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Events Live Performance Theatre Truro Uncategorised

Meet our Youth Ensemble!
Jack and the Beanstalk cast announcement

Budding local young performers cast in 2024 HfC pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk 

  • 130 young Cornish hopefuls audition to bag dream roles in major HfC pantomime 
  • 18 young people from Cornwall have been cast in Youth Ensemble 
  • Youth ensemble casting follows announcement of Edward Rowe starring as The Dame in cast dominated by Cornish talent 
  • Cornwall Playhouse Production, presented in association with Falmouth University opens on 6 December and will be seen by 35,000 

Eighteen talented young stars-of-the-future have been cast in Hall for Cornwall’s 2024 Christmas pantomime following an open audition held at Falmouth University’s AMATA theatre. 

The news follows recent creative and casting announcements with Edward Rowe starring as Dame Trott and Cornish comedian Colin Leggo returning in a cast packed with West End and Cornish talent and led by pantomime expert director Joyce Branagh at the helm. The Cornwall Playhouse production promises a handful of heritage, bucketfuls of bean gags and song-and-dance-laden festive fun for the whole family.  

Director Joyce Branagh commented “It just wouldn’t be pantomime without some amazing young people on the stage and we’re really chuffed with the sheer starry talent we saw in auditions. We were looking for flair in every area – singing, dancing and acting. It was quite a big ask and we really put them through their paces in auditions but I’m thrilled with the youth ensemble we’ve cast and we can’t wait to get them into rehearsals.” 

Commenting on the cast announcement, Helen Tiplady, Producer on Jack And The Beanstalk said “What’s so great for these young people is they’re getting a  professional experience on the Cornwall Playhouse stage, being part of a full rehearsal and performance schedule all over Christmas is just so exciting. It’s a great introduction into the world of professional theatre and an important part of our drive at HfC to nurture and support young Cornwall-based artists of the future.” 

For many of these performers, this will be an unforgettable Christmas experience, and for one or two it could even be the launchpad into showbusiness – one of last year’s Peter Pan young performances, Joel Molin is about to take to the stage in the West End as Little Micheal in MJ the Musical at the Prince Edward Theatre.

Introducing our Youth Ensemble… 

Treading the boards throughout December in Jack And the Beanstalk at the Cornwall Playhouse will be Jessica Bailey, Ella Baker, Amelia Jane Banks, William Bell, Eva Rose Carhart, Evangeline Dear, Archie Grafton, Hollie Grose, Julia Guttridge, Daisy Hudson, Sandy McCutcheon, Kensa Parker, Isla Rennie, Mia Rivas, Lyra Shephard, Bella Vicary, Tula Star Walker and Chloe Webster 

Huge congratulations to everyone who auditioned. Look out for our final eighteen at Hall for Cornwall throughout December. 

Helen Tiplady, Deputy Creative Director and the Jack and the Beanstalk Producer added “And for those brilliant performers who didn’t get through this year, we’ve said please keep in touch! We’ve got a whole range of  opportunities coming up over the next 12 months and would love each and every one of them to be involved–honestly all the young people were complete super stars. We could have cast it 10 times over with these brilliant Cornish kids. Auditions are tough, but a valuable part of realising what its like to be an actor.” 

 Book now for Jack and the Beanstalk (Fri 06 – Tue 31 Dec) at the Cornwall Playhouse: https://www.hallforcornwall.co.uk/whats-on/jack-and-the-beanstalk/

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Events Live Performance Music Truro

Our returning friends, the hugely popular ELO Experience…

So synonymous with their late 1970s hit singles have the mighty Electric Light Orchestra become that its surprising to recall that they’d emerged out of Birmingham right at the start of that decade, born from the ashes of psychedelic popsters The Move. Principal songwriter and frontman Jeff Lynne’s catchy tunes, coupled with his ‘big hair and sunglasses’ look, came to be the instantly recognisable sound and face of the band, but the early line-up saw Lynne and legendary ‘ELO’ drummer Bev Bevan joined by their fellow Move-departee Roy Wood, a larger-than-life character who’d soon, well, move on again and become forever famous as the glitter-and-sparkles leader of  ‘See My Baby Jive’ glam rockers Wizzard. 

 

Our returning friends, the hugely popular ELO Experience, delve into a particularly rich back catalogue. ELO themselves might be particularly remembered for the breathless effervescence of the classic Mr Blue Sky, with original fans having a wry grin at its 7” blue vinyl single, with its charming run-out exhortation to ‘please turn me over’, a message lost on the musical streaming generation but a helpful reminder to flip the disc and hear the likely more experimental B-side back in the day. But there’s a whole host of genius songs to celebrate. Livin’ Thing, Telephone Line, Turn To Stone, Rockaria, Don’t Bring Me Down… they still sound fabulous to this day! 

We always feel that’s what these evenings in the Cornwall Playhouse do as part of keeping popular music alive in a live environment, as it were, a continuous rejoicing in the cross-generational appeal of the great singles and hit-packed LPs of yore. And in this instance, we’re celebrating the music of a band that itself cherished the sound of those who came before them. It’s said that the initial idea of ELO, that fusion of cello, violin and woodwind with contemporary rock, came from Roy Wood, but it was Lynne who ran with it for much of the band’s history, melding strings and horns on the stage with a love for The Beatles and The Beach Boys worn on his sleeve. Indeed, it became almost a cliché to ponder whether ELO were the band that The Beatles might have become had they continued into the 70s, while the surf rock influence of Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks’ seminal ‘Heroes and Villains’ is evident on ELO’s classic Out of The Blue album track Across The Border.  

 In these blogs, we love to remind long-time music fans of gigs they might have seen way back when, here in the days of Truro City Hall or elsewhere across Cornwall’s venues, and indeed some digging around finds ELO in our own much-loved building on 19 July 1973 as part of a mini-tour jaunt around the west country – let us know if you remember that one! And if your concert-going memory stretches further back, tell us about The Move (with Roy Wood and Bev Bevan, but pre-Jeff Lynne) playing Redruth’s Flamingo Club in August ’67… we’d be thrilled to hear about those shows! 

Eventually Lynne and ELO eschewed that famous symphonic sound for the straighter soft rock of the sci-fi concept album Time, a different beast from their A New World Record, Out of the Blue, and Discovery peak, but a new direction, at the time, that has also worn-well over the years. Let’s join the ELO Experience in keeping these wonderful tunes reverberating around our auditorium, for the music ages like a fine wine and never grows old. 

Written by Ian Abrahams

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Live Performance Theatre What's Hot

Ocean At The End Of The Lane Coming to Cornwall in 2023

“Monster-powered adrenaline spectacular” The Guardian

★★★★★
“Theatre at its gob-smacking best” Daily Telegraph

We’re delighted to announce that the National’s incredible genre-bending fantasy THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE is departing it’s West End residency and coming to Hall for Cornwall in September 2023. Tickets will be on sale to members in August 2022.

FIND OUT MORE AND BOOK HERE

Adapted by Joel Horwood from the best-selling novel by Neil Gaiman, this spectacular and thrilling adventure is a theatrical tour de force of imagination and storytelling.

Returning to his childhood home, a man finds himself standing beside the pond of the old Sussex farmhouse where he used to play. He’s transported to his 12th birthday when his friend Lettie claimed it wasn’t a pond, but an ocean…

Plunged into a magical world, their survival depends on their ability to reckon with ancient forces that threaten to destroy everything around them.

Find out more and book here 

Categories
Cornish Roots Events Live Performance Theatre What's Hot

Hall For Cornwall announces world premiere of Fisherman’s Friends The Musical

The first major show to take to the stage of our newly transformed theatre will be the world premiere of Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical.

The brand new production has been revealed as the debut show to tread the boards of our landmark theatre when it reopens later this year following a three-year, multi-million pound redevelopment.

Julien Boast, CEO and Creative Director at Hall for Cornwall said: “We think there’s no better way to raise the curtain on Hall for Cornwall following our major transformation.

Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical is a feel-good story celebrating friendship, community and music, a perfect tonic to lift us from recent events which have impacted all our lives and a great celebration of people, passion and possibilities which are at the heart of our new theatre. The show will form the foundation of our inaugural launch season.”

The musical, which will premiere here in Cornwall later this year, charts the rise of Port Isaac’s famous sea shanty group and their major record deal signed in 2010.

Since then Fisherman’s Friends have performed for Her Majesty the Queen, played Glastonbury’s iconic Pyramid Stage and entertained hundreds of thousands of fans at home and abroad, winning numerous awards along the way.

The musical has been adapted from the 2019 hit film Fisherman’s Friends, which grossed $11.5m worldwide. It will feature many of the much-loved sea shanties made famous by the group, including including Keep Haulin’, Nelson’s Blood, No Hopers Jokers & Rogues, Sweet Maid Of Madeira and many more.

And the show has the blessing of the Fisherman’s Friends themselves with the group saying: “Blimey me, how did that happen! We are so proud that the musical based on our unexpected voyage will be launched down here in the heart of Cornwall.”

Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical will be the first co-production our new in-house producing company, Cornwall Playhouse Productions, produced in association with producers Royo.

The production will be directed by James Grieve (former Joint Artistic Director of Paines Plough and former Associate Director of the Bush Theatre) and written by Brad Birch (Tremor, Black Mountain, The Brink, Gardening for the Unfulfilled and Alienated, The Endless Ocean, Tender Bolus). It is designed by Lucy Osborne with musical supervision from David White.

To be the first to hear when tickets go on sale and announcement of the performance dates, join the mailing list.

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Associate Artists HFC Youth Dance HFC Youth Theatre Live Performance Redevelopment Project Resident Companies

Supporting Artists and the Arts

Supporting Artists and the Arts

by Julien Boast, HFC CEO & Creative Director

Although the theatre is now closed to the public for our exciting and ambitious redevelopment project, our Arts Development team are still very much open for business, continuing to support professional artists and working with schools and young people to bring arts to local communities across Cornwall. Thanks to support from the Arts Council, Cornwall Council and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation, our Arts Development work spans the entire county with opportunities created for individuals to perform and create in diverse theatre spaces including care homes, schools and colleges, village halls, museums, galleries and gardens.

The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. The team have attended the Royal Shakespeare Company Play Making Festival with students from Treviglas, Brannel, Redruth, Humphry Davy, Liskeard & Callington schools performing on the RSC’s main stage; delivered workshops for youngsters from Pondhu and St Breward primary schools and held “end of term” pop up and performance events for our Youth Dance and Theatre Companies at The Burrell Theatre and Perranporth Beach.

As we reflect back on the last 6 months, highlights have included work on 26 Creation Space projects, week long residencies in 17 local venues allowing professional artists to develop and test new work and the staging of Nick Darke’s ‘Hell’s Mouth’ by members of the HFC Youth Theatre, which was critically acclaimed as ‘THE BEST YOUTH THEATRE SHOW EVER SEEN’. Many of the young people taking part in this production have been members of our Youth Theatre for many years, using the opportunity and experience gained with us as a spring board for working with other professional companies or indeed pursuing a career in the arts. This year’s graduation cohort has seen 8 young people go on to either drama or dance schools or studying performance at a higher level.

Talent Development of professional artists is a key focus for us with the team offering mentoring support and encouraging artists to reflect on the work they have done in the past and talk about what they would like to accomplish going forward. Over the last six months, we have supported 160 artists through one to one sessions including our Associate Artists, such as Jethro Compton who is currently The Little Princess in Vienna and Emily Dobson who recently worked as choreographer on WildWorks’ 100: UnEarth at The Lost Gardens of Heligan.

Whilst we continue to prepare our building to hand over to the building team, the Arts Development team will be working tirelessly across the community to ensure that the power of performance can continue to inspire, educate and be enjoyed. Coming to an unusual performance space near you soon……

 

Categories
Live Performance Tribute Performance

ELO at HFC

Posted by Ellie Wilkins

ELO at HFC

On the 19th July 1973, the popular and entertaining band Electric Light Orchestra (ELO) took the stage at Truro City Hall (Hall for Cornwall) as part of their European tour. In the evening at the magnificent City Hall ELO conquered the space and the minds with their symphonic rock songs. The performance included classics, such as “Mr. Blue Sky” and the crowd were pounding their feet and rampant heartbeats to “Don’t Bring Me Down.” Although rock legend and co-founder of ELO, Jeff Lynne remains kicking and vibrant, since 2014 and the reformation of ELO the band has not performed. Even during this tour, the band mainly dominated Lynne’s hometown of Birmingham city. Therefore, their reestablishment did not reach the South West and the city of Truro again.

Nevertheless, Hall for Cornwall rose to the occasion and chose last year, the same year Lynne was conducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, as their opportunity to reconnect ELO with the hearts of the Cornish community. On Thursday 14th September 2017, in the form of ‘ELO Again’, tribute artist Colin Smith and his group of loyal ELO enthusiasts performed as a homage to the enigmatic band. Hall for Cornwall remembers and respects the authenticity of bands and their music. However, is there a difference between a tribute performance and a live band? Is it the person or people an audience come to see or is it the atmosphere and a community of like-minded rock and roll devotees dedicated to the sound? The atmosphere and the passion of the crowd is intoxicating, they are willing to leave their seats in a standing ovation. Let’s hope more tribute acts and live performances grace the stage of the new Hall for Cornwall to retain this addictive and infectious atmosphere to bring colour to your evenings.