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.

The Rep – The Final Curtain

The Rep’s closing for a couple of years while they finish off the new library (which will integrate with the Rep to a fair degree). They’ll be touring around venues across Birmingham but before then they held one last little event. Joanne Malin hosted and Polarbear had written a piece for the audience to perform with some help from performers from the Young Rep.

It was short, sweet and good, wholesome fun and a nice way to see off the current place.

They were doing backstage tours after that but we didn’t have time for that because we wanted to go and see…

Birmingham Hippodrome – (re)Stretch

This was ace. I went to a little preview on Friday night and it was so good I went back on Saturday. (re)Stretch answers the question ‘how much fun would it be to string up 8 miles(!) of fine elastic to make a 10 metre-wide screen and then project things on to it and make it make noise too?’. The answer is, of course ‘very fun’, especially as you’re encouraged to get involved and play with the thing.

At the preview on Friday a couple of dancers cavorted in and around the piece (it’s presented in association with DanceXchange), which was lovely, but they were no match for the unrestrained glee shown by a class of young ballet dancers on Saturday when they were let loose on it.

It’s free and it’s there until Sunday 16 January. Martin Pickard’s taken some lovely pics from the Friday which you can see in this slideshow:

The Old Rep – The Firework Maker’s Daughter

We managed to score some tickets to this at the last minute, leading to the admission that I’d never actually been to the Old Rep before. It’s a good place and the staff were very nice and friendly. The show itself (written by Philip Pullman) was more kiddy-friendly than the sort of thing I’m used to (this was the Christmas show, after all) but it was entertaining enough – the elephant costumes were ace and it had a good energy about it.

Also on a theatrical tip

• Stan’s Cafe are doing an earlybird ticket offer for The Cleansing of Constance Brown at AE Harris from 1 to 19 March
• The first show of The Rep’s next peripatetical two years is The Rememberers on 4 February, also at AE Harris. It’s a ‘classic tale of good versus evil, told through rap narration, lyrics, projection, music and graphic novel illustration’ which sounds good to me

Round these parts The Drum, The Rep and Hippodrome have offers. Looking a little wider there are offers at Warwick Arts Centre, Belgrade Theatre, Playbox Theatre and the RSC.

Following the one-off live event back in January before part of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre was demolished, Soul City Arts in association with mac and The REP presents Mohammed Ali’s Writing On The Wall – The Documentary.

Taking place 3 September, 4-7pm at the mac, the event will screen the documentary, plus live performances and a Q&A session with Writing On The Wall artists: Mohammed Ali, Zena Edwards, Amir Sulaiman, Dreadlock Alien and Jonzi-D.

Pete Ashton will also be on hand, chairing a panel discussion on the topic of ‘Creative collaboration – the way forward for cross-cultural arts and public engagement in B’ham?’

Take a peek at the documentary trailer, which we posted up a few weeks ago.

Tickets can be booked at www.macarts.co.uk, and are £5 / £3 concessions. This also gives you entry to a bonus event the following day: In Conversation with Amir Sulaiman & Performance, at The Hubb.

Following critical acclaim from Edinburgh Festival, 2010 Scotsman Fringe First Award Winner ‘My Romantic History’ is honeymooning at the The Rep from 1 to 11 September.

If you haven’t met someone by the time you graduate, you’re going to marry some idiot from your work. It’s that simple. Do you know how they get animals to breed in captivity? They put them in the same cage.

Tickets are £10 with concessions available, and you can buy online from The Rep’s website.