During June and July the Playbox Theatre Company will be producing
their own shows and hosting visits from other performers at The Dream
Factory in Warwick.
Playbox's Young Production Company will be performing Vicky Ireland's
adaptation of Jacqueline Wilson's novel about identical ten year old
twins, Double Act. It tells the story of Ruby - fiery,
funny and desperate to be an actress, and Garnet her sweet,shy inseparable
twin. They do everything together, especially since their mother died
three years ago. But can being a double act work forever? With the
appearance of Rose, a new woman on the scene and the family's move
to the country everything is changing. Performances are from 17 -
26 June tickets £9.50 & concessions £7 box office
01926 419555
Good friends and look-alikes Isobel Doster and Roo Starbuck take
on the roles of Ruby and Garnet on a mirrored set where everything
seems double. Mary King directs a large cast of forty young people
aged 6 - 14, with designs by Commedia and lighting designed by Ian
Roberts.
The last of Playbox's very successful series of Sunday poetry
recitals will be on Sunday 26th June at 7pm - Strawberries and
Cream - a programme of old and modern pieces with a Midsummer theme.
All tickets are £5 including refreshments.
On Sunday July 3 at 7pm The Dream Factory is one of 100 host theatres
for BBC's One Night of Shakespeare. This event involves
400 schools performing 30 minute Shakespeare productions in many different
theatres all over UK. The Dream Factory will be visited by groups
from four local schools: Bablake School, Coventry and three schools
from Rugby - Bishop Wulstan Catholic High School, Ashlawn School &
Avon Valley School performing extracts from Othello, The
Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet and The Merchant of Venice.
Tickets £7 & £5 concessions box office 01926 419555.
On July 7, 8 & 9 at 7.30pm there will be performances of The
Genuine Article in Playbox's studio theatre. This is a chain
play developed by a team of nine young writers from Playbox Young
Writers group who worked with playwright, Sarah Woods, over a 12 month
period. All tickets £5 box office 01926 419555
July 10 - 13th sees the 25th annual exchange
between the Santa Monica Playhouse American Cultural Youth Ambassadors
and Playbox. The California group, Playbox's siter company are this
time bringing two productions to the UK - Next! Living the Lie
and Songs of Love and Laughter.
On July 15 & 16 Playbox will be performing their modern dress
version of Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy, The Wars of
the Roses, at Kenilworth Castle. These plays span a particularly
turbulent and bloody era of our medieval history when two mighty families
battled for power and the crown of England. Shakespeare charts the
dramatic fall of the House of Lancaster (performed on Friday 15th
July at 7.30pm) and the blood soaked rise of the House of York (performed
on Saturday 16th July at 7.30pm). The plays contain some of his most
exciting characters including Queen Margaret, Warwick, the Kingmaker
and Richard of Gloucester - later to become the murderous Richard
III.
Each play runs for two hours and is complete in itself although together
they make a full theatre experience. Kenilworth Castle is a particularly
appropriate venue for the production as several of the scenes in the
plays are set at this castle during the king's visit there in 1452.
Tickets are £10 & £9 each: box office 01926 852078.
For further details of The Wars of the Roses, see Midlands
News for 15th
May.
