Preview: Burning Books at Newcastle Alphabetti

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Burning Books
Newcastle Alphabetti Theatre
Sunday 15^th November 2015

After viral Youtube hit and five star reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe, poet Jess Green takes her education themed music and spoken word show on national tour.

In March 2014 when Jess Green uploaded a poem from her first solo show, Burning Books to Youtube she did not expect it to become the viral hit that it did. A year on, Dear Mr Gove has attracted over 300,000 hits on Youtube and Jess is taking the show from which it originates on tour having received two five star reviews at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

“Punchy, she struck a chord” – The Guardian

Burning Books is a lyrical, powerful and humorous spoken word and live music show set in an inner city secondary. Supported by two musicians, performance poet Jess Green tells the stories of the librarian secretly taking books to the tip, the newly qualified graduate furiously supporting Movember and the tired-out sixty-something fighting for her pension on a picket line. These stories of everyday underdogs are soundtracked by a rousing musical underscore played her band, The Mischief Thieves - Dave Morris and Scott Cadenhead - which moves from slow, acoustic folk to raucous, Deep South US blues and even the occasional European waltz.

“Brilliant. Her words have certainly struck a chord with teachers” – Huffington Post

Inspired by the stories of people she’s met in schools across the country, Jess Green presents a highly topical social commentary on the state of education and the teachers and students who survive within it. This show is firmly set now; at a time when public sector budgets are stretched to breaking point and teachers feel the finger of blame firmly on their heads.

“An internet sensation” – The Independent

Burning Books was premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August 2014 as part of PBH’s Free Fringe and went back this year. It received huge amounts of positive feedback from the packed-to-capacity crowds as well as two 5* reviews from TV Bomb and Broadway Baby who said ‘“Grippingly inventive and immensely touching. Green’s voice is urgent, important and immensely enjoyable; she deserves to be heard.”

“It’s brilliant. I loved it!” – Josie Long

Jess says: ‘After the success of the Gove video and the Edinburgh premiere, I had a lot of teachers get in touch to say how much the poem and the show as a whole resonated with them. I’m really excited to now be able to take it on a national tour.’

“Amazing to watch!” – Scroobius Pip

At times incredibly sad and others comedically honest, Burnings Books won’t just appeal to those interested in education and politics but also fans of live music, theatre and of course, poetry – particularly those who didn’t think they liked it to begin with.



More information about Jess’ work can be found on her website www.jessgreenpoet.com and you can follow her on Twitter at @jessgreenpoet.

Performance Details

When:
Bar Opens 6.30pm. Performance starts 7.30pm

Where:
Alphabetti Theatre, The Basement 18 Newbridge Street West Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8AW

http://www.alphabettitheatre.co.uk/whats-on/24-whats-on-articles/142-burning-books
Ticket Price:
£5
Running Length:
Approx. 1 Hour 15 minutes (including 3 x 15 minute intervals)

Book online:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/event/100072

Tour
7^th September – Oxford Playhouse
11th September – The Roundhouse, Camden
19^th September – Tom Thumb Theatre, Margate
27^th September – Komedia, Brighton
13^th October – Unity Theatre, Liverpool
14^th October – Islington Mill, Salford
1^st November – Bikeshed Theatre, Exeter
15^th November – Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle
28^th November – Rich Mix, Bethnal Green

Preview: Soapbox Tour at Newcastle Alphabetti

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Public Address - THE SOAPBOX TOUR

Newcastle Alphabetti Theatre

Wednesday 14^th October 2015

– Spoken word artists not afraid to explore real life issues –

Public Address: The Soapbox Tour is a unique, theatrical spoken word show, giving voice to the passions and stories within us all. Directed by award-winning writer, performer and theatre maker Hannah Silva, the show features an ensemble of dynamic spoken word artists. Justin Coe delivers an entertaining coming-of-age tale exploring sexuality, whilst trans poet AJ McKenna looks at love in its many guises through an interactive, fierce but fun poetry-live-art crossover; Jasmine Gardosi shows searing intensity in a powerful snapshot study of mental health, as Shagufta K presents a web woven from the mythological past to the urgent present. 

Henry Raby, Justin Coe, Jasmine Gardosi, AJ McKenna,

Shagufta K, Helen Seymour, Ingrid McLaren, Keisha Thompson

Photo: Suzi Corker Photography

This diverse group has been brought together by Apples and Snakes, England’s leading organisation for spoken word. Guest artists Henry Raby (York), Keisha Thompson (Manchester), Ingrid McLaren (Nottingham), and Helen Seymour (Canterbury) will join the ensemble throughout the tour. In the South West, budding poets from Plymouth Young Writers Squad will also perform.

Justin Coe, Jasmine Gardosi, AJ McKenna, Shagufta K

Photo: Suzi Corker Photography

Produced by Apples and Snakes, England's leading organisation for spoken word and performance poetry, Public Address demonstrates and nurtures the skills and diversity of writers prevalent on the UK spoken word scene, whose written skills and dedication to the craft are responsible for the art form's recent explosion into the mainstream. Public Address will open in Newcastle on Wednesday 14 September before setting off on a national tour. On Sunday 25 October, the ensemble, along with the four guest artists, will give a flagship performance of the newly commissioned work at Bloomsbury Theatre Studio, as part of Bloomsbury Festival.

Hannah Silva, Public Address Creative Director, commented: 'Working with such talented and dedicated poets from across England has been a pleasure and a privilege. The artists have taken the opportunity to take risks with their work both in terms of content and performance, directing them has been a thrilling and rewarding experience.'

Shagufta K

Photo: Suzi Corker Photography

Lucy Crompton-Reid, Apples and Snakes Director, commented: 'I’m very excited about the forthcoming Public Address: The Soapbox Tour, and particularly pleased that for this – our third national Public Address Tour – we have been able to commission original new work from eight fantastic, diverse and thought-provoking spoken word artists and performance poets, with the support of the John Ellerman Foundation. I can’t wait to see the show – directed by the pioneering artist Hannah Silva – which I’m sure will be a thrill for all audiences, whether or not they have experienced spoken word before.'

Tickets:

Apples and Snakes presents The Soap Box Tour on Wednesday 14th October 2015.

Bar Opens: 18:30
Show Begins: 19:30
Tickets: £5 Ticket Online Link

The Alphabetti Theatre.

18 New Bridge Street

Newcastle-upon-Tyne,

NE1 8EW

www.alphabettitheatre.co.uk

On Tour:

Wednesday 14 October, 7.30pm Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle NE1 8AW


Saturday 17 October, 8pm          The House, Plymouth University, Devon PL4 8AA


Sunday 25 October, 7:30pm        Bloomsbury Theatre Studio, London WC1H 0AH
Monday 26 October, 7:30pm       Nuffield Theatre, Southampton SO17 1TR
Friday 13 November, 7.30pm       Hexagon Theatre, Mac Birmingham, Birmingham B12 9QH

Ticket link for Hanzel Und Gretal http://rftk.bigcartel.com/product/hanzel-und-gretyl

www.facebook.com/AcousticCircus

Preview: People’s Republic of Poetry at WashingtonArts Centre

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Experience a unique night of spoken word with Yorkshire troupe A Firm of Poets

The People’s Republic of Poetry 

Washington Arts Centre

Thursday 8^th October 2015.

A Firm of Poets are offering a poetry night with a twist when they visit Arts Centre Washington National Poetry Day, Thursday 8^th October.

The group of four poets will not only be performing a mixture of spoken word pieces but are also encouraging budding poets to appear on stage for the first time.

The Firm will be holding a workshop on the afternoon of the performance offering local poets advice and techniques on how to perfect their craft. They will then be invited to perform in front of an audience during the show that evening.

Ralph Dartford, a founding member of A Firm of Poets said: “The firm have been performing for a while but this is the first time we have involved the audience in this way. We can’t wait to meet budding poets in the workshops before the show and help them perform in front of an audience on the night.”

A Firm of Poets is Ralph Dartford and Matt Abbott, with the duo joined by fellow poets Jenni Pascoe and Rowan McCabe in Washington.

A cross between a poetic super group and Whose Line Is It Anyway, the show is fast paced, creating a fun and entertaining night out.

The group’s aim is to create The People’s Republic of Poetry – a network of spoken word performers throughout the UK.  Work performed by the participants will also be added to an online e-book, which will grow as the tour travels around the country.

Ralph continues: ‘This is a golden period for spoken word. With the emergence of such artists as Kate Tempest, George the Poet, Luke Wright, Hollie McNinsh, and also the reborn John Cooper Clarke, it appears that the nation is wonderfully engaged in rhyme and reason. We will give voice to some of the finest poets nationally, and just as important, the as yet unheard. The voices of any age, gender, race or background. We want the nation expressing themselves in word. Vive Le Republic!”

Tickets:

A Firm of Poets perform at Arts Centre Washington on Thursday 8 October. To book call 0191 219 3455 or visit www.artscentrewashington.co.uk

UK Tour Dates

September

24th Harrogate Theatre

October

1st Theatre In The Mill, Bradford

2nd Junction, Goole

7th John Godber Theatre, Pontefract

8th Arts Centre, Washington

10th Durham Book Festival

14th Hull Truck Theatre

17th Musicport Festival, Whitby

22nd Cast, Doncaster

28th Bloomsbury Theatre, London

30th The Met, Bury

31st Helmsley Arts Centre

November

7th The Ropewalk, Barton-upon-Humber

8th HUB, Leeds

14th Letchworth Arts Centre

26th Unity Works, Wakefield

28th The Civic, Barnsley

December

1st Arts Centre, Norwich

2nd Arts Centre, Colchester

Review: Grandad and the Machine at Newcastle Live Theatre

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The Ultimate Steampunk Fairytale

Grandad and the Machine
Newcastle Live Theatre
Wednesday 16^th September 2015

Jack Dean delivers a classic piece of storytelling about a young girl that understands that her Grandad knows a thing or two about machines. 

It is the day before Imogen’s eighth birthday and she has been sent home from school. Again. Living in an era when the Great War has ended, thanks to great machines that are now found under the seas and misogynistic attitudes come easily in society.  She is told that girls don’t go to university or becomes engineers. Indeed, it was when a lad suggested the limitations of girls that Imogen had to prove him wrong. That’s why she was sent home.

Though they live in London, her father has not lost his Yorkshire roots. He proudly wears his cloth cap and tells his daughter, in a dodgy accent, the rules that Yorkshiremen go by. Do all, see all, say nowt. Eat all, drink all, pay for nowt.  He struggles with a London lifestyle in which everything seems to have a price.

An announcement on the radio suggests that the buried machines have risen from the deep and are heading north to London. Father decides it is time to head north immediately as his father will know what to do as he had worked on the machines during the war.

The rich story that follows is pure Jackanory for adults. Let’s face it, many adults in that show’s 30 year run were brought up on fabulous narrative.  Jack Dean’s skill is pulling together the various elements of the story through different voices and props. His engaging style ensured that the show drew the audience in. This was no story for small children but it lit up the inner child. Exciting moments involving evading capture from ticket inspectors to flying in a Zeppelin combined with the emotions that come from a loving father daughter relationship. The puppet of Imogen prompted a number of reactions from the audience.

The icing on the cake is the original musical score by Jack Dean that was performed by Josh Lucas. The multi-instrumentalist was armed with loop pedals which added to the atmosphere. The overall effect was reminiscent of Jeff Wayne’s War of The Worlds – another example of storytelling that is still the 39^th best selling album of all time. People love to hear a great yarn and Jack Dean’s tale is worthy of a much bigger audience.  

Grandad and the Machine is a sublime piece of storytelling that will have you hooked until the end. Roll on the next show from Jack Dean.

This review was written by Stephen Oliver for the North East Theatre Guide from Jowheretogo PR (www.jowheretogo.com). Follow Jo on twitter @jowheretogo, Stephen @panic_c_button or like Jowheretogo on Facebook www.facebook.com/Jowheretogo

On The Web:

Follow updates from Jack Dean and Grandad and the Machine on Twitter:
@mcjackdean / @littlemightyuk / #GrandadandtheMachine

Cast & Creatives:

Written, performed and with music by Jack Dean
Directed by Polly Agg-Manning
Dramaturgy by Alex Chisholm
Design by Sophie Mosberger
Lighting Design by Sam-Hollis Pack
Musician / Technical Stage Manager Josh Lucas
Produced by LittleMighty

Read the original North East Theatre Guide preview LINK: 

Tour:

CamdenPeople’s Theatre, London Tuesday 13th - Thursday 15th October, 7:30pm

Jack Dean’s other events can be found here: http://www.jackdean.co.uk/Gigs.html

http://jowheretogo.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/pandsmusic-interviews-hanzelundgretyl.html

Preview: Grandad and the Machine at Newcastle Live Theatre

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Catch Jack Dean’s new steampunk fairytale for grownups at Live Theatre

Grandad and the Machine
Newcastle Live Theatre
Wednesday 16 September 2015

Award-winning theatre-maker, poet and performer Jack Dean brings his new show Grandad and the Machine to Live Theatre. Described as a steampunk fairytale for grownups Grandad and the Machine mixes vivid storytelling with an original live music score.

It tells the story of a hundred-year-old mechanical monster that emerges from the sea. The only person who can help is Imogen’s Grandad, which sets her on an epic quest across England that leads to the heart of a dark family secret.

The show is set in an alternative history in which the British Empire never fell, and mixes a very English dystopia with a witty and engaging performance style. The show premiered during the summer at the Plymouth Fringe Festival and will be touring throughout 2016 courtesy of a commission from the Unlimited Fund.

As Jack Dean explains  “Grandad and the Machine is a modern fairytale about capitalism, Englishness, the north Atlantic and the things that could have been. I hope it will bring up some interesting questions about how change can happen and how to do the right thing; but more than anything I want people to be entertained and moved. I can’t wait to show it to people in Newcastle”.

Jack Dean is a York-based writer and theatre-make with a background in spoken word, poetry and hip-hop. His first piece was the Bristol Ferment commission Threnody and the Sky Children, a modern fable that fused Ovid with the zombie apocalypse. The show won Best Production at the Reading Fringe Awards and was called “funny, wise and beautifully performed” by Exeunt. This was followed by Camden on the Moon for Camden People’s Theatre. Jack is currently under commission with ARC Stockton and Barnsley Civic Theatre to create a new children’s show Horace and the Yeti.

As a poet and spoken word artist Jack has performed at the famous Bowery Poetry Club in New York, the BBC Radio 4 National Poetry Slam and Latitude Festival. He was the winner of an Ideastap innovators Award in 2013 and his debut poetry collection, Poems for Grown Up Children, is published by Burning Eye Books.

On The Web:

Follow updates from Jack Dean and Grandad and the Machine on Twitter:
@mcjackdean / @littlemightyuk / #GrandadandtheMachine

Cast & Creatives:

Written, performed and with music by Jack Dean
Directed by Polly Agg-Manning
Dramaturgy by Alex Chisholm
Design by Sophie Mosberger
Lighting Design by Sam-Hollis Pack
Musician / Technical Stage Manager Josh Lucas
Produced by LittleMighty

Tickets:

Jack Dean is association with LittleMighty presents Grandad and the Machine
Written, performed and with music by Jack Dean

Live Theatre, Broad Chare, Quayside, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 3DQ
Wednesday 16 September, 7.30pm
£14 - £10; over 60s conc £12, other concs £6
Box Office: (0191) 232 1232
www.live.org.uk
Running time: 70mins / Suitable for ages 14+

Preview: Grow Up Grandad at Stockton ARC

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Steel speaks about world premiere of new play at ARC

Grow Up Grandad

Stockton ARC

Friday 4^th to Saturday 12^th September 2015.

Teesside’s leading playwright Gordon Steel is preparing for the world premiere of his first play produced under his new theatre company.

STEELWORKS is Teesside’s first producing professional theatre company and its inaugural production Grow Up Grandad will run at ARC from Friday 4 September to Saturday 12 September.

The play is Steel’s first venture into producing and he is proud to be premiering it in Teesside and commented: “I’ve always been proud of where I come from and I’ve never hidden the fact I’m from Teesside. I’m very proud of it. I love where I come from. And when you go to write, you write about what you know and I know this area so I try to write about it.

“Producing Grow Up Grandad takes me back to my Stockton Youth Theatre days because in those days we would produce it very much on an amateur basis but with professional standards. It has come full circle just the expectations and the stakes are higher. In those days I was producing the work of others but now the added pressure is it’s my own work – hoping people will like it. Inevitably, whenever I ask people to come and see a play their response is, “Is it any good?” or worse, the statement, “It had better be good!”’

Gordon who is born and bred in Teesside has mentored hundreds of the region’s aspiring actors whilst at Stockton Youth Theatre and many have gone on to be well recognised faces of the TV screen and stage including; Jill Halfpenny, Daniel Casey, Mark Benton and Simeon Truby who is the star of Steel’s new play.

Stockton born Truby will star as ‘Grandad’ and local school girls Eliza Dobson and Rose Allen will both share the role of grandaughter Poppy. Actress Liz Carney (Emmerdale, The Royal) will star in the role of Margret.

Both heart-breaking and humorous, Grow Up Grandad is an intergenerational story that deals with love and loss, hope and sadness, as the relationship between a young girl and her grandad is thrust together and torn apart. 

Grow Up Grandad has been written and directed by Gordon and has been produced in conjunction with ARC with funding from Arts Council England.

Currently based at ARC in Stockton, it is intended that STEELWORKS will become Teesside’s resident theatre company producing plays regularly and providing an opportunity for talented actors and creatives to work in their own town.

Tickets and Further Information

On The Web: http://arconline.co.uk/whats-on/drama-and-spoken-word/grow-up-grandad