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REVIEW: Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Kipps, ‘The New Half A Sixpence Musical’

What a catch! Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Ann Pornick reaches for the bouquet in the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company’s Kipps. All pictures: Mike Darley

Kipps, Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company, at Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, tomorrow, 2.30pm, 7.30pm. Box office: 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk

FLASH, bang, wallop, what a picture of joy as Jennie Wogan-Wells’s Ann Pennick leaps to catch the wedding bouquet at the finale to Kipps on opening night, fully three years after the Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company acquired the rights to this Half A Sixpence re-boot.

Under the pandemic’s shadow, the JoRo’s in-house company moved the production dates three or four times, recalls director Kayleigh Oliver in her programme notes. Kipps may advocate “singing a simple tune”, but there has been nothing simple about the “Herculean effort” of staging a show whose cast is in its 37th incarnation. Yes, 37.

Jamie Benson’s Arthur Kipps with the predatory James and Mrs Walsingham (Stuart Sellens, Helen Spencer) and daughter Helen (JenniferJones)

It remains “a simple story about a simple bloke who just wants a simple life”, as first conjured in HG Wells’ subversive 1905 novel depicting a simple soul, caught between the head and the heart.

Half A Sixpence made cheeky charmer Tommy Steele’s name in David Heneker and Beverley Cross’s stage show and 1967 film musical. In 2016, it re-emerged as Kipps in a refreshing revamp co-created by impresario Cameron Mackintosh with seven new numbers by alchemical songwriting duo George Stiles and Anthony Drewe to complement Heneker’s original songs.

Significantly too, the radical, overtly political new book is the sprightly work of Downton Abbey’s Julian Fellowes, the upstairs-downstairs chronicler who tools Kipps with rigidity-busting, robust humour rooted in the clash of the English classes with its accent on having the ‘correct’ accent. It is still a romantic tale, but now has much more of the punk spirit of Richard Bean’s socialist comedy knees-up, One Man, Two Guvnors.

Head over heels: Jamie Benson’s Arthur Kipps and Jennifer Jones’s Helen Walsingham

Jamie Benson’s Arthur ‘Artie’ Kipps is a warm-hearted innocent abroad, an orphaned Folkstone apprentice draper who is suddenly bequeathed a fortune. Out goes a childhood vow to Ann; in comes the properly nice Helen Walsingham (Jennifer Jones) and a “world of upper-class soirees and strict rules of etiquette” that leaves him all at sea on the Kentish coast.

More to the point, Fellowes depicts high society as mercenary snobs, typified by Stuart Sellens’s James Walsingham and Helen Spencer’s scene-stealing Mrs Walsingham, the dragon mother desperate to bring Kipps’s new money into her crusty family via Helen’s entwining with Kipps

Just as the Walsinghams work on exploiting Kipps’s innocence, so Chris Gibson’s story-spinning artful dodger thespian Chitterlow seeks to entice him into backing his new play in his lovably rakish manner beneath his unruly wig.

The Joy Of Theatre, as espoused by Chris Gibson’s dapper thespian, Chitterlow

That elicited the song The Joy Of Theatre, one of the high points of this perky show that so affirmed everyone’s delight at being back in the JoRo, whether on stage or in the auditorium.

From lovable Benson to jocund Gibson, spirited Wogan-Wells to thoroughly decent Jones, self-pitying Spencer to Jane Woolgar’s Lady Punnet, Ben Huntley’s food-loving Buggins to Alastair Bush’s foppish photographer, there is so much to enjoy in the performances and singing, supported ever enthusiastically by the ensemble. Not forgetting the opening cameos of Ben Wood as Young Kipps and Kate Blenkiron as Young Ann.

Jane Woolgar’s costumes could not be more colourful; musical director James Robert Ball’s orchestra have a ball with songs older and newer alike and Lorna Newby’s choreography consistently brings a beaming smile. Never more so than in the stand-out Pick Out A Simple Tune, led by the banjo-playing Benson before the Flash, Bang, Walloping finale. Stick it in the family diary for tomorrow: Kipps is indeed “the pick-me-up we so desperately need in grey February”, as Kayleigh Oliver puts it. Book NOW for Kipps with everything.

Picking Out A Simple Tune: Banjo-playing Kipps (Jamie Benson) leads the high-society soiree in a merry dance
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Why Yard Act’s debut The Overload is the best Leeds album in years…

TWO Big Egos In A Small Car arts podcasters Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson enthuse over the rise of Yard Act from Leeds novelties to number two in the album charts in Episode 76.

Under discussion too: is Kenneth Branagh’s Oscar-nominated childhood memoir Belfast a masterpiece or a fudge? Plus Graham’s interview hiccup with 10CC’s Graham Gouldman and Charles’s verdict on Ross Noble’s chaotic Humournoid show in York.

To listen, head to: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/10004493

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Big show news! Michael McIntyre to play Work In Progress show at Grand Opera House, York. Ticket rush, 10am, Tuesday

Michael McIntyre: New material on trial in York

COMEDIAN Michael McIntyre will try out brand-new material at the Grand Opera House, York, in a Work In Progress show hastily arranged for February 28.

Tickets for the 8pm warm-up gig go on sale on Tuesday, February 15 at 10am, priced from £25 at atgtickets.com/York. Bookings are limited to four per household and the age guidance is 14 upwards.

The 45-year-old Londoner is noted for his observational comedy, wherein he turns everyday situations into outpourings of startled exasperation.

McIntyre’s big break came when he performed on the televised 2006 Royal Variety Performance. His tours have since sold four million tickets and he holds the record for the highest-selling artist at Britain’s biggest arena, London’s O2, where he sold out 28 shows.

He hosted Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow on BBC One from 2009, winning the National Television Award for Best Entertainment Programme in 2012.

In 2016, he began fronting Michael McIntyre’s Big Show, now into its sixth series on Saturday nights on BBC One, with a BAFTA for Best Entertainment Performance among its awards. He has chaired two series of BBC One’s Saturday game show The Wheel too. Last year he penned his autobiography, A Funny Life.

McIntyre previously played a three-night run of Work In Progress gigs at the Grand Opera House from July 2 to 4 2012.

UPDATE 17/2/2022

MICHAEL McIntyre’s Work In Progress show at the Grand Opera House, York, on February 28 sold out within two hours of going on sale on Tuesday morning.

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Drag diva Velma Celli is just the tonic as York Gin hosts ‘outrageous’ Outlaw Live cabaret at National Centre for Early Music

Velma Cellli: A night of song, laughter and York Gin

YORK drag diva Velma Celli invites you to “celebrate your inner outlaw” at York Gin’s outrageous cabaret soiree at the National Centre of Early Music, Walmgate, York, on March 25.

“York is a city of outlaws: Guy Fawkes was born here. Dick Turpin was hanged here,” says York Gin Company events coordinator Harri Marshall. “It’s even home to the super-strength York Gin Outlaw, which comes with a warning: ‘Drink, with ice, tonic … and care’.

“Now – for one night only – one of the UK’s ‘baddest’ drag queens will be celebrating all that’s naughty, villainous and defiantly outrageous about York and its outlaws.”

Back home in York from America after a month of shows on Atlantis Gay Cruise ships, Velma Celli promises a night of song, laughter and York Gin as Velma and friends “unleash a riot of glamorous outrage”.

Ingredients for Outlaw Live: Velma Celli + York Gin + Cabaret + NCEM

Tickets are selling fast at tickettailor.com/events/yorkgin/590817/ and admission includes a gin cocktail on arrival.

“If you love drag, gin, and being just a little bit naughty, this one’s for you,” says Velma, the vocal drag creation of West End musical actor Ian Stroughair, 39.

In Velma’s diary too is a March 19 performance of Me And My Divas at York Theatre Royal at 7.30pm and a June 30 performance of A Brief History Of Drag at Pocklington Arts Centre at 8pm. Box office: York, 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk; Pocklington, 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk.

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Miles is back but with a different Chain Gang for Black Swan gig on February 19

Miles Salter: Ganging up with new band members

YORK writer, musician and storyteller Miles Salter is back with a new Chain Gang for a headline gig at The Black Swan Inn, Peasholme Green, York, on February 19.

“We had some line-up issues with the first version, so I’ve re-wired the band and it sounds great,” says Miles, introducing Daniel Bowater on keyboards and accordion, Steve Purton on drums, Mat Watt on bass and Mark Hawkins on lead guitar.  

“Daniel previously played with Acko Pulco And The Cliff Divers and has been musical director at the Richmond Theatre pantomime for a number of years; Mark is a veteran of hundreds of gigs, including as stand-in guitarist for NoWaySis, the touring Oasis tribute.”

Counting down to the debut gig with the new gang in tow, Salter says: “After a very quiet couple of years – we played just one gig in 2021 – I’m pleased with how the new line-up sounds; it feels great. We’re looking forward to playing more gigs in the area soon.”

The support slots on the 8pm to 11.30pm bill go to Sarah Louise Boyle, Lee Moore and Monkey Paw. “It’ll be a diverse and fun evening, so do come along,” says Salter. 

Tickets are on sale for £5.50 at prime4.bandcamp.com/merch/miles or at £7.50 on the door.

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Carole King tribute show to mark Manhattan songwriter’s 80th birthday at Grand Opera House in October

Carole: Marking Carole King’s 80th birthday

CAROLE – The Music Of Carole King celebrates the 80th birthday of the Manhattan songwriter, singer and musician at the Grand Opera House, York, on October 27.

From the producers of the West End shows Seven Drunken Nights – The Story Of The Dubliners and Fairytale Of New York – Coming Home For Christmas, this landmark tribute takes a musical journey from her early beginnings in New York as part of the Brill Building song-writing team to Los Angeles, the Troubadour Club and the Laurel Canyon singer-songwriter movement of early 1970s’ California.

King, who wrote her first number one, The Shirelles’ Will You Love Me Tomorrow, at only 17, turned 80 on February 9.

Carole – The Music Of Carole King: Visiting Grand Opera House, York, this autumn

The show features not only songs from the Carole King songbook but also hits written and recorded by Aretha Franklin, The Drifters, The Shirelles, The Monkees, The Beatles, The Everly Brothers, Dusty Springfield, Little Eva, Herman’s Hermits and James Taylor.

Co-producer Ged Graham says: “Carole King is one of the most influential songwriters in pop music history. Her music has rocked the world for so long and all the songs have been laced into the fabric of life for over 60 years. This production is a showcase of not only her music but just how much she has been a force that has shaped pop music.”

The autumn tour show brings together singers, musicians and dancers to cover more than six decades of music. Tickets are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

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Back on-song Fascinating Aida never tire of satire after four decades of topical bite

Liza Pulman, left, Dillie Keane and Adele Anderson raise a glass to Fascinating Aida returning to the stage. Picture: Johnny Boylan

SATIRICAL cabaret trio Fascinating Aida are heading for their 40th anniversary next year.

How they will celebrate remains under wraps, but the comedy singing group’s founder, Dillie Keane, is delighted to be back on the road for 61 winter and spring dates with key writing partner Adele Anderson, who joined in 1984, and Liza Pulman, who first teamed up in 2004.

Among the shows will be York Barbican on Saturday and Scarborough Spa Theatre on May 13.

“We first toured this new show in the autumn, and it was such a relief. It felt like going home,” says 69-year-old Irish actress, singer, pianist, comedian and columnist Dillie.

“Sometimes, I’m overwhelmed in the wings, thinking ‘’I’m home’. I love being backstage too and all the routine that goes with that.

“After nearly four decades, I’m enjoying it as much as ever, having started the group as something to do when we weren’t acting!”

During lockdown, Dillie penned three songs that she posted on YouTube. “I’m not one for livestreaming,” she says. “There’s something depressing about seeing people performing a ‘show’ from their bedroom.

“Instead, I wrote these rather bitter and angry songs. There was one about Cummings ‘wanting all us old people to die’ [Song For Dominic Cummings], and one about Gavin Williamson ‘stuffing up the education system’ [Song For Gavin Williamson].

“Then, Nothing To Do Blues (‘and all day to do it in’), that came about from the moment when I was queueing in a little farm shop and a chap turned round and said, ‘Sorry, I’m taking ages’, and I said, ‘that’s OK, I’ve got nothing to do’. I got that one properly edited and made a little film of it.”

Those songs will not feature in Fascinating Aida’s set. “No, they were of the moment and they would only have been in my solo show,” says Dillie.

She had anticipated spending her pandemic-enforced hiatus from the stage rather differently. “I always felt in my year off, ‘I’ll write my autobiography’; ‘I’ll write the novel of my dreams’; ‘I’ll read [James Joyce’s] Ulysses and Proust’…

… “Well, I did start Proust – I’m halfway through the first book! – and I listened to 13 Anthony Trollope stories read by Timothy West and enjoyed some audio books, and I grew a lot of vegetables. I’ve now used almost all the courgettes; pounds and pounds of them.”

Experiencing the Nothing To Do Blues, Dillie missed seeing shows as much as she missed playing them. “It broke my heart,” she says. “I will go and see anything. I’m very eclectic. High opera. Low opera. Mongolian throat singers. Anything you can name.

“Not being able to see stuff was a killer – then someone told me it took 18 years to reopen theatres after the plague.”

From 1984’s Sweet FA to 2012’s Cheap Flights and onwards, Fascinating Aida have captured the political and social fixations of our times. For 2022, Fascinating Aida’s cabaret compound will combine “old favourites, songs you haven’t heard before and some you wish you’d never heard in the first place” as Dillie, Adele and Liza are joined by musical director, composer and pianist Michael Roulston, under the direction of Paul Foster (whose credits include Kiss Me, Kate and Annie Get Your Gun at Sheffield Crucible).

“I think there are several reasons for our longevity, and one of them is that we’ve always had a director for our shows, which is incredibly important,” says Dillie. “You should have someone on the outside to say, ‘no, this is better’.

“Working with a director makes it sharper focused, and we now have the wonderful Paul Foster, who I worked with on another project [a solo show off-Broadway and on tour].”

Summing up Fascinating Aida’s chemistry that will be clicking once more from January 29 to June 20, Dillie says: “We’re terribly finickity, driving each other crackers!  But when we get a line right, when we’re together in Liza’s kitchen, or mine, it’s wonderful.

“Like when we were writing a song about one thing, and Adele came up with a few lines that were nothing to do that but were all to do with ‘fake news’, I thought, ‘that’s awfully good, we should use that for the opening song’.

“We stopped what we’re doing and wrote the new song in full, writing everything in black and white terms: that’s how True True True Or Fake News came about.”

Further assessing the trio’s bond, Dillie says: “A very silly sense of humour helps too. That’s never changed. People come up after a show and say, ‘have you been hiding in my kitchen? You are singing about my life’.

“We’ve also never been starry. We’ve been relentlessly down to earth; there’s a genuine rootedness about us, and we’ve never been seduced by the idiotic side of showbiz.”

One other factor lies behind Fascinating Aida’s continuing success. “Satirical songs are different to doing stand-up, where the rules of comedy say you’re not allowed to repeat old jokes, but though a song like Cheap Flights is no longer topical, people still sit there in hysterics,” says Dillie.

“Songs are a different discipline altogether. Give us a stand-up script and we wouldn’t be very good at it, so we say, ‘let’s keep the chatter to a minimum; let’s stick to the songs’ as we seem to be rather good at them!”

Fascinating Aida, York Barbican, Saturday (12/2/2022) and Scarborough Spa Theatre, May 13, both at 7.30pm. Box office: York, yorkbarbican.co.uk; Scarborough, 01723 376774 or scarboroughspa.co.uk.

Copyright of The Press, York

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More Things To Do in York and beyond, from rock’n’roll raves to a comedy variant. List No. 68, courtesy of The Press, York

The Bluejays: Ready to Rave On at York Theatre Royal

GOLDEN hits, blue art, a grotesque puppet, raucous inventions, a brace of musicals and an on-trend comedian are Charles Hutchinson’s fancies for cultural gratification.

Nostalgia trip of the week: The Bluejays in Rave On, York Theatre Royal, Saturday (5/2/2022), 7.30pm

THE Bluejays, a group comprised of West End stars from The Buddy Holly Story, Million Dollar Quartet, One Man, Two Guvnors and Dreamboats & Petticoats, head back to the fabulous Fifties and swinging Sixties in Rave On.

Charting the meteoric rise of rock’n’roll, this joyful journey through these revolutionary musical decades revels in the golden days of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Neil Sedaka, The Kinks, Connie Francis, Lulu and The Shadows. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Rebecca Taylor: Soloist for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 1 at York Guildhall Orchestra’s concert

Beethoven at the double: York Guildhall Orchestra, York Barbican, tonight, 7.30pm

REBECCA Taylor will be the soloist for Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 1 in the second concert of York Guildhall Orchestra’s 41st season.

Under conductor Simon Wright, the orchestra also perform one of Beethoven’s rarely played overtures, an 1811 commemorative work to King Stephen 1st, founder of Hungary in 1000AD.

The second half features a stalwart of the symphonic repertoire, Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 5,  a popular work that “demonstrates his darker side, perhaps ultimate victory through strife,” says Wright. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Jane Dignum’s poster for Westside Artists’ Into The Blue exhibition at Pyramid Gallery, York

Group exhibition of the week: Westside Artists’ Into The Blue at Pyramid Gallery, Stonegate, York, until March 13, open Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm

EACH of the Westside Artists, a group from the west end of York, has created new work to portray a personal interpretation and concept of the exhibition title, Into The Blue, at Terry Brett’s Pyramid Gallery.

Taking part are Adele Karmazyn (digital photomontage); Carolyn Coles (painting); Donna Marie Taylor (mixed media); Ealish Wilson (mixed media and sculpture); Fran Brammer (textiles) and Jane Dignum (printmaking).

So to are Jill Tattersall (mixed-media collage); Kate Akrill (ceramics); Lucie Wake (painting); Mark Druery (printmaking); Richard Rhodes (ceramics); Sharon McDonagh (mixed media) and Simon Palmour (photography).

Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company cast members in rehearsal for Kipps, The New Half A Sixpence Musical

Who will he choose? Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company in Kipps, The New Half A Sixpence Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, February 9 to 12, 7.30pm and 2.30pm Saturday matinee

IN the coastal town of Folkestone, Arthur Kipps knows there is more to life than his demanding but unrewarding job as an apprentice draper.

When he suddenly inherits a fortune, Kipps is thrown into a world of upper-class soirées and strict rules of etiquette that he barely understands. Torn between the affections of the kind but proper Helen and childhood sweetheart Ann, Kipps must determine whether such a simple soul can find a place in high society.

Tickets for this Joseph Rowntree Theatre Company fundraising show for the JoRo are on sale on 01904 501935 or at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.

Blackeyed Theatre in Frankenstein, on tour at the SJT, Scarborough, from Wednesday. Picture: Alex Harvey-Brown

Fright nights ahead: Blackeyed Theatre in Frankenstein, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, February 9 to 12

SOUTH Yorkshire playwright Nick Lane has reinterpreted John Ginman’s original 2016 script for Bracknell touring company Blackeyed Theatre, built around Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel set in Geneva in 1816, where Victor Frankenstein obsesses in the pursuit of nature’s secret, the elixir of life itself.

This highly theatrical telling combines live music and ensemble storytelling with Bunraku-style puppetry to portray The Creature. Designed and built by Warhorse and His Dark Materials alumna Yvonne Stone, the 6ft 4inch puppet is operated by up to three actors at any one time. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.

Jonny Holbek in rehearsal for his role of Che in York Light Opera Company’s production of Evita

“Big sing” of the week ahead: York Light Opera Company in Evita, York Theatre Royal, February 9 to 19

DIRECTOR Martyn Knight has decided to use double casting for the five main roles in Evita, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical of people, politics and power, in response to Covid-19’s ongoing impact.

The principals have been rehearsing separately, with Alexa Chaplin and Emma-Louise Dickinson sharing the lead role of Eva Peron; Dale Vaughan and Jonny Holbek playing Che; John Hall and Neil Wood as Juan Peron, Dave Copley-Martin and Richard Weatherill as Agustin Maglidi, and Fiona Phillips and Hannah Witcomb as Peron’s Mistress.

Covid, long Covid and even physical injuries have necessitated Knight drawing up his 18th cast list at the latest count. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Con Brio, by Mark Hearld, at Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Picture: Red Photography

Last chance to see: Mark Hearld’s Raucous Invention: The Joy Of Making, Upper Space and YSP Centre, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, ends tomorrow (6/2/2022)

THIS weekend is the finale to Raucous Invention: The Joy Of Making, an  ambitious, vibrant, and creative journey wherein York artist and designer Mark Hearld explores connections through collaboration and risk-taking to create bold and challenging works, including tapestries and ceramics.

Working from his Portland Street studio across a range of media and using the natural world as inspiration, Hearld has made collages, lino-cut prints, letter-press prints and a large-scale mural that fills the walls of the YSP kitchen in the visitor centre. You will need to book at ysp.org.uk.

Pandemic pontifications: Russell Kane’s new tour show, The Essex Variant!, is heading to York Barbican

Still the only subject in town by then? Russell Kane Live: The Essex Variant!, York Barbican, December 14

ENFIELD humorist Russell Kane offers his “gut-punch funny, searing take on the two years we’ve just gone through” in his new stand-up tour show, The Essex Variant!. More like, three years, by then.

Comic, writer, presenter and actor Kane presents two podcasts, Man Baggage and BBC Radio 4’s Evil Genius and is a regular on Channel 4, BBC and ITV. “I drink lots of coffee and I’m ‘like that in real life’,” he says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

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Next Door But One seek performing artists for Opening Doors workshop, mentoring and networking programme in February

Next Door But One: Opening doors to support York’s performing arts freelancers

IT is no secret that the arts haves been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic.

As many theatres roll out their plans to “Build Back Better”, York community arts collective Next Door But One are focusing their support on the city’s freelancers, delivering another series of free professional development workshops. 

Various UK surveys throughout the Covid pandemic have highlighted how seven out of ten parents and carers, nearly two thirds of disabled practitioners and 70 per cent of those who identify as being from a socioeconomically disadvantaged background are thinking they will need to leave their careers in the creative industries.

Next Door But One artistic director Matt Harper-Hardcastle

“These figures are extremely concerning for a number of reasons” says Next Door But One’s artistic director, Matt Harper-Hardcastle. “Not only is our own team created from these different artists, but without the correct continued investment, the arts risks taking huge steps backwards in respect of access, representation and diversity.

“As a small theatre company, dependent on the skilled freelancers within York, it is important we look after our people.” 

Last year, Next Door But One ran their first programme of professional development, funded by Arts Council England, for 27 performing arts professionals, offering workshops on fundraising, facilitation, directing and scriptwriting, as well as group mentoring sessions and networking opportunities.

Next Door But One’s Opening Doors: Offering professional mentoring support

“Ninety per cent of participants on this programme had lost most of their freelance work, were struggling to secure new opportunities or had considered a change in career,” says associate director Kate Veysey.

“From our previous cohort, we supported many to secure future employment and to raise funds for their own projects (notably £50,000 in Develop Your Creative Practice funding through Arts Council England).

“But the overriding feedback was on the importance of Next Door But One creating a new network for participants to support one another through the difficult time of the pandemic. A network which is still helping people flourish.” 

Next Door But One associate director Kate Veysey

Next Door But One are now mounting a similar programme, Opening Doors, that hopes to do just that, says Matt. “If people need some direction, or support on what they should do next, or what might be possible for them; that’s what we hope to offer,” he reasons.

Opening Doors will begin this month (February 2022), funded by the City of York Council, York Centre for Voluntary Services and Make It York, and Next Door But One are looking for individuals to register their interest if engagement in this programme would be of use to them.

“The process is quick and open to any performing arts professional, from new graduates, emerging or re-emerging artists, or those who just need support to get back on their desired track, based in or around York,” says Matt.

Workshops. Mentoring. Networking. Next Door But One are opening doors for York’s arts community

“Some workshops will be in person, at the company’s new home of The Gillygate pub, in Gillygate, while others will be virtual and will be run by industry leading directors, producers, fundraisers, casting directors and playwrights.”

To register your interest, go to www.nextdoorbutone.co.uk or if you have any questions about the professional development programme, send an email to kate.ndb1@gmail.com. 

If you are reading this, are thinking of registering your interest, but are still unsure, here is what one of last year’s participants said: “

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York Light Opera Company rise to Evita challenge at the double in Knight’s move to combat pandemic toil and trouble

Making Light work of it: John Hall (Juan Peron), Alexa Chaplin (Eva Peron) and Dale Vaughan (Che) as one principal trio for York Light’s Evita at York Theatre Royal

WHY will York Light Opera Company have two Evas, two Juan Perons and two Ches in Evita?

Director Martyn Knight has decided to use double casting for the main roles in the February 9 to 19 production at York Theatre Royal in response to Covid-19’s ongoing impact.

“For the five principal roles, they’re all double cast, because we’re still in a pandemic and we wanted to protect ourselves,” he says. “We’ve kept the principal casts separate, which has required us to double the rehearsal time and rehearse in separate rooms.

“But we’ve had cast members drop out with Covid; we’ve had cast members drop out with long Covid; we’ve had cast members suffer injuries. We are on our 18th cast list due to people having to pull out. It’s been a nightmare but it’s also been a labour of love.”

Explaining his reasoning behind “doing the double”,  he says: “It’s a fully sung show and double casting provides each team with sufficient rest. The main character parts are huge and it would be a colossal ‘ask’ of any understudy to learn and have to perform those roles without significant rehearsal.

“Double casting provides the best possible cover, which is needed more than ever when putting on the production during a pandemic.”

All the while, Martyn had his annual pantomime commitment – for the 18th year –from November to January as the resident dame at Eastbourne’s Devonshire Park Theatre, playing Nellie Nightnurse in Sleeping Beauty.

Martyn Knight in the poster for this winter’s Eastbourne pantomime role as Dame Nellie Nightnurse

“The gutting thing for me is that I’d never missed a performance, in all those years, working through shingles, ear, nose and throat issues and stomach problems, but then I tested positive for Covid on New Year’s Eve,” he says.  “Out of 13, ten of us went down with it during the run; at one point, we had no ensemble and the baddie [Carli Norris’s Carabosse] had to use the stage crew as her minions.

“But I managed to return for the last day, and it was a very powerful, emotional feeling doing the panto this winter, playing to 25,000 people. They needed it, the joy of seeing a show, and that’s why we’re so determined to get theatre back on.”

Hence the precautions taken by York Light for Evita, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s musical account of the rags-to-riches life story of Eva Peron as she goes from poor provincial child to First Lady of Argentina on her “Rainbow Tour”, using popularity and politics to serve both her people and herself.

For this musical of people, power and politics, Alexa Chaplin and Emma-Louise Dickinson will share the lead role of Eva Peron; Dale Vaughan and Jonny Holbek will play Che; John Hall and Neil Wood, Juan Peron; Dave Copley-Martin and Richard Weatherill, Agustin Maglidi, and Fiona Phillips and Hannah Witcomb, Peron’s Mistress.

Since initial rehearsals last autumn, Alexa and Emma-Louise had not seen each other until their paths crossed in the car park at last Sunday’s rehearsals.

“It’s been a very different experience, where we were only together early in the process, when Martyn was blocking the show, but that was a long time ago,” says Alexa. “It feels very odd not knowing what the other set of principals will be like, but doing it this way, dividing the performances,  has meant I could do a show I couldn’t otherwise do, with childcare requirements.

“It will be interesting to see if each night off will feel restful or whether we’ll be chomping at the bit to get back on stage.”

Double act: Neil Wood (Juan Peron), Emma-Louise Dickinson (Eva Peron) and Jonny Holbek (Che) as the other principal trio for York Light Opera Company’s Evita

In preparing for the lead role, Alexa says: “I’m quite a nerd, when it comes to research, reading biographies, finding out about the character, but then, what writers do to a character in a musical is not fully true to life, and you have to bridge that gap of how they interpret her.

“But I feel whatever you think about her politics, Eva’s absolute tenacity and drive and endless energy is incredible – and the musical demands that you match that energy, with it being such a ‘big sing’.”

Emma-Louise was last on stage in a musical in February 2020, playing Nancy in Oliver! at York Theatre Royal, in the weeks before the first Covid lockdown. “The only thing I’ve done since then was the Raise The Roof fundraiser for the Joseph Rowntree Theatre with everyone spaced out and a restricted audience capacity,” she says.

“If someone had said you won’t do a musical for two years…but at least I’ve been fortunate in being able to engage in singing online as a music teacher. It’s such a discipline, performing, and after such a long time off, it’s been a challenge building up the stamina again since we started rehearsals in September.”

Contemplating playing Eva Peron, Emma-Louise says: “Whenever you’re playing a real-life character, there’s an added pressure to make it accurate, so there’s not as much room for interpretation.

“I’ve learned how fascinating it is that someone can be so adored but so reviled, and the only thing I can liken it to is the story of Princess Diana. They were both controversial figures, but when Diana died there was this huge devastation, and her legacy has grown and grown, just as it has for Eva Peron.”

York Light Opera Company in Evita, York Theatre Royal, February 9 to 19, 7.30pm (except February 13); 2.30pm matinees, February 12 and 19. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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