In The Paper

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

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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/

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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.

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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.

Posted by Scott Matthewman at 2:00 PM | Permalink