University of Bedfordshire Theatre Spring 2014 Programme

Theatre – Dance – Comedy – Music – Poetry – Family

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

February - April 2014

Arts and Culture Bedford and Luton

Come and see‌

Theatre Pages 5, 8 and 10

Research Page 8

Dance Pages 4, 7, 10 and 11

Family

Comedy

Pages 12 and 13

Page 6

Poetry Page 9

Ticket and Venue information

University of Bedfordshire Theatre

Contact the University box office:

Polhill Avenue, Bedford MK41 9EA

Tel: 01234 793197

Parking: free onsite parking available during evenings and weekends.

Email: boxoffice@beds.ac.uk Visit: www.beds.ac.uk/theatre Twitter: @UoBarts Facebook: /uobtheatre

University of Bedfordshire University Square, Luton LU1 3JU Parking: for Luton venues use town centre car parks

Ticket prices vary and concessions are available. Concession prices are for those over 60 or under 18 years of age, unemployed, people with a registered disability, and students (evidence is required on arrival).

Welcome Spring is a very busy time in the academic life of the University as students prepare for exams and assessments. Our dance students at both undergraduate and Master’s level are preparing to tour their companies to present the work they have developed with leading professional choreographers. This gives them essential experience of working in the arts sector and we are delighted to offer you the opportunity to see this work in a series of preview events in Bedford and Luton.

Our performing arts and theatre students are also very busy devising and rehearsing the work that they will present for assessment in the University Theatre and they too have the opportunity to work with professional practitioners who are active and well regarded in the industry.

Dr Daniel Bye, Lecturer in Theatre at the University enjoyed excellent reviews when he previewed his latest show at the Edinburgh Festival, so we are proud to be bringing How To Occupy an Oil Rig here in March as part of an extensive National tour. This entertaining piece of new theatre explores the nature of democracy and will appeal to anyone who enjoys politics, stand-up or storytelling.

Our students also benefit from an active research culture within the University and the Junior Research Institute gives undergraduate students a chance to present their practice-led research to a wider audience in another TestBeds platform event that is open to all.

While students have a break over Easter, we are taking the opportunity to present a mini festival of family theatre exploring three very different approaches to presenting familiar children’s stories, so once again there is something for everyone in a packed programme of arts and culture at the University.

Professor Helen Bailey Acting Executive Dean of Partnerships

4

Dance

SHIFT Dance: Double Bill ‘IN C’ / I FEEL A NEED Monday 24 February, 7pm, Judith Blake Theatre, University of Bedfordshire, Luton Wednesday 12 March, 7pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £5, Concessions £3

Postgraduate students of the University of Bedfordshire form a dance company as part of their Master‘s programme and work with leading choreographers to create and tour work nationally.

Photo by Rachel Cherry

‘In C’, choreographed by Matteo Fargion and the dancers, is a direct translation into movement of the iconic minimalist work of the same name by American composer Terry Riley, made in 1964.

I feel a need by Annie Pui Ling Lok, takes its title from one of Dan Hayhurst’s tape loop compositions and reflects the collaged and repetitive nature of the sound score.

A Real Movement: Double Bill SWELL THE QUAKE / SIX Wednesday 26 February, 7pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £5, Concessions £3

A Real Movement is a company of dance students from Coventry University. They will present a double bill of new work choreographed by Florence Peake and Amy Voris.

Age guidance 16+

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

5

Theatre

Where it was. There it was.

DIVADLO THEATRE Wednesday 5 March, 7pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £8, Concessions £5

Two sides of the same coin… this is Rub and Lic’s world. Their world is weird and wonderful. In this transient, momentary world they try to hold on to one another, to keep their idea of reality when everything else is disturbed. In a physically sticking, hissing and crackling piece of theatre the moments of silence loom large.

Immerse and escape with Rub and Lic to the place where dreams are made and fade away in a heartbeat.

Emma Matthews and Michal Spisiak met and formed Divadlo Theatre when studying at the University of Bedfordshire and graduated in 2013. Coming from contrasting parts of Europe – the UK and Slovakia, they present work that attempts to circumnavigate the unreliability of spoken language by using their physicality to deliver the performance.

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

6

Comedy ARC Stockton presents

How to Occupy an Oil Rig

by Daniel Bye (with additional material devised by the company) Friday 7 March, 7.30pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £10, Concessions £7

There are all sorts of lessons to be learned in life.

How to get served at the bar.

How to crash a boardroom meeting.

How to avoid becoming romantically attached to an undercover police officer.

That sort of thing.

In this playful and provocative show about protest, you’ll learn how to do all of this and more. Funny, surprising, and not a little sad, How to Occupy an Oil Rig is for everyone who ever wanted to change anything. And that’s everyone. You get to play with plasticine, too.

Daniel Bye is a Lecturer in Theatre at the University of Bedfordshire.

Age guidance 13+

“**** A funny real and touching [...] demonstration about demonstrating... more of my busy, impatient and sceptical generation should go – to understand and salute the idealism, courage and naivety of youth.” The Times “Daniel Bye’s invigorating and playful How to Occupy an Oil Rig is both beautiful and wants to change the world.”

Guardian

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

7

Theatre and Dance

New Media Sunday 16 March, 12 noon, University of Bedfordshire – studio P0.54, Bedford Tickets: £5, Concessions £3

Second Year Performing Arts students present a digital media installation using projection and film.

Showcase: University Dance Company Tuesday 18 March, 7.30pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £5, Concessions £3

Undergraduate students become a dance company as part of their degree programme in Dance and Professional Practice and work with professional choreographers to create and present new work.

In this showcase they will perform four works

by Sadie Hunt, Rachel Farrer, Kirsty Russell and Tamara Ashley.

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

8

Research

Theatre

Junior Testbeds VIII

No Time Like Now

Wednesday 19 March, 7.30pm, University of Bedfordshire Studio Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £5, Concessions £3

Now in its fifth year, the Junior Research Institute continues to provide research opportunities to undergraduate students and TestBeds gives a performance platform to students who have successfully applied to engage in an independent practice-led research project. The evening includes dance, performance and theatre work.

Friday 21 March, 6.30pm, University of Bedfordshire Studio Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £5, Concessions £3

In ‘No Time like Now’, Breakthrough Theatre Company have invited their board members, families and friends to an ‘open season’ event to watch the company rehearse their adaptation of J. B. Priestley’s classic, Time and The Conways. Things don’t go to plan as personal egos and entrenched interests surface; Sammy, the company’s new assistant director is determined to settle personal scores with the manager/director and some of the actors/actresses by using the performance to comment on existential time and class relationships as well as to impress the Board of his superior talent.

Whose vision should the company’s adaptation of Time and The Conways be; Sammy’s or that of opinionated performers who don’t see his point?

And what will Breakthrough Theatre Company’s Board, families and friends make of the happenings ‘back-stage’ as the company performs relationships between its different members, all intertwined in their adaptation of Priestley’s Time and The Conway?

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

9

Poetry

Dead Poets MARK GRIST and MC MIXY Thursday 20 March, 7.30pm, The Lounge, University of Bedfordshire, Luton (use Students Union entrance in St Anne’s Road) Tickets: £10, Concessions £7

Dead Poets tells the true story of Mark, a former English teacher from Peterborough, as he attempts to compete on the hip hop battle circuit (chalking up over 3 million YouTube hits along the way). In contrast, MC Mixy’s story explores whether an MC can be accepted

by Peterborough’s poetry community. Throughout the show, the two wordsmiths combine their art forms to create a unique fusion of hip hop and poetry.

Dead Poets will take audiences of all ages on a journey from the classroom to nightclub in just under an hour. Packed with witty wordplay, laugh out loud humour and overflowing creative energy, Mark and Mixy will make you see poetry and hip hop in a completely different light. “****A funny and insightful combination of two art forms that have much in common, but are rarely seen in the same room… By the end you’ll see both rap and poetry as entertaining, uplifting and freeing styles of storytelling united by their potential.” Scotsman “Absolute Dynamite!” Steve Merchant, Radio 6 Music

Age guidance 16+

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

10

Dance

Theatre

Performance Showcase

Our Punk Prayer

Thursday 27, Friday 28, Saturday 29 March, 7.30pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford

Tickets: £5, Concessions £3

Tickets: £5, Concessions £3

Third year Performing Arts students showcase their individual work in dance technique and choreography and perform as a company in new works created by visiting artists Annie Pui Ling Lok and Rhiannon Faith.

Wednesday 2 April, 7.30pm, University of Bedfordshire Studio Theatre, Bedford

First Year Performing Arts students and visiting artist Rhiannon Faith give a devised performance based on current socio-political issues and presenting the courage of artists in the punk rock band Pussy Riot.

Age guidance 16+ Photo by Igor Mukhin

Love and Information

BY CARYL CHURCHILL Thursday 3 and Friday 4 April, 7.30pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £5, Concessions £3

In a different devised interpretation each evening, of Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, Second Year Performing Arts students and visiting artist Rhiannon Faith create a snapshot of how we live.

Age guidance 16+

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

11

Research dancedigital in partnership with the University of Bedfordshire presents

Mobilities: the dance digital festival 25-27 April University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford and other locations in Bedford

Dancedigital, the leading UK dance and technology organisation, presents a festival of digital dance performance that will showcase works created by dancedigital catalyst and associate artists. The current dancedigital theme, Mobilities, offers opportunity to consider how digital technologies transform experiences of the mobile in new choreographies that may be located on stage, online or on the ground.

Audiences can participate in the whole festival and conference or chose to attend individual events and performances. For further details, visit the festival website at www.dancedigital. org.uk Friday 25 April Digital Futures in Dance: A day of events and performances that focus on Youth Dance, Students and Emerging Artists.

Saturday 26 – Sunday 27 April Main Performance Festival and Conference featuring work by Tim Casson, Marguerite Caruana Galizia, Luke Pell and Jo Verrent, Annie Lok, Marlon Barrios Solano, Anthony Lilley, Nina Martin and more!

Image by Marguerite Caruana Galizia

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

12

Family

Family Theatre Festival During the Easter school holidays we are delighted to present a mini festival of family theatre. Taking as our theme the retelling of familiar stories, we present three very different approaches to bringing these tales to the stage.

Red Table Theatre presents

The Just So Stories

by Rudyard Kipling Sunday 6 April, 11am and 2pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £8, Concessions £5

In their highly-acclaimed production of The Just So Stories, Red Table Theatre brings four of Rudyard Kipling’s best-beloved tales to vivid life.

Everyday items from a dusty attic transmogrify into fantastical creatures and places, bringing these classic stories to life through discovered play.

Bring your children and find out from The Just So Stories why the moon pulls the tides, why the camel has a hump, why the whale no longer eats men (or women, or little boys and girls), and the reason why the elephant’s nose is so long.

“***** In the same way that they make a dull piece of tarpaulin into the waves of an ocean, they have changed slightly old-fashioned tales into something pulsing with life.” Broadway Baby

Photo by Giles Golding

“The Just So Stories were terrific yesterday.

My boy was captivated.” Shappi Khorsandi

Age guidance 4+

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

13

Family Circo Ridiculoso presents

Three Little Pigs CREATED AND PERFORMED BY DANNY SCHLESINGER Monday 7 April, 2pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £8, Concessions £5 Photo by Dave Pickens

An innovative retelling of the classic Three Little Pigs; Danny has been delivered a storytelling kit in a crate. All the props for the story are contained within ... or are they?

Danny has to try against the odds to enact the story, without making a pig’s ear of it. He will recount the curly tale with lots of huff, puff and you’ll be blown away by his inimitable and hilarious physical comedy, circus skills and sheer pig-headedness. “ ...a master of his art...“ Uktheatre.net “An undoubted joy for all the family.”

The Scotsman

Age guidance 3+ (warning loud balloon pops!)

Lyngo Theatre presents

Jack and the Beanstalk

BY MARCELLO CHIARENZA , ADAPTED AND PERFORMED BY PATRICK LYNCH Thursday 10 April, 11am and 2pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £8, Concessions £5

Fee Fi Fo Fum! It’s a giant of a show, we’d love you to come!

This classic fairytale now gets the Lyngo treatment so expect lots of surprises, a gripping story and beautiful images as Jack sells his cow for 5 magic beans and finds himself in the land above the clouds. It’s a show for the over 3’s (and their giants) with something for everyone – enormous shoes, tiny houses, showers of silver and gold and a big, leafy explosion!

“Lyngo knows the score when it comes to producing theatre for the very young.“ The Stage Photo © Alex Brenner

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

Age guidance 3+

01234 793197

14

Music

Classical Fusion Symphonia Academica Sunday 4 May, 7.30pm, University of Bedfordshire Theatre, Bedford Tickets: £10, Concessions £7

Dance students from the University of Bedfordshire and Luton Sixth Form College will perform new works choreographed to live music in a unique collaboration with Symphonia Academica, one of the country’s most exciting classical ensembles. Please see our website for full details of this event and the pieces of classical music included in the programme.

This event is particularly suitable for families and for young people undertaking an Arts Award.

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

15 Stage Experience Presents

Milton Keynes Theatre Creative Learning department is thrilled to announce it will once again be producing Stage Experience with the Broadway hit The Wiz. The new musical version of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum. Winner of 7 Tony awards, this beloved Broadway musical sets Dorothy's adventures in the Land of Oz to music in a dazzling, lively mixture of rock, gospel, and soul!

The Wiz will feature a talented cast of 100 local performers all aged between 10-21 years who, led by our team of industry professionals and live orchestra, will take to the Milton Keynes Theatre stage this summer, not to be missed.

Fri 8 – Sat 9 Aug 2014 Fri – Sat eves 7pm, Sat mat 2pm Tickets £14-£16* 0844 871 7652 (bkg fee) www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes (bkg fee)

sponsored by

*When booked in person. For full details of pricing please visit the Box Office in person, online at www.atgtickets.com/miltonkeynes or call 0844 871 7652

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

01234 793197

Arts and Culture Bedford and Luton

www.beds.ac.uk/theatre

Diary February to April 2014 Monday 24 February

SHIFT Dance: Double Bill

Luton

Wednesday 26 February

A Real Movement: Double Bill

Bedford

Wednesday 5 March

Where it was. There it was

Bedford

Friday 7 March

How to Occupy an Oil Rig

Bedford

Wednesday 12 March

SHIFT Dance: Double Bill

Bedford

Sunday 16 March

New Media

Bedford

Tuesday 18 March

Showcase: University Dance Company

Bedford

Wednesday 19 March

Junior Testbeds VIII

Bedford

Thursday 20 March

Dead Poets

Luton

Friday 21 March

No Time Like Now

Bedford

Thursday 27 - Saturday 29 March

Performance Showcase

Bedford

Wednesday 2 April Our Punk Prayer

Bedford

Thursday 3 - Friday 4 April

Love and Information

Bedford

Sunday 6 April

The Just So Stories

Bedford

Monday 7 April

Three Little Pigs

Bedford

Tursday 10 April

Jack and the Beanstalk

Bedford

Friday 25 - Sunday 27 April

Mobilities Festival

Bedford

Theatre – Dance – Comedy – Research – Poetry – Family

www.beds.ac.uk /theatre

01234 793197