Nicola Thorold, director of the Independent Theatre Council, is to be the new Director of Drama at the Arts Council of England. Thorold, a director of the National Campaign for the Arts, joined the ITC in 1993, having worked for ACE for four years, helping to set up the Business and Finance Assessment Unit. She had gone to ACE after working as a financial analyst at Morgan Stanley International.
She has been a fierce critic of ACE, most recently attacking the National Touring Programme, saying it is impossible for small dance companies to apply for it.
A record number of new musicals have been entered for the 2000 Vivian Ellis Prize. 170 entries, which represent over 270 writers, have been received to date, the largest number ever.
National Arts Day? It's possible!
MP Austin Mitchell has written to Culture Secretary Chris Smith to ask for a meeting to discuss the possibility of holding a National Arts Day on 24th June. He tabled an Early Day Motion in the Commons at the end of last year and was supported by 103 MPs from all parties.
Shakepeare's Night on the Beeb
Digital TV channel BBC Knowledge is to hold an evening of programmes dedicated to Shakespeare on Friday, 7th April. It will include Michael Bogdanov's Macbeth on the Estate and a special documentary, The Genius of Shakespeare, hosted by Sir Richard Eyre and featuring Peter Brook, John Gielgud and Vanessa Redgrave. The evening of programmes will begin at 7pm.
Among new dramas lined up for BBC1 viewers in early summer are: Waking the Dead by Barbara Machin, starring Trevor Eve, Sue Johnston and Claire Goose; Hawk, bu Steve Attridge, starring Robert Lindsay; and another Scarlet Pimpernel series with Richard E Grant.
The Independent Theatre Council has retained solicitors on behalf of the five companies which have lost funding as a result of the Arts Council of Wales' U-turn on the theatre in education franchise.
The fastest show in the world?
Velvet Jacket and the Guinness Book of Records are combining to produce the fastest musical ever in the world. At 8pm on 5th May at the Edinburgh Playhouse an envelope containing the name of a musical will be opened. A company including fifty dancers and fifty singers and actors will then swing into action to produce the show, which will be performed to a paying audience at 8pm the following evening, Saturday 6th May. The profits from the show will go to the charity Children First.