is to retain them as performance spaces. AK Bennett-Hunter reports

• Richard Anthony Baker, author of a new book about the history of variety theatre, explains how the London Palladium laid the foundations for today’s most popular television shows.

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday priced £1.50. For the latest subscription offers, see thestage.co.uk/subscriptions

Next week’s issue is a special debate around low pay/no pay in the perfomring arts. Are TV actors’ wages going down? Should performers ever work for free? Are unpaid internships exploitation? For more on this debate, see next week’s paper, out on July 7

Best known as Rory Williams in Doctor Who, Arthur Darvill is swapping science fiction for Elizabethan drama as he takes on a leading role in Doctor Faustus at Shakespeare’s Globe. In The Stage this week, he explains why he is excited to play a villain but worried he might burn the theatre down…

We’re working with a puppeteer and a magician, which is just brilliant. In fact, I’ve got a magic call this afternoon, to work out how to set things on fire and how to make horns disappear. Coming in to do a play like this is so different from any other play I’ve worked on. There’ll be fire everywhere. Real fire in the Globe - and a lot of the fire is my responsibility. I’m terrified of being the next person to burn the Globe down.

With a new stage adaptation of Batman opening in July, composer James Brett tells Nick Smurthwaite about writing music for the Dark Knight and his enemies, and performing the duties of musical director

I listened to all the Batman scores that are available in order, so that I could bring a fresh voice to it. Obviously there are certain things you need to do to make it Batman-esque - big, bold, brassy stuff. It bears no resemblance to any West End musical you’ve ever seen. It is much more symphonic. I’m filling big arenas with sound, courtesy of a 90-piece orchestra.

EastEnders star Bunmi Mojekwu, who plays Mercy Olubumni, tells Matthew Hemley why she feels marginalised by perceptions of black actors in the UK and why the US is appealing in comparison

It’s hard out there as there is not much written for us. It’s the same old ‘let’s kill each other and shoot each other’ but there are so many other stories to us that can be explored - such as how we feel about race and how we feel about love - all these things I feel we are still yet to do.

Also this week:

• Insight Focus: Mark Shenton takes a close look at Theatre Royal Haymarket Productions - the historic West End bid to turn itself into a producing house

• A new campaign has been launched to monitor cuts in arts funding and assess the wider economic impact. But has Lost Arts got the numbers right and is this really the best way to win support for arts subsidy, asks Alistair Smith

• Training: Natalie Abrahami is directing Pericles at the Open Air Theatre, Regent’s Park this summer. Susan Elkin finds out how she’s helping make it interactive for children

In a Backstage lighting and design special, AK Bennett-Hunter looks at the ways in which the latest technological advances are fostering greater interaction between various backstage disciplines, while Derek Smith rounds up some of the new products on the market

• Dear John: I’m working on stage with my partner for the first time. How do we make it a plus, not a minus?

• Backstage Focus: Seb Soper was once told that, living in Devon, he’d never make it as a theatre designer. But as project manager at Plymouth Theatre Royal’s huge TR2 centre, he now provides scenery not only for local theatre but the West End too. Kevin Berry went to meet him

• The giant statue of Freddie Mercury is one of the most identifiable frontages of any West End venue, but there’s more to the Dominion Theatre than meets the eye. Natalie Lambracos meets its events manager Caroline Ginnane

The Stage is published every Thursday, and can be purchased from major high street newsagents for £1.50. For details of how a postal subscription can save you up to 32% on newsstand prices, go to http://www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe.

As Shrek the Musical opens, star Nigel Lindsay tells Catherine Usher about his nightly transformation into a green monster, finally finding a role that makes his daughters proud and why the show will test his endurance

Whether you have kids or not, if you’re offered the chance to play Shrek the Musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, it doesn’t get much better than that… When I go and drop the kids off at school, all the little girls come up and go, “It’s Shrek, it’s Shrek”. I’ve given them a bit of kudos in the playground

As she switches from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg to Lend Me a Tenor in the space of a fortnight, Joanna Riding tells Matthew Hemley about the challenges of being an in-demand musical star while also raising a family

It’s not about career moves anymore and “should I be doing this or that?” It’s about “Am I going to have a good time doing this, is there a nice group of people and does it feel happy and comfortable so I am not stressed out with the kids?”

Celia Imrie, who is starring in Radio 3’s production of Money by Edward Bulwer-Lytton on Sunday, tells Matthew Hemley about “location radio” in a stately home, voice acting and her next project, Julian Fellowes’ Titanic

I am given to making faces a lot of the time and you have not got that on radio. You have to take your grimaces and faces and channel that into your voice, which is quite difficult really… The great thing about this job is that we were not in an airless studio, but very often radio dramas are in studios which are completely airless and windowless

Also this week:

• Dany Louise on the summer festivals season

• Mark Shenton reports from the 2011 Tony Awards

• AK Bennett-Hunter on Belfast’s new £18m Lyric Theatre

• Professor Stanley Wells on Shakespeare’s life as an actor

• Dear John advises singers on moving from a recorded backing track to using live musicians

• Susan Elkin visits the Royal Opera Houses new set-building and training facility

• We look at the range of part-time training courses on offer in our special supplement

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday for £1.50. For postal subscription offers, see thestage.co.uk/subscribe

In this week’s issue of The Stage, as Arnold Wesker’s Chicken Soup with Barley returns to the Royal Court after more than 50 years, award-winning actress Samantha Spiro and RADA graduate Jenna Augen tells Lucy Brown about the play’s significance, and their experience of working with director Dominic Cooke

“In its day, it must’ve been so shocking,” Spiro says. “Because it was one of the very first plays that was just about working-class people talking to each other about what they believed in. Extraordinary in its day, because it still feels extraordinary. It is a brilliant play.”

After more than 15 years away from the UK, comedian Rita Rudner is coming back to face British audiences again. She talks to Tony Cooke about nerves, family and femininity

It’s a little bit scary. I know we speak the same language, but we do have different references. I’ve got to ask lots of British people on the plane, “Does this make sense to you? Do you have this in England?” But I’ll be working hard to be as funny as I can

At a time when belt-tightening is almost universal, Matthew Hemley talks to the BBC Performing Arts Fund’s Dorothy Wilson about how she convinces the Corporation that giving can be good

An awful lot of shows produce revenue for the charity, and a lot of these are from independent companies. We talk a lot with commissioning editors at the BBC and have done a lot of work to show senior executives and governors what value this money produces in terms of the benefit to the sector. It’s about the next generation of young talent and that is in the BBC’s interests

Also this week:

• With “cracks wider than windows”, Wilton’s Music Hall is on its knees. Without imminent funding, campaign patron David Suchet writes, the historic east London venue could vanish forever

• With the launch of its summer-long Postcards Festival this week, Jacksons Lane in London is continuing to build its strong reputation among circus fans. Liz Arratoon asks artistic director Adrian Berry what the fuss is all about

• Backstage Focus: In 2009, a reporting tool to help improve health and safety in theatres was launched. Here, Barbara Eifler examines the initial findings of the incident enquiry and looks at the updated form that will continue the initiative on an annual basis

• The Royal Albert Hall is 140 years old this year, but its programming is as fresh as ever. Innovative events in the refurbished Elgar Room attract new and younger audiences, while the main hall remains a venue that all artists aspire to play

• Insight: Arts & Business’ Philip Spedding analyses what the government’s white paper on charitable giving means for the arts, and asks whether it will be able to change attitudes towards philanthropy in the UK

• Dear John: As a young performer in a high-profile role, how can I balance the increased attention with developing my craft?

• Training: A round-up of useful new books on the perfomring arts

• Maggie Brown on the current state of Film4

• Arthur Smith in praise of Harry Hill

• We meet the winner of The Stage/Greasepaint Scholarship, Defaf Alamri, who wins a place on the make-up’s school prosthetics course

• AK Bennett-Hunter looks ahead to the events and exhibits at this year’s ABTT Theatre Show

The Stage is published every Thursday and is available at major newsagents priced £1.50. You can save money by taking out a postal subscription - see http://www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe/ for our latest rates and savings

In this week’s issue of The Stage, actress Dervla Kirwan tells Matthew Hemley about her role in a new legal drama on ITV, and why she would be happy for her children to become actors, despite the modest wage and tough competition.

Since taking a big gamble in 2008 and introducing a broader programmed than just Shakespeare, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre has continued to flourish. Alistair Smith asks executive director William Village what’s next for the outdoor venue.

This year’s Theatres Trust conference will explore how buildings can be converted into new theatres. With venues increasingly challenged by the demands of modern productions, it’s a timely debate, says AK Bennett-Hunter.

Also this week:

• In the latest of a series of features looking at the power of social media to promote theatre, producer Neil Eckersley explores how he used YouTube to market the debut album by young composer Michael Bruce

• Richard Jordan on the difficulties facing Dress Circle

• Training: Big Dance will go national next year as part of the Cultural Olympiad London 2012 Festival. Susan Elkin turns the spotlight on the nine-day extravangza that encourages everyone to embrace dance as a part of their lives

• Dear John: How do I incorporate comedy into my variety act while still keeping it polished and professional?

• Backstage Focus: As designer Pamela Howard prepares to show her work at the 2011 Prague Quadrennial, she explains why an 18th-century recital hall and an abandoned factory are both perfect venues for her productions of Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu

• Terence Rattigan, author of sell-outs such as The Winslow Boy and The Browning Version, fell spectacularly from grace and out of fashion in the wake of the Angry Young Men. As many of his plays are resurrected for his centenary, his biographer Geoffrey Wansell tells Nicholas Hamilton why he is elated by the renewed interest in the playwright and why Rattigan deserves greater recognition for his contirbution to British theatre

• Insight: For some, that elusive place at drama school can be seemingly impossible to obtain. Susan Elkin looks at the one-year foundation courses available and how effective they can be at bridging the gap between ambition and achieving your goals

• The Greatest Stage Actors: Daunting and thrilling, yet hidden from the limelight, John Wood is “sulphurous”, a “craftsman of the mind” — his Prospero for the RSC outshone even the great Gielgud, writes Michael Coveney

• Artistic director of Berwick’s Maltings, Miles Gregory, has helped transform the outpost of English theatre into a thriving venue. He talks to Nick Awde about succeeding with ACE, refurbishments and gaining the audience’s trust

• The Regional Theatre Young Director Scheme has given a leg-up to some of the leading lights of the performing arts in Britain. As his time on the 2010 programme comes to an end, one participant tells Jonathan Watson how he has benefited from his year-long placement at Sheffield Theatres

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday, priced £1.50. For details of how a postal subscription can save you money, go to thestage.co.uk/subscribe

You’re outside the interview room, ready to face the judges with your audition. How do you make a good first impression and get that offer? In our special musical theatre training supplement, our experts tell you how to get it right and give advice on headshots, networking and deciding between university and vocational courses.

Also this week:

• Want to start your own performing arts company? Motivation, commitment and a good business plan are just three of the key ingredients for a successful start-up. Miriam Zendle gets some tips from those who’ve taken the plunge

• Acting degree graduate and seasoned performer Philip Simon argues that having a fully qualified workforce is crucial to the status of the profession and both formal training and experience are vitally important for an individual’s enduring success

• Maggie Brown on what other television genres can learn from CBBC’s Horrible Histories

• Dillie Keane on why she hates matinees

• Dear John: “I want to start entering comedy competitions, but how do I know if my act is ready?”

• Composer and lyricist Leslie Bricusse talks to Nick Smurthwaite about the current revivals of his hit musicals and why he’ll never retire from his impressive career of melody-making

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday for £1.50. For details of how to save money with a postal subscription, visit thestage.co.uk/subscribe

Known for his roles in Make It or Break It and Upstairs Downstairs, Neil Jackson tells Matthew Hemley in this week’s issue of The Stage about the contrast between working on British and US television and how fate and Colin Farrell played a hand in his career

Britain says, we have six episodes and this is our story for the season. I think that is the right way to do it. Always go for quality. Upstairs Downstairs achieved that and I know it will with its next series. It’s an honour to be part of something done the way I think it should be done

Also this week:

• Italian artistic director Gianpiero Borgia is committed to importing new writing from the UK. He tells Nick Awde why he has his sights set on British theatre and why his company, Teatro di Borgia, favours adaptation

• Despite cuts elsewhere, continued funding from the local council has helped Fairfield Halls improve its facilities. Chief executive Simon Thomsett tells AK Bennett-Hunter that he has spent his first year in the job working hard to repay this support

• Comedy is a notoriously difficult industry to get into. But who stands to profit most from conferences that promise to share expert advice with newcomers, asks Tim Clarke

• As celebrity scandals and super-injunctions are being discussed and dissected on Twitter, Rosie Sayers, strategy director at digital consultancy Reform, explains how you can protect your reputation online

• Public relations expert Mark Borkowski argues that it is crucial to use social media effectively if theatres want to continue to engage with their communities, and talks about his work in the medium with Theatre Royal Stratford East

• Ian Herbert on changing attitudes to swear words in plays and play titles

• Tracy-Ann Oberman on rediscovering Alan Ayckbourn

• Dear John: What are the benefits of developing a show based on workshops rather than an existing script?

• Reviews from several recent student showcases:

  • Manchester School of Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University BA (Hons) Acting
  • Arts Educational School Three-year Acting for Film and Television
  • Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, BA (Hons) in Performance (Musical Theatre Option)
  • Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance, Acting and Actor Musicianship
  • ALRA Three-Year Acting Course

• Susan Elkin meets the winner of our £31,000 musical theatre place at Reynolds Performing Arts

• Backstage Focus: From operating the lighting cues to barking like a dog for 25 minutes, deputy stage manager Sophie Acreman employed a wide range of skills while she was working on Once Bitten at the Orange Tree Theatre

The Stage is on sale every Thursday at major newsagents, priced £1.50. For details of how to save money by taking out a postal subscription, go to http://www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe/

Despite a troubled first year marked by negative reviews and rewrites, Ramin Karimloo has decided to stay on in the lead role in Love Never Dies. In this week’s issue of The Stage he tells Jonathan Watson why he wants to see the job through, despite other members of the cast choosing to leave the production

The original ensemble had been rehearsing for 11 months, so of course they were tired. It was time for them to have a break. This cast is reaping the benefits of all the paving that was laid in that first year and those hardships.

Alecky Blythe, who has won acclaim for her verbatim theatre projects, tells Nick Smurthwaite about her latest show, London Road, which tackles the sensitive subject of a community’s response to serial murder

I was annoyed and frustrated that the show was misrepresented, although I can understand how it happened. I was angry with the press for accusing me of being sensationalist. My take on it was that the press was being sensationalist for sending reporters to Ipswich, saying, “Have you heard there is going to be a musical about the murders?” I would think that was a sick idea.

Brenda Blethyn plays a dishevelled detective in ITV’s crime series Vera. Despite being twice nominated for an Oscar, she admits to Matthew Hemley she was anxious about mastering a Geordie accent for the role

[In the original books] she is a giant and very dishevelled, like a bag lady who has wandered in off the street. Funny my name should spring to mind. Bit worrying, isn’t it?

Also this week:

• Former Hong Kong governor and Conservative Party chair Chris Patten has just taken up the reins as the chair of the BBC Trust. Maggie Brown examines what his appointment is likely to mean for the Corporation and for BBC audiences

• The London borough of Southwark is becoming a mecca for an increasing variety of arts organisations (including The Stage itself). Susan Elkin finds out how co-operation between the bodies is helping htem survive and thrive

• As the awards season starts for US theatre, Mark Shenton questions whether the West End should be following New York’s lead, or avoiding Broadway’s boom and bust culture

• We meet the five winners of the Stage/Susi Earnshow Scholarship, who between them have won training worth a total of almost £90,000

• Entertainer Paul Metcalfe’s big break was all down to one impulsive act. Since then, his career has gone from strength to strength, he tells Natalie Lambracos

• Maggie Brown on detective dramas, theatre programmes and the late John Sullivan

• Andy Field on experimental theatre

• Dear John: Can I combine a successful career with teaching and how do I cope when they clash?

• Training: How Stage One is giving a leg-up to aspiring producers

• When Drummonds Mill in Bradford was chosen for an ambitious site-specific project, the venue presented technical challenges as well as artistic inspiration. Kevin Berry meets the team behind the project

• Irish duo Foster and Allen are still stouring more than 35 years after they formed, and have sold over 20 million albums. Lee Wilkinson talks to Mick Foster about the secrets of their success

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday for £1.50. For details of how to save money by purchasing a postal subscription, visit http://www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe/

James Hogan set up Oberon Books a quarter of a century ago to specialise in publishing plays. His latest venture, the Masters series, has recruited some of theatre’s leading names as authors, he tells Mark Shenton in this week’s issue of The Stage:

They’re all written by people who’ve actually done what they’re writing about — they’re never going to be like a thesis. And because they’re short, they don’t have to cover all the ground.

Father and son team Donald and Marc Sinden embark on a historical journey around the great West End theatres in a series of DVDs. Nick Smurthwaite gets a taster of what promises to be the most definitive guide to Theatreland.

• Listen to Donald and Marc Sinden on The Stage Podcast

In our five-page technical training guide, we look at the range of courses and training options available to set future technicians and stage managers on a path to achieving their professional goals

Also this week:

• Performance poet Oliver Gozzard talks about his “thriller in verse”, The Commuter’s Tale, inspired by the life and work of Lord Byron
• Solicitor Nick Hobson on the importance of navigating the prohobitive visa system for the UK’s status as a world cultural centre
• Ian Herbert on theatre in St Petersburg
• Arthur Smith on Twitter (@arfursmith)
• Dear John: Are TV talent shows good for promoting variety, or are there better ways for your act to get attention?

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday for £1.50. With a postal subscription, you can save up to 32% off the shop price. For more details and to subscribe, visit thestage.co.uk/subscribe