Curtain Call Podcast

This week, I thought I would sit down with the Casting Directors Guild and find out just what it means to be a casting director. What it means to have those three little letters (CDG) following your name, and the path one takes to become a casting director in today's industry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you haven't heard of The HandleBards yet, you are in for a treat. As they describe on their website, they are "charmingly chaotic bicycle-powered Shakespeare". A roving company of bards who travel the country (and beyond), bringing a particular style of Shakespeare to audiences across the UK and beyond. Listen to Tom Dixon, a founding HandleBard and one of their producers, as he discusses the company's history, vision, views on sustainable theatre, burst tyres and so much more... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to Mark Gatiss, Olivia Williams, Matt Cardle, Denise Gough and Lesley Manville talk about their love of theatre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s climate of increasing isolation, we want to bring you a daily dose of inspiration.Each episode, we’re giving someone in the theatre a chance to take a bow.  From seasoned professionals to drama students; vocal coaches to the life coaches; You’ll find them right here giving insights into what drives them to be in the business and who inspires them.On today’s episode is theatre journalist Lauren Guest.Lauren is the founder and editor of Theatreland’s most recent publication - TheatreNerd Magazine.  Spotting a gap in the market, she is bringing an online and physical magazine for theatre fans by theatre fans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We sat down with Sean Kingsley, Sanne Den Besten and Louis Maskell about how hard it is to place and describe The Grinning Man, (the musical transfer from The Bristol Old Vic to Trafalgar Studios), working with puppets and keeping the voice in fine working order in one of toughest sings on stage at the moment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tyrone Huntley and Georgie Henley are currently on stage at the Southwark Playhouse in Phil Ridley’s “Angry” – not so much a play as a theatre piece with Huntley and Henley performing what Ridley describes as “vespers” or stand-alone monologues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Ajayi, Sope Dirisu and Anthony Welsh make up the brilliant onstage company of The Brothers Size along with Manuel Pinheiro playing live music while the action takes place. This critically lauded play is on at The Young Vic and has been wowing. audiences and critics alike. This week, Anthony Welsh, who plays the non-brother in The Brothers Size, Elegba, speaks about his journey with this play. It was a play he was completely familiar with, having performed in it 10 years ago and it was interesting to see how he approached it with a decade’s worth of experience under his belt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We sat down with one of the founders of The Stable Musicals, Neil Marcus, a theatre producer with a distinguished history of developing new musicals and a massive supporter of emerging British musical theatre talent to discuss the growth of The Stable Musicals, their slate of new musicals and just how far they have come in the last four years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Actor's Nightmare, a collection of Christopher Durang's short plays, is having it's World Premiere this week at the Park Theatre here in London. I sat down in their rehearsal room with director Lydia Parker, and pretty much all of the company to talk about getting their heads around playing many characters in numerous plays in the same production, the language of Durang, working in the round and their own actors nightmares. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s climate of increasing isolation, we want to bring you a daily dose of inspiration.Each episode, we’re giving someone in the theatre a chance to take a bow. From seasoned professionals to drama students; vocal coaches to the life coaches; You’ll find them right here giving insights into what drives them to be in the business and who inspires them.On today’s episode is actor Stephen Beirnaert.Stephen has been playing Timon, the mischievous meerkat in Disney’s Lion King for nearly five years now. He was most recently making his UK debut on the UK tour when the coronavirus epidemic happened. I caught up with him just as he returned to his native Belgium. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week's podcast is all about gender, a hot topic both in the news headlines and the arts world currently. It features a conversation with Camden People's Theatre (CPT) artistic director Brian Logan and acclaimed writer/director Lucy J Skilbeck. CPT is about to launch its festival Come As You Are, which features 'a host of gender-anarchists with more questions than answers'. Theo Bosanquet went along to find out more about it, and Skilbeck's new play Bullish, which is headlining the festival. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Factory is a theatre company like no other. No sets, no props, no blocking, no set cast, no auditions, open rehearsals...you name the theatrical convention and they are tearing it down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s climate of increasing isolation, we want to bring you a daily dose of inspiration.Each episode, we’re giving someone in the theatre a chance to take a bow. From seasoned professionals to drama students; vocal coaches to the life coaches; You’ll find them right here giving insights into what drives them to be in the business and who inspires them.On today’s episode is an assistant professor Richard BryantRichard is an assistant professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Trinidad and Tobago. His journey there isn’t a straightforward one - having planned to go for a few months, he has stayed for many years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Before opening at the Phoenix Theatre in London’s West End, we heard from the company about their pre-West End run in Dublin. And before that, the cast had a launch party at the Canadian Embassy in London’s Trafalgar Square. And in this episode, we are giving you a front row seat at that party with two exclusive recordings from the London cast.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are dedicating the final episodes of the series to bring you closer to the real life characters from Come From Away and some of the people that play them on both sides of the Atlantic. In this episode we’re introducing you to Harry Morrison and Sheriff Oz Fudge, David Shannon and Kevin Tuerff (otherwise known as the Gay Lumberjack) and from both Jenna Boyd and Astrid Van Wieren who play Beulah Cooper in the West End Cast and on Broadway respectively. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Curtain Call co-founder, Matt Humphrey, sat down with multiple award-winning lighting designer Paule Constable to talk about the proposed EU regulations, the huge implications they bring and explain in simple terms what it means for the industry here in the UK and across Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are dedicating the final three episodes of the series to bring you closer to the real life characters from Come From Away and some of the people that play them on both sides of the Atlantic. In this episode we’re introducing you to Rachael Tucker and Captain Beverley Bass, Mary Doherty and Bonnie Harris, Nathanael Campbell and Tom MoCowan (who ends up as Bob in the musical) and lastly Jonathan Andrew Hume and Kevin Jung Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In today’s episode, we are talking to a couple of consummate theatre professionals who are defining a new form of theatrical storytelling. I think we will be hearing about Dance Musicals more and more as The Sisters Grimm keep producing groundbreaking shows.They work with pros at the top of their game including Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Jeremy Irons on iconic shows like Inala and Voices of the Amazon. Not only this, but they are constantly engaging in community outreach bringing underprivileged youth into the theatre to experience storytelling in a way that they might not have had access to.Pietra Mello-Pittman and Ella Spiro are an inspiration to listen to, and I caught up with them while they were on an unintentional lockdown in Dubai. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I went to go see a show, as they say in the business. And that show was “Building The Wall” at The Park Theatre. Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Robert Schenkkan’s hard-hitting piece. I got to speak to Angela and Trevor about their thoughts on the play at the Park Theatre, performing in front of major theatre stars, the immediacy of this new piece and what keeps bringing them back to the theatre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ros Blessed has been treading the boards around the country, following in her parent’s footsteps. And she has recently stepped into the shoes of the playwright, but has brought along her parents dad, Brian Blessed as executive producer and mom, Hildegard Neil as fellow cast member. Shedding light on what we often keep hidden from the world, The Delights of Dogs and the Problems of People and Lullabies for the Lost will be performed in rep throughout January at the Old Red Lion Theatre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices