lee hall

We’re delighted to be back for a second season of the podcast. 

Each episode takes a look at a different aspect of the wonderful world of amateur theatre and features an amateur theatre maker talking about their theatrical life, theatrical loves, and the times when they’ve ‘died’ on stage. 

Our Backstage Pass feature takes us behind the scenes at The Crescent Theatre, Birmingham to discover more about what goes into making a great amateur production. 

This month’s episode is a little bit different as we lift the lid on some of backstage business that goes on in not one, but two, forthcoming productions at the Crescent. 

John O’Neill will be talking to actor and musician Hugh Blackwood about his life and loves in amateur theatre.

Meanwhile Luke and Liz will be taking a look behind the scenes of the catchily titled musical ‘I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change’ and the Tudor romcom ‘Shakespeare in Love’, adapted for the stage by Lee Hall from the 1998 film of the same name.  

In this episode we find out about the true story that inspired Lee Hall’s play The Pitmen Painters, which tells the tale of the Ashington Group: a group of coal miners who became well-known artists. We’ll be interviewing Karen Kelly, who is a voice coach, actor and production assistant, to find out about her life and loves in amateur theatre, and her experience of teaching accents and dialects. This month, John will be going behind the scenes on the Crescent Theatre’s forthcoming production The Pitmen Painters and will be finding out about being an artist pretending to be a miner who becomes an artist.

Midt i firsernes minearbejder strejke, i et arbejderkvarter, hvor drenge går til boksning og piger til ballet, finder Billy sin egen vej til en drøm om at søge ind i dansens magiske univers.

Billy Elliot (2000) er instrueret af Stephen Daldry og skrevet af Lee Hall. I den engelske minearbejder by Durham tager 11 årige Billy Elliot (Jamie Bell) sig af sin senile bedstemor, mens han far Jackie (Gary Lewis) og store broderen Tony (Jamie Draven) er aktive i den lokale minearbejderstrejke. Efter skole går Billy til boksning, men da balletpigerne en dag skal træne i samme sal som boksedrengene bliver Billy interesseret i at dase ballet. Danselærerinden Sandra Wilkinson (Julie Walters) tager ham under sin vinge og ser hans potentiale.

Lyt med til en samtale i Det Gule Værelse, hvor værterne Thomas og Morten tager en snak om boksning, ballet, kønsroller og om at finde det man brænder for.