- New Theatre (Nottingham)
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The New Theatre.
The New Theatre is a playhouse and production company based on University Park campus, Nottingham, England. It is funded in part by the University of Nottingham Students' Union and constitutes one of the Union's 10 Student-Run Services.[1] It is the only entirely student-run theatre in England.[2]
Contents
Organisation and Structure
The New Theatre is housed in the Archaeology and Classics building of the University of Nottingham. In 2001 an extended foyer was added to the building, due to a generous donation from Mr Wallner, an alumnus of the University.
All aspects of the theatre are run by the 16 members of the New Theatre committee, although the producer and director of individual shows are given a large degree autonomy with regards to their productions.
Committee
New Theatre Committee 2011-12
Position Name President Meg Salter Secretary Adna Duherich Productions Co-ordinator Gus Miller Theatre Manager Emily Davenport Company Technical Director Lydia Scott Front of House Manager Matt Wilkes Treasurer Jess Courtney Social Secretary Lee Shipman Edinburgh & External Events Coordinator Tom Walsh Costume & Props Manager Lucy Bromillow Fundraising Coordinator Henry Blanchard Workshop Manager Grace Lowe (until October 2011) Branding & Marketing Manager Sam Hayward Technical Manager Roger Smissen Company Stage Manager Chris Walters (until September 2011)
James Bentley (from September 2011)Productions Publicity Manager Cressida McGill New Theatre Committee 2010-11
Position Name President Rebecca Catlin Secretary Flo Hapgood Productions Co-ordinator Amy Rushton Theatre Manager Tim Watkins Technical Director Lawrence Bolton Front of House Manager Nell Charleston (until January 2011)
Lauren Grant (from February 2011)Treasurer Conrad Cohen Social Secretary Frances Rylands Edinburgh Coordinator Ben Cave Costume & Props Manager Rose Williams Fundraising Coordinator Peter Cary Workshop Manager Phil Geller Publicity Manager Megan Salter Lighting Manager Kathryn Feavers Sound Manager Robert Leventhall Assistant Workshop Manager Christopher Walters Staging Coordinator Emily Davenport Rep Coordinator Elsa Harriskine (until February 2011)
Sam Hayward (from February 2011)The theatre's productions are open to the public and any student at the University of Nottingham can become a member. Once you are a member, you can receive a discount on theatre tickets and get involved in any aspect of running the theatre. Each semester a 'proposals meeting' is held by the committee at which any member/s can suggest a play that that they wish to direct. Once the upcoming season's plays are chosen by the committee, auditions are held by the production team of each play. As soon as the plays have been cast at the 'casting meeting', production teams are given a budget by the theatre treasurer and allowed a certain amount of autonomy, with the support of the Productions Co-ordinator on hand if they need it.
Each play is expected to break even but many make a profit that is then channeled back into improving the theatre's facilities and offering.
Productions
Productions 07/08
Autumn Semester '07 Spring Semester '08 The Slippery Soapbox: Spotbanded Skat by ShutYOface The Curse of the Devil's Verse by Nic Harvey Bouncers & Shakers by John Godber TwinSS by Ali Blackwell No Exit by Jean-Paul Satre/Crave by Sarah Kane (double-bill) The Cranberry Chamber by Student Improv Nottingham 7 minutes 31 by Anthony Lau/Under the Blacklight by Nick Moran (double-bill) After Miss Julie by Patrick Marber Proof by David Auburn Out Of Order by Ray Cooney Can't Stand Up For Falling Down by Richard Cameron Half A Heartbeat by Ed Hancock/The Dragon Botherers by Robert Jones (double-bill) The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Under The Impression by Tom Warren/The Third Condiment by Ben & Charlie Brafman (double-bill) Macbeth by William Shakespeare The Crucible by Arthur Miller Disco Pigs by Enda Walsh The Box by Luke Leonard/Good Morning & Goodbye by Nick Moran (double-bill) Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmermann (by the New Theatre Post-Grad Project) A Perfect Ganesh by Terrence McNally Productions 08/09
Autumn Semester '08 Spring Semester '09 Metamorphoses by Mary Zimmerman Crossing the Rubicon The Fairground Years by Sophia Charalambous Habeas Corpus by Alan Bennett A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me by Frank McGuinness Nowhere Warm by Elle O’Rorke / Offending the Audience by Peter Handke (double-bill) The Female Of The Species by Joanna Murray The Clouds by Aristophanes, adapted by Michael Moore The Dinner Game (Le Diner de Cons)” by Francis Veber What the Butler Saw by Joe Orton The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe, adapted by Steven Berkoff The Sieve Never Leaks by Daniel Sonabend Nature’s Pretenders by Adam Wood Shoot/Get Treasure/Repeat by Mark Ravenhill Look Back in Anger by John Osborne The Dumb Waiter by Harold Pinter Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo Six Characters in Search of an Author by Luigi Pirandello (by the New Theatre Post-Grad Project) Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare Productions 09/10
Autumn Semester 09 Spring Semester 10 Boys Life by Howard Korder Dracula by Bram Stoker, adapted by Hamilton Deane (by the New Theatre Post-Grad Project) The Country by Martin Crimp The Winterling by Jez Butterworth Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward Our Town by Thornton Wilder The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde Dinner by Moira Buffini Ghetto by Joshua Sobol The Love Of The Nightingale by Timberlake Wertenbaker Rhinoceros by Eugene Ionesco Road by Jim Cartwright The Bacchae by Euripides The Small Things by Neil LaBute Hamlet by William Shakespeare Excess by Cesar Teixeira The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard The Small Things by Enda Walsh The Fire-Raisers by Max Frisch (by the New Theatre Post-Grad Project) His Lordship Entertains by Ronnie Barker Productions 10/11
Autumn Semester 10 Spring Semester 11 Freshers' Fringe New Theatre Company En Vogue by The New Theatre Postgraduate Project Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen A Day In The Life by Student Improv Nottingham Orphans by Dennis Kelly Deus Vult by Adam H. Wells Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertold Brecht This Wide Night by Chloe Moss Normal by Anthony Neilson After The End by Dennis Kelly Bluebird by Simon Stephens Cradle Me by Simon Vinnicombe Arcadia by Tom Stoppard A View From The Bridge by Arthur Miller The Talented Mr Ripley by Philis Nagy Smile by Stephen Lowe Flare Path by Terrance Rattigan The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman & the Members of the Tectonic Theatre Project Rope by Patrick Hamilton Hymns by Chris O'Connell Productions 11/12
Autumn Semester '11 Abigail's Party by Mike Leigh Look Back in Anger by John Osbourne Be My Baby by Amanda Whittington The Hothouse by Harold Pinter Macbeth by William Shakespeare Bed by Jim Cartwright A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard New Theatre at the Fringe
Each year, the New Theatre takes an 'official' show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and supports any number of shows being performed and produced at the fringe by its members. In 2007, these shows included an adaptation of 'Alice Through the Looking Glass'(New Theatre[3]), 'Dearly Deported' by Charles Brafman (Ankle Productions[4]) and 'Slippery Soapbox: Spotbanded Skat' (ShutYOface Productions).
In 2008 the New Theatre took two shows; an ensemble devised piece ('Crossing The Rubicon', C Soco Chambers Street 12pm), and a piece of new writing by Anthony Lau ('Cross-Stitching', C Soco Chambers Street 1pm) officially. Also performing were Ribcaged Productions Ltd ('The Bear Who Paints'), Ankle Productions ('The Third Condiment'), Chimera Theatre Group ('Vivien') and Cicero Productions ('Written Off', their casts and crew being New Theatre members and alumni.
In 2009 the New Theatre took Warehouse 364, written and directed by Andy McNamee, who stepped into a role for one performance when a cast member was unable to perform.
In 2010 the New Theatre took another two shows; Only One Wing, written by Lizzie Bourne and directed by Andy McNamee, and The Retreat, written by Jenni Herzberg and directed by Becky Caitlin.
In 2011 the New Theatre took another two shows: Beef written by Rose Williams and directed by Liz Stevenson, Chasing Dragons written by Adam H. Wells and directed by Dan Rae-Scott.
In 2010 and 2011, Paulden Productions (co-founded by former New Theatre president Matt Leventhall) took FRESHER: The Musical to the fringe, where it won several accolades, including Musical Theatre Matters award for "Best New Musical".
New Theatre at NSDF
In 2007 and 2008 New Theatre entered a number of shows into the National Student Drama Festival competition. In both years two productions were selected by the NSDF judges as finalists and were performed at the Festival in Scarborough. In 2008 the theatre's shows 'Disco Pigs' and 'Proof' won 6 awards between them, with the theatre also receiving the 'Judges’ Award for Promoting Student Theatre'.[5]
"The NSDF, however, is about drama, not drama students, and a university with no theatre studies at all had two shows in performance. Nottingham University presented an in-the-round version of Enda Walsh’s violent, despairing Disco Pigs, and a polished production of the American David Auburn’s recent West End success Proof. Directed by a student of industrial economics, a cast consisting of a physicist, an English major, a sociologist and a student of Spanish and Portuguese became convincing Chicagoans in a coolly filmic study of family relations. The linguist Anna Wheatley won the Spotlight award for best actress as the daughter who bears the curse of inheriting her father’s mathematical genius, and Guy Unsworth, who designed the atmospheric set as well as directing the excellent cast, won the Directors’ Guild award." (Robert Hewison,© Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.)[6]
In 2011, four separate shows from New Theatre were selected by NSDF, from a total of 13 shows nationally.[7] These included: After the End, Orphans, Bluebird and This Wide Night. The company went on to win four awards at NSDF 2011: three Judges' awards for acting, one to Douggie McMeekin (Orphans), and two to Meg Salter and Lucy Bromilow (both for This Wide Night) respectively, and Best Design for After the End.[8]
Alumni
- Ruth Wilson
- Ruth Bratt
- Paul Kerensa[9]
References
- ^ http://www.su.nottingham.ac.uk/organisation/8528/
- ^ http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/podcasts/2011/march/backstageatthenewtheatrethiswidenight.aspx
- ^ http://www.newtheatre.org.uk/fringe.php
- ^ http://www.ankleproductions.co.uk/
- ^ http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article3628384.ece
- ^ http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/stage/theatre/article3628384.ece
- ^ http://www.nsdf.org.uk/cms2/uploads/REVISED%20Press%20Release%20NSDF11%20with%20LISTINGS%2021mar11.pdf
- ^ http://www.nsdf.org.uk
- ^ http://www.paulkerensa.com/
Categories:- University of Nottingham
- Theatres in Nottingham
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