We're nearly back home...

Last week we announced our brand new Homecoming Season which you may have read about on these pages last week. We open our newly refurbished building to the public on Friday 26 October with a two night gala celebration of the Coliseum, looking forward to an exciting future ahead of us. This grand re-opening show will be performed by a company of Coliseum favourites presenting key scenes and songs on stage from the theatre’s history as well as previewing some of the productions. On Saturday 27 October we will also be hosting another of our highly successful free Open Days to invite everyone back into the building and give you a chance to snoop around and see what’s changed. They’ll be activities, talks and backstage tours throughout the day so make sure you don’t miss out.

The first Coliseum production of the season will be Dickens’s David Copperfield adapted by Alastair Cording. This fast-paced, exciting adaptation is just as gripping as the original novel. For those of you who don’t know, Dickens’s stories were originally serialised in magazines which is why the end of each chapter ends on a tense cliff hanger – to make sure people would buy the next edition. This makes an excellent transfer to stage.

Following that we have Sugar Daddies by Alan Ayckbourn – a very popular playwright with the Coliseum audience. It’s one of his later plays with a bit of a darker tone but still full of all the famous Ayckbourn humour. Director/designer team Robin Herford and Michael Holt will return after their fantastic portrayal of Taking Steps at the Grange Arts Centre.

Blonde Bombshell’s of 1943 is the last Coliseum produced play of the season and something that I think really complements the other shows. It’s a feel good musical play - complete with a swing band - that will sit nicely next to the classic David Copperfield and humorous Sugar Daddies.

So those are just the Coliseum productions and I’m already running out of words. I’m really looking forward to welcoming back tours from both London Classic Theatre and LipService. We also have a small scale tour of Jane Eyre with students from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts which I’ll talk more about next week and a huge variety of one night events from stand up comedy to a night of brass bands.

I have to say I am really looking forward to returning to the building and getting it up and running again. While our time out of the building has been great fun and full of new opportunities, I can’t wait to bring the company back together to welcome our audience back through the doors of theatre.

See you out and about.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

Get a head start in a career in the arts...

I often get asked about job opportunities at the Coliseum and how people can improve their chances of getting a job in the theatre industry. The simple answer is that it’s not easy as it’s such a sought after industry to work in. However, there are an awful lot of opportunities out there that will boost your experience of theatre, or better understand the different roles that work in theatre such as the stage manager, press officer or director etc.

Here at the Coliseum we provide Pathways - a careers service which helps young people find pathways into a job in the arts. The service offers mentoring from professionals already working in the theatre and is overseen by our Creative Development Officer. Talking to and gaining advice from industry professionals is one of the best ways to find out more about an industry that you want to work in– whatever industry that may be. So far the group have had sessions with actor Andonis Anthony who you may recognise as our King Rat from Dick Whittington, director Joyce Branagh who is a regular at the Coliseum, her most recent productions here include The Sunshine Boys, Satin and Steel. They have also had a session from a casting director who works on Coronation Street and theatre designer Foxton who’s design skills can be seen in our current production Dumb Show at the Grange.

In July we are organising a pathways careers conference at the Grange Arts Centre called YouLEAD. This event will provide advice and support for people aged 14 – 25 years looking for work in the creative arts. The event will help young people in the borough learn how to engage, work and create a pathway in to theatre and related industries and also look further into what opportunities Oldham has to offer them.

From 5pm – 6pm there will be a networking event where attendees can talk to key people working in the arts in Greater Manchester, make contacts, pick up advice and maybe even a few freebies. Then there will be a series of talks from Oldham organisations including Theatre Workshop, the College, the Sixth Form College and the Youth Council.

This is a fantastic chance for anyone wanting to get a head start in their career. YouLEAD is on Wednesday 18 July at the Grange Arts Centre with networking from 5:00pm – 6:00pm and the event begins at 6:00pm. If you are interested or know someone who is and would like some more information or would just like to book your ticket then contact Paul Adams on pauladams@coliseum.org.uk. The event is completely free and certainly worth a look.

See you out and about

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director

Lighting up the park...

As you may already be aware, we are producing an exciting open air production in Alexandra Park this July. It will be a reworking of Romeo and Juliet with the star crossed lovers coming from Oldham instead of fair Verona (we’ve appropriately named the play Star Cross’d).

The process of lighting an outdoor production is completely different to that of a usual production on the main stage. When the play opens at 7:30pm it will still be light and the sun will go down during the evening. The production team need to know exactly when the light will start to change and when they need to start to add extra light. To make sure that they get this right a few weeks ago the production team took a tour of the park under the same conditions the park would be in the other side of the summer solstice. Arriving at the park at half seven the team moved from scene to scene in real time – staying at each location for the same time the scene would take to play out. By doing this they knew which scenes needed what type of lighting (if any) and how much.

One of the unique aspects of outdoor theatre is watching the action unfold as the sun goes down. It can be a really magical experience. The extra lighting that will be used as part of the production will be very subtle and we’ve come up with some really exciting ideas – especially for the production finale at the lake. Make sure you don’t miss this magical event which opens on 12 July.

Back to this week, on Tuesday Dumb Show opened at the Grange Arts Centre which will be our last production at the Grange where we have performed several plays during our time out of the building. The staff at the Grange have been absolutely wonderful and have made our time there really enjoyable. It’s been fantastic to be able to put on plays in the round with the audience on all four sides of the stage. It’s given us a chance to programme plays that really lend themselves to this type of staging. Dumb Show has had some great reactions from audiences who caught it this week.

This week has also seen the final preparations of our homecoming season which will be announced at our season launch. To find out what we’ve got planned for our return to the building come along Monday 18 June at the Grange.

See you out and about.

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director