Little Shambles: Digital artwork in the Gifts of Christmas exhibition at Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre
BAR Convent Living Heritage Centre is sparkling with dazzling tree decorations and a new exhibition on this year’s festive theme of Gifts of Christmas, organised in conjunction with York arts charity New Visuality.
On show at Britain’s oldest-surviving Catholic convent, in Blossom Street, York, is a collection of digital art inspired by Viborg, York’s fellow UNESCO City of Media Arts, where heritage intersects with cutting-edge technology, while young creatives from Blueberry Academy, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, St George’s RC Primary and York College (ESOL students) are exploring the theme too.
In addition, glass cabinets showcase pop-punk tributes to the Book of Kells and the works of William Blake.
Jump for joy: Bar Convent lit up in a digital artwork made with AI technology for Gifts of Christmas
“Gifts of Christmas provided just the glittering gauntlet our cohorts of young artists would enjoy,” says New Visuality co-director Greg McGee, “It became obvious throughout the sessions that the young people were responding to the theme with the idea that we can all be gifts, or, as one of our advocates, Hope Fomekong, put it, ‘your presence is a present’.”
Working in creative sessions that engaged with Blueberry Academy and young people from across York, New Visuality oversaw the production of drawings, paintings and even small ceramics.
Greg knew that a diverse display might not be the kind of exhibition that would most suit the space at Bar Convent, “Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre is just that. It is ‘living’. It encapsulates what York does best and intersects the past and the future,” he says.
Exhibition co-ordinator Greg McGee and Sister Patricia Harriss at Bar Convent. Picture: McGee Photography
“Our advocates, led by Hope and Isla McGee and Rowan McGee, distilled the artwork created into digital compositions. We were left in an exciting position where our young people were experimenting with the latest in innovative AI software and bringing a new type of energy to creating art.”
Co-director Ails McGee agrees: “AI is at such a fascinating juncture, we were in many ways relieved of our artistic duties. The young people evolved their reverential cityscapes into Pop Punk Heritage, and we all had a lot of fun whilst they did it.
“However, New Visuality has at its heart the human touch, and so we ensured the art was unified and shared a top-quality aesthetic. The individual compositions, the huge collage incorporating the art, the artists, the theme as well as a depiction of Bar Convent in a wintry landscape, all have coalesced into making an unmissable exhibition.”
The Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Margaret Wells, left, Sister Patricia Harriss, Ails McGee, Greg McGee, Isla McGee and the Sheriff of York, Ms Fiona Fitzpatrick, at the launch of Gifts of Christmas. Picture: McGee Photography
To help ensure the output remained on brand, New Visuality collaborated with York design agency Mode, whose director, Doug James, says: “The Gift of Christmas provided a springboard for York’s young artists to express their ideas, sometimes via poetry. We had a homage to William Blake from Isla and Rowan created a wittily dystopian diatribe on the day when robots will take over York’s All Saints Catholic School.
“It was important to stay true to the initial idea of the young people, so I prioritised ensuring that the designs actually looked like the Book of Kells or had the contemporary feel of a William Blake pamphlet. Rowan’s futuristic poem needed a touch of a jaded Space Age, so we utilised a vintage Apple Mac. It was a lot of fun.”
Greg adds: “Like all of our most successful exhibitions, it’s multifaceted. It’s a tribute to Bar Convent, but it’s also a celebration of York, and indeed counterpart UNESCO City of Media Arts member Viborg.
The Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Margaret Wells, left, Sister Patricia, Mode design agency director Doug Jamesand the Sheriff of York, Ms Fiona Fitzpatrick, at the launch of Gifts of Christmas. Picture: McGee Photography
“What seemed to galvanise our young artists was the opportunity to reinvent previously monolithic icons and bring a bit of digital steampunk. Their trips to Bar Convent, as well as the chance to exhibit here, helped make that happen.”
Gifts Of Christmas, Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, until December 19, open 10am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday; last admission 4pm.Tickets: Exhibition: adult £7, concessions £5, children £2, under 6s free. Family £14; Chapel and Georgian Parlour. free. Box office: barconvent.co.uk. Check out Greg McGee’s video at https://fb.watch/wiR8lMADhV/
Did you know?
GREG and Ails McGee’s charity New Visuality raises funds to empower youth in York through eco-art projects, conserving green spaces and boosting biodiversity.
Finn East’s Dewey Finn and Eady Mensah’s Tomika rehearsing for York Stage’s School Of Rock: The Next Generation
AS the new school term begins, what perfect timing for York Stage to open School Of Rock: The Next Generation at the Grand Opera House, York, today.
“It really is the perfect show to start September,” says director of operations Kevin Coundon. “There will be no back-to-school blues for those going to the School of Rock.”
Produced and directed by Nik Briggs, the riotous musical is based on the 2003 film, re-booted with a book by Julian Fellowes, lyrics by Glenn Slater and music by Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Finn East, an actor noted as much for his comic craft as his musical chops, takes “the Jack Black role” of Dewey Finn, a failed rock musician desperate for money, who chances his arm by faking his credentials to be a substitute teacher at a stuffy American prep school.
Jettisoning Math(s) in favour of propelling his students to become the most awesome rock band ever, will he be found out by the parents and headmistress, leaving Dewey to face the music?
“I’d say it’s the biggest role I’ve played, popularity wise, though the biggest stage part I’ve played was Bill Snibson, the cheeky Cockney geezer, in Me And My Girl for Pick Me Up Theatre [Grand Opera House, May 2019],” says Finn.
Finn East (Dewey Finn) and Megan Waite (Principal Rosalie Mullins) in rehearsal for School Of Rock: The Next Generation
“But Dewey is definitely a challenging part for me that’s more well known and draws more attention. I’ve had lots of compliments about getting it, and I’m pleased that everyone is on my side for it.
“There isn’t too much pressure that goes with it, but there is the pressure, I guess, that people see me as a ‘bit of a Jack Black’, but I’m not too worried about doing my own thing, though I naturally fall into his style.”
Finn did not go to last November’s York premiere of School Of Rock by York Light Youth, but he has seen the Paramount film. “But not for a while, though I have it in my DVD collection. That one is in the ‘Director’ section under Richard Linklater as I’m quite the film buff!
“When I studied musical theatre at York College, we went to the West End musical at the Gillian Lynne Theatre – and I loved it!
“I don’t know anyone who’d be as brave as Dewey to do what effectively is identity fraud, but there is a lot in the show’s message that school can bring a lot more out of you by letting you grow instead of squeezing children into a machine.”
Looking back to his schooldays at Warter, near Pocklington, Finn says: “I was very academic to begin with but social at the same time, even at primary school. I was pretty much the school clown: a bit of a comedian, but I always focused on my work too.”
For those about to rock: York Stage’s young musicians in School Of Rock: The Next Generation
He first picked up a guitar – Dewey Finn’s instrument – at the age of five. “I played fingerstyle blues stuff, but I didn’t practise loads, though I did go to lessons, but then I really picked it up in my teens, when I started hanging out with my friend Will Dreyfus, playing with him at open-mic nights at Plonkers and Sotano,” says Finn.
“My guitar playing is all right. I play with a plectrum now. I’m more a chords player, when I’m singing. I’ve never been much of a guitar soloist, which you might find out at the end of Act Two!
“It’s very different playing guitar in this show, as I’ve never really had a band before. Now it’s my band with a bunch of kids, and that’s different from playing in pubs – and I’m also performing in character.”
Joining Finn’s Dewey in the band will be Charlie Jewison’s guitarist Zack, Daniel Tomlin’s keyboard player Lawrence, Matilda Park’s bassist Katie and Zach Denison’s drummer Freddie.
“We didn’t play together until maybe a month into rehearsals and then had quite a few pure band rehearsals,” says Finn, who is full of admiration for his young cohorts. “Matilda only picked up the bass after rehearsals began, having previously played other string instruments, getting tuition from Georgia Chapman.
“The guitarist, Charlie, from Leeds, already has his own band. School Of Rock is the first time he’s done a show like this, but he’s used to playing guitar live on stage.
Guitar face-off: James Robert Ball (Ned Schneebly) and Finn East (Dewey Finn) duelling in School Of Rock rehearsals
“Our musical director Shack [Stephen Hackshaw] had already done School Of Rock at his school, and when we needed a drummer, he asked the parents of the boy who’d played drums in that show, Zach, if he could do our show and they said ‘yes’. He’s really talented.
“It’s quite a challenge, with ‘real’ school just started again and having to travel over here to rehearse and perform, but you can really tell Charlie and Zach just love playing their instruments.”
Both Matilda and keyboardist Dan Tomlin were in York Stage’s April production of Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as was Finn. “Even during the rehearsals, Dan was always on the piano, getting kids to sing with him,” he says. “He’s so much fun, and he loves getting into character too.”
York Stage is giving these children, along with the young ensemble, the chance to express themselves artistically, much to Finn’s delight. “I would say the kids that Dewey teaches are so talented at music and yet that’s brushed aside as a hobby because parents want them to be accountants or in a dull, high-paid job,” he says.
“At first the kids don’t understand why they’d want to play music when there are ‘more important’ things to do, but they grow to love it, to be hooked on it.”
The poster for Twilight Robbery, in which Finn East appeared in a double act with Josh Benson
Finn knows that feeling. “The first theatre show I did was Oliver!, playing one of Fagin’s gang, for York Light Opera Company, and I loved being on stage,” he says.
He acquired an agent at the age of 18 “for a while” after he performed in Joseph McNiece’s heist musical comedy Twilight Robbery for the Scaena Theatre Company and The Boff Ensemble at The Barn Theatre, Oxted, in Surrey in February 2018.
“I did that production after I’d done The Wizard Of Oz with Pick Me Up Theatre, when Joe [McNiece] played The Tin Man. He’d just finished a course in playwriting and directing and he’d written Twilight Robbery with Matthew Spalding, who composed the music.
“He asked me to do the show – he’s from Surrey, so that’s why we did it there – and I played a double act with [York actor] Josh Benson, my very good friend, which was great fun.”
Roll on to 2024, as Finn contemplates his future. “I’m still thinking about training to get some ‘proper credentials’,” he says. “As much as I love theatre, film interests me the most, though you don’t get to experience that immediate audience reaction you do in theatres. Film is what I love watching and what I’d love to be involved in.”
York Stage presents School Of Rock: The Next Generation, Grand Opera House, York, September 13 to 21; Tuesday to Saturday, 7.30pm; Saturdays, 2.30pm; Sunday, 4pm. Box office: atgtickets.com/york.
Copyright of The Press, York
Who’s in the York Stage cast and production team for School Of Rock?
York Stage cast members in rehearsal for School Of Rock: The Next Generation
Cast:
Dewey Finn – Finn East Principal Rosalie Mullins – Megan Waite Ned Schneebly – James Robert Ball Patti DiMarco – Amy Barrett
The adult company is completed by Florence Poskitt, Matthew Clarke, Stuart Hutchinson, Jess Burgess, Ashley Ginter, Julie Fisher, Cyanne Unamba Oparah, Phil Charles Green, Declan Childs, Oliver Lawery, Theo Ryder, Kalina O’Brien and Evie Latham.
Dewey’s Band, performing live every show:
Zack (guitarist) – Charlie Jewison Lawrence (keys) – Daniel Tomlin Katie (bass) – Matilda Park Freddie (drums) – Zach Denison
Plus two teams of ten students.
Production team:
Director/Producer – Nik Briggs Musical director – Stephen Hackshaw Choreographer – Danielle Mullan-Hill
Hope: Shadow and Light: global drawing installation in the Bar Convent chapel, in Blossom Street, York. Picture: Greg McGee
HOPE: Shadow and Light, the new luminous installation in the 18th century chapel, takes centre stage in Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre’s Christmas experience in York.
Under the title of Let There Be Light!, the 17th century Blossom Street convent is aglow with a twinkling tree and decorative decorations, complemented by window displays of the Nativity.
Hope: Shadow and Light is a collaborative community work of art that not only responds to the Bar Convent’s Christmas theme but forms part of a global drawing campaign that originated in Viborg, Denmark, one of York’s fellow UNESCO Creative Cities of Media Arts.
Run in partnership with Greg and Ails McGee’s York arts charity New Visuality and installation artist Nick Walters, the installation projects more than 200 drawings from 15 countries on five continents on to the chapel dome, alongside work created in York as part of the #DrawWithDenmark – Green Together 2023 Campaign.
Councillor Martin Sanderhoff, from Viborg Kummune, Denmark, addressing the launch of Hope: Shadow and Light at Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre. Picture: Greg McGee
“Drawing is a universal language,” says Bar Convent marketing, PR and volunteering manager Lauren Masterman. “This global campaign uses creativity to generate positive change in a way that makes the world come together; a message that particularly emanates at Christmas.
The “visual conversation” has been joined by York schools Our Lady Queen of Martyrs and St George’s RC Primary; learners from Blueberry Academy; ESOL [English for Speakers of Other Languages] students from York College, and York’s Civic Party, led by the Lord Mayor of York, the Reverend Councillor Chris Cullwick. All art has been distilled into the video installation in the chapel and accompanying exhibition.
Greg McGee, New Visuality co-director and According To McGee art dealer, says: “Art is what makes life better than art, so we owe huge thanks to Bar Convent for reminding us of what a great thing UNESCO’s designation of York as a City of Media Arts is.
“We’re also grateful to City of York Council’s wards and more than 100 hundred of York’s young people who joined us to get creative, especially with working in tandem with Viborg’s globe-straddling Draw with Denmark campaign.
The window display of the Nativity at Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre. Picture: Frank Dwyer
“The results are here to view in the Bar Convent chapel, illuminated so beautifully by projectors from York’s XR Stories that let us paint in light. I’m also thanking in advance members of the public who are continuing to co-create with us by grabbing a blank tag, filling in their prayer, hope, and aspiration for next year for us to include in this ever-evolving exhibition.”
After attending the official launch event, City of York Councillor Jo Coles, executive member for health, wellbeing and adult social care, posted on social media: “It’s tough out there – the mental health of many has been affected. We’re all looking for hope wherever we can find it.
“Thanks to the Bar Convent, New Visuality, York UNESCO City of Media Arts and Guild of Media Arts, a long-standing partnership between City of York Council and Viborg, and some very tenacious individuals, we have a beautiful new exhibition to give us just that.
“Beautiful drawings by children from across the world, including many here in York, have been brought to life thanks to the amazing skills from the Viborg Animation Festival. All projected on to the ceiling of the beautiful Bar Convent chapel. Go see it! It’s stunning!”
City of York Councillor Jo Coles (Labour, Westfield Ward) speaking at the Hope:Shadow and Light launch event
In attendance too as part of a Viborg delegation’s three-day visit to York was Viborg Kummune councillor Martin Sanderhoff, who said: “The Draw with Denmark project, started in Covid to express what ‘hope’ meant to children, showed the power of drawing and creativity for young people. Drawing is needed for creative thinking to address and conquer our problems.
“We now have a global drawing campaign where 6,000 children from 45 countries, from Europe to Africa to America, are expressing hope under this year’s theme of Green Together.”
Bar Convent festive visitors also can experience the Georgian parlour, dressed for Christmas and a special Christmas display in the exhibition.
Let There Be Light! runs at Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre, Blossom Street, York, until December 19. Admission to the Hope: Shadow and Light installation and Georgian parlour is free; the Bar Convent exhibition, Secrets and Spies, costs £6, concessions £4, children £2, family ticket £12, at barconvent.co.uk. Opening hours: Monday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm; last admission, 4pm.
Greg McGee, New Visuality co-director, left, Henrik Holmskov, Focal Point of Viborg UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, Chris Bailey, Focal Point of York UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, Sister Patricia Harriss, of Bar Convent, Councillor Martin Sanderhoff, from Viborg Kummune, Jane LH Jensen, director of Viborg Animation Festival, and Ails McGee, New Visuality co-director at the launch of the Hope: Shadow and Light installation
Creative Connections: York and Viborg
THE UNESCO Creative Cities of York and Viborg, Denmark, are working together to improve life for citizens, to make the cities more liveable and to boost the economy.
Delegates from Viborg returned to York from December 5 to 7 to broaden the conversation between the cities, bringing together elected members, higher education, creative industries and business representatives and public health managers.
Those delegates were Councillor Martin Sanderhoff, Viborg Kummune, Henrik Holmskov, Focal Point of Viborg UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, and Jane LH Jensen, director of Viborg Animation Festival and visibility director of Viborg Animation Workshop.
The aim is to explore the benefits from the creative sector becoming a permanent feature of the political landscape in both cities and regions.
The dialogue between York and Viborg started with ‘Hope’. In 2020, in the depths of lockdown during the Covid 19 pandemic, children and young people were among that hardest hit, shut out of school and away from their friends and wider communities.
In Denmark, Viborg City of Media Arts initiated the Draw with Denmark project, inviting children from around the world to submit drawings of ‘Hope’ to a team of creative animators. Children in York’s schools, led by REACH, the city’s creative education partnership, embraced the opportunity and had the chance to see their drawings exhibited in cities worldwide, as “the world became whole again and it was possible to think beyond confining walls”.
Since then, York and Viborg have continued to discuss shared opportunities and challenges for culture and creativity to make more successful, sustainable communities.
In 2022, with the support of the UK Department of Business and Trade, a Creative Export visit to Viborg was organised for York small creative businesses, while York welcomed two artists from Viborg to run family drawing workshops during the Viking Festival.
York media artist Kit Monkman, whose artwork People We Love was first installed in York Minster for Mediale 2020, remade the work with the participation of Viborg residents for exhibition in the Danish cathedral.
In April, York played host to Denmark’s Ambassador and Cultural Attache to the UK, as well as the UK’s Ambassador to UNESCO, and the deputy chief executive of Arts Council England, as an intensive three-day Study Visit by all 19 municipalities from Midtjylland in Denmark learned of creative approaches to common concerns, covering digital transformation of culture, cultural wellbeing and support for culture.
Chris Bailey, Focal Point of York UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts, says: “Creativity and culture are key to the future success of both of our cities in so many ways. We want to encourage York’s brilliant creative sector to take advantage of the opportunities to work with Viborg, a city with which we share so much history.”
Creative Connections: York and Viborg
THERE are 25 Media Arts Cities in the UNESCO Creative Cities group, the latest designations being for Caen, Casablanca, Novi Sad and Oulu.
The range of work York has undertaken through the Media Arts network over the past eight years includes:
Contributing to specialist conferences, e.g. in Gwangju, Changsha;
Supporting artists for residency or exhibitions in Guadalajara, Austin;
Enabling artist-to-artist collaborations such as City to City with Cali, Karlsruhe, Austin;
Hosting Media Arts Cities’ first meeting in 2018 in York.
York has been the deputy coordinator of Media Arts Cities for the past six years and has been working bilaterally with Viborg since the Danish city was designated a UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts in 2019 in the most fruitful collaboration to date.
Since 2020’s Draw With Denmark launch, York’s creative education partnership, REACH, has continued its engagement with Viborg every year. Drawings have been seen, sometimes animated, other times projected sky-high on the side of buildings, and have been celebrated at conferences around the world.
Further major projects, for instance in performance and in heritage interpretation, are distinctly possible, suggests Chris Bailey. “If these are not be isolated successes, we have to embed the relationship at all political levels and secure community support.
“With more creative organisations involved in the conversation, we believe there will be a steady flow of projects of all sizes, both as part of normal business or with additional funding. December’s visit provided an opportunity to identify potential partners and areas for further collaboration between Viborg and York.”
Did you know?
THE Guild of Media Arts is York’s membership organisation for the creative sector. The Guild is the Focal Point of York UNESCO Creative City of Media Arts
On the ropes: Kate Whittaker’s Polly Stokes feels the force of Zee Williams’s Matilda Blackwellon the attack in The Sweet Science Of Bruising
York College & University Centre BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen Graduating Students in The Sweet Science Of Bruising, York Theatre Royal Studio, July 20 and 21
TWO years of intense training have gone into this climactic graduating production by York College & University Centre’s first cohort of Acting for Stage and Screen BA students.
They deliver a knockout punch with Joy Wilkinson’s torrid 2018 drama The Sweet Science Of Bruising, an epic tale of passion, politics and pugilism set in the underground world of 19th-century women’s boxing.
Mirroring the rounds of a boxing bout in its dramatic rhythm, each scene is short and sharp, some dominated by jabs, others by body blows, some completed with a count to ten. Every step of the way, director James Harvey duly has his cast floating like a butterfly, stinging like a bee.
Philippa Hickson’s Violet Hunter, left, with Shell Murphy’s Aunt George
Already, the students had staged a spring showcase for agents at the Theatre Royal, one of two industry partners in the course alongside Screen Yorkshire. An auditorium buzzing with energy greets them – CharlesHutchPress was ringside for the Friday performance – and ever louder cheers meet each scene’s denouement in the compact Studio, where the actors are within punching range.
These exultations peak in response to the retaliatory barrage of punches unleashed by Molly Shackshaft’s Anna Lamb on her vile creep of a gaslighting husband, Andrew Joseph-Hilyer’s anything-but-angelic Gabriel Lamb.
Liam Wilks’s Victorian-moustachioed “Professor” Charlie Sharp doubles as silver-tongued master of ceremonies at Islington’s Angel Amphitheatre – egging on the audience’s responses from round one – and twinkle-eyed, if thin-skinned, subversive boxing promoter with his roster of fledgling female talent.
Jim Carnall’s title-chasing boxer Paul Stokes with Liam Wilks’s boxing promoter “Professor” Charlie Sharp
Each protagonist has a reason for turning to boxing: Shackshaft’s young mother and charity crusader Anna Lamb has been pushed too far by her cheating, controlling, belittling, physically abusive husband; Philippa Hickson’s trainee doctor Violet Hunter has found her path to progression in the medical profession blocked by Jordan Benson’s insufferable Dr James Bell.
Zee Williams’s resourceful, Descartes-quoting Irish lady of the night and typesetter for The Times newspaper, Matilda Blackwell, craves a puncher’s chance of a fresh opportunity to make money; Kate Whitttaker’s hardy north easterner Polly Stokes is steeped in boxing from the bouts of her “brother” Paul (Jim Carnall), with preternatural punching power of her own. Her performance matches it in its impact.
Wilkinson’s script is combative and comedic, fiery and feminist, startling and exhilarating, a hit to the head, a punch to the gut. This is gloves-off theatre, fuelled by Wilkinson being drawn to “powerful women whose bodies contrast with ‘feminine ideals’ and force us to rethink what we’re capable of”: women such as Fay Weldon’s She-Devil, Alien’s Ellen Ripley and Terminator’s Sarah Connor.
Zee Williams’s prostitute Matilda Blackwell and Andrew Joseph-Hilyer’s callous client Gabriel Lamb
Reactions in the audience are all the stronger for Wilkinson’s play being refracted through our age of #MeToo, high-profile boxing champs such as Nicola Adams and Katie Taylor, Roe v Wade and a rising repression of women’s rights, whether in Afghanistan or the United States.
What a superb choice of play by programme leader Harvey, his decision made in part in response to the preponderance of woman in the 2021 intake. His cast responds with a champion performance.
In boxing parlance, did this Bruising encounter leave you reviewer seeing stars (in the making), courtesy of Kaitlin Howard’s fight direction? It would be unfair to pick out any performer over another, given the high quality all round. Instead, let’s hope to see them again as they join the professional ranks.
Shed Seven, 2023: Vocalist Rick Witter, left, guitarist Paul Banks, second from right, and bassist Tom Gladwin,right, are joined by drummer Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield and keyboardist Tim Willis at Millennium Square,Leeds, tonight. Picture: Barnaby Fairley
GOING for gold, whether with the Sheds or down at the maze, Charles Hutchinson heads outdoors but is drawn back indoors too.
Outdoor gig of the weekend: Shed Seven, Sounds In The City 2023, Millennium Square, Leeds, today, from 6pm
FRESH from announcing next January’s release of their sixth studio album, A Matter Of Time, York’s Shed Seven head to Leeds city centre for a sold-out, 6,00-capacity Millennium Square show.
Performing alongside regular vocalist Rick Witter, guitarist Paul Banks and bassist Tom Gladwin will be Tim Willis on keyboards and Rob ‘Maxi’ Maxfield on drums. Support slots go to fellow Britpop veterans Cast and rising York band Skylights.
Be amazed: York Maze reopens for a new season today
Opening of the weekend: York Maze, Elvington Lane, Elvington, near York, today until September 4
THE Cobsleigh Run race and Crowmania ride are among the new attractions when York Maze opens for its 21st season today with a new show marquee too – and the giant image of Tutankhamun cut by farmer Tom Pearcy into a 15-acre field of maize.
Created from one million living, growing maize plants, Britain’s largest maze has more than 20 rides, attractions and shows for a fun-filled family day out. Where else would you find a Corntroller of Entertainment, corny pun intended? Step forward Josh Benson, York magician, pantomime star and, yes, corntroller. Tickets: 01904 608000 or yorkmaze.com.
Gary Stewart: Celebrating the songs of Paul Simon at Helmsley Arts Centre
Show title of the week: Gary Stewart, The Only Living Boy In (New) York – An Evening of Paul Simon Songs, Helmsley Arts Centre, tonight, 7.30pm
GARY Stewart, singer, songwriter, guitarist, Hope & Social drummer and programmer for At The Mill’s folk bills, turns the spotlight on the songs of New Yorker Paul Simon, his chief folk/pop influence.
Born in Perthshire, Stewart cut his Yorkshire teeth on the Leeds music scene for 15 years before moving to York (and now Easingwold, to be precise). He is sometimes to be found fronting his Graceland show, another vessel for Paul Simon songs. Tonight, his focus is on The Boxer, Mrs Robinson, Me & Julio Down By The Schoolyard, Kodachrome et al. Box office: 01439 771700 or helmsleyarts.co.uk.
The Young’uns: Playing Ryedale Festival on July 20 at 7pm at the Milton Rooms, Malton. Picture: Pamela Raith
Festival of the week outside York: Ryedale Festival, running until July 30
DIRECTED once more by Christopher Glynn, Ryedale Festival returns with 55 concerts, celebrating everything from Tchaikovsky to troubadours in beautiful North Yorkshire locations. Artists in residence include Anna Lapwood, Nicky Spence, Korean violinist Bomsori Kim and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen.
Taking part too will be Boris Giltburg, the Dudok Quartet, Jess Gillam, Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, guitarist Plínio Fernandes,trumpeter Aaron Akugbo, pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu, the National Youth Choir of Scotland, jazz singer Clare Teal and north eastern folk musicians The Young’uns, among others. For the full programme and tickets, go to: reydalefestival.com.
Mark Thomas: Performing one-man play England And Son at Selby Town Hall on Sunday. Picture: Tony Pletts
Work in Progress of the week: Mark Thomas in England And Son, Selby Town Hall, Sunday, 7.30pm
POLITICAL comedian Mark Thomas stars in this one-man play, set when The Great Devouring comes home: the first he has performed not written by the polemicist himself but by award-winning playwright Ed Edwards.
Directed by Cressida Brown, England And Son has emerged from characters Thomas knew in his childhood and from Edwards’s lived experience in jail. Promising deep, dark laughs and deep, dark love, Thomas undertakes a kaleidoscopic odyssey where disaster capitalism, Thatcherite politics and stolen wealth merge into the simple tale of a working-class boy who just wants his dad to smile at him. Box office: 01757 708449 or selbytownhall.co.uk.
Bee Scott: Presenting her queer sci-fi interactive travelogue If You Find This at Connect Festival on Thursday
Festival of the week in York: Four Wheel Drive presents Connect Festival, Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, Wednesday to Sunday
FOUR Wheel Drive’s Connect Festival opens with Women’s Voices on Wednesday, staging two new shows, Giorgia Test’s Behind My Scars and Rhia Burston’s Woebegone. Thursday’s Non-Linear Narratives features Bee Scott’s queer sci-fi interactive travelogue If You Find This and Natasha Stanic Mann’s immersive insight into hidden consequences of war, The Return.
Friday’s Comedy and Burlesque bill presents Joe Maddalena in Gianluca Scatto and Maddalena’s dark comedy about male mental health, Self Help, Aidan Loft’s night-train drama On The Rail and A Night With York’s Stars burlesque show, fronted by Freida Nipples. More details next weekend. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Four Forty Theatre’s cast for the Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet comedy doube bill: Amy Roberts, Luke Thornton, Dom Gee-Burch and Amy Merivale
Unhinged comedy of the week: Four Forty Theatre in Macbeth and Romeo & Juliet, Joseph Rowntree Theatre, York, Thursday, 7.30pm
MACBETH in 40 minutes? Romeo & Juliet in 40 minutes? Both shows performed by only four actors on one raucous night? Yes, welcome back Four Forty Theatre, returning to the JoRo with a brace of Shakespeare’s tragedies transformed into an outrageous, flat-out comedy double bill.
In the line-up will be actress and primary school teacher Alice Merivale; Liverpool actress, musician, director, vocal coach and piano teacher Amy Roberts; company debutant actor-musician Luke Thornton and company director and pantomime dame Dom Gee-Burch. Box office: 01904 501935 or josephrowntreetheatre.co.uk.
The poster for Legend – The Music Of Bob Marley
Tribute show of the week: Legend – The Music of Bob Marley, York Barbican, Thursday, 7.30pm
LEGEND celebrates the reggae music of Jamaican icon Bob Marley in a two-hour Rasta spectacular. “Don’t worry about a thing, ’cause every little thing is gonna be alright” when the cast re-creates No Woman No Cry, Could You Be Loved, Is This Love, One Love, Three Little Birds, Jammin’, Buffalo Soldier, Get Up Stand Up and I Shot The Sheriff. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Jorgie Willingham’s Referee and Jim Carnall’s boxer Paul Stokes in rehearsal for The Sweet Science Of Bruising at York Theatre Royal. Picture: James Harvey
Knock-out show of the week: York College BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen Graduating Students in The Sweet Science Of Bruising, York Theatre Royal, Thursday and Friday, 7.30pm
JOY Wilkinson’s The Sweet Science Of Bruisingis an epic tale of passion, politics and pugilism in the world of 19th-century women’s boxing, staged by York College students.
In London, 1869, four very different Victorian women are drawn into the dark underground of female boxing by the eccentric Professor Sharp. Controlled by men and constrained by corsets, each finds an unexpected freedom in the boxing ring as they fight inequality as well as each other. Box office: 01904 623568 or yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Getting mighty crowded: Rob Auton’s artwork for The Crowd Show
CHARMINGLY offbeat, inspiring, poetic writer, comedian, actor and podcaster Rob Auton returns home to York on February 24 on the 2023 leg of The Crowd Show tour.
After his philosophical observations in abstractly themed shows on the colour yellow, the sky, faces, water, sleep, hair, talking and time, now he discusses crowds, people and connection in a night of comedy and theatre “suitable for anyone who wants to be in the crowd for this show”, structured around internet instructions on how to give a speech.
Ironically, he had started writing material for a show about crowds only a few weeks before the Covid lockdowns silenced them.
His 8pm homecoming has sold out already – York’s in-crowd for that night – but further Yorkshire gigs follow at Hebden Bridge Trades Club, April 16 (01422 845265 or thetradesclub.com); Sheffield Leadmill, April 30, 7.30pm (leadmill.co.uk); Pocklington Arts Centre, May 27, 8pm (01759 301547 or pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk) and Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, June 5, 7.30pm (hydeparkbookclub.co.uk).
Tunnel vision: Rob Auton deep in thought at the Innocent Railway during the Edinburgh Fringe
In a crowded calendar, Rob Auton finds time to talk about The Crowd Show with CharlesHutchPress
How do you interpret the proverb “If two’s company, three’s a crowd”?
“I guess it’s different if you’re doing a show and there’s two people watching, I’m there too, so there’s three of us in the room but only two in the crowd and two isn’t a crowd. Maybe I’d sit down with them so there’s definitely a crowd.”
What’s the difference between an audience and a crowd?
“An audience all face in the same direction.”
Do you ever go crowd surfing, James’s Tim Booth or Peter Gabriel style?
“I went crowd surfing once when I was at a festival but that was only because it was the quickest way to get out of the hell that was that moshpit. I’ve never done it in one of my own gigs; I don’t think it works at comedy/spoken word shows.
“People are sitting down so it would put a lot of stress on their arms. I think if I went up to the front row and said ‘I’m going to Crowd surf now’, they would just look at me and remain seated.”
Can being with a crowd (of strangers) ever feel lonely when you are performing?
“I guess it’s a clear illustration of feeling like you don’t really fit in, everybody facing one way and you’re facing the other way. Sometimes I’m on stage and wish I was there in the crowd with my mates watching.
“One of the main objectives for me is making everyone in the room feel like we are all part of something together. I don’t feel lonely when I feel a connection with the crowd, so I really focus on that connection.”
Can being in a crowd ever feel lonely?
“In 2014 I was lucky enough to get the gig as the Glastonbury Festival Poet in Residence. I didn’t get a plus one and none of my mates were going that year so I was there on my own. Being around all those people having the time of their lives with their mates made me feel really lonely. I was pleased for them but also I felt cut off from the human side of the festival somehow.”
Do you prefer being in a football crowd or a concert crowd?
“I’ve had good times at both but I’ve had better times in music crowds.”
What is the smallest ever crowd you have played to?
“It depends on the room. If you have five people in a small room, it can feel like a decent crowd but the crowd that felt smallest was probably when I was on tour in 2015 doing my show about water. I’d been put in a 300-seater room and I think seven people were there, sitting quite far apart from each other. All character building, I guess.”
Owls of laughter: Rob Auton being an absolute hoot in his avian T-shirt
What is the largest ever crowd you have played to?
“The one with the most people in it? Some of the gigs at festivals I have done have had some biggish crowds. I did one at Bestival where people had climbed up trees to watch my set. That was surreal; I think it was because the person on after me was an influencer who was doing a talk on tree climbing. I love it when there’s a big crowd and the laughter kind of crowd surfs around.”
As essentially social creatures, crowd experiences are important to us. Discuss…
“Yes certainly, I think, especially after the last few years we’ve had. Isolation brought the importance of other people into focus for sure. That’s not really me discussing it is it? I certainly feel better when I’ve been around people. Touring can be quite isolating so I have to really make the most of being around people in the show.”
Do you like to stand out in a crowd?
“Absolutely not. I think that’s why I’ve put myself on stage, out of the crowd. When I’m in a crowd, I’m constantly afraid that I’m in people’s way because I’m quite tall [Rob is 6ft 2].
What do you enjoy most about performing to a crowd?
The fact that the energy is different every night. The crowd really keeps me on my toes; I can never get complacent or think ‘oh this will work’. The act of just trying to be honest instead of trying to be clever, the crowd don’t want to see someone show off really, so walking that tightrope is what I love. The unpredictability of it.”
What do you enjoy least about performing to a crowd?
“I wish it could be just slightly more predictable.”
How do you control a crowd when performing? Indeed, do you need to control a crowd?
“There’s certain tools you can develop, eye contact, level and tone of voice, speed at which you talk, etc. It’s spinning plates really, trying to keep everyone engaged, but I often remind myself that the people who have come to see me have got a lot going on in their lives and might drift off and think about something more important for a bit.
“Trying to take control of one person’s brain for an hour is difficult, never mind a crowd of people. There needs to be a certain amount of playful authority or it can descend into chaos.”
When it comes to events, from gigs to football matches, rallies to festivals, most of us only ever experience the feeling of being in the crowd. What does it feel like being the performer playing to that crowd?
“I think ‘playing’ is the right word. It feels like I’ve given myself an opportunity to be in front of people by working hard, so I just have to share what I’ve made and trust my process and work. It feels like, ‘right, let’s give this to these people, they’ve paid me to give them the best side of me, so let’s give it everything I can while I’ve still got the chance.”
The tour poster for Rob Auton’s The Crowd Show
When do you feel you are going against the tide of a crowd?
“Mainly on weekends when I’m going to do shows and other people are making plans to be with their mates. I feel like I’m swimming away from the party a bit then, but I’m very thankful that I get to do what I do so I’m not complaining one bit.”
How do you use the crowd in The Crowd Show?
“I use them by attempting to get them to surrender to the moment and give themselves fully to the space we’re sharing. I might not do that directly in the show but that’s my goal.”
Did the enforced absence of crowds in the pandemic make both you and audiences appreciate the importance of crowds in our lives even more?
“Definitely, that period made me realise how important people are in my life and my work. Without people we are absolutely done.”
What do you prefer: noise/crowds or silence/solitude?
“Both are important, but they can be quite jarring when put right next to each other. When I’m on tour and doing my show about crowds and connection and there’s lots of noise and fun and then I go back to the dressing room and it’s just me, back to the Travelodge and it’s just me, it’s quite a lot for the brain and body to take on.”
E M Forster could not have put it better than in his epigraph for Howards End: “Only connect”. Agree?
“Oh yeah, it’s all about connection, isn’t it. That’s all we have really, connecting with the moment and what’s in it. If I connect with the moment and there’s people in the moment as well and we conjure up a connection, then that’s it.”
So, why is disconnection – and division – on the increase?
“I’m not qualified to answer that.”
After talk, time and now crowds, what will you be looking at in your next show, opening at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe this summer?
“I’m doing a show about me called The Rob Auton Show. A show about me. It will be my tenth show on a specific theme, so I thought I should mark it with a theme I haven’t really explored very much.”
Rob Auton in The Hair Show: He grew his hair from September 2016 to the tour’s closing night in May 2018
Crowd pleaser: Rob Auton Fact File
Born: Fulford Hospital, York; son of a plumber.
Raised: Barmby Moor.
Lives: London.
Education: Woldgate School, Pocklington; York College, art foundation course; Newcastle University, graphic design.“Each term I had to stand in front of the class and give a presentation and I’d try to make mine funny,” he says.
Occupation: Stand-up comedian, writer, poet, illustrator, artist, actor and podcaster. Named the “Brian Cox of comedy” by the Guardian.
First job: In London, writing adverts for the House of Fraser. “But I got really frustrated because I just wanted to make things entertaining and started filling notebooks with ideas I had.”
Bright idea: Rob Auton in his Fringe debut, The Yellow Show
What happened next? “The creative director said he was holding a firework night with poetry, and that’s when I read my poems for the first time.”
And then? Began performing with Bang Said The Gun, stand-up poetry collective founded by Dan Cockrill and Martin Galton, in London in 2007.
First solo comedy performance: 2008. “I started saying things aloud to groups of people without wanting them to respond verbally. Some call this ‘stand-up comedy’, some call it ‘stand-up poetry’,” he says.
Edinburgh Fringe debut: The Yellow Show, 2012.
Subsequent Edinburgh shows: All on specific themes, The Sky Show, 2013; The Face Show, 2014; The Water Show, 2015; The Sleep Show, 2016; The Hair Show, 2017; The Talk Show, 2018; The Time Show, 2019; The Crowd Show, 2022. Subsequently toured shows nationwide.
Award: Won the Dave Funniest Joke of the Edinburgh Fring’ award in 2013 for “I heard a rumour that Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa”.
Post: Poet-in-residence at 2014 Glastonbury Festival.
The cover for Rob Auton’s 2021 book, I Strongly Believe In Incredible Things
Books: Poet and illustrator for Bang Said The Gun’s Mud Wrestling With Words (2013) and solo works In Heaven The Onions Make You Laugh (2013), Petrol Honey (2014) and Take Hair (2017), all published by Burning Eye Books, and I Strongly Believe In Incredible Things: A Creative Journey Through The Everyday Wonders Of Our World (2021), featuring poetic prose, short stories and biro drawings, published by Mudlark/Harper Collins.
Television appearances: BBC1, BBC 2, Channel 4 and Netflix; The Russell Howard Hour and Stand Up Central.
Radio: His work has been played on Jarvis Cocker, Cerys Matthews and Scroobius Pip’s shows.
TV acting roles: Cold Feet, 2018, playing a bad spoken-word poet at a music festival; The End Of The F***ing World, 2019, as chef Tommy; Miracle Workers, 2019, as Hank.
Podcast: In 2020, he started The Rob Auton Daily Podcast, posting a new episode every day, as it says on the tin. Amassed two million listens and won gold award for Best Daily Podcast at the 2020 British Podcast Awards.
Likes: Musician Joe Strummer; artist Francis Bacon; author Richard Brautigan.
Auton on Auton: “I am a man who likes the sky and the ground in equal measures. Sometimes I like the sky more than the ground.”
Performing philosophy: “You have to throw it to the wind, that’s when a show starts to really cook and the audience goes with it. It’s trial and error; that’s what all my shows have been.”
The Russian is Homecoming: Comedy turn Olga Koch tries to figure out “who the heck she is” at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York, tomorrow
GODBER’S comedy, protest art, Russian and American comedy, an adventurous Scott, a DH Lawrence spoof, one of the Wainwrights, operatic Handel, Turkish songs, mountainous films and Velma’s witches find Charles Hutchinson spoilt for choice.
Yorkshire play of the week: John Godber Company in John Godber’s Sunny Side Up!, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough, 1.30pm, 7.30pm today; 7.30pm, tomorrow; 2.30pm, 7.30pm Saturday
Coastal comedy: John Godber and Jane Thornton in Sunny Side Up! at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough. Picture: Martha Godber
THE John Godber Company returns to the SJT with Sunny Side Up!, the coastal comedy premiered by the Godbers in a family bubble in the Round last autumn.
In Godber’s moving account of a struggling Yorkshire coast B&B and the people who run it, down-to-earth proprietors Barney, Cath and Tina share stories of awkward clients, snooty relatives and eggs over easy.
Writer-director Godber plays Barney and Graham alongside his wife, fellow writer Jane Thornton, and daughter, Martha Godber. Box office: 01723 370541 or at sjt.uk.com.
Activist-artist Richard Lees’ campaigning prints are on show at York College
Exhibition of the week: Richard Lees, Justice, York College gallery, until October 21, open 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday
A STALWART activist Hull artist once at the heart of the Rock Against Racism movement is exhibiting four decades of prints in his first York show, with his latest justice campaign project to the fore.
The exhibition title, Justice, is derived from printmaker Richard Lees’s linocuts inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.
“I feel that all art has some element of politics in it, even if it’s to distract you,” he says. Entry is free but booking is essential via yorkcollege.ac.uk.
Barron’s night: Sara Barron will keep her Enemies Closer in York on Saturday
Comedy at the double at Theatre@41, Monkgate, York: Olga Koch, Homecoming, tomorrow (8/10/2021); Sara Barron, Enemies Closer, Saturday, both 8pm
BORN in Russia, educated at an American school in Staines, and now starring over here on Mock The Week and in her own BBC Radio 4 show, Olga Koch is touring her third show.
New passport in hand, tomorrow Olga will try to figure out who the heck she is as an immigrant and certified teen drama queen.
Saturday’s headline act, no-holds-barred Sara Barron, from Chicago, Illinois, is on her first British tour, examining kindness, meanness, ex-boyfriends, current husbands, all four of her remaining friends and two of her 12 enemies in Enemies Closer. Box office: tickets.41monkgate.co.uk.
Mike Scott: Back at York Barbican with Memphis keyboard player Brother” Paul Brown, Irish electric fiddler Steve Wickham, drummer Ralph Salmins and bassist Aongus Ralston on Saturday
Return of the week: An Evening With The Waterboys, York Barbican, Saturday, 8pm
FROM the “Big Music” of the mid-1980s, to the Celtic swell of Fisherman’s Blues, to all manner of soul, rock, blues and folk since then, Mike Scott has been ever the adventurer with The Waterboys.
Last year came their 14th studio album, August 2020’s Good Luck, Seeker, and seekers of those songs in a live format should venture to the band’s regular York haunt this weekend. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Turning Lady Chatterley’s Lover upside down: Subversive writer-actor Lawrence Russell in a shocking moment for Lord Chatterley in Happy Idiot’s Not: Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Send-up show of the week: Happy Idiot in Not: Lady Chatterley’s Lover, Helmsley Arts Centre, Saturday, 7.30pm
HAPPY Idiot team up with Worthing Theatres to rip through Lawrence Russell’s subversive, witty and, yes, rude parody of D H Lawrence’s once-banned bodice-ripper.
Russell’s Lord Chatterley will be joined in Ben Simpson’s cast by Christina Baston’s Lady Chatterley, Wesley Griffith’s Mellors and Rebecca McClay’s Mrs Bolton, with Chris Jamieson as the narrator and a score by Savage & Spies, for an evening of high drama, high comedy and highly raised eyebrows. Box office: 01439 772112 or at helmsleyarts.co.uk
Turkish delight in song: Olcay Bahir in her National Centre for Early Music debut on Sunday
World music concert of the week: Olcay Bayir, Dream For Anatolia, National Centre for Early Music, York, Sunday, 6.30pm
TURKISH singer Olcay Bayour makes her NCEM debut with her four-piece band, performing songs from her albums Neva and Rüya (Dream).
Born in the historical city of Gaziantep, she moved to Britain as a teenager and trained in opera. Now she showcases ancient poems and original songs in Turkish, Kurdish, and Armenian, reflecting her Anatolian heritage, wrapped in music of deep roots yet applied with contemporary, sophisticated arrangements, suffused with irresistible rhythms. Box office: 01904 658338 or at ncem.co.uk.
On fire: English Touring Opera in Handel’s Amadigi at York Theatre Royal
Two nights at the opera: English Touring Opera in Handel’s Amadigi, York Theatre Royal, Monday and Tuesday, 7.30pm
ENGLISH Touring Opera returns with James Conway’s new production of Handel’s “magic opera” Amadigi on a tour where William Towers and Tim Morgan share the title role.
Francesca Chiejina and Jenny Stafford play sorceress Melissa, whose infatuation with Amadigi drives her to imprison his love Oriana (Harriet Eyley) and torment him and his companion turned rival, Dardano (Rebecca Afonwy-Jones), with shape-shifting spells and devilish devices. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
Taking to the mountains: Spectacle galore at Tuesday’s BANFF Mountain Film Festival night at York Barbican
Film scenery of the week: BANFF Mountain Film Festival World Tour, York Barbican, Tuesday, 7.30pm
THE BANFF Mountain Film Festival joins the world’s best adventure filmmakers and explorers as they push themselves to the limits in the most remote, breath-taking corners of the globe.
Witness epic human-powered feats, life-affirming challenges and mind-blowing cinematography on the big screen in a new collection of short films. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Rufus Wainwright: Follow him to York Barbican on Wednesday to discover how to Unfollow The Rules
Rule-breaker of the week ahead: Rufus Wainwright: Unfollow The Rules Tour, York Barbican, Wednesday, doors 7pm
CANADIAN singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright will be accompanied by a new band, under guitarist Brian Green’s musical direction, for his set of arch classics and new cuts from his latest album.
“I consider Unfollow the Rules my first fully mature album; it is like a bookend to the beginning of my career,” he says. Box office: yorkbarbican.co.uk.
Under discussion: David Suchet’s Poirot years and much more besides from a 52-year career on stage and screen
Chat show of the week ahead: David Suchet, Poirot And More, A Retrospective, York Theatre Royal, Wednesday, 3pm and 8pm
DAVID Suchet is retracing his steps as a young actor on a tour of 20 theatres in conversation with Geoffrey Wansell, journalist, broadcaster, biographer and co-author of Poirot And Me.
Suchet, 75, will be looking back fondly on his illustrious five-decade career, shedding new, intimate light on his most beloved performances as they discuss the actor behind the Belgian detective and the many characters he has portrayed on stage and screen. Box office: 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.
“Out come the witches, creeps and freaks,” promises York vocal drag queen Velma Celli for a Halloweenish Equinox show at Impossible York
The glam night with the Halloweenish swish: The Velma Celli Show: Equinox, Impossible York Wonderbar, York, October 15, 7.30pm
YORK drag diva deluxe Velma Celli’s October residency night at Impossible York will be a Halloweenish twist on Velma’s Equinox show, the one with “witches, creeps and freaks”.
“I’ll be doing Hocus Pocus, I Put A Spell On You, Radiohead’s Creep, A Thousand Years from Twilight and much more gorgeous musical gore besides,” says Velma, the spectacular creation of musical theatre actor, cruise-ship headline act and Nola jazz singer Ian Stroughair. Box office: impossibleyork.com/wonderbar.
Hull artist and activist Richard Lees at the launch of his Justice exhibition of past and present protest prints
A CAMPAIGNING Hull artist at the heart of the Rock Against Racism movement is exhibiting at York College until October 21.
The Justice show spans four decades of prints by Richard Lees in surprisingly his first show in York, with his latest campaign project to the fore.
“The exhibition is called Justice because my most recent linocut work has been inspired by – and is in solidarity with – the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and other justice campaigns,” said the East Yorkshire printmaker and stalwart activist at the launch.
A spread of Richard Lees’ prints at his Justice exhibition
“The show covers what’s happening now but also goes right back to the 1970s when I was a student in Hull producing prints for Rock Against Racism.”
Founded in 1976, the protest movement hosted several large-scale tours, concerts and smaller club events with big-name artists from diverse musical genres.
“I feel that all art has some element of politics in it, even if it’s to distract you,” said Richard, whose exhibition takes in his past print work – both silk screen and lino – created in response to equality, environmental and human rights issues in Great Britain and internationally.
Activist Richard Lees’ prints, “created in response to equality, environmental and human rights issues in Great Britain and internationally”
“I just want to show young people what can be achieved by being part of a movement for equality. I’m absolutely thrilled to have been invited to exhibit at York College and I’m looking forward to speaking to the students.
“This is the first time my work’s been to York but it’s previously been on display in London at Warner Bros Records, in Manchester, Edinburgh and Hull.”
Hull Rock Against Racism: Look at those 1970s’ prices for The Undesirable Aliens and The Abstracts’ gig
Richard, a former English teacher, was invited to bring his work to York College by art & design tutor Danielle Stubbs, who said: “It’s a pleasure to have the work by Richard Lees on show in our gallery as the first show for this academic year.
“We believe the themes within Richard’s prints will encourage greater awareness, and the printing methods used will be an inspiration for all students within the college.”
Please note: the Justice exhibition is open to the public, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, but booking is essential, with further details at yorkcollege.ac.uk or on 01904 770200. Admission is free.
A Richard Lees poster print for the This Is Hull Rock Against Racism UK Poster Tour 2016
Burgeoning talents: Nigar Yeva, left, Aimee Powell, Olisa Odele, Kate Donnachie and Corey Campbell in Pilot Theatre’s Crongton Knights at York Theatre Royal. Picture: Robert Day
YORK College and York Theatre Royal are teaming up to launch a fast-track course for aspiring stage and screen talents from September.
The BA (Hons) Acting for Stage and Screen degree has been created by York College, in conjunction with the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA), to offer students conservatoire-style professional acting training, plus month-long placements within the industry, including at the Theatre Royal.
Programme leader James Harvey, who developed the two-year course, bills the degree as being “different from anything offered before at York College”.
“There’s nothing like this anywhere in North Yorkshire or the North East,” he says. “It’s a collaboration with ALRA, one of the top drama schools in the country. It’s very much an industry-facing course and we want our students to work with professionals.
“That’s why we’ve worked a month-long placement into the course. For some students, this will mean valuable experience at York Theatre Royal, a hugely respected producing theatre.”
James hopes the course will attract students from a wide range of social backgrounds and believes the two-year duration presents “maximum value for money”.
Theatre Royal producer Thom Freeth says: “This new partnership is such a brilliant opportunity for York Theatre Royal to help support and shape training for people embarking on careers in the theatre industry.
“At a time when arts education is under threat and the industry is changing rapidly, it’s really important that creative organisations connect with training providers and that people can access high-quality training regionally, rather than having to move to London.
“We’re so excited to be working with York College, not least because this partnership will enable York Theatre Royal to make established strands of our work, such as youth theatre and new creative projects, more accessible to communities across the York.”
To complement York College’s in-house tutors, students will benefit from regular visits from industry professionals and ALRA staff. The course also offers specialist classes in improvisation, rehearsal and performance skills, voice, movement and professional development and will involve live performances at the Theatre Royal.
Kieran Sheehan, acting principal atALRA, says: “We’re delighted with the partnership and will use our pioneering approach to actor training and offer advice on integrating traditional and cutting-edge techniques for screen and live theatre.”
