In this week’s issue of The Stage:
News Feature: With ITV comedy in dire straits, Matthew Hemley examines whether the broadcaster can return to its golden age of family-friendly sitcoms
Insight: West End box office income hit an all-time high last year, but much of this success is down to just a few productions, while ticket prices have rocketed. With this year’s Olivier Awards acknowledging subsidised venues as being the chief providers of theatrical merit, Mark Shenton questions whether the West End is still relevant to the artistic health of London theatre
As plans get under way for a skills academy that can provide nationally recognised standards and access to training for technicians of all disciplines, it’s important to ask what lessons can be learned from the mistakes of the past 20 years, urges AK Bennett-Hunter
Dear John: “As an older performer, I’m finding it progressively more difficult to find work. What can I do to increase my chances?”
Training: Blunderbus theatre company provides a training scheme for a number of students to gain valuable, hands-on experience in all aspects of theatre from puppetry to acting
SOLT Centenary: As the Society of London Theatre celebrates 100 years, president Rosemary Squire talks to Mark Shenton about the challenges that lie ahead. And Rupert Rhymes reflects on his time as a SOLT member, its president and chief executive
Since graduating from Cambridge in 2004, Dan Stevens’ rapid rise to fame has been boosted by his ongoing work with director Peter Hall, including As You Like It, and opposite Judi Dench in Hay Fever. As he retrurns to the West End to play the lead role in another Hall production, The Vortex, he speaks to Mark Shenton
With Capital of Culture year in full swing, Chris High talks to Liverpool playwright Willy Russell about rewriting his 1978 play Stags and Hens, now running at the city’s Royal Court, and what the state of play is for aspiring authors
Choreographer Gary Lloyd has been working hard on BBC tribute show The One and Only, painstakingly training the would-be stars to move like their celebrity icons. He tells Matthew Hemley about the experience and his future projects
After hitting the big time with a supporting role in Life on Mars, Liz White is about to appear in an ITV1 drama made by the same production company. She talks to Phil Penfold about her harrowing part in The Fixer
Backstage Focus: With fewer theatres runing their own workshops, the provision of specialist, on-the-job training such as the courses run by the Technical Theatre Arts department at RADA, is more important than ever, writes AK Bennett-Hunter
Ian Herbert: Let’s not consider the ACE grants a done deal
Richard Jordan: Are there signs that the movie-to-Broadway route is finally reversing?
Plus all the usual news, reviews, national UK theatre listings and recruitment ads.
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