British Theatre Guide Podcast

Playwright Fin Kennedy was thrust into the heart of the debate about arts funding when he produced a report—called In Battalions, a title taken from a quote from Hamlet—with professional researcher Helen Campbell Pickford into the effects of cuts in public funding to theatres on their production of and development of new writing. In this episode, Fin talks about the origins of the report in a conversation he had with UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries Ed Vaisey and about its findings, as well as speculating on how this will continue to affect the theatre sector and on the motivations behind cutting an area of the UK budget so small that it will have a barely-noticeable effect on the UK deficit. Fin Kennedy is an award-winning playwright and theatre blogger whose plays are produced in the UK and US. In the UK, he has written for Soho Theatre, Sheffield Crucible, Southwark Playhouse, Half Moon Theatre, The Red Room, Birmingham Rep and BBC Radio 4. Fin also has many years’ experience

Sarah Brigham talks to BTG Midlands Editor Steve Orme about taking the reigns of Derby Theatre as its first artistic director since University of Derby took over the lease of the troubled former Derby Playhouse and succeeded in obtaining Arts Council funding for it in 2012. The first homegrown production from the new Derby Theatre is Lee Hall's Cooking With Elvis, and Steve talks to director Mark Babych and actor Jack Lord about the production. Babych, who was artistic director of the Octagon Theatre in Bolton for ten years, also talks about his recently-announced appointment as artistic director of Hull Truck Theatre, a post he takes up immediately after finishing work on this production.

Stephen Barlow, artistic director of the Buxton Festival which combines rarely-seen opera with live music and literature, talks about this year's event and about the history of the festival, which has been running in the small Derbyshire town in the Peak District since 1979. For more information, see www.buxtonfestival.co.uk or ring the box office on 0845 127 2190 or 01298 72190.

Playwright Tim Fountain and director Mike Bradwell talk about Queen of the Nile, a production they have worked on together for Hull Truck Theatre. Fountain is best known for his controversial plays such as Sex Addict (Royal Court), Resident Alien (Bush Theatre), Dandy in the Underworld and Julie Burchill Is Away (Soho Theatre). Bradwell founded Hull Truck in 1972, but hasn't directed for it for more than 30 years. He has also been artistic director of The Bush, one of London's leading new writing theatres. Queen of the Nile will run from 18 April to 11 May 2013 at Hull Truck Theatre. For more information, see www.hulltruck.co.uk or call the box office on 01482 323638.

Associate Puppetry Director Tommy Luther talks about the first ever UK tour of the National Theatre hit production of War Horse, based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo, and about his involvement in the production since the early workshops in 2007. Recorded at The Lowry in Salford, where the production will spend Christmas and New Year 2013-4 on its longest run of the tour. For more information about the production, see the War Horse On Stage web site.

Announcements of the theatre events in the 2013 programme for the Manchester International Festival from Festival director Alex Poots and some of the artists involved. Featured on the podcast are actor Maxine Peake, director Josie Rourke, Belgian director Inne Goris, actor Kenneth Branagh and director Rob Ashford.

Playwright Amanda Whittington talks about her career and her writing process and about three new plays she has opening in the next twelve months: The Thrill of Love opens at the New Vic, Newcastle-under-Lyme from 22 February to 9 March before moving to the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough from 13 to 23 March and the St James Theatre in London from 27 March to 4 May. The Dugout from Splice Productions will be at the Tobacco Factory in Bristol in May. My Judy Garland Life will open at Nottingham Playhouse at the beginning of 2014.

Indhu Rubasingham talks about her first season and upcoming plans as artistic director of London's Tricycle Theatre, which she took over in May 2012 from Nicolas Kent, who had run the Kilburn venue for 28 years.

Manchester's Library Theatre Company, currently without a permanent performance home since moving out of Central Library and not due to move into its joint new home with Cornerhouse cinema until 2014, is taking advantage of its temporary residency at The Lowry's Quays Theatre with a major new revival of Brecht's Mother Courage and her Children, translated by Tony Kushner. Lead actress Eve Polycarpou, composer and musical director Greg Palmer and director Chris Honer talk about the production.

Midlands editor Steve Orme talks to actress Tara Fitzgerald, known to TV viewers as Dr Eve Lockhart in Waking the Dead and The Body Farm and for the US TV series Game of Thrones, about her Royal Shakespeare Company debut playing Hermione in The Winter's Tale.

Andrew Quick of Imitating the Dog talks about the company's methods and interests, and gives some details about the forthcoming tours of its two new productions: The Zero Hour and 6 Degrees Below the Horizon. The tour dates are: Wednesday 30th - Thursday 31st January: Live at LICA, Lancaster (The Zero Hour) Wednesday 6th - Thursday 7th February: Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield, UK (6 Degrees Below the Horizon) Friday 8th - Saturday 9th February: Warwick Arts Centre (The Zero Hour) Tuesday 12th February: Axis Arts Centre, Crewe (6 Degrees Below the Horizon) Thursday 14th - Saturday 16th February: West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds (The Zero Hour) Tuesday 26th - Wednesday 27th March: Exeter Northcott Theatre (6 Degrees Below the Horizon) Thursday 9th May: Contact, Manchester (6 Degrees Below the Horizon)

Ben Roddy is an experienced pantomime performer and, in his 15th season, he takes on the role of Dame for the first time. Simon Sladen speaks to him about his theatrical career and playing Nurse Nellie in this year's Sleeping Beauty at the Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury.

David Chadderton talks to Barrie Rutter, artistic director of Northern Broadsides Theatre Company in Halifax, about the forthcoming national tour of Rutherford and Son by Githa Sowerby directed by Jonathan Miller in which Rutter plays the title role.

Philip Fisher talks to The Village Voice's chief theatre critic Michael Feingold on New Year's Eve 2012 about the past year's theatre in New York.

Susannah Flood stars in Nina Raine’s Tribes—originally produced at the Royal Court Theatre in London in 2010—at Barrow Street Theatre, New York and talks about the difficulties of playing a character losing her hearing and learning sign language in three weeks.

2012 marks Simon Fielding's sixth pantomime for the Towngate Theatre, Basildon. A pantomime producer, performer, director and choreographer, Fielding speaks to Simon Sladen about his pantomime career.

Richard Vergette's play American Justice, set in an American prison against the backdrop of the Obama administration, began life as an hourlong piece called As We Forgive Them as part of Manchester's annual new writing event 24:7 Theatre Festival. Under its new title and with a cast of three—Peter Tate, Ryan Gage and David Schaal—the play opens for a limited run at the Arts Theatre in London's West End in January 2013. Vergette talks to David Chadderton about the background to the play's development and the issues that it tries to highlight. For more information, see www.americanjusticetheplay.com or www.artstheatrewestend.co.uk.

On the day of its opening at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, David Chadderton speaks to some of the principal cast members of Disney's The Lion King, currently on its first ever UK tour. We speak to Carole Stennett who plays Nala, Nicholas Nkuna who plays Simba, Stephen Carlile who plays Scar and Gugwama Dlamini who plays Rafiki.

Kevin Shaw, artistic director of the Coliseum Theatre in Oldham, talks about the long tradition of acclaimed panto at the theatre and the well-known panto performers who honed their craft there. As director and co-writer (with regular dame Fine Time Fontayne) of the pantos for the last few years, Shaw talks about the writing and production process and the origins of some of the stories and routines that they use.

Philip Fisher interviews James Graham ahead of the transfer of his Evening Standard nominated political drama This House to the Olivier Theatre. In addition to discussing British politics in the second half of the 1970s, the conversation also looks into what it takes for a young writer to make it to the National, the joys of working at the Finborough and James Graham's career to date.