Stan’s Cafe Theatre Company

A Lot for A Little

June 11th, 2013

A couple of days ago I posted a depressing report on an Arts Council briefing. At the end of the briefing they showed this video. The challenge is to watch this and say public subsidy of the arts isn’t worth 17p per week from our taxes.

17p is the VAT on a £1 bottle of pop (see my Juice for the Arts campaign). It costs you 20p to have a piss at New Street Station (actually now the station’s been revamped I don’t know what the pissing cost is).

17p cut by 15% becomes 14.5p so there’s the choice. Do you really want to rip up the country’s culture for the sake of 2.5p per person per week?

Posted in Art / Politics | No Comments »

We’re Fighting Back!

June 10th, 2013

Photo Credit: Graeme Braidwood

Invitation to Open Space

Matt Burman, Louisa Davies, Steve Johnston, Frances Land, Roxana Silbert and James Yarker invite you to address the question:

“HOW DO WE WORK TOGETHER TO PUSH THEATRE FORWARD IN THE WEST MIDLANDS?”

We all share a passion for Theatre and for its growth in the region. Individually we are all committed and working to this cause but experience tells us that our greatest strength comes when we work together. It has been two years since the theatre tribes of the West Midlands have come together in Open Space to chart paths and forge alliances. This time has come again.

Please come if at all possible: RSVP
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We’re Under Attack!

June 7th, 2013

‘Arty types’ are often not terribly into maths and statistics etc. maybe they even drifted off in their maths classes, but there are some sums that are so chilling they are impossible to doze through.

Today I attended a presentation from Arts Council England. If you wish never to sleep again please do read on by all means.

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Posted in Admin, Art / Politics | 2 Comments »

Espionage

June 5th, 2013

There are plots afoot for Stan’s Cafe to be part of the arts program around the opening of the new Library of Birmingham. As a result I was able to get in on a site visit. WOW, it looks fantastic! I’ve no idea if it’s going to be a great library but if one qualification for a great library is being a place people feel like hanging out it’s a triumph – I’m already packing my sandwiches and thermos. We had to promise not to distribute photographs of the new library but I don’t think this one will get me into much trouble, it’s just evidence of the amazing logistical undertaking it is to move a library from one building to the next.

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Cardinals in the Kirk

June 4th, 2013

We are delighted to announce four performances of The Cardinals in Edinburgh during August as part of the Fringe Festival. The show will be performed in the beautiful setting of Greyfriars Kirk on 19th, 20th, 21st & 23rd August at 12:00. Tickets are available via the Fringe Box Office. We would love to see the shows really busy so please do pass the word around.

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Trumped

May 24th, 2013

Having limbered up on Wednesday night we rocked up at Symphony Hall this morning to finish off the job only to find ourselves trumped. A team of guys with a giant cherry picker where busy applying a vast vinyl to the building’s vast front window – far more pressured than our small scale fiddling around.

Our job was strangely stress free. Being a treasure hunt rather than a conventional edition of the Steps Series means there are none of the complicated narrative or choreographic challenges, instead there are some of the most complicated and intricate vinyls we have ever delivered – miniature French Horn anyone?

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Treasure Hunt

May 23rd, 2013

Photography and painting were completed today on Year 2′s comic book adaptation of Treasure Island. Day 1 involved learning about tableaux and how comic book conventions work as well as reading the book. On Day 2 Kay came in to work with the children on their costume designs whilst Craig and I worked through storyboarding the eight chapters with the chapter groups (him odd and me even) and the two classes started making props and treasure maps.

Yesterday and today we were joined by Ming De Nasty who did a heroic job photographing a vast array of set ups we put before her both on location and in front of the blue screen. At the same time the classes were doing loads of activities surrounding the project including painting backdrops

Posted in Education | No Comments »

Tuning Up

May 21st, 2013

Last week Craig and I undertook a site visit to Symphony Hall and plotted an orchestral treasure hunt adventure there. Simon Ford, who had been put on stand-by, undertook late night vigils creating detailed vinyl representations of a vast array of instruments. Early this week I did a late night shift cutting all the vinyl and ‘picking out’ the unwanted vinyl and tonight Craig, Denise and I started the sticking job. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in The Steps Series | No Comments »

Dance & more Dance

May 15th, 2013

Having very much enjoyed Surtra – the Sidi Larbi/ Shaolin monk/Antony Gormley kung-fu/dance-fest at the Hippodrome last week I’m on the lookout for a bit more contemporary dance. With Pilot Night on Thursday night at our place and Friday nights domestically in demand I may struggle to get to Dan Canham’s Ours Was The Fen Country which is a shame as it sounds like an intriguing idea and worth checking out.

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1/20 Winners

May 15th, 2013

Last night at the Dorchester Hotel. PRS for Music Foundation’s New Music 20×12 won the Concert Series and Festivals category of the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Awards. Which, as The Voyage was one of the twenty twelve minute long pieces which made up the series must make us 1/20 winners. Unfortunately we didn’t get to go to the Dorchester… Well done to the PRS team for pulling it all together.

Winners of the Audience and Engagement Category were The Philharmonia Orchestra for their Universe of Sound project, which arrives at the Birmingham Municipal Bank building on Broad Street on 25th May. Coincidently we have been commissioned by Symphony Hall to compliment Universe of Sound by installing The Orchestra Dream – a spin off from The Steps Series – in their foyer spaces.

Posted in The Steps Series, The Voyage | No Comments »