With all the build-up and enthusiasm for dance performances during IDFB I feel well and truly ready for BE Festival 2014. Having not personally attended BE Festival before I was a little unsure of what to expect, and so took the opportunity to visit the 2014 launch at Birmingham Rep on the 16^th April. I was quickly immersed into a world of acting, exciting workshops and performers.

BE Festival has been hosted in Birmingham since 2010 after responding to an Arts Council-hosted conference entitled, ‘The Challenge of Change: How can we make a better future for theatre, here in the West Midlands?’ in 2009.

5 years on, the realised dream of BE Festival still continues. Having invited performers from 11 different countries to take part in this years’ amazing selection of 22 performances, the festival has already attracted a large following.

This year The Rep will open their doors to BE Festival, with the main stage itself set to feature a pop-up restaurant. There they will be serving delicious interval dinners to artists and audiences so that they can have an opportunity to eat together each evening. The menus include vegetarian options and advance bookings for this are now available through box-office.

You’ll now be able to see all of the wonderful events planned which include visual arts and talks, workshops, performances and even musical post-show events, finishing with an Awards Party on the 12th of July.

Even better, if you’d like a chance to be involved with BE Festival, meeting the performers and organisers behind the action then you might be interested in their volunteering opportunities. Open until the 12^th of May, volunteering opportunities with BE Festival also include 6 positions for aspiring stage managers/technicians to form part of the Production Team.

If you would like to volunteer please send an email detailing your interest, any relevant skills, experience and CV to emmahalsteadbe@gmail.com. Volunteers will be needed in May and then throughout June and July.

For the full 2014 programme please see HERE.

At the Town Hall there’s traditionally a silent film from the horror genre with live organ accompaniment by Nigel Ogden. This year it is Der Golem (1915), described as “a crucial work in the development of the horror movie”.

Classic 1973 horror The Wicker Man is screening at Stirchley pub The British Oak, part of the Stirchley Happenings.

For an alternative to horror films there’s a spoken-word event at Six Eight Kafé. ‘All Hallow’s Read’ from Pigeon Park Press is an evening of open-mic fiction and poetry.

For something completely unrelated to Halloween ‘The Best of BE Festival’ is a touring triple-bill of short theatre pieces, selected from the BE Festival which took place in Birmingham earlier this year. This evening it will be performed at The Public in West Bromwich.

I reckon that looks really rather good. It’s 2-8 July at AE Harris and MAC and, if memory serves, tickets tend to sell out so don’t hang about too long if you’re thinking of booking.

Capital Theatre Festival

This one kicks off this week, running from 24-27 May, The festival’s director, Catherine Edwards, has sent me this quick summary of what’s on:

• A play about vampires that’s nothing like Twilight
• A chance to chat about theatre over several pots of tea
• On Call sessions with the Arts Council and BE Festival about artistic development
• A play in the upstairs toilets
• Input from Stan’s Cafe, Birmingham Rep, Soho Theatre, 24:7 Festival, Theatre 503, Ovalhouse, RSC
• A Polarbear that’s not a bear at all
• An Olympic extravaganza from Talking Birds
• A journey from the Tyne Bridge to the Isle of Scilly

…and some other things. The website is at capitalplays.co.uk and the full brochure is here.

BE Festival 2012

The third (I think) incarnation of this festival, which presents performances from companies drawn from all over Europe, has just announced it’s programme for this year. This one’s happening the first week of July.

The idea with these things is to introduce next year’s artists to Birmingham and vice versa. There are a few Fierce stalwarts and returning names in the 2011-2012 caravan but plenty of new faces too. Because I’m too lazy to type them all out and too impatient to wait for them to appear online, here’s the list of names:

I arrived in time to have a bit of a natter with some people, watch some archery (BE Festival‘s Miguel winning the competition there) and see a balloon-festooned woman dosed up on sleeping pills who had quite literally danced until she’d dropped. The usual kind of Fierce thing then.

I should probably have got down a bit earlier to catch some more stuff but that’s the problem with these ‘4pm til late’ things – it’s hard to tell when to turn up to catch the action. Still, there was plenty on display around the venue. I particularly liked the look of what Ron Athey will be cooking up – something to do with automatic writing.

In conclusion: Excellent and I’m looking forward to seeing how some of the embryonic ideas presented will turn out in 9 months time.

(Photo is Endeavour Space Shuttle Blastoff by jurvetson)

Thankfully Heath Mill Studios have written up 3/4 of it already, so here’s a digest:

Digbeth triple launch

At 5pm, Heath Mill Studios are opening their doors for the first time and Bay Leaf, a new Bangladeshi restaurant in the Custard Factory, are providing the food – I think this counts as their launch too.

At 8pm everyone’s going to leg it over to The Rainbow for the BASS Festival launch. Ghostpoet‘s performing and he’s meant to be good.

BE at the mac**

If theatre’s your thing then the BE Festival is launching at the MAC tonight with various things and stuff happening there. The festival itself doesn’t start for a good few weeks, but you can’t knock the enthusiasm to get started.

On top of all of that

They’re not launching anything, but Yo La Tengo, Welsh National Opera and Doc Brown are all in town (not all on the same bill, more’s the pity). Aren’t we lucky to live somewhere with so much stuff going on? Yes, we are.

(* not everything)
(** see what I did there?)

We have secured an enormous amount of support-in-kind from the major Birmingham arts organisations but we are facing a £2000 cash shortfall to be able to fully realise the 2011 edition in its current form. Your help will give the next generation of UK and European performing artists a platform to show, explore and develop their work

Go chip in a bit of cash if you can.

This time, as well as the main programme at AE Harris, the MAC will be used for a launch party, some shows for children and some work-in-progress.

The press release I received included this plea:

Anyone interested in getting involved in any way with BE FESTIVAL should visit the website www.befestival.org or e-mail info@befestival.org. The deadline for artists’ applications is 29 April.

Tickets will be £10 per night, or £35 for a four day festival pass but I don’t think they’re on sale quite yet. Or, if you volunteer to host a visiting artist, you get a freebie. Can’t say fairer than that.

On Saturday night I took a couple of (out of town) friends to AE Harris for the Birmingham European Theatre Festival. We turned up a bit late so only managed to catch the last piece – one which would’ve been a fantastic spoof on art student theatre if it wasn’t for the fact they were taking themselves seriously.

Serves us right for turning up late – I’m told some of the earlier suff was ace. The night wasn’t over though, with a reasonably-priced bar, music from the TG Collective (in the rather dark pic above), some last-night awards handed to the companies that had performed, the results of the singing workshop from earlier in the day (audio below) and, as reported on Stan’s Cafe’s blog, music and dancing till dawn.

Despite some worries about ticket sales in the weeks beforehand, the last couple of nights of the festival were pretty much sold out and the various theatre companies who had come to the city seemed to have enjoyed themselves, with much talk of returning next year.

There was a fantastic atmosphere and my friends went away impressed with the sort of thing that Birmingham gets up to, so well done all who were involved. As Graeme rightly comments:

It was worth being there for the sense of gathering alone

One last thing – it was a little odd to see AE Harris decked out as a ‘proper’ theatre but it scrubs up rather well. I’ve seen it used for all sorts of things since it opened – 24HR Scalextric, launch parties, a Christmas party, filled with rice by Stan’s Cafe and filled with detritus (including upturned cars) by Kindle Theatre. It fills a very important and individual gap in a city that’s not blessed with mid-size venues, so it’s encouraging to hear that discussions are ongoing to keep the place open past the initial lease.