Darke and Dazzling nights at HfC This Week!

We're gearing up for a busy and exciting week here!  Our Darke Festival, celebrating the work of the late Cornish playwriter Nick Darke opens on Tuesday with a rehearsed reading of "Never Say Rabbit in a Boat".  Darke Nights comes to the stage on Sunday 24th - an evening of dance performed by young people from around the county.  This promises to be a great showcase of young talent brought to stage in a partnership between Hall for Cornwall, KEAP and The Works.  Darke Visions, a show involving young people from a wide selection of Cornwall's secondary schools can be seen the following night on Monday 25th.

We're also hosting two very big names this week!  Rick Wakeman is coming for an evening of music and "grumpy humour" on Thursday 21st.  Always a popular visitor to Hall for Cornwall, Rick's combination of sharp wit and music make for a highly entertaining evening.

On Friday and Saturday, the glamour of the ballroom comes to town as Brendan Cole's "Live and Unjudged" show promises two days of supurb dance.  Despite a "Bad Boy" image on Strictly (mostly the symptom of a perfectionist I've always thought), Brendan's dancing talent and ability is universally recognised.  The show has been well received by critics thus far:

"Far from being one man's excuse to be self-indulgent, the show was a fun celebration of dance and music with five professional dancers including Scott Cole (Brendan's brother – proving rhythm runs in the Cole family's genes), an  impressive live band and two talented singers thrown into the mix." - Julia Bennett

Weekly Bulletin

It's been an "interesting" start to 2010 here at Hall for Cornwall.  Whilst Truro itself has missed most of the bad weather there has inevitably been some impact on staff attendance and understandable concerns from the public about shows they have booked tickets to see.

The first piece of good news is that we were able to reschedule another performance with Johnny Cowling on Feb 17th.  Anyone who was too snowed in to attend on the 7th can return their tickets to Hall for Cornwall within the next 7 days and alternate tickets for the 17th Feb can be issued.  Of course, this also offers people a chance to catch him if they didn't have tickets to this week's show which is an added bonus!  Johnny is always a popular visitor to the Hall so we're pleased to be seing more of him!

The next show, is the much acclaimed and unforgettable Circus of Horrors (see previous blog post).  We are definitely looking forward to this show as it is always a great spectacle.

From Wednesday of next week you can chase away the winter blues with the "King" of Rock and Roll with Lee "Memphis" King taking to the stage as Elvis in an evening packed with of his most famous, and popular, music.

We wish all our blog readers a safe and warm weekend!

Behind the scenes - panto report!

Rehearsals for Jack and the Beanstalk are now in full swing and I was lucky enough this morning to be able to watch a full run through of Act 1 of what promises to be a very entertaining family show.

I'm not going to give too much away but I can promise you that the show is very entertaining with some great musical numbers from the cast.  A few topical, and local, jokes have been seemlessly worked in to firmly place the show in Cornwall but this is fairytale land at its best.

It is very encouraging to see the entire act running through non-stop, complete with music.  It's possible to get a good sense of how the show is going to look on opening night now though rehearsals don't start here at Hall for Cornwall until early next week.

It's fair to say that 98% percent of this morning's run-through went smoothly.  This type of rehearsal quickly highlights issues for the director and stage crew to iron out and there were a couple of these that will be worked on.  A quick costume-change, for instance, that saw an entire scene acted by a headless-cow!

Beyond such practical matters, though, the rehearsals are now at a stage where the director can get a sense for the overall shape of the performance and begin to fine-tune all aspects of the audience experience.  It's impressive to see how much is already in place, in terms of dance routines, songs, lines and delivery but the process is far from over and a lot of work will go in to the final run-up to opening night.

Speaking to Richard, who plays Dame Trott, it seems that the cast are very much enjoying the experience so far.  There is certainly a lot of energy, and laughter, going into the business of getting Jack and the Beanstalk to the stage.

I asked Richard about the stage here at Hall for Cornwall - specifically how it compared with other performance spaces he'd performed in.

"It's huge," he replied. "You do cover the stage as you would in a smaller venue but you have to speed up a bit!"  Richard also explained that Hall for Cornwall is, despite its stage size, a fairly intimate venue for performances. "You feel quite intimate with the audience. You can see all the way to the back."  This type of connection is particularly helpful for panto where audience interaction is very much part of the performance.

We'll be visiting the cast in rehearsal again next week as they have their first session here on site, complete with the set.

THIS WEEK!

The English Touring Theatre bring their production of The Grapes of Wrath to Hall for Cornwall this week.  Headed by Christopher Timothy, Sorcha Cusack and Oliver Cotton this production received two Tony Awards on Broadway and has been well received by reviewers in the national press during its tour.

Grapes of Wrath opens tonight and runs until Saturday with evening performances starting at 7.30pm.  matinees are on Thursday and Saturday from 2.30pm.

Stage Door will definitely bring you more news on this production as the week goes on!

For seat availability and online booking click HERE