Podcasts about octagon theatre

We're super excited to have Maura Jackson, the Queen of Comedy, on our podcast! Maura started doing stand-up just 18 months ago, and now she's a big name in Bolton and beyond. Her funny stories about disastrous dating have audiences laughing everywhere, from The Octagon Theatre to Spice Valley. By day, Maura is the CEO of Backup North West, a charity that helps homeless young people. She started working at Backup in 2012 but has been part of the team since 1997 when she was a support worker. Maura says, “I love what I do, who I do it with, and who I do it for. I can see the difference it's making to young people who are homeless and to my colleagues. I am proud Backup is part of the Bolton community and helping those most in need.” Join us as we chat about Maura's amazing journey in comedy, her upcoming shows and more, plus her plans for Bolton's comedy scene. Don't miss this fun and inspiring episode with one of the UK's top comedians!

Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Scotland and The New Wolsey Theatre in Ipswich are co-producing a new production of the stage musical Footloose, based on the ‘80s film of the same name that starred Kevin Bacon. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to New Wolsey Artistic Director Douglas Rintoul, who will direct the production, and Pitlochry's Artistic Director, Elizabeth Newman, about the production, other musicals that both their theatres are producting this year (Little Shop of Horrors, Beautiful: The Carol King Musical, The Sound of Music). They also spoke about the advantages of co-productions—and when they may not be appropriate—as well as programming and casting a rep season and panto. Little Shop of Horrors closes at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton on 18 May and then moves to Hull Truck Theatre from 22 May to 8 June 2024. Footloose will run at various times and dates in Pitlochry Festival Theatre's season between 31 May and 26 September before transferring to The New Wolsey Theatre from 3 to 26 October. Beautiful: The Carole King Musical will run at Pitlochry between 7 June and 28 September, and The Sound of Music will be there between 15 November and 22 December. Sleeping Beauty, the New Wolsey panto written by Vikki Stone, will run from 22 November 2024 to 18 January 2025.

Step into the captivating world of The Effect at the National Theatre, where hearts race, and minds are entangled in a web of emotions. This critically acclaimed play, penned by Lucy Prebble of Succession fame, returns to the National Theatre in a bold new production directed by the renowned Jamie Lloyd, known for his work on Cyrano de Bergerac. At the heart of the story are Connie and Tristan, two young volunteers participating in a clinical drug trial. Their sudden and intoxicating chemistry seems to defy explanation. However, a pressing question looms: is their passionate connection real, or is it merely a side effect of a new antidepressant? As they navigate this rollercoaster of emotions, their illicit romance presents startling dilemmas for the supervising doctors, blurring the lines between science and love. Paapa Essiedu, known for his outstanding performance in I May Destroy You, takes the stage as one of the central characters, bringing his undeniable talent and charisma to the production. Essiedu's portrayal adds depth and authenticity to the character, making the audience question the nature of human connection. Joining Essiedu is Taylor Russell, acclaimed for her work in Bones and All who starred screen icon Timothee Chalamet. Russell's presence on stage is magnetic, and her chemistry with Essiedu is palpable. Together, they create a captivating and intimate examination of love, ethics, and the complexities of the human heart.  The Effect is not just a play; it's a thought-provoking journey into the depths of human emotions and the ethical dilemmas that arise when science and romance collide. This production promises to be an unforgettable theatrical experience, leaving audiences with lingering questions about the nature of love and the impact of pharmaceuticals on our lives. Under the direction of Jamie Lloyd, The Effect continues to push the boundaries of storytelling and is a must-see for theatre enthusiasts and anyone fascinated by the intricacies of human relationships. Next, we have an exclusive interview with cast member Rachelle Diedericks, who takes us behind the scenes of A View From The Bridge. She shares insights into her character, her preparation process, and the unique challenges faced by young actors in a post-COVID world. This Arthur Miller classic, set on the Brooklyn waterfront, delves into love, passion, and the complexities of family bonds. Notably, Nancy Crane makes history by becoming the first woman to portray Alfieri in this powerful drama. The production of A View From The Bridge unfolds in the intimate setting of the Octagon Theatre before embarking on a short tour, hitting Chichester from October 6th to 28th and concluding at the Rose Theatre in Kingston on November 11th, 2023. Don't miss the opportunity to witness Miller's timeless masterpiece in these unique and compelling interpretations. Tune in to this week's podcast for a captivating journey through the world of theatre, where powerful emotions, thought-provoking dilemmas, and historic performances come to life on stage.

In episode 238 UNP founder and curator Grant Scott is in his shed reflecting nostalgically on the importance of the camera shop, gateways to photography and not being too sensitive as a photographer. Plus this week, photographer Don Tonge takes on the challenge of supplying Grant with an audio file no longer than 5 minutes in length in which he answer's the question ‘What Does Photography Mean to You?' Don Tonge left Brownlow Fold secondary modern school in Bolton aged15 with no qualifications and started working in the storeroom handing out tools to machinists at Hick Hargreaves Engineering Co, Bolton, he then went into their foundry, but left after six months to start working in the building trade as an insulation engineer. In the late 1960s whilst, working on a job at the Ilford paper and film manufacturers he bought one of their Instamatic kits from their factory shop. He joined Bolton Camera Club in the 1970s and began to enter the club competitions with moderate success before entering competitions in photographic magazines and having his work published. Tonge won the Granada Television “In Focus” Competition around 1980 which resulted in two days of filming at his home and Haydock Park Racecourse with Nobby Clarke a London based press and theatre photographer. Tonge began working as a part-time freelance photographer in the late 1980s turning full-time as a front of house photographer for The Octagon Theatre in Bolton. He was there for 8 years, received his NUJ card and started freelancing for local newspapers and occasionally the national press. He also spent some time working with a Manchester based agency and documented the Strangeways Prison riot. A one-man show of his work was presented at The Salamander Gallery, Bolton and he has collaborated with other other photographers in numerous joint shows. Tonge is currently archiving his disorganised output locating negatives and scanning them. Cafe Royal Books have published three books of Tonge's work from the 1970s. www.instagram.com/dontongephoto/?hl=en Dr. Grant Scott is the founder/curator of United Nations of Photography, a Senior Lecturer and Subject Co-ordinator: Photography at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, a working photographer, documentary filmmaker, BBC Radio contributor and the author of Professional Photography: The New Global Landscape Explained (Routledge 2014), The Essential Student Guide to Professional Photography (Routledge 2015), New Ways of Seeing: The Democratic Language of Photography (Routledge 2019). His film Do Not Bend: The Photographic Life of Bill Jay was first screened in 2018 www.donotbendfilm.com. He is the presenter of the A Photographic Life and In Search of Bill Jay podcasts. © Grant Scott 2022

Welcome back to a brand a new season of Up Close with Carlos Tseng. In this season we will be speaking to more Arts & Entertainment creatives and we are very fortunate to begin this season with an acclaimed actor and playwright: Reuben Johnson.Hailing from Salford, Reuben Johnson's career has taken him to Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Doctor Who and has won a Methuen Drama Award for Emerging Artists.  Dividing his time between performing and writing, Reuben has continued to champion spoken word and entertainment through thought-provoking and innovative works like his debut play 'Territory' and 'The Terminal'. He also had a recurring role on BBC drama 'Prisoner's Wives' where he played Sean Lowe opposite a cast that included Emma Rigby and Phoebe Dynevor.Now, Reuben Johnson is currently preparing to take on a new production of 'The Hounds of Baskerville' at Octagon Theatre, Bolton after a year which has seen much suffering for the theatre community. Soon, his new play 'Arthur/Merlin' will also be playing at the Actor's Church with Iris Theatre. It's certainly an exciting time Reuben as he shares his experience of living through the COVID-19 pandemic and his hopes for the future.

Playwright Beth Hyland joins the pod to talk Problematic Faves, Top 5 Lists, and how a Nick Hornby novel became the basis for cinematic and theatrical male ego in the best - and worst - ways. Topics include Glengarry Glen Ross, Jack Black, and the gentrification of Wicker Park. Beth Hyland is a playwright, screenwriter, and songwriter based in Chicago. Her plays and musicals been produced and developed in the UK at the Octagon Theatre, in New York at The Hearth, and around Chicago at Steppenwolf LookOut, The Sound, Jackalope Theatre, First Floor Theater, The Story Theatre, The Passage Theatre, Sideshow Theatre, and others. She is the co-founder and playwright-in-residence of The Sound, and you can find her online at bethhyland.com

Career:As a stage actor, he has half a century's experience of working in theatres up and down the British Isles, and in English-speaking productions overseas. He took part in the first national tour of Godspell, and played in Julius Caesar and in Murder in the Cathedral at Chichester Festival Theatre. Other UK regional theatres where he has performed include Derby Playhouse and the Octagon Theatre, Bolton.For twenty years he was the Casting Director for The English Theatre of Hamburg and has cast over fifty plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Arms and the Man, Candida, Blithe Spirit, The Caretaker, Private Lives and The Circle, as well as the plays of LaBute and David Mamet. As a cabaret singer he has performed with his singing partner Francoise Geller in the UK and elsewhere. He has composed music and lyrics for productions such as The Circle, Educating Rita, When the Reaper Calls, Over the River, Through the Woods and April in Paris.[4]His first film job, in Arabesque, required him to play a scene with Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. On television he has been a presenter on Play School, he played Inky in two series of Chips' Comic for Channel 4 and he spoke the first line in the first episode of Byker Grove. Griffin has worked as a dialogue coach on Byker Grove and Kavanagh QC. Through doing radio drama he realised that he could display great versatility with his voice alone, accessing a greater range of parts than would otherwise be possible. (For instance, in the late 'sixties when well into his twenties he took over the part of Billy the eldest grandson in The Dales, formerly Mrs Dale's Diary, who had previously been played as a boy with an unbroken voice, and played him till the serial ended.)He 'got in on the ground floor' when audiobooks started to be recorded. For many years he has been a voiceover specialist and has recorded nearly eight hundred audiobooks, mostly unabridged.[9] The subjects have been as varied as Homer's Odyssey, Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and novels by H. G. Wells and Jules Verne, as well as more modern writers like Hilary Mantel and Melvyn Bragg. Also many titles in the Golden Age of Murder series for the British Library, and non-fiction titles such as Elegy: The First Day on the Somme, and Breakfast is a Dangerous Meal by Terence Kealey, among many others. AudioFile Magazine wrote: "Griffin is not just a narrator, but an artist of the Spoken Word. He is in the top five of the most borrowed audiobook narrators in the world."[10] In 2015-2016 his 2015 reading of Kate Ellis 's The Death Season was the sixth most borrowed adult audiobook from UK public libraries, as reported by the Public Lending Right office.His more unusual audio recordings include having been the courteous voice advising alighting passengers to "Mind the gap, please" on the London Underground.In 2017, Griffin was appointed MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List "For services to People with Sight Impairment".PublicationIn 2020, Griffin published his memoir Speaking Volumes.ALL CONTENT IS HAS COPYRIGHT PROTECTION! Please refrain from trying to claim this as your own. Legal action maybe taken.Gordons Details: Website: www.gordongriffin.comFB: https://www.facebook.com/gordon.griff...​Twitter: Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=UF2KW28X2SVPY)

Back with more new episodes for 2021, Nottingham Playhouse’s Amplify Producer Craig Gilbert chats to more artists of national and international renown in our Amplify Podcast series. These conversations cover career and process, as well as offering a few ideas to explore from home during this time of social distancing. This week Craig is chatting to Paul Hunter.Paul Hunter is co-founder and Artistic Director of Told by an Idiot. Paul has worked on all Told by an Idiot shows to date as director/devisor/performer. Directing credits include: The Ghost Train (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); Too Clever By Half (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); Every Last Trick (Royal & Derngate, Northampton); You Can’t Take It With You (Told by an Idiot / Royal Exchange, Manchester); The Mouse and his Child (RSC); Low Pay, Don’t Pay (Salisbury Playhouse); Senora Carrar’s Rifles (Young Vic); The Opium Eater and Light is Night (Brouhaha); The Underpants (Hope Street, Liverpool); One Set to Love (National Theatre, Hungary); Not With That Hand and Jiggery Pokery (Tour/BAC), Ordago (for Punto Finco in Bilbao). As Associate Director at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton, Paul Hunter directed: The Venetian Twins, The Beauty Queen of Leenane (Best Production, Manchester Evening News award), Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Cleo, Camping Emmanuelle and Dick. Acting credits include: Wise Children (Wise Children Old Vic and UK tour); Life of Galileo (Young Vic); The Little Match Girl (Shakespeare’s Globe); Gaslight (Royal and Derngate); Tartuffe (Birmingham Repertory Theatre); Much Ado About Nothing, The Globe Mysteries, Troilus And Cressida, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare's Globe); Rapunzel and The Red Shoes (Kneehigh); Under The Black Flag (Shakespeare's Globe); The Water Engine (Young Vic/Theatre 503); The Play What I Wrote (West End); Oliver Twist and Pinocchio (Lyric Hammersmith); Into Our Dreams (Almeida); the title role in Richard III (English Shakespeare Company), Animal Farm and Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night (Northern Stage); Les Enfants Du Paradis (RSC); and the title role in The Servant With Two Masters (Sheffield Crucible).

As some theatre performances are starting to open in the UK after more than five months of lockdown due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, the people in charge of UK theatres have had to make some very difficult decisions in order to survive. To get the perspective of theatre management on the current situation, BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Roddy Gauld, Chief Executive of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, just after the announcement that the theatre will reopen in December and Jon Gilchrist, Executive Director & Deputy Chief Executive of Home Manchester, where theatre performances are to recommence from October.

In this episode, Sam and Sarah get the opportunity to chat with fellow BB listener, playwright, and songwriter -- Beth Hyland! In this episode she shares her experience in self-producing her own work, staying creative, balancing creative and work life, and her new play ALL-ONE! THE DR. BRONNER'S PLAY which will be getting a "Zoom" staged reading at the end of April. Check it out! Beth Hyland is a playwright and songwriter based in Chicago. Her plays and musicals have been produced and developed regionally in the UK at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and Octagon Theatre, and around the US at Steppenwolf LookOut, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Hearth, First Floor, The Passage, Broken Nose, The Sound, and others. She is the playwright-in-residence and co-founder of The Sound. To learn more about Beth, be sure to visit her website at www.bethhyland.com GLISTENS: Sam's: 4-year-old girl found alive and well after 2 days in the woods www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/Eve…ssing-found-.html Sarah's: Practice joke writing Beth's: If you have the means, donate to your local theaters and restaurants no matter how small the donation may be. _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/beckettsbabies/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/beckettsbabies/support

In this episode, Sam and Sarah get the opportunity to chat with fellow BB listener, playwright, and songwriter -- Beth Hyland! In this episode, she shares her experience in self-producing her own work, staying creative, balancing creative and work life, and her new playALL-ONE! THE DR. BRONNER'S PLAY which will be getting a "Zoom" staged reading at the end of April. Check it out! Beth Hyland is a playwright and songwriter based in Chicago. Her plays and musicals have been produced and developed regionally in the UK at the Stephen Joseph Theatre and Octagon Theatre, and around the US at Steppenwolf LookOut, Actors Theatre of Louisville, The Hearth, First Floor, The Passage, Broken Nose, The Sound, and others. She is the playwright-in-residence and co-founder of The Sound. To learn more about Beth, be sure to visit her website at www.bethhyland.com GLISTENS: Sam's - 4-year-old girl found alive and well after 2 days in the woods https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/28/us/Evelyn-sides-Alabama-missing-found-.html Sarah's - Practicing joke writing Beth's - If you have the means, donate to your local theaters and restaurants no matter how small the donation may be. _____________________________________________ Please support Beckett's Babies by reviewing, sharing an episode to your friends, or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter: @beckettsbabies And as always, we would love to hear from you! Send us your questions or thoughts on playwriting and we might discuss it in our next episode. Email: contact@beckettsbabies.com For more info, visit our website: www.beckettsbabies.com

Pitlochry Festival Theatre in Perthshire, Scotland announced its summer rep season for 2020 in December. In 2018, Elizabeth Newman joined the theatre as Artistic Director from the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. BTG Editor David Chadderton spoke to Elizabeth in January about the new season and about how she had developed the theatre’s programme over the last eighteen months, as well as how she had coped with settling in an unfamiliar region after ten years in Bolton. The summer season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre runs from 22 May to 3 October 2020. (Photo: Elizabeth Newman and David Greig)

The next production from Bolton’s Octagon Theatre is a version of Chekhov’s The Seagull rewritten by Beth Hyland as a gig musical about four aspiring young musicians in a rock band in 2019, performed in a small theatre space in Bolton Library. In this episode, BTG Editor David Chadderton speaks to half of the cast, Tomi Ogbaro and Lauryn Redding, together with director Lotte Wakeham about this première production, plus Lotte gives an update on the reopening of the Octagon Theatre next spring after undergoing a major refurbishment. You can also hear two of the songs from the show: “Remember” and “Muse”. Seagulls by Beth Hyland runs at Bolton Library Theatre from 24 October to 16 November 2019.

As it prepares to leave its building in the hands of developers for refurbishment, Bolton’s Octagon Theatre takes its audiences on the road, literally, for its seasonal musical Summer Holiday, based on the Cliff Richard film. The performance begins at the new Bolton Interchange bus station where the audience will meet before travelling by bus with the actors to the theatre, where the rest of the production takes place. A little over a week before opening, BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to two of the actor musicians, Barbara Hockaday and Greg Last, and Ben Occhipinti, who is co-directing with Octagon Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman. Summer Holiday will be performed at Bolton Travel Interchange and Octagon Theatre Bolton from Thursday 31 May to Saturday 23 June 2018.

Army captain turned MP Johnny Mercer, Theatre Director Elizabeth Newman and former footballer Paul Fletcher compare notes on leadership and teamwork - presented by Rana Mitter with an audience at Sage Gateshead. There is no I in Team .. but there's a ME if you look hard enough”, joked David Brent in the BBC sitcom, The Office. But for individuals with a proven track record in leadership, how do you get the best from your group while handling the demands of the individual? Johnny Mercer served three tours of Afghanistan during his military career before retiring from the army to pursue a future in politics. He was elected Conservative MP for Plymouth Moor View in 2015.Elizabeth Newman is the artistic director of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton. Previously she was an associate director at Southwark Playhouse. In 2014, she was awarded the David Fraser/Andrea Wonfor Television Directors' Bursary for experienced theatre directors to work with top UK broadcasters and production companies and has recently completed filming an episode of Doctors for the BBC. In 2017 she was named ‘Bolton's Woman of the Year'. Paul Fletcher played as a striker playing for Bolton Wanderers, Burnley and the England Under 23 team before leg injuries put paid to his playing career. He has been Chief Executive at Huddersfield Town masterminding the building of the Alfred McAlpine Stadium, at Bolton Wanderers when the Reebok Stadium was built, and CEO of Burnley. He has just collaborated with the writer Alastair Campbell on a novel depicting a football manager called Saturday Bloody Saturday and with Ken Sharp he has written The Seven Golden Secrets of a Successful Stadium Producer: Zahid Warley

Midlands editor Steve Orme speaks to actors Sean McKenzie and Jo Mousley about performing Jim Cartwright's popular two-hander Two at Derby Theatre. The play, which premièred at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton in 1989, focuses on a single evening in a Northern pub, with the same two actors playing the feuding landlord and landlady as well as an array of customers who visit their establishment. Two will run at Derby Theatre from 2 to 24 March 2018. For more information.

Conn Iggulden is one of the most successful authors of historical fiction, writing about the Wars of the Roses, Genghis Khan and Julius Caesar; as well as his hugely popular manual Dangerous Book for Boys. He now turns to St Dunstan, who was Archbishop of Canterbury and lived through the reigns of seven kings in the tenth century. Conn talks to Samira about how Dunstan became a saint, and his legacy. Royal drama The Crown was made by Netflix when they outbid the BBC for the rights. The £100m series was expected to pick up the top awards at the BAFTAs after it led the shortlist with five nominations. But on the night, it missed out entirely. TV writer Andrew Collins discusses what the fate of The Crown reveals about the BAFTAs. Playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker has won many awards for her stage plays Our Country's Good, Three Birds Alighting on A Field, and most recently Jefferson's Garden; as well as praise for her radio adaptations of War and Peace and Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan quartet. Her new play, premiering at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton, looks at a group of women attempting to block the development of a big hotel on Winter Hill. Front Row spoke to Timberlake on the hill outside Bolton that inspired the drama. Quake is Radio 4's experimental new drama set after a deadly earthquake. As well as the audio drama, there is a virtual reality video to accompany the first episode and graphic novel style animations for the remaining eleven. Quake is also non-linear so apart for the first and last, the episodes can be listened to in any order. Critic Pete Naughton reviews. Presenter : Samira Ahmed Producer : Dymphna Flynn.

Timberlake Wertenbaker was commissioned by the Octagon Theatre in Bolton to write Winter Hill, named after a local landmark most famous for its TV mast. BTG editor David Chadderton spoke to Timberlake when she had spent nearly a week in rehearsals for the play in Bolton, and then a couple of weeks later to three of the cast: Cathy Tyson, Souad Faress and Janet Henfry. Winter Hill by Timberlake Wertenbaker will be at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton from 11 May to 3 June 2017. (Photo of the Winter Hill cast in rehearsal by Ray Jefferson, Bolton Camera Club)

Robin Ince is a celebrated writer and comedian best known for co-hosting The Infinite Monkey Cage, alongside Professor Brian Cox. And he's touring Australia - with a number of fantastic UK scientists and comedians - in March and April 2017. Cosmic Shambles LIVE is a variety show that celebrates curiosity and reason, an explosion of science, comedy, music and general wonder, with a great sense of fun. Part proceeds from the show will be going to charities like Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). Cosmic Shambles LIVE will be showing in: Sydney: Tuesday 28th March 2017, 7:00pm Enmore Theatre 118-132 Enmore Road, Newtown Melbourne: Saturday 1st April, 7:00pm Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre 1 Convention Centre Place, South Wharf Perth: Thursday 13th April 2017, 7:00pm Octagon Theatre, The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley Head to http://atheistfoundation.org.au/cosmicshambleslive/ to book your tickets now!

In partnership with The Octagon Theatre in Yeovil and inspired by the work of Roald Dahl, Strike a Chord! explores creative music making in the classroom, as well as offering hundreds of school children from across Yeovil the opportunity to hear quality live music in a fun and interactive way. Follow the journey of Yeovil’s school children as they create, compose and perform their own music, before attending a very special concert by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Charles Hazlewood to hear Paul Patterson’s Little Red Riding Hood live at The Octagon.

In 2004, the Financial Times critic Alastair Macaulay argued that the role of Othello had been “diminished” by the late twentieth century convention of having only black actors play the part. The threshold for Macaulay had been what he perceived to be another poor performance as Othello. Yet since Paul Robeson’s appearance as Othello at the Savoy Theatre in 1930, language has been a major weapon of critics and journalists opposing ethnic minority performers’ appearances in Shakespearean theatre. This paper examines critical responses by arts journalists and critics to these performances, helping to contextualize discriminatory casting patterns in contemporary theatre as part of a larger discourse guided by the media. Bio: Dr. Jami Rogers trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and holds an MA and a PhD from the Shakespeare Institute, the University of Birmingham. Prior to obtaining her PhD Jami spent 10 years working for PBS, the American public service broadcast television network, first at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. and then for 8 years at WGBH/Boston working on Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery!, where awards included a Primetime Emmy from the Academy of Arts and Television Sciences. Most recently she was Research Assistant on the AHRC-funded Multicultural Shakespeare project at the University of Warwick, where she was the lead researcher on the British Black and Asian Shakespeare Performance Database. She was Visiting Lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton in the Drama Department and has taught at the Universities of Birmingham, Warwick and the British American Drama Academy. Jami has lectured on Shakespeare and American drama at the National Theatre in London and works regularly with director David Thacker at the Octagon Theatre, Bolton.

A new revival by Derby Theatre and Octagon Theatre Bolton will mark the 60th anniversary of John Osborne’s ground-breaking work Look Back in Anger. BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme speaks to director Sarah Brigham and actor Patrick Knowles, who will play the role of Jimmy Porter, about the new production. Look Back In Anger will be at Derby Theatre from 7 to 23 March and then at Octagon Theatre in Bolton from 7 to 30 April 2016.

In November 2014, David Thacker announced that he would step down as artistic director of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton at the end of his current tenure in July 2015 after six years at the venue. Four months later, the theatre announced that its associate director and head of new writing, Elizabeth Newman, will take over from him. We spoke to Elizabeth at the Octagon about her new appointment, her ideas for the future of the venue, her campaigning on theatre issues—including speaking in Parliament—and her training and background as a director. Elizabeth Newman takes over as artistic director of the Octagon from July 2015. Her production of Noël Coward’s Private Lives runs in the main house from 26 March to 18 April 2015. For more information about the Octagon, see octagonbolton.co.uk.

The Octagon Theatre in Bolton ends its year-long season with the first UK revival of the musical Love Story since it closed on the West End in 2010. Based on the novel by Erich Segal and the hit film, both from 1970, the show features a book by Stephen Clark and a score by Howard Goodall. The Octagon’s production is directed by Elizabeth Newman, the theatre’s associate director, with the principal couple both played by graduates of the BBC TV audition reality shows: Daniel Boys, who was in Any Dream Will Do in 2007, and Lauren Samuels, who was Over The Rainbow in 2010. In this episode, both actors and the director together with musical director Tarek Merchant speak about the show and a rehearsal process that is more usual for a play than for a musical, and also about life as a working performer after the glaring spotlight of the TV reality show. Love Story will run at the Octagon Theatre in Bolton from 19 June to 12 July 2014. (Love Story rehearsal photos by Ray Jefferson, Bolton Camera Club)

Mark Babych, who was artistic director of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton for ten years up to 2009, was appointed artistic director of Hull Truck Theatre in 2013. His debut production as director is a revival of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey, which will run at Hull Truck from 27 March 2014 starring Shameless and Waterloo Road actress Rebecca Ryan as Jo before embarking on a national tour. In this episode, Mark speaks about why he chose this play, bringing one of Salford's best-known plays back to Salford's Lowry, his involvement with the successful bid for Hull to become the UK's City of Culture for 2017 and how he went from the Octagon to freelance to taking on another building-based theatre company. He also pays tribute to Chris Honer, who stepped down as artistic director of Manchester's Library Theatre Company recently and whom Mark considers to be a big influence on his own work.

Sarah Brigham talks to BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme about taking the reigns of Derby Theatre as its first artistic director since University of Derby took over the lease of the troubled former Derby Playhouse and succeeded in obtaining Arts Council funding for it in 2012. The first homegrown production from the new Derby Theatre is Lee Hall's Cooking With Elvis, and Steve talks to director Mark Babych and actor Jack Lord about the production. Babych, who was artistic director of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton for ten years, also talks about his recently-announced appointment as artistic director of Hull Truck Theatre, a post he takes up immediately after finishing work on this production.