October 06, 2013
What is the Future of Theatre Criticism? A Hurtling Car-Crash
Theatre criticism is booming. Theatre criticism is in a crisis. These two statements sit side by side with apparent contradiction to each other, but they are both true. In the UK in 2013 we are experiencing both a boom within the art of theatre criticism, whilst simultaneously entering a crisis. The boom comes from the joyful explosion of digital theatre criticism, through blogs, and online magazines such as Exeunt and A ...
September 12, 2013
Review: Wicked, Apollo Theatre
Having been playing in the West End since it's opening in 2006, Wicked, based upon Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, has had world-wide success, and it's easy to see why. Twisting the story of Dorothy and the Yellow Brick Road, this much loved American story is seen from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West, and the turmoil she goes through as a teenager and the ...
September 10, 2013
On Revealing Lyric Hammersmith’s Secret Theatre: Mark (Scrooge) Shenton
Dear Mark (Scrooge) Shenton, I'm frustrated and saddened by your tweet last night which has revealed what the show is in the first (although happens to be the second) show of the Secret Theatre season from Lyric Hammersmith. Your deliberate tweet was unnecessary, which even you hint at in the tweet itself: "I don't usually tweet in the interval of a 1st night", so why did you feel the need to? You said in your follow up ...
September 08, 2013
The Gap Between the Words I and Do: A speech for my sister’s wedding
I've always considered myself a good speech writer and deliver. There's something performative that I can take from my training and apply it to when I stand before conferences or at events to deliver a speech. Writing the speech for my sister's wedding was a different story. I can write about theatre and the arts until I am blue in the face, but to speak about someone so close to me, and the journey she was about to embark ...
July 03, 2013
Some Thoughts: Big Mouth, Skagen Theatre at Soho Theatre
As a teenager at school I was set an English assignment to write a speech upon a topic that I was passionate about. At the time my teenage self was angry at the amount of money that had been pumped into the Millennium Dome only for it to be sitting empty and at the point of closure. I delivered a passionate speech on how this mega structure should not close, banging my fists upon the table before me and proclaiming in no ...
This week the Arts Council England have launched their Advocacy Toolkit, which aims to give arts organisations a clear demonstration of the "value of public investment in the arts and culture". The toolkit is designed to assist organisations in presenting the concise information and statistics (and pretty infographics) as a defence for public investment in the arts to MPs, stakeholders, audiences and anyone who will listen. ...
