theatre – Page 15 – The NEN – North Edinburgh News

Scottish Ballet success for Waterfront dancers

Scotish Ballet success for local dance studio

Well done to Ballet pupils of Waterfront Dance studio in Granton!

This year four of the girls have successfully auditioned for places on the Scottish Ballet Junior Associate Scheme. Lara McMahon, Claire Nisbet, Lucy Garrity and Louise Black all travel through to Glasgow once a month to undertake intensive training at the Scottish Ballet Tramway Studios. Places on this prestigious training programme are very limited and competition comes from children all over Scotland.

Laura Saunderson, Fionn Hart and Amy Loughray have been offered parts in Scottish Ballet’s forthcoming production of Hansel and Gretel at the Festival Theatre. Rehearsals will soon be underway and their classmates are looking forward to going to watch them!

The girls all train at the Waterfront Dance Studio -for more information on classes visit:

waterfrontdancestudio.co.uk

Niki Forbes

We Will Be Free – next Friday!

WWBF Publicity

I have attached (above) a copy of a leaflet publicising ‘We Will Be Free’, a new play by Townsend Theatre Productions, about the Tolpuddle Martyrs and their fight for justice (see blurb on back page). It’s being hosted by North Edinburgh Arts next Friday (25 October) as part of our Power to the People Autumn programme. Tickets are only £3 for local folk with good neighbour cards (free from the arts centre).

This is Townsend Theatre Productions second visit to North Edinburgh. Last year, they brought us ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ which they performed brilliantly.

Hope to see you at the performance!

Lynn McCabe

New play at North Edinburgh Arts this weekend – Couldn’t Care Less!

Press Release – Couldn’t Care Less Sept 2013.

Couldn’t Care Less, a new play examining the ups and downs of caring for someone with dementia, is opening this Friday and Saturday at the North Edinburgh Arts Centre.

The play explores the lives of Elspeth, a former dancer who develops Alzheimer’s, and her daughter Lilly who finds her life disappearing as she gives it all up to care for her mother. It’s a dark, surreal, funny and moving play and speaks not only to those with experiences of caring and being cared for, but also the general public as our society faces up to the looming challenge of caring for older people.

A video trailer for the show is also available on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n1f7u4MgBI and the

Facebook event can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/702195563128809/?fref=ts

Emma Thomson is new PASS patron

British superstar and Oscar award winning actress Emma Thompson has become the new face of Edinburgh College’s Performing Arts Studio of Scotland (PASS). The Nanny McPhee and Sense and Sensibility star (pictured above), who is also a screenwriter and well-known human rights activist, has shown her support towards the performing arts arm of Edinburgh College by accepting the honour of being its patron.

Emma Thompson said: “Edinburgh College’sPerforming Arts Studio of Scotlandis an exciting, high octane, cutting edge centre that will attract much of the wealth of talent in Scotland and beyond. I’m very proud to be patron.”

The much-admired British actress became familiar with PASS after meeting Edinburgh College acting and theatre performance lecturer John Naples-Campbell when he was training as a theatre student at the Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow.

John said: “I first met Emma when I was 18 years old at the Scottish Youth Theatre (SYT). She came along to the theatre to hold a Q&A session with SYT students and, after listening to her talk about her career in the industry, I felt driven to continue with my career in performing arts – which is why I am anacting and theatre performance lecturer today.”

“We are absolutely thrilled to have Emma Thompson as patron as this means that our training at Edinburgh College is truly recognised by the very best in the industry. We look forward to welcoming her to our productions in the college’s theatre wherever possible, and we hope to work around her schedule to hold workshops with our students.”

John added: “Emma is an inspirational person, not only because of her many Academy Awards, but also because of her work as a human rights ambassador. Her tremendous work on stage and screen gives hope to any young person wishing to pursue a career in the arts and I know that having her as our patron will motivate and inspire our students to reach their full creative potential.”

As one of the world’s most respected actresses, Emma Thompson is known for her versatility in acting as well as screenwriting and she most recently appeared in The Boat That Rocked, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and as the voice of Queen Elinor in the Pixar animation Brave. As well as her work on screen, Emma Thompson also works as an educational ambassador for a UK-based human rights organisation, the Helen Bamber Foundation, to help rebuild the lives of, and inspire a new self-esteem in, survivors of human rights violations.

Edinburgh College offers a selection of dance, acting, technical theatre, costume design, and make up artistry courses.Former graduates from performing arts courses include Scottish actress Karen Gillan, who starred in the BBC’s Doctor Who. Previous students from PASS have also performed live at the O2 Arena and collaborated with Jon Lord at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, and have also performed live on stage with Lady Gaga.

Youth theatre? Join the A-Team!

Lottery funding supports new Youth Theatre Company

In February 2013, inspired by our backgrounds in theatre and youth work, a small group met to discuss and develop an ethos and a strategy to build foundations for what later would become ‘A-Team Productions’.

Our vision was to put together a new youth theatre company which would change the image of Amateur Dramatics and youth entertainment. We wanted to encompass new ideas and experience of what has worked in the past to create something which would not only benefit the lives of young people in Edinburgh but the wider community as a whole.

Our ethos is simple: to promote teamwork, equality and encourage individuals with raw and unnourished potential to get involved, give it a go and grow under our roof.

We believe that Edinburgh has a wealth of talented young people, we see it all around us. We want to provide an opportunity for these young people to be the best, allow them to meet new friends and work with them to reach a common goal of putting on a five star production.

We at A-Team aim to do it like the professionals would! Our young people will wear the finest costumes, get star treatment and perform to full houses of eagerly awaiting theatre goers.

However without our funders we would be nothing. In April it was announced that A-Team Productions were granted funding to run productions for 3 years with a generous fund from The Big Lottery. Their Young Start programme will ensure that we have the necessary funds to put on an extravagant show without the families having to pay a penny.

Our first production “Sweeney Todd – The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” will be performed in St Brides Centre in February 2014. Auditions for this production will be held at Ocean Terminal on 28 September 2013, call backs on 29 September.

For any information regarding the company, auditions or our february production please mail ateamproductionschair@live.co.uk or call 07973317031.

www.a-teamproductions.org

United.Passionate.Successful

Friends, Romans, countrymen … lend me your bike!

An unusual troupe of well-travelled travelling players will perform Shakespeare at Lauriston Castle this weekend. On Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 July The HandleBards, a four-strong, all-male troupe of travelling players, will perform Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night as part of a cycling tour of Britain that will see the group pass through 25 venues across Scotland and England.

Beginning at Glasgow’s Riverside Museum and finishing up at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, which recently hosted its 100th Chelsea Flower Show, The HandleBards will also perform at The Dell in Stratford-upon-Avon (the Royal Shakespeare Company’s outdoor playing space) Bolton and Newark castles and Rufford Old Hall in Lancashire, where Shakespeare himself performed in 1585.

As part the challenge, The HandleBards, who are supported by the Old Vic Theatre, will carry all the required set, props, costumes and camping equipment necessary for the 926 mile journey on their bikes, with no back-up vehicle in support – covering a distance equivalent to that between Land’s End and John o’ Groats.

The four HandleBards will play multiple characters in each 1930s-set play, fully engaging showgoers with some unusually energetic audience interaction. So grab your picnic blanket and head down to Lauriston Castle to enjoy this enthusiastic and engaging show, with some special music thrown in too!

Tickets are £10 (£8 concessions) – find more details on how to book on the Edinburgh Museums website.

Muirhouse set to stage double arts event next Friday

Muirhouse is the place to be for culture vultures next Friday, with not one but two big arts events planned:

North Edinburgh Arts is hosting ‘Echoes’ on Friday 12 April at 7pm

A new version of Mamma Mia has been written by a community group fighting the city council’s plans to close Castlebrae secondary school.

The Abba track IT, will be sung by members of the Save the Brae campaign group during a performance of a play that they have written called Echoes, which will express their opposition to and frustration over the council’s proposals for the school next summer.

Among those taking part in the play is Kevin Finlay, chair of the Save the Brae group, who said: “I think if you go back in history, any local issues like this have been tackled by using arts to get points across.”

Around eight men and women, most of whom are members of Save the Brae will perform the 55-minute play at North Edinburgh Arts on Friday 12 April at 7pm.

Susan Heron, 54, plays Ina in the play – a fictional character who has lived in Craigmillar all her life and doesn’t want the school to close. Susan says the play was a “powerful statement of how Castlebrae school life was and is”.

Tickets are £3 or £2 Good Neighbours (GN) price. To book tickets please call Box Office on 0131 315 2151

and in the afternoon …

Travelling Gallery visits Craigroyston High School on Friday 12 April 1 – 4pm

with ‘feel-good’ art exhibition

The Travelling Gallery will be visiting Craigroyston High School on Friday 12 April, with its latest exhibition ‘Turquoise Heid’ on board. This curiously named exhibition is a busy group show of established and emerging artists from both home and abroad.

Working in a broad range of media including drawing, animation, film, sculpture, photography, performance, collage and painting, the exhibition will include artists who use a playful, childlike, feel good essence in their work, sometimes hiding darker depths but more often making us smile. The simplicity and low-tech nature of many of the artworks disguises sometimes complex processes and skills but also makes the exhibition instantly accessible to audiences of all ages.

’Turquoise Heid’ includes work by artists Matthew Barnes, Olivia Bee, Yeodoo Jung, Peter McDonald, Alex Millar, Jock Mooney, Kim Rugg, Yukako Sakakura and David Shrigley.

Visitors can also look out for artist Ellie Harrison’s Early Warning Sign which the Travelling Gallery is hosting in 2013 and which will sit outside the vehicle. Utilising the brazen marketing techniques of capitalism, the sign attempts to grab the attention of passers-by: to remind them of the consequences of excessive consumption and to force climate change back on the agenda. The harder the wind blows, the faster they go! www.ellieharrison.com.

The Travelling Gallery is a custom-built, mobile, contemporary art space inside a big beautiful bus. Supported by Creative Scotland, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and the Museums and Arts Division of the City of Edinburgh Council, the Travelling Gallery brings high quality contemporary art exhibitions and events to schools and communities throughout Scotland.

North Edinburgh Arts has arranged for the gallery to be open to the public on Friday afternoon at Craigroyston High School. The Travelling Gallery’s visit has been supported by the City of Edinburgh Council’s Children and Families Department.

See www.travellinggallery.com for all the details or ‘like’ on Facebook

Curtain up on community drama at St Serf’s

The Scottish Community Drama Association (SCDA) Edinburgh District’s One Act Festival takes place at St Serf’s Church Hall on Clark Road from 14 – 16 February. Over three evenings, theatregoers will be entertained by:

Thursday 14 February

1. Leitheatre ( Kirkgate) with ‘Still Life’ by Noel Coward

2. Edinburgh People’s Theatre with ‘Ritual For Dolls’ by George MacEwan Greene

3. The Mercators with‘Cupboard Love’ by Jean McConnel

Friday 15 February

1. Edinburgh Makars with ‘Just Passing’ by Colin & Mary Crowther

2. St Serfs (Afton) with ‘Scent Of Honeysuckle’ by Jean Lennox Toddie

3. Leitheatre (Sunnyside) with ‘A Private Affair’ by Charles Emery

Saturday 16 February

1. Livingston Players with ‘The Donahue Sisters’ by Geraldine Aron

2. St Serfs (Bangholm) with ‘You Really Got Me’ by Neil Robertson

Tickets are priced £8 per evening, or a season tickets for all three nights is £21. Season ticket holders are eligible to vote for their favourite performance in the Best of the Fest Audience Award

Three winning teams will be selected to go forward to the SCDA East Division finals, which will take place in Larbert next month.

For further information and ticket availability visit www.scdaedinburgh.org.uk

Local children stage panto to highlight conservation fears

A group of young people from North Edinburgh are set to become exponents for nature conservation when they perform a panto to highlight conservation issues at North Edinburgh Arts this weekend. The performance is the culmination of an innovative project involving The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh-based Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the Lyceum Youth Theatre Discover Programme, North Edinburgh Arts and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

The group – who are all aged between 9 and 12 and live in Muirhouse, Pilton and Granton – have been working with conservation experts to learn about the importance of saving endangered species and habitats. The project – which is unique in its involvement of Edinburgh’s leading academic, conservation, and performing arts organisations – will culminate with the young people informing their local communities about conservation issues, through the performance – on Saturday 26 January – of a pantomime they have developed with the support of North Edinburgh Arts.

The young people will also go to Edinburgh Zoo for a ‘behind the scenes’ visit as part of the project, to learn about endangered animals first hand.

Speaking in advance of Saturday’s conservation-themed pantomime, project coordinator Naomi Webster – who is currently a visiting research fellow at Edinburgh University’s ESRC Genomics Policy and Research Forum, and works as Education Officer for the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust , said: “Young people have a natural interest in animals and wildlife, but often don’t realise just how endangered many creatures are or how organisations like Durrell and the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland are working to save them from extinction. This project has enabled us to work with children in an innovative way to help them appreciate the importance of nature conservation, and to allow them to show their families and communities what they have learnt, by producing and performing their own conservation-themed pantomime.”

Kate Wimpress, Director of North Edinburgh Arts, said: “North Edinburgh Arts works with young people throughout North Edinburgh, through creative initiatives such as drama workshops, to encourage them to explore issues and develop understanding. Collaborating with the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Zoo and the Lyceum Youth Theatre on this initiative has enabled us to help young people to gain a greater understanding of conservation in an engaging, yet fun way. I know our young performers are very excited about both their trip to the zoo, and producing and performing their own conservation-themed pantomime.”

It’s a Quangle Wangle Christmas at North Edinburgh Arts!

Licketyspit’s ‘The Christmas Quangle Wangle’ has opened at North Edinburgh Arts. Written by Virginia Radcliffe and based on the works of Edward Lear, ‘The Christmas Quangle Wangle’ is suitable for all ages (3 – 103!) and it’s the perfect way to really get into that Christmas spirit.

Daily performances at 10am and 1pm (Saturday 10.30am and 1.30pm) and tickets start at only £2.

The Christmas Quangle Wangle runs until 15 December. For more information contact North Edinburgh Arts on 315 2151 or see the www.licketyspit.com and www.northedinburgharts.co.uk websites.