Coming Home

An exciting week ahead with the culmination of our project with Chesterton Community College Year 9 drama and Duxford museum ‘going live’. A new play telling stories of life after World War II, as families and returning troops coped with the changes and looked to the future.

BBC filming us in the morning and Radio Cambs coming on Wednesday.  Then a long rehearsal on Thursday and a Dress Performance on Friday at the school. All topped off with two performances at Duxford on Saturday attended by some very important people indeed!

Guys and Dolls

Really looking forward to ‘Guys and Dolls’ which I am reviewing for Local Secrets tonight. For me it is the perfect musical – a tight story, witty and memorable characters…. The songs are perfectly crafted to serve the plot. Talking of songs there isn’t a weak one in the show. Both lyrics and music are by that Broadway genius Frank Loesser (whose centenary is this year).

Loesser’s little known show MOST HAPPY FELLA is in my opinion a masterpiece of musical theatre. Maybe one day someone will have the courage to do it – it is though operatic in scope with nearly 30 songs (again all great).

Below is an extract from my review which can be found in full here.

Guys and Dolls is a classic, perhaps THE classic of Broadway musicals. It’s got the lot – wonderful songs, very funny script and an engaging story set in a 1940s New York of lowlife gamblers and high rolling evangelicals – a delicious mixture.

…Was it worth the gamble? Was luck a lady tonight? The answer is a resounding and unequivocal ‘yes’.I have seen about a dozen productions of this great show in my lifetime and this was without doubt the best. The production directed by Nick Bagnall has everything you could want from this masterpiece of musical theatre.

The casting is spot on. I have never seen a better Nathan Detroit – the lovable rogue, organiser of illegal crap games who spends his life fixing hideouts for mobster gamblers. Fergal McElherron’s Nathan was the perfect foil for Jenni Maitland’s left-in-the-lurch fiancee Miss Adelaide.

…

There was an electrifying performance from Chris Howell as Nathan’s lookout, Nicely-Nicely Johnson. His rendition of ‘Sit down you’re rocking the boat’ threatened to lift the roof of the Arts Theatre right off.

…

It is a joy from beginning to end. Was it a gamble? No, the Arts Theatre has produced a classic. Will you love it? That’s a one-way bet.

Wootton Bassett

Had an amazing day at Wootton Bassett School in Wilts. We helped them programme and organise their first Holocaust Education Day. It involved the whole of Year 9 and what we used to call the ‘upper sixth’. Then in the evening we had a special Holocaust Memorial event hosted by Lesley and I.

The school is quite terrific – both students and staff  threw themselves into it. in an incredibly impressive way. The whole event was the inspiration of RE teacher Nicola Wetherall . There is a lot to tell about this remarkable event not least the astonishing contributions made by Holocaust survivor Eva Clarke who gave three talks that day.

We were also privileged to have Martin Bell talk to the students about his experience as a BBC  war  reporter during the Bosnia genocide.

More to come .

Theatre and the Community

Can theatre help to build active citizens and cohere in a divided community? Our experience shows that it is possible to build a somewhat fractured community through the power of the theatre arts. Our projects are always based on strong community themes drawn from the history and heritage of the neighbourhood from which the players and crew are drawn. The production might, for instance, be based on a local figure, who had made a positive contribution to the town, region, country or even the world. This type of heritage theme works particularly well as it binds the di- verse communities of a neighbourhood or town to common roots. The impulse here is to provide an active creative project on a theme that all participants can feel involved in. As an example, we have recently produced a community play for the small town of Thetford in rural Norfolk.

The town celebrated the 200th anniversary of its most famous son, Thomas Paine, the radical writer on human rights and a foun- ding father of the USA. We persuaded the town’s commemoration committee to include a specially-written play with music on the life and works of the great man. We were given the brief to create a company of actors and stage crew from a town that had little or no theatre provision. It is a town suffering from high unemploy- ment, poor prospects and a rather fragmented community of local English people and those from Poland and Portugal. We recruited performers and crew from all communities – including some recent immigrants who could not yet speak English well. The result is that barriers are broken, new friendships forged and a sense of pride in the production and the heritage theme that lies behind hit are built.

Writing a bespoke production means that one can tailor the script to the abilities of the community actors. That does not, and should not, mean any kind of ‘dumbing down’. We believe that it is very important to set high quality standards so that both the process and outcome of the production provides a series of achievable challenges and a real sense of achievement. We also use a lot of original music. Again songs can be tailored to the abilities of the team; there is always a sense of special achievement to play or sing an original song and lyrics. The same was true for a city-wide musical play 0-800 in 60 minutes. It was an out-of-school project for ten city schools in Cambridge, the theme was the 800th anniversary of the famous university. The play provided young people from a very wide and diverse range of backgrounds to engage with local history, build up a sense of ownership and pride in their famous institution and encourage some of them from disadvan- taged backgrounds to think of Cambridge University as part of their own future.

Original productions based on heritage and history, provide the ideal focus for community-wide creative projects which provide for many a first taste of the magic of musical theatre. We know many young people from disadvantaged communities who have gone on to be involved in youth theatre groups – they have got the lifelong theatre bug. Community theatre is a powerful tool in building, and sustaining, creative teams and a strong sense of unified purpose; it can also be used, as we have seen, to bolster a sense of local pride in one’s collective history and heritage.

Shakey Breaks the Ice to play at Celebrating Polish Heroes Event

To open the photographic exhibition ‘Polish Heroes: Those Who Saved Jews During the War’ we are hosting a piano recital of Poland’s most famous composer, Fredryck Chopin – whose bicentenary happens to fall on the same day! Shakey Breaks the Ice will be playing a mix of Klezmer, Polish folk tunes and Jazz as the audience arrives and throughout the interval while audience members enjoy a glass of wine, or soft drink and take some time to look at the exhibition.

The events will be taking place at Emmanuel United Reformed Church on Trumpington Street, Cambridge between 1st and 13th March. Click here for more details or here to buy tickets.

We hope to see you there!

Cambridge 800

One of 2009′s highlights for Keystage has to be the collaboration with Cambridge University as part of their 800th anniversary celebrations.

These events which culminated in a huge lighting display last month involved academic talks, music events, drama and much more.

Our part of the celebrations really kicked off back in summer 2009 with the ambitious task of taking 10 or so children from 9 primary and secondary schools in Cambridge rehearsing them separately, until the week before performance, to tell the story of 800 years of the University in under an hour! Our resident writer Mike Levy adopted a Reduced Shakespeare Company style for this and with original music from Dai Jenkins, we were ready to go by the start of term in September. Throughout October the children worked really hard to get to grips with this very fast paced and difficult to deliver style to produce something that all involved should be very proud of.

Thank you to all those involved, everyone in the University outreach and development team, Sue and Nicky, Ian – for all his help with the techy things, all the ADC staff who made the day so easy to run, our helpers Sam and Bryony and all the children and their parents for your talent and support!

Cambridge City Council Holocaust Memorial Day

Bryony Garner's beautiful choreography proved to be one of the most moving moments of the evening

Yesterday evening’s event at The Cambridge Guildhall was simply perfect. All of our contributors did an amazing job and we are very grateful.

Rehearsed and stage managed by Jenny. Lit and amplified by Anna and Gary.Expertly steered trought the programme by Sheila. Wonderful singing from Kol Echad, Milton Road and Balm of Gilead. Sensitive and thought provoking moments from Dabrowka, Ibrahim, Lara, Jamie, Jake and Laura. Reflections and lessons for the future from Catriona and Anna and our school ambassadors. A play to look forward to from Aimee, Matt and Tom.

The most sensitive and beautiful dance on the themes of hope’s triumph over despair, choreographed by Bryony. A fascinating and visually stunning exhibition courtesy of The Galicia Museum in Krakow AND the incredible story of  how  Jozef Mirioniuk and his family hid and saved the lives of Jewish Poles during the Holocaust, senstively told by Liz and Sam. We are delighted that he was able to travel from Poland to be with us with his friend and translator Kuba.  Thank you for remembering.

Candles were lit as part of the remembrance of victims of genocides worldwide.

Polish Heroes: Those Who Rescued Jews – Exhibition preview

The schools' ambassadors rehearse in the large hall ahead of Wednesday's Holocaust Memorial Day

This evening we had the opening/preview of the Polish Heroes Exhibition and the workshop/rehearsal for the schools’ ambassadors for Holocaust Memorial Day.

The special guest was one of the heroes Jozef Mironiuk. The children asked some really interesting questions and seemed to really engage with the whole day.

We’d like to thank everyone at the Guildhall, the Galicia Jewish Museum in Krakow and its curator Kate Craddy and everyone else who helped make this launch go so well.

Tomorrow is the big one – Cambridge’s Holocaust Memorial Day. The programme commemorates and remembers all genocide victims and celebrates their memory under this years title ‘A Legacy of Hope’.

Jozef Mironiuk takes questions from school ambassadors

Tickets on Sale!

Tickets now on sale for three amazing events in March. A birthday concert for Chopin, a repeat performance of a prize winning play and Prime Brass – and we all know how great they are. Go to www.ticketsource.co.uk/keystagearts

Check out our website for full details

Interesting day

I started off by accompanying 405 people from Arbury Primary School to the Panto at The Arts Theatre. Great fun watching the children watch the panto. Loudest shouting from the smallest people.

Then a Keystage lunch with Nicky and Sue from the University’s Community outreach team. Lovely!

Then audition workshop for the new project with Duxford Museum and Chesterton Community College.  Much talent – hard choices to be made!