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Cabaret Without Borders - London

London, UK 
"Cabaret Without Borders" - Talks and Performances for Free Movement
Date: June 3, 2009 
Location: Rochelle School, Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES
Info: www.manifestoclub.com
The Manifesto Club, Artsadmin and A Foundation present: "Cabaret Without Borders" - talks and performances against the Home Office’s new controls on visiting artists and academics to the UK. This is part of the Manifesto Club's summer events series, Freedom Summer. This will be a convivial evening of satirical artistic interventions, passionate political rhetoric and personal testimonies at the East London gallery, Rochelle School, celebrating free movement for all and opposition to the Home Office's new Visa controls for visiting artists and academics. 
Participating artists: Harold Offeh, Susannah Hewlett, Mark McGowan, Cyril Lepetit, chanson diva Barb Jungr, author Maureen Duffy, poet and performance artist Anthony Howell, theatre director Tim Supple, activists/free thinkers Josie Appleton and Christian Michel and many more. Including testimonials and videos from invited artists who have felt the brunt of these regulations or were refused visas: Dmitri Vilensky (Russia), Poshya Kakil (Kurdistan-Iraq), Abbas Kiarostami (Iran)

The ‘Greening’ of London Theatres

Mark Shenton has written on the Guardian blog about London’s promise to reduce energy use in their buildings. According to a report from the mayor’s office, the theatre industry creates 50,000 tons of cardon emissions a year. The action plan proposes a 60% reduction by 2025, which would be the eqivalent of converting 5000 London homes to zero-carbon. The Arcola in Dalston has lead the charge by promising to becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral theatre.

London's Green Theatre Initiative

This is an article publish in 'The Stage' on 10 September 2008 by Matthew Hemley

London’s theatre industry pumps 50,000 tons of carbon into the atmosphere every year - equivalent to 10% of the city’s total bus emissions or the annual energy consumption of 9,000 homes. The findings are outlined this week in a document entitled Green Theatre - Taking Action on Climate Change, a joint initiative between Mayor Boris Johnson and leading theatre groups, including the Society of London Theatre, National Theatre, the Theatres Trust and Ambassador Theatre Group.

Described as an action plan for the industry, it outlines measures that the capital’s venues can take to reduce energy use in buildings. The annual figure of 50,000 tons of carbon emissions that London theatres create is equivalent to that of 830 buses. The figure, which does not include pre-production or audience travel, is also equal to the total TV emissions from all homes in Westminster. Surprisingly, the biggest chunk of the theatre industry’s carbon footprint - 35% - comes from activities front of house, such as air-conditioning in auditoriums, a convenience an increasing number of venues pride themselves on offering audiences.

The heating and cooling of rehearsal spaces comprises 28% of the total footprint, while stage electrics, including lighting and sound, are responsible for 9% of the overall amount.
The document and its findings, based on assessments of more than 100 venues and theatre suppliers throughout Greater London, warns: “Without action, emissions and fuel bills are set to grow, in particular with the trend of West End productions using more energy to create ever more visually-spectacular shows.”

Johnson said his aim was to see London’s theatres achieve a 60% reduction in their carbon footprint by 2025 and described the industry’s power to set an example in tackling climate change as “immense”. He added: “This plan will enable all of us to reach that 60% target and avoid some of the potentially disastrous consequences of carrying on business as usual. It will help theatres to communicate the message about climate change to audiences, without imposing on their artistic integrity or reducing the quality of shows.”

Controversially, the plan includes recommendations that theatres:
• Charge production companies for specific energy use.
• Switch on stage lighting just 30 minutes before a show starts, to save a collective £100,000 a year in energy costs.
• Install low-energy bulbs in the foyer and backstage areas.
• Include equipment energy costs in production budgets.

Travel is not included in the theatre industry’s carbon footprint of 50,000 tons, but separate findings show audience travel to London theatres accounts for 35,000 tons of carbon emissions a year. These findings reveal one in three theatregoers still travel by car or taxi to a show. The plan said that if all audiences travelling to a theatre by these means switched to public transport, carbon emissions from audience travel would be reduced by around 14%.
For a full report, click here.

DV8 Physical Theatre Auditions

DV8 Physical Theatre is seeking highly experienced and trained dancers with strong technique and discipline. Acting ability and a willingness to improvise are essential.The company will be holding open auditions in New York, Paris and London for:1. Future projects. 2. The re-casting of the 2009 tour of "To Be Straight With You." Information about the auditions and company can be found here.

New York
Saturday 4th October, 10am till 5pm
New Dance Group Studio, Studios 4 & 5
305 West 38th St, New York, NY 10018

Paris
Saturday 25th October , 10am till 5pm
Maison des ArtsEntrée des artistes
1 avenue du Général Billotte, 94000 CRETEIL

London
Saturday 8th November , 9am till 5pm
Steve Whitson Studio, Toynbee Studios
28 Commercial St, London E1 6AB

Shakespeare's First Theatre Unearthed

The theater where The Merchant of Venice and Romeo and Juliet likely debuted and where William Shakespeare himself may have trodden the boards has likely been discovered in east London, archaeologists at the Museum of London said Wednesday. The possible foundations of what is known as simply, The Theatre, were unearthed by builders excavating the site (a vacant garage) for another structure. Museum archaeologists were called to the location to make sure nothing was destroyed, and had a eureka moment.

"We were there, scratching our heads, looking into the trenches, thinking, 'this could be it,'" said Jo Lyon, a senior archaeologist at the museum. "So we did some more research, and then we found the angled walls. And we all went, 'Oh my gosh, this should be it.' "

Other theaters of similar vintage also have angled walls, so the discovery was significant. Archaeologists also had known for a long time there was a high probability for The Theatre to be on this particular site. But there are no maps that show its location, no images to show what it might have looked like, and only a vague description of it.

The possible discovery of The Theatre, built in 1576 and where Shakespeare's troupe performed in the 1590s, could complete the set of open-air theaters where the Bard's plays were staged. The Rose theater's location was discovered in 1989 in Bankside, just south of the River Thames in central London, and the Globe theater is nearby. A replica of the Globe was built on a site close to the original and opened in 1997. Shakespeare's company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, only moved into The Theatre in the 1590s. Until then, they had been performing at the Rose, but a shake up in the London theater scene necessitated the move, said Martin Wiggins, a fellow at the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham.

And in 1597, a dispute with the landlord forced the company to move again, Wiggins said. They didn't own the ground The Theatre was built on, but the company did own the material it was built with, so they simply dismantled the entire theater and moved it south across the River Thames, where it was rebuilt and renamed the Globe. But The Theatre's foundations remained in east London, and that's what archaeologists believe they have found. Other works that would have been performed during the period Shakespeare's company were at The Theatre would have included Henry IV,Richard II, King John, and The Merry Wives of Windsor," Wiggins said. Lyon said it's unlikely The Theatre's complete foundations will ever be fully excavated, but her team intends to examine them further. Fittingly, a new theater is being built on the site, ensuring the foundations below are protected.

Brantley in London

NY Times theatre critic and resident Anglophile, Ben Brantley, recounts some of the recent shows he saw on his yearly trip to London. Thankfully, this article covers much of the new work being presented opposed to the majority of West End rubbish. He covers Harper Regan, In My Name, The Pitmen Painters and Relocated.

As Brantley says, “Blockbuster musicals and brand-name star power were largely what made last year a record breaker in West End theater attendance. But what this New Yorker abroad has found most revitalizing has been lower-profile productions that insist that the theater still has an active role in the national conversation here.”

London: Best Year Ever

London's theatres enjoyed their most successful year on record in 2007, with attendances exceeding 13 million for the first time. The Society of London Theatre's annual report said that box office takings last year rose to almost £470m, but the number of plays opening was down by a third on the previous year. The report said two-thirds of tickets sold were for musicals. According to SOLT's annual report, residents of Greater London purchased about one third of London theatre tickets last year. Theatre-goers from the rest of the UK bought another third, with the remainder snapped up by visitors from overseas. The Society of London Theatre represents the producers, theatre owners and managers of the major commercial and grant-aided theatres in London. The trade association has been collating box office data since 1980.

An End to "Never on Sunday"?

Starting in September, the National Theatre in London will offer Sunday matinees at 3 o'clock. This breaks the long standing tradition of not producing plays on the ‘Lord’s Day’. Looks like, in addition to films, concerts and exhibitions, theatre will be yet another activity that the Brits can participate on the 'day of rest’. As Michael Billington predicts, within a year or so, all London theatres will follow suit. Check out the Guardian blog for the whole scoop.

The Greater London Theatre

London's County Hall, the former home of both the Greater London Council and the Saatchi Gallery, is to become a three-theatre entertainment complex called the Greater London Theatre.

The building's original debating chamber - having witnessed well-publicized clashes between Livingstone and Thatcher in the 80s - will be the main theatrical space. Creative company Weird & Wonderful - which already runs Movieum, an exhibition of film props, in the building - is also in talks to build a black-box studio; outdoor productions will be staged on County Hall's riverside terrace. With the creation of the Greater London Theatre, the plan is to turn the building into a cultural centre to rival other off-West End venues such as the Battersea Arts Centre in south London.

According to Marcus Campbell Sinclair, the project's joint artistic director, the new venue will be multi-disciplinary. "It will work brilliantly as a bridge between fringe and West End theatre," he said. "We are creating in-house productions, and are also in talks with external companies who wish to come in and utilize the space. It will be a mixture of new writing, classical works and other performance theatre."