News from the Midlands

New Vic and youngsters speak out to mark holocaust day

Young people from across Staffordshire will be teaming up with Newcastle-under-Lyme theatre the New Vic tomorrow (Monday) evening to speak out against prejudice and mark United Nations Holocaust Memorial Day.

The annual event brings together colleges and schools to tackle racism and prejudice through drama, dance and song.

Students from Stoke-on-Trent College and Stafford College will be joined on the New Vic stage by pupils from the Co-operative Academy, St Margaret Ward Catholic School, Hollywall Primary School, St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School and the theatre’s Young People’s Theatre Company to present drama, dance and music devised in workshops.

Sue Moffat, director of the New Vic Borderlines team, said, “This year, as well as remembering those whose lives have been affected by the Holocaust and other acts against humanity, we’re honouring two Holocaust survivors.

“Waldemar and Ibi Ginsburg and Sidney Morris supported the event at the New Vic for several years but sadly they’re no longer with us.

“In their absence it’s more important than ever that young people follow their powerful example and use their own voices to speak up and speak out on behalf of those who can’t.”

The car’s the star as Wolverhampton youth group appeals for classics

A Wolverhampton youth theatre is appealing for owners of classic cars to help them with its latest project.

Central Youth Theatre, based at Newhampton Arts Centre in Wolverhampton, is hoping to find classic car enthusiasts who’d like to have their 1950s vehicles featured in one of six short films. The project is called Travels with Morris.

Youth theatre director Jane Ward explains, “We’re making six short comedy films charting the life of one man and his Morris Minor across six decades.

“The Morris Minor will star in the films but the group wants to feature many different models of classic cars.”

If you have a classic car which you would like to have featured in the project, contact Jane Ward at jane@centralyouththeatre.org or on 07941 922580.

What’s on this week

• Marlene McKenzie appears in Lite, a “far-reaching exploration of skin lightening”, at The Public, West Bromwich, tomorrow (Monday);
• Steven Berkoff explores and analyses Iago, the Macbeths, Shylock and Richard III in Shakespeare’s Villains at Nottingham Playhouse on Tuesday and the Arena Theatre, Wolverhampton on Wednesday and Thursday;
• a new production of the Irish dance spectacular Lord of the Dance is at De Montfort Hall, Leicester from Tuesday until Thursday;
• Graham Seed and Michael Simkins say Yes Prime Minister at the Belgrade, Coventry from Tuesday until Saturday;
• Ramon Tikaram and Josefina Gabrielle star in the Leicester Curve production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King And I at Derngate, Northampton from Tuesday until Saturday;
• the Children’s Touring Partnership in association with the National Theatre stages the Bristol Old Vic production of Swallows and Amazons, based on Arthur Ransome’s book, at Nottingham’s Theatre Royal from Tuesday until Saturday;
• Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker! returns to Birmingham Hippodrome from Tuesday until Saturday;
• Denise Black and Michael Starke star in a new tour of the musical comedy Sister Act which opens at Wolverhampton Grand from Tuesday until Saturday, 18^th February;
• actor and impressionist Alistair McGowan and musical actress Charlotte Page take the songs, poems and prose of Noël Coward to Lichfield Garrick in Sincerely Noel on Wednesday;
• Icarus Theatre Collective stages a “kinetic, bloodthirsty production” of Shakespeare’s Macbeth at Buxton Opera House on Wednesday and Thursday;
• Scamp Theatre presents Michael Morpurgo’s Private Peaceful at Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre on Thursday;
• based on the nation’s love affair with alcohol and “fusing live music, verbatim text and stunning physical theatre”, Paper Birds’ Thirsty is at mac, Birmingham on Thursday and Lakeside Arts Centre, Nottingham on Friday;
• an “intense and atmospheric one-man play, re-telling the Victorian horror story”, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll should frighten the audience at Lichfield Garrick on Friday;
• Over the Rainbow featuring Sarah Jane Buckley, Maureen Nolan and Rob McVeigh pays tribute to Eva Cassidy at Derby’s Assembly Rooms on Friday;
• Elysion Productions stages a drama double bill by Nicola Schofield, A Light in Every Window and Hope in Boxes, at Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio on Friday and Saturday;
• set primarily to the music of David Bowie, Michael Clark Company’s come, been and gone dances into Leicester’s Curve on Friday and Saturday;
• Birmingham Stage Company’s revival of Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine continues at the Old Rep, Birmingham until Saturday;
• the search is on to find Leicester’s Best Dance Crew at Curve, Leicester next Sunday;
• Spymonkey’s adaptation of a Greek tragedy Oedipussy continues at the Royal, Northampton until Saturday, 18^th February;
• Northern Broadsides’ presentation of Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost continues at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme until 18^th February;
• Ingrid Bergman’s Nora, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, continues in the B2 auditorium at Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre until 18^th February;
• William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew continues at Derby Theatre until Saturday, 25^th February; and
• at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford, The Taming of the Shrew continues in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre until 25^th February while in the Swan, Helen Edmundson’s new play The Heresy of Love continues until Friday, 9^th March and David Edgar’s new play Written on the Heart , which tells the story of the making of the King James Bible, and Measure for Measure both continue until 10^th March.

Reporter: Steve Orme

Dateline: 5th February, 2012