Amateur Stage Magazine

In the July issue of Amateur Stage we discuss the common misuse of the title Producer instead of the correct term Director.

We noted with interested a blog yesterday from The Stage's Mark Shenton talking about the importance of the producer in the professional sphere.

You can read his blog here
http://blogs.thestage.co.uk/shenton/2011/07/the-guiding-force-behind-a-musical/index.html

Shenton's view that "Producers need to offer a steady guiding hand to bring a show to fruition: a strong director may captain the ship and steer it through the choppy waters that a musical invariably encounters, but it’s the producer who builds the ship in the first place. And then, or rather simultaneously, the producer also needs to spearhead the no less important job of selling the show. A show is nothing without an audience, after all." is applicable to amateurs.

At a  time when production costs for amateur musicals are rising it is the focus on audiences which needs to be paramount. There is no doubt that whilst most groups are endeavouring to appeal to new audiences, most are still stuck with marketing techniques that lost impact decades ago.

Amateur groups would do well to look at case studies of professional productions who are using new and innovative techniques. Many of these methods (like social networking) can be implemented without cost.  Don't be smug though most theatre groups on Facebook are missing out on really getting the benefit by focusing their profiles purely on the membership rather than the public at large.

We're interested to hear your thoughts. Does the Producer have a role in amateur theatre groups????  Discuss!!

With our Plays and Playscripts issue coming up in January, we thought we'd get all your aspiring playwrights motivated to get writing.

Soho Theatre has recently announced the return of the Verity Bargate Award. Names after it's founder this national competition is in search of the best new play by an emerging writer.

The winner of the VBA will also recieve £5000, a production of their play at Soho theatre and residence at the theatre. This is an inspiring competition and to give aspiring playwrights as much support as possible the Soho Theatre will be holding workshops and information sessions across the UK to encourage entrants.

Entrants with three or more professional productions to their credit are not eligible to enter. Plays are to be no shorter than 70 minutes in length and the submission deadline is 11 March 2011. For further information about the award or workshops call 020 7478 0113 or visit www.sohotheatre.com/vba

An interesting article from The Stage about the how the Comprehensive Spending Review may affect the amateur sector.

You can read it on their website here. 

Amateur Stage Magazine is proud to announce that New Directions Playwrighting Competition has been launched today.

New Directions aims to help promote new writing by raising the profile of writers and encouraging amateur groups to take a risk on new writing.

The competition is open in two sections - One Act and Full Length Plays. A cash prize of £500 for the One Act Play section and £1000 for the full length play section is offered.

Recognising that new writing needs support the competition is being sponsored by Lazy Bee Scripts, Spotlight Publications, Josef Weinberger, Scottish Plays, New Theatre Publications, Samuel French, Stage Scripts, Nick Hern Books, The Little Theatre Guild, Amateur Stage Magazine, Amdram.co.uk and Stage Whispers Magazine in Australia.

Full details of the competition are now published on the Amateur Stage Website (www.amateurstagemagazine.co.uk) along with entry details.

The winning entries will be announced in 2012 at a gala event at a West End Theatre.

Break a leg!!

Keep us up to date with whats happening performance wise in the town of North cheshire eg. Runcorn, Warrington, St Helens, Altrincham areas etc

What is it?
Where and whens it going on?
Hows it going so far?

Plays/ Musical Theatre/ Gilbert&Sullivan/Operetta/Dance

etc etc etc 

The Book Of Mormon, the satirical and some have said blasphemous musical based on the Mormon religion, triumphed at last night's Tony Awards winning 9 awards including Best Musical.

Written by the creative forces behind South Park and Avenue Q, The Book Of  Mormon is Broadway's hottest ticket, sold out months in advance and netting scalpers up to £900 a ticket for it's highly coveted seats.

One has to wonder how the world of amateur theatre will respond to this one when it eventually comes on general release.  Broadway veterans thought the matinee audiences would hate it and stay away in droves, but they've been proven wrong as the "older set" throng to the show and love it.

Does The Book Of Mormon mark a watershed where TV's South Park generation have finally captured a beach head in musical theatre land? Is there more of the same to come? No one knows the answer at this stage, but what is clear is that Mormon takes Broadway musical tradition (yes that is a bow to The Sound Of Music you'll hear in I believe) and embraces it to turn out a musical that is appealing to people of all ages even if it's profane and shocking.

Take a look at the attached clips to judge for your self, we've uploaded them to the video section of the website.

Regent Rep are proud to have been selected as one of the final twenty groups in Sky Arts' "Stagestruck" competition.
"Stagestruck", produced by Oxford Film & Television, is a nationwide search for the cream of Britain's amateur theatre talent, and to have reached this stage against stiff competition is a massive boost.
Regent Rep are flying the flag for what is a hugely vibrant amateur theatre community in the East Dorset (Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch) area, and with performers in our ranks drawn from dozens of local societies, we hope to do the area proud.
Of the final twenty groups, eight will progress to the knockout stages of the contest, with seven selected by the judging panel and the final group being the one remaining with the most public votes.
Please vote now for Regent Rep at http://www.skyarts.co.uk/theatre-drama/article/stagestruck-regent-rep/

Each month many of you religiously send us your diary items for inclusion in our diary section.

We are now looking at different ways to make that information available both through our website and through other means.  We hope that by doing this we'll be able to get your listings out to many more people.

Here's all you need to know about listing your show:-

1. Go to http://diary.asmagazine.co.uk

2. Register as a user - this only takes a minute or so. Once you register remember your details for future use.

3. Choose the Create a venue option and enter details of all the theatres and performance spaces that your group uses. Once these are in the system you need never re-type them again.

4. Go back to the Home page and choose Add A Production. Go through show by show and put in your production details. You can list as far in advance as you want just make sure you have all the relevant information to hand, if you don't have everything we need the system won't accept your listing.

Once you have done that your information is immediately available to our system.

Things to remember:-

1. Amateur Stage diary is published two months in advance. For instance the February issue covers March and April, so the more notice you give us the more coverage you get.

2. Deadline is the 15th of the month prior to publication.

3. With the introduction of this system we will no longer be taking manual diary entries. All entries must be entered online by your group.

4. We still welcome your press releases and photos for our general news section but we will not be creating diary listings based on this information.

As we said earlier, please ensure that this email reaches the person responsible for listings for your group. A direct link to the diary submission system will be on our website in a few days time.

We've tried to make the system as easy to use as possible so happy listings to everyone!!

The three year old youth group YoungBLODS are watching old episodes of 'Star Trek' to understand the wonderful 'send up' script and music of Dazzle written by John Gardiner with music by Andrew Parr.  The show will be staged at the Bexhill High School on 13th and 14th April.  Meanwhile, back at the rehearsal hall, the older BLODS are testing their tonsorial dexterity and grappling with the music of Elton John and the text of Tim Rice in the South East Coast Premiere of their 'Aida'.  It won so many awards on Broadway and ran for over 1,000 performances.  I wonder why it was never staged in the West End?  It will now be staged at the famous De La Warr Pavilion from 27 to 30th June.
Bernardo

So sad to read this in The Stage this week.
http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/30466/john-godber-leaves-formal-role-at-hull-truck