Monday, April 29, 2013
Platero
Platero
After a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Scottish storyteller Mike Maran is bringing his breathtakingly beautiful production of Platero Travels with a Donkey to Chelmsford Cramphorn Theatre on Thursday 2 May.
Maran teamed up with Georgian puppeteer, Nino Namitcheishvili, to create this stage version of Platero y Yo by Spanish Nobel Laureate Juan Ramón Jiménez. The show is directed by Levan Tsuladze, Artistic Director of the Marjanishvili Theatre in Tbilisi, Georgia.
The original book is a series of short prose poems painting an affectionate portrait of Moguer, a small town in the Andalusian countryside where the poet lived with Platero, his little silver donkey, at the turn of the last century. In 1960 the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco wrote a suite of classical guitar music for the great classical guitar player, Segovia, to accompany some of the stories and Craig Ogden, the Australian best selling artist, has especially recorded the music to accompany this production.
Mike Maran specializes in shows combining storytelling with music with previous productions including Mahler Song and Dance Man, A Christmas Carol and A Funny Valentine as well as two long-running shows - Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Italia ‘n’ Caledonia. He originally conceived the idea for Platero y Yo in 2009 when he first met Nino Namitcheishvili.
“I had always loved the stories for their simplicity and humanity and had thought about how to stage them. The music perfectly reflects the poetry of the stories but I felt it needed a visual element to go alongside the spoken word and the music. When I met Nino it all fell into place, especially when I discovered that the book had been translated into Georgian and was a favourite of hers.”
Since that first meeting Mike and Nino have collaborated on a large-scale production of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin with five actors and over thirty puppets, a co-production between the Marjanishvili Theatre and the Mercury Theatre Colchester directed by Levan Tsuladze. That team is now reunited for this production with the addition of bestselling classical guitarist Craig Ogden who travelled to Georgia to record the soundtrack during the rehearsals in Tbilisi.
Tickets are £13.00 and concessions £11.50 (a £1.50 booking fee is applicable per transaction, except for cash and debit card payments made in person). Tickets can be booked online by visiting www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres or via the Box Office on 01245 606505.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Neville's Island
Ingatestone & Fryerning Dramatic Club
'Neville's Island'
23rd to 25th May
2013
Four out-of-condition
middle-managers set out on a team building exercise
in the Lake District and find themselves embroiled in
a slapstick nightmare when
they become the first
people ever to be shipwrecked inland.
Their incompetent
attempts at teamwork backfire miserably and take
Neville, Gordon, Angus and Roy from one humorous
situation to another as tensions
between them rise
slowly to breaking point. Can this completely
inept team work together to find a way to survive the
island..?
Performances
8.00pm at Ingatestone & Fryerning Community Club Theatre 7 High Street, Ingatestone, Essex CM4 9ED
Ticket prices
£9 (Concessions £8 - Thurs)
£11 for Saturday to include wine & nibbles and meet the cast.
Box Office
Avrohurst, 53 High Street, Ingatestone - 01277 354022
Thursday, April 25, 2013
The Virgin in the Ice
Coming to the Mercury Colchester from April 29 to May 4.
Middle Ground Theatre Company proudly presents the world premiere stage adaptation of Ellis Peters’ famous medieval sleuth CADFAEL: The Virgin In The Ice.
It is winter 1139 and raging civil war has sent many refugees fleeing north from Worcester, among them an orphaned boy, his beautiful 17 year old sister, and a young nun. But they seem to have disappeared somewhere in the wild winter landscape of frost and snow – and Brother Cadfael embarks on a dangerous quest to find them...The search will lead him to discover a chilling and terrible murder, and a tale of passion gone astray.
Ellis Peters’ Cadfael novels sold millions of copies globally, and this World Stage Première celebrates the centenary of her birth. Veteran actor Gareth Thomas, twice BAFTA nominated in a career which spans 50 years and includes the title role in the cult classic sci-fi series Blake’s 7, leads a quality cast of fifteen, including Richard Walsh (London’s Burning), James Palmer (River City) and Rupert Baker (London’s Burning).
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Ballet Central
Thursday 18 April
7.45pm
Ballet Central
Civic and Cramphorn
Theatres
The renowned graduate
performing company from the Central School of Ballet, Ballet Central,
will reach Chelmsford’s Civic Theatre on Thursday 18 April on their
forthcoming tour.
Performing in their
home county at Chelmsford’s Civic Theatre is particularly exciting
for four dance students from Essex: Thomas Broderick from
Leigh-on-Sea aged 19, Joshua Earl from Epping also aged 19, Abigail
Stopher who is 18 years old from Stamford-le-Hope and Bethany Pike
from Colchester aged 20 who used to belong to local Ballet school The
Chelmsford Ballet Company. All four students are in their final
year of training to be professional dancers at Central School of
Ballet (CSB) in London which is this year celebrating its 30 year
anniversary. Ballet Central is the touring company of
CSB, the prestigious centre for professional dance training and
education. Students on the final year of their three year BA
(Hons) degree course join Ballet Central to gain invaluable touring
experience before graduation. Ballet Central’s dancers not
only perform but also help with all aspects of staging, from
technical lighting to wardrobe.
The annual Ballet
Central tour offers a chance to see some of the most highly skilled
new dance talent perform newly commissioned works and much-loved
revivals by the dance industry’s top choreographers.
The highlights of this
year’s Ballet Central repertoire include a dynamic range of new
pieces; an elegant neo-classical piece by Kenneth Tindall entitled
Signature 31/30 to a new score by Ballet Central’s Musical Director
Philip Feeney, a thrilling new contemporary work Mapping #3 by
Darshan Singh Bhuller, a vibrant jazz piece Love on Top by Stacey
Haynes and an enthralling narrative dance called anon. by Christopher
Marney.
William Glassman,
Artistic Director of Ballet Central, explains why the Ballet Central
tour is so well received across the UK: “Each year we bring dance
pieces by some of the UK’s most highly acclaimed choreographers to
local theatres. It’s a chance to see the most electrifying dance of
today performed regionally. Classical ballet fans will relish
the Florestan Pas De Trois from The Sleeping Beauty and a revival of
Christopher Gable’s Fireside pas de Deux from his 1993 production
of Cinderella and if it’s contemporary dance that excites, a new
work Insinuare by Sara Matthews and Leanne King will certainly
deliver.”
Audiences for the
much-anticipated Ballet Central tour are increasing each year
attracting dance lovers and those new to live dance performance.
The varied repertoire features a programme of ballet, contemporary,
jazz and narrative dance suitable for families and all age groups.
Ticket prices are deliberately low to make the tour widely
accessible. Another highlight of Ballet Central is the music,
much of which has been created by CSB’s Composer-in-Residence
Philip Feeney who also performs live on the tour.
Sara Matthews, CSB’s
Director, comments: “We are the only vocational ballet school to
offer an Honours Degree and pre-professional touring experience on
such a scale. Ballet Central continues to be a springboard for
hundreds of dancers into the top international dance companies.
Dancers live to perform so touring is a much anticipated part of our
three year curriculum. And we hope that the Ballet Central tour
will provide inspiration to young dancers who may be thinking about
professional dance as a career.”
Graduates from CSB go
on to join the world’s premier dance companies. Recent CSB students
are currently employed with Birmingham Royal Ballet, Matthew
Bourne’s New Adventures Company, English National Ballet, Scottish
Ballet, National Ballet of Estonia, Ballet Black, Northern Ballet, K
Ballet, Rambert Dance Company, Phoenix Dance Theatre, Slovakia
Ballet, Singapore Dance Theatre, and many more.
Tickets
are £14.50, concessions £11.50 and a family ticket £47.00. To book
tickets visit www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres
or call the Box Office on 01245 606505.
The Long Life and Great Good Fortune of John Clare
Friday 12 April 8.00pm
The Long Life and Great Good Fortune of John Clare
Cramphorn Theatre
I saw this Eastern Angles show in Sudbury - certainly worth a look when it comes to Essex.
It explores the
facts and myths about the life and health of England’s famous 19th
century ‘peasant poet. The Long Life & Great Good Fortune of
John Clare comes to the Chelmsford Cramphorn Theatre on Friday 12
April.
The play focuses on a
man who believes he is John Clare. His psychiatrist,
Melody, is busy swotting up on the poet trying to
fathom the reasons behind her patient's delusion. Meanwhile,
Melody's partner, writer and literature graduate Rafe, is
fixated on his own version of the Clare legend. In their search
for the real story all three characters reveal
some startling truths about themselves
We think we know all
about John Clare - 'innocent poet’ sent to the asylum by the ‘evil
Dr Skrimshire'. On one hand he was our most loved
chronicler of nature, an eco-warrior for his time. But he is also
seen as a man robbed of his birthright and unfairly locked up for his
visions.
John Clare is
remembered for his life more than his poetry – lime-burner,
labourer, womaniser, walker, visionary, lunatic. But, in Tony
Ramsay’s play, a new John Clare emerges.
Eastern Angles are
known for their extensive Spring Tours designed to bring professional
theatre productions to audiences in rural locations across the
Eastern region. As part of the company’s commitment to bringing
high-quality theatre work to audiences on their own doorstep, The
Long Life & Great Good Fortune of John Clare will be performed 52
times visiting a total of 42 venues across East Anglia during March,
April and May 2013.
Book tickets whilst
they are still available. Tickets are priced £15.00 and can be
booked online at www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres
or via the Box Office on 01245 606505.
Tickets cost £13.00,
concessions £11.50 and can be booked online at
www.chelmsford.gov.uk/theatres
or via the Box Office on 01245 606505.
The Song of Angels
THE SONG OF ANGELS
A concert by OPUS ANGLICANUM
Five men singing
unaccompanied and a narrator
Saturday 18th May at 6.00pm
All Saints Church, Writtle
Enjoy a magical
summer’s evening of music and words performed by the pure voices of Opus Anglicanum
The programme
celebrates angels as invisible companions and guardians, as spiritual warriors, muses of
creativity, as messengers, heralds and healers.
With music specially
composed for Opus Anglicanum by Howard Skempton and Patrick Larley, with the chant
of the night office for St Michael and All Angels together with
Russian Orthodox chant and
works by Palestrina, Byrd and Victoria along with readings from Spencer, Suso, Eliot,
Traherne and Alcuin.
Founded in 1988, Opus
Anglicanum have performed for BBC Radio 3 and Three Choirs Festivals in
Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester. In Essex they have sung at the
Thaxted Festival and the
Chelmsford Cathedral Festival. And I recall one magical event in St Peter's Chapel at Bradwell.
Their speciality is in
presenting themed programmes combining the spoken and the sung word from a very wide
variety of sources.
Saturday 18th May at
6.00pm
All Saints Church,
Writtle
Tickets: £12 (inc
light refreshments)
from Alison Woollard
01245 421729
a.woollard@virgin.net
56 Mayfield Road,
Writtle, Essex, CM1 3EL
(cheques A Woollard)
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