Podcast appearances and mentions of Bristol Old Vic

Welcome Back to TBOTA!Born in Scotland. Eric MacLennan has been making avant-garde performance work for over forty years. During this time he has worked as an actor and director with many world class companies including DV8 Physical Theatre; David Glass Ensemble; V-TOL; Citizens Theatre Glasgow; Red Shift; Manchester Royal Exchange; Bristol Old Vic; Theatre of Comedy Company; Royal National Theatre Studio; Boilerhouse; Volcano; Lumiere & Son; Shunt; Station House Opera; National Theatre of Scotland; Young Vic and the Almeida.Over the last ten years he has been creating his own distinctive work whose practice occupies a unique space somewhere between theatre, movement and the visual arts. Inspired by philosophy and comedy in equal measure his work questions our unconscious habits, challenges conventions and isn't afraid to say the unsayable!Discussed: Being in Star wars, sources of inspiration, creating your own work, a voyage around my bedroom, performing at Glastonbury, working with Jane Nash, Embarrassing auditions and failed projects, pre show routines, how actors develop superstitions, Spelling 'zhjugdge', regretting your name being Crispin, Lecoque, your favourite spice girl, AND SO MUCH MORESupport this show:Become a patron and help me make this show. Bonus episodes every week: >> ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Robert Neumark Jones | creating podcasts and extra content | Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy me a coffee ☕⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://paypal.me/robertneumark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Or support me through other ways:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bliss of the Abyss⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Give us a rating & review:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Write a review for Bliss of the Abyss ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Like and follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠My Webpage:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Robert Neumark Jones | Actor | Voice Artist (robertnj.com)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠© Robert Neumark Jones

In episode 57, Kelly Ballard speaks with LaToyah McAllister-Jones, the Executive Director of St Paul's Carnival in Bristol. LaToyah shares the rich history and community impact of this celebrated cultural event, which has been running since 1968 and is one of the largest carnivals in the UK.LaToyah explains how St Paul's Carnival was founded to foster social cohesion within the Windrush generation community, providing a platform for African Caribbean people to share their stories and culture.Managing an event of this scale, with over 120,000 attendees in 2023, presents significant challenges. LaToyah discusses the complex balancing act of coordinating the diverse stakeholders, from local authorities to community artists, while preserving the carnival's grassroots spirit.Due to funding constraints, the 2025 carnival will be scaled down, but LaToyah is committed to continuing to celebrate African Caribbean arts and culture through smaller, community-focused events. She also shares her other leadership roles, including at Bristol Old Vic and the Lumen Space well-being retreat business she co-founded.Throughout the conversation, LaToyah's passion for social justice, community empowerment, and the transformative power of the arts shines through, offering listeners an inspiring glimpse into the world of this iconic cultural event.For all links and a full summary of the conversation head to the Visitor Elves website. To share your views on this subject and ask questions about the episode, head over to:InstagramLinkedIn This episode is sponsored by Hello Starling.Hello Starling, is an award-winning Media Planning and Buying agency that specialises in delivering advertising campaigns with great results for visitor attractions and destinations. They've worked with brands such as Bristol Zoo Project, Visit Shropshire, Visit Conwy, Visit Herefordshire and the National Tourism Office for Poland. If you want to be the centre of attention, visit hellostarling.com today.If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please take a moment to give me a few stars on Apple podcasts or Spotify, it helps to encourage more people to listen and learn from our stories.

Karuna discusses her new book, Light on Kundalini, and tells how kundalini can change the fabric of our lives. From rabbit holes to mountain tops, Light on Kundalini portrays grace and grit--representing an immersive sacred odyssey leading to Yoga's ultimate fulfillment.   Replete with elegant metaphors and depth of spiritual insight, this book is a foray into the author's fantastic and sometimes blistering experiences: from life as a Ford model and Bristol Old Vic theater alum and the worlds of fashion, art, film, British royalty, professional sports, music, and wellness to single mother, teacher, and co-founder of a media company co-creating messaging with noted scientists and global spiritual leaders.Watch: https://youtu.be/sDYmYEu0tdA 

https://lightonkundalini.com Light on Kundalini: Your Lifestyle Guide to Yoga and Awakening by Karuna, spiritual teacher and yogi. If you've ever asked yourself, "Is there more to life than this?" this book is your answer. With a blend of personal anecdotes, expert yogic teachings, and reflective exercises, it's a companion for every phase of life. From rabbit holes to mountain tops, Light on Kundalini portrays grace and grit, lacing together four decades of an immersive sacred odyssey leading to Yoga's ultimate fulfillment. Replete with elegant metaphors and depth of spiritual insight, this book is a foray into the author's fantastic and sometimes blistering experiences: from life as a Ford model and Bristol Old Vic theater alum and the worlds of fashion, art, film, British royalty, professional sports, music, and wellness to single mother, teacher, and co-founder of a media company co-creating messaging with noted scientists and global spiritual leaders. In this fascinating read, Karuna recounts her life experiences with notables such as fashion icons Guy Bourdin, Eileen Ford, Laura Ashley, Vogue and Mademoiselle, well-known film directors and actors, alongside spiritual leaders Father Thomas Keating, Ken Wilber, and many others. Her stories of being poked, provoked, and confronted, which eventually led to surrender, change, and elevated awakening, will resonate with your audience and provide guidance and support as they find a way in and through their challenges. This is an interview your audience will remember! For over 40 years, Karuna has studied Yoga, working from the "inside out." Her certification is with the Kundalini Research Institute (KRI) including Level One, Two, and Three Teacher Training Programs and Prenatal Yoga. She practices Ayurvedic healing and is an ordained Interfaith Minister. As co-founder of Light on Light Publications and Media, Karuna is the host editor for its magazine's annual Yoga editions in partnership with the International Day of Yoga Committee at the United Nations. Find out more at https://lightonkundalini.com

RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for the next in his regular Connect Radio theatre reviews. This week Vidar was reviewing the critically acclaimed Bristol Old Vic production of ‘Wonder Boy' by Ross Willis as the current tour visited the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre with description by Professional Audio Describer Remy Lloyd. About Wonder Boy  Olivier Award-winner Sally Cookson (A Monster Calls) directs the critically acclaimed Bristol Old Vic production of WONDER BOY by Ross Willis, a heart-warming and inspiring story about the power of communication. Sonny is twelve. Living with a stammer, he's finding his way in a world ruled by vicious vowels, confusing consonants, and let's not forget the biggest beast of them all–small talk. Sonny's only friend is Captain Chatter, a comic book hero of his own creation, but in the real-world language is power and Sonny must find a way to be heard. When cast in the school production of Hamlet by the Headteacher, he finds the real heroes are closer than he thinks. Packed with playful humour, dazzling visuals and thrilling original music, this innovative production includes live creative captioning on stage throughout. Winner of the 2023 Writers' Guild Award for best play.  To find out more about Wonder Boy including with details of dates and times of performances do visit - https://wonderboyplay.com For more about access at the Wolverhampton Grand Theatre do visit the access pages of their website - https://www.grandtheatre.co.uk/access/ (Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)

Michael Ahomka-Lindsay is back In The Frame! After leaving medical school to pursue a career as an actor, Michael trained at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He made his professional debut as Benny in Luke Sheppard's production of Rent at the Hope Mill Theatre and then toured as Maugrim in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.Michael last featured on the podcast after starring as Emmett in Lucy Moss' revival of Legally Blonde at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. After performing in To The Streets for Birmingham Hippodrome, Michael originated the role of Jack Kelly in the reimagined UK premiere of Newsies at Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre and played David in the highly acclaim production of Choir Boy at Bristol Old Vic.Michael is currently coming to the end of his run as Clifford Bradshaw in the West End revival of Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club and is rehearsing for the European premiere of Reverberation by Matthew Lopez at the Bristol Old Vic. Michael came into the podcast booth to discuss everything he's been up to over the past two years. He reflects on all-things Newsies, explains why Choir Boy was such a special job and talks about going straight from Cabaret to Reverberation, and lots more pops up along the way.Michael plays Cliff in Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club until 21st September and stars in Reverberation at the Bristol Old Vic 2nd October - 2nd November 2024. Follow Michael on Instagram: @michaelahomka_ Hosted by Andrew Tomlins  @AndrewTomlins32  Thanks for listening! Email: andrew@westendframe.co.uk Visit westendframe.co.uk for more info about our podcasts.  

The next production to open at the Rose Theatre in Kingston, London is a new adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, adapted for the stage by Suzanne Heathcote and directed by Christopher Haydon, Rose Theatre's Artistic Director. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Christopher just before a rehearsal for the play about the adaptation, working with one of his literary heroes, the necessity for co-productions and the state of arts funding and arts education in the UK at the moment. Never Let Me Go will run at the Rose Theatre from 20 September to 12 October 2024 before touring to Royal and Derngate in Northampton from 16 to 26 October, Malvern Theatres from 29 October to 2 November, Bristol Old Vic from 5 to 23 November and Chichester Festival Theatre from 26 to 30 November. (Photo of Christopher Haydon in rehearsal for Never Let Me Go, credit DMLK)

We kick off our Ian Marter retrospective with a look at his time at Oxford University. Thanks to back issues of St. Edmund Hall Magazine, we uncover new information that places Marter at Oxford three years earlier than is widely and incorrectly reported in other published sources. From our research, we found that Marter was at St. Edmund Hall, aka Teddy Hall, from 1963-1966 and was heavily involved with drama in the college's John Oldham Society and the Oxford's drama cuppers.Before Oxford, Marter went to school at the Beckenham and Penge Grammar School in Greater London and went to Oxford on a scholarship to study English language and literature. Among other highlights, Marter directed a well received production of John Osbourne's Luther in 1964 during the Trinity Term of his freshman year at the Oxford Playhouse. He also acted in productions of Fire in Heaven, The Sport of My Mad Mother, and Anton Checkov's The Cherry Orchard. In his final year at St. Edmund Hall, Marter co-starred in Samuel Beckett's play, Waiting for Gadot and was in Richard Burton's production of Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe which was also released as a film in 1967, giving Marter his first screen credit. Marter was awarded a Class III degree from St. Edmund Hall, which may help explain why he never corrected the record about his time at Oxford.After leaving Oxford in 1966, he landed an assistant stage manager job at the Bristol Old Vic and by the following year, he was acting once again. We briefly talk about his small role in the Vincent Price horror film, The Abominable Dr. Phibes, and his reoccurring role in ITV's Crown Court where he played a police constable and then barrister, Quentin Ingrams, QC. Finally, we discuss being cast as Lt. John Andrews in "Carnival of Monsters" and how Doctor Who may have been different if he landed the role of Capt. Mike Yates a few years earlier. The opening and closing music is "Sinfonietta: IV. Allegrteto," composed by Leoš Janáček and performed by the Pro Arte Orchestra, which was the opening theme for ITV's Crown Court. We recorded this episode on 12-13 August 2024.

Pushy Pushy welcomes actor and writer Holly Carpenter to share her inspiring journey into the world of theatre. From changing course at uni to pursue her passion, to getting into the prestigious Bristol Old Vic after years of auditioning, Holly's determination shines through. She discusses finding her voice as a playwright, creating authentic work drawn from her own experiences. Holly and hosts Mark and Nia also chat about the power of actors writing their own material, an ethos at the heart of Mark and Nia's company. With lots of laughs and insights along the way, it's an uplifting conversation about forging your own path in the arts. Be sure to listen through to the end for the crucial question - what's your favourite biscuit for dunking in tea? Another fun, motivating episode of Pushy Pushy!Pushy Pushy is a Mark Jermin and B-Scene Media production. Created and hosted by Mark Jermin and Nia Jermin, the show's executive producers are Nia Jermin and Jake Weller.To find out more about the wonderful world of Mark Jermin go to: https://www.markjermin.co.uk/

RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey is joined again by Vidar Hjardeng MBE, Inclusion and Diversity Consultant for ITV News across England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel Islands for the next in his regular Connect Radio theatre reviews. This week Vidar was in Stratford-upon-Avon for a fresh new production of Shakespeare's comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. About The Merry Wives of Windsor: ‘Revenged I will be, as sure as his guts are made of puddings.'   Curtains are twitching and tongues are wagging in this fresh new production of Shakespeare's suburban comedy. When an out-of-pocket schemer arrives among the lawns and herbaceous borders of Windsor, he sets about seducing two well-to-do married women. It's the perfect hustle. Surely one of them will fall for his irresistible charms? But in this neighbourhood, wives talk. And they're about to play some tricks of their own...   Lies! Jealousy! Dirty laundry! The Merry Wives of Windsor is an uproarious tale of mischief and double-dealing where the women get the last laugh. What goes on at Number 22 is absolutely everybody's business.   Blanche McIntyre (The Two Noble Kinsmen, All's Well That Ends Well for the RSC, Arabian Nights at Bristol Old Vic) returns to direct The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon There will be another audio described performance of this summer belter of a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor in Stratford-upon-Avon on Friday 30 August at 7.15pm and for more about access at the royal Shakespeare Company including details of described performances do visit - https://www.rsc.org.uk/your-visit/access (Image shows RNIB logo. 'RNIB' written in black capital letters over a white background and underlined with a bold pink line, with the words 'See differently' underneath)

This year's Papatango Prize winner, Laura Waldren, joins Hannah to chat about her play Some Demon, which is set in a unit for people with eating disorders. They chat about Laura's own experiences with anorexia, the difficulties of telling stories with no clear beginning, middle and end, and how to get a first play staged in an increasingly tough market.   * You can see Some Demon at the Arcola until July 6. Tickets here: https://www.arcolatheatre.com/whats-on/some-demon/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwvvmzBhA2EiwAtHVrb_1yZw6rrwg2nyfypbTSFK-ZQfqCmwDecgz6IdcTUBRkFCV5Wi2Q4BoCy-kQAvD_BwE * Or at the Bristol Old Vic from July 9-13. Tickets here: https://visitbristol.co.uk/event/some-demon-at-bristol-old-vic/320509301/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joshua James is one of the most ravishing actors on the UK Theatre scene, taking on principal roles at the National Theatre, Shakespeare's Globe and the Royal Court Theatre. He is about to make his Arcola Theatre debut in Laura Walden's new play Some Demon, as a nurse working in an institution for people with eating disorders. Laura Waldren's won the prestigious Papatango Prize for her first play which Joshua calls one of the best pieces of new writing that he's read in many years. Following on from the run at the Arcola Theatre, the show will also transfer to the studio at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre where Joshua will also be making his debut there. In our interview, Joshua James talks to us about the challenges of performing new writing and how to deal with sensitive subject matters such as eating disorders. He goes on to talk about the joy of getting to work on classic texts too having recently performed in landmark revivals of The Glass Menagerie and also The Vortex, where he starred opposite his real-life mother: Lia Williams. It's fascinating to hear him compare the experiences of working on existing texts compared to new work but he also tells us that it's important to approach classics afresh without holding them up with any particular reverence.  We hear him share his hopes for the future too as he continues to tackle thought-provoking work both in London and in the regions.Some Demon runs at Arcola Theatre until 6th July and runs at Bristol Old Vic Theatre from from 9 - 13 July. 

Getting your team to care about customer excellence can make a big impact on business performance. Here are my key headlines from the conversation with Andy where we discussed accountability for customer excellence. ----------------------------------------------------------- If you want to receive monthly advice, ideas and recommendations that will help you gain a commercial edge and get ahead, why not join our exclusive newsletter: ⁠⁠https://zcmp.eu/e6AM⁠⁠  ----------------------------------------------------------- -Foxleigh Commercial Website: ⁠https://foxleigh.net/⁠ -Chris Webber's LinkedIn:  ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-webber-uk⁠ ----------------------------------------------------------- ⁠Andy Hay⁠ is a television and theatre director. He originally trained as a drama teacher before becoming an actor for Theatre-In-Education companies and later joining Oldham Coliseum Theatre's ensemble. After two years at the Coliseum and with several TV, radio credits and a West End transfer under his belt he joined Manchester's Contact Theatre ensemble as an actor, musician and director. From there followed nearly 20 years as Associate Director of Nottingham Playhouse, Artistic Director of Bolton Octagon Theatre and Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic where he directing over 65 productions including many world premiers. Andy has been a television director since 2000 working on shows including Waking The Dead, The Musketeers, Dickensian, Lucky Man and more recently The Last Kingdom and All Creatures Great and Small to name a few.

In this third of three podcasts on the theme of drama, Barbara and David are joined by two guests: Peter Clements, a young actor, teacher and writer who trained at The Drama Centre, works extensively in theatre, feature films and TV, teaches at the RADA and LAMDA theatre schools in London, and recently created a critically-acclaimed solo show and a new dance-theatre production at the Bristol Old Vic; and Di Trevis, one of Britain's leading theatre directors, the first woman to run a company at the Royal National Theatre, a director of productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Opera House, and an acclaimed teacher of acting and directing in the UK and across the world.

How can you as a manager or leader be accountable for the results of your team? How can you encourage them to care and nurture that passion for perfection and excellence? I talk with Andy Hay about his transformation from rebel to leader and how his care of his people and accountability to the customer becomes the guiding star for everyone, infecting them with enthusiasm and passion for brilliance Andy Hay is a television and theatre director. He originally trained as a drama teacher before becoming an actor for Theatre-In-Education companies and later joining Oldham Coliseum Theatre's ensemble. After two years at the Coliseum and with several TV, radio credits and a West End transfer under his belt he joined Manchester's Contact Theatre ensemble as an actor, musician and director. From there followed nearly 20 years as Associate Director of Nottingham Playhouse, Artistic Director of Bolton Octagon Theatre and Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic where he directing over 65 productions including many world premiers. Andy has been a television director since 2000 working on shows including Waking The Dead, The Musketeers, Dickensian, Lucky Man and more recently The Last Kingdom and All Creatures Great and Small to name a few.

Resist the urge to fangirl because we're joined by THE Dark Urge, Mr. Neil Roberts! (Say what?! *faints*)This week, the Charming Neil joins AW for an exclusive 1-on-1 deep-dive into the superstar breakout character of Baldur's Gate 3- the Dark Urge! But not before we dig up Soundgarden's 'Louder Than Love'- almost-, before reliving Neil's 'Salad Days', with the classic British musical. Plus, we chat working on 'Charmed', Dream 'Chicago' cast, Baldur's Gate 3's Impact, Video Games, The Gollum Disaster, Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD, US Vs UK Filming, and heeeaaaps more in this special extended episode that'll give you extra Thrash for your Treasure!-SOCIALS-Neil on Twitter: https://x.com/NeillyRobertsNeil on IG: https://www.instagram.com/neilyroberts/ Neil on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/neilyrobertsBook Neil on Cameo: https://v.cameo.com/e/ruB40FGu9GbNeil's Website: https://neilroberts.co.uk/ *****Juxtaposing Metal with Musicals - joined by iconic guests from the worlds of Music, Broadway, Hollywood, and more! https://www.thetonastontales.com/listen -- https://www.patreon.com/bloomingtheatricals - https://twitter.com/thrashntreasurehttps://linktr.ee/thrashntreasure*****Help support Thrash 'n Treasure and keep us on-air, PLUS go on a fantastical adventure at the same time!Grab your copy of The Tonaston Tales by AW, and use the code TNT20 when you check out for 20% off eBooks and Paperbacks!https://www.thetonastontales.com/bookstore - TNT20 ***** ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this second of three podcasts on the theme of drama, Barbara and David are joined by two guests: Di Trevis, one of Britain's leading theatre directors, the first woman to run a company at the Royal National Theatre where her Remembrance of Things Past won an Olivier Award, a director of productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Royal Opera House, and an acclaimed teacher of acting and directing in the UK and across the world for leading actors including Gary Oldman, Kenneth Branagh and Rupert Everett; and our second guest, Peter Clements, a young actor, teacher and writer who trained at The Drama Centre under Di's leadership, and who has worked extensively in theatre, feature films and TV, and as a visiting teacher at the RADA and LAMDA theatre schools. His recent creative output includes a critically-acclaimed solo show and a dance-theatre production at the Bristol Old Vic.

Our guest today is Lou Platt https://www.artistwellbeing.co.uk/   Lou is Founder & Director of the Artist Wellbeing Company in Birmingham, England. She began supporting the mental health of those working in creative industries in 2012. Her qualifications and experience in Dramatherapy, Clinical supervision, and Internal Family Systems along with a background as an independent theatre maker & performer synthesized to create her role as Artist Wellbeing Practitioner. As an Artist Wellbeing Practitioner, Lou has worked with notable theatre companies such as the Globe, Royal Court, Bristol Old Vic, and Nottingham Playhouse to name a few. In TV and film her client list includes Amazon Prime, BBC, HBO and Netflix among others.  Lou also works in dance, visual arts, writing and the music industries. Our discussion began with Lou's journey as Dramatherapist into the creative industry working with theatre practitioners and expanding to actors, writers, directors, crew and actually anyone involved in production. Lou talked about the challenges of being an Artist Wellbeing Practitioner – which is different from being a therapist - though it's still personal in nature with its power to reflect and to potentially transform. We talked about the opportunities for change within the industry and the decisions, we as artists, need to make for a healthier working environment when facing into an industry that needs to accept its dysfunction before it can change.

In this episode of The 5 O' Clock Apron Podcast, Claire cooks with comedian, writer and theatre maker Amy Mason. A Funny Woman finalist, Amy has written and performed for Radio 4 and has written for The News Quiz and Hypothetical (Dave). With 3 acclaimed autobiographical shows with Bristol Old Vic, she is a credit to the Bristol comedy scene - STOP PRESS - ‘Amy Mason is a born comic. Can't wait to see her progress to a national treasure.' In 2014 Amy won the Dundee International Book Prize with her novel The Other Ida. On the day of the recording Amy was wearing an enormous pair of sheep shaped slippers and waiting to hear if she had been given a slot at the Edinburgh Fringe. One month on from this recording, we now know she has, of course she has, she is a startling comic and very, very funny. Amy cooked a pasta dish with leeks and crème fraiche, it was simple and delicious in delivery, as all good food should be. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Possibility Club podcast: Practical Bravery - CREATIVE PARTICIPATION!   In this episode of The Possibility Club podcast, we're exploring the spaces where creativity becomes a conduit for connection, and where theatres and arts venues become the heartbeats of the communities they serve. Our guest is the Head of Participation at Southwark Playhouse, orchestrating a symphony of projects that resonate with thousands yearly, from all ages and backgrounds. His work is about creating a mosaic of experiences that reflect south London's diversity, challenges, and aspirations. Through strategic development, he weaves the threads of local needs with the theatre's aims, securing funding to turn vision into reality and offering tangible opportunities for emerging talents. Let's explore the conversation where art and community come together to rewrite stories, with  David Workman.    --- David Workman via LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-workman-3ba02132/?originalSubdomain=uk   “I constantly pinch myself at how lucky I am to be doing the job I'm doing.”   “I realised all my career has been spent in the Borough of Southwark, which is totally unintentional.”   Southwark via GoogleMaps https://www.google.com/maps/place/London+Borough+of+Southwark/@51.4652303,-0.1528077,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m6!3m5!1s0x48760398794427df:0x41185c626be6770!8m2!3d51.4880572!4d-0.0762838!16zL20vMG45Y3c?entry=ttu   “Some of the wards are some of the poorest in London, if not the UK. But that's slap bang up against brand new developments.”   “No-one has to engage with us, I've got to reach out to them.”    “The minute we went out and ran a workshop in a community space, we had a lot more people come along. We went into their territory and said we want to be part of this community.”   Southwark Playhouse https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/   Southwark Playhouse — participation pages https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/participate/   “I still suffer quite regularly from imposter syndrome, thinking I got here, how did I get here? But I guess I've been doing it for fifteen years now, so maybe I should get over that.”   “All I've learnt, I've learnt by doing. Not necessarily through studying it per se, but doing it, getting it right, getting it wrong, learning on the job.”   “Last year we opened a second venue, so we now have two venues in Elephant & Castle, and within our new venue we have a dedicated participation space, which is all of my work. Realistically I'm not going to be able to fill that space twenty-four seven with all the work I do, but I want to make that space usable. So we're partnering with charities working with refugees, adults with dementia, young people at risk of exclusion. They're already doing great work — which there's no point us trying to replicate, I'd rather support and amplify that in the community, rather than trying to muscle in.”   Bristol Old Vic https://bristololdvic.org.uk/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwwMqvBhCtARIsAIXsZpaWRrn75HVlHHPChA8o1USd1QqX5NVN0Ryfo7v3eAbjNnZk4HbAxkwaAhg8EALw_wcB   Theatre In Education via Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_in_education   Shakespeare's Globe schools team https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/learn/   “I don't that there's one approach for everything you do. You have to be adaptive, you have to adapt to different communities, different demographics, one size will not fit all. But also I work with a lot of artists and if I employ someone because of what they're going to bring to that project, their own approach, their own artistic practice. I'm not keen on imposing on a practical side how that might be.”   Elephant & Castle via Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_and_Castle   "The community is changing. There's very little point me not changing how I approach my work.”    “It's a way of softly building those relationships with the community, really.”    “We're not funded by the Arts Council and we never have been and we've sustained and grown that over thirty years. Our model is, in a year we'll stage between twenty-five and thirty shows and we have spaces of different sizes. By not having money from the Arts Council it gives us more flexibility but more risk. But we get the balance right, generally.”   Operation Mincemeat via Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat_(musical)    Operation Mincemeat https://www.operationmincemeat.com/   Little Angel Theatre https://www.littleangeltheatre.com/   “I'm a glass half full person. I approach things with a ‘let's see what happens' kind of approach.”   ”There's always going to be a need, a desire, for live art. Post-pandemic it took a long time for that to come back, and I think it's still doing that. People have to weigh up the costs of coming into London. You have to take a punt on something. But there's lots going on and there are a lot of exciting voices coming through.” ------   This episode was recorded in February 2024 Interviewer: Richard Freeman for always possible Editor: CJ Thorpe-Tracey for Lo Fi Arts   For more visit www.alwayspossible.co.uk

The frontman of Idles and the artistic director of Bristol Old Vic share book choices.

This week on Drama School Dropout I am joined by the amazing, James Baxter. We chat about Waterloo Road, James being a home town hero, McDonalds, growing up in the North East, the pressures of growing up in a working class town but wanting to pursue the arts, my new play “Flatmates”, the joy of working with other actors, doing the twenty-four hour plays at the Bristol Old Vic and forgetting lines, I gush over Dame Judi Dench's impromptu sonnet performance on the Graham Norton show again, Steve Carrell, auditioning for Waterloo Road, reboots, self tapes and in the room auditions, auditioning for Game of Thrones, naked auditions, the cardboard cut out of James that causes havoc on the Waterloo Road set, the time a Drama School Dropout recording session was interrupted by bailiffs, stealing, getting paid in gift cards, OnlyFans adverts and food. Submit your story for Stage Right or Stage Shite: https://forms.gle/1p296t4Uu1F1XVvN9 Host: Ingram Noble Guest: James Baxter Producers: Heather Spiden & Ingram Noble Links: Ingram's Instagram & Twitter: @ingramnoble James' Instagram: @jamesbaxterrealtalk Patreon: www.patreon.com/dramaschooldropout Get Tickets!  Flatmates Tickets: www.ticketsource.co.uk/flatmates This Is Where We Get Off Tour Tickets: www.thisiswherewegetoff.co.uk

Peter Straker - the man who was close friends with Freddie Mercury. ⁠⁠When Peter Straker first recorded music he was the given the moniker of the Black Bowie. He was fresh from a career defining role as Hud in Hair - the musical that redefined the musical, outrageous, brave and trailblazing. His career as an actor, found him choosing roles which were audacious and bold - playing what we'd term today as a non-binary role in Girl/Boy - a film way ahead of its time. He was the narrator in the original Tommy musical, and much later in 2017 played the role that Tina Turner took in the film, the Acid Queen. His roles in the west end are numerous and has had a stellar career, his voice captivating.⁠⁠Born in 1943 in Jamaica, Peter's recording career started in the late 1970s. He had just met Freddie Mercury with whom he was to become firm friends. Mercury helped him getting a recording deal with EMI and even co-produced with Roy Thomas Baker (who produced the first three Queen albums) This One's For Me, Straker's first album on the label.⁠⁠His career as a recording artist stuttered and he reconsidered what was he doing. In the end he continued as a stage actor in countless musicals, and even in classical roles in the Bristol Old Vic and the National Theatre in London.⁠⁠His close friendship with the legendary Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury, shines a light on the private side of Freddie - and gives an insight in that era, what Freddie's interests were, and humanises a person we often just see as an icon or idol - I found his insights fascinating.⁠Today Peter Straker has a 3-track digital single on Cherry Red Records, Just Spend the Night with Me - a 2023 mix of his original single.⁠⁠Here are some links to hear the new material⁠⁠https://sendeyo.com/en/e8da47ddfc ⁠Lyric Video here: https://youtu.be/rX01DLn4Jew⁠⁠Order Digital Single link: https://cherryred.co/PeterStraker2023⁠Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/pop-the-history-makers-with-steve-blame/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Marianne Oldham is an actress who was also part of the incredible company who made A Monster Calls at the Bristol Old Vic which transferred to London in Summer 2018. A show discussed in depth on this show and one that stays extremely close to my heart.  She is also well-known for her roles in: A Very English Scandal Finding Your Feet Crimson Field  The Impressionists As well as a huge body of work in the theatre with credits that include: Present Laughter A Midsummer Nights Dream and King Lear at The Globe An Inspector Calls The Boy in the Striped Pjamas  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Uncle Vanya The Cherry Orchard  Marianne discusses working on set with A Very English Scandal and her experience on the impeccable A Monster Calls. We discuss the impact on the show, her role as Connor's Mother and how the show made a profound impact on its audiences. From its movement sequences, how the play encourages people to express their truth and the power of love and family.  Oliver Gower Spotlight Link: https://www.spotlight.com/9097-9058-5261 Instagram: @goweroliver Twitter: @GowerCritic For enquiries and requests: olliegower10@gmail.com Please Like, Download and Subscribe! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/oliver-gower/message

After seeing it two years in a row at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Mickey-Jo couldn't resist making the journey to Bristol Old Vic to see the new, expanded staging of Kathy & Stella Solve a Murder! The musical, which follows two friends who host a struggling true crime podcast, stars Bronté Barbé and Rebekah Hinds as its titular characters. Check out the new review for all of Mickey-Jo's thoughts on this show, including where he can see a future production heading... • About Mickey-Jo: As one of the leading voices in theatre criticism on a social platform, Mickey-Jo is pioneering a new medium for a dwindling field. His YouTube channel: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MickeyJoTheatre⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ is the largest worldwide in terms of dedicated theatre criticism, where he also share features, news and interviews as well as lifestyle content for over 60,000 subscribers. Since establishing himself as a theatre critic he has been able to work internationally. With a viewership that is largely split between the US and the UK he has been fortunate enough to be able to work with PR, Marketing, and Social Media representatives for shows both in New York, London, Hamburg, and Paris. He has also twice received accreditation from the world renowned Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His reviews and features have also been published by WhatsOnStage, for whom he was a panelist to help curate nominees for their 2023 and 2024 Awards as well as BroadwayWorldUK and LondonTheatre.co.uk. He has been invited to speak to private tour groups, at the BEAM 2023 new musical theatre conference at Oxford Playhouse, and on a panel of critics at an event for young people considering a career in the arts courtesy of Go Live Theatre Projects. Instagram/TikTok/X: @MickeyJoTheatre

Skip the Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. Your host is  Kelly Molson, Founder of Rubber Cheese.Download the Rubber Cheese 2022 Visitor Attraction Website Report - the first digital benchmark statistics for the attractions sector.If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, and all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue or visit our website rubbercheese.com/podcast.If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review, it really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned in this podcastCompetition ends on 20th December 2023. The winner will be contacted via Twitter.Show references: https://vacevents.com/THURSDAY 5TH OCTOBER – QEII CONFERENCE CENTRE, WESTMINSTERhttps://vacevents.com/committee/ Bernard Donoghue OBECEO & Director, ALVA, the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, Mayor of London's Culture Ambassador. Co-Chair, London Tourism Recovery Board.https://www.alva.org.uk/https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernard-donoghue-obe-0aa9b97/ Bernard has been the Director of ALVA, the UK's Association for Leading Visitor Attractions, since 2011 following a career in advocacy, communications, and lobbying, latterly at a senior level in the tourism and heritage sector. In  2017, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, appointed Bernard to be the Mayor's Ambassador for Cultural Tourism and a member of the Mayor's Cultural Leadership Board. Bernard is Co-Chair of the London Tourism Recovery Board. He is also Chairman of LIFT, London International Festival of Theatre; Chairman of the Bristol Old Vic, the oldest continually operating theatre in the English-speaking world, and also of the People's History Museum, the Museum of Democracy.  He has been a member of the UK Government's Tourism Industry Council since 2016.  Bernard was named by Blooloop in 2020 as one of the world's 50 most influential people in museums, and in July 2021 won the public vote for the COVID Special Recognition Award from the UK Museums and Heritage Awards for his service to, and leadership of the museums and heritage sector in the UK during the pandemic. Ken Robinson CBE FTS - Founder of VAChttps://www.linkedin.com/in/ken-robinson-cbe-fts-bb811312/Ken is an independent adviser who speaks and writes on tourism topics.  As a "tourism enthusiast" he aims to be a pragmatic pioneer of new initiatives, strategies and solutions to optimise the economic, cultural and social benefits of tourism.   Ken's Consultancy companies completed over 1500 assignments, mostly in the UK but also several hundred international projects, beginning over 50 years ago, before the days of mass tourism.  He was a founding member of the Tourism Society and supported the formation of the Tourism Alliance, both of which organisations he has served as a board member and Chair, as he has on several other Tourism bodies. Specialising initially in visitor attractions, Ken initiated and subsequently chaired the National Visitor Attractions Conference, VAC, and has been on its Committee ever since.  In addition to many clients in the public, private and third sectors, he has advised the UN's International Trade Centre, on national and regional Tourism strategy development.  His current focus is to move the industry's thinking from marketing to the critical need to manage future tourism for the benefit of host communities, and to optimise tourist's experiences.  Ken was appointed CBE for services to Tourism in 1997, and an Honorary Doctorate in 2014. Paul KellyChief Executive, BALPPA, Chair of VAC https://www.balppa.org/https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-kelly-2714a922/Having been with BALPPA for 11 years and working with VAC for that amount of time as well, Paul started his career in the attractions sector at Thorpe Park in the 80's and then moved on to the London Eye for its opening around the millennium.  He has  always been involved with visitor attractions.  Several more years working within Merlin followed both in the UK and abroad, mainly on business development.  Being a BALPPA member for 30 years means, being Chair of the organising committee at VAC keeps Paul in touch with all aspects of the attractions industry. Liz Terry MBEManaging Director, Leisure Media Grouphttps://www.linkedin.com/in/elizterry/ Janet Uttley Head of Business Transformation for VisitEnglandhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/janetuttley/  Transcriptions: Kelly Molson: Welcome to Skip The Queue, a podcast for people working in or working with visitor attractions. I'm your host, Kelly Molson. Season 5 kicks off today with not one, not two, but three excellent guests.On today's episode, I have the pleasure of speaking to Bernard Donoghue, Paul Kelly and Ken Robinson, founders of the Visitor Attractions Conference. You also know Bernard as, Director of ALVA and Paul as CEO of BALPPA.VAC celebrates its 20th anniversary this year and I'm finding out where the idea for the event spanned from, how it's changed and developed over the years. And we take a look ahead to what 2024 has in store for the attraction sector.Unfortunately, fellow Founder; Liz Terry, the Managing Director of Leisure Media Group, and also Janet Uttley, Head of Business Transformation for VisitEngland, were unable to join us on this episode. But stay tuned for lots of insight and to find out how you can get your ticket for the VAC conference this year.Kelly Molson: If you like what you hear, you can subscribe on all the usual channels by searching Skip the Queue.Kelly Molson: Bernard, Ken, Paul, it is a treat to have you all on the podcast today. Thank you for joining me. I think this is the first time I've had three guests as well, so this could be interesting. Bernard Donoghue: And three men as well. I mean, it's like a really bad testosterone banana rama, isn't it? Really. Kelly Molson: I'm just a little flower in the middle of you thorns today. Yes, it's a real shame. So, unfortunately, Janet Uttley and Liz Terry couldn't make it along to join us today, which is a shame. But I'm sure that they will get lots of mentions as we talk through some of the things that we're going to chat about today. But first, as ever, I want to start with a little icebreaker. I'm going to ask you all the same thing because I'm intrigued as to whether you ended up doing what you thought you might. So, Ken, I'm going to start with you first. When you were at school, what did you think that you'd grow up and be when you were older? Ken Robinson: I didn't know. Kelly Molson: Had no clue at all? Ken Robinson: No, I didn't have a clue. I was lucky to have a good education. I didn't work at school. And then I got into a job, which was I was very successful at it and it was very boring. So I left. And when I discovered tourism and visitor attractions, it took me over. I didn't decide to do it. It told me that was it. Kelly Molson: Oh, I love it. It's like a calling. Ken Robinson: At the time it was, I was actually sitting in a turret room which had been vacated by Lord Montague. His desk used to face in and I liked that because I didn't have to look at the faces of the visitors going past who might complain, because in those days, buli was very expensive. And then one day I thought to myself, these people are investing their hard earned money and leisure time in making a decision to come here and it's our job to make sure they have a good time. And I turned my desk round and I looked at them all day long and the moment I turned my desk round, everything changed. Kelly Molson: I love that, because you could see the whites of their eyes and how they were engaging with the venue as they turned up. Ken Robinson: Well, it's just such a failure, isn't it? If you've got somebody who makes a choice and spends their time and money, a family decision for many people, and it should be a highlight. And if it isn't, whose fault is it? It's probably the fault of the visitor attraction, given that the person has chosen to go there in not communicating well enough with them about what they've got and what they would find interesting. Kelly Molson: This is such a brilliant story and that wasn't where I was expecting this to go either, Ken. I love it. Paul, what about you, Paul?Paul Kelly: Yeah, I mean, when I was at school, I was interested in sports and that was it, really, and luckily, that dragged me through the various places I went to. But what I was going to end up doing sports. I think once you get into sports quite seriously, you realise fairly quickly that actually you're not going to make it, so you have to find something else. So, laterally, I decided that business was a good idea. So I started doing business studies up in North Wales and for some reason were doing a sandwich course in those days, I think it was called that. One of those, I got placed at Thorpe Park. I don't know why particularly, so there's a group of six of us went down to Thorpe Park to work there and I actually started working on the rides.Paul Kelly: I'm not sure what it had to do with business at the time, but I'm glad somebody thought it did. And I couldn't believe that was a job that you could do, you could be paid for, because I came from the north at that point and there wasn't an awful lot going on in the 80s and actually be paid. Everyone enjoyed themselves, fantastic atmosphere, parties every night. I'm sure it's still like that. And it was just amazing. And from that moment on, regardless of what happened after that, including other colleges, other bits and pieces, effectively, I never left. Kelly Molson: It's always going to be in that sector. Paul Kelly: Yes. Kelly Molson: Excellent. Great. Bernard, same to you. Bernard Donoghue: Well, this may come as a surprise, but my grandfather was in the Irish Guards, my father was in the Grenadier Guards, my brother was in the Royal Marines, and I had a very large collection of action men. I genuinely thought I would probably end up in the army. And actually, I got an offer after university to go into the Household Cavalry. I don't think I've ever told anyone this before. Anyway, it just clearly I didn't pursue the application. It wasn't for me at all. Got really into politics. So I started working in the House of Commons, House of Lords and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and then I've just been in sort of lobbying, campaigning, political world ever since. But I still miss the uniforms. Can't deny it. Kelly Molson: I think we'd like to see you in that uniform, Bernard, if I'm not going to lie. So from the lobbying aspect, which is obviously a really big part of the role that you currently have, how did the attractions bit kind of slot into those? Where did the two join up? Bernard Donoghue: It's a really odd coincidence. I was trustee of a charity that Diana, Princess of Wales, was a patron of, and I was working full time for a charity that she was a patron of. So when she divorced Prince of Wales, now the King, she reduced her patronages down from 187 to six. And I happened to be involved with six of them. I went to work for her as a deputy private secretary, press secretary. But of course, the moment she died, which was August 31st, I had no job. Suddenly I was unemployed. And I got contacted by a woman who Ken will certainly know, probably Paul will, too, by Sue Garland, who used to be Deputy Chief Executive of VisitBritain, who'd heard me speak at something and said, "Well, we're just about to create this post of government affairs liaison. Would you be interested to working on the role while working on what you do next?”Bernard Donoghue: And that was in August 1997. And here I am still. Ken Robinson: But also, can I add something to that? Because I was lucky enough to be sitting in the room on many occasions when Bernard would give his briefing at meetings that were held by VisitBritain. And it was always a highlight of the day because Bernard, in those days, never pulled his punches. I'm not saying he does now, but he would just explain to everybody in the room what was going on with all of the political parties, which we never understood, and explain what we ought to be doing in order to best put our case. So it was really no shock when he turned up at ALVA, because I would say this if he wasn't here, he was the star of the show there, and that expertise that he showed has blossomed in the job that he's doing now. Kelly Molson: This is lovely, isn't it? Aren't you all nice? Bernard Donoghue: This is love in.. Kelly Molson: Probably why you all work together, right? You will get on so well. Right, back to you, Ken. Unpopular opinion, please. Ken Robinson: Most visitor attractions do not deliver full value for money to most of their visitors. Kelly Molson: Okay, Paul and Bernard, do you agree with this? Will our listeners agree with this? Is this an unpopular opinion?Paul Kelly: Did you use the word most, Ken? Ken Robinson: I did. Paul Kelly: I'll go for some, not most. Bernard Donoghue: Yeah, I'll go for some as well. One of my favourite programmes is Yes, Minister. And whenever you'd hear something off the wall, bonkers, they would say, that's a very brave opinion, Minister. That's a very brave opinion, Ken.Ken Robinson: Now's not the time to justify it. I'll do that on another occasion. Kelly Molson: Yeah, we will invite you back and we can do that one on one, Ken. Paul, what about you? Unpopular opinion? Paul Kelly: Well, I'm guessing that anybody that's worked in a theme park will probably have the same opinion I have. So I worked at Thorpe Park, which was 450 acres, two thirds of which was water. And at the end of the day, when you were walking out, and in those days, that could be 9, 10 o'clock at night, it was beautiful. On a late summer's evening, calm waters, walking through a park which had just been cleaned and tidied and ready for the next day. It was fantastic. And we all had the same opinion once were down the pub discussing the day. It's just a shame we have to let people into theme parks because it's the absolutely beautiful place without them there. So sometimes people let the parks down. Kelly Molson: That's a good one. That is a good one. Yeah. And you don't want to let them in to see the beautiful bit either, do you? Because then there'd be people there. It wouldn't be serene. Paul Kelly: No, I mean, those evenings, if there was still time, we'd go windsurfing on the lakes, cable water ski around the back. And it was just a shame that all these people came in every day and messed it all up. Kelly Molson: Yeah. Well, I'm pretty sure that most people who've worked in theme parks aren't going to disagree with you on that one, Paul. Good one. Bernard, what about yours? Bernard Donoghue: Even though I chair a theatre and I know how important the revenue is, I'm not a fan of selling drinks and food to people in theatres because they just make a noise. I can't bear it. I mean, it depends. I mean, it depends if it's a panto or something like that. Completely fine. Ken Robinson: Oh, no, it's not. Bernard Donoghue: It kind of allies to what Paul was saying as well, which was I don't know whether it's an unpopular opinion. I think it's probably a popular opinion. But visitor behaviour, whether it's in a theatre, a museum, an art gallery or wherever, has completely deteriorated post lockdown. Some people's behaviour is getting worse and it's very difficult to know what to do about it. Kelly Molson: Yes, agree. I don't think that's going to be very unpopular at all, actually, considering some of the things that we've seen recently. Thank you all for sharing. Okay, let's get back to the serious bit. The Visitor Attractions Conference. It's 20 years old this year. If you are listening and you're not familiar with it, one, why the hell not? And two, you need to grab a ticket today. It's the leading networking and learning event for visitor attractions across the UK. And I first visited in October 2019 and it was the first sector specific conference that I had been to. We'd been working in the sector for probably about three or four years, had never really at that point kind of gone all out on our like, "This is what we're going to niche and this is what we're going to specialise in."Kelly Molson: So I was kind of doing a bit of a fact finding mission really, and I came along and it absolutely blew me away. I think it was one of the friendliest conferences I've ever been to. I think you'd created an environment where everybody was really welcome, no stupid questions. Everyone from speakers to guests where kind of felt like they were all on the same level, really happy to answer questions that you had, really happy to talk to you. And I think that was for me. I came away from that event, I went back to my team and said, "This is where we should be. This is the event for us, this is where we should be attending, these are the people that we should be speaking to." And I've absolutely loved every minute of that. Kelly Molson: I mean, the next one I went to was a virtual one. So it was very different to the 2019 event, but still excellently organised. So firstly, thank you for making that happen. But where did the idea for the VAC come from in the first place? How did this come about? Ken Robinson: So we have to remember that the world was very different over 20 years ago. Really, really very different. Not just a question of internet or pre COVID and all those things and pre Olympics, but just very different. And attractions in those days thought and acted and communicated in their sectoral associations. Historic houses talked to historic houses, curators of museums talked to curators, bishops talked to priests, zoologists talked to botanists, but they didn't talk across the sectors. There were two exceptions to that. One was that in Visit England or English Tourist Board, there'd always been a committee there which was across the sectors, but the other one was ALVA. Now, when ALVA was formed, it was a 1 million visitors plus club for attractions, with 1 million plus visitors a year. Ken Robinson: Subsequently, groups of attractions, particularly English Heritage, National Trust, were involved originally associates, but it was a 1 million plus club and that's only 1% of the attractions in the United Kingdom had over 1 million. And it was very London centric. And ALVA had a five objectives, four of which were about government. And the interesting thing was that I was very good friends all through this time with Lord Lee, who know a very big part of the early success, pre Bernard of ALVA. I said to John Lee, “Look John, could you not change your name to ALVA and be involved with all the visitor attractions because they badly need something which glues everybody together and we need to get across this away from this sectoral stuff.” Ken Robinson: And everybody was talking about historic houses, talk about the house museums, talking about the continents of the museum but they weren't talking about visitors. They weren't talking about how you communicated with the visitors or what they were motivated by or how you could better manage things for visitors, give them better they weren't doing that. So John agreed with this and I've got the original papers here. I looked them out that I was asked first of all by ALVA in December of 2001 to write a paper on the future of ALVA which is headed: ALVA in the Future Representing All Visitor Attractions. Then after that the conversation went on and we realised that if were going to have some kind of overall event we couldn't do it without the National Tourist Board, we couldn't do it without Visit Britain, Visit England. We needed their input.Ken Robinson: We needed them to talk to DCMS and make sure it would happen. And also we wanted to do this not on a commercial basis but being by the industry, for the industry, run by the industry, not for profit. And that was a problem because we wanted to do it in the QE II Centre because we wanted to be in the centre of everything and that was going to cost an extraordinary sum of money and there wasn't that much money that could in that first year come originally from VisitEngland. So the partners in this, the partners being ALVA, BALPPA, Paul's organisation, Leisure Media the wonderful Liz Terry and her magazine which has forever been behind this event for no recompense whatever and myself put up 5000 pounds each security in order that the thing would happen. Ken Robinson: You said, "We'll stand the risk, let's do it.". So in 2004 I wrote the briefing of the first conference and I found from a 2003 the government asked for a list of topics that would be discussed in order they could work out whether or not they might like it and it's still here. What I like about it is it would do quite well for this year's conference. All those topics are still relevant. So that's where it came from. That's where it came from. We wanted it to have at the time the lowest possible attendance fee to get the highest number of people there. We wanted to involve everybody. Ken Robinson: And the cast list for that 2004 event, my goodness me, absolutely fantastic cast list in terms of the people we had for an initial event and you can imagine when it was announced and everybody was behind it ALVA was behind it. BALPPA, I should have mentioned that Colin Dawson, Paul's predecessor was an absolute stalwart of the conference in the early years he stood by know, when times were tough and that's where it came from. Kelly Molson: That is phenomenal. It was really putting your money where your mouth is, isn't it? By all of you actually personally investing in this thing to bring it to life. You don't hear many things happening in that way anymore, do you? It's all about getting investment and asking other people to make the commitment to it and take the risk. Ken Robinson: Well, we have a company now, I should say. We have a company called VAC Events, and we are all equal. The four of us are equal shareholders, that's to say, Bernard and ALVA, BALPPA and Paul, Liz and myself, for no benefit. Martin does it for us, but we are the people that carry the can, if you like, and I don't think we've ever had anything out of it apart from a nice lunch at Christmas, but apart from that, it's a great feeling of doing something. When you say everybody is very friendly and talks to one another. That's why they're all in the same business. Bishop, curator, zoologist person running a heritage railway, they're all in the same business. Kelly Molson: Obviously, the first event was a success. You've been on and you've done many, what, 20, 20 events since that first one. How have you seen it kind of change and develop over the years? So what did that first conference look like compared to what this year's will look like? And how have you kind of evolved it over that time to keep it relevant to your audience? Paul Kelly: Well, I think so. My involvement directly has been the last ten years, so I'm halfway through chairing for this one, but I was actually there at the early ones because I worked at that time. I was working at the London Eye, just across the river, and I was good friends with Colin Dawson at the time. I'd worked with him at Thorpe Park and he for some people, may well remember Colin as entertaining Princess Diana on a log flume in 92, 3 and 4. Paul Kelly: And I was there. It's hard to tell, but I was actually there. I'm not in any of the photos in Paris Match and all of those places. I have a couple of myself here. I didn't get anything signed by Princess Diana and sent over to you know, bitterness takes a while to and I've joked with Colin over this many years. Colin was there, but if you look closely behind the scenes, you'll find I was there too, but so I was great friends with Colin over many years and still am. He was obviously contacting everyone he knew about this conference. He was working for BALPPA at the time. I was working for the Two Swords Group, had the operational contract for the London Eye. Paul Kelly: So I went to the first one and I suppose my impressions of the first one was for somebody who hasn't been there before, the QE II is extremely impressive as a conference center. I don't go to many that look like that around the UK. Most of them normally the ones I go to are in attractions, they're slightly different so it was hugely impressive both on its location and what was across the road and how things went and I was a little bit starstruck I suppose, for the first one. Now I get the opportunity to sit on the stage and look out at everybody and have a slightly different view on it all, but still think it's an extremely impressive environment to do that. Paul Kelly: And I think the biggest change for me, and I think we may cover a little bit later, is how we've broken up the afternoons into separate segments and sections where people can go along to a smaller, informal group discussing a topic that they particularly want. And I think the thing I also like about that is the amount of people who want to go to more than one of them that are on at the same time and are almost complaining there's too many things to go to, which I think is hilarious, which means it's really good. And hopefully that means that next time they'll really think about which one do I want to go to, obviously I want to go to more than one, but I'm going to pick my best one. Paul Kelly: So I think for me, that's probably the biggest change over time. But what doesn't change for me is the team that we have putting these things together, which we're actually relatively slick at. Everyone gets the chance to put their opinions and I'm glad we don't record those meetings and it works out really well. And I think as a team, it's amazing how long we've stuck at it and stuck together. Kelly Molson: I'd love to be on a little fly on the wall for those meetings. Have you ever had a fallout about something? Bernard Donoghue: Yes, we're frequently violent. It's a visitor experience in its own right, I think. Kelly Molson: I'll pay for it. Bernard Donoghue: We reflect the madness that some of our visitors demonstrate on site so in that case I think we're rooted in the industry. The first one that I went to was in 2011, so I just joined ALVA at that point. And the first one I spoke, it was in 2012 and I've been doing the same kind of slot ever since. I do a kind of State of the Nation in the morning because ALVA obviously gets loads of data and information and we publish all of our visitor figures and all the rest of it, and actually we collect and commission much more data now than we ever used to. So I share all of that in the kind of Donoghue half hour copyright. Bernard Donoghue: What's lovely I mean, Paul's absolutely right is that over the last twelve years I think we've seen a real move from people desperately wanting to speak about their successes to being really open about what hasn't worked, which of course is far more interesting and useful. So there's been a really lovely shift from people saying, "No, I don't have to do the propaganda stuff.” Actually, I'm going to tell you what it was like, why it was a disaster and what we learned from it. And that's so useful. So you do get this real honesty coming from the speakers who know that's what they find useful too. So why not share it? I think the other one is I do a presentation about, is there core behaviours of successful visitor attractions regardless of type?Bernard Donoghue: And there are there's about ten of them, but one of them is the ability to foster creative partnerships with unusual suspects. So the presentations that are most fascinating for me is where a visitor attraction, it doesn't matter whether it's a cathedral or whether it's a museum or gallery or theme park, have teamed up with someone that you wouldn't expect them to team up with to tell the story of their people and places and collections in a new, innovating, exciting way. And those are fascinating, absolutely fascinating. So I love those. There's much more of that. Kelly Molson: Fantastic. Well, on that note, I want to know from each of you who has been the most inspiring speaker that you've had at the conference over the past 20 years. Ken, let us start with you. Who do you think would be on your list for that? Ken Robinson: I had a look through the programs going back to 2004 and came up with the following names which surprised me, actually. I think originally our first most inspiring speaker was Simon Jenkins, the columnist of the Times, who had very strong views, which didn't necessarily agree with what government and others were doing. He did give a very inspiring presentation and then there are some people who perhaps we would expect less. The most single most surprising speaker was somebody called Tristram Mayhew, who titles himself as the Chief Gorilla of Go Ape and in a room full of suits and quite smart dresses and trouser suits, Go Ape shambled onto the stage in a car key shirt and proceeded to explain how he'd done things differently. And frankly, it was riveting. We had a chap called Tony Berry from the National Trust who gave presentations. Ken Robinson: His first one was just stunnning, you know, in the days when HR was less popular, Tony Berry would tell you why you should be interested and he was absolutely amazing. And Sue Wilkinson, incidentally, of the National Trust, who was the person responsible really for dragging the Trust from its sort of old form to its new marketing orientated thinking about its supporters future success? She was terrific. And the other person I would mention another Tony, I don't know whether or Tony's there's Tony Butler from the Museum of East Anglian Life, who again, when Bernard was talking about people talking about doing things differently and it inspires you. Some of those examples are very interesting, but not easy to copy. Ken Robinson: In other attractions, we always look for things that do go across the piece, so anybody can learn from the lessons within the example that we're talking about. And incidentally, we do have arguments in meetings, it's about whether particular speakers and particular topics are the way of doing things. And generally speaking, when we all have a good go at it comes out better than it did when anybody said, “Well, I know what the right answer is. No, you don't. Let's all talk about it. So that works.” So you get these people that actually inspire and they light up the room, not because of clever graphics and not because of a forceful way, but they light up the room because of the originality of their ideas. Now, I'll come to my number one. Ken Robinson: I'm sorry about this, because he's sitting on my screen down there, and that's young Bernard, who since he joined our there you go. That's the top half that works. You should see the bottom half doesn't work. He's just had pins put in it. Kelly Molson: Just for our listeners here, Bernard is given a little muscle strong arm salute on screen here. Ken Robinson: Bernard combines the latest immediate knowledge of talking to people across the industry with an absolutely amazing gift of the gab, with a power of communication. And he's unstoppable. And we wouldn't have stood him for all these years if he wasn't. So of all the years and all the speakers, the consistent best is Bernard. But we have had other people, often surprising, who take know, you don't expect it, you think you're going to listen to ordinary session, all of a sudden it takes fire. Kelly Molson: Bernard, what have you got to say to that? Bernard Donoghue: What I say to Ken is there are packets of cash going from London to the south coast with immediate effect. Delighted. Thank you very much. It's really lovely, actually. I've tried to change things every year to do partly political, but also partly about good practice and who's doing what and who's interesting. I'll tell you what, one of my favourite speakers, and it was in a conversation, one of the things that we've introduced is a sort of conversation with slot, which works really well, actually, because a bit like this, you're off script, you respond to people. Liz chaired a conversation last year, so were in Birmingham last year and it was all about HR issues and of course, it know, coming out of COVID and cost of living crisis and recruitment challenges and all of those kind of stuff. Bernard Donoghue: And Tina Lewis is the director of people at the National Trust. National Trust, getting great repertoire here. She came out with an idea that they're doing at the National Trust and I've implemented it in the three organisations that I chair and it's made the biggest difference. So the National Trust, they will pay the rent deposit for your flat if you need them to. So if you're going through a cost of living crisis and you can't get up the cash to put down a rent deposit on your flat, they'll do it for you. You can't get up the cash to put down a rent deposit on your flat, they'll do it for you. That was such a transformational thing to hear. You could almost hear the gasp in the room of people going, "Oh, my God. Yeah, if we can, let's do that." Bernard Donoghue: And I've now introduced it. As I say in the organisations that I chair, not many people have taken it up, but the fact that we've said it has made such a difference to people. I mean, as it is at the Trust, actually, there's been a relatively small number of people at the Trust who've taken it up, but the very policy decision, the very communication of it, just spoke volumes about an organisation that cares about its staff, and particularly those staff who are on really limited budgets. So there's been loads and loads of speakers over the course of the last few years, but that for me was a nugget which has changed people's lives and has been implementable. Kelly Molson: I think that's the key to that part, isn't it, is that it's an incredible thing that they've done, but the fact that it can be implemented someone has listened to that talk. They can take that away, take it to their board, take it to whoever needs to okay that, and they can put that into action like that straight away. That's the power of a really good initiative and a good speaker to be able to deliver that as well. Paul, what about you? Please don't say Bernard. I think he's had enough praise today. Bernard Donoghue: No, keep going. Kelly Molson: No. Paul Kelly: You're OK, Bernard? We'll leave that one where it is, shall we? If we can squeeze Bernard into the room next. Right, so one special mention I wanted to give, actually, which is one of the years not too long ago, we invited Simon Calder to speak, the travel journalist, and I have to say I wasn't convinced, because clearly he's not working in one of our attractions and doesn't necessarily know the industry pretty well. But I have to say, he was hugely entertaining, had done his homework, was hugely knowledgeable, and so he was absolutely excellent. But I think the most important thing for me is that he left us and he said to me, “Enjoyed it so much, I'll come back later.” And I said, “Yes, of course you will.”Paul Kelly: So he went away and he came back at the end of the day to talk to all the people that he'd seen early in the day, because he loved the atmosphere and he wasn't required to do that. And he came along. And for that I have to put a special mention in one for myself to actually listen to the others when they say, “This will be good”, and secondly for him, for actually doing a bit and actually coming back later. And he was a fabulous addition and outside of our industry. So my inside the industry one is somebody I ended up working with because I was with the Two Swords group and then they were bought by Merlin with Nick Varney and his Merry Men. Paul Kelly: So Nick and his team had obviously been in the industry a very long time at this point, dipped in and out of theme parks and attractions. But Nick didn't actually do many talks. You wouldn't actually hear him speak about too much. I'd heard him speak over in the IAAPA trade show held in Orlando every November, and he was absolutely brilliant. And then Ken managed to get him to speak at VAC one year. And again, he was absolutely excellent. And this fits in nicely because now that he's retired from Merlin, he's speaking again this year. So I think that will be really interesting because he's absolutely excellent. Ken Robinson: And by the way, guys, just to show you that we know what we're doing here, this is 2004, okay? And it says here the recipe for success. Nick Varney chief executive, will talk about the components for commercial success. And that's before. So we've got him first and look what happened. Kelly Molson: I'm really looking forward to that interview, actually, and I think it would be really interesting to see how he differs now. He's kind of outside of the sector, and I think that the format that you've got him in. So that's the interview with Liz, isn't it? On stage? I think that's going to be a really great format as well. I've seen that work really well in the past where she's interviewed people and it just feels really comfortable and really conversational. I think that brings out the best of people. Bernard Donoghue: Kelly, do you want to know who's been of most variable quality? Kelly Molson: Oh, yes. Bernard Donoghue: Tourism Minister. I mean, without doubt. I mean, we've been going 20 years now, therefore we've had 20 tourism ministers, had one a year, like Christmas cards. And some of them have completely got the industry completely understood. It delivered a barnstorming speech, and then the next year you'll get the annual Tourism Minister pop up and they'll read something flat, banal, uninteresting. And we're so torched by the experience that we don't invite the one next on the year. So we're always banging on about this. Tourism is very good at job creation. In fact, we've created 20 Tourism Minister jobs in years, but they are of variable quality. Ken Robinson: The best we ever had, Bernard, I think, by far, was John Penrose, when he had completed his review of the industry and got very clear views, which he put to government. Unfortunately, government didn't do it, as they usually don't, but he was good and people liked him and gave him a high rating. I think the next best was probably Margaret Hodge, who was very good and spoke from the heart. But as you say, when we look at every year, we look at a rating of every speaker and the meeting after the event, we go through those ratings and decide, those that got good ratings, why did they get it? Was it intrinsic to their character, their nature, their topic? Was there something special? And those who didn't, why was that? Was it our fault? Ken Robinson: Did we not brief them properly? Or was it never going to be any better? Ken Robinson: And that way we managed to manage the conference. So know the attraction sector. We sometimes forget that over half of all visits to visitor attractions in the UK are free of charge. We forget that the majority of visitor attractions are medium and small businesses. We forget that there are charitable and commercial attractions. We must be able to bring this whole sector together and move our thinking forward in the way that Bernard has just explained in terms of what he does with ALVA. And the other thing that Bernard mentioned was ALVA's research now. Ken Robinson: 20 years ago, you had to wait until the annual book came out from Thames Tower and then eventually from the centre of luck look to page 16 and there would be numbers, but very little interpretation of what those numbers meant. Now, Bernard is behind much of the work that is done now with ALVA. But the key to it is it's not just numbers, it's interpretation. And because of the communication skills, when ALVA put out a message, it is interpreted. It says why it was a successful year or what was mitigating against that. And that's so important in trying to move our case forward. Kelly Molson: But it's important in improving the content that you give your audience at the conferences as well, right? If something isn't working and you've got a process of evaluating why that hasn't worked and how you improve on it for the next one. Let's just focus on why should people attend VAC this year? What is in it for them? What's on the agenda? What have they got to look forward to and how can we get them to book a ticket? Bernard Donoghue: I'll happily go first and go quite niche, actually. One of the things that I do now outside of ALVA, or because of ALVA is that I co chair the advisory board for VisitLondon. So essentially chair the London tourist board. And I do that with Kate Nichols of UK hospitality. And we created the London Tourism Recovery Group during COVID So my suggestion would be Sadiq Khan. So we've managed to get the Mayor of London to come along and speak at this anniversary conference. And it's not just because he's the Mayor of London and it's the 20th anniversary, but it's because he's the first ever Mayor of London that hazard one of his four political priorities, culture and tourism. That's number one. Bernard Donoghue: Number two is that he put his money where his mouth was and he funded the Let's Do London Recovery campaign, which was both domestic and international with the industry. We delivered it with London and partners, but he put up the lump sum behind it. And third, he completely gets that tourism and heritage and culture is both where you grow jobs and we're very good at it, but it's also where you grow people. It's where you grow people in terms of their cultural literacy or their sense of community or their independence or their sense of history. And therefore knowing where you come from enables you to be a better future citizen, if you like. Bernard Donoghue: So my quick blast would be we've got him doing a welcome, but also saying why visitor attractions and tourism are so important to him and to the economy and the politics of London. So that's not to be missed. Kelly Molson: That is a big draw. Absolutely a big draw. Paul, you mentioned earlier about the variety in splitting up that second session, that second part of the day with the seminars and the smaller talks that you do as well. That for me, as an attendee, is really valuable because you can kind of pick and choose what's relevant to you and go along and see lots of different talks. What do you think is the draw for people to come to the conference this year for you? Paul Kelly: Well, I was just jotting down, thinking about it's a little bit. An extension of what Ken was talking about is that it's the variety of what we do in one place is greater than anywhere else. And all the conferences I do because of the nature of what we do each end of the spectrum. So we've got talks about people who run charities to people who run hugely commercial operations. We've got people doing talks on which are free to get into those who are quite expensive, but focus on value for money. And you've got those that are indoor, those that are outdoor. When I spent my time business development at Merlin, they were always focused on a balanced portfolio. And a balanced portfolio meant making sure that right across your business, you have every aspect covered. Paul Kelly: So everything balances indoor, outdoor, UK, Europe, USA, whatever it is. And I think with our conference, that's what we try and do, we try and balance all of those types of different types of operations so that everything is covered, not to the point where it's too thin and you don't learn anything. And that's the key to it, is that we go into the depth. And the depth, I think, is greater now because we do those breakout sessions and we've got time to do in fact, we double up for those three different areas just for that afternoon. So I think those are the things, if anyone asks me why they should come, it's about the variety.Kelly Molson: Regardless of size of your attraction as well. And actually, from my perspective as a supplier to the industry, it's just as valuable to come along and learn and understand what's going on in the sector. You don't have to be an attraction to come along and take part and be educated about what's happening in the sector. What about you, Ken? Ken Robinson: Well, I think that those of us who have stood on the stage at the QE II Centre and looked at the people who have come can see that there aren't any slumbering faces out there. There are people making notes, people nudging the person next to them, people looking round when we ask a question. We now have a sort of red and green card system for, do you agree? Don't you agree? Which we sometimes use, which is very interesting, engaging the mood of the room. And I think that the thing about VAC is don't be lazy if we're going to come to VAC. Don't be lazy. If you're coming to VAC, l And jot down what questions you might like to ask those people or what you'd like to learn from that session. Write it down, don't think you can remember it at the time. Ken Robinson: Bring it on a note with you when you come and then you will find, and we all know this, that the networking that happens at the end of the day and in the breaks at VAC it's like a family wedding in a way. I mean, everybody wants to talk to everybody else and it's so valuable. I think everybody who goes away from VAC should have a good few things that day, which they say, “I wouldn't have thought of that if I hadn't been there”, or even, “I disagree with that”, but it's made me realise what my true opinion about that is equally valuable. But don't be a lazy attendee. Come and participate, come and enjoy, come and learn, come and take back benefit to everybody that works with you. Kelly Molson: Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I think that thing about not being scared to ask questions is really valid as well, Ken, because this happened to me, actually. I went to one of the seminar sessions, and this is back in 2019 and was really inspired by one of the speakers about it was Julez Osbek, who was at Continuum Attractions at the time, and she talked about marketing segmentation, but had a completely different perspective on it in terms of not doing it demographically, just talking about age brackets and things like that. And it was really interesting. I didn't get a chance to ask a question during the seminar, but I found her afterwards and she was very approachable, very happy to answer my question. And then I stalked her on Twitter and got her to come on to the podcast afterwards to talk about it. Kelly Molson: But that's for me, what VAC is about. It's the openness that people are really willing to share. So don't be afraid to go and find the speaker that you've been inspired by and go and ask them the question afterwards, because everyone's really happy to talk about their topic and they're really happy to help people. That's my little key takeaway from it anyway. Right, so it's going to be on Thursday, the 5th October. This podcast episode is launching on the 20th September, so you haven't got long to go and get your tickets, so make sure you do. It is the 5th October, the QE II Conference Centre in Westminster. The website address is vacevents.com. That's Vacevents.com and you can get your ticket there. All of this information will be in the show notes, so don't worry if you didn't get time to scribble that down. Kelly Molson: While I've got you all, though, because you all are in the sector and you've got lots of insights to share. I want to know from each of you what you think that attractions should be focusing on and what 2024 might look like for the sector. Paul, what about you? Start with you. Paul Kelly: So I've been chatting to some of our operators. We have some very large operators around the UK asking them how it's going? And unsurprisingly, you could have said the same question 20 years ago, what's our biggest challenge? It's the weather. It's not actually the cost of living crisis, it's not COVID you can put plans together for those things and you can work on it, but the weather always is a little bit of a challenge. So this summer inverted commerce has been quite hard to focus on what we can deliver when the days have been half decent. Actually, we've done quite well, we always do relatively well, certainly in our sector, I'm sure the others will agree, in a recession. Paul Kelly: So the key seems to be, and I'm going to put it out, I haven't quite found the right words for it, but I'll develop this once I've spoken to a few more. What every attraction for me has to have is an opportunity for people to downgrade what they did slightly. What they're doing is they're ringing it up and saying, "Can't afford to do this, have you got something that's almost like that?" But whether it's a slightly different experience, less time, one day less so whatever the packages are that people are offering, there has to be one rung lower than it was before to still encourage people to come along because they're not able to reach the same heights at the moment that they did previously. But they still want to have that family experience that day out, create those memories. Paul Kelly: All of those things are still relevant. And if you don't have that opportunity, then they'll either go elsewhere or they won't go. So, again, it's managing. So I'm not talking about huge discounts, I'm talking about being relatively clever in what you package and what you put together to make sure they still attend and they still get what they perceive to be value for money. But unless you have that option then I think they won't come. Kelly Molson: Really great advice, Paul. Thank you. Bernard, what about you? Bernard Donoghue: Like Paul, actually, especially since Lockdown ended, but actually for about the last five or six years I've noticed a particular thing which is where visitor attractions have got reserves, and that's a big if by the way, particularly in the course of the last couple of years. Actually, especially since Lockdown ended, but actually for about the last five or six years I've noticed a particular thing which is where visitor attractions have got reserves, and that's a big if by the way, particularly in the course of the last couple of years. So it comes back to Paul's point about kind of ensuring yourself against the excesses of the weather and making sure that you're still particularly a family attractive visitor attractions that'd be one. Second is cost of living crisis, certainly for the average customer, but also the energy costs for visitor attractions too. Bernard Donoghue: Just crazy amounts of money that visitor attractions are now paying i If you're a zoo or an aquarium you can't turn down the temperature of your botanics you're a living reef. So we're going to have to find some way out of that. And that means that actually for many organisations it's going to be as financially challenging over the next twelve months as it has been over the last two. And then I think the third, and this is a continual for me and Kelly, you and I have talked about it before, but it forms the last session of the day at the VAC conference which is diversity and inclusivity. And my feeling is that every visitor attraction should be critically honest about who comes, who doesn't, why they don't come and what are you going to do about it?Bernard Donoghue: And in particular those organisations who in receipt are government money or public money or who had COVID loans from the UK taxpayer. If their visitors don't look like the community in which they're housed, they have a moral question at the heart of their business. That's it. If you want to take public money you need to have an audience that looks like the diversity of the public. And that's a challenge. I get that, I completely get that. But I think that making sure that we are as accessible in every conceivable way, economically, physically. Accessible to people and that they see their stories and themselves reflected in their collections and people and staff and volunteers and board members, I think that's the biggest challenge of the sector as it is indeed to many other sectors. Bernard Donoghue: But I think we're doing some amazing things and we need to shout about it and we need to share and we need to learn from each other. Kelly Molson: Absolutely agree. And that session is going to be a really great session. That's one not to miss. Ken? Ken Robinson: Well, I would say two things. First of all, as far as our visitors are concerned, I think there is a bigger polarisation now than there ever has been between those who have money and can still afford to do things and are not much impacted by the current circumstances, despite everything. And those who haven't and those who haven't have got to find ways of saving money, getting more for their money. There are so many things they can do that are free and alternatives that charged attractions find it difficult. I think we have to remember that the biggest number of attractions in the United Kingdom are heritage based attractions and they weren't purpose built like many of Paul's members, the attractions are purpose built for entertainment. But heritage attractions have got a bigger responsibility or museums housed in historic buildings. Ken Robinson: And all the time they're having to cut their costs and finding life difficult. Money isn't going into maintaining that National Heritage. And that's a real big long term challenge, one that government can't ignore. So government has a vested interest in the health of our businesses because the more healthy they are, the less will fall back on the state eventually. One last thing, I would like to mention Martin Evans and the tourism business. Ken Robinson: For the last I don't know how many years, Martin has been the person who has put together this event for us. He has to do the heavy lifting. He is backed up by our conference organisers, who are also very efficient. And the other person that I wouldn't like to miss from this, because if she could have been here today, you would have got a different flavour, is the wonderful Liz Terry and the support that her organisation. That's Liz's Organisation, her hard work in Leisure Media Group. She publishes Attractions Management magazine. Ken Robinson: She has never asked for anything from this conference and she gives it great support, without which we wouldn't have made 20 years, as I said earlier. And also a big shout and a screen for Liz. Kelly Molson: That is lovely. Thank you. I'm sure Liz will very much appreciate that. We won't forget her. Don't worry, she'll be on the credits for this podcast. I always ask our guests to leave us with a book recommendation for our listeners. So a book that you've loved, a book that you've enjoyed as part of your career growth can be absolutely anything. So, Paul, what would you like to share with us today? Paul Kelly: Oh, I tell you what, books are a bit highbrow for me. Yes, Bernard agrees with that. So I'm from the north, so I used to travel a lot when I was working North America. Commuting a little bit. So I did read a little bit then, but I very quickly swapped over to podcasts things that I download. I watch Silent Witness from the 90's, early 2000s repeatedly. I like Meet Marry Murder, which is one of the cable channels, so I'm quite simple. So I don't really have a book recommendation. I think when I have time to read, I will look forward to reading what somebody else recommends. Kelly Molson: Well, I will take Silent Witness as a recommendation because I love Silent Witness, Paul. Oh, so good. Never miss an episode, ever. So, OK, they go I mean, I can't give it away as a prize, but go and check out Silent Witness if you haven't. Bernard, what's yours? Bernard Donoghue: Well, I've been on this before and I remember my recommendation and it sounds really facile, but it was absolutely true, was Ladybird Books when I was a kid, and then that's how I got into history and heritage and storytelling and absolutely loved them. And I've still got loads of them, which is a bit sad, actually. I'm currently confined to home with a broken ankle. So I've been going through my big Bernard book of books, of all the ones that I haven't got around to reading, and the one that I've enjoyed most and has really surprised me is Lucy Worsley's biography of Agatha Christie. Absolutely fascinating. I thought I knew her. I thought I knew all about her. I know all of her characters, I've watched every conceivable film and TV program, but what a fascinating woman. Bernard Donoghue: So that's the one that I've loved this summer. Kelly Molson: Great recommendation. Yeah. I wondered what were going to get from you, actually, because you've had a lot of time on your hands to go through that book pile. Bernard Donoghue: It was either going to be Agatha Christie or the Argos catalogue. Honestly, it could have gone. Kelly Molson: It's not Christmas yet. You only do the Argos catalogue at Christmas. Ken, over to you for our last recommendation. Ken Robinson: Well, the best book quite hard to get hold of now, but I can supply copies is Action For Attractions, the National Policy Document, written in 2000. But if you want something other than that, then I have just finished reading a book which everyone else read years ago called Sapiens, which is about this thick, that's to say two and a half inches thick. For those of you listening. It's by somebody, I've just had to look him up because I couldn't have remembered it, by Yuval Noah Harari. And it's entitled A Brief History of Humankind. And what's so interesting about it is it goes through segments explaining the great moves that have happened to us humans since we appeared on this Earth. Ken Robinson: And I found the whole thing fascinating to read in one go what took me a long time, particularly the last bit, which talks about how commerce has changed the world and what we're all doing, and that's, after all, what we're doing at VAC. We are engaged in the kind of commerce that is to entertain, amuse and give enjoyment to our visitors, and at the same time keep the heritage of the country going and keep an awful lot of people employed, so I recommend Sapiens. Kelly Molson: Ken, that's a great book. It took me a really long time to read as well, but it is an absolutely fascinating book. I would totally back up your recommendation there. Have you read the next one as well, Homodeus? Ken Robinson: No one a year is enough for me. Kelly Molson: Well, I've got a toddler, so reading doesn't come easy for me right now. But Homodus is next on my list to read because that's the next one on from Sapiens and it's supposed to be a really good read as well. Right, listeners as ever, if you want to win a copy of Ken and Bernard's book, retweet this episode announcement with the words, I want the Vax books and you will be put into a prize drawer to win them. And also, do go and watch Silent Witness, Paul's recommendation, because it is blooming brilliant. I love it. Thank you all so much for coming on to join me today. I've really appreciated it. It's been a fascinating kind of deep dive into the Visitor Attractions Conference. I genuinely love this conference. It is one absolutely not to be missed. Kelly Molson: I mean, there might be a speaker called Kelly at this one. This is so I'll be there. Come and see me too. But no, thank you. It's been wonderful. As I said, we will put all of the info in the show notes. We'll put all of the connections to Paul, Ken and Bernard too. So if you've got any follow up questions that you want to ask them, I'm sure they'd be really happy to help. But it's vapevents.com. Go and grab your ticket now. Thank you, guys. Ken Robinson: And I have to tell you, Kelly, we are going to spend our time at our next committee meeting thinking of impossible questions for you for when you're speaking at VAC.Kelly Molson: Oh, God. Do it. I love impossible questions. Put me on the spot, Ken. I'll enjoy it. Kelly Molson: Thanks for listening to Skip the Queue. If you've enjoyed this podcast, please leave us a five star review. It really helps others find us. And remember to follow us on Twitter for your chance to win the books that have been mentioned. Skip The Queue is brought to you by Rubber Cheese, a digital agency that builds remarkable systems and websites for attractions that helps them increase their visitor numbers. You can find show notes and transcriptions from this episode and more over on our website, rubbercheese.com/podcast. 

Lowri Dowthwaite-Walsh is a perfect podcast guest, and you'll very quickly figure out why! Lowri trained as an actor as one of only 4 girls in her year group at The Bristol Old Vic theatre school. The huge irony of Lowri's story begins with the fact that she landed a dream job as a character in a soap opera for 2 years. Her character was studying psychology and philosophy and Lowri became so engrossed in her research that she fell head over heels in love with psychology - so much so, that she quit the acting business in 2005 and went back to university to study Psychology. Not content with that, she followed her degree with a Master's degree in Clinical Psychology and worked in the NHS for 7 years as Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner. A real-life full circle moment!Lowri has also been a lecturer in Counselling, Phycology and Wellbeing and is an expert in her field researching the topics around wellbeing and the science of happiness having published many papers. Lowri is now concentrating on building her own private practice. Lowri generously opens up about her experiences as a professional actor – the ups and downs. She also talks about her fascination with what it means to be human and the challenges of going back into academia after living quite the creative life. Lowri shares her thoughts and experiences from her years as a practitioner around treating depression, anxiety and trauma and how happiness, as she so wonderfully puts it, Lowri says: “Instead of being obsessed with happiness we can be content with happier”!I think recognising that happiness is a practice that we need to build on is absolutely key. It is there for us all, but it isn't necessarily as easy as just ‘let's all be happy'. It's a very interesting and uplifting conversation with someone who has made a significant and positive impact on my life!Thank you Lowri, you Welsh goddess!! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[TW//Crystal Meth, Intravenous Drug Use] Today I welcome Olivier Award nominated actor Robert Hands who trained at Bristol Old Vic and has been an actor for 35 years appearing in leading roles in film, theatre, television and West End musicals. Robert quit alcohol in his late 20's but many years after was offered to smoke methamphetamine and within three months he was injecting crystal meth. Robert lost absolutely everything but he then went on an incredible journey of recovery and getting his career and life back on track. Robert now has a happy and healthy life and he is a hero for telling his story today to help others. Robert was recently nominated for an Olivier Award for his role in 'Come From Away' in The West End at The Phoenix Theatre and has a huge body of theatre work at all the top venues. He also played Sir Robin in the original London cast of 'Spamalot!' and is a a member of Edward Hall's world-renowned all male Shakespeare company 'Propeller.' He also played the lead in the cult horror film 'The Lesson', as well as appearing regularly on the tv in Endeavour, Berlin Station, Noughts and Crosses, Tom Jones and the yet to be screened 'Masters of the Air” for Apple TV. He is probably best known for his television roles in Sharpe's Battle, Doctor Who and The House of Eliott, as well as the films Charlotte Gray, Anna and The King, and the Academy Award-winning (Best Picture) Shine. 0:00 Intro 3:29 Robert's rock bottom 18:27 What is crystal meth? 20:08 Robert's progression to injecting 30:48 The dangers of methamphetamine 32:45 Breaking down the stereotypes of a drug addict 35:58 Low self esteem, addiction and performing 40:15 How do you balance challenges of the performing arts industry and relapse? 46:58 Chem sex 48:28 How Robert became a survivor 53:28 Inspiration for those that feel hopeless This Podcast is not for profit but my goal is to break even. To help me make more please donate here. Thank you! https://bit.ly/3kSucAs If you've been affected by any of the issues discussed on today's episode we recommend contacting the following organisations: SMART Recovery - https://smartrecovery.org.uk/ Narcotics Anonymous - https://ukna.org/ Follow Robert Instagram - https://instagram.com/rob.hands Twitter - https://twitter.com/RobertHands7 Follow Oliver Instagram - https://bit.ly/3IemHLY Twitter - http://bit.ly/3GQYj2l Facebook - http://bit.ly/3w8S1Gx LinkedIn - http://bit.ly/3kp4ymC TikTok - https://bit.ly/3YGLsYm Listen or watch on: YouTube - https://youtu.be/2qlhqijv3hI Spotify - https://bit.ly/46Om6fl Apple - https://apple.co/41IrJt4 or search 'School of Rock Bottom' where you listen to your podcasts. About this podcast - Welcome to the School Of Rock Bottom Podcast with Oliver Mason. I work as an actor, voice-over artist, Performing Arts School Principal and a Mental Health Coach. It's these careers and passions combined that have inspired this podcast! People working in the entertainment and performing arts industry are twice as likely to experience depression, are up to 15x more likely to suffer from anxiety and those working across all the creative industries are 3x more likely to suffer a mental health problem. In this podcast, we invite creatives who have lived through a rock bottom but have survived! These stories need to be heard to help others realise that no matter how bad things seem there is hope and always a way out.

This week, we are live from the Bristol Old Vic as Susie & Gyles tune into the vast history of the ‘orchestra'. Join us as we discover the melodious connections between orchestras and their vibrant etymologies! We love hearing from you, find us @SomethingRhymes on Twitter and Facebook, @SomethingRhymesWith on Instagram or you can email us on our NEW email address here: purplepeople@somethingrhymes.com Want even more purple, people? Join the Purple Plus Club by clicking the banner in Apple podcasts or head to purpleplusclub.com to listen on other platforms' Don't forget that you can join us in person at our upcoming tour, tap the link to find tickets: www.somethingrhymeswithpurple.com  Enjoy Susie's Trio for the week:  1. Pinguescent: becoming fat. 2. Quercine: relating to oak trees. 3. Epidictic: displaying the skill of the speaker.  Gyles' poem this week is a haiku from the book 'When Nature Speaks To Us' by Andrew Green Mann Thin grass, Whispering as the wind cries for the sun, Come back to me please. A Sony Music Entertainment production.   Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts     To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Born in Liverpool, in 1962, John' family relocated to North Wales in the early 1970's where John joined the National Youth Orchestra of Wales. He played in several bands with his Father before moving to the Royal Northern College of Music studying Contemporary percussion/ drum kit and piano.  After 5 years of graduate and post-graduate studies, he joined Rambert Dance Company, London as a percussionist, enjoying extensive touring for a further 5 years. After still more years gigging in bands and theatre John accepted the post as Composer / Musical Director for the Bristol Old Vic. While working in theatre John learned the basics on Bass Guitar, Flute, Trumpet and Trombone until eventually discovering the Accordion.  As of the 2023 release of the new  @officialjethrotull  album RökFlöte, it's been 20 years since John has been part of the Jethro Tull family. In 2003 he met  @IanAnderson  and joined the “Rubbing Elbows” tour on piano and accordion subsequently recording on “Rupi's Dance.” Since that time John has enjoyed touring with the band and scoring, conducting, and playing Ian's orchestral concerts. Outside of the Jethro Tulliverse, In 2004 John was commissioned to compose a children's opera by the  @welshnationalopera  . This was a great success and has led to a further two pieces being commissioned. John has composed for wildlife, drama, and documentary TV. John holds teaching positions at Bath and Bristol Universities and is a guest tutor at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. From 2007-2009, he helped arrange and conduct music for the College's stage production of the classic The Who album “Quadrophenia.” This past April (2023), John performed with an All-Star band (including Iron Maiden's Bruce Dickinson) touring “Jon Lord's Concerto for Group and Orchestra,” featuring the music of Deep Purple.   John composed the closing oratorio, “The Bargee's Wife” for the Three Choirs Festival U.K. (2013) and “The Gloucester Magnificat” for Gloucester Cathedral U.K. (2016).  During the pandemic, he composed the score for a series of short films for the  @TravellingLightTheatre  designed to help young people during lockdown: 17 and the Squeak Gobbler (2021 available on YouTube). He continues to work with young performers in universities, as well as drama and music schools.

Elaine and Louise chat with writer/director Lucy Hayes about her new play Bitter Lemons on from now till 28th August @Pleasance Courtyard Beneath @2.20pm We also talk the themes of the play (brief mentions of abortion), to knowing what you want, moving from being an actor to a director, being bold, the disparity in pay in women's football and much, much more. Another brilliant episode with another brilliant human. Bitter Lemons In the pressurised worlds of football and finance, two women carve their own path. After the loss of her dad, a goalkeeper prepares for the league final, while an ambitious banker battles her fears of being tokenised to secure a promotion. But as their pitches get closer, worlds collide as life shifts unexpectedly and in parallel. How do you face your biggest challenge yet? Winner of a Pleasance Edinburgh National Partnership Award and supported by Bristol Old Vic, Bitter Lemons is an explosive debut play tackling the pressures on women's bodies and the power society holds over them. OUR WEBSITE - www.persistentandnasty.co.uk Persistent Pal & Nasty Hero - Pals and Hero Membership Support In The Room - https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/in-the-room Email – persistentandnasty@gmail.com Instagram - @persistentandnasty Twitter - @PersistentNasty Coffee Morning Eventbrite - Coffee Morning Tickets LINKTREE - LINKTR.EE Resources Samaritans - Rape Crisis Scotland - Rape Crisis UK ArtsMinds - BAPAM Freelancers Make Theatre Work Stonewall UK - Trevor Project - Mermaids UK Switchboard LGBT+ - GATE PLANNED PARENTHOOD DONATE - DONATE ABORTION SUPPORT NETWORK UK - ASN.COM- DONATE WeAudition offer: For 25% off your monthly subscription quote: NASTY25 Backstage Offers: Get a free 12 months Actor Subscription: https://join.backstage.com/persistentnasty-uk-12m-free/

In today's bonus episode we're joined by Jon Brittain and James Howard. First up we're joined by Jon Brittain who has written the book, co-written the lyrics and co-directed Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! which is returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it was a huge hit last year. The new expanded version will also tour to Bristol and Manchester. Jon Brittain is a playwright, comedy writer and director. His critically acclaimed play Rotterdam won an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre in 2017, he went on to direct Richard Gadd's debut play Baby Reindeer, which won the same award in 2020. Jon's other work includes the cult hit shows Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho and Margaret Thatcher Queen of Game Shows, the Fringe First Award-winning A Super Happy Story (About Feeling Super Sad), and the UK Theatre Award-winning Billionaire Boy: The Musical. He directed both of John Kearns's Fosters Award winning shows Sight Gags for Perverts and Shtick as well as shows for Tom Allen, Mat Ewins, Tom Rosenthal and others. He co-wrote a dozen episodes of Cartoon Network's The Amazing World of Gumball and was a staff writer on seasons 3 and 4 of The Crown and he is currently writing a new sitcom for Apple.Kathy and Stella Solve a Murder! runs Underbelly at the Edinburgh Fringe 2nd – 27th August before touring to Bristol Old Vic 13th – 30th September and Home Manchester 5th - 21st October. Visit www.kathyandstella.com for info and tickets. Later we speak to James Howard who plays Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre. The production is celebrating its seventh birthday in the West End, and James has been in the show since it opened. James' theatre credits include Brave New World (Northampton Theatre Royal/Touring Consortium); Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, Mojo, The Drunks, King Lear, Morte D'Arthur (RSC); Twelfth Night, Ivanov (Donmar Warehouse in the West End); Not About Heroes (Blackeyed Theatre Company); Antony and Cleopatra (Royal Exchange);The Duchess of Malfi (NT).  His film credits includes: Survivor, The Theory of Everything, Shoot on Sight, The Oxford Murders and Penelope whilst his television work includes Black Mirror, Dark Matters, Doctors, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, Skins, Midsomer Murders, The Bill, Broken News, Spooks, Inspector Lynley Mysteries and Dream Team.Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is booking at the Palace Theatre until 19th May 2024. Visit www.uk.harrypottertheplay.com for info and tickets. Hosted by Andrew Tomlins. @AndrewTomlins32  Thanks for listening! Email: andrew@westendframe.co.uk Visit westendframe.co.uk for more info about our podcasts.  

Broadway legend Chita Rivera, who made her name playing Anita in the original stage production of West Side Story, talks to Samira Ahmed about the highlights of her seven decade career, ahead of the publication of her memoir. Arts consultant Amanda Parker, formerly editor of Arts Professional magazine and now of the Forward Institute, and theatre director Tom Morris, who until recently ran Bristol Old Vic, discuss new approaches to funding the arts. Women's Prize for Fiction shortlist: Priscilla Morris on her nominated debut novel Black Butterflies Presenter: Samira Ahmed Producer: Julian May

Extraordinary Bodies brand new musical production Waldo's Circus of Magic and terror, a co-production with the Bristol Old Vic and the Theatre Royal Plymouth is touring after premiering at the Bristol Old Vic with recorded audio description for blind and partially sighted people available at all performances.  Set in 1933 Brandenburg, the Nazis are burning books and suspending civil rights. Many are desperate to escape, but for Waldo and his travelling circus of outcasts, acrobats and aerialists, ‘the show must go on'. The cast includes a bold and diverse company of actors, musicians and aerialists to bring this daring tale of humanity, courage and defiance to the stage in Extraordinary Bodies inimitable style. RNIB Connect Radio's Toby Davey was joined by Claire Hodgson, Co-Director of Waldor and two of the cast, Tilly Lee-Kronick who plays peter the down trodden ring boy, Waldo's son and Jonny Leitch a manual wheelchair user who plays Renay an aerialist performing on the trapeze who is the same age as peter to find out more about this brand new fantastic musical, circus, stage production. Claire began by telling Toby about the background to her company Extraordinary Bodies and the story behind the making of Waldo's Circus of Magic and Terror. Tilly and Jonny then gave a bit of an outline to their characters Peter and Renay along with how they worked together on an amazing trapeze scene in the show. Claire and Jonny then talked about the brilliant score and soundtrack to Waldo's Circus of Magic and Terror composed by Charles Hazelwood from the Paraorchestra and how the music is used to in some ways announce the appearance of characters on stage.  Toby ended the interview by asking Claire, Tilly and Jonny what they would like audiences to come away with from seeing Waldo's Circus of Magic and Terror.  Waldo's Circus of Magic and Terror is fully accessible to everyone with recorded audio described introductory notes, recorded audio description available at every performance along with captioning and BSL. There will also be the availability of touch tours for blind and partially sighted patrons too  as the production tours around the country until early June.  More details about the tour of Waldo's Circus of Magic and Terror along with venue details and dates plus more about Extraordinary Bodies can be found by visiting their website - https://www.extraordinarybodies.org.uk Image shows: A trapeze artist from the production swinging through the air with two officers watching to the left of the image (© Paul Blakemore)

Layer upon layer, story upon story. Seldom has so much been packed into a conversation as is packed into this one here with Robin Ince. Occasionally it unravels briefly but mostly it is an exhilarating roller coaster ride of ideas and opinions and tributes to people, who may be famous or otherwise. What they have in common is the individual impression they have made on the impressionable mind of Robin Ince. He is an ‘open book', who confesses to having had a ‘noisy head' all his life. Only in the last three years, since he accepted a diagnosis of ADHD, has the anxiety become more understandable and therefore more acceptable. Robin's public persona, as a comedian and as a writer, provides him with permission to express his frequently weird thoughts whenever he wants. He feels under less pressure nowadays to normalise his behaviour than say if he were a civil servant. He can accept his ‘haywire mind'. He accepts his lack of physical dexterity. He knows he is not ‘socially adept'. He suggests that ‘unbearable social values' may be the root cause of many people's feelings of nervousness, insecurity and anxiety. In days gone by, Robin could be stopped in his tracks by the critical voices in his head and the melancholy they brought with them. Now he recognises them for what they are, he feels safer. He has more energy to appreciate each passing moment. Robin is shaped and inspired by famous names like Alexei Sayle, Kurt Vonnegut, Barry Crimmins and Paula Rego. But also by people totally unknown to the general public, like Jamie ‘the autistic stranger' or the 24 year old, who cried at a book-signing but found comfort in what he had to say…Robin is characterised by curiosity and compassion. His odd-couple relationship with Professor Brian Cox in ‘The Infinite Monkey Cage', is grounded in mutual respect for their differences in expertise and style, while being held together by their sense of wonder at everything which surrounds them. Robin admits to being silent when seeing a therapist whose training discouraged her from prompting him. Naturally, he feels he probably talks too fast and too much. He knows he goes off on too many tangents. Robin is hypersensitive as well as hyperactive! He means you no harm. He just wants you to share his enthusiasm and be glad you crossed each other's path.Love and kindness, courtesy and compassion. Joie de vivre! As Kurt Vonnegut himself once put it, in one of his novels: “Godammit, you've got to be kind!”Then the road to personal peace really can be paved with good intentions.Tune in next week for more stories of 'Distinction & Genius' from The Good Listening To Show 'Clearing'. If you would like to be my Guest too then you can find out HOW via the different 'series strands' at 'The Good Listening To Show' website. Show Website: https://www.thegoodlisteningtoshow.com You can email me about the Show: chris@secondcurve.uk Twitter thatchrisgrimes LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-grimes-actor-broadcaster-facilitator-coach/ FaceBook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/842056403204860 Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW wherever you get your Podcasts :) Thanks for listening!

Claire Hodgson is a theatre director who hates rules and who wants to make a difference to the world through the shows that she makes. I first met her last year at Camp Bestival, when she was coordinating the Guinness world record attempt for the largest number of simultaneous disco dancers!! 600 altogether - and they did it!!We talked about how Claire, her brother and her sister cleaned up on disco dancing medals as children and how she went on to found a company called Diverse City, and Extraordinary Bodies for circus artists. During lockdown she became a sea swimmer and last year she created a large-scale sea choreography he is just about to launch a theatre called SW!M in Swanage in Dorset. Her upcoming project is a musical called ‘Waldo's Circus of Magic & Terror' at the Bristol Old Vic. It is a new musical set in 1933 and is based based on true stories about how circuses smuggled people with disabilities out of Germany during WW2. Claire has a teenage daughter Scarlett who helped her coordinate the WhatsApp group for SW!M and who Claire feels very fortunate to have spent extra time with, because of lockdown.Spinning Plates is presented by Sophie Ellis-Bextor, produced by Claire Jones and post-production by Richard Jones Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tracy Chevalier discusses a historic Vermeer exhibition at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, the largest collection of his paintings ever assembled including Girl with a Pearl Earring, which was celebrated by Chevalier's 1999 novel of the same name. Bristol Old Vic is collaborating with four universities in the West Country for a major study into audience reactions in the theatre. Do reactions in the auditorium differ from those watching it online? Melanie Abbott investigates, talking to Iain Gilchrist from University of Bristol, Mike Richardson from University of Bath, Charlotte Geeves from Bristol Old Vic, actor Sophie Steer and Emma Keith, Director of Digital Media at the National Theatre. The finely wrought rhyming and metrical poetry of A. E. Stallings has won her prizes in the US, but until now she has not been published in the UK. Manchester-based publisher Carcanet is putting this right with This Afterlife, her Selected Poems. A. E. Stallings talks about living in Greece, drawing on classical mythology, making art out of the minutiae of life, and the joy of rhythm and rhyme. Jonathan Howard of The King's Singers tells us about the recent cancellation of a concert they were due to perform at Pensacola Christian College in Florida, over what the group says were "concerns related to the sexuality of members." Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Paul Waters (Photo: Photo Rijksmuseum)

Imagine this: you've spent months, years even, working on a show. Now it's press night. Sat in a silent row, or peppered around the theatre, are the people whose life's work is to criticise yours - the critics. So what's it like when your lovingly crafted new play opens and you see them out there, ready to tell the world what they think of it? Top theatre director Simon Godwin, who's worked at the National Theatre, the Bristol Old Vic and is now at Washington DC's Shakespeare Theatre Company, bares his soul about how it really feels when the lights go down and the little notebooks come out. Presenter: Luke Jones Producer: Beth Sagar-Fenton

The Braw and The Brave is a podcast about people and their passions. N.B. This episode references sexual assault. Please see helpful links below. Episode 188 is in conversation with actor, writer and director Joanne Thomson who from a young age pursued a passion for the performing arts, before going on to graduate with a BA in Acting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Working extensively in theatre, TV and film, her theatre credits as an actor include work with the National Theatre of Scotland, Bristol Old Vic and the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. Joining the cast of OUTLANDER in Season 6 as new recurring character Amy McCallum, Joanne has also appeared in BBC dramas The Victim and The Suffragettes. A BAFTA Los Angeles Newcomer, she also co-founded the first online BAFTA New Talent Writer's Group. In her writing, Joanne is passionate about amplifying and championing underrepresented voices and navigates the industry and her life with humility and honesty. She recounts the dedication, hard work and tenacity she has ploughed into her craft and how her experiences have shaped her both as an artist and a human being in this ever challenging world. Enjoy! Joanne's links https://www.joannethomson.co.uk https://instagram.com/joannethomson22?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= https://twitter.com/joannethomson22?s=21&t=UZAQ96FQhiBeyxYQswMmmA Helpful links Rape Crisis national freephone helpline 0808 802 9999 (12 to 2.30pm and 7 to 9.30pm every day of the year) https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-help/ https://www.victimsupport.org.uk Free counselling services for Equity members: https://www.equity.org.uk/at-work/bullying-harassment/mental-health-resources/ If you've enjoyed this episode you can help support the production of future episodes by clicking on the Ko-Fi link below. Many thanks. https://ko-fi.com/thebrawandthebrave Follow The Braw and The Brave https://www.instagram.com/thebrawandthebravepodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/TheBrawandTheBrave https://twitter.com/BrawBrave See https://soundcloud.com/ for privacy and terms of use

Charity Wakefield's passion for the natural world shone through when we caught up at her local green space. I met the actor, environmentalist and Woodland Trust ambassador at Peckham Rye Park to talk about trees, wildlife and acting. Charity explains how nature has made her happy since the tree-climbing, den-building days of her childhood. She is concerned that people have lost their connection with the environment, but is hopeful for the future and encourages us to recognise that we can all make a difference. She believes in ‘people power'. We also talk eco-friendly fashion, filming comedy-drama The Great and climbing a tree to learn her lines in Lewisham! Don't forget to rate us and subscribe! Learn more about the Woodland Trust at woodlandtrust.org.uk Transcript You are listening to Woodland Walks, a podcast for the Woodland Trust, presented by Adam Shaw. We protect and plant trees for people to enjoy, to fight climate change and to help wildlife thrive. Adam: Charity Wakefield is an actor, environmentalist and Woodland Trust ambassador. She starred in BBC One's production of Rapunzel, Constance in The Three Musketeers at the Bristol Old Vic, and Elaine in the Graduate at the New Vic. She had a lead role as Marianne Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility and has been in Doctor Who, the Halcyon, Bounty Hunters, amongst other productions. And she's now starring in the TV series, The Great about Catherine the Great. Well, I met her at her local park to talk about acting and the importance of the natural world. Charity: So now we are at Peckham Ride Park, which has been my local park for most of my time in London. I now have a baby so there's lots of kinds of mother and baby groups around the area. I have lots of friends here still. Adam: Are you a country girl or did you grow up in the city, or? Charity: Erm, I, I never thought of myself as a country girl. I did grow up though in and around East Sussex. I used to live in a couple of different places down there. We moved a bit as a kid. Adam: Sorry, why don't you, you grew up in the country, why did you not think of yourself as a… Charity: I don't know Adam: You know you thought of yourself as you felt your inner urban woman early on? Charity: I just don't think I grew up with any sense of identity if I'm honest, because I also live a little bit in Spain when I was very small. And like I said we moved around quite a lot. So actually I'm an actress and I trained at drama school and going to drama school at the time of going to university for most people if you do that, that was the first time I really had this interest to work out where I was from, or you know you kind of try to identify yourself by telling each other, and also drama school, in particular, you're looking at different kind of life experiences and personality traits, because it's material for you, right? So, you start kind of realising ‘oh I that this background or that background'. Yeah, for me, being from the countryside just meant desperate driving as soon as I can. I could drive about a week after my birthday because I had secret driving lessons with friends and my dad and stuff. Yeah, I guess I have always loved the countryside and I sort of you know had friends you know the family were farmers and we used to go and make camps in the woods. Adam: Well, that's good, and talking of woods we seem to be, what's down there? That's a very wooded area, shall we go, you lead on, but shall we go down there? Or Charity: This is the Common, this is Peckham Ride Common, and erm I think it was, has been around for at least a couple of hundred years and it's a really big open space with some really huge trees in the middle. They're probably like, lots of them are London planes and oak trees, and I think this section we're about to walk into was actually sort of closed off at the beginning I think it was a big common and this was owned by an estate. A sort of family estate and then opened a bit later which is why as you can see it is much more formal Adam: I was going to say, so we are leaving a sort of really a very large green area with the Shard poking its head above the trees, so your urban environment, but walking into this much more formal sculptured… Charity: And actually you can walk the whole perimeter of this, and this is quite close to the road here but the other side is as you can see really big open and free, so it must have been quite weird at sort of the end of the 1800s, I suppose that kind of bridge between a really rich family that owned this huge part of the park in the middle, so this is yeah, now we are under these beautiful red-leaved trees, you probably know what that tree is? [Laugh] Adam: No, no, no, no, let's not embarrass each other by [Laugh] Charity: [Laugh] Okay no tree testing Adam: No tree testing [Laugh] Charity: Okay Adam: Well, this is, this is beautiful, so let's… there's a lovely, lovely bench with a dedication actually, some flowers connected to that. So why don't we have a sit down here and just have a chat? So, first of all, you mentioned you went to drama school, what drama school was it? Charity: I went to the Oxford School of Drama, which was the smallest, most obscure place I could have probably have found [Laugh] but it probably was the best place for me actually. It's funny, sometimes what's for you won't pass you as they say, erm a tiny drama school in the middle of the north of Oxfordshire. Acting is really hard and part of it is the marathon of it and the difficulties of getting jobs and everybody says this but failing continually and feeling like you haven't actually achieved things perfectly. In the theatre that means doing a show and there being some moments during the night where you think ‘uh that didn't work out right' and you have to be that kind of person that is interested in those kinds of faults and failures and wants to try different things and fix things and part of gaining that resilience is what I think drama school is all about. Adam: I mean apart from, I do want to talk to you more about your acting, but apart from that you do have what I see as quite a close connection to nature, reading a lot of your social media and learning about your activities, so tell me a bit about that, what is it? What is that connection and why do you feel it? Charity: I think growing up, albeit in a kind of little village or a town, but kind of in the countryside it was quite… it was a bit freer back then, I think it was different days, the early 80s. being allowed to sort of wander off, with friends and go into kind of woodlands and stuff. I think, I just feel very happy when I am in nature and I am interested in the differences, everything is growing and changing all the time. And it was interesting I went to LA once, and I thought this is so strange to me because the seasons aren't so apparent. Particularly when you live in the countryside your so kind of affected by those changes and erm I really love animals and I love knowing the circle of life, like where those animals came from, how they're are fed, what they do naturally, and then getting older you start to understand a bit more about the history and human history and how we have you know got to where we are today the kind of beginnings of farming and how society functions and unfortunately we are at a point now where we've outgrown ourselves, and how do we kind of pair that back? How do we get back? Adam: When you say we've outgrown ourselves what do you mean? Charity: I think humans have outgrown ourselves in a sense I think Adam: In what sense? Charity: In the sense that we've lost track I think of the essence of how you, I think yeah, we've lost track of how life is interconnected with nature. Because we're pushing technology further and further and some people are saying the answer is to eventually get into space rockets and go and start a new community on Mars and to me that's mad because I feel like we have everything that we need on this planet. And we just need to reconnect everything. Adam: Why do you think that disconnection has happened then Charity: Yeah well, I think it's a big question. Because I think it happens on so many levels. I think that there is a disconnect with people who are very very fortunate and have a hell of a lot of money, and in some ways don't notice the effect that their companies or their personal lives might be having on the environment because they are so loaded that they get given their food people and they probably never see plastic packaging to know that it exists because they are just delivered things Adam: Right Charity: and they don't really realise the impact that they're having, they're living kind of you know the high life Adam: Sure, do you think we're all living that sort of life? Charity: No, I don't Adam: Or it's just the 1%, or the quarter of the 1%? Charity: No, I don't, I think there are lots of people that are the absolute opposite. They haven't got the time, the money and the education to be able to do anything about it even if they did notice that there is an issue. Adam: And yet it is curious that isn't it, because and yet David Attenborough the national hero, his television programmes are all watched, and you know Charity: But they're not watched by everybody. Adam: They're not watched by everybody but there seems… I mean I get the feeling that you know there's this weird thing where everybody's talking about the environment and very concerned about it, even if perhaps if we're not changing our lifestyle, but my, my sort of view is that people do get it even if they're not changing their behaviour. You, you feel differently, I think. Charity: I think that there's, I think there's lots of people on those both extremes that don't get it at all and I also see lots and lots of people living on the poverty line, particularly where I live in the Borough of Lewisham, who are, and I know some people are working crazy hours and don't have time to think about it. About any kind of impact, and certainly don't have time to do complicated recycling or and they don't have the budget to be able to shop in a kind of, what we would probably on our middle-class wage perceive as a kind of eco conscious way. And because what's difficult is even if you do do that it's very hard to sort of balance what is the best consumer choice to make. As we all know, so we're in a difficult way, but what I do believe is that I believe in people power, and I as you say David Attenborough has made a huge impact and it is much more in the mainstream, hugely so in the mainstream in the last couple of year, and I do think its down to kind of lockdown and people staying at home and having the chance to stop and think and reconnect with their immediate environment but whether that's in a high-rise flat looking out listening to the lack of airplanes, being able to hear nature more, or somebody that's got, you know, fifty acres and has decided to buy a diamond Jubilee woodland for the Woodland Trust, you know, that there, I think we are kind of you united as we are the people who had a chance to stop and listen and look and then it's about people that are in positions of power and money to give us a direction to go in. to give us a positive idea Adam: So, apart from being intellectually being engaged with this, you're worried about it, you're clearly worried about it, you do a lot of things. Charity: mmm Adam: actually, so tell me about the lots of things you do Charity: err well I really love… I've always…So, fashion is a part of my job in the sense that I have to wear lots of different clothes, and um for my work Adam: well then you were recently in The Great Charity: That's right so I do a TV show, period TV show, and so I Adam: So, there's lots of costumes Charity: there's lots of costumes, I don't really have control over where those costumes are made and bought, but sometimes I do so, for example, if I'm producing a film or if I'm in a low-budget theatre production, I might provide my own clothes for that theatre production, and if producing then I am certainly in charge of deciding where we can get clothes, so for example, we go to charity shops and second-hand places because there is so much stuff in the world already. And I try to do that in my personal life. Adam: But do you have a label, a fashion label? Charity: No, nothing like that no Adam: But you, but you talk a lot about conscientious fashion on social media Charity: Yeh, I do because erm, …. Erm I am looking for the word, influencers! And stuff like that because I get approached for things like that and so I'm very conscious that If I am going to be in front of any kind of camera people are going to make a judgment or think that might be a good idea to wear, so I try to conscious about what I'm wearing if in the public in any way. And really that's just an extension of my real life, I've always shopped in charity shops, when I was growing up that was because we didn't have any money, so my clothes were given to me by other families, or when I first started to work, which was around fourteen, I worked in a strawberry farm – that was my first job! And my second job was in another strawberry farm, picking strawberries and my third job was the same strawberry farm but in the grocery shop. Adam: Okay, you got promoted! Charity: Promoted Adam: Promoted out of the fields! Charity: Absolutely, literally up the hill Adam: and Charity: I've become extremely aware of how difficult it is to manage woodland, and I didn't even know that as a concept, I just thought that big areas or parkland or woodland or farmland, I had not concept really of how that was looked after, and that's one thing that I think is I don't know, its both inspired me and made me realise what a huge challenge it is to be able to reforest large areas and the other fact of everything being so slow – trees reaching their maturity at such a slow rate – and that being a very difficult kind of challenge to sort of ask people to become involved with because I think when you're asking people to you know kind of sympathise with a charity or donate money to a charity in some ways its more difficult to say this is an extremely slow process but we need your help urgently… so it has been interesting to learn about that side of things. And I've also been deeply shocked and saddened about how many of our ancient woodlands and hedgerows and trees that are still being cut down in this country, partly for huge roadways but partly for new buildings and farmland and that does feel quite urgent to me. But yeah I've learnt a lot. I think one of my favourite things has been seeing the tree listening which I put on my Instagram if anyone wants to have a look Adam: So, tell me about tree listening. Charity: so, there's a way to hear the water being filtered up and down trees and it's the most beautiful sound and to me, it's a sound that I could go to sleep to. I keep thinking, I must try and find if there's a recording online that I can grab and put on my phone to listen to at night-time. And it gives you that sense of the tree being alive in the here and now. Trees grow so slowly it's sometimes quite difficult to think if the as, as kind of, living in the same time zone as us. So, hearing that, that's a very present sound really, I don't know, it makes you… it makes you want to hug the tree even more [laugh] Adam: Are you a bit of a tree hugger? Charity: Yeah, yeah, I am! Adam: Do people spot you in Peckham? Strange woman hugging trees? Charity: I do sometimes do that, the weird thing is, this was, I was in a different park in Lewisham, and I'd actually climbed the tree because I just felt like it and I also had some lines to learn. And it was quite an empty park and I thought well this is fine, and I was in a tree learning my lines and a lady came and she saw my bags on the floor and she was so freaked out she just looked up and saw me in this tree, and I have to say it was a weird sight. I have to really say Adam: [Laugh] Charity: This is so weird, I'm an actress and I don't know what I'm doing, sorry Yeah, I just, yeah, I love…I think it was also, when I was growing up, a bit of a place to kind of go and hide, you know if you're kind of stressed out or worried as a kid, and rather than run away, go and climb a tree and be up really high – it completely changes your perspective. Adam: Has having a child changed your perspective at all? Charity: I think it just strengthened my love of nature because it's the first thing that you teach kids about. All of the books that people give you are all about spotting different animals and trees, and the sunshine and the bees, everything he loves is related to outdoors, I mean that's, it's his first summer, he's fifteen months old and erm I've moved to a new house recently and been trying to work the garden a bit because it was very very overgrown. So, it's been my great pleasure to be outside and doing lots of digging and his first proper words has been digging, dig, dig, because he heard me say digging and he just started saying dig, dig, dig. [Laugh] Adam: Fantastic Charity: He said that before mummy or daddy. Adam: So, are you optimistic, I mean all those things you talked about erm are you optimistic that the world for your child will actually, things will get better during his early life? Or not? Charity: I feel burdened with the worry of it, and I try to not think about it, because the world is huge and there's only so much, I can do. I do feel optimistic in the human endeavour and human invention and ingenuity. But I am sad that it's going to get to a point of huge environmental catastrophe before real change is made by our governing bodies. But then if you look back at the pictures just pre-industrial revolution of these thousands and thousands of huge billowing chimney pots in London and you know, they're not there now, and the world is a lot greener than it was then, at least in cities. So, I kind of, yeah, I have hope otherwise you know… what's the point? Adam: I mean it's interesting isn't it, there's… I often think about how to shape the narrative here because I think often the narrative of ecology and the environment is one of ‘there's an impending disaster' you know ‘it's all terrible' and I'm not saying that's not true, but I think it's hard for people to engage with because it's like ‘well what, what can I do about that?' and I think it was, hopefully, I got this right, I think it was Barrack Obama who wrote a book on it called the Audacity of Hope and you talked about hope and it is this sort of weird thing, actually to be hopeful is an extraordinary thing, it is audacious to be hopeful and that might be, might be a better message actually, that there is this big challenge and actually the audacity of hope in what can, can we do, individually? Individuals can make a difference. You know yes joining the Trust and what have you, and doing other things, and planting a single tree Charity: I think you also have to look after yourself as a human in the world. Try to give yourself time and love and energy. Then you'll be in a really good spot to be able to help other things and other people and the environment. It's very difficult like I say if you're on the breadline and you're exhausted to actually have the headspace and the energy to do stuff. And you know, and so those people that are unable to do that we need to, I do believe, socially we need to enable people to be able to care for the environment. If you're in a position where you do have enough money, and you do have enough time, and you still feel worried, then there's tons you can do on a day-to-day level. And I actually think that action is much more infectious than talking. I know we're talking here today, but the best thing that I have probably ever done is about two or three years ago I just wrote on Twitter I'm giving up plastic for the month of January, this was before it was kind of fashionable to that and rather than saying everyone should do this, everyone should do that, I just said ‘this is what I'm doing'. I didn't even talk about it. I just said ‘I'm gonna do this' and so many of my friend's a couple of months later said ‘oo you said that and actually, I tried it as well', they didn't even talk to me about it they just kind of tried it. They started, whenever they came over, they said ‘we I didn't bring, I didn't buy any plastic because I knew you weren't interested' I thought wow! You just actually have to put a stick in the mud sometimes and say this is what I'm doing, and try to have the energy to stick to it, and of course, we have… we can't be perfect… the world is set up in a certain way at the moment as consumers, as everything is wrapped in plastic, it's very difficult to get around without, you know in lots of places, without a car because public transport has a lot to be desired and it's expensive, but if you can try to support things that are doing the right thing, that will slowly, slowly build, and if you can have joy in that, that builds as well. Adam: It is interesting to me, we tend to do what our friends do, or people we know do, so, and that's why a single person can make a difference isn't it because, a friend will copy you. And suddenly what you do isn't a single thing, it's a big thing. That's, that's amazing. So, look we're in this park which is very nice. I'm not sure I've met one leaf yet; we're meant to be walking around and I lazily dragged you to this chair! But, have you, I mean there's lots of Woodland Trust places outside of London, they are quite close but also quite far. Have you been to many? Are there any that stick in your mind? Charity: I've been to Hainault, and I've been to Langley Vale. What I would love to do is go to Scotland, I know there's lots of work happening there at the moment and I'd really like to visit, it's really interesting to see the difference between a very very ancient woodland and something that's quite newly developed, and I know that there are some places that the Woodland Trust are trying to connect two different forests, and I think, is it the pine martin (?) that they are trying to get to, sort of, repopulate? And it's very difficult to do that because they like travelling and so you have to have a long distance in between, you know, one dense forest and another dense forest for them to actually want to stick around. So, I would kinda like to see that in action. Adam: Well, the Langley Vale Forest, I have just been to, and it features in our previous podcast. All the commemoration of the First World War. Which I think was one of the most interesting and sort of, I don't know, shocking, I don't know, because there's a lot of… it commemorates really terrible events, but in a sort of, living memory, which I thought was really forceful. And that's I think one of the more interesting podcasts so if you listen to this one, but also that one, I also thought that one was great. So, it's amazing to sort of talk to you about this, but as you were saying, you are an exceptionally busy actor as well, so you're doing… is The Great still in production? Charity: It is, we're filming season three at the moment. Adam: Wow, so how many programmes in a season? Charity: so, there's ten episodes in each season, and the first two have come out via Hulu, and, in America and STARZPLAY, the first season was out on Channel 4 a couple of years ago and the second season is coming out this summer, on Channel 4, and we're filming season three. So, um, it's a lot of fun, it's very silly and it was lovely to be doing something, I was so lucky to be working during the last lockdown, albeit with really rigorous Covid protocols in place, we managed to get it done. Adam: Well fantastic, I will watch out for the next season! And all of your stuff on social media and everything. It's been a real pleasure talking to you Charity, thank you very much! Charity: Thanks. Well thanks to Charity for taking me on a tour of her local small, wooded area in South London, and do remember if you want to find a wood near you, well the Woodland Trust has a website to help. Just go to woodlandtrust.org.uk/findawood. Until next time happy wandering. Thank you for listening to the Woodland Trust Woodland Walks. Join us next month when Adam will be taking another walk in the company of Woodland Trust staff, partners, and volunteers and don't forget to subscribe to the series on iTunes, or wherever you're listening to us, and do give us a review and a rating. And why not send us a recording of your favourite woodland walk to be included in a future podcast? Keep it to a maximum of five minutes and please tell us what makes your woodland walks special. Or send an email with details of your favourite walk and what makes it special to you. Send any audio files to podcast@woodlandtrust.org.uk and we look forward to hearing from you.

Joanne Thomson sat down with Silence on Set podcast to talk about filming Outlander season six, why charity is so important, graduating from RCS, and some of her upcoming projects. Thomson also gave us some exciting details about the filming process and what went into her preparation for Outlander. Host: Monica Gleberman Editor: Corinna Caimi Social Media Graphic: Jojo -- Bio: Joanne Thomson is an Actor, Writer, and Director from Glasgow, Scotland. Since graduating with a BA in Acting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland she also trained with the Groundlings Improv School in Los Angeles. She has worked extensively across the UK as an actor and has directed internationally award-winning theatre. Her theatre credits as an actor include work with the National Theatre of Scotland, Bristol Old Vic, Citizens Theatre, Birmingham Rep, Royal Lyceum, Traverse, and the legendary Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester. In 2022 it was announced that Joanne had been cast as the new recurring character Amy McCallum in Season 6 of OUTLANDER with Sony/Starz. She also recently played DS Lisa Harvey in BBC One drama THE VICTIM which was nominated for a BAFTA and her performance in ITV's BAFTA-nominated In Plain Sight won her 2 Best Actress nominations at the IARA awards. In 2019, she starred in BBC's prime-time drama THE SUFFRAGETTES which won a BAFTA that same year.

The articulate and effervescent Joanne Thomson joins us fresh from the set of Outlander. Joanne's catalogue of experience ranges from ITV and BBC dramas to treading the boards of the Citizens Theatre and Bristol Old Vic. The post Joanne Thomson appeared first on Putting it Together.

Comedy Double Act Beauties Howard Coggins & Stu McLouglin from "Living Spit" Musical Theatre Company, here to "dissect their frog" on their wonderful anarchic comedy method and madness!The warmth between the 2 is palpable and their comedy magic together a work of collective comedy genius. Howard & Stu work with a creative crack team of 5 to generate their magic together and are based in Clevedon at their home venue (which is also delightfully their "Clearing")  which they also co-founded, "The Clevedon Theatre Shop" This is their story on what has shaped them in the crafting of their impressive canon of 17 hilarious comedy musical theatre Shows to date as "Living Spit". "Living Spit" so called because Howard is - as Stu discovered much to his delight on a day trip to  Hever Castle - a "Living Spit" of Henry V111.  Stu got straight on the phone to Howard - and the rest - as they say, is comedy history!Enjoy!More about Living Spit:Introducing an extraordinary couple of colourful characters from the West Country, the frontmen of their own theatre company, called mysteriously “Living Spit'. Not so mysterious when you learn that Stu saw a picture of Henry VIII at Hever Castle, which struck him as the spitting image of his friend, Howard. On the strength of this striking physical similarity, the two friends decided to create their own lighthearted musical comedy about Henry and his various wives. Howard was a shoe-in for Henry. Stu was happy to play the wives. Musicians in their teens, actors in their twenties, the two thespians created Living Spit - as if inspired by the Bob Dylan song ‘Don't think twice, it's alright.' Now their company has 5 key people, including their own ‘third man', producer / director Craig Edwards. Over ten years later, Living Spit has over 17 different original comedies to its credit and two or three more live ideas in the pipeline. These days the shows are more comedy than history. They always involve original music. The founders are now related by marriage, but not to each other. Brothers-in-law, they happily share family occasions as well as gruelling professional tours. In the pandemic, they played on camera- or rather six cameras - to an empty house at the Bristol Old Vic. This was a breeze compared with one unhappy night in Runcorn - so disappointing that they vowed never to return. And they never have. Instead, Howard and Stuart do their own thing, in their own way, then turn to Craig to help them make it work. Allowing a mere three weeks for rehearsals, they're ready to go public with it. The audience is the only thing that matters to Living Spit: their laughter, their delight, their satisfaction. Our heroes are happy to be the best in the West. They don't need to prove they're the best in the world - even though they may be. They certainly have a better work/life balance than most people in show business. It's time to meet the original founders of Living Spit. Listen, it will certainly raise a smile or two. Listen, you might learn something!Reg Starkey - Editor UK Health Triangle Magazine 

Start your week right with another addition of the Graham Norton Radio Show with Waitrose, here is what to come in this week's podcast. Nigel Havers zooms in to talk about his new tour, Noel Coward's Private Lives.Elizabeth McGovern joins us to give us an insight into her new play, AVA: The Secret Conversations.And the legendary Mark Rylance speaks to us about his new play called 'Dr Semmelweis' which is at the Bristol Old Vic.As well as a catch up with Maria McErlane and some Graham's Guide's! Show chef is back for 2022 and serves up some healthy January dishes! And it's the return of the Waitrose Checkout Challenge!Make sure to subscribe to the podcast to hear all of the highlights each week! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lucy Brownhill is a British actress, voice artist and writer currently based in Amsterdam. She grew up in the Midlands and trained in screen acting at the Bristol Old Vic, before graduating from Drama Studio London in 2016. Lucy's theatre work includes playing the iconic science fiction writer Christine Brooke-Rose in End of the Line and Ruth in Nina Raine's Tribes. She played the lead in the short film Weekend Break which was given special recognition at the Renaissance film festival in Amsterdam. She co-founded ShyDog Productions which is most well-known for the web series The Play and she recently starred in a Lipton Iced Tea commercial. Lucy also works consistently as a voice artist. She was the commercial winner in the Mandy Voices Competition in 2019 and has narrated over 45 audiobooks. Find audiobooks narrated by Lucy on Audible Follow Lucy on Instagram Follow Lucy on TwitterShyDog Productions (co-founded by Lucy)Artwork by Yasemin GavaMusic by Dave GolbraichAdditional Editing by Kalle JurvanenSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/brokeandambitious. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For Episode 5 - Why Is A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words? - Visual Art & Activism, our host, Perry Serpa  discusses anxiety on the eve of the 2020 General Election before a stimulating conversation with internationally acclaimed artist/activist twosome Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey. Heather and Dan fill Perry in about their current thing, a reactive UK based initiative called Culture Declares Emergency formed in 2019 as a response to the global climate and ecological emergency. The initiative has, since its inception, found support with a wide range of artists and organizations, including Akram Khan, Cornelia Parker, Antony Gormley, Brian Eno, Tate Galleries, Bristol Old Vic, Royal Court Theatre, Somerset House amongst 1000+ and an offshoot initiative, Music Declares Emergency, found 'declarers' in Billie Eilish, Radiohead, The 1975 and many others. Then, for Hottest On Record, singer/songwriter/guitarist, Joe Sumner contributes a brand new track, "Hope," recently used for a successful get out the vote Headcount campaign in the form of a singalong chorus video featuring Ben Folds, Patti Scialfa, The Fantastic Negrito, Juliana Hatfield, Gaby Moreno, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski (MSNBC's Morning Joe) and Sumner's famous dad (Sting). The "Hope The Vote" chorus video enjoyed concurrent debuts on the aforementioned Morning Joe and Rolling Stone. You get to hear the full track on the Creative Climate Podcast, which will kick off Sumner's forthcoming album, "Sunshine In The Night," due out next year. In case you're wondering, Serpa's co-host, Kirsten Spruch is out on assignment for this one, whoopin' it up in Austin, Texas and trying to flip the state before Biden gets to it. She rejoins for Episode 6. 

In this week's episode; Matt & James begin by weighing-in on the classic pet debate- Cats or Dogs? (5.48) Then the Bros get personal, talking about their different acting experiences in New Zealand, America, and the United Kingdom. (13.55) James reflects on how living in Los Angeles changed his perception of the entertainment industry, and recalls the time he walked into a red-carpet premiere alongside George Clooney. (15.33) Then Matt compares the experience of making shows in a professional capacity, to his time studying theatre at university, (25.18) before James discusses how Bristol Old Vic exposed to a range of acting styles and methodologies.(35.50) And finally, the difficult relationship that the U.K has with international actors. (47.05) See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rebecca Mordan spoke with Sally Jackson prior to the FiLiA Conference in 2019 about her work and the amazing Greenham Women Everywhere project, which was shown at FiLiA in Bradford.After graduating from Bristol Old Vic and working in film, theatre and television, Rebecca became disillusioned by the dearth of roles and opportunities for women.A dynamic and enterprising artist, she created her own company Scary Little Girls to try and ‘level the playing field', populating stories with fascinating, diverse female characters; and rescuing amazing women from the wastelands of history.Rebecca has been intimately involved with every aspect of SLG, writing, directing, producing and performing to take the company from strength to strength. She is still also a grassroots campaigner against male violence and a frequent guest expert on BBC Radio and Sky News.This podcast was regretfully very delayed in publication, but we hope listeners will enjoy the interesting conversation and support Rebecca's important endeavours.Find out more on the websites:www.scarylittlegirls.co.ukwww.greenhamwomeneverywhere.co.ukFollow Rebecca on:Twitter @ScaryLittleGsFacebookInstagram @scarylittlegirls

Touching The Void. Memoir, documentary, now theatre performance - at the Bristol Old Vic. Written by David Greig , it's an adaptation of Joe Simpson's bestselling 1988 mountaineering memoir and the subsequent 2003 docu-drama detailing Simpson's disastrous 1985 attempt to make a first ascent of a mountain in the Andes. Theatre director Tom Morris talks to Kirsty about the challenges of transferring the story to the stage. And as the Bristol Old Vic prepares to re-open after a major refurbishment, he describes how the new design aims to mark the theatre's history and slave trade past and welcome in new audiences.Crazy Rich Asians is a box office hit in the US about a young Chinese-American woman who goes to a wedding in Singapore and encounters the fabulously wealthy Chinese family of her boyfriend. Its star Constance Wu talks to Kirsty about the issues it raises on the difference between Asian and American culture and the tricky question of stereotyping.Crazy Rich Asians is based on a best-selling book Kevin Kwan of the same name satirizing Singapore's super-rich. Depictions of the wealthy in novels is nothing new as literary critic Toby Lichtig explains as he gives is a potted history of rich-lit.As this year's Leeds International Piano Competition reaches the finals without a British finalist, concert pianist Murray McLachlan, Chair of the European Piano Teachers Association (UK) and Artistic Director of Chetham's International Summer School and Festival for Pianists, discusses whether British piano teaching is making the grade.

Reluctant superhero Jessica Jones is back for a second series. She despatched her nemesis at the end of season one but season two finds her looking to find the answers for her special powers. Cultural critic Gavia Baker-Whitelaw reviews.The longlist for the Women's Prize for Fiction has just been published. On International Women's Day Alex Clark looks at the surprise inclusions and exclusions and discerns the trends.This week a new production of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard opens at Bristol Old Vic. The play, in which the son of a serf takes over the estate where his father was once a slave, is a new translation from playwright Rory Mullarkey. Kirsty speaks to Rory and actor Jude Owusu about the contemporary resonances in their production.Marion Leonard, author of Gender In the Music Industry: Rock, Discourse, and Girl Power and festival promoter Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, discuss why men outnumber women in the public eye and behind the scenes of popular music.Presenter: Kirsty Lang Producer: Harry Parker.