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Dateline: 28th June, 2009 News from the Midlands
New Vic flies high for wicked adaptation of '40s bodice-ripperCircus performer and aerial specialist Vicki Amedume has teamed up with award-winning playwright Bryony Lavery for a new take on the bodice-ripper The Wicked Lady. Based on the original 1940s novel The Life and Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton by Magdalen King-Hall, The Wicked Lady has been specially written for the New Vic at Newcastle-under-Lyme and has been two years in the making. It tells the story of an aristocrat turned highwaywoman who turns to a life of crime to escape boredom. In a first for the north Staffordshire venue, the play features aerial action thanks to the talents of ex-tiger tamer Amedume, part of specialist aerial company Upswing. The Wicked Lady is the brainchild of New Vic artistic director Theresa Heskins. She said, "Bryony's created a terrific piece of writing and she's set me a huge challenge. Much of the action takes place on horseback, demanding an ingenious approach to these sequences. "We're realising them using bungee harnesses, saddles turned into trapezes and silks masquerading as four-poster beds." Lavery added, "The film is great but the play is much more human, ingenious, inventive and emotional. Our heroine is both mistress of her own destiny and victim of time and circumstance - that's the great struggle of the piece. "And the film isn't packed with comedy! I think the actors should have some fun and make the audience laugh as well as thrill to the badness of our heroine." The Wicked Lady runs from Friday (July 3rd) until Saturday, July 25th.
University theatre looks for new headDerby Theatre, the new name for Derby Playhouse since it was taken over by the city's university, is advertising for a manager. The university is offering a salary of up to £40,000 a year for this "exciting new role" which is "key to delivering the ambitions of the university at the recently acquired Derby Playhouse." Candidates need experience of managing events venues on a commercial basis and "will have responsibility for the co-ordination of activities within the Theatre and for the operation of the building." Further details are available from the university.
Dance artists find a new stamping groundNottingham-based experimental dance organisation Dance4 has announced details of stamping ground09, its annual programme of free performances and workshops for young people and their families. This year regional, national and international artists will be visiting festivals across Nottinghamshire and will be supported by youth group Freestylerz. Companies performing as part of stamping ground09 include All Play, Minna no Project and Polka Dot Can-Can Troupe. They will appear at Rush4Health at Rushcliffe Country Park, Ruddington next Sunday (July 5th); Eastwood Family Fun Day at Coronation Park, Eastwood on Saturday, July 11th; Edwinstowe Arts and Heritage Festival, Forest Corner, Edwinstowe on Sunday, July 12th; The Vibe, Coronation Park, Eastwood on Saturday, July 18th; the Riverside Festival on Victoria Embankment, Nottingham on Saturday, August 1st; and Ashfield Show, Sutton Lawn, Ashfield on Saturday, August 8th. Outreach sessions are also being organised in schools across Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Further details are available at www.dance4.co.uk/stampingground.php.
City's own theatre group has a dream at CurveLeicester's independent professional black and ethnic minority theatre company Hathi Productions take over the city's Curve Theatre this week with "a compelling and inspirational musical", Kahani Sapnon Ki (Our Dream Story). The show looks at how Parvati's gift of imagination, Pavan's yearning to fly aeroplanes and Pushpa's hopes of being a dancer are distorted by the expectations of the real world. Will they be remembered by history or become history? The company whose motto is "integration, not segregation through the arts" will stage the show from Tuesday until Saturday.
What's on this week
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