Term’s over, the American students have dispersed, and AT LAST there’s been some time to complete arrangements for the TYA six-past on-line foundation course. It’s being quietly launched next week on the site www.teachyourselfacting.com/ – if you’re interested drop me a line at ellis@teachyourselfacting.com.
The weather destroyed a theatre event for me last week. I was due to see BABEL, the outdoor production over in Islington. But the night my friends and I had booked was preceded by several days’ constant downpour, and notwithstanding being culture hounds, the thought of standing about watching soggy actors in a muddy field in steady rain I’m afraid lost out to staying in a cosy Indian restaurant in Bloomsbury.
A quietly exciting development has been an approach from the Central School of Speech and Drama to direct a final-year production in the autumn. We’re going to do “Absolute Hell” by Rodney Acland, a forgotten nugget of war-time drama re-discovered by Sam Walters and John Gardyne at Richmond in the late 80s, and subsequently revived at the National in a production starring Judi Dench. After so many years directing at RADA, to be asked to direct at Central is bit like Alex Ferguson being invited to do some coaching at Man City…
Talking of football – what about that Chelsea-Munich final?!! Wonderful stuff – right up there amongst Most Memorable Sporting Events like the four-minute mile and Dean Windass scoring the goal at Wembley heralding Hull City’s exaltation to the Premiership. Well OK, they only lasted two seasons, but they were heady days for those of us who recalled the years of languishing in the third division, the days of Bovril in chipped mugs on Bunker’s Hill at Boothferry Park.
I caught a glimpse on television yesterday of the Shakespeare’s Globe production of Henry the Fourth, starring one of the Radagrads from my time, Jamie Parker. They’re currently out on tour with Henry V and Jamie’s still in the company, of course playing the King. Catch it if you can – he’s a cracking actor (he was in “History Boys”, the one who plays piano) and is just about perfect casting as Hal.
