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Home / News / Tagged: theatre amateur

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Andie MacDowell: Self-Confidence Is The Greatest Gift

Teaching your children self-belief and self-confidence is the greatest gift you can give them, according to Hollywood A-lister Andie MacDowell.

In a Daily Mail piece, the actress said that when she was 20 she struggled to find work as a model and her self-belief took a hit, with her acting dreams seeming a very long way off at that time. Her confidence hit an all-time low after she landed an acting job but someone else's voice was dubbed over hers in post-production.

"Faced with rejection, you have two options: believe you're no good and give up or prove yourself. I chose the latter ... It's easy for young women to feel disempowered and worry they aren't good enough. I never wanted my girls, or my son, to ever feel like that," she wrote.

If you're concerned that your children are lacking in self-confidence or self-belief, why not sign them up for a few acting lessons at a drama school in London. After only a few classes, your youngsters will really come out of their shells and any nerves will have completely disappeared. There's nothing quite like getting up on stage and acting the part of someone else to really give you a boost in confidence, after all.

To find out more about how children could benefit from taking acting lessons, get in touch with us at City Acting. We'll be able to advise you on the best classes for your child to take and have a range of different workshops that are sure to suit.

Ian McKellen & Patrick Stewart In UK Theatre Tour

Now’s your chance to take a few acting lessons from some of the greats of our time. The X-Men stars Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart have confirmed that they’ll be taking Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land off on a UK tour this summer, stopping off at Sheffield, Newcastle, Brighton and Cardiff before setting up shop at Wyndham’s theatre in London in September.

No Man’s Land is an absurdist play written in 1974, debuting at the Old Vic Theatre in London before transferring to Wyndham’s. It tells the tale of two writers (Hirst, a successful poet, and Spooner, a failed one) who meet at a pub on Hampstead Heath and go back to Hirst’s impressive home. Despite his successes, Hirst has not been published for quite some time and finds himself trapped in no man’s land. Ultimately, the play is about the inevitability of old age and the emptiness that this stage of life can bring.

According to the Guardian, over 100 tickets to see McKellen and Stewart in the play will be available for between £10 and £20, which certainly strikes us as something of a bargain not to be missed.

Apparently, Patrick Stewart saw the original production of the play at Wyndham’s back in 1975 (starring John Gielgud and Ralph Richardson) and he liked it so much he went to see it twice more in the same week, saying: “[I] would have seen it more if I could have afforded the tickets. I made a promise to myself that one day I would play Spooner or Hirst, but to be doing it back at Wyndham’s with Ian McKellen was a fantasy I never entertained.”

Will you be going to see it? Make sure you let us know what you think of the production.

City Acting Amateur Theatre Group Presents Pinter’s Betrayal

This week on Thursday March 17th the City Acting students will play Harold Pinter’s Betrayal at Claremont Project in Angel. During this performance night, the students will present their work to their friends and families. Our drama students are looking forward to the performance. Under the direction of Russell Bolam, the group has rehearsed for 10 consecutive weeks.

The Amateur Theatre course is based on a chosen script and gives the opportunity to the actors to explore the theatrical context of the play, to work on characterization and text analysis, but also to learn about staging and actor-audience relationship.

Written in 1978, The Betrayal was inspired by Pinter’s own extramarital affair with BBC presenter Joan Bakewell. Very innovative was the usage of reverse chronology which structures the plot. The play opens after the affair between Jerry and Emma has ended. The following scenes introduce the audience with their respective spouses Judith and Robert, and the relationships that unite them all.

Nobel-prize winner Harold Pinter (10 October 1930-24 December 2008) is critically regarded as one of the most influential British dramatists. The Betrayal features his characteristically economical dialogue, character’s hidden emotions and veiled motivations.

Run 3 times a year in September, January and April, the Amateur Theatre course has been prepared as a follow on from City Acting Scene Work for Intermediates. It is open to anyone familiar working with text and no audition is required. Each course is based on a different play. The registration are now open online for David Mamet’s Sexual Perversity in Chicago starting on Thursday April 7th.

When Are The Oscars 2016?

It’s not long to go until the Oscars 2016, an exciting date for all of you theatre amateurs out there who can’t get enough of the stage and silver screen.

Oscar Sunday is taking place this year on February 28th on ABC, with stars starting to tread the red carpet from 19:00 Eastern Time and the actual ceremony kicking off at 20:30 Eastern Time.

So who do you think will walk away with one of those little gold statues this year? The nominees include Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender and Eddie Redmayne for best actor in a leading role.

The nominees for best actress in a leading role, meanwhile, are Cate Blanchett, Brie Larson, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlotte Rampling and Saoirse Ronan.

And the best film nominees are The Big Short, Bridge of Spies, Brooklyn, Mad Max: Fury Road, Bring Him Home, The Revenant, Room and Spotlight.

This year’s Oscars event has been caught up in some controversy, however, with claims of whitewashing abounding, given the fact that no people of colour have been nominated for acting awards – for the second year in a row. Follow the debate on this issue online under the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.

Because of this apparent race row, it would seem that some big Hollywood A-listers are planning on boycotting the red carpet. Ethan Hawke is calling on his fellow actors to avoid the event, while Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith have both now said that they won’t be there. Jada even went so far as to publish a video revealing just why she won’t be in attendance.