Tabla de contenidos para June 2023 en Ink Pellet

Young people care deeply about the arts and the role that the arts play in both their formal and informal learning journeys. Research carried out by the RSC has shown that young people not only see arts and creative subjects as a key contributor to well-being, but also critical to the way they understand themselves, each other and the world around them. For young people making their way in the world, seeing themselves, their interests and values reflected back at them is important. When Lit in Colour, the Penguin and Runnymede Trust report revealed that fewer than 1% of students study a book or play by a writer from an ethnically diverse background, it struck a chord with young people, including members of our own Youth Advisory Board (YAB). Young…

It made theatre history. When, in 1963, Joan Littlewood and her company famously devised Oh! What a Lovely War and staged it at Theatre Royal Stratford East, nobody had ever seen anything like it. It developed into a biting satire about the futility of war in general and World War One in particular, predicated on the songs we’d all grown up with. Littlewood hated military uniforms, so actors were costumed in the tradition of Pierrot and Comedia del arte. But the key point was that it was devised. No one sat down and invented it. It originated in improvisation. We’re all used to that idea now. In 1963 it was groundbreaking. Richard Attenborough’s 1969 debut film was based on it but he and his starry cast (Lawrence Olivier, Jack Hawkins,…

THREE WEEK SUMMER BOOTCAMP – ACTING: MOUNTVIEW Three weeks of intensive acting training, the Acting Summer Boot Camp is designed to offer an introduction and access to world-class drama school training. Mountview’s expert staff deliver 90 hours of training in our purpose-built and cutting-edge building in Peckham. Cost: £1150.00 for three weeks Dates: 24th July to 11th August www.mountview.org.uk THREE WEEK SUMMER BOOTCAMP - MUSICAL THEATRE: MOUNTVIEW Mountview created the UK’s first specialist three-year musical theatre course and has been training West End and Broadway stars for over 25 years. Our alumni including Olivier award-winners Giles Terera (Hamilton) and Rebecca Trehearn (Showboat) and most recently Sha Dessi (Eponine/Les Misérables) and Ben Joyce (Frankie Valli/Jersey Boys). Cost: £1300.00 for three weeks  Dates: 24th July to 11th August www.mountview.org.uk TRESTLE THEATRE COMPANY…

When Julian Chenery founded Shakespeare 4 Kidz twenty-five years ago he had a young family. I interviewed him – and them – for a national newspaper not long after S4K launched. Today, three of his four adult children are professionally involved in the company to some extent. His wife, Carolyn (they were celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary in the week that he and I met for this interview) is company producer. It’s very much a family business. S4K works very hard to present Shakespeare to children in an accessible, musical form as starting point. “And we were doing it long before the RSC, the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe started their similar projects” says Julian. That means toured productions, films, resources and packages to enable schools to mount their own…

Before the Andy Warhol that we all know for his Marilyns and Soup cans created his factory in New York, he was a jobbing graphic designer, and a successful one at that. The latest exhibition at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum aims to fill the gap, and succeeds too, with a charming and informative display of garments that predict what would become Warhol’s trademark use of colour, pattern and repetition. Whilst still in his mid-20’s Andy Warhol had already found employment drawing shoes for leading manufacturers to use in their advertising. These have been shown before, and although still not as well-known are his later iconic silkscreen prints, they are at least recognised as his creative beginnings. They are charming illustrations that employ a tracing technique, one that might be…

We’re in congenial tea shop in Balcombe in West Sussex where a homely lady in a traditional white pinny has served us tea, coffee and fruit scones. William has suggested this pretty village venue because I live in London and it’s a convenient spot halfway between his home and mine. Because he worked for a long time as a journalist he starts, out of habit I presume, by asking me questions about my background and interests – which is rather nice. It’s a few minutes before I remember why I’m there and manage to wrest the conversation back to him. William’s series of crime novels about Alexander Cupidi starting with Salt Lane (2018) are set in Kent and his detective lives at Dungeness. When I say that I love the…

There isn’t a child in the world who doesn’t like a story” declares Rachael, who tells me she’s a voracious reader herself. “But some will tell you that they hate reading and that acts like a narcotic for me as I set out to find ways of hooking them.” So why do so many children dislike reading? “Look” says Rachael “It’s not teachers’ fault. I admire them tremendously and I know I couldn’t do their job. The problem is the curriculum and methods which are imposed on them.” She explains that if you ask a child to explain their dislike of reading it always comes down to testing. “The emphasis on phonics, accuracy, analysis and comprehension kills the story and the joy.” She then launches into a rather good metaphor.…

How do you choose fiction to share in class? The National Curriculum programme of study says that Key Stage 3 students are “expected to read whole books, to read in depth and to read for pleasure and information”. Beyond that, the teacher has quite a lot of leeway. It seems to me that an English teacher’s job (and I did it for many years) has two main strands when it comes to promoting reading. First, there are the books you read together in class upon which you build activities and tasks. Obviously you won’t cover more than a handful of these in each school year. Second, and I think this is the more important part of the work, there are the books you discuss and recommend to each other. This…

Gypsy – The Mill at Sonning Gypsy, which premiered in 1959, is loosely based on the 1957 memoir by Gypsy Rose Lee (1911-1970), highly successful American burlesque stripper. It has been revived many times and the story is very familiar – the championing of one child at the expense of the other by the pushiest mother in musical theatre and probably in real life too. A cast of fourteen, several of whom are actor musos working with the off stage four-piece band led by Francis Good-hand on keys, bring an intimacy to what is effectively a family drama. Rebecca Thornhill has real star quality as Mama Rose. A vulnerable bundle of insecurities desperate to live out her thwarted dreams through her daughters, she glitters with pentup emotion and packs every…