Entries tagged 'professional+theatre'

Repertory Theatre

By Nigel Godfrey, posted 28th November 2011 at 4:58PM | Comments

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British greats such as Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton and Michael Gambon all began their illustrious careers in rep.

Having spent the winter galloping up and down the country with last year's West End in Schools show Rev it Up, it was with a little reluctance that I boarded a train to Pitlochry in the Scottish Highlands to begin a seven-month stint at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre as a member of their acting company.

You will often hear famous actors talk about how they learned everything they know "doing Rep". This is when actors are part of a repertory company, which puts on a number of often diverse productions using the same actors. The rep system can mean anything from weekly rep -...

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Exclusive ticket offer - Butley, by Simon Gray - with Dominic West

By Nigel Godfrey, posted 03rd August 2011 at 4:58PM | Comments

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I had the great pleasure of attending the West End press night of Butley a couple of months ago, and I'm delighted that I have managed to arrange an exclusive ticket offer for readers of the West End in Schools blog who happen to be in London this summer holiday - but hurry, as the offer is only valid until 19 August.

Dominic West, star of hit US drama The Wire, plays rapier-tongued lecturer Ben Butley in a major new revival of Simon Gray’s award-winning comedy.

Ben Butley is having a monumentally bad start to the term. So bad, he’s making sure everyone else has a worse one. Over the course of a day he discovers that his estranged wife is divorcing him for the most boring man in...

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A Little Bit of Magic

By Craig Christie (writer and composer), posted 01st August 2011 at 6:43PM | Comments

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Last week I had the great good fortune to be in the audience of the new musical Ghost in London’s West End.  What a great evening’s entertainment with all the elements that make musical theatre great in place – great performances, engaging storyline, terrific music and wonderful design.

While a lot will no doubt be said about the special effects in the show – and they are amazing!- what I most enjoyed about them was that they were used to augment the storyline and used with a lightness of touch that didn’t distract from the emotional journey that audience was being taken on.  Too often in recent years we have seen spectacle on stage make a poor effort at compensating for a storyline...

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