It is no secret that theatre in Maximum City is “booming.” There are more troupes, plays, designers, actors, reviews (albeit on line), audiences and spaces than ever before in the theatrical history of our tiny island.

I am not and never have been very much of an academic. Therefore it was with great trepidation that I accepted an invitation last month, from the China Art Academy, to be part of a symposium to help formulate a new “multi-disciplinary art course.”

Dramatised Readings are a strange thing. They are not quite fully mounted productions, and yet are often staged with great intricacy and stylisation.

The other day an actor was complaining that he was feeling not enjoying the roles he was playing, not excited about the work he was doing nor motivated to attend rehearsals

A few months ago I watched Chris Larner recount how he took his ex-wife to Dignitas in Switzerland to complete her wish for “assisted suicide”. The performance entitled An Instinct for Kindness, was gut wrenching. From the first minute you knew what was going to happen and yet he managed to surprise you with the beautifully simple telling of a very personal event.

I was sitting in a theatre in London when I heard two puppets say these words in the hilarious musical Avenue Q.

When I was fresh out of school all I wanted to do was to be an actor, work on stage and hear the applause.

I am an incredibly distracted audience member. I watch a lot, and yet “drift” a lot.

Art has the ability to hit directly at the heart. It can be more powerful than all the speeches and sloganeering because it is emotional.”
Poet-activist Tenzin Tsundue

I have just spent a week in our nation’s capital, and was struck by the key difference between it and my own maximum city – Space.