Exciting Spring Season at East 15
This week sees the start of an exciting spring season which includes musical productions, hard-hitting drama, Shakespeare and a world premiere at East 15 Acting School.
The season begins with third-year BA Contemporary Theatre students performing Cabaret at East 15's Corbett Theatre on the Loughton Campus. Later in the term these students will also take two other productions, Attraction to Atrocity (looking at war crimes) and Round Round (a modern re-telling of Arthur Schnitzler's cautionary drama La Ronde), to The Space on the Isle of Dogs.
February begins with second-year BA Acting students undertaking a week-long run of Music Hall in The Corbett Theatre, accompanied on the piano by East 15's Head of Music and pianist on BBC Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, Colin Sell. There will also be a dramatic version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, in late February, by third-year students on BA Specialist Performance Skills (Stage Combat). This promises to be an outstanding production of the famous Roman tragedy, making use of training these students have received on the UK's first full-time programme in stage combat and related performance skills.
Third-year BA Acting students are putting on a number of productions throughout the term, with a new version of The Good Hope, directed by Che Walker, and Afore Night Come making use of new facilities in East 15's Roding House.
March sees a fantastic world premiere at The Corbett Theatre, with third-year BA Acting students performing the first version of Alan Raphael Pearlman's new translation, The Machine Breakers. Written before Ernst Toller fled Hitler's Germany, this play charts the fight of the Luddites against new steam machines introduced to the Nottingham weaving industry in the early 1800s.
There will also be a devised production by third-year BA Community Theatre students towards the end of March, The Hatching Project or Mobilisation. This seeks to explore social movements and will engage the audience with some of society's social political issues.
The exciting range of productions over the next few months shows both the depth and breadth of the study and skills of East 15 students. One of the UK's most innovative acting schools, East 15 has been providing professional training for those wishing to work in theatre, film, TV, radio and other related fields for more than 40 years. It has a campus in Loughton, just 12 miles outside of London and, in September 2000, became part of the University of Essex. Since then a strategy has been developed to expand East 15's provision to the University's new campus in Southend-on-Sea.
Alumni of East 15 include actresses Alison Steadman and Annette Badland, Coronation Street star Jenny Platt, playwright April de Angelis, former artistic director of The Bush Theatre, Mike Bradwell, and director Stephen Daldry, who was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his feature films The Hours and Billy Elliott.
The spring season productions, dates and times are: Third-year BA Contemporary Theatre students present Cabaret at The Corbett Theatre at 7.30pm, Wednesday 16 January to Saturday 19 January
Second-year BA Acting students present Music Hall at The Corbett Theatre at 7.30pm, Monday 4 February to Saturday 9 February
Third-year BA Acting students present The Good Hope at The Corbett Theatre at 7.30pm, Wednesday 13 February to Saturday 16 February with 2.30pm matinee, Friday 15 February
Third-year BA Acting students present Afore Night Come at Studio Five, Roding House at 7.30pm, Wednesday 20 February to Saturday 23 February with 2.30pm matinee, Friday 22 February
Third-year BA Specialist Performance Skills (Stage Combat) students present Julius Caesar at The Corbett Theatre at 7.30pm, Wednesday 20 February to Saturday 23 February with 2.30pm matinee, Friday 22 February
Third-year BA Acting students present the world premiere of The Machine Breakers at The Corbett Theatre at 7.30pm, Wednesday 5 March to Saturday 8 March with 2.30pm matinee, Friday 7 March
Third-year BA Contemporary Theatre students present Attraction to Atrocity at The Space at 7.30pm, Wednesday 5 March to Saturday 8 March
Third-year BA Contemporary Theatre students present Round Round at The Space at 7.30pm, Wednesday 12 March to Saturday 15 March
Third-year BA Community Theatre students present The Hatching Project or Mobilisation at The Corbett Theatre at 7.30pm, Thursday 20 March
For tickets to all productions at The Corbett Theatre and Studio Five, please contact East 15's Box Office, telephone: 020 8508 5983 or e-mail@essex.ac.uk to create full e-mail address
For tickets to all productions at The Space (269 Westferry Road, London), please contact The Space Box Office, telephone: 0208 7515 7799
