Twilightofthefreakingods is Stan’s Cafe’s celebration of five wonderful years @ A E Harris. It’s a large scale theatrical experiment taking place this Thursday and Saturday (Saturday event sold out), with a cast comprising of companies who have performed @ A E Harris over the last five years. There will be no rehearsals, and the cast will work from instructions and timetables given to them, with no idea what anyone else in the room will be doing – sure to result in surprises for the cast and audience alike.

As the show is both a celebration and unusually long, the bar will be open throughout serving flaming cocktails alongside snacks and more familiar drinks. Both cabaret and raked seating will be available for you to either engross yourself in the show or discuss it as it unfolds with your friends. You can change your viewing angle whenever you wish to concentrate on whatever strand of action you find most absorbing. Whatever happens it will be an event to which you will always want to say “and I was there”.

Twilightofthefreakingods will be the last performance at the venue before it ‘downsizes’.

Read more and buy tickets via Stan’s Cafe’s website.

Capital Theatre Festival have announced the first two productions for their 2013 programme of events:

The Disappearance of Sadie Jones

UGLY DUCK!

From Capital Theatre Festival:

We are very excited to be supporting these plays from two West Midlands-based writers. Keep your eyes peeled for further news in the next couple of weeks

The festival will be taking place between 20th and 24th November at the mac. Like their facebook page / follow their Twitter to read more performing arts/theatre news in the area, as well as to keep an eye on their own festival updates.

On the 19th and 20th July there will be free outdoor theatre performances of ‘After The Event‘ in Northfield’s Price’s Square.

“Seven people, Seven stories. One ending. Shame, Fear, Innocence, Justice, Hope, Denial and Loss. Seven peas in a pod. Not their real names, but for the purpose of this story, are so.”

Follow this group of friends as they experience unemployment, debt, bereavement, career paths, passion and so much more in this theatre piece on Price’s Square, Northfield High St.

Entertainment starts at 7pm and Saturday matinee at 12 noon. Performances 8pm and 1pm (Sat). Admission Free.

More information on the After The Event wordpress page.

BE Festival 2013, 2nd-6th July.

Starting tomorrow: a week long theatre/dance/circus/live art festival at AE Harris Factory in the Jewellery Quarter.

BE FESTIVAL is Birmingham’s international theatre festival, bringing together the most daring and unforgettable new performances from across Europe. Audiences are offered the opportunity to see four 30 minute-long shows each night and to eat dinner with the performers in the interval. It’s a unique format that enables you to experience and engage with the wide diversity of European theatre. Furthermore, each show is designed to delight and inspire people no matter what language they speak.

Have a look through their programme to find out more about what to expect over the next week for BE Festival.

Birmingham’s Rep Theatre are looking to help cultivate and collaborate with the next generation of theatre makers in the local area as part of their new Artist Development Programme, REP Foundry. They want to hear from Writers, Directors, Theatre Makers and Companies to work on a number of projects that will start in early 2013, with Foundry Nights that will give them a chance to test and experiment with their work.

There is so much to this outstanding opportunity, so I’ll let the REP explain it better with some info from the Foundry Page:

New stories, new voices and new visions of the world. As The REP moves into the next phase in its remarkable history it is looking for emerging directors, writers, theatre makers and companies from across the West Midlands to make the journey with them. Offering a new, yearlong development programme, REP Foundry, will support artists through workshops, making and sharing work and professional mentoring. Information on how to apply is available from the Download Panel on this page.

REP Foundry will also offer audiences a unique insight into how new theatre is formed and staged at scratch performance nights. Be the first to see work from REP Foundry artists throughout 2013.

REP Foundry Nights will take place on the last Thursday of the month at 8.00pm on the following dates:

28 February at The Old Rep Theatre and then at The Edge, Digbeth on 28 March, 25 April, 30 May, 27 June, 25 July 

The deadline to be one of the artists contributing to Foundry is 6pm Friday 9th November 2012.

Here is a link to the document that gives all you need to know about applying.

Head over to the the Rep Foundry site for a little look around what else is going on.

“The 48 Hour Musical project is this crazy thing where a bunch of writers, composers, performers, directors, designers and musicians all get together and give themselves just 48 solid hours to write, produce and perform a brand new musical. There’s no pre-planning of the show at all, other than to make sure there’s the pressure of an audience waiting at the end of it. So, within reason, pretty much anything could happen.”

They are looking for funding to make their idea happen. They’ve set up a kickstarter style sponsor page where you can read more about the project, and donate as little as £1 if you think that it’s something you’d like to support. As with all kickstarters, there are rewards in return for your donations. At the time of publishing this post, they are at just over 50% of their target. The money they receive will pay for the set, props, theatre hire, tech hire, costumes… and so forth. The event itself will be ticketed separately later in the year, and performed at the Mac.

Spotted via Birmingham it’s Not Shit (who are looking for a buyer)

There is an evening of theatrical happenings next Saturday at a disused Coffin Works near Summer Row. It’s being put on by Tin Box Theatre, who are also the folks behind the Three Week Window festival which we’ve covered a handful of times. I really like the flyer.

This looks to be an extremely exciting opportunity for theatre producers in the city centre as Sheffield’s Point Blank Theatre takes up residency in the now empty (used as the Christmas pop-up shop last year) unit on New Street. Here is a description for the unit that will be called Make.Shift:

Point Blank Theatre has secured the short-term lease on an empty shop unit in a prime location on New Street, right in the heart of Birmingham’s bustling city centre. During this time the space will be used by local theatre-makers to collaborate, network, and rehearse.

The shop unit will also play host to the Three-Week Window Festival, a brand new festival for Birmingham curated by local theatre companies Little Earthquake and Tin Box.

The Three Week Window Festival has been open for submissions but is in the last few days of application. Here is a description of what looks to be a great event:

Local theatre companies Little Earthquake and Tin Box are curating a new festival in the unit between Monday 3^rd and Sunday 23^rd September 2012 called Three-Week Window. 

The shop unit has a large street-level window measuring 5 and a half metres wide by 2 and a half metres tall, and thousands of people walk past it every day. We’re looking for up to 18 artists, companies or organisations who would each like to take over the shop window for a single day. Whatever you decide to do in the window is up to you…

Perhaps you’re a theatre-maker with an idea for a performance; an installation artist who could transform the window into something unique; or a visual artist who would like to display their work. Whoever you are, whatever you do, we’re keen to hear about ideas that will turn heads and stop people in their tracks for three special weeks in September.

The full criteria for performers is available here, but it seems as if the huge shop windows will become a theatre stage where passers by can stop and watch performers behind the glass.

I think this pop-up culture is outstanding and will hopefully inspire and open up even more opportunities for Birmingham to use its empty spaces more creatively – especially for local companies such as Tin Box.

Find out more on the Make.Shift website.

Some of Birmingham’s most creative musicians and performers have come together for the ‘Stockhausen Festival of Light‘, a celebration of the hugely influential electronic composer Karlheinz Stockhausen running from 19-21 August. With the backing of the Birmingham musical institutions of the University of Birmingham and the Birmingham Conservatoire, speakers from all around the world have been brought in to share their thoughts on the man. These talks will all lead up to big finale of the festival in the spectacle of the Birmingham Opera Company‘s performance of Stockenhausen’s opera “Mittwoch aus Licht” that will be performed at Argyle Works.

This will be the world premiere of the opera, which has been previously labelled “unstageable”; and no wonder with this description: “string quartet performing in helicopters, electronic and acoustic music and a dancing camel”.  Unfortunately tickets for the performances are all sold out, BUT there is still hope!

If you want to catch one of Birmingham’s best theatrical production companies doing something never seen fully on stage ever before, your only chance to see some of the 6 hour Opera will be a visit to the dress rehearsal on Tuesday 21 August as part of the Stockhausen festival, or head to the website the Space (http://thespace.org/) where the Helicopter String Quartet is due to be broadcast.

This just in:  The Big Screen in Victoria Square on Wed 22nd will be showing a live  satellite relay, so now you have no excuse to miss out.

As part of the festival will a performance at the MAC called ‘Modified Stockhausen‘ and will feature the Birmingham toy tamperers Modified Toy Orchestra, tracing their influence back to Stockhausen through their playful electronic dismantlements.

They have an open call for artists of all disciplines for the festival, there’s more information about this on their website.