Archive for January, 2009

Slung Low Wins The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award

Founded to help the development of emerging practitioners in the field of experimental theatre, The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2008 has been awarded to Slung Low for their new show ‘Helium’. The winner was chosen from four finalists who were given the opportunity to research and develop their productions. The results of this research and development were presented to a panel of judges last Friday at the Barbican. Slung Low will receive a total grant of £29,500 for the production of ‘Helium’ which will run at the Barbican Pit as part of the BITE season for three weeks next Autumn.

Directed by Slung Low Artistic Director Alan Lane, ‘Helium’ exposes the ingenuity of the company’s theatre-making to its full extent. ‘Helium’ tells the story of a girl, Bella and her quest to discover her Grandfather’s hidden past and unfold the mysteries concealed by a helium balloon. Famed for their innovative story-telling, Slung Low have created a production staged in a series of 6 enclosed performance boxes, allowing each audience member to experience the show individually as they journey through the boxes, from the inside of a Lancaster Bomber, to a children’s birthday party in Victorian London and finally to high up in Dresden Cathedral. Despite the originality of the presentation, the story, Bella’s story, by Matthew David Scott and J C Marshall is central to the production. Designed by Marie Blunck, ‘Helium’ incorporates digital video by Ben Eaton with live performance, puppetry and radio drama techniques and features music by Heather Fenoughty and performance by Richard Warburton. ‘Helium’ is produced by Ben Pugh.

First launched in 2003, The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust (OSBTT) Award is an annual award which aims to encourage a new generation of creative artists working on bold, innovative and challenging projects. This year’s judging panel comprised Louise Jeffrey (Head of Theatre, Barbican), Felix Barrett (Artistic Director, Punch Drunk), Jasmin Vardimon (Artistic Director, Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company), Romilly Walton Masters (Director, OSBTT) and Graham Whybrow (former Literary Manager, Royal Court). The BITE season at the Barbican presents fresh new work that hovers on the very edges of classification, presenting cross-discipline work that fuses different artforms in unexpected ways and explores the possibilities of theatre to their full extent. 2008 sees the second year of a partnership between The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust and BITE.

Romilly Walton Masters, Director of OSBTT comments:
“The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award 2008 had a particularly strong short list which made choosing a final winner difficult. However, Slung Low with Helium, stood out as a production that was able to be innovative in its use of theatrical form while having at its heart a story which is both engaging and ambitious.”

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Posted by xblackmindx - January 21, 2009 at 5:59 pm

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London Fashion Week’s “Biggest” And Best Kept Secret

Jacob Kimmie, the self-proclaimed saviour of British fashion, has been cited as the ‘hot ticket’ at London Fashion Week by Creative Head magazine, after successfully launching his Spring/Summer 2009 collection off schedule in September 2008.

The catwalk show for ‘La Nuit Érotique’ welcomed an audience of an eclectic mix of Jacob’s fans including jazz singer Victoria Hart, classical group All Angels, BBC News presenter Simon McCoy and his news presenter wife Victoria Graham plus shoe designer extraordinaire Oliver Sweeney. WGSN comment that the ‘La Nuit Érotique’ collection is “exquisitely crafted and highly covetable – Kimmie is certainly one to keep an eye on”.

Jacob also made his presence known for the first time in Paris at the Vendôme luxury trade show at the beginning of October 2008. For the past two seasons Jacob has been bubbling under the surface having registered on the radar of the fashion industry after his Autumn/Winter catwalk debut during London Fashion Week in February 2008.

South African born and British and French influenced, Jacob has used his experiences and frustrations as inspiration for the signature look that has become known as the fashion label Jacob Kimmie. Jacob is a designer that sketches and sews. As a self-taught designer he can be found in his Birmingham studio hand stitching delicate chiffons and silks. Jacob prides himself on intricate craftsmanship, his latest collection features a dress which is hand stitched with 1.4 kilometres of ribbon and retails at £11,000 aimed at his growing private client list. His passion for forward fashion thinking and his ability to envisage aesthetically pleasing garments only makes Jacob’s pieces more appealing.

From the fluorescent yellow plastic meat packer’s suit which was used to make his first garment at the age of eleven, to the bubble wrap and shower curtain clothing he made for the underground rave scene, Jacob has always been aware of his talent. At the age of 34, Jacob may appear to be a newcomer in the eyes of the industry, but he certainly does not lack industry experience. Now, on the verge of 2008 Jacob Kimmie is the label that is setting the standard and raising the bar. Setting himself aside from his peers that are currently the ‘face’ of Britain’s newest designers, Jacob’s own self-assurance only adds to his ability to offer a fresh alternative to the world of fashion.

As the fashion industry currently suffers from “The Emperor’s New Clothes Syndrome” it is refreshing to see Jacob Kimmie bucking the trend with his designs and attitude. At 6’2” and weighing twenty two stone, Jacob’s physical stature matches his talent and his collections. As an individual Jacob is controversial, a person who is driven by anger and injustice. As a designer he is breaking the mould and rattling the cage, a British couturier building a British brand whilst wearing combat shorts and trainers.

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Posted by xblackmindx - January 11, 2009 at 5:56 pm

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Ronnie Barker’s Classic ‘Fork Handles’ Script To Go Under The Hammer

The actual hand-written script for arguably the greatest British comedy sketch of all time is to go under the hammer.

Written by Ronnie Barker in the 1970′s on 4 pages of A4 lined paper under his alias, Gerald Wiley, Fork Handles (or Four Candles) was first aired on The Two Ronnies show on September 4 1976 and has since gone down in TV comedy folklore as one of the truly iconic moments in television history.

Now, the sketch is to be auctioned by memorabilia specialist, The Original Memorabilia Company, and is expected to reach at least £50,000.

The script first came to light in 2006 on BBC1′s Antiques Roadshow. The BBC Antiques expert Mark Allen said “I literally can’t contain my excitement…I’m possibly about to hold something very historic…the thought that he actually sat down and wrote this is absolutely amazing”.

The BBC subsequently recorded a follow up with the greatest finds of the series and the script headlined the show with a five minute piece with Ronnie Corbett confirming its authenticity.” It was quite sweet for me to see his handwriting again… it certainly is his handwriting” said Ronnie Corbett.

For 30 years The Two Ronnies entertained us in a career spanning 98 television shows, 12 series, several Christmas specials and numerous ‘Sold Out’ London stage shows. Of all the sketches they ever performed, the British public voted ‘Fork Handles’ ‘The Greatest Sketch Of All Time’.

Peter Spicer from The Original Memorabilia Company, said: “The Two Ronnies are a national institution and Ronnie Barker, a comedy genius. We are absolutely thrilled to be auctioning his finest piece of work”. “To say this is the television equivalent of Lennon’s lyrics to ‘Imagine’ would not be an unreasonable comparison. We expect it to sell for at least £50,000″.

Away from the TV camera, Ronnie Barker was a very private person and would often decline requests for personal appearances, instead preferring to give personal items away. The Fork Handles script, or Annie Finkhouse to give it its original title, is one of a number of original items believed to have been given away by Ronnie Barker in the late 1970s, long before works of this type were regarded to have any value.

Ronnie Barker’s widow Joy, has also confirmed she does not have a hand-written copy of Fork Handles in her collection and was happy for this script to be sold.

Hand-written letters and personal documents continue to attract very large prices at auction. George Harrison’s handwritten lyrics to the Beatles’ song, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, fetched £152,552 in a US memorabilia auction. A letter of surrender signed by Irish rebel Padraig Pearse at the end of the 1916 uprising has sold for almost £500,000 at a Dublin auction and Marlon Brando’s personal copy of the screenplay for The Godfather went for £176,000.

The script is neatly written in red ink and takes up four sheets of A4.

For the uninitiated, the sketch features Ronnie Corbett as a shopkeeper in a hardware shop becoming increasingly frustrated by a customer, played by Ronnie Barker, because he continually misunderstands what the customer is requesting.

The auction of the Fork Handles sketch is to take place via the company’s website www.originalmemorabilia.co.uk with bids being accepted up to Thursday 20th December 2007 at 1700 hours GMT.

The Original Memorabilia Company specialise in high quality and unusual entertainment memorabilia and official signed limited editions from Fawlty Towers ‘The Germans’ and Tony Hancock’s ‘The Blood Donor’, to original 1966 stadium seating from the original Wembley stadium.

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Posted by xblackmindx - January 2, 2009 at 5:54 pm

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