Hello and welcome to our weekly roundup of the top news from stage and screen. The week just gone saw the first Debut Awards from The Stage, news of a gender-swapped Sondheim, buzz over a new British film, and good news for drama school applicants and opera lovers.
The Stage’s Debut Awards get their debut.
The first-ever Stage Debut Awards took place last Sunday, with winners being recognised as fresh talent in the theatre industry. Big names like Amber Riley and John Boyega were nominated but, in the end, the night was a celebration of the underdogs.
Andrew Polec of “Bat Out of Hell” took the prize for Best West End Debut, the only award open to a public vote. Fellow cast member Christine Bennington told the BBC that it just proves the show “has the best fans in the world”.
The top acting prizes, along with best director and writer, all belonged to productions in regional theatres aka there is life outside of London. Grace Moloney won Best Actress in a Play for her performance in “The Country Girls” at the Minerva Theatre in Chichester. Abraham Popoola won Best Actor in a Play for “Othello” at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol. Best Writer went to Katherine Soper for “Wish List” at the Royal Exchange, Manchester and Best Director to Lekan Lawal for “Betrayal” at Derby Theatre.
The next “Fleabag”?
“Daphne”, the debut feature film by Peter Mackie Burns, won’t be released until 29 Sept. but it’s already being hailed as the “breakthrough moment” for star Emily Beecham. The film has also been favourably called “another ‘Fleabag’ ” by the Guardian. The paper’s Zoe Williams heralds the story of a woman not doing so well as part of the golden age of alternative and interesting female roles.
Nico Mensinga’s script summons a character you wouldn’t want to have so much as a coffee with, according to Variety. But this hotly anticipated autumn hit-in-the-making looks to skip the critics and appeal to millennials struggling to make ends meet and work themselves out in an increasingly hostile London.
As for Emily Beecham, she’s originally from Manchester, trained at LAMDA, and has been working a gentle rise in British and American TV for the last decade. She had a brief moment with “The Calling”, a 2009 British indie-flick that won her a neat selection of independent and film festival awards. You might have spotted her as the studio starlet Diedre in the Coen Brother’s love letter to Hollywood “Hail, Caesar!” in 2016. Those this side of the Atlantic will have completely missed her as The Widow in AMC’s “Into the Badlands”, a martial arts heavy US series. “Daphne” looks set to deservedly raise her profile in the UK.
A Sondheim classic gets a gender switch twist.
Stephen Sondheim’s classic relationship musical “Company” is coming to London’s Gielgud theatre next year with a twist. The production, directed by Marianne Elliott (“War Horse”, “Curious Incident”), doesn’t follow 35-year-old singleton Bobby as he’s unable to hold down a girlfriend. Instead, it’s a gender-swapped cast and story, the very first allowed by Sondheim.
Starring Patti LuPone and Rosalie Craig, the production has only been created due to Sondheim’s great trust in Elliott. Ahead of an event at the National Theatre’s run of his musical “Follies”, he called her “one of the greatest directors in the world”. Previously, Sondheim has only accepted minor revisions to his musicals.
The last major revival of “Company” in London was Sam Mendes’ 1995 production at the Donmar Warehouse starring Adrian Lester as the first black actor to play Bobby in a professional production. Elliott’s production runs at the Gielgud from 26 Sept. 2018.
Students can now audition from home.
A London drama school has followed the advice of Equity’s 2016 review of audition fees and Labour’s Acting Up report and will allow prospective students to self-tape rather than travel to London for auditions. The Musical Theatre Academy, based in Tottenham, is encouraging applicants to record their initial audition by partnering with the self-tape app Shoot Me!. In a bid to reduce the often prohibitive costs associated with applying to train, the self-tape is a first step for the school. It enables them to see if the applicant should progress to a full-day audition costing £45.
More information about the application process can be found on MTA’s website.
It’s BBC opera season.
The BBC announced a multi-platform collaboration with the Royal Opera House and The V&A as part of its Opera Season this autumn. In development for the past three years, programmes will take audiences behind the scenes to explore the social, political, and historical context of major works, and will also place recordings of world-class operas centre stage on TV, radio, and online.
The season aims to open opera up to a wider audience and celebrate the ROH as one of the internationally recognised homes of the artform as well as artists old and new. More info and the trailer here.
That’s all for this week. Keep in touch with your own news and we’ll be back next week with another roundup.
Check out Backstage’s London audition listings!