In The Paper

This week The Stage marks half a century of the Royal Shakespeare Company with a very special issue.

• Mark Shenton provides a historical overview of the RSC
• Benedict Nightingale delves into the company’s rich cultural history
• Stanley Wells looks at how the RSC has helped shape British theatre, and turns the spotlight on one great performance from each of its five decades

We also ask the five directors who have led the RSC since its inception in 1961 to share their memories of the company:

• Peter Hall recalls the 1965 season, which saw him directing David Warner in Hamlet and the world premiere of Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming and Gogol’s The Government Inspector
• Trevor Nunn on creating the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon
• Terry Hands on opening the new Barbican theatre in 1982
• Adrian Noble on the Plantagenets cycle, performed in 1988
• Michael Boyd on 2008’s Histories cycle

Physical theatre — including stage combat — is one of the most demanding and challenging branches of the performing arts. In this week’s issue we present a full guide to courses, as well as interviews with performers, teachers and fight directors

Also this week:

• Actress Olivia Williams talks about returning from Hollywood to star in ITV1’s new drama Case Sensitive
• Susan Elkin on East 15 Acting School’s 50th anniversary
• Dear John on how to update a traditional variety act for the TV generation
• Media expert Maggie Brown on the new series of Britain’s Got Talent
• Agent Stuart Piper on whether the era of typecasting is over

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The Stage is available from most major newsgaents every Thursday for £1.50. For details of how to save by taking out a postal subscription, go to http://www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe/

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As DreamWorks brings its most valuable franchise to the West End, in the form of Shrek the Musical, Alistair Smith talks to the company’s chief creative officer Bill Damaschke about the animated film studio’s ventures into live theatre in this week’s issue of The Stage:

I hope it runs a very long time. I hope the audience here embraces it and I hope all the work we’ve done on the show over the last five years has added up to the company and the production here being the best and the most evolved, and the best of everything we’ve learned along the way

Things went spectacularly wrong for Richard Blackwood when he tried to make it big in America. After a decade spent rebuilding career, he tells Tony Cooke he is excited to be playing a character made famous by Eddie Murphy in the new musical adaptation of Shrek

Singing was never my forte, but now they’ve helped me to breathe and know what my tone is, and I’m like: ‘Wow! Is that me sounding like that?’

In our special Dance Training supplement, find all the latest course information as well as profiles of choreographers and dancers and tips for keeping in shape

Also this week:

• CBeebies entertainer Justin Fletcher tells Ben Dowell how he manages to juggle several different projects and keep smiling

• From Fela! to Frankenstein, recent productions at the National Theatre have beennotable for their innovative use of music and sound. Nick Smurthwaite speaks to the composers and sound designers who are making audiences prick up their ears

• Insight: The ACE axe has fallen and companies must find new ways to secure money. Nicholas Hamilton explores whether crowdfunding — a model that asks the public to donate online — is a viable solution

• When Charles Hart was asked to contribute to The Phantom of the Opera, it transformed his career and his life. He tells Mark Shenton about the fateful day he received a telegram from Cameron Mackintosh, and what it is like collaborating with Andrew Lloyd Webber

• As the demand for seats in theatres rises, basic economics dictates that prices will follow suit. But, Mark Shenton argues, that shouldn’t give producers carte blanche to charge what they like

• Dear John: I would like to develop and market my own musical and performing style. How do I go about doing this?

If you want to train in music technology and need help with funding, why not consider applying for The Stage Live and Recorded Music Scholarship at Herbert Justice Academy of Performing Arts in Beckenham? The funding for the two-year course is worth £14,000. In addition HJA is offering two Stage Performing Arts scholarships, together worth £54,000, as featured in last week’s paper. For application forms for all scholarships, visit thestage.co.uk/schoalrships

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday for £1.50 every Thursday. To save money with a postal subscription, visit http://www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe/

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Mark Addy plays a warlike king in Sky Atlantic HD’s latest big-budget import, Game of Thrones. In this week’s issue of The Stage, he tells Matthew Hemley about adapting George RR Martin’s cult fantasy novels and working again with his RADA contemporary Sean Bean:

They [the producers] were not to know we would get on so well, but it helped, especially playing characters who are lifelong friends. It helps to have a little bit of history and it means you don’t have to go through the whole period of everyone being far too polite to each other and not wanting to offend.

Launched in 2007, HighTide Festival Theatre is already an important platform for new writing, backed by figures including David Hare and Nicholas Hytner. Alistair Smith finds how ambition and enterprise have been key to its success

Insight: As Jay Hunt settles into her new role as chief creative officer of Channel 4, Ben Dowell examines why she decided to take up the post and what her impact will be on the direction the channel takes

Backstage Focus: Saved by a Grade II listing in 2004 after plans to replace it with a supermarket were scrapped, the Forum Theatre Billingham continued to face an uncertain future. But brighter days are ahead after a two-year, £2.5m refurbishment, finds Allan Glen

In the latest of our Stage scholarships, we have two places at Beckenham-based Herbert Justice Academy for their three-year performing arts course. For the application form and eligibility requirements, see this week’s paper or download from http://www.thestage.co.uk/scholarships/

Also this week:

• Now in its 30th year, Nick Smurthwaite meets Battersea Arts Centre’s joint artistic director David Jubb and celebrates a history of forward-thinking and always original theatre

• The Tempest is being reinterpreted on stage and screen in a series of exciting productions taking place in Coventry, Stratford and even Hollywood. Whatever form it takes, Stanley Wells finds the brilliance of Shakespeare’s play shines through

• Maggie Brown looks forward to the new series of Doctor Who

• Richard Jordan on the ongoing issues around Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark

• Dear John: I am about to embark on a live tour. How do I make the most of all the time and energy I am putting into it?

• We round up some of the student showcases from the last three months from LIPA, Drama Centre London, Queen Margaret University, Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, GAMTA, East 15, Italia Conti Academy, Mountview and Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

The Stage is available from major newsagents every Thursday for £1.50. To save money and get an issue delivered to your door each week, check out our special offers at http://www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe/

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Little Angel Theatre went dark nearly ten years ago, but Lynette Shanbury and Peter Glanville have since brought it back to life. In this week’s issue of The Stage, Lisa Martland finds out who’s pulling the strings at the north London home of puppetry and why The Tempest is the perfect play from the company

Of all the Shakespeare canon, Tempest is the one that sprang to mind for its fantastical nature as well as the many possibilities for puppetry. I liked the sense of things being manipulated by an ensemble of spirits. Puppetry can do so much to help the sense of atmosphere, in this case emphasising the feeling that external forces are guiding the action.

Well known for playing the bad guy, be it a seedy underworld character or the dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham, Keith Allen tells Matthew Hemley about landing his latest gangster role in Sky 1’s The Runaway and how his wild streak impacted on his college experience

My instincts are right on a first reading, which is what attracts you to something anyway. There are some actors I call “post-it” actors. You turn a page of their script and they have post-its everywhere and you think, “Hang on, you’re not even in that scene — why have you got post-its like that?”

Stella Mann College of Performing Arts is the latest organisation to offer a place through our Stage Scholarships 2011 scheme. Apply for a three year dance course starting in September 2011, worth over £27,000, by using the form on page 23 of this week’s issue or by downloading from thestage.co.uk/scholarships

Also this week:

• The Theatre Royal Bath has established itself as one of our most successful regional theatres, despite receiving no Arts Council England subsidy. Mark Shenton examines how it has developed a model that pays its own way by balancing commercial, original and touring work

• The best of stage, costume, prop and lighting design is currently on display at the Society of British Theatre Designers’ quadrennial show in Cardiff. When Ian Herbert visits, he finds the work of some of the biggest names in the business side by side with that of innovative newcomers

• As the winners and losers assess the impact of Arts Council England’s funding decisions announced last week, Alistair Smith argues that the sector must do more to convince the population of the essential role of public funding

• Dear John: How often should I update my headshots and, when I do, how do I decide which ones to go for?

• Training: Susan Elkin wishes the Jackie Palmer Stage School and Agency a happy 40th birthday

• Greatest Stage Actors: Standing out from the blonde starlets of the fifties, Joan Plowright carved out a career of outstanding creativity, writes Geoffrey Colman, head of acting at Central School of Speech of Drama

The Stage is available for £1.50 every Thursday from major newsagents. For the latest in postal subscription offers, visit http://www.thestage.co.uk/subscribe/.

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