Tezza's Theatre Place

Scott Le Crass As the pandemic spread, and the country went into lockdown, then out, then back, then out then back, creatives everywhere had to adjust their lives and their modus operandi in order to bring theatre to the people and keep their art alive. One of those who has worked very well in this way is Director  Scott Le Crass , and I recently caught up with him for a chat about theatre in the age of COVID. TE: Welcome along Scott. I’ve just been looking back and the last time we talked was in June 2019 just after the opening of your show  Country Music  at the Omnibus Theatre. That was a successful run, wasn’t it? SLC: Yes, we ran for four weeks. I was quite keen for that to happen as a lot of fringe shows I’d done prior to that had had a maximum run of three weeks and I felt that to make it work and try to attract as much of an audience as possible it made sense to do a longer run. I sort of co-produced that production as well, and with a producing hat on as well, I ...

Scott Le Crass It’s been a great few days for me. Not only did I get to visit the Omnibus Theatre to review Simon Stephens’ excellent one-act play  Country Music  but I also got a chance to have a chat with the show’s Offie and Broadway World Nominated director, Scott Le Crass. I started by asking Scott to tell me a little bit about himself. SLC: I started out as an actor, trained at Arts Ed. A couple of years out I had a change of heart and just wasn’t enjoying it (the acting) anymore, so changed career and spent around 4 years teaching drama. I was directing in the college I was working at and was getting a real taste for it, and I was really enjoying it, so I started to do little projects on the side such as scratch nights, a bit of assisting here and there, and then I left my job and started to work as a freelance director. I’ve been doing this for about six years, doing lots of different stuff. So, I have a show (Elmer for Selladoor) which is a musical for kids us...

In May 2018 I met and interviewed two lovely young theatricals preparing to take their show to the Edinburgh Festival. Their names are Linus Karp and Joseph Martin and the show was  Awkward Conversations with Animals I’ve F*cked . Move forward to April this year and the show is about to open at Islington’s famous King’s Head Theatre and I met up with the guys once more in the wonderful Scandi Kitchen to find out how things had been going. I started by asking about the run in Edinburgh LK: It was good. I did a full run of 25 shows which sold really well. It was really tough, so much hard work as I was doing pretty much everything for the show. I was doing producing, marketing, performing, everything. I’d been to Edinburgh before but only performing so this was completely different. It was a great experience but I don’t think I’d ever do it that way again. JM: Unfortunately I missed all this as I spent the summer with the National Youth Theatre so could only provide moral suppo...

Nick Barstow TE: It isn’t often I get the chance to talk to people known as the creatives in the theatrical family. Usually, everyone concentrates on the actors. Writers, producers, directors etc are often the unsung heroes of theatre but few of them become really well known outside of their community. So when I was offered the chance to interview Nick Barstow – an acclaimed musical director, arranger, composer and vocalist who has won awards and plaudits from all sides for his work, I leapt at the chance. I managed to pin him down to a coffee between shows at the Union Theatre – where he is currently MDing the Offie-nominated  It’s Only Life  for a chat. I started off by asking Nick to tell me about himself. NB: That’s the worst question ever (laugh). So, I’m me, I live in London and I like to say I work in theatre, and then leave it at that. I don’t like to be more specific than that as there is a lot of stuff I enjoy doing and want to do. TE: If I held a gun to your h...

Laura Pitt-Pulford (Melanie), Jonathan Cake (Frank). by Manuel Harlan Job interviews are horrible. It doesn’t matter how many you have been through, they are always terrifying, And these days, the higher the position, the more difficult the interview process. Of course, the important thing is how much do you want the job? And this is where the ultimate interview comes in, which is the subject of Jordi Galceran’s play – translated by Anne García-Romero and Mark St. Germain –  The Grönholm Method  at the Menier Chocolate Factory. On the 11th floor of a Manhattan building sits a small meeting/reception room. It is nicely furnished, with chrome and leather chairs that look good but are, like most corporate offices, prob\bly very uncomfortable. Floor to ceiling windows look out over ‘downtown’ and on a table in the seating area sits four glasses and four bottles of water. Only one chair is currently occupied, and that is by a besuited man called Frank (Jonathan Cake). He is not...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.