739 stories by "Susan Elkin"
Leicester Square Theatre, London: The story of Timmy (Harrison Spiers) floating off into space to consort with aliens who love to raid Earth to steal underpants from washing lines is fun. Bu…
Here's a bit of good news. Next month fifteen adults with learning disabilities will become the first students to graduate with a diploma in performance making from the Royal Central School …
Performing arts students " especially those doing acting " should be reading lots of plays. And that should include, obviously, plays of all styles and eras. You need the most eclectic kn…
Bloomsbury Ballroom, London: The round table format and low lighting in the basement nightclub-like Bloomsbury ballroom create quite an atmosphere for this annual competitive showcase as stu…
Last week I went to Arcola Tent to see National Youth Theatre's Playing Up scheme in action. I was profoundly moved. This is an initiative which changes lives. So thank goodness the Ar…
Next week, Birmingham's Billesley Primary School, which must be exceptionally adventurous, is tackling nuclear Armageddon. Directed by Craig Stephens and James Yarker, Any Fool Can Start …
New London Theatre: In this gentle yet spectacular children's play, a little girl, ably played by diminutive, shining-eyed Susan Harrison, is marginalised by her busy parents (Laura Cub…
Last week I went speed dating. Well not real speed dating as such. As many readers know, I've been happily and faithfully married for twice as long as most of the ALRA South and Itali…
Schools and colleges are still auditioning for places on vocational courses starting next term. Good luck to all hopefuls. And I hope the colleges manage to recruit the right people for thei…
Boughton Monchelsea Place: Changeling Theatre's 14th touring Shakespeare takes, as usual, a fullish text to unusual outdoor venues, mostly in Kent. The traverse playing space has tradit…
Regents Park Open Air Theatre: This witty, entertaining and imaginative take on Shakespeare's most wistful comedy features water pistols, participative dances, a jazz band, a stage-side…
Michael Morpurgo seems to get everywhere. The War Horse musicians' furore continues. National Youth Theatre rep company is doing Private Peaceful http://www.nyt.org.uk/private-peaceful/ca…
I've been talking to Brian Timoney who founded Brian Timoney Actors' Studio in 2006 following the death of his method acting guru David Bennett. I interviewed him for The Stage's Weekend Tra…
When I was in my first year of secondary school and just twelve we read A Midsummer Night's Dream. We had terrific fun with it and then, eventually, performed act V to our parallel classR…
I was leading a seminar about drama and performing arts training last year when a very keen wannabe actor asked me whether or not I thought she should learn to drive. Definitely, I told her&…
I recently interviewed Arts Ed-trained Nathan Wright, a young actor who's doing well and has just come out of an eighteen month stint in BBC's Doctors. In passing he told me that he had c…
I recently attended a rather jolly party at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art to launch three new books  all written by RADA staff, badged by RADA and published by Methuen Drama which…
Only one actor in 50 earns more than £20,000 a year from acting " according to the recent Casting Call Pro survey which also found that over three quarters of actors earn less than £5,…
NT Connections really is a fine scheme. I know I say this every year but it strikes me afresh each summer just how well it works as education, training and development on so many levels. …
I'm at the Ambassadors Theatre and it's fizzing like good champagne with young people, actors, directors, facilitators, initiators, funders and more. But we're not there for a performance of…
Last week I popped into Little Angel Theatre " always a treat because it's one of the loveliest venues in London. This time, however, I was there not to see a show, but in the quiet…
Fortune Theatre, London: This show presents the achievements of 30 graduates of Central's two MAs in stage acting - 15 have done the classical course and 15 the contemporary. And it fal…
Although I write extensively about fiction for young readers elsewhere, I don't usually cover it in The Stage. Now a new title for which I'm going to make an exception has arrived on my desk…
Susan Elkin looks at the wide range of training choices and analyses their pros and cons
In 1977 I started a new job teaching English in a girls' secondary school in Kent. Portrait of Margarita by Ruth M Arthur (1968) was one of the sets of class novels in the stock…
