Catherine Bennett resumes the weekly look at the performing arts world, with the sad end of Jerusalem, the luck of a cabbie, and French revolt. Do you hear the people sing?
Adam Alcock reviews Nigel Kennedy playing Vivaldi's Four Seasons and his own Four Elements at York Opera House.
Catherine Bennett highlights the trends in the performing arts world today.
Jonathan Cridford reviews 'Ghosts', one of the Freshers' plays for this year.
“Open Drama Night tonight” I said.
“What’s that?” asked my housemate.
Clearly a little under-publicised, then, but on Monday night I did go to Open Drama Night (ODN) which was a playwriting workshop by Dominic Allen. Even though I was primarily there to write this feature I actually got a bit inspired by it; I started my article with a bit of dialogue so something must have sunken in even if I’m not ready to whack out a full play just at the moment. Dominic, ably assisted by the energetic Alex Wright who made me do more exercise than I’ve done in months, ran an interesting, helpful, friendly and free session. It was also very nice; there was tea and biscuits.
ODN happens every Monday in the drama barn at 7.30. As the name suggests; it’s open, anyone can apply and there’s a lot of variety. I’ve only been to one other ODN and I was blindfolded, wrapped in a duvet, stroked and had water tricked down my back. Lovely. That was “Dreamscape” this term run by the cast and production team of “Metamorphosis” but other highlights have included play readings; if you have written a play and are not sure where to go with it readings are a good way to test them and “Whose Line is it Anyway?” which was done in conjunction with “Whose Life is it Anyway” and was by all accounts riotous.
I chatted to Danie Linsell the co-ordinator of this growing and new element of Drama Soc which compliments, sometimes very closely, the play a week that they produce. She said it essentially started to provide a low-key, friendly evening where people could do “anything. At all” and Monday night was the best night simply because it’s in between productions. It can be used as a training ground for techies and directors and producers who are thinking of applying with a play but want to test an idea or themselves as a team in a more relaxed environment.
Considering Drama Soc has a reputation for being one of the more clique-y societies on campus, something which she vigorously refutes, ODN provides a way of getting even more people involved particularly freshers in a less threatening way than turning up to auditions where everyone knows each other can be. With all this going for it ODN is pretty special.
Next week Simon Maeder and Lauren Clancy are running what promises to be an amazing production using masks. It will be a short and silent comedy and is the first production the barn has ever shown that uses masks. Simon and Lauren believe that unfairly masks have connotations with Mime and “amateur” theatre and that people can “mistrust and sometimes even fear their vibrancy and cartoon like behaviour”. They’re hoping to break down some of these misconceptions and utilise the “incredible range of emotions” that masks can offer to give the audience a different experience to usual drama barn fare. Variety, it seems, is key.
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