In The Paper

In this week’s issue of The Stage:

• With coverage of this year’s annual Bright Young Things party, The Stage announces the availability of a free year’s subscription to The Stage for up to 1,000 of this year’s CDS graduates. For more information and to apply, see http://www.thestage.co.uk/cds2007.

• Full news coverage of the Equity Annual Representative Conference

• Mark Shenton examines how some West End venues are changing their approach to ticketing to attract different audiences

• Anthony Field considers the architectural and financial implications of building much-needed additional facilities for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama at the Barbican

• Susan Elkin meets Peer Productions, whose latest production, The Homophobia Project, teaches both school pupils and young actors something new, turning discrimination around to raise awareness

• The king of easy listening, Andy Williams, talks to Fred Dellar about his new album, his $12 million theatre in Missouri and why, at the age of 78, he feels the need to continue performing

• In our special Costume Design supplement, Paul Vale recommends three courses that cater for both screen and stage; Natalie Lambracos talks to Tim Angel, head of Angel Costumiers, about the company’s apprenticeship programme; and we provide a list of costume design courses around the UK

• Currently starring in The Little Shop of Horrors, Sheridan Smith talks about her stage success, as well as BBC3 sitcom Two Pints of Lager And a Packet of Crisps.

• Comedian Richard Herring talks to Matthew Hemley about You Can Choose Your Friends, the one-off drama he was written and stars in for ITV1.

• Writer Ronald Wolfe reports from this year’s Rose D’Or festival in Lucerne, explaining why it is such an important event in the entertainment industry calendar

• Backstage: Barbara Eifler reports on how new regulations for noise at work will impact on the performing arts industry

• Since singing a stream of hits with the Animals, Eric Burdon tells Douglas McPheson why he’s still got something to prove

Please note

Due to technical problems at the printers, your edition of The Stage this week may appear oversized, without our usual clean ‘trimmed’ look. Our apologies for any inconvenience: the situation should be remedied for next week’s issue.

The Stage is available in most branches of WH Smiths and many other leading newsagents every Thursday, priced £1.30. Subscription packages are also available

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This week, The Stage marks the hundredth anniversary of Laurence Olivier’s birth with a special commemorative edition.

Rupert Rhymes, who was theatre manager at the Old Vic under Olivier, recalls working with ‘Sir’, and how the great man ensure eveything was to his satisfaction. Nicholas Hytner, the National Theatre’s current artistic director, examines the legacy left by Olivier’s vision. Chichester Festival Theatre’s Jonathan Church does the same for his theatre, of which Olivier was artistic director from 1962-5.

Geoff Colman, head of acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama, where Olivier studied, examines the lasting effects Olivier has made on today’s aspiring actors, while actor Robert Lindsay, currently following in his idol’s footsteps as Archie Rice in The Entertainer, on his memories of working with the man.

Also in this week’s issue:

• As theatre and live music employees face a damaging lack of trained technicians unless 30,000 new staff can be recruited over the next decade, Susan Elkin examines the steps Creative and Cultural Skills and drama schools are taking to address this shortage

• Anthony Field argues that when Arts Council England considers how it should spend its money, it should take note of how its predecessor defended creativity and did not depend upon the public to make its decisions for it

• Dear John comes to the aid of a reader who started their acting career 15 years ago, but left to become a parent. Is it too late to rejoin the profession?

• Stephen Fry’s work schedule is as busy as it’s ever been and, as he tells Phil Penfold, while he had to reluctantly turn down the chance to write episodes for Doctor Who, he has found primetime success again with Kingdom

• Meanwhile, Fry’s Kingdom costar Karl Davies talks to Matthew Hemley about his role in the series and his aspirations for theatre work in the future

• As variety show Let Me Entertain You prepares to return to BBC daytime TV, presenter Brian Conley talks to Mark Ritchie about reality TV, his near miss presenting Deal or No Deal, and hopes for his latest game show venture

• Michael Quinn talks to the designers of the Wexford Festival Opera’s summer residence — the largest purpose-built temporary theatre space in Ireland

• Fred Dellar looks back at the history of the sports-entertainment phenomenon of The Harlem Globetrotters

The Stage is available in most branches of WH Smiths and many other leading newsagents every Thursday, priced £1.30. Subscription packages are also available.

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In this week’s edition of The Stage:

• Mark Shenton argues that despite the rise of the ‘reader review’, professional critics are crucial because they offer a reputable guide they are personally accountable for
• Nick Smurthwaite looks at how regional touring theatre occasionally butts heads with the amateur sector
• Dancer Jasmin Vardimon, celebrating a decade of leading her own company, tells Kevin Berry how she keeps her choreography fresh
• A photo-report from the memorial service for former Stage editor, Peter Hepple
• Actor Douglas Hodge talks about working experimental theatre company Kneehigh on the National Theatre’s A Matter of Life and Death
• Robert Glenister, star of the BBC’s Hustle, on ‘murdering’ one of his acting idols, taking on the National Front, and the pressures of modern television
• Dewydd Jones on the 350-year history of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane

And as usual, we have a broad spectrum of columnists:

• Ian Herbert on the cultural prospects for 2012’s Olympic year
• Jeremy Austin on why he agrees, in part, with Nicholas Hytner’s assessment of theatre crtics
• Dear John is asked: How do I make sure my music appeals to as wide an audience as possible
• Clive Barnes on the latest news from Broadway
• Barbara Eifler on how stage managers are affected when UK shows tour to the US, or vice versa
• Patrick Newley on memories of Laurence Olivier

More details on our main features, and previews of some inside pages, after the jump.

Leading figures from throughout the entertainment industry paid their respects and shared stories about Peter at a memorial service for the former Stage editor, held at St Paul’s, the Actor’s Church, in Covent Garden, London, on May 11. Peter was editor of The Stage 1972-1992 and despite then retiring, continued to work for the newspaper in the role of consultant editor until his death on October 12, 2006. He had been a Stage contributor for 56 years.

Theatre veteran Douglas Hodge is currently starring in A Matter of Life and Death, a movement orientated collaboration between the National Theatre and Cornish-based Kneehigh incorporating dance, circus skills and mime, for which he has learnt to play the glockenspiel.

The danger as an actor is it is very easy to stop learning. This is why I am always looking for projects that have the comparative terrifying factor. The bigger the challenge, the steeper the learning curve… What Kneehigh have is a kind of anarchic playfulness. I hope audiences will enjoy the spectacle and sheer daring of the pro- duction. The set is really a piece of kit.

I couldn’t sleep for the first week of rehearsals. Kneehigh are entirely un-text based. The way they rehearse is completely different to anything I have ever experienced. They reinterpret the story though dance, mime or comedy. There is no sitting around discussing characterisation and motivation.

Currently riding high with a new series of Hustle running on BBC1, Robert Glenister is nonetheless concerned about the state of British television.

In the eighties you went for a TV job and you met the director and producer, and they decided whether to cast you in the role. You went along and you read with another actor or you met the cast. Now you have to go before a committee. I have to say it’s bloody galling when you have been in the game as long as I have.

You also get typecast easily. People only think of you in your last role, in my case Hustle. If I were up for a costume drama, a committee would say, ‘He doesn’t do costume, he does Hustle.’ That’s how television has changed. Your qualities as an actor are valued less now than they were in the past and it is a far more formal process. I think most actors find that.

Technically, working in TV is much quicker these days. It’s a bit like working on the hop. There was a time when if you filmed two pages a day that would be okay. Now it has to be six a day because TV is very expensive. And I think that when analogue changes to digital it will be spread even thinner… Twenty years ago you had two weeks’ studio rehearsal for a teleplay [but now] as an actor you have to make decisions very quickly. Before, you could think about them and discuss. Today you have one day’s rehearsal if you are lucky and you turn up for shooting. You hope you have a director who is making the right decisions and if you haven’t, you’re on your own.

The Stage is available in most branches of WH Smiths and many other leading newsagents every Thursday, priced £1.30. Subscription packages are also available.

Next week: A special commemorative issue of The Stage, marking the centenary of Laurence Olivier’s birth. The special coverage will include contributions from, among others, Nicholas Hytner and Robert Lindsay.

Posted by Scott Matthewman at 2:18 PM | Permalink