Artsmonkey Blog

Okay, so stepping away from the master-classes for a moment. I’ve just seen a preview of Daniel Craigs Brit-film ‘Flashbacks of a Fool’ and am resonating with the title, the story-line, the music and the locations - can’t wait (not that I am or have ever been, I hastily interject, any kind of movie star/ famous actor whose mouth is full of smart words and whose body is full of s****). My facebook friend Doug McFarlane, of UK Theatre Network and creator of ‘Making it in Hollywood’ sent me a message yesterday bemoaning the complete absence of British films at the Cannes Film Festival for the second year running (Frankly, if Sean Penn is the chair of the judges panel - should we be surpised?) Doug asks are we making good enough films in Britain ? Is the UK Film Council doing enough are we being too complacent? (see also www.britfilms.com) Probably. It should be easier to make a film in the UK - the Film Agency for Wales are busy blazing a trail - what’s to be done? Obviously it would be nice if all our acting talent didn’t trot off to LA for a better lifestyle and a living wage but then America’s bigger, the film industry older and more established, more varied with more choice and more money. Oh I don’t know I’ll have a good think about it whilst I’m watching ‘Flashbacks…’ at least I think I will, Daniel Craig is rather mesmeric on screen





Last September, to celebrate the achievements of the first two years of the Art Award we launched a season of master classes across the south east. Recently I was invited via facebook to join the group ‘masterclass’ set up by the Theatre Royal, Haymarket and if you haven’t visited the masterclass website and are interested in theatre then I urge you to do so: www.masterclass.org.uk. It’s the way forward, giving aspiring young theatre practitioners (or actors and directors and writers, ‘creatives’ perhaps would be a good word) the opportunity to listen and meet ‘face-to-face’ in a thriving, professional working environment (as opposed to the sometimes more precious environs of drama school) with some of theatre’s heavy weights. These ‘down with the techno-theatre bods’ have also produced a useful DVD for aspiring drama students AND there is a link to their ‘rehearsal blog’ featuring video-casts of said rehearsals for the musical Margueritte starring Ruthie Henshall. Masterclasses may seem an old fashioned concept but mixed with some creative interactivity can be inspiring and affirming experiences. Here’s an extract from an article about our first master class last year: What do I do when I have to stop dancing? The basis for offering a master class was to build on an Arts Award national poll, where in the south the top ten names included admirable but largely dead artists such as Leonardo Da Vinci, Bob Dylan, Jane Austen and Peter Kay (obviously he’s still with us) as the nations favourite Arts Heroes and Heroines. The challenge being to attempt to ground the current thirst for quick fix fame and fortune and offer some balance against the desire to worship celebrity ‘idols’ rather than appreciate and value our gifted grass roots ‘artists’.
Our launch event at Brighton Dome featured a ‘creative industries panel’ where young people had the opportunity to learn more about the wider creative industries sector led by young people from Peer Productions in Woking, some of whom were amongst the first to achieve their Gold Awards in the South East and where participants got to meet face to face with people who had a proven track record in their careers and could demonstrate for example, that once you can no longer work as a dancer there are other opportunities open to you. Stars of that event were: Dave Philpot from Skint Record Label who came with freebies (smart move Dave) and John Manning, Freelance Casting Director who just about managed to escape with his integrity intact from the question, “so if I haven’t been to Drama School would you consider me for casting?”. (more…)