The Royal
Court: Crossing the Borders
An experiment in online writing, featuring 12 young writers from the
UK, US and China. It documents the entire process, including chat
room transcripts, writers' diaries and work in progress.
Shakespeare
E-Cards
A collection of rather sentimental e-cards featuring quotations from
Shakespeare. Flash player needed.
Show People Magazine
A new US-based theatre magazine, produced by Clear Channel Entertainment,
which also covers London's West End. It's a life-style magazine -
a kind of "Hello" for theatre. Launched in September 2002,
the site gives details of what it will cover and how to subscribe.
Sleaze
Nation
Everyone from Shaw to Miller saw their plays banned in Britain - thanks
to the censors' exceptionally filthy minds. Article by Peter Hall
in The Guardian.
Sold Out Event Tickets.com
Specialises in hard-to-get tickets for plays, musicals and operas
thoughout the UK, not just London. Covers music and sport, too.
Spotlight on the Web
Everyone in the business knows Spotlight, the casting director's bible. This is the online version, but, unless you're willing to pay £27.50 plus VAT to subscribe, you'll not see much - just a demo. It also advertises the CD version of Spotlight.
Stagecoach
Stagecoach is a franchise: a Saturday morning school for kids from 6 to 16, offering three hours of teaching in dance, drama and music. The site covers the training the schools offer (and costs), tries to interest would-be franchisees, and lists already existing schools.
Stagefright
Photographs
Three galleries of theatre photographs by Scottish photographer Marc
Marnie.
Stage Jobs Pro
A jobs site for backstage theatre and entertainment professionals.
Stand Up Drama: Xan
Phillips Presents...
An internet radio podcast about the first Stand Up Drama night
at Madame JoJo's in Soho. It lasts nineteen minutes and is a 19Mb
download.
Starmakers Drama School
Based on Merseyside at LIPA, Birkenhead and Wallasey. Calls itself
a school "run by professionals for people who want to be professionals".
Aimed at 7-18 year olds, meeting on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
A one page advert, really.
Stephen
Joseph Theatre School
An annual event devoted to the work of Alan Ayckbourn. The intorduction
says, "This unique five-day course gives you the chance to see
one of the world’s most renowned writer/directors working at
his home base alongside his colleagues and acting company. Bringing
together enthusiasts, playgoers, scholars, actors, writers and directors,
the school will explore Ayckbourn’s work and his use of the Round
stage." Full details, including a day-by-day timetable and booking
& cost info.
The Stephen Sondheim
Society
A kind of fan club for lovers of Sondheim's work, run by "a committee
of theatre professionals, journalists, academics and enthusiasts".
Onsite are their aims and objectives, news of Sondheim and of society
events, how to join (with an application form you have to print out
and send by snail-mail).
The Talent Room at Andrew Manson
Andrew Manson is a company which "offers broad based personal management" and has set up this site "to benefit entertainment professionals." There is a lot of useful advice for young actors on casting directors, managers and agents, interviews, working with agents, and all sorts of other work-related issues. There's also a chat room, message board, free email and advice on building web pages.
The Techie Gospel
Funny! I mean, funny ha-ha not funny peculiar. The Techie Gospel is
a theatre institution: various bits of the Bible retold in theatre
technician terms. Good for a laugh!
TGR - A Writer's Space
A resource for writers in all genres, which has a specific area devoted
to playwriting. There are opportunities for collaborative online work
as well as showcasing the work of individuals. Writers should definitely
check it out!
Theatre of Catastrophe
The basic idea behind the work of playwright Howard Barker. Art is not digestible; it is an irritant in the consciousness.
Theatre, ALW, Gary Rhodes & Food
Andrew Lloyd Webber is working with Gary Rhodes to spice up theatre food. An article in the "Independent".
Theatrejobs UK
A new (May '98) searchable database of stage managers and techs, with CVs. The site promises that a Job Seach section is coming soon. Inevitably there is not a lot there at the moment.
The Theatre Museum, Covent Garden
(There are versions of this site in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Japanese) Info on the permanent collections (including video recordings), the research collections, the exhibitions, education and workshops. A very thorough site.
Theatre of the 1990s:
Reference
An A-Z list of everything important in 1990's theatre
Theatre Manager
Somewhat of an oddity, this: a mixture of personal comment, a listing
of London theatres, links to the Dress Circle and to Les Mis
(but as if they were part of the site), and a couple of pages which
don't exist, one being the "Green Room", a place for pro
actors. I assume the author is a professional actor.
A Look at the Theatre Museum
One of my own previous features.
Theatre Reviews by Theatre
Lovers
A site which invites theatregoers to submit their own reviews (via
a Javascript applet) of shows in the West End and at Stratford (maximum
of seventy words). It's a new site and there were no reviews online
when we visited (21/10/05).
Theatre Tokens
A service offered by SOLT (the Society of London Theatre) but available
throughout the country. Gift tokens which are exchangeable for theatre
tickets for London and 210 theatres nationwide. Can be bought online
or from theatres and certain retail outlets
Theatre Venture
Theatre Venture is a community arts organisation working in the East
London Community. Well designed, but I found it rather unsatisfying.
The amount of info provided leaves you wanting more, with nowhere
to go to get it, and coverage in each section is patchy.
theatreVOICE
A new theatre forum, streaming conversations between critics from
across the British press, and roundtable discussions with many leading
practitioners. Needs Flash 6.65, which can be downloaded at the site.
Well worth a visit.
Ticketlinks
It offers tickets for all kinds of events, not just theatre, and has a database, searchable on a number of different fields, including local area. A way of buying tickets for shows online. It claims to cover over 2000 venues and over 16,000 listings.
TicketMaster
Definitely the best of the ticket agency sites - and you can do an
actual booking online, rather than just sending an email, which is
what many sites do. It includes details of TicketMaster Priority,
which, for £18 a year, will give you special priority booking
and discounts.
TicketSource
A company offering an online box office facility to professional and
amateur theatres. There is no charge to the theatre: they make their
money from a surcharge on credit card charges. An interesting and
potentially very useful service.
TV Comedy College
A new distance learning project set up by three very expierenced TV comedy scriptwriters: Ian Davidson, Peter Robinson and Peter Vincent. Their credentials are impeccable (and very impressive). This one page site not only gives details of the course they offer (which looks very reasonably priced), but also provides a first introduction to TV comedy scriptwriting. There's a lot of real value here, quite apart from the course!
The UK Scriptwriters'
Website
A free service to scriptwriters in all media, which aims to put writers
and producers in touch with each other, by giving a list of places
which are interested in receiving and reading unsolicited scripts.
Could become a very useful resource. Body text is tiny and very difficult
to read.
Voice-Over Masterclass
Gary Terzza is a voice-over artist and coach. This page gives some
basic advice to would-be voice-over artists and links to the rest
of his site, which includes examples of his work in a variety of situations.
White Horse Theatre
The White Horse Theatre Company is based in Germany and consists of nine companies, each with a repertoire of two plays. The aim is to teach English through theatre in Germany and Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Japan. My friends in Germany speak highly of it. It is run by an Englishman, Peter Griffiths. The site is in English and German.
Josef
Weinberger Ltd.
The company which holds the rights to a huge range of musicals, operas
and operettas, ballets, instrumental music and even a few plays. As
well as details of all their properties, there is a list of agents
who represent them in other parts of the world and the "Grapevine",
a list of major performances of their works in the next twelve months.
Winchester Hatfair
An annual celebration of street theatre and community.
The World of Acting
Primarily a discussion forum for actors across the world, but it is
based in Britain and so has a UK bias. There are also some articles
on acting. It went online in January 2005 so there isn't a great deal
there yet but it could be a good resource if people use it.
YEM Theatre School
The Young Entertainers Musical Theatre School is based in the Farnborough,
Fleet, Aldershot and Camberley area and offers training in keyboards,
drance, drama, music theatre and singing to 4 to 18 year olds.
Young Blood Ltd
A collective of young fight directors, choreographers, instructors
and performers, based in London. Details of their classes, workshops
and certification.
ZAP Productions
"Creative event management ... cultural millennium celebrations
... the National Streets Arts Festival." There are details of
the company and its work, which also includes consultancy in the management
of arts events.
