The On Call will take place at mac birmingham in the Arena Bar from 12noon-2pm on Thursday 24th and Friday 25th May. You can just turn up to take advantage of some free advice, but if you’d like to book a specific slot, please email catherine@capitalplays.co.uk

Thursday 24th May
12noon-2pm
Taking your show to Edinburgh (from an artist/producer perspective)
Pippa Frith, Independent Producer
Kindle Theatre (tbc)

Friday 25th May
12noon-2pm: Artist and company development (particularly in terms of artistic practice), developing partnerships with venues, new writing, collaborations, Grants for the Arts advice

Alison Gagen, Relationship Manager, Arts Council England

Alison’s professional experience in theatre, prior to joining ACE: she was Press Officer at the New Vic; ran the Education department at Polka Theatre for Children; was General Manager for Sphinx, a touring company specialising in new writing by women, when she worked particularly on moving the company from small to mid-scale touring and on building new coproducing relationships. In her time working in a number of theatre-focused roles at ACE over the last 10+ years she has done two secondments, one to ACE national office in 2004, looking after the then Arts Council Theatre Writing Policy, and one to Warwick Arts Centre, programming the studio, in 2007. She set up the first Bitesize festival with Paul Warwick of China Plate during that time.

Alison’s regional development work at ACE has focused particularly on ways to grow the independent theatre sector –  including looking at ways in which venues can work to support that development. She has also been doing some  1-to-1 work with companies, looking at their development needs , their artistic vision and how teams of artists  and/or producers work together to deliver that.

On Call: Alison will focus on advice/sharing experiences about artist and company development and on coproducing/partnerships between companies and venues – she is also interested in conversations with writers about their development needs.

Mike Kaloski-Naylor, Relationship Manager, Arts Council England

Mike worked as Projects co-ordinator at TheatreWorks, a theatre development agency covering Swindon and Wiltshire, and including support for artists and organisations in Bath and North East Somerset. TheatreWorks, which merged with Wilshire dancing in 2011 to become Creative Ecology Wiltshire (CEW) is a member of the Theatre South West network and Albow websites. They initiated our own small grants fund, provided advice and support to artists and arts organisation, and ran a number of development events. During this time, he also spent 8 months co-ordinated the South West New Writing Network.

He moved to Manchester to work as a Grants for the arts Assessor, and is now coming to the end of a six-month secondment working as a Relationship Manager in the West Midlands.

On Call: Mike will return to the Grants for the arts team at the beginning of June, and he is interested in discussing and advising on how best to make use of Grants for the arts support, and hearing people’s experience of the funding programme.

Mike Tweddle, BE Festival

Mike is a theatre director, producer, writer and performer. He lives in Birmingham where he co-directs the city’s European performing arts festival – Be Festival – founded in 2010. He is the artistic director of Babakas, a new Birmingham-based international ensemble. As joint artistic director of Temple Theatre, he has directed and co-produced the company’s four shows to date, including the multi-award winning Out of Chaos and current project UNMYTHABLE.  As a freelance director, he has worked for Foster and Déchery, Jumbled, CASA Festival, the National Youth Theatre and The Globe.

mid*point is the network for theatre-makers in the West Midlands

Birmingham writer Rob Joiner is among three people selected from a national call out in January. His play, Without a Hand to Hold, will be premiered at the Festival, alongside calyx by Newcastle writer sean burn and Cuddles by Bristol-based Joseph Wilde.

Rob graduated from the University of Birmingham’s prestigious MA in Playwriting Studies in 2010. His plays are described as “bold, lyrical and confrontational” by acclaimed playwright Steve Waters. He currently lives and works in the city, and is delighted that his play was chosen for production: “It’s a fantastic opportunity and a big step for me as a writer. My play is a very simple story about two blokes trying to get through life. I work in central library and you see a lot of people who’ve maybe lost their jobs and people on the margins who are really struggling. You don’t tend to see those people on stage, so it’s partly about giving them a voice.”

Capital Theatre Festival started life at The Old Joint Stock Theatre in November 2010. This year, it’s evolved into a broad programme of new writing activity, celebrating the talent that Birmingham has to offer, as well as attracting theatre-makers from across the country. From hospital porters to vampires, from the Tyne Bridge to the Isle of Scilly, the plays take the audience on a journey of imagination, while saying something very relevant about the world we live in today.

The Festival includes writing workshops from Soho Theatre, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and Stan’s Cafe, plus an evening of short plays hosted by Talking Birds and a new slant on the global phenomenon of Pecha Kucha. Students from the University of Birmingham have also been working on plays that will take the audience across the whole building, from the bar to the upstairs toilets.

The Festival is run in association with mac birmingham and will run from 24-27 May 2012. Tickets can be booked via www.macarts.co.uk or tel. 0121 446 3232. The full programme can be found on: www.capitalplays.co.uk

Join us in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre as a new production of Julius Caesar transposes Shakespeare’s great political thriller to modern day Africa.

Featuring a cast including Ray Fearon and Paterson Joseph, Julius Caesar is directed byGregory Doran, recently announced as RSC Artistic Director Designate.

A limited number of £5 tickets are available for the 7.15pm performance of Julius Caesar on Saturday 2 June and the 7pm performance of Julius Caesar on Wednesday 6 June (terms and conditions apply*) - to book just call the RSC Ticket Hotline on 0844 800 1110 and quote ‘Caesar £5 offer’ or buy online using promo code 1600

*Terms and conditions
This offer is subject to availability and does not apply to tickets already purchased.  Maximum of 4 tickets per person. Cannot be combined with any other discounts or offers.  Please note that the performance on Wednesday 6 June begins at 7pm and latecomers may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance.
]]> http://midpoint.org.uk/2012/05/18/5-tickets-for-julius-caesar/feed/ 0 julius caesar midpointadmin http://midpoint.org.uk/2012/05/17/upstairs-improv-shootout-dont-miss-out-on-tickets-inbox/ http://midpoint.org.uk/2012/05/17/upstairs-improv-shootout-dont-miss-out-on-tickets-inbox/#comments Thu, 17 May 2012 11:41:56 +0000 Midpoint http://midpoint.org.uk/?p=1245 Read more]]> After our sell-out ImprovSlam, UPSTAIRS brings you the Improv Shootout

This is a fantastic opportunity to develop new skills in circus and share them with audiences in the region at Birmingham Hippodrome’s Six Summer Saturdays and Sandwell Arts Festival. We will train and support you to develop suitable skills. You will be part of our creative team, working to develop an exciting new outdoor performance, led by professional circus and physical theatre artists.  We will cover participant travel expenses, and provide you with lunches on full day rehearsal and performance days.

We will be holding an open recruitment day in Birmingham on Saturday 16 June, which will be a great chance to find out if this is the right project for you. Selection will be based on participant’s ability to commit to the project dates and their passion and interest in the project. Please not places are limited to 5.

If Only I Could will be a visually striking piece of circus theatre with a strong but simple narrative of self-discovery, played out through circus acts. Just as the circus performer seemingly achieves the impossible, a young girl embarks on a journey, encountering the weird and wonderful, which equips her with everything she needs to be literally flying high! The project is led by artists Kim Charnock & Joe Fearn, and produced by Pippa Frith & Thomas Wildish.

To find out more and book in for the recruitment workshop:

Please contact Producer Pippa Frith on 07500 015298 or Lead Artist Joe Fearn on 07748 014128 or drop us an email oncircusifonlyicould@gmail.com  by the 13^th June 2012 if you’re interested, and we’ll book you into a workshop.

If Only I Could… is a brand new outdoor circus performance being developed in Birmingham. It will be a visually striking piece of circus theatre with a strong but simple narrative of self-discovery, played out through circus acts. Just as the circus performer seemingly achieves the impossible, a young girl embarks on a journey, encountering the weird and wonderful, which equips her with everything she needs to be literally flying high!

The project is led by artists Kim Charnock & Joe Fearn, and produced by Pippa Frith & Thomas Wildish, and will have 5 community performers, alongside the 3 professional performers. Performances are planned to preview as part ofBirmingham Hippodrome’s Six Summer Saturdays and Sandwell Arts Festival during August 2012, with further discussions about additional performances still taking place.

The project will be primarily developed throughout July and August. Full dates are listed on the attached document.

This is offered for a fixed fee of £2500 inclusive of all expenses, and is most suitable for an artist based in the midlands, as there is no accommodation budget available.

To apply please send your CV, a showreel (if you have one), and a short statement outlining why you are interested and what you think you could bring to the project to ifonlyIcouldcircus@gmail.com . The deadline for application is Friday 1^stJune, 5pm. We will be inviting suitable artists for a conversation on Wednesday 6^th June.

If you have any questions before applying please contact Producer, Pippa Frith on 07500 015298

NB This project is funding pending. Funding will be confirmed in early June, ahead of any conversations with potential artists.

To view our video for Hollywood Waist and find out more visit http://www.hollywoodwaist.rage.org.uk

Directed by Graeme Braidwood

One evening ten-year-old Rhona goes missing.  Her mother, Nancy, retreats into a state of frozen hope.  Agnetha, an American academic, comes to England to research a thesis: “Serial Killing – A Forgivable Act?”  Then there’s Ralph, a loner who’s looking for some distraction.  Drawn together by horrific circumstances, these three embark on a long, dark journey which finally curves upward into the light.  Angry, humane and compassionate, FROZEN is an extraordinary play that entwines the lives of a murderer, the mother of one of his victims and his psychologist to explore our capacity for forgiveness, remorse and change after an act that would seem to rule them out entirely.  Contains: strong language and references of a sexual and violent nature.

Thursday 31st May (£7 Preview Night)

Friday 1st June

Saturday 2nd June

Wednesday 6th June – Pay What You Can Night

Thursday 7th June

Friday 8th June

Saturday 9th June

Tickets: £10 Standard, £8.50 Concessions

Show starts at 7.45pm, bar opens at 6.45pm.

To purchase tickets, please call the Box Office on 0121 212 2643 or do it online at www.blueorangetheatre.co.uk