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Who are the 30 new artists and makers in York Open Studios? Meet the first six here

A sample of Kate Semple’s work as she makes her York Open Studios debut

YORK Open Studios returns to its traditional spring slot for the next two weekends after last year’s temporary Covid-enforced detour to July.

More than 150 artists and makers will be showing and selling their work within their homes and workspaces, giving visitors an opportunity to view and buy “bespoke pieces to suit every budget”, from 10am to 5pm on April 2,3, 9 and 10, preceded by a 6pm to 9pm preview on April 1. 

As ever, the range of artists’ work encompasses painting and print, illustration, drawing and mixed media, ceramics, glass and sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and installation art. Check out the artists’ directory listings at yorkopenstudios.co.uk to find out who is participating and who will be opening up early for the preview.

CharlesHutchPress will highlight the 30 newcomers in a week-long preview, in map order, that starts today with Laural Duval, Mandi Grant, Amanda Allmark, Marie Murphy, Poppy O’Rourke and Kate Semple.

Laura Duval in her studio

Laura Duval, mixed media, South Bank Studios, Southlands Methodist Church, 97 Bishopthorpe Road, York

ARTIST, designer and metalsmith Laura specialises in ceramics and metalwork, using copper as her first choice, although she does utilise silver too.

“I create bowls, cutlery, serving utensils, tableware, and other decorative items with the hope that my work will not only be admired, but also be used in the everyday, to create a sense of occasion,” she says. “All my creations are handmade one-of-a-kind pieces; no two pieces will ever be exactly the same.”

Mandi Grant in her studio at South Bank Studios

Mandi Grant, painting, South Bank Studios, Southlands Methodist Church, 97 Bishopthorpe Road, York

INSPIRED by the architectural features of York buildings, the lush vegetation of allotments and livestock, Mandi creates lyrical paintings of shapes, colours and textures in combinations of oil, acrylic and wax painting techniques.  

She has enjoyed a long and career in a tertiary college’s lively art department, teaching A-level and pre-degree foundation courses in art and design.

Mandi has embraced the challenges of combining her studies of fashion and textiles with taking a degree course in fine art painting and printmaking, encompassing the visual richness these subject areas afford.

Ceramicist Amanda Allmark

Amanda Allmark, ceramics, 70 Scott Street, York

EXHIBITING as part of the York College student showcase, Amanda’s ceramics are influenced by her life experiences and an ongoing mission to promote self-love, self-empowerment and our right, as human beings, to shine.

Drawing on a therapeutic background, she uses creativity to highlight human behaviours and emotions, encouraging awareness with a combination of words and illustration on the ceramic surface.

Have Courage Dear Heart, by Amanda Allmark

She handcrafts her contemporary ceramics by working with form and visual language, her pieces being at once impactful and playful and marked by beautifully burnished surfaces.

“The subtle colours and feminine lines of my designs work in contrast with strong and empowered messages,” she says.

Textile artist Marie Murphy: “Mid-century Brutalism meets a riot of colour”

Marie Murphy, textiles, 38 Scarcroft Road, York

MARIE set up her textiles studio in 2019 with a focus on illustration and surface pattern design. Her modern and bold homeware and stationery combine a love of geometric art, architecture, print and embroidery.

“My work could be described as a mix of mid-century Brutalism meets a riot of colour,” she says. “Designs and paintings begin as ideas in a sketchbook, as line drawings or the use of bold blocks of colours. These are then translated into paintings and illustrations.”

Those paintings and illustrations then form the basis for Marie’s digital patterns, prints and embroideries, influenced by such artist and designers as Bridget Riley, John Pawson and Anni Albers.

Poppy O’Rourke: Feminist-inspired artwork

Poppy O’Rourke, illustration, 13 East Mount Road, York

SELF-TAUGHT artist Poppy works in a variety of media to create feminist- inspired artwork, spanning digital illustration, painting and mixed media.

Poppy, who moved to York from Brighton in 2017 to study, favours intense colour and bold, minimalist designs, as seen in her Wonky Women series that aims to depict the female form in all its uneven beauty.

In her latest work, she experiments with colour and text to create unique designs centred around feminist quotes.

Share The Knowledge, Multiply The Power, by Poppy O’Rourke

Kate Semple, illustration, painting, ceramics, 13 East Mount Road, York

KATE has worked in the creative industry for 30 years, her experience ranging from special-effects painting in the film industry to designing and styling for editorial and working as a freelance Illustrator.

Since leaving London 19 years ago, she has created art, illustration and graphics for a variety of clients from her home studio in a wonky old Victorian house in York, where she also loves working in 3D, hand-building ceramic sculptures.

Kate Semple hand-building a ceramic sculpture

“I’ve drawn on recent personal experiences to create a new body of work that explores different mediums, whether ceramics, printmaking or drawing on both paper and clay,” says Kate, who is having a kiln installed in her garden shed

In 2022, Kate will be revisiting her Map Of York, first created in lockdown in 2020. Look out too for the illustration-led branding work she has done for Flori Bakery, in Nunnery Lane, spanning packaging, colouring books, tote bags, T-shirts and cards.

A constant stream of work for Kate is illustrating buildings, not least for the boutique hotel chain Guest House Hotels, both in York and Bath. She also created three paintings for a range of merchandise in the Ryedale Folk Museum shop in Hutton-le-Hole.

In focus tomorrow: Carol Douglas, painting; Anthea Peters, jewellery; Derek Gauld, landscape printmaking; Phil Bixby, photography; Jacqueline Warrington, jewellery; and Richard Frost, furniture.

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BalletBoyz to grace Grand Opera House with boisterous, beautiful Deluxe on April 11

BalletBoyz Deluxe: 20th anniversary tour visits the Grand Opera House…in the company’s 22nd year

MICHAEL Nunn and William Trevitt are marking the 20th anniversary of their BalletBoyz dance company with the bold, beautiful and boisterous BalletBoyz Deluxe, on tour at the Grand Opera House, York, on April 11.

Six extraordinary young dancers feature in this explosion of mesmeric dance, fused with the witty, distinctive BalletBoyz use of film and behind-the-scenes content.

Cheekily original and innovative, BalletBoyz have blended music and film with achingly beautiful dance, both exhilarating and graceful in its style, since forming in 2000.

Deluxe features work by Shanghai dancer-choreographer Xie Xin, of TAO Dance Theatre, in her UK debut with composer Jiang Shaofeng, and Punchdrunk’s Maxine Doyle in collaboration with jazz musician and composer Cassie Kinoshi, from the Mercury Prize-nominated SEED Ensemble.

Nunn, 52, and Trevitt, 50, say: “It’s such a thrill to be challenged in the studio, to find new ways of expressing an idea and to learn new techniques. For Deluxe, we wanted to find new voices to develop and work with the BalletBoyz dancers.

“Maxine Doyle and Xie Xin are taking the work of the company in new directions, more physical, more thought provoking, and an opportunity to reach new audiences.

“We have always thrived on the thrill of new collaborations and that urge still shapes our creative decisions. The point of being a repertoire company, and not choreographer-led, is precisely to be able to change direction, take risks on fresh ideas, discover new voices and reveal unexpected outcomes. Despite doing this for more than 20 years, we never want to settle for more of the same.”

Reflecting on their creative longevity, Nunn says: “We made a pact about 25 years ago that we would only work with each other. It’s a strength to work as a partnership. You give something away that somebody else holds for you. I think if that wasn’t there it would collapse somehow.

“I think we’re braver, because there are two of us. It’s much easier to take a huge risk, both financially and artistically, if you are doing it with someone else.”

Tickets for the 7.30pm show are on sale on 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

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Bobby on the beat: Two Big Egos In A Small Car podcast puts The Hollies’ man at the back in the spotlight in Episode 83

The Hollies: Playing York Barbican on May 23

TWO Big Egos In A Small Car culture-vulture podcasters Graham Chalmers and Charles Hutchinson reflect on drummer Bobby Elliot still keeping time for The Hollies, defying stiffened fingers as the legendary Manchester hitmakers bring their 60th anniversary tour to York Barbican this spring.

Up for discussion too in Episode 83 are stubborn Covid’s unceasing impact on the live arts; Michael Bracewell’s London 80s’ and 90s’ scene book, Souvenir; U2’s Achtung Baby at 30 and Ed Sheeran’s copyright case.

To listen, head to: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1187561/10288094

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Maximillian Elliot to give organ recital at dementia-friendly tea series at St Chad’s

Dr Maximillian Elliot: Organ recital at St Chad’s Church

ORGANIST Dr Maximillian Elliott will give the next Dementia Friendly Tea Concert at St Chad’s Church, Campleshon Road, York, on April 29.

Max is assistant director of music at St Olave’s Church and All Saints Church, North Street, as well as being the diocesan organ advisor with Robert Sharpe.

“As usual, the format for Max’s recital will be about 45 minutes of classical music followed by tea, coffee and homemade cakes, with a chance to chat,” says co-organiser Alison Gammon.

“The event is a relaxed concert, ideal for people who may not feel comfortable at a formal classical concert, so we do not mind if the audience wants to talk or move about!

“Seating is unreserved and there’s no charge, although donations are welcome. We give the hire cost to the church and the rest goes to Alzheimer’s charities.”

Dates for the monthly series of Thursday concerts are in the diary up to Christmas, all starting at 2.30pm: May 19, Isobel Parsons, cello, and Robert Gammon, piano; June 16, Peter and Julia Harrison, flute and poetry reading; July 21, Hannah Feehan, guitar; August 25, Robert Gammon.

Then come: September 15, Flauti Felice, flute ensemble; October 20, Billy Marshall, French horn, and Robert Gammon, piano; November 17, Giocoso Ensemble, wind group; December 8, Ripon Resound Choir.

The church has wheelchair access via the church hall. A small car park is complemented by on-street parking along Campleshon Road, “but it can get busy, so do allow plenty of time,” forewarns Alison. “We hope you will be able to come to the concerts, where it’s lovely to see new faces along with the regulars.”

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York Open Studios returns with spring in its step and 30 new artists and makers

Debutant York Open Studios automata artist Philip Wilkinson in his Burton Stone Lane studio

YORK Open Studios returns with two weekends of creativity and colour on April 2, 3, 9 and 10 from 10am to 5pm each day.

After a temporary switch to July last year, the event resumes its more familiar spring slot for 2022, when more than 150 artists and makers will be showing and selling their work within their homes and workspaces, giving visitors an opportunity to view and buy “bespoke pieces to suit every budget”. 

The range of artists’ work encompasses painting and print, illustration, drawing and mixed media, ceramics, glass and sculpture, jewellery, textiles, photography and installation art.

As with every year, new artists – 30 in total – dovetail with regulars, enabling visitors to see new work by their favourites and discover innovative work by emerging artists and those new to York Open Studios. In keeping with past years, artists have been handpicked by a panel of art professionals to keep the line-up fresh and diverse.  

York Open Studios artist and co-organiser Beccy Ridsdel

Beccy Ridsdel, one of the organisers and an artist in her own right, says: “We are thrilled to bring to this ever popular, two-weekend event to York and welcome visitors and the residents of York to enjoy and buy art in our usual time slot of April. 

“Last year, our 20th year, was a special celebration and we recognise that after two years of restrictions on our lives, our visitors are more than delighted to get out and about enjoying all that York Open Studios brings.

“Our artists too are really looking forward to sharing their work.  Our weekends may have been 21 years in the making, yet 2022 allows us to introduce even more talent to York. We look forward to welcoming everyone to one of the country’s premier arts events.”

Mixed-media eco-artist Lisa Lundqvist: Showing her work in her garden studio at 55 Green Lane, Acomb

A key aim of the York Open Studios team is to support and work closely with developing artists or those new to making creativity their career. Working with York College University Centre and York St John University, the York Open Studios committee has selected several undergraduates for the Student Showcase. 

Among them will be Laetitia Newcomb, whose sculptural ceramics are influenced by her time in Africa and her home in Yorkshire, and Shannon Vertigan, whose installation art homes in on the theme of home. 

Last year’s interactive map went down so well that visitors can access such a map again via the yorkopenstudios.co.uk website. Alternatively, a free printed directory is available from various tourist hubs and artist locations throughout York and beyond. 

York Open Studios 2022 will have a preview evening on April 1 from 6pm to 9pm. Check out the artists’ directory listings at yorkopenstudios.co.uk to find out who is participating.

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REVIEW: Martin Dreyer’s verdict on Martin Roscoe, Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, University of York, March 18

Martin Roscoe: “Let’s his fingers do the talking. They are certainly eloquent“

PIANISTS do not come much more deceptive than Martin Roscoe, who closed the British Music Society of York’s season with this recital of Schubert, Brahms and Liszt.

He goes against convention by using a score – no harm in that, especially if you consult it as little as he did. Having walked unassumingly to the keyboard, he plays without fuss or histrionics. In other words, he lets his fingers do the talking. They are certainly eloquent.

Although Schubert’s second set of impromptus, D.935, was not published until 11 years after his death, he had presented them as a foursome to his publisher (who, incredibly, rejected them). There is no suggestion that they are the movements of a sonata, but there is undeniably a feeling that they are related – for one thing, the first and fourth are in the same key, F minor. Certainly, I have never felt them to be so closely linked as they sounded here.

There was an understated elegance in Roscoe’s approach. He unfolded the opening Allegro moderato gently, melting smoothly from the minor to the major key and back again. There was a touch more emphasis in the second, marked Allegretto.

The ‘Rosamunde’ variations were beautifully contrasted: the three different voices in the second variation, for example, emerged with lovely clarity. The sense of impromptu, essentially improvisation, was kindled most keenly in the final dance, especially in the link to the return of the main theme.

The three Brahms intermezzi, Op 117, which are late, autumnal pieces, emerged as if they were the composer’s innermost thoughts, at once intimate and revealing. A lovely cantabile flow permeated the first, while it was the inner voices of the more sombre second that gleamed to the surface in turn. The syncopations of the third, which might have felt more restless, were not allowed to disrupt its serenity.

Petrarch’s Sonnet 104 finds the poet in a confused state over a burning love affair. Liszt’s reaction to it was first to set it as a song and then, more famously, to transcribe that into a piano piece, which appears in the Italian volume of his Years of Pilgrimage. Roscoe treated its harmonies tenderly, as if aware that the topic was sensitive, and it unfolded logically to its bitter-sweet close.

In both the remaining Liszt pieces, there must have been plenty of temptation to treat the piano as an orchestra; Liszt piles on the pressure relentlessly. Roscoe resisted. Isolde’s Love-Death, his transcription of the closing scene from Wagner’s Tristan Und Isolde, reached a passionate but controlled climax, with the lovers finally achieving satisfaction together after death.

Even more orchestral was St Francis’s triumphant walk on the waves, its rushing, stormy figurations not disrupting the relentless flow. Here we had the only out-and-out fortissimo of the evening. After that, a quiet Beethoven Bagatelle seemed the perfect antidote as encore. An evening of impeccable taste and considerable virtuosity.

Review by Martin Dreyer

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More Things To Do in York to celebrate losing an hour’s lie-in tonight. Clock in to List No. 75, courtesy of The Press, York

Quick step: Jake Quickenden as dancing cowboy Willard in Footloose The Musical at York Theatre Royal

FROM Holding Out For A Hero to Search For The Hero, Charles Hutchinson is on a quest to find heroic deeds and much else to entertain you.

Musical of the week: Footloose at York Theatre Royal, Tuesday to Saturday

DANCING On Ice champ Jake Quickenden rides into York as cowboy Willard and musicals stalwart Darren Day plays Reverend Moore in Racky Plews’s touring production of Footloose The Musical.

Reprising the 1984 film’s storyline, teenage city boy Ren is forced to move to the rural American backwater of Bomont, where dancing and rock music are banned. Taking matters into his own hands, soon he has all hell breaking loose around him and the whole town on its feet. 

The set design, by the way, is by Sara Perks, who designed York Theatre Royal’s open-air show Around The World In 80 Days last summer and Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre productions in York. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Reunited: EastEnders soap stars Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett in the chilling thriller Looking Good Dead

Thriller of the week: Looking Good Dead, Grand Opera House, York, Tuesday to Saturday

AFTER playing bickering husband and wife Ian and Jane Beale in EastEnders for years and years, Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett are re-uniting, this time on stage in Shaun McKenna’s stage adaptation of Peter James’s thriller Looking Good Dead.

No good deed goes unpunished in this story of Woodyatt’s Tom Bryce inadvertently witnessing a vicious murder, only hours after finding a discarded USB memory stick.

Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences, placing him and his family in grave danger. When Detective Superintendent Roy Grace becomes involved, he has his own demons to face while he tries to crack the case in time to save the Bryces’ lives. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or atgtickets.com/York.

Writer, journalist and historian Simon Jenkins: Appearing at York Literature Festival

Festival event of the week: York Literature Festival presents Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals with Simon Jenkins, St Peter’s School, Clifton, York, tonight, 7pm

FOR Europe’s 100 Best Cathedrals, former editor of the Evening Standard and The Times Simon Jenkins has travelled the continent, from Chartres to York, Cologne to Florence, Toledo to Moscow, to illuminate old favourites and highlight new discoveries.

Tonight he discusses the book’s exploration of Europe’s history, the central role of cathedrals in the European imagination and the stories behind these wonders. Box office: yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk.

That Old Devil Moon, by Richard Kitchen, from Navigators Art’s Moving Pictures exhibition at City Screen Picturehouse

Exhibition of the week: Navigators Art in Moving Pictures, City Screen Picturehouse café and first-floor gallery, until April 15

FROM December’s ashes of the Piccadilly Pop Up Collective studios and gallery in the old York tax office, Navigators Art have re-emerged for a spring exhibition at City Screen.

For their first post-lockdown project, founder Navigators Steve Beadle and Richard Kitchen have invited fellow artist and teacher Timothy Morrison to join them for Moving Pictures: From Fan Art To Fine Art.

“The title is deliberately ambiguous, and we’ve responded to it accordingly,” says Richard. “There are works that relate to cinema and other media but also many of which interpret ‘Moving’ in other ways.”

BC Camplight: Examining madness and loss at The Crescent, York

Rearranged York gig of the week: BC Camplight, supported by Wesley Gonzales, The Crescent, York, Thursday, 7.30pm

MOVED from March 10, BC Camplight’s gig in York highlights the final chapter of his “Manchester trilogy”, Shortly After Takeoff.

“This is an examination of madness and loss,” says BC, full name Brian Christinzio. “I hope it starts a long overdue conversation.”

Fired by his ongoing battle with mental illness, Shortly After Takeoff follows 2018’s Deportation Blues and 2015’s How To Die In The North in responding to BC’s move from his native Philadelphian to Manchester. Cue singer-songwriter classicism, gnarly synth-pop and Fifties’ rock’n’roll. Box office: thecrescentyork.com.

Sanna Jeppsson’s Viola de Lesseps and George Stagnell’s Will Shakespeare in Pick Me Up Theatre’s Shakespeare In Love. Picture: Matthew Kitchen Photography

York premiere of the week: Pick Me Up Theatre in Shakespeare In Love, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, April 1 to 9

LEE Hall’s 2014 stage adaptation of Shakespeare In Love, the Oscar-winning film written by Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman, celebrates the joys of theatre in Pick Me Up’s first show of 2022.

Directed by Mark Hird, it recounts the love story of struggling young playwright Will Shakespeare (George Stagnell) and feisty, free-thinking noblewoman Viola de Lesseps (Sanna Jeppsson), who helps him overcome writer’s block and becomes his muse.

Against a bustling background of mistaken identity, ruthless scheming and backstage theatrics, Will’s love for Viola blossoms, inspiring him to write Romeo And Juliet. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.

Heather Small: Proud moment at York Barbican

Voice of the week: Heather Small, York Barbican, April 2, 7.30pm

BILLED as “The voice of M People”, soul singer Heather Small will be combining songs from her Nineties’ Manchester band with selections from her two solo albums.

As part of M People, she chalked up hits and awards with Moving On Up, One Night In Heaven and Search For The Hero and the albums Elegant Slumming, Bizarre Fruit and Fresco. The title track of her Proud album has since become a staple at multiple ceremonies.

At 57, she will never be one to rest on her laurels: “If you got the feeling I do when I sing, you’d understand,” she reasons. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.

Steven Jobson (Jekyll/Hyde) gets to grips with Matthew Ainsworth (Simon Stride) in rehearsals as York Musical Theatre Company director Matthew Clare looks on

Book early for: York Musical Theatre Company in Jekyll & Hyde The Musical, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, May 25 to 28

FLOOR rehearsals are well under way for York Musical Theatre Company’s spring production under the direction of Matthew Clare, who is delighted by how the cast is responding and supporting each other.

The epic struggle between good and evil in Jekyll & Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson’s tale of myth and mystery on London’s fog-bound streets, comes to stage life in Frank Wildhorn and Leslie Bricusse’s pop-rock musical, where love, betrayal and murder lurk at every chilling twist and turn.

YMTC are running an early bird discount ticket offer with the promo code of JEKYLL22HYDE when booking at josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk by April 10.

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Velma Celli turns drag outlaw for alternative Guy Fawkes night at NCEM. Just add gin

Raising a glass to outlaws: Velma Celli evokes the spirit of Guy Fawkes at the National Centre for Early Music tonight

YORK drag diva deluxe Velma Celli invites you to “release your inner outlaw” at his outre Outlaw Live cabaret soiree tonight.

Hosted by York Gin at the National Centre for Early Music, in Walmgate, York, the night promises song, laughter and gin as Velma and friends “unleash a riot of glamorous outrage”.

“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.”

Since returning home from a month of Royal Caribbean Cruise Ships shows, Velma Celli already has played a “banging show” at York Theatre Royal, presenting Me And My Divas, a celebration of “the songs and behaviour of all your favourite divas” with York singer Jess Steel and West End leading lady Gina Murray, at York Theatre Royal last Saturday.

Velma Celli in the WonderBar at Impossible York

That cabaret night of impressions and banter celebrated Whitney, Aretha, Bassey, Streisand, Garland, Cilla, Dolly, Madonna, Adele, Sia and latest addition Jessie J.

Tomorrow’s new show will raise a glass to the outlaw spirit of Guy Fawkes and Dick Turpin and general naughtiness at large in York with a riot of rebellious songs and a gin cocktail on arrival.

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

“It’ll be my first time at the NCEM., and the gig came about after I popped into York Gin in the week when I’d been doing Funny Girls in Blackpool, and it turned out the woman serving me had seen Funny Girls the night before,” says Ian.

“This led to the idea of doing this Outlaw Live show with me, a small band, Guy Fawkes-inspired songs; songs from Six, the musical about Henry VIII’s wives; songs related to baddies in history, and the opportunity for everyone to drink nice cocktails.

The poster for Velma Celli’s Outlaw Live concert with a dash of York Gin

“I’ll be in kind of Guy Fawkes mode, and the plan is that we’ll see how this one goes and then look at doing a night with a different York Gin theme.”

Meanwhile, Ian is spreading Velma’s wings at the drag diva’s regular haunt of Impossible York, in St Helen’s Square, adding to the repertoire of shows in the WonderBar.

He has resumed performing The Velma Celli Show at 8pm on the last Friday of each month (except this month, when the gig moved to last night (24/3/2022).

Two sittings of Velma’s Drag Brunch are held on the first Saturday of each month, to be joined on the second Saturday by the new Movie Musical Brunch from April 9, when Ian’s special guest will be West End musical star Zoe Curlett, who played Christine in The Phantom Of The Opera and Corsette in Les Miserables.

Velma also launched a new Back To The 80s night in the WonderBar on March 18, when the 8pm set gloried in the songs of David Bowie,  George, Michael, Wham! and more Eighties’ favourites besides.

Velma Celli in David Bowie mode for Irreplaceable

At the planning stage is a QNY (Queer Night York) regular night. “The idea behind it is that there isn’t an essentially gay venue in York that’s been successful, and what’s needed is a safe space for LGBTQIA+ people,” says Ian.

“QNY won’t be a Velma Celli night; there won’t be a performance; I’ll be hosting the night and DJing, and again it will be monthly in the WonderBar, with the starting date yet to be confirmed.”

One Velma Celli show fell by the wayside last month: the February 26 performance of Irreplaceable, a celebration of David Bowie, was cancelled at Theatre@41, Monkgate.

We must wait for that gift of sound and vision, but one day, hopefully, Irreplaceable will be added to Velma’s portfolio of York performances. “So far, I’ve done it in a week’s run of four shows in Southampton,” says Ian.

“It came about because my friend Sarah Walker is obsessed with Bowie, and I’ve created the show for her.”

Velma Celli’s A Brief History Of Drag: Playing Pocklington Arts Centre this summer

Ian shares that passion. “There are so many amazing David Bowie songs, and in my case it was the Labyrinth era that I first loved, and also how he’s been so influential. Look at Lady Gaga, for example,” he says.

“In the show, my make-up is inspired by Aladdin Sane and my look is kind of androgynous: I wear a black suit jacket and a long, hooped skirt.

“I do a section about how Bowie was gender-bending before anyone else came out doing that, skipping around Manhattan in a catsuit, and there’s also a bit about RuPaul in there, who was such a big, big fan.”

Irreplaceable is yet to replace its scrapped Theatre@41 show, but one further show in the diary is Velma Celli’s A Brief History Of Drag at Pocklington Arts Centre on June 30.

Velma Celli: Outlaw Live, presented by York Gin, at National Centre for Early Music, York, tonight (25/3/2022); doors, 7pm; show, 8pm to 10.30pm. Box office: tickettailor.com/events/yorkgin/590817/. For Pocklington, 01759 301547 or at pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk. For Impossible York shows and brunches, visit impossibleyork.com.

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Jake and Darren are so happy to have their day cutting loose in Footloose The Musical

One giant leap for…Jake Quickenden, playing cowboy Willard in Footloose The Musical

DANCING On Ice winner Jake Quickenden and doyen of the musicals Darren Day are heading for York Theatre Royal in Footloose The Musical next week.

The show is based on the 1984 film, the one with such hits as Holding Out For A Hero, Almost Paradise, Let’s Hear It For The Boy and the title track, wherein American teenage city boy Ren McCormack is forced to move from Chicago to the rural backwater of Bomont after his father deserts him.

Things go from bad to worse when Ren finds out that dancing and rock music are banned there, but taking matters into his own hands, he soon has all hell breaking loose and the whole town on its feet. 

In Racky Plews’s touring production for Selladoor Productions and Runaway Entertainment, I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here! contestant and Hollyoaks actor Quickenden plays lovable cowboy Willard Hewitt, while Day takes the role of Reverend Shaw Moore.

“I used to work as a bricklayer at the steelworks in Scunthorpe, where I was born, and Willard is a cowboy and a bit of a mechanic, so I can do the physical stuff,” says Jake, 33. “He’s fun to play; he’s quite stupid – I don’t have to get into character!

“It’s a fun, upbeat song-and-dance show, where everyone knows the words, and it’s all actor-musos, playing instruments, rather than just having a band.”

What’s your instrument? “I play the guitar on four or five songs. I’ve played the guitar for about nine years now, self-taught, starting when I was 23/24, doing it from YouTube,” says Jake, who also picked up Willard’s accent from watching a few TV shows and You Tube. “If I’m honest, I picked it up quite quickly when, as a northern lad, I normally don’t find accents that easy.”

Jake, who played the title role in Peter Pan at Blackpool Opera House, toured with The Dreamboys and starred in the 50th anniversary of Hair The Musical, is teaming up with Darren Day for the first time. 

“I’d never met him before. He’s an absolute pleasure to work with ; he’s been around the block doling musicals for three decade, and I’ve been picking up a lot from him. He’s such a humble guy,” he says. “It’s really important for the young people in the cast, straight out of performing arts schools, to have the chance to work with him.”

Darren, 53, says of his latest role: “I’m so happy to be playing the Reverend. Over a decade ago, I met with the producers for Footloose and Chicago within about three months of each other. I was told I didn’t look old enough! So, the only downside of me playing these two roles back-to-back is that I must now look ‘old enough’.

O happy Day: Darren Day playing Reverend Moore in Footloose The Musical, as he ticks off one of his bucket list of roles he desperately wanted to do

“Since those meetings all those years ago, Billy Flynn and the Reverend have been on my bucket list of roles I desperately wanted to play, so to get the opportunity to play them both in one year is incredibly exciting for me and I feel deeply grateful.

“Having a teenage daughter myself in real life, I have a lot of ‘method’ experience to draw upon [for Reverend Moore]! It’s tough letting your ‘little princess’ out into the big bad world!”

Darren is revelling in being in Racky Plews’s touring show. “This production of Footloose is particularly special. Even if you have seen it before, you will want to see it again, and this new version will blow you away. It’s been reworked with a new set, new costumes. The lot,” he says.

“Racky has brought an edgy and exciting new take on the show. She’s been working closely with the writer of the original movie and songs, Dean Pitchford, and his input into this new production has been invaluable.”

Assessing what keeps Footloose both fresh and popular at the box office, Darren says:  “The great thing about Footloose, which I think separates it from other ‘jukebox’ shows, is that Dean Pitchford wrote the songs specifically for the movie. 

“So, not only are these songs instantly recognisable the second the intro begins, they also carry the plot forward in a very truthful way. Apologies for that sounding incredibly ‘arty’ and ‘theatrical’, but they do!

“In the show there are these massive hit tunes that everyone recognises, along with a strong and beautiful storyline. It’s a really feel-good show – no doubt about it.”

Meanwhile, Jake continues to enjoy taking on challenges, whether winning Dancing On Ice in 2018, heading to the Aussie jungle, doing musicals and pantomime or making his soap opera debut in Hollyoaks. “It was just a guest appearance in eight episodes, playing a character called Woody, and funnily enough he was a builder,” he says. Was he killed off? “No, he wasn’t! I’d love to go back.”

Now, Jake is riding out as cowboy Willard. “I love testing myself doing new things, giving everything a go once, and I’ve really loved doing musicals. Though I’ve done things where I might not do them again, like The Dreamboys [the male revue show]. I tried it, enjoyed it, but I’d like to move on. It didn’t push me to do what I want to do, but it’s good for keeping in shape!”

Footloose gotta cut loose at York Theatre Royal from March 29 to April 2 (not from March 28, as first announced). Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

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To Beale or not to Beale? What Adam Woodyatt’s doing away from EastEnders

Re-united: Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett go from husband and wife in EastEnders to husband and wife in Looking Good Dead

SOAP icon Adam Woodyatt, EastEnders’ longest-serving cast member, has taken to the stage in a play for the first time in 40 years.

After playing Ian Beale in the BBC series since 1985 – or about 1748, as he jokes – Adam is starring as Tom Bryce in Shaun McKenna’s world-premiere stage adaptation of Peter James’s crime thriller Looking Good Dead.

His next port of call from Tuesday will be the Grand Opera House, in York, in the wake of earlier conversions from page to stage of James’s Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, The Perfect Murder and Dead Simple.

Welcome to York, Adam. “I was there last April actually, because I came up to see a friend. First time I’d been there,” he says. “What a lovely city…but sort your roadworks out!

“I went and did some cycling up there on the trans-Pennine route, and I went out and found some lovely woods over to the east of York. Really enjoyed it.”

Adam, 53, is on the second leg of a tour that began last July. “It’s been a lot of fun and we’re still having a lot of laughs,” he says. “You do always get a lot of dark humour out of situations in thrillers!

“As we’ve discovered, people laugh at the weirdest things. We’ll be thinking we’ll get a laugh out of them for something, then we don’t, but then they’ll laugh at something else and you think, ‘they laughed at that?’.”

No good deed goes unpunished in Looking Good Dead, where, hours after finding a discarded USB memory stick, Woodyatt’s Tom Bryce inadvertently becomes a witness to a vicious murder.

Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences, placing him and his family in grave danger. When Detective Superintendent Roy Grace becomes involved, he has his own demons to contend with, while he tries to crack the case in time to save the Bryce family’s lives.

“Tom is a husband, a father, a businessman. It’s a very normal family unit,” says Adam. “The rowing husband and wife! The stroppy teenager! Everyone will be able to identity with that!

“When Tom finds the USB memory stick and tries to do a good deed, it sets off a chain of trouble for him.”

Cue the combination of dark humour and Peter James’s trademark thriller tension. “If you’ve got a comic on stage, he looks for laughs. In this show we’re trying to get gasps, the shock factor, and we do that,” says Adam.

Touching moment: Adam Woodyatt and Laurie Brett in Looking Good Dead

One component has changed since the first leg: Woodyatt is now playing opposite Laurie Brett, who just happened to play wife Jane to his Ian in the bickering Beale couple in EastEnders. “Gaynor Faye did the first leg up until November, but then she had another gig booked, and so Laurie has come in and she’s been brilliant to have in the show,” says Adam.

“It was great working with Gaynor, but there’s no denying there’s a connection with Laurie [who played long-suffering wife Jane from 2004 to 2017 in EastEnders]. Like when she looked in my eyes on stage as if to say, ‘well, that isn’t in the script’ when I’ve said my line!”

Adam recalls last being in a stage play in 1981. “It was On The Razzle at the National Theatre. Yes, I did have a career before soap – though I did start so young in EastEnders. I joined Sylvia Young’s [theatre school] at the age of nine in 1972 and I worked constantly until joining EastEnders in 1984 before the show opened in February 1985,” he says.

Adam, who was honoured in 2013 with the Lifetime Achievement Award and in 2015 with Best Actor at the British Soap Awards, has not cut his ties with the soap. “I haven’t left yet!” he protests.

Ah, but will he be back? “Look, it’s too many things. It isn’t just my decision. It’s their decision too. But there was never a case of ‘I’m leaving’ or ‘You’re leaving’. I just wanted to go off and do this play,” Adam explains.

“I fancied doing something different. Shane Ritchie said how much he’d enjoyed doing Peter James’s Not Dead Enough and The Perfect Murder. I’d looked at the possibility of doing The House On Cold Hill, and then this opportunity came up.”

Adam notes one contrast between working on stage and the small screen. “If you work in TV, you won’t find out if people like it until later, whereas in the theatre, the reaction is immediate,” he says.

“You don’t have a second take, so every show is slightly different, like when someone walks off stage before you deliver a line, or they use a slightly different intonation, or you do. That’s what makes every show unique – and I must admit I love it.

“We’ve had understudies throughout the tour [the ebb and flow of the actor’s Lateral Flow Test life in Covid times], and each actor’s tone or pace can be slightly different, so you have to react to that. That’s live theatre!”

EastEnders may be infamous for its suspenseful finale to each episode but Looking Good Dead has far more! “There are various cliffhanger moments throughout this play.  Several you can see coming; some you can’t. It’s fast paced; it’s entertaining. It’s like watching telly for two hours, but on a much wider screen!” says Adam.

Does he have unfulfilled stage ambitions? “I’ve done panto – the last one was at Swindon in 2019 – and it tends to be the more comical baddie that I play, there to have a laugh,” he says. “I keep offering to play dame, and one of these days, I hope they say ‘yes’,” he says.

“Maybe I could play Ugly Sister first. I’ve got someone in mind to do it with before they retire!”

Looking Good Dead runs at Grand Opera House, York, from March 29 to April 2. Box office: 0844 871 7615 or at atgtickets.com/York.

Copyright of The Press, York