Summer Fun for the Coliseum

This week we said goodbye to the fantastic week-long touring production of Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong which closed on Saturday. This show marks the start of the Coliseum’s hugely hectic summer transition into our Autumn/Winter programme which begins with Chicago in September. 

The summer months are vital for the theatre to prepare for our busiest time of the year and carry out necessary maintenance on our nineteenth century home. We are seeing out July with a flurry of activity in the form of our upcoming Shake It UP! – our week long youth programmed theatre festival. Plus Shakesperience, a fresh fun filled look at six of the bard’s greatest plays including Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Romeo and Juliet – with famous scenes performed enthusiastically by students of Judes Drama aged 4-20 years old.

Our normal auditorium programme may lessen somewhat each summer until the end of August. This is a vital time for the theatre. I am currently overseeing the second round of auditions for Chicago which requires a crack cast of multi-talented performers to bring this spectacular show to life on stage. The standard of those auditioning for the starring roles has been remarkably high, making my job a lot harder.

Each department in the theatre is currently a hive of activity working towards transforming the auditorium into downtown 1920s Chicago, which is no small task. The set build is shaping up to be a gloriously mammoth undertaking, whilst our wardrobe department is well on the way to creating the glamorous and equally seedy characters in a traditional Vaudevillian style. The play is fast transforming into what will be a treat for the eyes as well as the ears.

Plus, as if trying to focus on Chicago wasn’t enough I currently have Christmas on the brain as I continue to develop and hone the script for our seasonal panto Jack and the Beanstalk. Myself and Coliseum regular Fine Time Fontayne, who also plays Dame Trott this year, have managed to squeeze in a fair few surprises, as well as all the traditional panto fun which you expect from Jack.

With the huge amount of work that goes into pulling together each one of our shows we are forced into thinking months in advance here, where it may appear that things quieten down through August, behind the scenes it is in fact the opposite. 

See you at the theatre,

Kevin Shaw
Artistic Director 

Out and About

Thank you to those of you who came along to say hello to us at our fetching gazebo at Oldham People’s Carnival. 

It was great to be amongst the community at Alexandra Park once more and brought fond memories of our Out and About season to mind. 

We will however be venturing out to Saddleworth Show next weekend too, so if you’re attending be sure to drop by and see our smiling team. You’ll be able to find out about our brand new season, get your hands on a few freebies and also have a chance to win a family ticket to our fantastic panto Jack and the Beanstalk.

The atmosphere of community spirit at events in Oldham is a strong one. It is this spirit which we try to simulate week-in-week-out at the Coliseum.  So with this in mind I’ve decided to relinquish all control of the theatre for an entire week this month and let some of the talented young people involved with the Coliseum run things and hope that the building is still standing afterwards.

The Shake It UP! theatre festival, 22-27 July, has been entirely programmed, marketed and organised by a dedicated bunch of 14-25 years olds. It will be a packed week made-up of original performances, workshops, talks and comedy with something for all ages. I, for once, will merely be an onlooker able to properly enjoy appearances from the likes of the award-winning Slaughterhouse Live, who are Dave Spikey’s favourites, as well as Coliseum panto mainstay Fine Time Fontayne’s one man show.

Whilst I still have my hands on the ship’s wheel however, we have the incredible Nick Ross Orchestra bringing the superb Sounds of the GlennMiller Era to our auditorium.  With a full line-up of saxophones, trumpets, trombones, a rhythm section and special guest vocalist Matthew Ford, the orchestra will faithfully recreate the wonderful sounds of such Big Bands as those led by Glenn Miller. There has been nothing like the big band-era since and I doubt there will be again, so this is sure to be a rare live treat.

See you at the theatre,

Kevin

Artistic Director 

Our Autumn Winter 2013/14 Season Has Launched!

It’s here, it’s announced and I don’t have to bite my tongue any longer – our new season was officially launched. It’s certainly been a struggle to keep the lid on it this time around. 

As many of you will know already, the posters have been up for some time, we’re opening our September to February programme with a huge coup for the Coliseum – Chicago. You all know the hugely popular story of Roxie and Velma from previous incarnations on stage and screen alike. However, I am massively delighted to say here in Oldham, the Coliseum has been granted the rights for a new production of the show. This will be the first new airing of the vaudevillian classic since 1997, and we’re already well on the way to pulling together an ambitious show including with a few surprises too. 

With Baz Luhrmann’s recent adaptation of The Great Gatsby 1920s Americana is very much of the moment and if you throw in a little of the all-singing, all-dancing fun from our hugely popular Blonde Bombshells of 1943 production you can start to get a flavour to what will be a fantastic spectacle.

And that’s only one show – there’s also the world premiere of No Fat Juliets, written by and starring Sue McCormick of recent Ladies’ Day fame. Think Fawlty Towers meets Morecambe and Wise and you’re someway there. This new play is part of our commitment to new writing and helping to keep theatre new and original.

Our third in-house production shall be Alan Ayckbourn’s hilarious Bedroom Farce. Throw in Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, The Holly and the Ivy, The Marriage of Figaro, The Reduced Shakespeare Company, and our fantastic panto Jack and The Beanstalk to name a handful more and my calendar is looking very full. 

Our packed out season launch event was a brilliant way to let the cat out of the bag about what we’ve got coming up, but we also have the tail end of our summer season upon us.

Sebastian Faulks’s epic wartime novel Birdsong has flown it’s West End nest is currently here in Oldham until Saturday, as part of a national tour. The BBC celebrated it as one of the best-loved books in the country and the stage adaptation has been just as lovingly received. 

 See you at the theatre,

Kevin

Artistic Director