l a g a 2013
e u og
movember N
Image: Karla Shacklock, Theatre & Dance Double Bill
issue
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Award-winning Performers Galore
November - a month of bonfires and fireworks... or, in our case, award-winning performers, audience favourites and stress-free Christmas shopping. Our own resident artists Katherina Radeva and Alister Lownie of Two Destination Language return to our stage this month with their new show, Near Gone, which has already scooped the Pulse Fringe Suitcase Prize. Do come and see what they’ve been creating in our Studio. We’re also excited to have the “Best Group” and “Best Duo” of the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in one Folk-filled week. Read on to find out more about what’s coming up. Let us know what you think by emailing sara@salisburyarts.co.uk.
BIG NEWS
Congratulations ShootOut Challengers Over the weekend of the 4th October filmmakers from Salisbury and further afield battled against the clock to create their own short films in just 48 hours. Big congratulations to all finalists in the competition for creating such wonderful films under the pressures of such a short timeframe. The judges found it a very difficult task to select the winners but the winners have been announced and the results are... Overall winner: L’Impervisible by Freshly Squeezed Runner up: Tanabata by The Bigelows Audience Favourite: La Tomatina by Running Sloth Productions Well done to everyone who took part and a massive thank you to this year’s judges Nick Beaumont, Phil Peel and Helen Sloan. We’d also like to thank the very generous Cathedral Hotel for donating a prize for the winner of this fantastic filmmaking challenge.
Image: L’Impervisible by Freshly Squeezed
Resident creatives A
s well as welcoming touring companies from all over the world, we have our own resident companies who develop work right here. Two Destination Language is one such company. We talked to the performers Katherina Radeva and Alister Lownie about their new show Near Gone, which they’ve been developing in our Studio and will be performing here as part of the Theatre & Dance Double Bill: What has it been like developing your show here? The Arts Centre is our company’s home, which means it’s comfortable in just the right ways. It’s really nice to sit down in a rehearsal break with a cup of tea and see some of the people who have come to see an exhibition or take part in a workshop -- and end up chatting to them about our work too. What’s Near Gone about? It’s the true story of something that happened in Kat’s family, over in Bulgaria. That made us think of some completely different ideas for a show, but we came back to this incredibly powerful story - and we won’t spoil it by saying too much.
What was your first reaction when you won the Pulse Fringe Suitcase Prize for the show? We almost missed being there for the prize! Kat wasn’t feeling well and we’d gone to find her a taxi, but there weren’t any. So I said we could nip back to see who had won and then we’d go back to our digs. When they announced our names, we just sat there looking confused, and then awfully delighted. They had to ask us to come up to receive it! What three words best sum up Near Gone and why? Love, life and release. Partly that’s to do with the story, but it’s also the ideas behind the show. We were making a show about death and turned it on its head: the core is really life! As a dual language performance, will we get lost if we don’t understand Bulgarian? You’ll understand everything. First, there’s lots of physical clues as Kat speaks. But Alister translates everything too, so there’s no confusion -- and audiences have been really enjoying the sound of the Bulgarian.
What’s next for the show? We’re taking it on a bigger tour in the Spring, and we’ve also been invited to go to New York with it, which is really exciting -- who knows where it may lead? The sound and visuals of your shows are always really interesting. What will Near Gone look and sound like? We have 400 beautiful fresh flowers, which looks gorgeous. The sounds of the Bulgarian and English are broken up with some fantastic gypsy music, which has this really special energy. It doesn’t just look and sound good -- it also smells great!
How do you feel about sharing the evening with Karla Shacklock? That’s really exciting. We saw Karla’s piece in development, and there are some interesting thematic links but her style is very different. It seemed a really interesting pair of works to offer audiences, and it means they’re getting brilliant value on their tickets!
Theatre & Dance Double Bill Near Gone Saturday 2 November 8pm Tickets: £12 / £10 concessions (Members £11 / £9)
Image by Alma Haser
A story of hope J
oining our resident artists in the Theatre and Dance Double Bill is award-winning performer and choreographer Karla Shacklock. We had a chat with her to find out more about Buttercup: Where did the inspiration for The Buttercup stem from? It’s a true story. It’s about a rainy day in November 2010 when at a time that I thought all was lost... I found a buttercup. It became a simple symbol of hope. I still have the buttercup now, preserved in a small glass jar. For those who are new to dance and are unsure whether the show is for them, what’s that special something that makes The Buttercup worth the risk? It’s such a simple, human story, that it seems to be one that everyone easily recognises and can connect to. It makes people laugh and it makes people cry and there is nothing that you need fear that you won’t understand.
Someone who came to see it recently said that it is ‘universally resonant’. I guess that means its for everyone, whether you are new to dance or not. What is your ideal audience response and what would you like them to take away from the performance? My ideal audience response is that they are able to come on the journey with me and that they take away a sense of hope.
Theatre & Dance Double Bill Near Gone Saturday 2 November 8pm Tickets: £12 / £10 concessions (Members £11 / £9)
Image: Karla Shacklock, The Buttercup
Film
Populaire (12A): Thursday 7 November 7.30pm
Set in France in the 1950s and directed by Regis Roinsard, Populaire tells the story of a handsome boss and his hopeless secretary. Desperate to escape the boredom of her small town life, Rose applies for a secretary’s job with a charismatic ex-sportsman. While she proves a disastrous secretary, her prowess for typing reawakens his competitive spirit and he seizes a chance for glory in the country’s hard-fought typing contests.
What the press say: “Not since The Artist has there been a French film as delightful or commercial as Populaire. If you’re looking for a happy, feel good romantic comedy, here it is.” Daily Mail
Tickets: £7 / £6 members
Much Ado About Nothing (12A): Monday 18 November 7.30pm
Directed by Joss Whedon, this new adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic comedy transports Much Ado About Nothing to California. The result is a witty and charming modern tale of obsession, hatred, friendship and love. Filmed in black and white, this hilarious adaptation sees two couples in modern-day suburbia debate their respective feelings on love and marriage. With a tinkling jazz piano rendition of ‘Hey Nonny Nonny’ and mischievous humour, the film will delight fans of Shakespeare, Whedon or romcoms.
What the press say: “Much Ado About Nothing is a delightfully spirited romp, filled with visual splendor, strong performances and flashes of postmodern absurdity.” USA Today
Tickets: £7 / £6 members
MET Opera
Live from New York This month catch The Metropolitan Opera version of Puccini’s classic opera, Tosca, on the big screen complete with behind the scenes interviews. Tosca by Puccini - Saturday 9 November 5.55pm Tosca is a tragic tale of love and loss. It tells the story of three people — a famous opera singer, a free-thinking painter, and a sadistic chief of police — caught in a net of love and politics. It’s an opera filled with passion and fabulous music, including some of the most famous Arias ever sung. In this Metropolitan Opera production Puccini’s timeless music is well served by an exceptional cast, led by Patricia Racette in the title role of the jealous diva, opposite Roberto Alagna as her lover, Cavaradossi. George Gagnidze is the villainous Scarpia.
Tosca by Puccini Saturday 9 November 5.55pm Tickets: £16 / £14 concessions (Members £15 / £13)
Patchwork Meadow F
ollowing on from our Open Exhibition, we will be introducing The Patchwork Meadow exhibition created by Plantlife on Thursday 14 November:
Celebrating the cultural legacy inspired by our wild flowers and plants, Patchwork Meadow is a remarkable piece of public art co-ordinated by Plantlife. From felt dinosaurs feasting on horsetails to literary references ranging from Shakespeare to Harry Potter, this beautiful exhibition stitches together what our wild flowers mean to us.
The Patchwork Meadow Thursday 14 November - Wednesday 18 December Tuesday - Sunday 10am - 3pm (subject to closure during performance times) Talk by project leader Seona Anderson: Wednesday 11 Decmeber 6.45pm
Image: Corncockle, Seona Anderson
Practice Friday 15 November 7pm
W
e’re big fans of discovering new work and giving emerging companies the chance to grow, develop and share their talent with an audience. Practice is one opportunity for performers to do just that and for audiences to provide feedback on work in its early stages. We asked Write By Numbers why they’ve chosen to perform in Practice this month and what it means to them:
How important is audience feedback to the creative process? Audience feedback is really important to us - none of our work stops the moment the house lights come back up in the auditorium. We’ve had some brilliant conversations with people after previous scratches which have resulted in important decisions being taken on our shows.
Do you expect to make many changes after an in-progress showing like this? Given the stage we’re at with “Regeneration” it’s likely we will make some Tell us a little about your performance. changes afterwards - we really do respond “Regeneration” is a multi-stranded to how audiences react! story exploring four different characters’ relationships with the changing places Will it change your own perception of they call home. It takes in different the piece? decades and roams around England but Each play’s different, but we’ve often found for Practice we’re looking at two particular that performing as part of work-in-progress threads of the show, one centering showings does change perceptions about around an Architect in the south west of the work. It might be that an audience England and one across generations of a reacts to something we didn’t expect, or family in east London. the piece is funnier or darker than we could have predicted. Equally, (and this tends to Why have you chosen to show work in come in work-in-progress showings later an ‘unfinished’ state? on in the creation process) it’s nice to some The only way to properly test times have confirmation that you’re heading performance work is by putting it in front in the right general direction with a piece! of an audience and, as a company, we like to do that at the earliest opportunity. It Write By Numbers, Ria Hartley, focuses us in terms of creating the show Silversmith Dance and Kathleen Downie (as opposed to getting overwhelmed by Tickets: £7 / £5 including a free drink research).
Image: ‘Regeneration’ Write By Numbers
Discover ancient Indian stories in
Sita’s Story Saturday 16 November 11am & 2pm
G
oodies, baddies, beautiful costumes, masks, songs and dance. Sita’s Story has all the key ingredients of a classic story brought to the stage. The difference is this classic story is an Indian one so it’s likely to be a whole new adventure for all of us. We chatted to the company, Tara Arts, to find out more:
For those unfamiliar with the story, could you give us a brief overview? Sita chooses Rama for her husband, earning the hatred of rival king Ravana. Rama’s father is forced to send Rama and Sita into exile in the forest, where Ravana kidnaps Sita. With the help of the Monkey King, Hanuman, Rama defeats Ravana in a battle and is re-united with Sita. The lovers return to their city – a return which, today, marks the festival of Diwali.
The Ramayana is as familiar to Indians as the story of Adam and Eve is to Westerners. How important is it to you to create work that presents these stories for all to enjoy? Today we live in an era of much-greater crossing of cultures – think of food, fashion, travel, music, films etc. In this multi-cultural age, it is vital we create stories that offer connections across cultures, to be enjoyed by all. With a range of characters, from Hanuman the wondrous monkey king to Ravana the ten-headed demon, which was the most enjoyable to bring to life in the performance? Ravana, with his 10 heads, presents the obvious challenge – we hope we have found a fun & poetic solution! What would you like the audience to take away from the performance? How powerful story-telling can be in the hands of 2 brilliant actresses! Tickets: £7.50 / £6.50 concessions / £24 family of 4 (Members £6.50 / £5.50 / £20)
Image: Sita’s Story
King Prawn Altar Club Special Saturday 16 November 7.45pm
M
usic promoter Robb Blake has toured the world with them and now he’s bringing the Ska Punk stars back to Salisbury. Far more comfortable with a guitar and a microphone, Robb’s a man of few words but he shared a few about one of his favourite bands: When did you first discover King Prawn? In 1993 when I found a poster of them in Kerrang. I started listening to them properly in 1997 and really liked them. I then played over a hundred gigs with them while touring with my own band. How would you describe King Prawn’s sound? A multicultural chaos machine mixing Ska, Hip Hop, Punk and Drum and Bass.
What’s next for Altar Club? After King Prawn it’s the big New Year’s Eve bash with Salisbury’s biggest musical export, Whitmore, and five local support bands.
Altar Club: King Prawn Saturday 16 November 7.45pm Tickets: £10 advance / £12 on the door (Members: £9 / £11 on the door)
Altar Club New Year featuring Whitmore Tuesday 31 December 9pm Tickets: £15 advance until 30 November / £25 on the door
“A multicultural chaos machine mixing Ska, Hip Hop, Punk and Drum and Bass...”
Sounds like A year round music festival
T
here’s a lot of excitement for November music, as we prepare for the arrival of the ‘Best Group’ and ‘Best Duo’ as voted in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Here’s a little taster of what’s to come: Click to watch Lau and Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman in action:
Image: Lau and Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman
Chelsea Hotel Where every room has a story to tell
Chelsea Hotel is the new show by
dance theatre company Earthfall. It is based on the New York hotel that many famous artists called home. We caught up with Directors Jim and Jess to find out more:
What characters can the audience expect to meet in the show? We have based the performer’s roles on a combination of people, both real and fictional with a dose of autobiography thrown in. Some of the real people we used for starting points were Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, Edi Sedgwick, Viva, Sid Vicious, Nancy Spungen and Dominatrix, Some of the fictional characters were drawn from Julian and Ramona in Warhol’s film Lonesome Cowboys and Stella and Stanley from Tennessee Williams, Street Car Named Desire. We loved the fusion of dance, physical theatre, live music and film in the show. How important is that mix for you? For us it is essential to use all these mediums to create theatre. In nearly 25 years of our existence we have always used live original music and 90% of our works have included film, starting with super 8 which we edited by cutting with a razor blade and sticking together with tape!
These ingredients are what make our theatre. When we create work it is like creating an orchestral score with many lines and columns where all these elements fit and overlap together. For those who are intrigued but not sure if the show’s for them, what makes Chelsea Hotel worth the risk? The energy of the performance is astonishing; the combination of live music and athletic dancing together with the poetic, funny, angry and provocative narrative makes it a totally absorbing and exciting show. Many people who have never seen dance before love our work and many who thought they didn’t like dance realise they do and some who thought they had gone off dance have their faith in it restored. What would you like the audience to take away from the performance? We hope they would be energised, invigorated and moved by the performance; If we have provoked a bit of curiosity in them to investigate the Chelsea that would be cool and that they would follow Earthfall and stay with us for our future shows.
Chelsea Hotel Thursday 28 November 8pm Tickets: £12 / £10 concessions (Members: £11 / £9)
Contemporary Craft Fair Saturday 30 November 10am - 3pm
W
e know it’s probably a little early to want to think about Christmas but with our Contemporary Craft Fair coming up, shopping needn’t be stressful this year. We chatted to Projects and Administration Co-ordinator Melanie Evans about this year’s artists:
What kind of work can people expect to see at this year’s Contemporary Craft Fair? This year we’ve got a wide range of work including prints, cards, textiles and high quality jewellery. Are the artists local or are they coming from far and wide? Most of the artists are local or based in the South of England, including our own resident ceramicist Mirka GoldenHann and resident artist Katherina Radeva from Two Destination Language.
What else will be happening on the day? There will be a drop in decorate a plate or tile workshop so you can make your own gifts too. It will cost £5 for a plate or £3 for a tile and the proceeds will go towards the fund for our new Kiln to keep the Pottery Studio going. Will the cafe be serving festive treats? We try not to start the festive treats too early but there have been whispers of homemade mincepies! What’s top of your Christmas list? I think it would have to be one of Sharon Kearley’s woven pieces. I studied weave at university and I love textiles. Sharon is also one of our fabulous workshop leaders.
Contemporary Craft Fair Saturday 30 November 10am - 3pm Free entry
Main Image: Sharon Kearley Images Top to Bottom: Lindsey Mann, Susan Cook, Clever Elsie
Spotlight on Jarred Christmas
Image: Jarred Christmas
“One of the funniest men to pick up a microphone” Time Out, London
N
ovember’s comedy treats come in the shape of Jo Caulfield and Jarred Christmas, with another dose of Barnstormers Comedy thrown in for good measure. New to Salisbury Arts Centre, we set about finding out a bit more about the man with the wonderfully festive name! Jarred Christmas is a master storyteller and an energetic performer. His unique and larger than life persona has won him fans across the country, proving him to be one of the most likeable stars on the circuit. He has earned a whole host of accolades including a Chortle Award and has catapulted him to the forefront of our TV screens in shows such as Mock The Week (BBC2), Never Mind the Buzzcocks (BBC2) 8 out of 10 Cats, (Channel 4), Argumental (Dave), One Night Stand (Dave) and Let’s Dance for Comic Relief (BBC 1). His radio credits include Act Your Age (BBC Radio 4), and Flight of the Conchords (BBC Radio 2).
His show, SNAFU, is packed with jokes, chaos and a bit of dance. It’s a free wheeling comedic thrill ride as he takes questions from the audience that will determine the course of the show. It has already won him the coveted “Fred Award” for best stand up show in the New Zealand International Comedy Festival 2013.
Jarred Christmas: ‘SNAFU’ Saturday 30 November 8pm Tickets: £12 / £10 concessions (Members: £11 / £9)
Jo Caulfield: ‘Better the Devil You Know’ Friday 8 November 8pm Tickets: £13 / £11 concessions (Members: £12 / £10)
Barnstormers Comedy Friday 29 November 8.30pm Tickets: £12 / £11 concessions / £13 on the door (Members: £11 / £10)
Tea Dance With the FB Pocket Orchestra
W
e step back in time this month with the glorious sounds of the 1920s and 1930s. Dig out your dancing shoes. It’s time for a nice cup of tea and some good old-fashioned dancing fun. Music Programmer Thomas Brooman told us more:
What gave you the idea of a Sunday afternoon Tea Dance? My uncle used to be the organist on Margate Pier, entertaining holiday makers at the resort every summer. They had regular Tea Dances there on a Sunday afternoon and I have very fond memories of those holiday afternoons. Where did you first hear The FB Pocket Orchestra? Gemma told me about the FB Pocket Orchestra and I just took a look at the FB website and loved what I saw. What kind of music can we expect from the group? The Orchestra play a really entertaining mix of hot jazz, blues, ragtime and popular dances from the 1920’s and 1930’s...Yes Sir That’s My Baby! Do you have any dance tips for us? Perhaps best to put your cup of tea down before heading gently for the dance floor!
The FB Pocket Orchestra Tea Dance Sunday 24 November 2.30pm Tickets: £5 / £4 concessions (Members: £4 / £3)
November Diary Friday 1
Seckou Keita and Catrin Finch
music
Saturday 2
Near Gone & The Buttercup
theatre/dance
Sunday 3
Big Band Brunch with GOJO
music
Thursday 7
Populaire
film
Friday 8
Jo Caulfield ‘Better the Devil You Know’
comedy
Saturday 9
MET Opera: Puccini’s Tosca
opera
Sunday 10
Live Lunch: The Langfords
music/café
Wednesday 13 Café LUA
café
Friday 15
Practice
theatre/dance
Saturday 16
Sita’s Story
family
Saturday 16
Altar Club featuring King Prawn
music
Monday 18
Much Ado About Nothing
film
Tuesday 19
Magic Lantern
film/café
Wednesday 20 Lau
music
Friday 22
Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman
music
Sunday 24
Tea Dance
music/café
Thursday 28
Chelsea Hotel
dance
Friday 29
Barnstormers Comedy
comedy
Saturday 30
Contemporary Craft Fair
craft fair
Saturday 30
Jarred Christmas ‘SNAFU’
comedy
PLUS One-off Workshops and Workshop Courses Full programme details available at www.salisburyartscentre.co.uk or you can contact the Box Office on 01722 321744.