Bit of a quick one this week folks. Apologies for the gap between posts: a number of feature articles; the upcoming West End Eurovision and a family visit to Lincolnshire have left me with little spare time recently! Not that I’m complaining of course; it’s always lovely to get away with sisters, kids and mum and spend some quality time together and I love my MADTrust and ThePublicReviews work – very thankful for the opportunities I’ve been given.
Since my last post, there have been two articles published (and another I’m currently working on):
It's You, Not Me! : When The Umbrella Closes came about in response to the early closure notice of Umbrellas of Cherbourg, exploring the reasons behind the decision. Was it the critics, the promotion, wrong timing, or simply the production itself?
The article has had some great feedback from people offering their thoughts on what the problem with Umbrellas was; it’s always good to get discussions going on topics such as these, I believe and it’s great to see people getting involved and caring about theatre – its failures as well as its successes… Feel free to click on the link to have a read and leave your own opinions too!
Crowd Funding: All In This Together! explored the viability of crowd funding, a relatively new idea in which projects in the areas of theatre, music, film and so on, attempt to raise money by asking for small pledges from a lot of people, who receive rewards in return for their donation. You can read the full article by clicking on the link.
The concept of crowd funding is a particularly apt one in the wake of the ACE budget cuts – many companies were dis-invested and without that funding have needed to seek other ways of financing their productions. Crowd funding, while not a perfect solution, is at least providing that opportunity. It still remains however, a short term option for a long term problem…
One of the projects currently looking to raise funds for their next production is from SimG Productions, who I’ve written about before in regards to new British writing. I’ve had the pleasure of talking to director and producer Simon Greiff, and his dedication to the development of new writing is inspiring. They’ve managed to cover the costs of staging their upcoming production of THE PORT CRUNCH, but needed a little extra help for the rest. So far, thanks to a number of generous donors, they’ve reached 79% of their £1000 target! In just one week, that’s amazing work! They still need a further £215 pledged in order to meet their full target however, otherwise they won’t receive any of that money – so if you support new writing, please help them out by pledging whatever you can. It doesn’t have to be a lot, that’s the beauty of crowd funding! In return, you will receive rewards such as complimentary tickets, sponsor credit and a signed programme (rewards depend on the amount pledged). You can find more details on the production and how to help at WeFund.co.uk. Please do!
THE PORK CRUNCH opens at The Pleasance Theatre in Islington and runs from 4th May – 15th May. If you’re interested in tickets, click here, or call the Box Office on: 0207 609 1800.
I’m in the process of writing up another feature at the moment – I’m speaking to various theatres and gathering some comments and thoughts from them, then it’ll be written up and posted for all and sundry to read sometime this week!
I’d just like to say a big thank you here to John Roberts, my editor at thepublicreviews.com, for not only giving me a platform to share my writing, but trusting me enough to give me the freedom to write what I want – as someone who has always had a love and passion for writing, I am incredibly grateful for all the opportunities he has given me. Cheers John – just let me know when I screw up! ;)
Okay, soppy moment over…
West End Eurovision!!! We are less than a week away folks, and it’s all getting very exciting! I am very pleased to say that the event is completely sold out, which is fantastic news (unless you’re one of those unlucky ones who tried to get last-minute tickets and couldn’t. Sorry!). I’ve been all over the internet these past few weeks, promoting and plugging away. Apologies if it’s annoyed some of my Twitter followers, but it is for charity after all, so I think it’s allowed… J
The night is shaping up to be absolutely fantastic! We have our celebrity judges panel now, which is made up of: former Blonde-er and Olivier Award winner, Sheridan Smith; Eurovision Song Contest host, Graham Norton and TV’s presenter-extraordinaire, Justin Lee-Collins. Gaby Roslin will be our host for the night, with Toby Anstis hanging about backstage with the shows’ casts. I can’t forget to mention of course, the special performance by 1981 Eurovision winners Bucks Fizz! Wow!
We have eleven West End shows taking part this year: Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing, Legally Blonde, Les Miserables, Love Never Dies, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, The 39 Steps, The Phantom of the Opera, The Wizard of Oz, We Will Rock You and Wicked! Some of the shows have created special WestEndEuro accounts on Twitter to keep fans up-to-date with all the latest news and they will be tweeting on the night, so if you’re not going to be there, follow them to find out what goes down! MADTrust and WhatsOnStage will also be tweeting updates throughout the night, so follow them too! Keep an eye out for photos and videos afterwards as well…
All the shows idents – 1 ½ minute promotional videos – are up on the MADTrust website here, so if you haven’t seen them yet, go take a look now. Some of them are hilarious…If you haven’t voted (or if you want to vote again?) then please do; all the information is there on the site, to vote for your favourite one just text the show’s code to 70099. All texts cost £1, with 95p of that going to the MADTrust charity. It’s all good fun and for a very good cause, so please do vote – you can do your bit for charity and also help your favourite show to win!
It really is going to be a fabulous night; the individual performers taking part and the shows’ song choices are of course, top secret – but trust me, if you have bought a ticket then you will be very glad you did! ;)
I’ll be writing up the night’s events here, so check back after next Thursday for all the news (don’t expect it to be early on Friday however as the after-party is looking to be an all-nighter and I shan’t be in any condition to be writing!!!). J
Remember…create, love, inspire!
Miss Julie
Always a pleasure! - John
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