The Shadow Arts Council, first mentioned by Sir Peter Hall at the Olivier Awards ceremony, was officially launched on Wednesday 24th March. Among the many theatre "names" who attended were Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter, Caryl Churchill, Sir Richard Eyre, Dame Judi dench, Eileen Atkins, Michael Gambon, Simon Callow and John Tusa, MD of the Barbican Centre.
The aims of the organisation are to:
The organisation is funded by donations (£10). Further information can be obtained by phoning 0171 228 4916.
Clare Venables of the BRIT School of Performing Arts and Technology is to be the new Director of Education for the Royal Shakespeare Company. As well as working at the BRIT School, she has also lectured in manchester University's drama dept., worked at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln, and the Theatre Royal Stratford East, and has been artistic director of the Crucible, Sheffield.
A survey of the attitudes of children and parents towards theatre and the arts, presented at the Younger Older Conference, shows that children find theatre "uncool". By the age of 11 most children find pantomime "babyish", that theatre is too close to education, and that theatre is not "real", unlike cinema and TV soaps. Eastenders was cited as being much more "real" than theatre. Theatre, they think, is too formal and irrelevant to their lives.
Of 160 children interviewed, only one mentioned drama as a preferred leisure pursuit. Parents felt that the cost of tickets and the lack of suitable productions were the main reasons for their staying away.
Lottery funds lost to the arts
Around £125m of Lottery money is being spent on improving the local environment rather than the arts, heritage and then other areas for which it was set up.