CURVE WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
SAT 22 AUG 2020
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Welcome to the weekend and your weekly newsletter from Curve. We hope you are well.
Live theatre is back – sort of! We’re happy to be partnering with the teams at Wise Children, Bristol Old Vic and Plush Theatricals this September on the ‘digital tour’ of Romantics Anonymous, directed by Emma Rice.
From 22 – 26 Sep, the acclaimed musical adaptation will be performed live on Bristol Old Vic’s stage and broadcast to screens across the globe. Each performance will be tailored to a different location, and we hope you can join us for the Midlands performance on Wed 23 Sep at 7.30pm. We’re pleased Romantics Anonymous is ‘coming’ to Curve, and more details about the show and how to book can be found below.
Theatre Designer and friend of Curve Colin Richmond joins Nikolai for this week’s episode of Curve in Conversation, which is available to watch now. Colin has previously worked his design magic on our Made at Curve productions of Grease and Sunset Boulevard, and was due to set the scene for our production of The Wizard of Oz. We can’t wait to bring Colin’s vision for Oz to life on stage next Christmas, but in the meantime we hope you enjoy this in-depth interview covering all things design, collaboration and getting started in the industry.
Colin also kindly designed Curve’s contribution to Cool As Leicester‘s Leicester Merch Aid t-shirt campaign. If you fancy taking home a bit of Colin’s work, supporting Curve and looking cool all at the same time, please click here to visit the online shop.
Our Curve Young Company Kids have been turning their hand to design in their recent online sessions – specifically puppet design with Director and Community Practitioner, Alex Preston. The group have created their own finger and paper puppets, and we’re proud to share some of their creations in this week’s update. Keep up the great work, kids!
It’s wonderful to see such creativity from these young imaginations. The feedback from our CYC lockdown sessions has been extremely positive and the young people have valued learning about design, direction and the other disciplines that go towards creating theatre; this has inspired them to consider the many other careers (other than performing) that may be open to them in theatre.
If your young people would like to share their creativity, our friends at The Mighty Creatives are currently running the #StayMightyStayCreative challenge. This month their focus is on our favourite subject – performing arts – with the theme of empowerment. Scroll down for further details on the challenge, and how to submit your work.
And over at Artreach, colleagues there will also be celebrating the creative talent of artists from across the world with the return of Journeys Festival International. Taking place online from 28 Sep – 18 Oct, the thrilling line-up for this year’s event was released earlier this week, and you can find out more on the festival website.
As ever, we give our biggest 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 ONLINE
Watch Wise Children's Romantics Anonymous live from Bristol Old Vic this Autumn
Angélique is a gifted chocolate maker crippled by social anxiety and Jean-René is the boss of a failing chocolate factory. Angélique is so timid, she faints when people look at her; Jean-René is so awkward he relies on self-help tapes and is prone to embarrassing sweating. When Angélique takes a job in Jean-René’s struggling factory, a fragile love affair unfolds.
Funny, tender and painfully awkward, Romantics Anonymous is a delicious love story about breaking the mould and finding the courage to be happy.
Join us for the special Midlands performance on Wed 23 Sep at 7.30pm as part of the show’s ‘digital tour’, brought to you LIVE from the Bristol Old Vic stage.
Curve in Conversation with Colin Richmond
In this week’s episode of Curve in Conversation, our Artistic Director Nikolai Foster talks to Theatre Designer Colin Richmond, whose previous work includes our Made at Curve productions of Grease and Sunset Boulevard.Watch and listen as Colin discusses how he became interested in theatre and design, the importance of collaboration among creative teams, and his advice for the next generation of theatre designers.
CYC Kids explore the magic of puppetry
In a recent online session, our Curve Young Company Kids were joined by Director and Community Practitioner Alex Preston to look at all things puppetry! Alex started the session with a short presentation on a couple of his own puppets and how he brings them to life, before showing the group how to make their own finger puppets and larger paper puppets.
Journeys Festival International line-up unveiled
This week our friends at Artreach released the line-up for the upcoming digital Journeys Festival International, taking place from 28 Sep – 18 Oct 2020.This annual event celebrates the creative talent of exceptional artists from sanctuary-seeking backgrounds, and shares experiences of refugee and asylum-seeking communities through artistic and creative encounters. Discover the line-up and sign up for festival news at the link below.
#StayMightyStayCreative performing arts challenge
Are you between 7 and 16 years old and staying creative during lockdown? Have you started a new creative hobby and want to share your skills? Want to be considered for a special Be Mighty Be Creative award?
Our friends at The Mighty Creatives are running a series of creative challenges, and in August 2020 their focus is on performing arts. To participate, all you need to do is submit any piece of performance art – poetry, song, monologue, rap, dance – of up to three minutes on the theme of empowerment.
Catch up on Curve Commissions, In Conversations and more!
Back in March we launched our The Show Must Go Online hub to help keep you and your family engaged with arts, culture and Curve during the pandemic.
We’re still adding new content to the hub weekly, so be sure to head over and browse our regular Curve in Conversation and Creative Commentary series, Curve Commissions, archive recordings, family activities, and much, much more!
If you can spare five minutes after visiting the hub, we’d really appreciate it if you could complete our digital survey in association with The Audience Agency. The survey will help us to better understand your engagement with arts and culture online over the last few months. Click here to complete the survey.