Come Hull or high water, Lucy Beaumont will be streaming online from her living room on Sunday
MARK
Watson and Lucy Beaumont will star in the first Your Place Comedy night in a
streamed show live from their living rooms on Sunday at 8pm.
At a time of huge uncertainty and upheaval in the Coronavirus lockdown, not least for the live entertainment industry, ten small, independent venues across the north have come together to “provide their audiences with some much-needed laughter during these difficult times”.
The driving force behind the online venture is Chris Jones, Selby Town Council’s arts officer, who manages the Selby Town Hall arts centre. “In a nutshell, I was frustrated that the traditional relationship between venue, artist and audience – the venue providing the artist with income and the audience with entertainment – has been eroded for the foreseeable future by Covid-19 and I wanted to find a way to re-create that,” he says.
“So, I’ve got ten venues from around Yorkshire and the Humber to chip in a small amount of money to put on a live stream comedy gig this Sunday (April 19), featuring Mark Watson and Lucy Beaumont and compered by Tim FitzHigham.”
Joining together in this venue-focused initiative are Selby Town Hall; The Ropewalk, Barton upon Humber; Carriageworks Theatre, Leeds; East Riding Theatre, Beverley; Junction, Goole; Helmsley Arts Centre; Shire Hall, Howden; Otley Courthouse; Pocklington Arts Centre and Rotherham Theatres.
What’s on at home: Mark Watson , live from his living room
“Their contributions to Your Place Comedy go towards paying the artists a guaranteed fee at a time when all live income has been taken away, and, in exchange, venues get a show to sell to their own audiences as one of their own, helping maintain those vital relationships with audiences they have nurtured over the years,” says Chris.
“The show will be free to watch on Facebook and YouTube via www.yourplacecomedy.co.uk, but with an option to donate. All monies raised will be distributed evenly among the ten supporting venues, each of them now having to navigate their way through some challenging financial times.”
Mark Watson is an Edinburgh Comedy Award winner, television panel show regular and ever innovative performer. Lucy Beaumont, from Hull, is a BBC New Comedy Award winner who writes BBC Radio 4’s To Hull And Back and stars in the Dave channel’s Meet The Richardsons. Compere Tim Fitzhigham writes and stars in BBC Radio 4’s The Gambler and presents CBBC’s Super Human Challenge.
Summing up the living-room comedy initiative, Chris says: “In these trying times, when the wonderful audiences who make the work we do possible are unable to visit our venues in person, and when the performers who rely on us for their livelihoods have had many months’ worth of shows cancelled, the organisations involved in Your Place Comedy want to help support those who make live entertainment happen, bringing a little bit of joy to the audiences we miss so much.
“If the
first one is a success and this looks like a sustainable model, I would hope to
do several more through the lockdown period and possibly beyond.”
Compere Tim FitzHigham
For full details of Your Place Comedy, and to find out how to watch the show, visit www.yourplacecomedy.co.uk.
YORK Open Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April weekends, should have started with a preview evening tomorrow, but the annual showcase has been cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However,
with doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event,
CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and
makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home.
Addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020 to locate them.
“If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise, take a picture
and let us know,” they say.
A work from Sharon McDonagh’s Fragments series: An exploration into the fragility of life
Sharon McDonagh, painting
SHARON is drawn to painting the “darker side” of York, in particular to
its derelict buildings, against the backdrop of her high-profile past career as
a police forensic artist.
That work required her to draw dead bodies, creating artist’s
impressions of unidentified fatalities from mortuary photographs and
crime-scene information, and you can make the psychologist’s leap between death
and decay if that is your Freudian wont.
“It might seem mad going from being a forensic artist depicting bodies
to doing paintings of decay, but I suppose it’s all an organic path of death
and destruction,” she says of her detailed, intriguing work, marked by unconventional
themes and, in particular, a love of architecture, York’s forgotten buildings
and items left behind.
Sharon McDonagh with her Fragments works at the Blossom Street Gallery’s Urban Decay exhibition earlier this year
Earlier this year, she exhibited her new Fragments series in the Urban Decay exhibition at Blossom Street Gallery, and works on that theme would have featured in her second York Open Studios show too.
“Fragments is an exploration into the fragility
of life,” Sharon says. “The vintage light switches and sockets symbolise the
person, while their last moments and memories are represented by the fragments
of wallpaper and tiles. The last glimpses of life, the last remaining fragments
before they die.
“I thought of light switches and sockets, because of the act of switching on and off lights and then life finally being switched off.” Discover more at sharonmcdonagh-artist.co.uk.
Autumn Hedgehog, linocut, by Jane Dignum
Jane Dignum, printmaking
JANE creates colourful
linocut prints and also makes collages out of pieces of her prints, her subject
matter spanning wildlife, the Yorkshire coast and the city of York.
“I like experimenting with different techniques of
printmaking and enjoy the sometimes surprising results that occur,” she says.
Jane Dignum in her studio
Jane studied fine art at Leeds College of Art, where she started to investigate printing. She always carries a sketchbook and camera and creates designs from photographs that she has taken. Take a look at janedignum.com.
Filey, by Carolyn Coles
Carolyn Coles, painting
PAINTING impressionistic
seascapes and landscapes, Carolyn’s use of palette gives her work identity and
life. She paints mostly on bespoke, stretched canvasses in oils and acrylics,
applied with palette knives and flat brushes.
“I like to capture atmosphere, usually with a leaning towards dark and moody and generally on a larger scale,” she says.
Carolyn’s formal artistic education began with studying art and design at York College, then specialising in illustration at Hereford College of Art and Design, earning distinctions in the early 1990s.
Carolyn Coles: Specialising in seascapes and landscapes
After a career taking in marketing art materials and
graphic design and illustration in journalism, Carolyn now devotes her time to
painting, exhibiting and selling work both on the home market in York, London,
Derby, Manchester and Leeds and internationally too.
Carolyn’s love of the seaside and nature in general
is reflected in her new collection. “The impressionistic style allows the
viewer to interpret their own story and pull their own memories back into play,”
she says.
“I’m interested in re-creating a feeling, an
essence. I love being by the sea or in the hills. It’s a tonic. The noise,
everything, just soaks into me. I like to be playful, bold and subtle in my
work.”
A regular participant in the annual Staithes Art
and Heritage Festival, she also exhibits at various galleries in York. More
details at carolyncoles.co.uk.
Adele Karmazyn: distinctive mix of techniques
Adele Karmazyn, digital prints
ADELE’S mostly
self-taught process involves scanning 19th century photographs, textures and
her own paintings to create digital photomontage artwork, often with a
hand-finished element using inks, oil paint and gold leaf.
Her love of antiques and oddities, old doors and weathered surfaces are the foundations of her work. Bringing people from the past back to full colour and intertwining them with creatures big and small, coupled with delicate foliage, she creates images both sophisticated and playful. Often she uses idioms, metaphors and musical lyrics for inspiration and to add narrative.
Forest Boy, by Adele Karmazyn
Adele studied for a textile art degree at Winchester School of Art, worked
briefly for an interior magazine in London and then set out to see the world.
Many years later, she settled in York and returned to her first calling, completing
a diploma in children’s book illustration in 2015, gaining a distinction.
It was then that she then turned to using her camera and photoshop, but still picking up her paintbrushes regularly and drawing on most days too. “Creating textures, drawing animals and getting the composition on paper is where each image begins,” says Adele.
More info can be found at adelekarmazyn.com.
A North Eastern scene by Nathan Combes
Nathan Combes, photography
NATHAN photographs urban landscapes, working primarily in black and white as he captures the sense of isolation and decaying beauty found in the places that he visits.
“I use a variety of modern digital and vintage film cameras to
photograph places, locations and objects that are often overlooked and deemed
unworthy of attention,” he says.
Recording life in black and white: Photographer Nathan Combes
Inspired by photographers such as Robert Frank, Chris Killip and
William Eggleston, his work is thought provoking, challenging and humorous.
His York Open Studios debut would have featured work from his
most recent project, focusing on the North East. He can be contacted via
nathancombesphoto@gmail.com.
Tomorrow: Lu Mason; Nick Kobyluch; Michelle Hughes; Lucy McElroy and Ian Cameron.
Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse in their shot-for-shot remix of Night Of The Living Dead
“THEY’RE coming to get you, Barbara”…
from tomorrow morning at 10am when Imitating The Dog and Leeds Playhouse launch
the online premiere of their hit 2020 co-production of Night Of The Living Dead
– Remix.
In 1968, Night Of The Living Dead started
out as a low-budget George A Romero indie horror movie telling the story of
seven strangers taking refuge from flesh-eating ghouls in an isolated
farmhouse.
Fifty years on, seven performers enter
the stage armed with cameras, a box of props and a rail of costumes. Can they
recreate the ground-breaking film, shot for shot before our eyes, using
whatever they can lay their hands on?
Set
the task of re-enacting 1,076 camera edits in 95 minutes, they face an heroic
struggle. Knowing success demands wit, skill and ingenuity, what could possibly
go wrong?
Imitating The Dog’s poster for their Leeds Playhouse co-production of Night Of The Living Dead – Remix
In their 2020 stage production, Leeds masters of digital theatre Imitating The Dog create a love-song to the cult Sixties’ film in a re-making and re-mixing with a new subtext that attempts to understand the past – the assassinations of JFK, MLK and Robert Kennedy – in order not to have to repeat it.
Staged in the Courtyard at Leeds Playhouse
from January 24 to February 1, their version is in turns humorous, terrifying,
thrilling, thought-provoking and joyous. Above all, in the re-telling, Night Of
The Living Dead – Remix becomes a searing parable for our own complex
times.
Presented by courtesy of Image Ten, Inc, Night Of The Living Dead– Remix can be watched online at imitatingthedog.co.uk/watch from 10am tomorrow (April 17). For a behind-the-scenes video, go https://vimeo.com/386234875.
In sunnier times: York Music Hub musicians playing outside the Spurriergate Centre, York
YORK Music Hub is responding to the Covid-19 lockdown by launching an
online sharing site, #YMHShare.
The idea is to build an online forum featuring music making and
creativity by the young people of York, celebrating the fantastic talent within
the city.
The site has been put together by Squeegee Design, the York web design
company based at Lancaster House, James Nicolson Link, and is monitored and updated regularly with content sent in from
families, individuals and groups.
“The #YMHShare initiative is for anyone who had a concert cancelled, a
festival pulled, an exam postponed or indeed anyone who’s using this time to
work on being musical,” says Molly Newton, York Music Hub’s strategic manager.
“So much hard work has gone into school productions, concerts and
all kinds of events, and #YMHShare offers a virtual alternative. We’ve been overwhelmed
by the response so far, as many of York’s young musicians have uploaded digital
performances and video-link collaborations, and groups have taken this
opportunity to showcase previous triumphs in absence of planned concerts.”
York Music Hub had two major events cancelled as a result of the
Coronavirus pandemic: the Schools Choral Festival in March and the upcoming city-wide
showcase Hubfest2020, now in its second year.
Molly Newton: York Music Hub strategic manager
“The Schools Choral Festival usually takes place at the University of York in March,” says assistant strategic manager Craig Brown. “This year would have seen nine primary and five secondary schools perform.
“Hubfest2020 would have built on the success of the inaugural festival last year, featuring 15 primary and eight secondary schools. The festival is a showcase of all youth music within the city; last year’s festival attracted more than 1,000 young people to make music as part of the event.”
The hub’s response to 2020’s cancellations has been to curate the hard
work in a virtual space, as young people, families, groups of friends and
bespoke online collaborators come together for this initiative, drawing on the
many providers and musicians in a “central area of celebration”. Cue #YMHShare,
a sharing platform for a “whole host of music making from any and all young
people in and around York”, aged five to 21.
“From next Monday (April 20), when
school term would be restarting, we’re launching YMH Online Learning,” says
Molly. “This will be a dedicated section of #YMHShare where downloadable
resources, YouTube live and Zoom music-making sessions will be posted for
anyone to get involved with.”
These sessions will kick off with the York
Music Hub Zoom Choir, led by York singer and entertainer Jessa Liversidge, the ubiquitous
driving force behind so much online singing activity in York and beyond at
present, on Mondays at 2.15pm.
Open to any singer aged eight to 18 -18
from York and the surrounding area, the Zoom Choir offers the chance to connect
with other singers, take part in fun vocal warm-ups to develop your vocal
technique and learn songs in a range of styles: a “fantastic way to wind down
and interact with others in these strange times”.
” I’m raring to go with the young singers of York,” says online-singing driving force Jessa Liversidge
“I’m hoping to attract young people who are missing the inspiring
feeling of connecting with others through song,” says Jessa. “I can’t wait to
see who signs up for a Monday afternoon, after a day of doing work at home (or
at school); those who would enjoy seeing and hearing other melodious youngsters
on screen. All young singers are welcome, whatever their previous singing
experience.”
Jessa adds: “How the York Music Hub Zoom Choir evolves and what we can
achieve depends very much on who gets involved, and how long the lockdown
continues.
“I have all sorts of fantastic songs planned to work on with the group,
as well as some lag-resistant experiments, and I’m really looking forward to
getting going. After a short, self-taught crash course in Zoom choirs these
past few weeks with my adult groups, I’m raring to go with the young
singers of York.”
Singing For All @TheHub will take place on Fridays at 11am. All are invited to tune in to these lively singing sessions suitable for
all ages, again led by Jessa Liversidge. “We want to get everyone involved and
lift your spirits with songs and singing games, from well-known school assembly
songs, partner songs and rounds to classic pop tunes and even some new songs to
learn,” says Molly. “Tune in every Friday at 11am, live on the York Music Hub
YouTube channel.”
Ukulele Stars tuition will be open to
all ages on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11am, with these fun and interactive
YouTube sessions being led by Steven Hawksworth, of Hawkulele fame. No previous
ukulele experience is necessary.
Curriculum-based GCSE/A-level Zoom
music composition sessions for Key Stages 4 and 5 will run throughout the
summer term, led on Wednesdays from April 22 at 11am by York Arts Barge Project
co-founder, workshop leader, teacher and bass player Christian Topman.
York Music Hub GCSE/A-level Zoom music composition session tutor Christian Topman
These tutorials will be delivered via Zoom but also will be available every week to catch up on via York Music Hub’s YouTube channel. They are aimed at students in Year 9 to 13 who will need to access the Zoom app to join in with the live sessions. They can contact Christian directly at christian@yorkartseducation.org.uk with any composition ideas
Those needing more information regarding the sharing site or any of the online sessions should contact info@yorkmusichub.org.uk.
Summing up the
importance of music-making at this time, Molly says: “It seems to me that music is our salvation. It’s what we turn to in
times of celebration and sadness; it keeps us calm or builds us up, it helps us
relax, escape, endure, survive.
“It’s the medium through which we express and share our feelings. As everything stops, the thing that keeps going – and keeps us all going – is music.
“The internet is now flooded with
“virtual” responses to current events: isolation compositions; play-off
challenges; streamed concerts and Broadway shows; balcony performances and
quarantine choirs.”
“It’s our fundamental method of communicating,” says Molly Newton of her love for musical interplay
Molly’s passion for music oozes from her whenever she leads a project or
performance. “I was lucky enough to have hugely
supportive parents and inspiring music teachers in my youth and grew up
believing that anyone can achieve musically, regardless of their perceived
ability or intellect,” she says.
“It’s our fundamental method of
communicating and I’ve been lucky enough over the years to see hundreds of
young people flourish and grow through music-making opportunities.”
Why is music such a good educative
tool, Molly? “I’m going to draw from Plato, who said: ‘I would teach children music,
physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music
and all the arts are the keys to learning’.
“However, regardless of how much music can support the learning of other subjects, music is important in its own right in that it’s a fundamental aspect of all societies.
“Music is a truly collaborative subject, a universal language, and learning it enables a global communication with others that transcends borders and cultures. It’s a subject that teaches creative thinking, discipline, confidence, resilience, patience, perseverance, diligence, achievement and joy, to name but a few!”
“As everything stops, the thing that keeps going – and keeps us all going – is music,” says Molly Newton, as she builds up the York Music Hub online sharing forum
In
these strange, alien, disconnected days, Craig has noted our power still to be
creative and musically resilient. “The #YMHShare site has really embodied a public celebration of the arts,”
he says. “Within this feed, we see so much of the appreciation, value and
celebrations of music.
“We speak to many of the city’s instrumental teachers, who are
continuing to give private lessons through video links, and it is clear that
pupils and parents really value the role that music is playing,
offering an escape, opportunity of relaxation, or providing a welcome
challenge.”
Looking ahead to when musicians can
meet up again, how may York
Music Hub celebrate? “We’re already planning a ‘Post-Lockdown’ celebration and
are hoping that we will be able to bring as many schools, providers and young
people together in a truly collaborative and inclusive way,” says Molly.
“Given the uncertainty and challenge
we’re all facing, we’re hoping that when this is all over, we will be able to
bring people together through music and remind ourselves how joyful it feels to
play and sing together.”
Roll on that day. In the meantime, make a home for music at home.
Let’s play: York Theatre Royal is encouraging theatre activities at home while everyone is in the grip of lockdown limbo
YORK Theatre Royal is to run the Collective Arts programme of “creative community engagement” during the Coronavirus pandemic shutdown.
The St Leonard’s Place theatre is planning a series of digital activities and events to bring together York’s creative community of all ages until the building reopens.
Associate
director Juliet Forster says: “We’re all finding the current circumstances
challenging and are missing the joy of social gatherings, external stimuli and
shared experience.
“But
challenges can also be a great spur to creativity, and we’re really keen to
find as many ways as possible to bring people together, to inspire creative
responses and enjoy what we make together.”
Juliet Forster: York Theatre Royal associate director
One
activity up and running already and open to all is the Lockdown Legends
Challenge, a weekly creative project that invites people to submit responses to
challenges such as filming one-minute plays (week one), designing costumes (this
week) and creating production model boxes (coming next).
A
new challenge is released every Monday morning on the theatre’s social media
channels and submissions are then posted on these channels during the week.
The Theatre Royal is also adapting the delivery of the nationally recognised Arts Award, now to be undertaken from a home setting. The new guide is specially designed to be used by children and young people aged five to 25 years old, supported by their parents/guardians, to keep them busy, engaged and inspired by the arts at home.
Another
project aimed at engaging young people during this time is the Coronavirus Time
Capsule. Working with a group of 20 young people, week by week the Theatre Royal
will create a cumulative video time capsule, recording teenage experiences
during the Covid-19 pandemic.
York Theatre Royal : Out of bounds but stretching the boundaries of theatre. Picture: Matthew Holland
“The
Coronavirus Time Capsule is a new international project run by Company Three
and youth theatres across the world will be taking part and making capsules of
their own,” says Juliet.
In
addition, the Theatre Royal is organising the In Focus photography competition,
open to all ages and abilities who are invited to send in their photos that
show the realities of life in Coronavirus Britain.
The
deadline for submissions is Friday, May 8. All entries will then be judged by a
team from the theatre’s photography group.
Over the next few weeks, York Theatre Royal will release
more projects and opportunities to take part in. All details on how to be
involved can be found on the theatre’s website, yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Nigar Yeva, left, Zak Douglas Aimee Powell, Olisa Odele and Khai Shaw in Pilot Theatre’s Crongton Knights. Picture: Robert Day
YORK company Pilot Theatre will webcast the online premiere of their 2020 co-production of Crongton Knights for free from April 22.
The webcast stream will start at 6.45pm that night when Esther Richardson and Corey Campbell’s Covid-19-curtailed production would have been opening its London run at Theatre Peckham.
Emteaz Hussain’s adaptation of Alex Wheatle’s award-wining young adult novel will be available to stream online at pilot-theatre.com/webcast until Saturday, May 9, the day that the tour’s final curtain would have fallen at Theatre Peckham.
To coincide with the webcast, Pilot, resident company at York Theatre Royal, will put online a series of talks and question-and-answer sessions with the creative team behind Crongton Knights.
The first Pilot
Connects event will be a Q&A with the show’s composer and musical director,
Conrad Murray, hosted by Pilot artistic director Esther Richardson on April 23 (time
to be confirmed).
Kate Donnachie, left, Nigar Yeva, Douglas Aimee, Olisa Odele and Khai Shaw in Crongton Knights. Picture: Robert Day
Performed at York Theatre Royal from February 25 to 29, Crongton Knights takes its audience on a night of madcap adventure as McKay and his friends, The Magnificent Six, encounter the dangers and ultimate triumphs of a mission gone awry.
In this story of how lessons learned the hard
way can bring you closer together, the pulse of the city is brought to life on
stage with a Conrad Murray soundscape of beatboxing and vocals laid down by the
cast of Kate Donnachie; Zak Douglas; Simi Egbejumi-David; Nigar Yeva; Olisa
Odele; Aimee Powell; Khai Shaw and Marcel White.
Wheatle, a writer born in London to Jamaican parents, said he was “very proud” of Pilot Theatre adapting his novel for the stage: “It’s a modern quest story where, on their journey, the young diverse lead characters have to confront debt, poverty, blackmail, loss, fear, the trauma of a flight from a foreign land and the omnipresent threat of gangland violence.
“The dialogue I created for this award-winning novel deserves a platform and I, for one, can’t wait to see the characters that have lived in my head for a number of years leap out of my mind and on to a stage near you.” And now on a webcast stream.
Co-director Esther Richardson said of the teen quest story: “For
us, this play is a lens through which to explore the complexity of young
people’s lives, open a platform for those concerns and show what they have to
try to navigate fairly invisibly to other members of society. It’s the context
in which they live that creates the problem, and these kids go under the radar.
Esther Richardson: Co-director of Crongton Knights and artistic director of Pilot Theatre. Picture: Robert Day
“Alex is writing about how the world is stacked against
teenagers; how young people have been thrown to the dogs; how they to negotiate
this No Man’s Land they live in, when their places have been closed down; their
spaces to express themselves.
“They have been victims of austerity – as have
disabled people – so it’s no surprise that there’s been a rise in knife crime,
with kids on the streets and no youth workers to go to, to talk about their
feelings.”
Crongton Knights is a
co-production between Pilot Theatre, Belgrade Theatre, Coventry, Derby Theatre
and York Theatre Royal, who last year formed – together with the Mercury
Theatre, Colchester – a partnership to develop theatre for younger audiences.
During the four-year cycle, 2019 to 2022, the consortium will
commission and co-produce four original mid-scale productions.
Such co-productions are becoming all the more important against
a backdrop of Esther being concerned by the cuts in arts funding and the
potential negative impact of Brexit too. “Theatre is not seen as an opportunity
to thrive in, especially in this post-Brexit landscape where it’s going to get
worse before it gets better,” she predicted.
“That’s why
we will further shift into co-creating pieces, Pilot creating work with
communities, Pilot co-creating with teens, which we do already do, but we can
do it better and do it more.”
On yer bike: A tense stand-off in Crongton Knights
REVIEW: Crongton Knights, Pilot Theatre, York Theatre Royal, February 25 to 29
EVER since
Lord Of The Flies, York Theatre Royal resident company Pilot Theatre have made
theatre that speaks directly to young audiences.
Now, Pilot
are in the second year of a four-year creative partnership with Coventry’s
Belgrade Theatre, Derby Theatre and the Theatre Royal, their reach spreading
ever wider.
Last year’s
gripping adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s radical Noughts & Crosses is
followed up by another topical story, Emteaz Hussain’s stage account of Crongton
Knights, a young adult novel by Brixton Bard Alex Wheatle, a London writer of
Jamaican parentage.
Co-directed
by Corey Campbell, artistic director of Strictly Arts Theatre Company, and
Pilot artistic director Esther Richardson, it is a play with music, not a
musical, but has the punch of West Side Story, the exhilarating beatbox and
vocal score by Conrad Murray setting the story’s pulsating rhythm.
The
Crongton Knights of the title are the self-styled Magnificent Six, caught up at
a young age in the gangland turf wars of the Crongton Estate, divided into
“North Crong” and “South Crong”, their homestead.
Into the
dangerous Notre Dame estate they venture on a teen quest, a mission to rescue
the mobile phone of Venetia (Aimee Powell, the show’s best singer), in the
possession of her ex-boyfriend with incriminating photographs she needs to
erase.
Leading
them is big-hearted McKay (Olisa Odele); alongside are Jonah (Khai Shaw), Bit
(Zak Douglas), Saira (Nigar Yeva) and, along for the ride, and desperate to be
their lookout, Bushkid (Kate Donnachie), on her bike.
What
follows is a story of “lessons learned the hard way” at the hands of those more
experienced, more streetwise, more ruthless, more desperate, as represented by
Simi Egbejumi-David’s ensemble roles.
In
Wheatle’s words, the Magnificent Six must “confront debt, poverty, blackmail,
loss, fear, the trauma of a flight from a foreign land and the omnipresent
threat of gangland violence”, but the tone is not suffocatingly grim. Even in a
world stacked against teens, there is hope; there is positivity; above all
there is the bond of friendship.
Pilot’s
press release talked of a madcap adventure, and Simon Kenny’s graffiti-painted,
rainbow-coloured, scaffolded set design plays to that spirit, especially when
garage lock-up doors open up to show the Magnificent Six running in slow
motion. Imagine a cartoon crossed with the black comedy drama of Danny Boyle’s
Trainspotting.
Not all the
dialogue is as clear as it could be, and nor is the story’s passage, but the
highly energised performances, especially by Odele and Powell, are terrific,
and special praise goes to Dale Mathurin for stepping into the role of Nesta
with only two hot-housed days of rehearsals.
Richard G
Jones’s lighting and Adam P McCready’s sound design are important too, both
complementing the urban wasteland of troubled teens trying to find their place
when so much is barren.
Not the end for Crongton Knights: The tour had to be curtailed but now the Pilot Theatre co-production can be streamed online from April 22 to May 9
Here Be Monsteras ceramicist Kayti Peschke at work
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April
weekends, has been cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, with
doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event,
CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and
makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home.
Addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020 to locate them.
“If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise, take a picture
and let us know,” they say.
Camera Obscura, by Jill Tattersall
Jill Tattersall, mixed media
THIS would have been
Jill’s second York Open Studios since she and her The Wolf At The Door art
enterprise moved north from Brighton.
Before turning to art,
she taught mediaeval French literature, leading to her fascination with the creation
myths: Norse, Eastern, European and Aboriginal. “I’m overawed
by early cave and rock art, made long ago with the simplest, most elemental
means. People looked up into the night sky, just as we do, and must have asked
the same questions about their place in the universe.”
Coasts and maps have
inspired her too. “I used to live as far from the sea as you can get on this
island but, like most of us, I was fascinated by coastlines and the sea,” says
Jill. ”I moved, and till recently lived on the south coast, where the
light is fabulous. I try to avoid trite seaside scenes and ration myself
to a few sea-related pieces a year.”
Jill Tattersall: Left Brighton for York
Town and country are key influences as well. “Subjects just crop up: loaves of bread, a stretch of pavement, a passing scene, reflections in a train window,” she says.
“Often I use my own hand-made cast or moulded cotton paper. I then apply washes of paints, inks, dyes and pure pigments to build up intense, glowing colours, combining gold and silver leaf with recycled elements. Labour intensive, highly individual. The paper has a seductive, unpredictable surface: I like the danger and uncertainty this brings. You can wreck a promising painting at any moment.”
Jill’s paintings are in
collections from Peru to Tasmania. Since moving north, she has exhibited at Kunsthuis
Gallery, The Dutch House, Crayke. Discover more at jilltattersall.co.uk.
Here Be Monsteras: Ceramics created in a garage studio in a Wolds garden
Here Be Monsteras, Kayti Peschke, ceramics
KAYTI creates ceramics under the name of Here Be Monsteras from her garage studio in her garden in the Wolds east of York.
Her background is in photography and magazine design, but a year ago she started making pottery and now she has converted full time. “It has become an obsession,” she says.
Kayti makes wheel-thrown
ceramics with stoneware clays to create functional objects for the home. “A
collection of special pieces that bring a bit of extra joy to the ordinary,” as
she put it ahead of what would have been her York Open Studios debut.
“It has become an obsession,” says Kayti Peschke of her conversion to making pottery
She has been working on
new collections, including screen-printing ceramics with artist Jade Blood,
creating travel cups and a full dinnerware set, as
well as collaborating with restaurants and cafés that serve their menus on her
tableware.
“A cup of tea in a handmade cup really
does taste better, maybe because the process feels more special or you take
more time over it? I’m not sure why, but it’s true,” she says.
In her home studio, the cups of tea flow
and her puppies hang out in the sunshine as she listens to BBC 6Music or podcasts.
“I absolutely love being out there, creating, and hopefully this shows in the
things I make.”
As testament to that, her ceramics can be
found in York at Kiosk, Fossgate; Sketch By Origin, York Art Gallery; Walter
& May, Bishopthorpe Road; Lotte The Baker, SparkYork and Botanic York,
Walmgate. Take a look at herebemonsteras.com.
Gold needle necklace, by Joanna Wakefield
Joanna Wakefield, jewellery
DESIGNER jeweller Joanna’s
work combines her two passions, jewellery and textiles, with the third
essential element of her memories, observations and musings.
Joanna creates silver
and gold jewellery inspired by textiles, haberdashery and her vintage collections
and found objects.
Her work invokes a sense
of nostalgia. Alongside button-inspired pieces is a delicate interpretation of
handcrafted bobbins, thimbles, measures and needles.
Joanna first trained in design,
specialising in textiles, having grown up in a family environment of three
generations of needlewomen.
Joanna Wakefield: Switched from textile designs to jewellery designs
She travelled the world
as a Fair Trade designer, but after more than ten years she could no longer
ignore her desire to develop further creatively, leading her to re-train at
York School of Jewellery.
“A huge part of my jewellery designs is influenced by textiles and haberdashery, stemming from a fascination that grew from admiring my Grandma’s talents and fond memories of sorting through her button stash,” says Joanna, whose work was to have featured in the MADE shop at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, from March 7 to June 21.
Take a shine to Joanna’s
jewellery at joannawakefield.com.
” I’ve always had an interest in natural history and the British countryside,” says Mark Hearld
Mark Hearld, collage, printmaking and ceramics
MARK studied illustration at Glasgow School of Art and an MA in natural history illustration at the Royal College of Art in 1999 before breaking into the artistic world with exhibitions at Godfrey & Watt in Harrogate and St Jude’s in Norfolk and in London’s arty Lower Sloane Street.
He specialises in bright collages, paintings,
limited-edition lithographic and lino-cut prints and now hand-painted ceramics,
his work often involving animals and birds, flora and fauna.
“I’ve always had an interest in natural
history and the British countryside,” says Mark, 46, who is strongly influenced
too by mid-20th century art and design. “I like the idea of the artist working
as a designer rather than making images to stick in a frame,” he reasons.
Mark Hearld: Birds, beasts, flora and fauna
He undertook a set-design commission for the 2005 film Nanny McPhee and has done design projects for Tate Britain – cups, jugs, plates and scarves – and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield, where he held a solo show, Birds and Beasts, from November 2012 to February 2013.
In 2012, Merrell Books published Mark
Hearld’s Work Book, the first book devoted to his work, and he has illustrated
such books as Nicola Davies’s A First Book Of Nature (2012) and Nature Poems:
Give Me Instead Of A Card (2019).
He curated the Lumber Room exhibition at
the re-opened York Art Gallery from August 2015 after its £8 million
development project, as well as a re-imagining of the British Folk Art
Collection at Compton Verney Art Gallery and Park. Contact him via
mark.a.hearld@googlemail.com.
Lauren Terry, Lauren’s Cows, painting
Out in the fields: Lauren’s Cows artist Lauren Terry
LAUREN has moved out of Bar Lane
Studios, not too far away, to a new studio workspace overlooking Micklegate Bar
and Blossom Street, where her focus remains on creating vibrant cow paintings,
prints and homeware.
Lauren’s Cows had began with a one-off painting of a cow that
she painted while working as a waitress and actress in the heart of London.
Growing
tired of city life, she craved a window to her country childhood. What better
view than a curious cow peering in on her kitchen table?
Scarlet, by Lauren Terry
The
framer in North Yorkshire was so taken by the characterful cow that he offered
to host an exhibition if Lauren agreed to paint 20 more of her beautiful beasts.
The
response this debut show generated gave her the confidence to change career
tack by launching her art business and brand, and so Lauren’s Cows was born in
2012: a daughter-and-mother partnership where Lauren paints character-filled cattle in heavy-bodied acrylic paint and designing
items for the home in her York studio and Jude takes care of business from the
family home at Crackenthorpe, Appleby-in-Westmoreland.
Lauren Terry in her new studio in York
“I love what I do,” says Lauren. “Cows have such a curious
nature and humorous personality that they just make me smile, and I take great
pleasure in passing that smile on through my vibrant paintings. It’s all about
capturing all the character while still remaining true to the breed.”
Lauren’s Cows can be found at laurenscows.com.
TOMORROW: Sharon McDonagh; Jane Dignum; Carolyn Coles; Adele Karmazyn and Nathan Combes
YORK Open
Studios 2020, the chance to meet 144 artists at 100 locations over two April
weekends, has been cancelled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However,
with doors sadly shut for the April 17 to 19 and April 25 to 26 event,
CharlesHutchPress wants to champion the creativity of York’s artists and
makers, who would have been showcasing their ceramics, collage, digital,
illustration, jewellery, mixed media, painting, print, photography, sculpture
and textiles skills.
Each day,
in brochure order, five artists who now miss out on the exposure of Open
Studios will be given a pen portrait on these pages, because so much art and
craft will have been created for the event and still needs a new home.
Addresses will not be included at this time.
Meanwhile,
York Open Studios artists are finding their own way to respond to the shutdown
by filling their windows with their work instead. Look for #openwindowsyork2020 to locate them.
“If you see one in your area while taking your daily exercise, take a picture
and let us know,” they say.
Ovoid On Ball, by Ben Arnup
Ben Arnup, ceramics
BEN defines his ceramics
as art pottery, wherein an early obsession with perspective has developed into
a play between drawn description and form.
“I like to play a game: setting the prosaic nature
of clay against the unlikely structures of the drawings,” says Ben of his oxidised
stoneware with inlays and colourful
porcelain veneers, fired in an electric kiln.
The son of the late
Mick and Sally Arnup, painter and potter and sculptor respectively, he grew up
learning ceramic skills and technology.
Ben Arnup: “I like to play a game,” he says
Having trained as a
landscape architect at Manchester Polytechnic, he worked for Landscape Design Associates in Peterborough,
before he returned to making pots influenced by the design process in 1984.
Now a fellow of the Craft Potters Association, he works out of a basement
workshop in his York home, exhibiting his ceramics in Britain, Europe and North
America. Learn more at benarnup.co.uk.
Linked pendant, by Jo Bagshaw
Jo Bagshaw, jewellery
THE central theme of Jo’s
work is to create beautiful, wearable collections of silver jewellery that
follow simple lines and shapes.
“I’m
inspired by everyday objects, vintage items and novelties,” she says. “I
sometimes include these elements directly in my work, encasing and embellishing
them with precious metals to give a fresh perspective to a familiar object.
Jo Bagshaw: Inspired by everyday objects, vintage items and novelties
“I often
weave a narrative into my jewellery, incorporating messages or well-known
sayings to an item that convey meaning to the wearer.
After
completing a degree in metalwork and jewellery in 2004, Jo launched her
jewellery business in 2006. Since then, she has combined this with teaching
jewellery-making skills at The Mount School, York. More details at
jobagshaw.co.uk.
Clay in hand: Feet in Clay ceramicist and multi-media artist Francesca King
Francesca King, ceramics/multi-media
FRANCESCA founded her ceramics practice in 2016 to explore surface, texture and formation of agate clay. She has exhibited nationally, alongside undertaking ceramic portrait commissions and teaching.
Now in the second year
of her MA in fine art, she was awarded first prize in an international art
competition, leading to a week’s residency at Urbino University, Italy.
Francesca, who is also a
clay therapist, is taking clay into a more interactive aspect of sculpture with
her Feet in Clay installation: an interactive
sculptural exhibit that “promotes the positive aspects of clay in motion,
stimulating the corporeal experience for participants”.
Francesca KIng at work
The Feet in Clay experience would have
been offered during Francesca’s exhibition for York Open Studios 2020, for which
she was one of the annual event’s multimedia bursary recipients.
This bursary enables artists to create
experiences such as digital works, installations, films or performances as part
of York Open Studios.
For the full picture, take a look at francescakingceramics.com.
Photographer Simon Palmour: Likes to remove the glass barrier between viewer and image
Simon Palmour, photography
SIMON has been a
photographer for 35 years, having his work published and exhibited at many
locations, not least the Royal Geographical Society.
Abstract images are
extracted from landscapes and reproduced on several media, such as aluminium,
acrylic and board to “remove the glass barrier between viewer and image”.
Last year, his photographic essay on The Yorkshire High Wolds was published. This year, he was timing the publication of his new project on the Yorkshire Elmet flatlands to coincide with York Open Studios 2020.
The Tree On The Beach, by Simon Palmour
A theme of his photography is ambiguity, whether of scale, subject, point of view or colour (much, although not all, of his work being monochrome). “The aim is to invite contemplation, to reward repeated consideration and to cause a little confusion,” he says.
Simon also carries out
portrait work, commissions and workshops, as well as teaching groups and offering
personal tuition.
After the cancellation of this year’s York Open Studios, he is holding a Virtual Show instead throughout April. Visit palmourphotographics.blogspot.com/p/virtual-exhibition.html daily.
“Each day, I’ll add a different piece to the show, with the story behind the shot and the cost of a print,” he says. Those images can be bought at palmour@gmail.com.
Julerry, by Elena Panina
Elena Panina, textiles
ELENA is a Russian-born
textile artist who works with wool, silk and decorative fibres.
Using wet felting
techniques, she makes wearable art pieces: necklaces, shawls and throws,
bracelets, headwear, belts, hand bags, toys and wall hangings.
Elena was born and brought up in St Petersburg, moving to Britain 15 years ago. She attended arts college in St Petersburg and her past artwork centred on ink drawings, until she discovered wet and needle felting three years ago.
Elena Panina: Drawn to the magical qualities of felting
Studying felting from
Russian felt makers, she was drawn immediately to its magical properties as she
learnt how to produce cloth out of fibres.
As well as an artist,
she is a teacher. She can be contacted via yelenavpanina@sky.com.
TOMORROW: Jill Tattersall; Here Be Monsters; Joanna Wakefield; Mark Hearld and Lauren Terry.
Nouvelle Vague: Playing Leeds City Varieties this autumn
FRENCH fancy covers band Nouvelle Vague will play Leeds City Varieties on October 13 on their 15 Years Anniversary Tour, now running into a 16th year.
Nouvelle Vague translates as “bossa nova” in Portuguese and “new wave” in English, explaining Marc Collin and Oliver Libaux’s choice of moniker that encapsulates the Parisian group’s concept of remaking classic New Wave singles with a Brazilian pop twist.
By appropriating the punk and post-punk cannon and running it through the
Bossa Nova filter, they re-invented the cover-band genre, revealing new singing
talents along the way such as Camille, Phoebe Killdeer, Nadeah, Mélanie Pain
and Liset Alea.
Bossa Nova + New Wave = Nouvelle Vague
The group’s first two albums, 2004’s Nouvelle Vague and 2006’s Bande A Part, defined their urbane retro sound , while third album, 2009’s NV3, featured collaborations with Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore, Echo & The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch, The Specials’ Terry Hall, Barry Adamson, The Saints and Minimal Compact.
Subsequently, they have released the live album Acoustic in 2009; Best Of Nouvelle Vague and Couleurs Sur Paris in 2010; I Could Be Happy in 2016 and Curiosities and Rarities in 2019.
Nouvelle Vague will perform their 23-date autumn tour with a line-up of Collin, Libaux, Pain, Killdeer and Elodie Frégé. Killdeer and Pain will sing at the shows from October 9 to 20, including Leeds; Frégé and Pain from October 22 Tickets for the only Yorkshire date are on sale at cityvarieties.co.uk.
KENTMERE House Gallery always intended to devote much of this year’s exhibition programme to Jack Hellewell, as 2020 would have been his centenary year.
Ann Petherick’s gallery, in Scarcroft Hill, York, is closed under the
Coronavirus lockdown, but the website is being updated regularly, especially
his section.
“You may not be able to go to the Yorkshire Dales over the Easter break,
but you can still enjoy Jack Hellewell’s views of Yorkshire and elsewhere
online until such time as you can see the real thing,” says Ann.
“There will be a rolling exhibition of Jack’s work from the date of the
gallery re-opening, including works on paper and on canvas, with prices ranging
from £500 to £1,500.”
Ebb Tide, Filey, by Jack Hellewell
After his death in 2000, Kentmere House Gallery was appointed to manage
Jack’s artistic estate on behalf of his family, since when exhibitions have
been held in Ilkley, Leeds, Stoke-on-Trent, Bristol, London and Vienna. “There were
several more planned in 2020, although some may now have to be deferred to
2021,” says Ann.
Ever since Ann saw Jack’s work in a gallery in Ilkley 25 years ago, he
has been one of her gallery’s most loved and respected artists and work from
his studio is on show there permanently.
“Jack lived for his painting, describing himself as ‘a fanatical painter’
and spending all day and every day painting, especially after his wife died,” says
Ann. “Towards the end of his life, his daughter said the only way she knew he
was really ill was when he stopped painting
“He loved it when he sold work but hated having to be involved with the
selling and, as a result, most of the work we show will never have been seen
before outside his studio.”
Ilkley Moor, Yorkshire, by Jack Hellewell
Jack’s attic flat overlooking Ilkley Moor was always neatly
stacked with canvasses and work on paper. “Initially he would say ‘I
haven’t done much’, and then the paintings would start to appear: astounding in
their quality and consistency and always singing with colour,” says Ann.
“The gentlest, quietest and most modest of men, there were few who were
privileged to know him, but he had a delightful sense of humour, which also
appears in his paintings.”
Jack Hellewell was a
Yorkshireman through and through. Born in Bradford in 1920, he trained as a
painter at Bradford College of Art – where David Hockney studied too – from 1949
to 1952 and in later life lived in Menston and Ilkley.
He saw war service in
Egypt, North Africa and Italy and he then worked as a graphic designer. His travels with his family took him to Australia,
Austria, New Zealand, the South Seas and, frequently, to Scotland.
Socotra, Indian Ocean, by Jack Hellewell
In 1976, he gave up his design work to become a full-time painter,
returning to West Yorkshire to do so.
“All his work was
executed entirely from memory – he always refused to sketch on site, believing
that ‘it ties you down’ – and everything was derived from personal experiences,”
says Ann.
“Jack’s travels and
encounters had a dramatic impact on his painting and he had an amazing ability
to retain the essence of a place, so that years – or even decades later – he
could produce a painting from it.”
Much of his work used
the visual experience of intense light in warmer climates, as compared with the
more subtle light he found in Britain.
The front door of Kentmere House Gallery: Closed until further notice, but gallery owner Ann Petherick is still operating an online service
“Jack always worked in acrylic, enjoying the contrasts it offers between strong and subtle colours, and the feeling of movement, which is such a feature of his work,” says Ann. “He had the ability both to use the medium neat on canvas or diluted on paper, the latter giving the effect of the most delicate watercolour.”
Jack exhibited at the
Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition on several occasions in the 1990s; his
work was featured on the Tyne Tees Television arts programme North-East Line
and he has an entry in the definitive publication Artists In Britain Since 1945.
“All this leads me to wonder how many other such artists there are:
producing superbly rich and inspired work, yet largely unknown to the public and
even more so to the art world, and never receiving a penny of public funding,
nor any public recognition,” says Ann, who continues to ensure that all’s well
that’s Hellewell by promoting his art assiduously in his centenary year.
Did you know?
WORKS by Jack Hellewell are in the collections of British Rail; National Power
Company; Sheffield Museums; Mercer Gallery, Harrogate; Rochdale Art Gallery; Rutherston
Art Loan Scheme, Manchester City Art Gallery; Barclays Asset Management, Leeds
& Birmingham, and Provident Financial, Bradford.
