Tag: theatre

Quangle Wangle brings Christmas magic to North Edinburgh Arts

 

Licketyspit and North Edinburgh Arts will be presenting Licketyspit’s acclaimed Christmas production

The Christmas Quangle Wangle

at North Edinburgh Arts

from Thursday 6 – Saturday 15 December 

The Christmas Quangle Wangle is a hilarious, musical adventure for families, friends, schools and nurseries, inspired by the poems and stories of Edward Lear.  It is presented at North Edinburgh Arts by its newly appointed Theatre Company in Residence, Licketyspit. The production is written by Virginia Radcliffe and developed in collaboration with Johnny Austin.

“On top of the Crumpetty Tree, the Quangle Wangle sat………”

Stella and Stan are waiting for Christmas. They find a mysterious parcel which leads them to the Quangle Wangle, sad and alone in his Crumpetty Tree. But the arrival of an array of colourful characters changes his and their lives forever.

Join Stella and Stan on their adventure and spend this Christmas at North Edinburgh Arts on the Quangle Wangle’s Hat with the Orient Calf from the Land of Tute, the Dong With the Luminous Nose and the Jumblies as they sail to sea in a sieve! Children will delight in this nonsensical world of make-believe and storytelling, limericks and madcap songs. The Christmas Quangle Wangle is the perfect festive introduction to theatre for younger audiences, from ages three upwards and their grown-ups.

Stella and Stan are played by Scott Fletcher and Ashley Smith, rising young performers in Scottish theatre. Scott is best known for his role as Charlie Smith in Gary: Tank Commander and his many theatre roles include performances in Black Watch for National Theatre of Scotland and the Royal Lyceum’s production of Peter Pan.

Ashley has worked extensively in Scottish theatre since graduating from RSAMD and appearances include Sex and God, Magnetic North; Magic Spaghetti for Licketyspit;  27 for National Theatre of Scotland and Hansel and Gretel with Catherine Wheels.

These performances celebrate the development of a new partnership for North Edinburgh Arts and Licketyspit. North Edinburgh Arts is establishing Licketyspit Theatre Company as Theatre in Residence, supported by The National Lottery through Creative Scotland, to specifically engage and to further develop an Early Years and families audience. North Edinburgh Arts received £50,000 from Creative Scotland’s Public Engagement programme to establish Licketyspit Theatre Company as Theatre in Residence.

Laura Mackenzie-Stuart, Portfolio Manager for Theatre at Creative Scotland, said; ‘We are delighted to have invested in The Christmas Quangle Wangle. We hope the magical experience of going to the theatre will spark a lifelong passion for theatre in younger audiences and their grown-ups.’

North Edinburgh Arts and Licketyspit are excited to be presenting The Christmas Quangle Wangle during 2012, the bicentenary of the birth of Edward Lear.

Crumpetty Tea and Orient Calf Noodles will be available in the North Edinburgh Arts Café where children can make Quangle and Jumblie pop-ups and draw Quangle Wangle’s Hat for a North Edinburgh Arts and Licketyspit exhibition.

The Christmas Quangle Wangle is written by Virginia Radcliffe, around Edward Lear’s poems, and developed in collaboration with Johnny Austin. The production is directed by Johnny Austin; design is developed from the original Catherine Lindow design by Ali Maclaurin; music is by Tim Brinkhurst & Virginia Radcliffe.

“Quangle Wangle…captures its audience’s fiery imagination… a pyrotechnic telling of Lear’s poems” – The Stage, 2004 production

LISTINGS:

Licketyspit and North Edinburgh Arts present

The Christmas Quangle Wangle

North Edinburgh Arts, 15a Pennywell Court, Edinburgh EH4 4TZ

Thursday 6 – Saturday 15 December 2012

Monday – Friday: 10am and 1pm; Saturdays: 10.30am & 1.30pm

Tickets: Forth Ward Residents £2, all other tickets £6.

Box office: 0131 315 2151

www.northedinburgharts.co.uk

Quangle Wangle was first produced by Virginia Radcliffe for the Wee Stories Early Years Project in 2003 and again for Licketyspit for Christmas at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 2004 directed by Matthew Zajac. It was also produced for Derby Live for Christmas 2009 with a new design by Ali Maclaurin. It was first created in collaboration with Johnny Austin and designed by Catherine Lindow with original Music by Tim Brinkhurst.

The Fringe – what’s hot and what’s not?

This year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe guide runs to 376 pages, packed with a cornucopia of comedians, dance troupes, musicians, actors and novelty acts – good, bad and downright dire – all vying for your attention at 378 official venues.

Choosing just what to go and see – and, more importantly, what to avoid! – is tough, so perhaps you can help. Let us know what’s worth seeing – we’ll publish your reviews on the blog. And if a performance is truly awful, it’s best that we know that too!

Enjoy the shows!

Granton youth production’s on the Fringe

Granton Youth Theatre will be performing their powerful production ‘Just Like Everybody Else’ at the Holyrood Road’s Bongo Club this weekend.

The drama was devised and developed by Granton Youth Centre participants and the group’s performance was highly praised when ‘Just Like Everybody Else’ premiered at North Edinburgh Arts Centre in April.

Jut Like Everybody Else can be seen at The Bongo Club, Holyrood Road on Saturday and Sunday at 2.30pm. Tickets are only available at the venue box office or through www.thebongoclub.co.uk . The performance is suuitable for ages 12+.

Local theatre company to perform Shakespeare – in Stratford

Edinburgh Theatre Arts is to perform a Scots version of MacBeth at the heart of William Shakespeare country. The amateur group, which is based at St Ninian’s Hall in Comely Bank, have been invited by the world famous Royal Shakespeare Company to perform their version of ‘the Scottish play’ at Stratford’s Courtyard Theatre next week.

Edinburgh Theatre Arts are one of only 10 from across the UK – and the only Scottish company – to be selected to take to the stage alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). They will take to the stage with their version of Macbeth, which is performed entirely in Scots, on 14 July.

Edinburgh Theatre Art’s director Mike Duffy said it was a great honour.

“They don’t normally have amateur companies using their theatres, so it’s a unique opportunity for an amateur company to get onto one of their main stages”, he said. “It’s like Scotland are playing England at Wembley! For an amateur company to go to a main Shakespeare theatre, with all the kudos of the RSC, everybody has to raise their game.”

IT worker Danny Faramond is playing the title role, and he told the BBC  he is delighted to have the chance to perform in the heart of Shakespeare country. He said: “It’s a very challenging role, there’s an enormous range of emotion required, it’s a very long involved role. You’re on stage for a lot of the time, physically quite demanding, quite an arc is required from the initial quite muted character to the, sort of, insanity at the end, so a big range is required. The more you realise what great actors have done it, the more you realise it’s quite a challenge.”

Edith Piers, who is playing the role of Gruoch, the Scottish equivalent of Lady MacBeth, added: “I’m so excited about it, I don’t at the present moment feel nervous, just really, really looking forward to it. It’s a huge opportunity and I think it will raise the profile, hopefully, of amateur theatre and lose the “am dram” tag that tends to accompany amateur theatre.”

GYC’s Fame Academy needs YOU!

Granton Youth Centre have been developing their arts provision over the last couple of years and have created two successful pieces of theatre – Split Second and Just Like Everyone Else. Fame Academy is the latest opportunity for local young people to create their own piece of theatre that could potentially become as successful as previous productions.

The project offers young people aged 12+ the chance to try out various art forms including drama, music, film and set and costume design.

Heather Marshall explained: “GYC needs you! We’re looking for young people aged 12+ who would like to create their own show. Rehearsals will take place at GYC and will include: 

Theatre

Music

Movement

Film Set

Costume design 

You can sign up to perform or help backstage:

Monday 2 July 1-4pm Thurs 5 July 1-4pm

Monday 9 July 1-4pm Thursday 12 July 1-4pm

Monday 16 July 1-4pm Thursday 19 July 1-4pm

Monday 23 July 1-4pm Thursday 26 July 1-4pm. 

This is your opportunity to create a brand new show!”

i@grantonyouth.com

Granton musical: don’t miss it!

Following on from this morning’s post about Granton’s musical, I was lucky enough to catch the dress rehearsal this afternoon. This was the first time the cast have performed YANOMAMO in front of a live audience – their schoolmates – and the verdict? A resounding success!

Without giving too much away, YANOMAMO tells the tale of a tribe who have lived in the Amazonian rainforest since the dawn on man. Their future, and that of the rainforest, is put under threat by loggers and developers …

It’s well written, enthusiastically performed, the songs are great; in short, it’s very good and well worth seeing. There are a few tickets left for performances on Wednesday and Thursday evening (7pm) and Friday’s matinee (priced £5) – call the school office on 552 3987 to check availability.

 

Granton Primary to stage their very own musical

Granton Primary School will be staging their first full-length musical this week. Everything about YANOMAMO has been created by the children themselves – from songs and set design to production and choreography.

The musical will be performed at the school on Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 7pm with a matinée on Friday (8th). Tickets are £5.

YANOMAMO is very much a first for the Boswall Parkway school, and tickets are understandably selling out fast. If you want to see a unique performance, call the school office on 552 3987 now!

 

Time running out for Ragged Trousered tickets!

There are still a few tickets available for tomorrow afternoon’s (2pm) performance of Ragged Trousered Philanthropists at North Edinburgh Arts Centre. Contact the Box Office on 315 2151 to snap these up!

Congratulations to Mr P Cairns of Wester Drylaw, who correctly identified Robert Tressell as the author of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. Mr Cairns wins two tickets to the evening performance.

Enjoy the show!

 

 

Stage classic set for local arts centre

North Edinburgh Arts Centre is the place to be next Saturday (21 April) when it stages the only Edinburgh performances of the classic ‘Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’.

This hilarious, fast-paced adaptation of Robert Tressell’s classic book shares with its audience a year in the life of a group of painters and decorators as they renovate ‘The Cave’, a three-storey town house, for Mayor Sweater. It traces their hardships and struggles for survival in a complacent and stagnating Edwardian England. These workers are the ‘philanthropists’ who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.

This enduring and absorbing classic story is brought to life by Neil Gore and Rodney Matthew, two hugely talented and experienced performers, using comedy routines and entertaining songs of the Music Hall, with a few surprises along the way!

Robert Tressell’s book has become a classic of working-class literature since its first publication in 1914.  The themes and style of the piece are eternally relevant and provoking as it puts life and politics into sharp focus in an entertaining and accessible way.

Stephen Lowe’s version of the story was first seen in 1978, when Joint Stock Theatre Company toured the country playing to packed houses. The play was revived at the Half Moon Theatre, London in 1983 and again for a touring production by the Birmingham Rep in 1991.

Townsend Productions’ ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’ excellent cast features Rodney Matthew who joins the production straight off the back of ‘Jerusalem’ in the West End.  He has worked at many of the leading repertory theatres, including West Yorkshire Playhouse  where he worked for a year and at Dundee Rep where he spent a memorable five years performing in classical, musical and new work around Scotland. Matthew is joined on stage in the two-hander by the talented Neil Gore (Song of Singapore, Chichester Festival Theatre and the West End). The production is directed by Louise Townsend, with the creative team including designs by Fine Time Fontayne and lighting by Jo Dawson.

The play has had the Backing of the unions RMT, Unite, Unite, Scotland, TUC, SETUC, GMB, PCS, Wales TUC, NUT, Accord, UCATT NASWT and the FBU.

Tickets for The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists (performances at 2pm and 7pm) are priced at £10.00 Conc. £5.00 and can be purchased at North Edinburgh Arts Box Office: 0131 315 2151.

STOP PRESS

Tickets for the evening performance are already sold out and tickets for the matinée are going fast. However you can win tickets for the play – North Edinburgh Arts has two tickets to give away for the matinée and NEN has to more for the evening performance. Check out April’s NEN to find out how to win tickets to a must-see show!

Friday date for theatre group

North Edinburgh Arts Theatre Group meets this Friday from 6 – 8pm, with the session focusing on theatre skills development.

If you’d like to be part of the company who produced last year’s acclaimed ‘Yes we Can Can’ community cabaret, go along to North Edinburgh Arts Centre on Friday evening or contact theatre project’s Stephanie Knight by email at stephaniejaneknight@gmail.com