tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87750763569627077772008-10-06T12:57:48.886+01:00Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comBlogger124125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-48094570037724987512008-10-06T12:31:00.003+01:002008-10-06T12:57:48.895+01:00

An explosion of theatre, art and music. A youth theatre company based at the Octagon Theatre, activ8 Bridges, has organised a festival aiming to help young people with disabilities to discover, develop or celebrate their creative talents. It takes place at Rumworth School in Bolton on Saturday 18 October between 10am and 6pm where various activities will take place. The day includes; two

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-28272278215659746182008-09-26T13:22:00.003+01:002008-09-26T13:26:29.452+01:00

I am sad to say the rumours are true and Mark Babych, our Artistic Director, will be leaving in the summer next year. Mark joined the theatre as resident director in 1999; the first production that he directed was Perfect Pitch, which was nominated for Best Production MEN Awards in 2000. He has since then been nominated for and won several Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards, including And

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-15268458862128963462008-09-26T10:52:00.004+01:002008-09-26T11:07:07.169+01:00

Here's another couple of pieces on Merchant of Venice. An interview with the marvellous David Fielder. Not only a great Shylock but also a very lovely man. Click to enlarge the image.... And here's another review.....

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-51507824089516367542008-09-25T10:55:00.004+01:002008-09-25T12:03:38.750+01:00

The lovely Donna has been in again to capture some of the wonder that it the Merchant of Venice. If the magnificent reviews haven't been enough to tempt you, perhaps take a look at this and see what you think?

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-42789173075710832302008-09-23T16:38:00.005+01:002008-09-23T16:44:34.841+01:00

Arts council England, North West is running the art08 awards to celebrate the creativity and innovation of arts in the North West and you could help us win £10,000 for the work that we do. The categories for nominations are: Individual Artist Award 2008 - to celebrate and recognise the achievements of an individual regional artist Inside, Outside and Online – celebrating where great art has

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-27352094914034938082008-09-22T17:19:00.004+01:002008-09-22T17:22:53.102+01:00

Apologies I have to post this separately but it is some weird glitch in the blog software that if you post more than one image you can't enlarge them! So here is the MEN review. Click on it to enlarge!

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-65979579531605260922008-09-22T10:39:00.018+01:002008-09-26T18:14:59.159+01:00

The Merchant of Venice (David Fielder as Shylock and Catherine Kinsella as Jessica). Image: Ian Tilton The Merchant of Venice opened on Friday night. If this first production of the season sets the tone for Autumn Winter 2008 then I am really excited about seeing the rest. I had high hopes for the look of this show as having heard the designer, Tom Scutt, talk about it in design meets I

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-76157585341451961342008-09-19T12:30:00.004+01:002008-09-19T14:23:34.914+01:00

So The Merchant of Venice opened last night and the feedback so far seems to be very positive. I sneaked into the dress yesterday to get a glimpse of how it is shaping up and it looks great. Tom Scutt's design works really well in portraying this rather murky, tarnished world. It wasn't too murky though allowing super snapper Ian Tilton to capture some great moments from the play:

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-35269060649272741602008-09-11T12:58:00.007+01:002008-09-19T14:22:03.847+01:00

As they say in Sesame Street, today's post is brought to you by the letter 'F' (Friday Fun Freebies Five (Reasons to see The Merchant of Venice))! Okay, there is no real excuse for the video below apart from it's Friday and I love all things muppet. Plus, there is a tenuous link as this little piece is called the Monsters of Venice (see what they did there?). Although, it does little to unravel

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-91986060591745177222008-09-11T10:57:00.003+01:002008-09-11T11:20:39.286+01:00

For those of you Dahl fans out there, and we know there are a few, we thought you might like to know that Roald Dahl Day is this week. Find more information, downloads, and events over at the website. Special Offer EXTENDED - £5 off a Family Ticket And with Dahl in mind it seems timely for me to remind you that we’re extending the Early Bird Saver for families to come and see our festive show,

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-82500100273507331692008-09-09T17:05:00.007+01:002008-09-12T16:27:32.854+01:00

Although still a bit risque, I had to try really hard to reign in the smut factor for this title of this post. Apparently, our audiences can't get enough of the Vagina Monologues (see this is why the post title could have been much worse!) and performances are nearly sold out so we are delighted to announce that we will be putting on an additional performance. Date: Wednesday 15 October 2008

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-55570711055002321362008-09-05T16:35:00.006+01:002008-09-09T17:39:04.381+01:00

Apologies that this is a bit after the fact but this time last week there was a buzz in the theatre roud about htis time as a group of young people prepared for their stage debut with the preview night of Well Swung. I really enjoyed the show. The music was great (the swing version of the Scissor Sisters Filthy Gorgeous was my fave). The energy of the cast and their obvious talent was

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-2964919655784398652008-09-02T10:36:00.005+01:002008-09-02T12:32:33.385+01:00

Image taken from: http://www.mostphotos.com/ I'd like to think if Shakespeare was still alive then he would definitely have been a blogger. I have been having been surfing the net...ahem ...I mean doing some research on Shakespeare, as The Merchant of Venice kicks off the season soon, and it seems that there are fair few blogs dedicated to the Bard. I thought for those of you with an interest in

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-21240937282615059002008-09-01T12:14:00.003+01:002008-09-01T12:46:00.130+01:00

We are delighted to welcome the 24:7 Theatre festival back to the Octagon this week. This year we are showing four of the best shows from this year's festival (2 shows per night in relay). You can read the MEN round-up fo the Theatre festival here and you can find reviews for all the shows featured in Four of the Best on the 24:7 website. I can't link directly to the press section but if you

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-61964759646457392742008-08-29T14:02:00.004+01:002008-08-29T14:15:15.743+01:00

Okay, this isn't strictly theatre news but news of a performer on a different stage - a sporting one! If, like me, you were sucked into the breath-taking spectacle of human endeavour that was the Beijing Olympics, you cannot fail to be blown away by the achievements of the UK Cycling team. Luckily for us, one of those Gold Medal winning cyclists, was Bolton boy Jason Kenny. Apparently, he is

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-2227824087550927262008-08-29T12:34:00.009+01:002008-09-09T17:34:18.499+01:00

Apologies for the rather bad corruption of the Manic Street Preachers lyrics for the title. Forgive me, it's Friday! This post is about a brand new designer, Tom Scutt (he designs for his livelihood - does the post title make sense now!?) Not only is he brand spanking new, he is also award-winning! Tom was not only a prize winner at the 2007 Linbury Biennial for his work at Headlong Theatre, he

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-85566212861030248922008-08-22T11:04:00.004+01:002008-08-22T11:38:54.161+01:00

You may remember me talking about the auditions for our community musical play, Well Swung, that is being produced by activ8. Well they have been rehearsing like mad over the last week or so and from what I can hear coming from the bar, it is sounding pretty darn good. The production involves a small team of professional actors and musicians supported by a youth cast and orchestra of 25. It’s

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-91695405362331328252008-08-21T15:26:00.005+01:002008-08-21T15:44:40.979+01:00

Mark has pulled together a great cast for The Merchant of Venice. Not only are they great in talent but also fairly great in number - there's eleven of them. Not as many as The Crucible though who struggled to all fit on the stage when they took the curtain call (not that we have a curtain but you know what I mean!). Not only are there faces from the recent past (a fair few you might recognise

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-91912252606492354612008-08-07T10:20:00.005+01:002008-08-07T11:06:52.316+01:00

Although things are relatively quiet here at the theatre at the moment, we will soon be starting preparations for next season. The production staff will be back after their well deserved summer holidays, cast will arrive to start rehearsing once again and our exciting special events programme will commence. Talking of special events, we'd like to tell you about a new event that will be taking

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-44246322568315738072008-07-22T10:55:00.002+01:002008-07-22T11:54:07.431+01:00

You may remember me mentioning the activ8 showcase here. Well, at last I have got round to uploading some more info and more importantly details of the winners...drum roll please! Here's Lynsey to talk to you a bit more about it.....Hello there!We, in activ8, would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for all their hard work and support at our activ8 showcase and awards on Saturday 5

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-66600477595779933922008-07-18T10:35:00.007+01:002008-07-23T15:45:22.429+01:00

Beautiful Thing (Octagon Theatre and Pilot Theatre) 2005 The next speaker at the Shift Happens event was Artistic Director of the Pilot Theatre, Marcus Romer. We have been lucky enough to work with Pilot on a couple of co-productions (Beautiful Thing and East is East) and it seems Pilot have really embraced the whole Web 2.0 age, so much so that I don't even have to give you the low down on his

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-67417891878213755152008-07-16T11:27:00.002+01:002008-07-16T11:32:07.741+01:00

activ8, the participation team at the Octagon are producing a brand new musical, 'Well Swung', to be premiered in the Theatre at the end of August. The show has roles available for a number of young actors and singers (aged 14 -21) and also members of our community who play a brass instrument (of any age). Auditions are taking place for Brass musicians on Monday 21st July between 3pm and 6pm and

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-6294367541443424522008-07-11T15:21:00.005+01:002008-07-23T15:42:14.683+01:00

Okay time for the second part in this series. The lowdown on the recent Shift Happens event I attended. The second speaker at the event was Ben Todd, correction, Dr Ben Todd - the Dr bit is important. He is the Executive Director of the Arcola Theatre in that London village and an engineer. An engineer at the head of an arts organisation! Have you ever heard of such a thing?Well, it seems that

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-77737388867831873022008-07-10T10:52:00.003+01:002008-07-10T13:03:10.586+01:00

We are looking to put together a group of people (Advisory panel / Steering /Focus Group - whatever you wan to call it) that we can call on to ask various things about the Octagon Theatre. We would love you to join us. It will probably mean a few hours every couple of months when you will come to the theatre, have a cuppa and a biscuit and get asked questions about various issues from brochure

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8775076356962707777.post-16376225633755977072008-07-08T14:58:00.007+01:002008-07-23T15:38:25.640+01:00

Apologies for the lack of posting over the last week but I have just been taking a breather from the blog now we have come to the end of the Anniversary Season and before we kick back off again preparing for the brand-new, spangly Autumn Winter 2008 Season. Anyway, last week I was lucky enough to attend an rather marvellous Technology and Digital Conference Shift Happens - get me! Over the day a

Sally Boydnoreply@blogger.com