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Phoenix Theatre, Leicester
Sue Townsend Theatre (formerly the Phoenix Theatre, Phoenix Arts Centre and the Upper Brown Street Theatre) is a theatre in the city of Leicester, England. The centre hosts live shows and films of the arthouse and world cinema genres. Julian Wright is credited for his work to preserve the theatre from demolition in the 1980s and in the 2000s. In 2010, after a new Phoenix Square opened on the other side of the city centre, the space became the Upper Brown Street Theatre, a music training and performance venue. It has since been renamed the Sue Townsend Theatre, to honour the late Leicester author and playwright, Sue Townsend. History In 1963, Leicester City Council (LCC), identifying a gap in cultural provision for live performances, built a 262-seat theatre in Leicester, The Phoenix Theatre, intended as a temporary solution until a more permanent theatre could be built. The theatre's roster of directors includes Clive Perry, Michael Bogdanov, Chris Martin, Ian Giles, Sue ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoenix Theatre Front
Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a Trojan War hero in Greek mythology * Phoenix (son of Agenor), a Greek mythological figure * Phoenix, a chieftain who came as Guardian of the young Hymenaeus when they joined Dionysus in his campaign against India (see Phoenix (Greek myth)) Mythical birds called phoenix * Phoenix (mythology), a mythical bird from Egyptian, Greek and Roman legends * Egyptian ''Bennu'' * Hindu ''Garuda'' and ''Gandabherunda'' * Firebird (Slavic folklore), in Polish ''Żar-ptak'', Russian ''Zharptitsa'', Serbian ''Žar ptica'', and Slovak ''Vták Ohnivák'' * ''Tűzmadár'', in Hungarian mythology * Persian ''Simurgh'', in Arabian ''Anka'', Turkish ''Zümrüdü Anka'', and Georgian ''Paskunji'' * Chinese ''Fenghuang'', in Japanese ''Hō-ō'', Tibetan ''Me ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haymarket Theatre (Leicester)
The Leicester Haymarket Theatre is a theatre in Leicester, England, next to the Haymarket Shopping Centre on Belgrave Gate in Leicester City centre. History The Haymarket Theatre was opened by Sir Ralph Richardson and the opening season started with ''The Recruiting Officer'' on 17 October 1973, ''Economic Necessity'' on 24 October and ''Cabaret'' on 21 November. Leicester City Council purchased a 99-year lease of the theatre in 1974. Between 1974 and 2007 the theatre was operated by The Leicester Theatre Trust. The trust vacated the theatre in 2007 when it moved to the newly built Curve Theatre, Leicester in Leicester's Cultural Quarter. The last show held at the Haymarket by the Leicester Theatre Trust was '' Wizard of Oz'' starring Helena Blackman and Ceri Dupree in 2006. The theatre was closed in 2007 and remained so for the next 10 years. In June 2016 the management of the theatre was taken over by an organisation known as the Haymarket Consortium who undertook that it wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Bleasdale
Alan George Bleasdale (born 23 March 1946) is an English screenwriter, best known for social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people. A former teacher, he has written for radio, stage and screen, and has also written novels. Bleasdale's plays typically represented a more realistic, contemporary depiction of life in Liverpool than was usually seen in the media. Early life Born in Liverpool, Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother in a grocery shop. From 1951–57, he went to the St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Infant and Junior Schools in Huyton-with-Roby outside Liverpool. From 1957–64, he attended the Wade Deacon Grammar School in Widnes. In 1967, he obtained a teaching certificate from the Padgate College of Education in Warrington (which became Warrington Collegiate Institute, now part of the University of Chester). For four years he worked as a teacher at St Columba's Secondary Modern School in Huyton from 1967–71, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independents (Oporto artist group), a Portuguese artist group historically linked to abstract art and to Fernando Lanhas, the central figure of Portuguese abstractionism Music Groups, labels, and genres * Independent music, a number of genres associated with independent labels * Independent record label, a record label not associated with a major label * Independent Albums, American albums chart Albums * ''Independent'' (Ai album), 2012 * ''Independent'' (Faze album), 2006 * ''Independent'' (Sacred Reich album), 1993 Songs * "Independent" (song), a 2007 song by Webbie * "Independent", a 2002 song by Ayumi Hamasaki from '' H'' News and media organizations * ''The Independent'', a British online newspaper. * ''The Malta Independent'', a Mal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonia Bird
Antonia Jane Bird, FRSA (27 May 1951 – 24 October 2013Kate Hardi"Antonia Bird obituary" ''The Guardian'', 28 October 2013) was an English producer and director of television drama and feature films. Career In 1968, at the age of 17, Bird began working in theatre as an assistant stage manager at Coventry Rep. She worked her way up doing a variety of jobs, including acting, stage management, publicity, theatre administration and directing in repertory and regional theatres. She directed a season of plays at The Studio at Chester Theatre and later joined Leicester's Phoenix Theatre as a director.Simon Farquha"Obituary: Antonia Bird, Television director with a flair for gritty realism" ''The Independent'', 30 October 2013. Bird was named resident director at the Royal Court Theatre in 1978. She was appointed artistic director of the Royal Court's Theatre Upstairs, London's leading venue for new writing. Her first television production was ''Submariners'' (1983), an adaptation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Orton
John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brief period he shocked, outraged, and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies. The adjective ''Ortonesque'' refers to work characterised by a similarly dark yet farcical cynicism. Early life Orton was born on 1 January 1933 at Causeway Lane Maternity Hospital, Leicester, to William Arthur Orton and Elsie Mary Orton (née Bentley). William worked for Leicester County Borough Council as a gardener and Elsie worked in the local footwear industry until tuberculosis cost her a lung. At the time of Joe's birth William and Mary were living with William's family at 261 Avenue Road Extension in Clarendon Park, Leicester. The same year that Joe's younger brother Douglas was born, 1935, the Ortons moved to 9 Fayrhurst Road on the Saffron Lan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
What The Butler Saw (play)
''What the Butler Saw'' is a two-act farce written by the English playwright Joe Orton. He began work on the play in 1966 and completed it in July 1967, one month before his death. It opened at the Queen's Theatre in London on 5 March 1969. Orton's final play, it was the second to be performed after his death, following ''Funeral Games'' in 1968. Plot summary ; Characters * Dr Prentice * Geraldine Barclay * Mrs Prentice * Nicholas Beckett * Dr Rance * Sergeant Match The play consists of two acts - though the action is continuous - and revolves around a Dr Prentice, a psychiatrist attempting to seduce his attractive prospective secretary, Geraldine Barclay. The play opens with the doctor examining Geraldine in a job interview, during which he persuades her to undress. The situation becomes more intense when Mrs Prentice enters, causing the doctor to hide Geraldine behind a curtain. His wife, however, is also being seduced and blackmailed, by Nicholas Beckett. She therefore prom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caucasian Chalk Circle
''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' (german: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than the baby's wealthy biological parents. The play was written in 1944 while Brecht was living in the United States. It was translated into English by Brecht's friend and admirer Eric Bentley and its world premiere was a student production at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, in 1948. Its first professional production was at the Hedgerow Theatre, Philadelphia, directed by Bentley. Its German premiere by the Berliner Ensemble was on October 7, 1954, at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin. ''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' is one of Brecht's most celebrated works and one of the most regularly performed 'German' plays. It reworks Brecht's earlier short story "Der Augsburger Kreidekreis." Both derive from the 14th-centu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
''A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum'' is a musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart. Inspired by the farces of the ancient Roman playwright Plautus (254–184 BC), specifically ''Pseudolus'', ''Miles Gloriosus'', and ''Mostellaria'', the musical tells the bawdy story of a slave named Pseudolus and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master woo the girl next door. The plot displays many classic elements of farce, including puns, the slamming of doors, cases of mistaken identity (frequently involving characters disguising themselves as one another), and satirical comments on social class. The title derives from a line often used by vaudeville comedians to begin a story: "A funny thing happened on the way to the theater". The musical's original 1962 Broadway run won several Tony Awards, including Best Musical and Best Author (Musical). ''A Funny Thing'' has enjoyed several Broadway and West End ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stephen Sondheim
Stephen Joshua Sondheim (; March 22, 1930November 26, 2021) was an American composer and lyricist. One of the most important figures in twentieth-century musical theater, Sondheim is credited for having "reinvented the American musical" with shows that tackle "unexpected themes that range far beyond the enre'straditional subjects" with "music and lyrics of unprecedented complexity and sophistication." His shows address "darker, more harrowing elements of the human experience," with songs often tinged with "ambivalence" about various aspects of life. He was known for his frequent collaborations with Hal Prince and James Lapine on the Broadway stage. Sondheim's interest in musical theater began at a young age, and he was mentored by Oscar Hammerstein II. He began his career by writing the lyrics for ''West Side Story'' (1957) and ''Gypsy'' (1959). He transitioned to writing both music and lyrics for the theater, with his best-known works including '' A Funny Thing Happened on the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hairspray (musical)
''Hairspray'' is an American musical with music by Marc Shaiman and lyrics by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, with a book by Mark O'Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on John Waters's 1988 film of the same name. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and "downtown" rhythm and blues. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the production follows teenage Tracy Turnblad's dream to dance on ''The Corny Collins Show'', a local TV dance program based on the real-life '' Buddy Deane Show''. When Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight, leading to social change as Tracy campaigns for the show's integration. The musical opened in Seattle in 2002 and moved to Broadway later that year. In 2003 ''Hairspray'' won eight Tony Awards, including one for Best Musical, out of 13 nominations. It ran for 2,642 performances, and closed on January 4, 2009. ''Hairspray'' has also had national tours, a West End production, and numerous foreign productions and was adapted as a 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
