Links

Articles

News

Reviews

Amateur Theatre

Contact

Other Resources

Bookstore

Forum

Search the Site

Dateline: 29th April, 2009

Fan Made Theatre!

London Bubble, the innovative company that works closely with South London communities and stages lively summer promenade productions in the capital's parks and open spaces, lost its Arts Council England funding in the cuts last year. To help fill the gap and continue with their work they have come up with an innovative idea.

They are inviting their enthusiastic supporters to make a direct contribution to their funds and at the same time to play a part in choosing the show they mount with the money that will be collected.

They have already been running a scheme to collect suggestions for this year's play to follow previous successes that have ranged from Shakespeare to original plays based on books and legends from Terry Pratchett to Lewis Carroll, Gilgamesh and Greek myths to the stories of the Arabian Nights. Now they have narrowed those suggestions down to a list of just five:

Jason and the Argonauts
Witches Abroad
The Bloody Chamber
The Jungle Book
The Odyssey

Everyone is invited to choose which of these shall be done this summer and details explaing the ideas behind them are on a special website. To vote you become a 'Stakeholder' - no, forget the shades of 'New' Labour: this really does give you a stake. This is, in fact, being a theatre 'angel' with a difference. For a 'stake' of only £20 (or £10 if you are eligible for concessions) you get not only a ticket to the performance (which would anyway have cost you £10/£8) but a chance to watch rehearsals and attend special events as well as knowing that you are contributing to the continuance of the work of a worthwhile company. But there's not much time left so register with them now on the website given below.

Theatre is not a building

"Theatre is not a building," Bubble declare. "Theatre is created between, and for, people."

They go to state in their manifesto:

"We believe that theatre has untapped benefits and, in an ideal world, everyone would have access to creating, participating in, and enjoying theatre.
"Our aim is to generate work that involves people, and to share stories that animate the spaces of our city and the spirits of its citizens. To do this we make popular performances in public places, involve adults and children in participatory projects and make work, with and for, teachers and pupils.
"We attract a richly diverse audience to public performances. We believe shows can engender a sense of community as people relate to the event and connect with each other."

If you want to help London Bubble survive, go to www.fanmadetheatre.com and become a stakeholder! But you'll have to be quick. Voting closes on 4th May.

Howard Loxton

|A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M|N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z|

News Archive A-L
News Archive M-Z
Production News Archive

Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.

©Peter Lathan 2009