Why Panto is so important…

It is Boxing Day morning here – and my thoughts are with the two panto teams and theatre staff, crew and volunteers who are heading to both Harrogate Theatre and The Core Theatre Solihull at the Artrix in Bromsgrove to put on two shows each today. Today across all those shows they will be playing to over 1500 people, children and their families will be enthralled, entertained and have their fill of ice cream and family fun.

I have thoroughly enjoyed directing both Dick Whittington at Harrogate Theatre and Jack and the Beanstalk at Artrix Theatre Bromsgrove.

Having worked as a director for many years, and indeed as an actor who has also performed in several Panto’s up and down the country I now realise how important an art form this really is. It is truly multi-generational, accessible theatre and it cuts across social and class boundaries like no other work does. Where else can you get three generations of families coming to engage in a piece of live entertainment – which has something for everyone and allows interaction, audience participation and you can wear your flashing Christmas jumpers and wave magic wands in the air all the way through?

What we as theatre makers have to remember is that this needs to be taken very seriously indeed. The production values, performances and effects need to be absolutely top notch. As there are people coming to the theatre for the very first time. It is vital that we can give them the most inspirational, magical and entertaining experience we can possibly give them.

I know this to be true from personal experience. My very first trip to the theatre was when I was 6 years old. I was taken by my grandmother who loved the theatre – and I remember sitting at the back of the stalls at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool. It was Babes in the Wood and had Ken Dodd in it who I loved as he was so funny and made the whole theatre roar with laughter. But it was the wicked fairy who really captured my imagination. Bathed in green light she was so magical and a little bit scary, but it was the connection I witnessed as she stood next to me at the back of the stalls that ignited my theatrical journey to this day. She was waiting for her entrance through the auditorium, at the back of the stalls she hadn’t got her green light on her, she was in her costume just waiting for her cue. She looked like a normal real person, not the fairy at all. Then the music started, she looked at me and winked and then the follow spot hit her and she transformed before my eyes into the fairy. How did she do that? What made that happen? I saw it happen, We had shared that connection and from that day I knew I wanted to know what made that work and how you did it!

So started my journey as an actor and director. Which is why I know how important it is that we are able to recreate those magical moments and connections with this work. For all those children and their families for whom it is probably the first time they have ever set foot inside a theatre.

So the magic will continue today and every day until the end of the runs with everyone onstage and backstage and front of house all doing their very best to make shows and experience the best that is possible for our audiences. Panto is important – for lots of reasons not just for the theatres, but for the way it provides that accessible, multi-generational work that connects, inspires and allows us to share with each other a live human experience that is so vital for us all – especially now.

Have great shows and remember there is possibly a 6 year old child there in the audience who one might one day become a director!

Photos – Dick Whittington – Karl Andre. Jack and the Beanstalk – Robert Day

Pictures of the year 2021

In no particular order these things were some of the things that happened during 2021…

The ‘Our Town’ cast and team from Sheringham Little Theatre’s production.

Here are the brilliant team who created Our Town this July and August in Sheringham. 23 actors, 2 technicians, 1 stage manager, admin staff, directors, costume designers and makers, volunteers, cafe staff – a creative team making a very special show here in Sheringham at the Little Theatre. It was a pleasure and a privilege to work on this piece.

This was the perfect piece to open the theatre after months of lockdown. This Pulitzer prize winning play was adapted to North Norfolk and Grover’s Corners became Sheringham. The community cast from the town working alongside the professional team was a real joy to witness. The entire team was from East Anglia and all the cast from Norfolk and Suffolk. This meant a real connection to the work as well as the town and also the opportunity to create and make a new piece together that highlighted what it means to be alive. How we have to make the most of each and every moment of our lives. The making of this play was filled with such moments as the cast and team came together to make something truly special for, by and with the people of Sheringham.

Photos by Mark Benfield. Megan Artherton and Marcus Romer

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Making a new #theatre production of #TWO using a zoom rehearsal process and a shorter rehearsal time in the theatre.

Howard Saddler and Joyce Branagh as Fred and Alice in Two – photo by Mark Benfield

I have just directed a new version of Jim Cartwright’s play, TWO with two brilliant actors – Joyce Branagh and Howard Saddler. This was produced by St George’s Theatre using their Cultural Recovery Fund money. We teched, dressed and opened the show at St George’s Theatre – and then moved the show to run at Sheringham at the Little Theatre who again supported the project.

Howard Saddler and Joyce Branagh as Landlord and Landlady in TWO photo by Mark Benfield

Like ‘Ghosted’ the previous project I made with the same production team, I rehearsed for a month with the cast on zoom prior to us getting together in the actual theatre. This worked well for the monologues and for the work on character development – and enabled the actors to ‘get off book’ and know their lines prior to us meeting in person.

Howard Saddler and Joyce Branagh as Roy and Lesley – photo by Mark Benfield

We had a three day rehearsal time prior to a technical and dress rehearsal day. This is of course a really short amount of time in which to get the show on its feet. It is a testament to the skill and expertise of the actors to enable us to make this deadline – which we did and opened the show the following day as per the schedule. The fact that the actors were ‘off book’ meant we could work fast and build the interaction scenes between the characters. A bit like being on a film set and working each scene in detail. This of course meant all the mimed props and ‘geography’ of each scene needed meticulous planning and rehearsal to cement the text and character into the environments for each of these sections. This takes time and focus – and again thanks to the skill of Joyce and Howard we were able to block these out and work through them in the time.

Joyce Branagh and Howard Saddler as Maudie and Moth – photo by Mark Benfield

I had chosen to play the piece in a socially distanced ‘cabaret’ style using the actual theatre bar. So the audience would be in the pub with the actors and their characters. This worked incredibly well and the interaction between the cast and the audience was a real treat to observe.

The tech rehearsal at St George’s Theatre using the bar and the cabaret style set up. Katie Thompson Assistant Director and Joyce Branagh photo by Marcus Romer.

The planning of the production dated back to January this year when we knew we may or may not have been able to be fully open by the proposed June 21st date. This of course impacted on audience capacity for us as the social distancing rules were still in force. But we had not know this during our rehearsal time in April and May on our zoom schedule so we had to prepare the show regardless. So again in Sheringham the decision was made to move it to the theatre space to allow us to socially distance an audience capacity of 25%. This has been really hard on venues as clearly all our pre-production costs were the same to get the show ready for our June opening time. The show was really well received and played to capacity audiences at each venue.

It is again a big thanks to Theatre Director, Debbie Thompson who runs both venues in Norfolk, to support us as freelance theatre makers during this time. A big thanks also to the actors Joyce Branagh and Howard Saddler, the crew and tech team of Mark Benfield, Chris Sainton-Clark, Katie Thompson and the costumes by Libby Henshaw, and all the FOH team and volunteers at both venues.

So here are the photos from the production taken by Mark Benfield

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Pictures and videos from the archive of shows I have directed – Lord of the Flies from 1998 – 2008

This was the show that took my work across the country for a period of 10 years. From 1998 – 2008 we made 5 separate productions of this that played over 960 performances in almost every theatre in the country to audiences in excess of 500,000.

We had 5 casts that overlapped as the shows progressed and we co-produced with Lyric Hammersmith, York Theatre Royal to first deliver this with Pilot Theatre back in 1998.

The show toured across the UK and we even tool it to Bermuda to their International Theatre festival. It also played versions across Europe as part of EU collaborative projects.

The crashed aeroplane set was designed by Ali Allen and Marise Rose – and its multi-functional use became a real trademark for the show. This was combined with the first full soundtrack composed by Sandy Nuttgens which underscored the entire piece. Again a first for this kind of work.

We used projection and titles from the first production again giving the pice a cinematic feel. The full soundtrack and moving shapes from the plane were combined with real elements too. We had two real fireboxes on stage that really created a sense of danger.

The show itself was a series of controlled danger moments. With falls and crashes and swinging metal from the structure, as the actors leapt over flames and slid down the structures that they beat with metal bars.

The rotting pig’s head at the start of Act 2 with Simon ( played by Neville Robinson)

Phillip Dinsdale as Jack

The use of blood, water and fire and a pulsing soundtrack ensures that there were moments of adrenaline rush in the audience that could tip to a moment of pin drop silence, when we killed the soundtrack dead – as the motionless body of Simon hung limply from the edge of the wing section.

Neville Hutton as Piggy

The bullying and baying of the characters whipped the story to its terrifying climax – as we flew in a ‘helicopter’ effect to blind the audience as we dropped in a parachting SAS officer.

This show always worked incredibly well for the audience of young people who had sometimes been reluctantly dragged along to see their set text piece of work. As a director I wanted to ensure that they witnessed something they would never have seen before. And to ensure that they would not be bored and there would be scenes that would burn into their memory by the sheer audacity of the action in front of them.

QUOTES & REVIEWS

“William Golding meets Quentin Tarantino”

The Financial Times

“Brilliantly evoked…see it and weep”

Time Out

“Terrifying and exhilarating production…heart stopping”

The Guardian

“Visceral production…thrillingly choreographed”

The Independent

“Brilliant – Stunning production…superb ensemble…skilful direction, if you see nothing else, see this.”

Manchester Evening News

“This is a superb production of which everyone involved can be proud”

The Scotsman

Directed by Marcus Romer

Designed by Ali Allen and Marise Rose

Soundtrack by Sandy Nuttgens

Lighting design by James Farncombe

AV Arnim Friess

Movement Hannah Priddle / Gill wright / Faroque Khan

Relights James Molyneux

Photos Simon Warner

 

The trailer made by AGE from New York back in 1999 – before Theatres did trailers…

 

 

Thanks to all the actors and creative practitioners and office staff who worked on this project over the many years. It was a great show and was great fun to make.

Marcus Romer – Director / Filmmaker / Speaker /

Director / Filmmaker / Speaker

Marcus’ work has spanned three decades in theatre, film, television and consultancy in the Arts.

He was Artistic Director of the award-winning National Touring Theatre Company Pilot Theatre from 1993 to 2016. He directed work across in the UK, throughout Europe and in Argentina. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA).

Marcus has collected three Manchester Evening News Theatre Awards for his productions of Lord of the Flies and Beautiful Thing. Marcus’ adaptation of Looking for JJ won the UK Theatre award for best production for young people.

He is a freelance director and was interim Artistic Director at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds from July 2019 – June 2020 where he directed Pride and Prejudice, Peter Pan and Shirley Valentine.

He is currently a founding Artist of Mutiny Projects who made #Covid19Threads and are currently developing #LocusSolus a digital performance platform on Roblox with Simon Poulter and Sophie Mellor.

He is a published playwright. Marcus wrote the screenplay for The Knife That Killed Me (2014) from the novel by Anthony McGowan. He co-directed the film for Universal Pictures.

He was an Associate Artist at Theatre Royal Stratford East from 2016 – 2018. He has also been an Associate Artist for Harrogate Theatre since September 2017. For both of these organisations he Produced Livestream theatre projects into health care settings for The Space.

In 2018 Marcus directed for National Theatre Wales, where he developed part of their project, NHS70 – As Long as the Heart Beats.

In 2019 Marcus directed ‘Let the Right One In’ for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and ‘Justice 39’ for the People Power Passion project with Revoluton Arts in Luton.

Marcus is a TEDster, class of 2007 / 2011 / 2013. Participating in the conferences encouraged him to set up the annual conference to discuss technology and the arts, ‘Shift Happens’. He has also hosted the TEDxYork conference, and co-created No Boundaries for Arts Council England in 2014 and 2015.

He provides training and consultancy to Arts organisations, companies and individuals with online mentoring and directing. He is a mentor for the Colchester Mercury Creatives.

Marcus has also worked as an actor and has appeared in several long running series and TV films – including Prime Suspect, Dalziel and Pascoe, Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Heartbeat, Hillsborough and The Bill.

For detail about his work please see below – or email him for more information

marcusromeruk@gmail.com

 

FILM

 

Marcus wrote the screenplay for the film, adapting the book by Anthony McGowan. He co-directed the film with Kit Monkman.

The Knife That Killed Me was released by Universal Pictures.

It was ranked #10 in the Top Thirty Films of the Year (2014) by the Huffington Post.

“…like a hi-tech version of Lars von Trier’s Dogville” The Guardian

“Easily one of the best films of the year” Huffington Post

“Alive with visual intention” Empire

“an experimental British drama… with a densely intensive visual verve.” The Times

 

THEATRE

 

Marcus was the interim Artistic Director at Theatre Royal Bury St Edmunds from July 2019 – June 2020.  He was an Associate Artist at Theatre Royal Stratford East from 2016 – 2018. He was also a Producer for Collusion, Harrogate Theatre, and a director for Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. . Marcus was Artistic Director at the award-winning National Touring Theatre Company Pilot Theatre from 1993 to 2016. He has directed work across in the UK, throughout Europe, and in Argentina, including national touring productions of: Antigone, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Romeo and Juliet, Lord of the Flies, Beautiful Thing, Sing Yer Heart Out For The Lads, Looking for JJ, Road, The Fever Chart, Bloodtide, and Rumble Fish.

In 2018 Marcus developed and directed ‘As Long As The Heart Beats’ for National Theatre Wales, as part of their NHS 70 project. He also developed the first Active Reality project ‘Reveal’ with Simon Poulter for Collusion.

Pride and Prejudice:
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a good production of Pride & Prejudice must capture not only the elegance and era of Jane Austen, but also the intelligence and wit. Director Marcus Romer and his talented cast have managed to do all of that and more in the clever new adaptation.” East Anglia Daily Times

Let The Right One In
“It’s only mid-February but we may already have a show of the year on our hands with Bristol Old Vic Theatre School’s exquisite production of Let The Right One In. Brutal, terrifying and tender, Marcus Romer’s production catches all the winter chill of its Nordic setting, its gothic horror gradually intensifying as its young protagonists Oskar and Eli discover common ground in a small little town where a spate of murders leaves everyone on edge.” The Bristol Post *****

As Long as the Heart Beats:
“If there is one stand-out message from National Theatre Wales’ NHS70 programme, it’s the fact that the institution thrives because of the people who keep it moving. Examples of this are given through the five one-act plays commissioned for the season, but it is this promenade production that really drives the point home. Borne out of real experiences people have shared, As Long as the Heart Beats is a beautifully captured snapshot of life inside an NHS hospital, and the people responsible for making it so.” Wales Arts Review

Antigone:
“The 90 minutes of the single-act play gallop along towards the tragic finale. A young audience absolutely lapped it up.” The Independent ****

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
“Flawlessly directed by Marcus Romer and stylishly designed by Lydia Denno, the discussion this show will provoke will run and run” The Observer

Sing yer heart out for the lads
“…the production seems to have everything: pace, precision, power. The result is sensational” The Guardian ****

Looking For JJ
“This is a genuinely important piece of theatre, every bit as thoughtful and demanding as its audience deserves” The Times

Lord of the Flies
“William Golding meets Quentin Tarantino” The Financial Times

Beautiful Thing
“engaging, sensitive and it does your old heart good” Yorkshire Post

Rumble Fish
“The show generates the kind of rapt attention in which you could hear a pin drop.” The Guardian

Road
“Superlative acting and a dynamic, inventive production by Marcus Romer that splices film footage and suitably atmospheric music into the action.” The Evening Standard

 

Consultant / Cultural Leader

Marcus has become a mainstay for arts organisations seeking to improve the way in which they approach technology. He has spoken at conferences in Venice, Beijing, Buenos Aires, Palm Springs, London, and across the UK. He has delivered projects and business and cultural development projects for Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre, Chichester Festival Theatre, Kettle’s Yard, Stephen Joseph Theatre, Theatre Peckham, Theatre Royal Stratford East.

2007 attended TED in California

2008 – 2013 created Shift Happens, a celebration of innovation and a forum for discussion for arts organisations across the UK. Speakers have included Ken Robinson, Clay Shirky, Howard Rheingold

2011 Hosted TedxYork

2014 Co-curated and hosted No Boundaries for Arts Council England and the British Council

2015 Co-hosted No Boundaries 2015

2016 Innovation Norway, conference in Tromsø, Norway

2016 Arctic Moving Image Film Festival, Harstadt, Norway

2017 European Theatre Convention, Karlsruhe, Germany

2017 UK Theatre Touring Symposium, London

2018 Mainframe Derby

2018 With Collusion in Cambridge Marcus produced projects in King’s Lynn and Bury St Edmunds. This included developing and creating ‘Reveal’ with Simon Poulter.

2019 Harstad Residency in Norway developing a new green screen project

To find out about working with Marcus as a speaker, contact him here.

 

Projects and Innovation

Through Pilot Theatre, and as a freelancer, Marcus has led many high profile arts events across the country:

The Great Exhibition of the North Marcus was on the bid writing team for The Great Exhibition of the North for Harrogate, and presented the bid for Bradford

HOME Created and delivered a new digital strategy for HOME in Manchester

ACE and Norwich City Council A research study for St. Andrews Halls in Norwich

Creative England Creative Director for the Eagle Lab Flight Programme in partnership with Barclays UK

International Indian Film Academy Awards Marcus and KMA created the opening event in 2007 at Sheffield Arena, for a live audience of 15,000 and a TV audience of 500 million

UNESCO Was part of the team that placed the winning bid to make York the UNESCO-designated ‘City of Media Arts’

Tour De France Organised the Cycle of Songs with HistoryWorksUK: the opening event of the Cambridge leg of the Tour de France 2014. The event featured a walking tour app that worked along the route of the race around the city with 9 originally commissioned songs geo-tagged to your location

Immersive Theatre Worked with SlungLow in August 2013 to produce Blood and Chocolate (pictured above), a fully immersive theatre show with 200+ actors that worked via headsets for all audience members and a walking tour across the city of York

Conferences Created the Shift Happens conferences, leading to the No Boundaries events to connect the Arts with technology and to shift thinking

Livestreaming Executed the first ever multi-camera livestream of the York Mystery plays, which enabled viewers to choose from 6 camera angles and to curate their own viewing for the BBC and The Space

Produced Reasons to be Cheerful by Graeae for The Space as a live to digital cinema release in 2018

Produced Theatre Royal Stratford East Christmas shows into Barts Health Trust as a livestream 2016 and 2017 for The Space

Produced Harrogate Theatre Jack and the Beanstalk – livestream to Harrogate NHS Foundation Trust for The Space

For more info please contact

marcusromeruk@gmail.com

Making and directing a piece of #ZoomTheatre across Norway during the #lockdown

Welcome to Radio Harstad…

Harstad is a beautiful town in the Arctic Circle, and I have been visiting and working there every year since 2016. I first went when my film was screened at the Arctic Moving Image Film Festival. I was invited by my now friend and colleague Helene Hokland who is the festival director and who also runs the lovely 1930’s cinema in the town. To screen The Knife That Killed Me – and to do a director’s Q and A. Also to run a workshop for the FHS in Harstad and their drama and performing arts students.

It was here that I was taken to the school at the north of the town, which runs from an enormous building that houses the students and staff. It is a one or two year residential course and the students come from all over Norway. It is a tertiary college and students range in age from 18 – 23. It has a drama and film black box studio, a recording studio as well as making spaces, large communal rooms and the most amazing view across the Fjords.

The Theatre Director is a wonderfully creative powerhouse and inspiring woman called Hege Fjeld who runs the course and leads the students. She has invited me back every year to work with her and her students and it is an immense privilege to do so. I normally spend a week working and making something with Hege and her students. This year of course is different. All the students are at home under lockdown across Norway from Alta in the very North to South of Oslo – a distance of over 1200 miles and 24 ours of driving. Norway is huge…So over the last week, Hege and I have been working remotely in Harstad and Cambridge and making and directing this piece together.

So we have spent last week for two hours a day meeting on Zoom and working through a script version of War of the Worlds that Hege has translated. Here you can see one of the students, Embla, presenting as the weather reporter for North Norway where you can see Harstad at 8 degrees on the West Coast.

We rehearsed the students together and individually on the Zoom platform. We used the additional backgrounds tool and were able to add in all the locations we needed for this first part of the project. You can see the Radio Harstad insert via green screen on the picture at the top too.

We chose the backgrounds carefully to allow the students to be placed in the locations for their direct to camera address. Part of the online rehearsal and work was about getting the light right, and also the capture device at eye level for the actors to rehearse straight down the lens. All too often the image on the screen is who speakers tend to talk to and this is too low for eyelines.

So after rehearsal we were able to then mute and take off screen all the other students and focus on the main speaker. We then used the capture and record button to shoot a take. This was done a few times then the files were then transferred to Hege and the edit suite and studio back in Harstad.

Some characters were supposed to be in the same location. So again with careful use of a correctly angled background image we were able to give that illusion between the interviewer Karoline Phillips and Professor Pedersen in our shot above.

The files were then edited together and additional foley sound and score were added from the recording studio at the school. We have completed the first part of the project and we have 18 minutes of captured, edited and scored material. We will meet for a couple of hours a day from the middle of next week and complete this piece of work.

It is incredibly rewarding to spend creative time with such talented students, and the learning for all of us has been a rapid curve over the 5 days we spent working.

The Zoom platform is great for recording – and the sound quality is very good indeed. The image quality depends on bandwidth at each end, and this can vary when the platform is in heavy usage.

The excitement of going for a take is the same as any form of filmmaking or theatre production. It involves focus and concentration and this is undoubtedly a really good training opportunity for the students. This level of focus and discipline from within their own home environments during this time – is the same for all of us.

I have always been excited to explore the possibilities of how we can harness the power of emergent technologies to make connections and creative work happen. From early livestreaming work back in 2008 – through to multiple camera livestreams and making feature films in Green Screen studios. This exploration with Zoom Theatre is part of that journey.

If anyone would like to know more about the process please drop me a line on here or find me as @marcusromer on social platforms.

I am going to leave you with another view of the Arctic Circle with its amazing light and clarity.

I will be co-directing ‘As Long As The Heart Beats’ an #NHS70 project for National Theatre Wales #NTWNHS70

 

I am really proud to be able to announce that I have been working on this project since January, and I will be co-directing this new piece for National Theatre Wales as
PART OF THE #NHS70 FESTIVAL

Having worked in the NHS at the start of my career, prior to becoming a theatre director, I am delighted to be involved in the creation of this new piece of work. It is one of those projects that ties together my interests, passion and creativity. It has been a real joy to work alongside the brilliant team at National Theatre Wales. We have a terrific group of actors and creative team on board and it promises to be something very special indeed.  This is about the NHS, it is about the people who work in it and how it touches all of our lives. It is a piece for now. Do come and join us…

It will take place at the Outpatient Department, Royal Gwent Hospital, Cardiff Road, Newport NP20 2UB on 21-22 July 2018

The stories –

National Theatre Wales asked the people of this country to share their stories and memories of the NHS.

Gathered from across Wales and the NHS, we’ve woven these individual threads into an immersive and engaging theatrical production that will take place in the Outpatient Department of the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport, featuring specially-composed music and interactive elements.

As Long as the Hearts Beats journeys back through the first 70 years of the NHS and looks ahead to the next seven decades.

There are just ten opportunities to see this life-affirming show which has care and compassion at its heart, performed in the heart of a living, working hospital. So please turn off your mobile phones and wash your hands, it’s visiting time.

Co-directed by Marcus Romer and Ben Tinniswood
Designed by Becky Davies with original music by Tic Ashfield 

For tickets please click here  or call the box office on 029 2037 1689

Digital livestream stuff and what it can now mean for audiences… @stratfordeast

 

I wanted to put something down in a blog about the last digital livestream I ran from Stratford East. It was between Christmas and New Year on the 29th of December. For this we took the live feed from the Christmas show, Sinbad the Sailor into the Children’s wards of Bart’s Health Trust and also to Richard House Children’s Hospice in Beckton.

The team in the theatre had been well prepared and all the actors and the creative team were all on board for the livestream. Using four cameras we were able to deliver an ultra HD feed to the locations where we had our audiences. The Hospice were amazing they had invited families, siblings and carers of the children who were resident, and set up a big party in their meeting room which was equipped with an HD projector, full screen and surround sound. They provided cakes, drinks and costumes for all the guests and there were 30 families and friends who were able to attend and watch the show.

I was with them in the hospice, and experienced the live feed into the room first hand. I was also in contact with the tech team in the theatre, and the other Stratford East team who were at Newham University Hospital Children’s ward.

The tech held up for the whole two and half hours without a glitch, and the sound and picture was pin sharp and clear. But the most important aspect was the interaction and engagement with the audience in the remote venues. In our room in the hospice when the actors looked down the lens and waved at the staff and residents and called out their names the cheer back from us was almost deafening!

But it was when the actors, and the whole audience in the theatre sang happy birthday to a little girl called Hope who was four that day. She had been attending the Hospice for some months and she was with her family in the room, and her face lit up when she heard her name called and she called back to the big cinema screen with unalloyed joy, and when everyone in the room joined in and she turned and smiled at us all. Everyone was singing Happy Birthday to her – and that was over 600 people. During this I caught her grandfather’s eye as he wiped away a tear and he saw me and nodded back to acknowledge that we had both just shared a moment of what it means to be human.

So after working on this digital stuff for many year now, and helped to talk and write about and try and convince people of the value of this work and how it can connect with audiences. This event has clarified for me the nature of what we do, and how we have a duty to utilise the technology available to share our work much more widely.

So when people continue to try and tell me that well ‘of course it is not the same as being there’, and how digital ‘dilutes the experience’ etc etc…I will remind myself of this true event and redouble my effort to continue to explore and find new ways of reaching people in the places and places that they make and live their lives.

I will be presenting a ‘how to get started’ in live to digital work at UK Theatre’s Touring Symposium on March 23rd, and I will be delivering a keynote at the European Theatre Convention in Karlsruhe, Germany on April 7th.

 

 

Livestream from @Stratfordeast to East London Hospitals and Richard House Children’s Hospice

Today I am preparing the final details for the Theatre Royal Stratford East Pantomime, Sinbad the Sailor that will be streamed live to children and their families in wards and units in Bart’s Health Trust Hospitals and Richard House Children’s Hospice on the afternoon of December 29th.

Thursday will be an early start with the livestream camera team heading to the theatre to set up their multi-camera set up – with 5 cameras and microphones places around the auditorium and two operators in the left and right stalls boxes. It will be mixed live by the team who are also in one of the upper circle boxes, this live feed will go straight into the broadband connection at the Theatre and will be encoded and placed onto a player that can be then watched online via the password protected page on the website.

Away from the theatre in the streaming locations at both Newham University Hospital and Richard House Hospice, I will be working with the Stratford East teams to prepare the projectors and to to set the rooms out for the families and children to come along. This is something that not only allows families, and siblings of children who are receiving care to share in the experience, but also for the staff as well.

The live feed will also be available to young patients across the Hospital network who are also receiving treatment, so they can watch it on their iPads or smartphones whilst having dialysis for example.

This is part of the work of the Theatre Royal, to engage as widely as possible with a diverse range of audiences, and artists to deliver and share the work we make. This is now possible across a range of digital platforms. I am really delighted to be part of this journey with Stratford East.

It is clear that this is the direction of travel for work to be made more available, and the more opportunities Arts and Cultural organisations can find to engage with the widest possible communities for which they are there to serve, the greater the opportunity for connection and understanding of each other, and to help us find our common humanity.

This livestream has been made possible with support from Galliard Homes