Beary Tales and Bored Office Drones.

There are still a few days left to catch The Pillowman. It has been getting rave reviews and runs until Saturday 30^th May -  don’t miss it! 

June 14th to 19th is Youth Theatre week at Progress Theatre. There are two groups performing, Parcans (11 – 13 year olds) and Strobes (13 – 15). Last Sunday I dropped in on a rehearsal of Beary Tales and Office Drones the Strobes production running 18^th and 19^th June. They’d been working hard since 10 am and when I arrived were having a well earned lunch break.

Beary Tales and Office Drones is an update of a folk tale, East o the Sun, West o the Moon, based in an office. The office setting was a practical inspiration – co-leader Ali Carroll had some old office equipment that would make good props. The modernization of the original tale has included removing the part of the story where the girl who makes the best job of washing the prince’s shirt gets to marry him! 

As well as acting,the cast have been divided into teams to work on all the other things that have to happen for a production to be a success. The students have been responsible for areas like props, marketing, costumes, lighting and sound design, video recording and editing and script writing. Co-leader Alice Mulford, who set up the teams, said that getting involved in all aspects of the production has “created a sense of ownership. Some have struggled with taking the initiative but others have taken the opportunity and run with it.”

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Coming up...

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh runs until 29th May 2010

Youth Theatre week - Parcans (11 - 13 year olds) 14th and 15th June "Is This It?"
Strobes (13 - 15 year olds) 18th and 19th June Beary Tales and Bored Office Drones.

Death and The Maiden by Ariel Dorfman 5 - 10 July 2010

See www.progresstheatre.co.uk for details of all our productions and auditions.