Archives for category: Belfast Theatre
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MTV European Music Awards in Belfast

March 2, 11 //
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Can you believe it? Europe’s biggest pop awards ceremony, the MTV European Music Awards, will be held in Belfast this year. November 6 2011 will see “unprecedented performances and appearances,” according to MTV, from music’s most impressive celebrities inside the Odyssey Arena.

Members of Belfast City Council agreed last night to contribute £320,000 with further funding to be drawn from a number of Stormont departments, reported the Belfast Telegraph.

Other cities in the running included Paris and Istanbul. Belfast was deemed the ‘edgiest’ choice.

Last year’s show was hosted by Eva Longoria and included appearances by such high profile guests as Rihanna, Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Shakira and Miley Cyrus.

Belfast could see the economic return on its investment: The telegraph reports that the return on investment was £11.9 for every £1 when the show was held in Edinburgh in 2003, and in Copenhagen in 2006 the return was £8.13 for each pound.

Sir Derek Jacobi fighting fit for King Lear run at Grand Opera House

March 1, 11 //
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When it was revealed that production of King Lear had been cancelled in Wales at the weekend as a result of Sir Derek Jacobi’s sore throat, the folks at Belfast’s Grand Opera House grew concerned.

Not to fear: The show at GOP, running Tuesday to Saturday, will go ahead as schedule, with Jacobi at the helm.

“The Grand Opera House is delighted to confirm that this week’s sell-out performances of King Lear, starring Derek Jacobi, will proceed as scheduled,” representatives said in a statement to BBC.

“The production team arrived this morning, and the curtain will go up to a full house on Tuesday at 7.30pm as planned.”

Jacobi, knighted in 1994, has enjoyed a highly successful stage career. He received a Tony Award for his performance in Much Ado About Nothing and an Emmy for mocking his Shakespearean performances in Frasier. His stage work also includes playing notable historical figures such as Edward II, Octavius Caesar, Richard III of England, and Cyrano de Bergerac.

Gina McKee will play King Lear’s daughter Goneril in the production.

Irish Times Theatre Award Winners 2011

February 28, 11 //
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Best Production: The Rehearsal: Playing the Dane , Pan Pan Theatre’s deconstruction of Hamlet, directed by Gavin Quinn

Best Actor: Marty Rea as the procrastinating prince in Second Age Theatre’s Hamlet , directed by Alan Stanford

Best Actress: Olwen Fouere as the woman in her translation of Laurent Gaudé’s Sodome, My Love , directed by Lynne Parker.
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BT is the First Major Sponsor of City of Culture

February 9, 11 //
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BT is first major sponsor of the Derry-Londonderry City of Culture 2013.

The sponsorship relates to investment in high-speed broadband connectivity in and around Londonderry by the end of this year. BT claim that Derry will be the first city in Ireland — and one of the first in the UK — to have fibre connections deployed to all its streets, says the Belfast Telegraph.

If plans materialize, high-speed service will be available to 6,000 businesses and 21,000 households.

Culture Company 2013 Interim chair Declan McGonagle told Telgraph reporters: “A creative and connected digital city is one of the strategic principles for transforming the city and region.”

The Ulster Bank Theatre Festival launches it’s 2009 programme!

August 17, 09 //
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Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival which will run from 24th Sept – 11th Oct 2009 and is  once again sponsored by Ulster Bank.

- This year’s programme offers a wealth of Irish and international productions.

- For the first time the Festival will tour a production to 3 venues during the Festival.

- International productions include:  Direct from the deserts of India, The Manganiyar Seduction; Declan Donnellan’s version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Chekhov International Theatre Festival and Cheek by Jowl); Robert Lepage’s The Blue Dragon; National Theatre UK and Live Theatre Newcastle present Lee Hall’s hit The Pitmen Painters. Highlights in the Samuel Beckett Theatre, Cet Enfant (Compagnie Louis Brouillard) and Kamp from Hotel Modern.

- Major interactive light installation Playhouse which will illuminate Liberty Hall.

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ABBEY PRESENTS RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN’S CELEBRATED COMEDY ‘THE RIVALS’ AS ITS SUMMER SHOW

July 1, 09 //
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June 2009 – The Abbey Theatre presents Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s celebrated comedy of manners THE RIVALS as this year’s summer production. One of theatre’s most enduring comedies, the national theatre’s production is directed by Patrick Mason and opens for an eight week run on Wednesday 28 July 2009.

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Theatre Touring in Ireland- or the lack thereof!

May 26, 09 //
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Theatre touring- or the distinct lack of- has become a real issue in the performance sector and is being treated as such. Mary Cloake articulates; ‘The concept of the regions is one which has assumed totemic importance in artistic and cultural policy in Ireland. Policies for the development of drama and policies for regional development have become inextricably entwined, particularly over the last twenty years’. The potential for theatre companies to tour is obviously fading as a result of economic crisis but, disregarding global financial anarchy, touring in Ireland has always been a problematic area for many reasons- the current economic downturn, and more specifically the recent Arts Council Funding Decision, have only intensified the already existing reality.
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The Home Place

February 16, 09 //
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The Lyric Theatre and An Grianan Theatre presents the Northern Ireland premiere of The Home Place by Brian Friel.

It is the summer of 1878, a time of unrest and the early days of the Home Rule movement. The play is set at The Lodge in Ballybeg, the Donegal home of the Gores, a planter family.

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A few thoughts on Frank McGuiness

February 5, 09 //
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I feel like I owe Frank McGuinness a favour.  If he had been witness to our senior sophistor seminar on his plays Carthaginians and Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme he would have left with his Santa Claus beard wringing wet.  More than half of our dedicated gathering voted with their feet and simply refused to attend on Monday.  Is he really so bad you’d rather stay beneath the duvet?

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Daguerreotype: Something Splendid this way comes.

January 31, 09 //
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It appears that those most affected by economic downturn are drama graduates- aren’t we a sorry lot?  Jobs disappear, arts council funding dissolves and we are left holding our tails between our legs, having to listen to our fathers singing along to the ‘I told you so’ dance.  Faced with the obvious option of working in Asda- now that they’re creating more jobs for people exactly like us- what do we do? Do we give up our theatrical ambitions and head down to the job centre, or do we face the music and make some ghetto theatre in whatever space we can get our grimy little mitts on?  The latter, according to Dan Bergin, one of the founders of ‘Daguerreotype’, Trinity’s latest home grown theatre company.
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