Author Archives: John Ellingsworth

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About John Ellingsworth

John Ellingsworth is the Deputy Editor of Total Theatre Magazine. He also runs the online circus magazine Sideshow and trains non-performance corde lisse.

Blast Theory Summer School

Blast Theory are holding a summer school for practitioners, performers and artists at University College Falmouth’s The Performance Centre 18-20 July 2012.

Spend three days working with internationally renowned group Blast Theory to explore how technology can be used to create site specific, participatory performances and interactive art. Participants will work between the old Orchard at Tremough and the high specification performance facilities of The Performance Centre at University College Falmouth.

Blast Theory is known as one of the most adventurous artists’ groups using interactive media, creating groundbreaking new forms of performance and interactive art that mix audiences across the Internet, live performance and digital broadcasting. Led by Matt Adams, Ju Row Farr and Nick Tandavanitj, the group’s work explores interactivity and the social and political aspects of technology. It confronts a media saturated world in which popular culture rules, using performance, installation, video, mobile and online technologies to ask questions about the ideologies present in the information that envelops us.

The course runs 19-20 July 2012, 9am – 5pm, and costs £150. Location: Studio A & The Orchard, The Performance Centre, Tremough Campus, Penryn, TR10 9LX. Some bursaries are available, subject to eligibility, as are low cost accommodation packages for Glasney Village. For more information and an application form see here.

The Berkshire Giant Project

A key event in Corn Exchange Newbury’s outdoor arts programme, The Berkshire Giant Project is a large-scale multi-part participatory arts project incorporating giant puppetry, carnival parade, art installations, music and performance to tell the story of John Ever Afraid, ‘a giant who has been hiding in the walls of Aldworth Church for 600 years after making an ill-advised pact with the Devil’.

Following its participatory stages and a number of smaller events, the project now culminates in a week of performances that together tell the overarching story of John Ever Afraid’s flight from his pursuing demons. On 17 June there’sAldworth Giant Fair, a day of ‘music, feasting and entertainment in the tiny West Berkshire village of Aldworth, with a Giant Parade at 2pm’; 20 June there’s The Summoning, a night of invocations and rituals on Snelsmore Common where ‘those that support the giant use drums, voices and beautiful images to invoke ancient spirit beasts to come to his aid’; 23 June there’s aGiant Trail that leads audiences through Newbury as they search for giant-themed clues; and 23 June there’s John’s Final Footsteps, the finale of the story as John’s pursuers catch up with him at last.

For more on the project, which is produced by Macnas, see the Berkshire Giant website.

The Point Receives £270k in Grants from Arts Council England and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation

Eastleigh’s The Point theatre has received combined grants totalling £270,000 from Arts Council England and the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation to further its work supporting artists and engaging with new audiences:

Over the next three years, The Point, in conjunction with its Creation Space, will fund Making Space, a project that will cover four main strands: To Create, To Learn, To Connect, and To Disseminate. In each of these areas, The Point’s creative team will work on developing the cultural offer of the region. This will include supporting new commissions and residencies; building on the venue’s existing Associate Artist programme; developing its digital platform; and disseminating best practice.

For more info on The Point’s activities, see their website

Viva La Commedia Summer School

Taught by Geoff Beale (Ophaboom) and Didi Hopkins (One Man, Two Guvnors), Viva La Commedia is two weeks of midsummer madness and spirited performance for actors of all ages.

Come and discover the essence of the actor’s theatre; create scenarios with the characters, masks and skills of a commedia troupe.

Develop your acting and performance skills through: physical storytelling; use of mask; improvisation; the grammar of theatre; commedia characters; scenario construction; and performance.

Commedia dell’arte is a template for classical and modern theatre. Some knowledge of commedia or performing essential; the work will investigate what an audience wants and develop elements of commedia relevant to theatre-makers today.

To see more about how we work go to NTdiscovertheatre and look for the five films on commedia.

The course will be held in East London, 13 – 25 August 2012; cost £300. If you’re interested in attending send a CV and photo with a letter to say why you want to do the course to ophaboom@onetel.com by 25 July 2012.

Zecora Ura / Persis Jade Maravala: Hotel Medea ¦ Photo: Flávia Correia

Hotel Medea Masterclass

Zecora Ura / Persis Jade Maravala: Hotel Medea ¦ Photo: Flávia Correia

To coincide with a three-week run of their overnight midnight till dawn showHotel Medea at the Hayward Gallery, Zecora Ura will be running a masterclass25 July 2012 11am – 5pm.

The one-day workshop will focus on ‘indigenous and Afro-Brazilian rhythms, dances and rituals from the northeast of Brazil’ and will be led by Brazilian Master Urias de Oliveira and Persis-Jade Maravala (Hotel Medea‘s director).

You can book for the masterclass hereHotel Medea runs at the Hayward 20 July – 11 August 2012.