RSC Open Stages opportunity

Message forwarded by Pam Johnson,    Just to keep everyone informed about the whole Open Stages Project, this is the latest news.  Unfortunately most of the performances are too far away for us to visit but the introductory information should give you an idea of what has been happening and do look at the RSC website.  It is exciting to be part of such a prestigious project.  Workshops and readings for The LADS production of The Taming of the Shrew will start after our next production Ladies Day directed by Suzannah Smith although it will not be produced until March 2015, following Neil Rhode’s production in November 2014.

Pam

From OpenStages@RSC.org.uk

Hello Open Stagers,

After travelling 2,438 miles, delivering 280 hours of workshops, with approximately 1260 participants, we are nearing the end of the first phase of the Open Stages project, with the final Skills Exchange coming up for the RSC groups on this weekend (29th and 30th March)*

We have been truly overwhelmed by your fantastically supportive response to the Skills Exchanges. We have also been hugely impressed by the way participants have so wholeheartedly thrown themselves into the exercises, activities and ideas that we have bombarded them with over each of the exhausting two day events. The warmth with which we’ve been received, and genuine understanding of the ideas and techniques we’ve been trying to put across, quickly led our practitioners to realise they were among fellow theatre makers, who share the same passion, and many of the same challenges. So thank you to everyone who took part. A huge thank you must also go out to the Partner Theatres who organised, hosted and contributed to the Skills Exchanges.

For most of the directors the mentoring process has now begun, with sessions run by your Open Stages Mentors at each partner theatre. Hopefully some familiar RSC’s Skills Exchange faces will crop up from time to time as the sessions progress. Many groups have also taken advantage of the freelance status of most of the Skills Exchange practitioners and have hired them to run supplementary workshops with their groups in their own venue.

 For some groups opening night is alarmingly/excitingly close. Below is a summary of the first groups to perform. As part of the supportive nature of the project we’d love to see people going to see each other’s shows, either in their region or beyond. Your Open Stages Mentor will see your production and give helpful feedback. Given there are one hundred Open Stages productions spread across the UK I won’t be able to see all the productions in their own venues (outside of our own region) however I will try and get out to see a good selection so please do feel free to send me an invite (contact details below). I will also see all the showcases at the partner theatres and therefore catch at least an extract of all productions.

Please also remember once you’ve finished performing to keep attending the mentoring session,  to share your experience as well pick up new skills techniques and ideas for your future productions. This will also keep you in touch with other Open Stages opportunities such as plans for the Showcases post April next year.

Open Stages April Production

 

Partner Theatre	Open Stages Company	Location	Production	Opening	Closing
Nuffield	Whole Hog Productions	Alma Tavern Theatre Bristol (10 - 15 March 2014), Phoenix Theatre New College Swindon (4th April), Gaiety Theatre Isle of Man (21st April).	A touring production of Much Ado About Nothing set in the 1940’s	10 March 2014	21 April 2014
Contact	Stockport Garrick Theatre	Stockport Garrick Theatre	A Winter's Tale Stockport Garrick Theatre was founded in 1901and are the country’s oldest Little Theatre and the ‘first great English civic amateur society’ (Michael Dobson Shakespeare institute). They famously first performed A Winter’s Tale in 1906	29 March 2014	05 April 2014
RSC	Leicester University Theatre	Leicester Cathedral	The Tragedy of Richard III Leicester University found Richard III’s body. Now they are performing the play in the very place (the Cathedral) where he is proposed to be buried	02 April 2014	04 April 2014
Questors	Pirton Players	Pirtion Village Hall, Hitchin	An Orwellian Julius Caesar set in a dystopian future.	01 April 2014	05 April 2014
Nuffield	Arena Theatre	(1st March) The Hub Theatre Southampton, (8th March) Athenaeum Centre Warminster, (15th March) Mowlem Theatre Swanage, (3rd -5th March) Shelley Theatre Bournemouth	Candlelit Celtic themed Macbeth. Determined to take amateur Shakespeare beyond comfy picnic and Pims affairs.	01 April 2014	05 April 2014
Nuffield	Amateur Players of Sherborne	Digby Hall, Hound Street, Sherborne	A modern production of The Merry Wives of Windsor in the Round. Traditional amateur company working with youth unemployment charity, with great support from their Open Stages partner Theatre The Nuffield running movement and Acting workshops	10 April 2014	12 April 2014
Questors	Artisans Drama Society	Brentwood Theatre, Elm park Hornchurch	A fairy tale Cymbeline with a wicked stepmother Queen	23 April 2014	26 April 2014

 

For a full list of what productions are going on go to our Open Stages Participants Map: http://www.rsc.org.uk/explore/projects/open-stages/participants-map-2014.aspx

The Open Stages participants map is your way of seeing who else is involved in the project.  However now we are moving into the performance phase of the project. We want this to be somewhere where not just participants but also the public can find out about your production and how to book a ticket.  So, we will be updating the current link and moving information about Open Stages into the RSC’s What’s On section of the RSC website alongside our own productions. We will send you updated links of how to find the pages as soon as they are available.

 In the meantime please send us the following information as it comes available for your Open stages production:

1. Confirmed dates and venue for your performance
2. An image of your production – can be your show poster.
3. Booking information – phone number and/or online booking address

This will be shown on the map like this:

 

When your production is finished (or before) please send us any links to press coverage, reviews and a few photos.

 Please Send your updates to Nicky Salmon (contact details below)

We will also be putting out a new Open Stages press release in Early April highlighting the fact that Open Stages Productions are starting. The timing of this works well for the celebrations of 450 years since Shakespeare’s birth which we’ll link to the continued popularity of Shakespeare amongst amateurs and professionals. Please do keep us up to date with press stories, events campaigns, media coverage around your production – contact Amy Belson below.

Also please remember to include #RSCOpenStages on any tweets you are sending about your shows, this helps us to keep up to date with what you are doing and promote your tweets when we can.

Now is a great time to share what’s happening with your production/company with other Open Stages Companies. The Open Stages Facebook page provides a great platform to share experiences images show dates production problems and find solutions go to  https://www.facebook.com/rscopenstages. Thank you to everyone who has posted their Skills Exchange experiences so far.

 So to those companies about to perform we wish you great success, to those in rehearsal we say have fun and to those who have not yet begun keep in touch.

 Kind Regards

 Ian

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