Listen Now
Theatrevoice Podcast« What's this?
- Focus on publishing (1/2). Theatre book publisher Nick Hern, whose company celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, talks to Aleks Sierz about the highs and lows of the business.
“In 1993, I set up in my back bedroom, classic small publishing stuff, and with the help of a loan from a friend.”
- Recording Date: 04-Jul-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (23.16Mb)
- Focus on publishing (2/2). Theatre book publisher Nick Hern, whose company celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, talks to Aleks Sierz about the highs and lows of the business.
“There is a nexus of plays that do very well - they are all about issues and are greatly liked by schools because they have no sex or violence.”
- Recording Date: 04-Jul-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (18.66Mb)
- Interview: Gregory Burke. The playwright talks to Philip Fisher about his mega-hit Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland, 2006), which has just marched triumphantly into London's Barbican theatre, on its world tour.
“The show has been to some unconventional venues, such as an old industrial shed in Pitlochry and a school gym in Aberdeen.”
- Recording Date: 01-Jul-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (25.35Mb)
- West End Review - Summer 2008: a bumper crop of shows are covered in this last edition before the summer break. Revenger's Tragedy (National), Afterlife (National), The Chalk Garden (Donmar Warehouse) & Black Watch (Barbican). Charles Spencer, David Benedict and John Nathan assess. Mark Shenton hosts. Recorded at Dewynters, London.
“Michael Grandage is now our best director it seems to me - he so rarely puts a foot wrong. Will The Chalk Garden transfer? If it doesn't there's something really sick in the West End.”
- Recording Date: 27-Jun-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (32.13Mb)
- Interview: Andy Arnold. The artistic director of the Tron, in Glasgow, talks to Mark Brown about his ambitions for the theatre, his long stewardship of The Arches and thoughts on the Scottish theatre scene.
“It's by no means 'out of the woods' in terms of there being a more secure base for the development of Scottish arts. It's got a long way to go.”
- Recording Date: 09-Jun-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (24.01Mb)
- Interview: Mike Alfreds (1/2). The legendary director talks to Aleks Sierz about his new book on acting, Different Every Night (Nick Hern), and remembers his experiences of heading Shared Experience from 1975 until 1988.
- 1 comment
“Without actors, there is no theatre - the actors are what give theatre life, and my big thing is that theatre is live.”
- Recording Date: 27-Jun-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (23.92Mb)
- Interview: Mike Alfreds (2/2). The legendary director talks to Aleks Sierz about his new book on acting, Different Every Night (Nick Hern), and remembers his experiences of heading Shared Experience from 1975 until 1988.
“In rehearsal, instead of asking, what is that actor doing?, you should ask, what is that character doing?”
- Recording Date: 27-Jun-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (16.81Mb)
- Interview: Declan Donnellan. The artistic director of Cheek by Jowl talks to Heather Neill in detail about his production of Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida - presented as part of his company's residency programme at the Barbican.
“There's a marvellous essay by Nuttall - a great academic - in a book called Shakespeare the Thinker, where he makes the brilliant observation that Hamlet wrote Troilus and Cressida. If all criticism could be like that I'd be really happy.”
- Recording Date: 12-Jun-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (37.81Mb)
- Interview: Melly Still. The award-winning director and designer talks to Heather Neill in detail about Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy, revived at the National Theatre. More info: www.nationaltheatre.org.uk.
“He is satirising male-assumed supremacy. You get the feeling with Middleton that he thinks justice is a woman.”
- Recording Date: 13-Jun-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (34.03Mb)
- Interview: Catherine Johnson. The mega-successful playwright/ creative force behind the international smash-hit Abba musical Mamma Mia! talks to Philip Fisher ahead of the show's big-screen release.
“As I read along with the lyrics I could feel the story somehow coming to life - if it hadn't been for the lyrics, the story wouldn't have that shape.”
- Recording Date: 05-Jun-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (17.72Mb)
- Shakespeare: The Merry Wives of Windsor. Director Christopher Luscombe talks to Heather Neill about staging Shakespeare's bourgeois comedy at the Globe - and the play's affinities with British sitcoms such as Fawlty Towers. More info: www.shakespeares-globe.com.
“The play is often called a sitcom - that can be a glib comment - but I think there's nothing to be ashamed of in that comparison.”
- Recording Date: 29-May-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (19.79Mb)
- Interview: Steve Waters (1/2). The playwright tells Aleks Sierz about his new play, Fast Labour (Hampstead/West Yorks Playhouse), which is about Victor, a migrant worker from the Ukraine.
“If the play is seen as being just about East Europeans in Britain, it's failed - it's about how we now live and work.”
- Recording Date: 03-Jun-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (23.57Mb)
- Interview: Steve Waters (2/2). The playwright tells Aleks Sierz about his running of the MPhil in Playwriting at Birmingham University, and discusses the state of new writing in Britain today.
“There is an eclecticism and diversity, and a real desire to tell quite big stories, which I find particularly refreshing.”
- Recording Date: 03-Jun-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (10.23Mb)
- Interview: Neil LaBute. The top American playwright and director talks to Philip Fisher about his controversial new play, Fat Pig (Trafalgar Studios), his career in film, the joys and perils of New York theatre, and his upcoming Reasons To Be Pretty on Broadway.
“I go where the wind blows me: when I have a story that I'm happy with, I write it and hope it will be a good night out.”
- Recording Date: 28-May-2008
- Listen to this discussion NOW!
- Download and listen later (28.17Mb)