CURVE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
SAT 3 OCT 2020
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Welcome to your weekly newsletter from Curve.
We hope this finds you well.
On Wednesday a huge laser beam shot up into the sky from the roof of Curve – a beacon of hope, marking 100 days of additional lockdown measures in Leicester. This period has been difficult for everyone working and living in Leicester, but we are confident our remarkable city will come back stronger than ever. We’re incredibly grateful to Kvant Lasers who chose Curve to trial this impressive laser beam of light at no cost to our theatre. Even in exile, Curve continues to test new technologies!
Throughout this time we have been committed to ensuring The Show Must Go On-line, releasing uplifting digital performances and projects for you all to enjoy.
We continue this commitment this week with the release of our Black History Month project, The Color Purple Digital Concert. Bringing together cast, musicians and creatives from our 2019 Made at Curve production, this digital concert features performances of musical numbers from the show, plus personal reflections from those involved.
Our thanks and immense gratitude to our incredible cast and creative team, and to Steve Spiegel of Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Arts Council England and Leicester City Council for their tremendous support on this project.
A reminder that our dress rehearsal archive recording of Hanif Kureishi‘s My Beautiful Laundrette is available to watch online here. We are also delighted to release a fully audio-described version of the recording for blind and partially-sighted audience members, alongside an audio introduction to the play. Huge thanks to audio describers Nadine Beasley and Kate Taylor-Davies of Talking Sense Audio Description Services and Gary Giles for their tremendous work on this accessible version.
Family audiences can also enjoy a bit of theatre at home this month, as our friends at Tall Stories are bringing their digital tour of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler‘s The Snail and the Whale ‘to Curve’ on Sun 25 Oct. Broadcast from the company’s London home, the performance promises to be a wonderful hour of enchanting fun, with all tickets purchased helping to support both Tall Stories and Curve. Details on how to book can be found below.
We’re also thrilled to be partnering with No Stone Theatre on their digital tour of Seeds, a play-turned-podcast about the world’s first seed bank. The first episode aired this week and will be released weekly in collaboration with a variety of partners until the end of November. Do join us for the Curve listen-along to episode three on Wed 21 Oct at the link below. We know theatre online can never replace the real thing, but it is helpful in keeping us all connected to this vital part of all our culture.
And finally this week, we send many congratulations to our Associates Akram Khan Company as they celebrate 20 years. It has been both an honour and a pleasure to work with Akram and his team over the years on performances including XENOS and Until the Lions. The company have marked the milestone with The Silent Burn Project, which can be enjoyed on their website now.
As ever, our thanks to Leicester City Council, Arts Council England, and to you – our wonderful audiences – for your continued support.
Until next week,
Chris & Nikolai
THE SHOW MUST GO ON-LINE
The Color Purple Digital Concert released
We’re proud to release this Curve Commissioned digital concert of The Color Purple to mark Black History Month.
Featuring reflections and performances from cast and creative members of our 2019 Made at Curve and Birmingham Hippodrome co-production – winner of Best Regional Production at the WhatsOnStage Awards earlier this year – this video is a celebration of this great musical and the talent of all those involved.
If you enjoy this digital concert and would like to support Curve, please consider making a donation to our theatre. This can be done on our website or you can simply donate £3 by texting PURPLE to 70480 now. For more information on text donations, click here.
This digital concert is no longer available.
Audio described edition of My Beautiful Laundrette now available
Our dress rehearsal archive recording of Hanif Kureishi‘s My Beautiful Laundrette is now available to enjoy online with integrated Audio Description for blind and partially sighted audience members.
An audio introduction describing the play, characters and set is also available on SoundCloud – click here to listen.
Both the audio description and audio introduction are kindly provided by Nadine Beasley and Kate Taylor-Davies of Talking Sense Audio Description Services, with support from Sound Engineer Gary Giles.
A new digital tour from No Stone Theatre
Seeds is a brand new play-turned-podcast about the amazing story of the world’s first seed bank.
We’re excited to be partnering with No Stone Theatre for this digital tour, with Curve hosting the third episode listen-along on Wed 21 Oct.
To learn more about the production, visit the link below.
Celebrating 20 years of Akram Khan Company
Congratulations to our Associates Akram Khan Company on 20 years of ground-breaking work!
To celebrate this incredible milestone the company have released The Silent Burn Project, an inspiring programme of dance and music films.
“After twenty years of unearthing, discovering, and retelling through new lenses, this is a moment for me to reflect and to look back at the footsteps that we at AKC have taken collectively.” – Akram Khan
Family Theatre at Home
Join us for this special performance on Sunday 25 October at 2pm
A good story can take you all around the world without even leaving your room.
Tall Stories proudly present a special live-streamed version of their much-loved reimagining of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s classic book, The Snail and the Whale.
Join an adventurous young girl and her seafaring father as they reimagine the story of a tiny snail’s incredible trip around the world on the tail of a great big, grey-blue humpback whale.
Live music, storytelling and plenty of audience interaction bring the story vividly to life in this heart-warming adventure for everyone aged four and up. This is not a pre-recorded video – anything could happen! Every ticket you buy will help support the work of both Tall Stories and Curve.
Come and join the adventure! Tickets from £10