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Off West End Theatre Award
The Off West End Theatre Awards, nicknamed The Offies, were launched in 2010 to recognise and celebrate excellence, innovation and ingenuity of independent Off West End theatres across London. Over 80 theatres participate in the awards, with more than 400 productions being considered annually by a team of 40 assessors, with the winners chosen by a select panel of critics. History The Off West End Theatre Awards were launched in 2010 to commemorate and recognise on and off-stage talent within the theatre industry of around 80 of London's independent Off West End theatres. The first-ever award ceremony for The Offies was held on 27 February 2011 with Simon Callow hosting the event. The aim of the awards is to help raise the profile and status of independent theatres in London by rewarding productions not eligible for the Society of London Theatre-Laurence Olivier Awards. The winners are selected by a panel of theatre critics. In 2014, Phoebe Waller-Bridge won two Off West End ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Off West End
Off West End refers to theatres in London which are not included as West End theatres. The term is a relatively recent one, coined after the similar American term "off-Broadway" (though without the same strict definition). It is usually used synonymously with the more widespread term ''Fringe'' (or, specifically, "the London Fringe"), but sometimes is also used to refer to more mainstream or commercial theatre which is located within London but outside the centre, or to especially small and non-commercial theatres located within the centre. According to London Theatre, "Smaller theatres, including many pub theatres, are called Fringe, although some of these small theatres are also called Off West End, particularly those located in the West End of London, where most of the big commercial theatres are. These small theatres can vary in size, with seating capacities of around 40 to 400." While West End Theatres must register with the Society of London Theatre, SOLT membership for the O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mayfair
Mayfair is an affluent area in the West End of London towards the eastern edge of Hyde Park, in the City of Westminster, between Oxford Street, Regent Street, Piccadilly and Park Lane. It is one of the most expensive districts in the world. The area was originally part of the manor of Eia and remained largely rural until the early 18th century. It became well known for the annual "May Fair" that took place from 1686 to 1764 in what is now Shepherd Market. Over the years, the fair grew increasingly downmarket and unpleasant, and it became a public nuisance. The Grosvenor family (who became Dukes of Westminster) acquired the land through marriage and began to develop it under the direction of Thomas Barlow. The work included Hanover Square, Berkeley Square and Grosvenor Square, which were surrounded by high-quality houses, and St George's Hanover Square Church. By the end of the 18th century, most of Mayfair was built on with upper-class housing; unlike some nearby areas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Visitors (play)
''Visitors'' is a play by the English playwright Barney Norris. The play premiered at the Arcola Theatre in London in March 2014, in a production directed by Alice Hamilton. It was produced by Norris and Hamilton's company Up In Arms. The cast included Linda Bassett, Robin Soans, Eleanor Wyld and Simon Muller. The play revolves around an elderly couple who live on a farm on Salisbury Plain, and explores their relationships with each other, their son, and a young carer. The play received widespread acclaim from theatre critics at the Arcola, on a national tour and following its transfer to the Bush Theatre in winter 2014, and was selected by Henry Hitchings for the ''Evening Standard'' and Mark Lawson for the ''Guardian'' as one of the best productions of 2014. The play won the Critics' Circle Award and the OffWestEnd Award for Most Promising Playwright for Norris, and the OffWestEnd Award and BritishTheatre.com Award for Best Actress for Linda Bassett. Norris was also nominated f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linda Bassett
Linda Bassett (born 4 February 1950) is an English actress. Her television credits include Victoria Wood's ''Dinnerladies (TV series), dinnerladies'' (1999), ''Lark Rise to Candleford (TV series), Lark Rise to Candleford'' (2008–11), ''Grandma's House'' (2010–12) and ''Call the Midwife'' (2015–present). She was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for the 1999 film ''East Is East (1999 film), East Is East'' and for the Evening Standard Theatre Award, Evening Standard Award for Best Actress for the 2013 revival of the play ''Roots (play), Roots'' at the Donmar Warehouse. Biography Bassett was born in Pluckley, Kent, England, to a typist mother and a police officer father. Her roles include the award-winning part of Ella Khan in the 1999 British comedy film ''East Is East (1999 film), East is East''. Other roles include Mrs. Jennings in the three-part BBC adaptation ''Sense and Sensibility (2008 TV series), Sense and Sensibility'', Queenie Turrill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bryony Kimmings
Bryony Kimmings (born 30 March 1981) is a British live artist based in London and Cambridgeshire. She is an associate artist of the Soho Theatre, and, in 2016, was commissioned to write ''The Pacifist's Guide to the War on Cancer'' for Complicite Associates. She creates multi-platform art works to provoke change. Her work centres mostly around "social experiments", which in the past have included the artist retracing an STI to its source, spending seven days in a controlled environment in a constant state of intoxication and becoming a pop star invented by a nine-year-old. She has performed at the Soho Theatre, London, Kimmings' work has toured across the world including: The Southbank Centre, London, BAC Grandhall, Antifest (Finland), Culturgest (Portugal), Fusebox Festival (Texas), Melbourne International Comedy Festival (Australia), and Lisinski Operahouse (Croatia). Early career Kimmings graduated with a degree in Modern Drama from Brunel University in 2003. In a 2011 inte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bush Theatre
The Bush Theatre is located in the Passmore Edwards Public Library, Shepherd's Bush, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. It was established in 1972 as a showcase for the work of new writers. The Bush Theatre strives to create a space which nurtures and develops new artists and their work. A seedbed for the best new playwrights, many of whom have gone on to become established names in the industry, the Bush Theatre has produced hundreds of premieres, many of them Bush Theatre commissions, and hosted guest productions by theatre companies and artists from across the world. Artistic Directors * Jenny Topper (1977–88), jointly with Nicky Pallot (1979–90) * Dominic Dromgoole (1990–96) * Mike Bradwell (1996–2007) * Josie Rourke (2007–12) * Madani Younis (2011–2018) * Lynette Linton (2019–present) History On Thursday 6 April 1972, the Bush Theatre was established above The Bush public house on the corner of Goldhawk Road and Shepherd's Bush Green, in what ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arinzé Kene
Arinzé Mokwe Kene () is a Nigerian-born British actor and playwright. Early life In 1987, Kene was born in Lagos, Nigeria and moved to London when he was four. Kene's father was a taxi driver. Kene was bullied growing up and was encouraged to take kickboxing lessons. When he turned 16, he started his amateur kickboxing career and went on to win two national championships. He quit kickboxing at 21 years old and went on to pursue an acting career. Career Kene has appeared in stage productions such as playing Simba in ''The Lion King'', '' Daddy Cool'', and in June 2009 played strutting lothario ''Raymond LeGrendre'' in the musical '' Been So Long'', based on Ché Walker's 1998 play, which opened at the Young Vic. Kene also plays the lead in 2010 UK Film Council feature ''Freestyle''. In 2010, he joined the cast of the BBC's ''EastEnders'' as Connor Stanley, for which he was nominated for Best Newcomer at the 2011 All About Soap Bubble Awards. His play ''Suffocation'' opened ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battersea Arts Centre
The Battersea Arts Centre ("BAC") is a performance space specialising in theatre productions. Located near Clapham Junction railway station in Battersea, in the London Borough of Wandsworth, it was formerly Battersea Town Hall. It is a Grade II* listed building. In March 2015, while a major programme of renovation works were underway, the Grand Hall was severely damaged by fire. Approximately 70% of the theatre, including the 200-capacity Council Chamber, the Scratch Bar and the Members Library, was saved from the fire and remains open. History The building, designed in 1891 by E. W. Mountford, opened in 1893 as Battersea Town Hall, the administrative headquarters of the Borough of Battersea, shortly after the borough was transferred from the county of Surrey to the newly formed County of London. It is built from Suffolk red brick and Bath stone, on the site of Jane Seniors ''Elm House'', a villa with a small wooded estate. Bertrand Russell's essay ''Why I Am Not a Chr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lynette Linton
Lynette Linton (born 1990) is a British playwright and the artistic director at The Bush Theatre. She directed the award-winning Donmar Warehouse production of ''Sweat''. In 2019 she was named as one of ''Marie Claire''s "Future Shapers". Early life and education Linton is of British Caribbean heritage and grew up in Leytonstone, East London. Her father is from Guyana and her mother is from Northern Ireland. Linton became interested in theatre and writing as a child. She has said that she wanted to be Malorie Blackman. At the age of eight she moved to Ballymena, where she and her brothers experienced racism. She studied English at the University of Sussex and soon after joined the National Youth Theatre. Here she met Rikki Beadle-Blair, who encouraged her to write a play. The play she wrote – Step – was about a young man working out his sexuality, inspired by James Baldwin. It was programmed at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Her writing explores who she is and where her f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winsome Pinnock
Winsome Pinnock FRSL (born 1961) is a British playwright of Jamaican heritage, who is "probably Britain's most well known black female playwright". She was described in ''The Guardian'' as "the godmother of black British playwrights". Life Winsome Pinnock was born in Islington, North London, to parents who were both migrants from Smithville, Jamaica. Her mother was a cleaner, and her father a checker at Smithfield Meat Market. Pinnock attended Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Comprehensive Girls' School (formerly Starcross School) in Islington, and graduated from Goldsmiths' College, University of London (1979–82) with a BA (Joint Honours) degree in English and Drama, and in 1983 from Birkbeck College, University of London, with an MA degree in Modern Literature in English.Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julie Ward (politician)
Julie Carolyn Ward (born 7 March 1957) is a British politician who served as a Member of the European Parliament for the North West England region for the Labour Party from 2014 to 2020. Career Ward has a master's degree in Education and International Development from Newcastle University, graduating from an adult learning course in 2012. Before being elected as an MEP, she was part of an international delegation to Belfast to discuss the role of the arts in peace processes and also ran a social enterprise. In 2016 she wrote that Turkey was "becoming a fascist state". Ward organises events for One Billion Rising, campaigns against violence against women, and is an opponent of Brexit. In 2018 she joined in launching a campaign group, "Left against Brexit", seeking to change the Labour Party's position to supporting membership of the EU. Julie is currently a member of Open Labour’s National Committee. European Parliament Ward was third on the Labour Party list for the Eu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyn Gardner
Lyn Gardner is a British theatre critic, children's writer and journalist who contributes reviews and articles to ''The Stage,'' '' Stagedoor'' and has written for ''The Guardian''. Theatre critic and educator A graduate in drama and English from the University of Kent, Gardner was a founding member of the ''City Limits'' magazine, a cooperative for which she edited the theatre section. Later, she was a contributor to ''The Independent''. Gardner joined ''The Guardian'' as theatre critic in 1995, and remained on the paper for twenty-three years, taking a particular interest in fringe and more alternative theatre, while Michael Billington covered the most mainstream productions. Latterly she was writing 130 reviews and 28,000 words of features annually, as well as 150 posts a year for an online blog for the paper, begun in 2008. The paper discontinued her blog in 2017 citing cost pressures, and the following year let her go. Since June 2017 Gardner had been an Associate Editor o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
