THE STAGE SUBSCRIPTION OFFER

The Stage weekly newspaper is the authoritative voice of UK entertainment and in combination with its sister web site, The Stage Online (www.thestage.co.uk) offers unrivalled insight into the performing arts with increasing coverage of the amateur sector alongside the professional market.

Since October 2008, NODA members qualify for an exclusive subscription offer which means that if paying by direct debit, you can receive all 52 issues of the Stage for the year ahead for only £47.70 compared with a shop price of £72.80, a saving of almost 35%!

However, if you subscribe before Christmas 2008, you can save even more! NODA have agreed an exclusive ‘early bird’ offer with The Stage which means that you will pay only £42.40 (by direct debit) or £46.80 (credit or debit card) if you subscribe to The Stage no later than Monday 23rd December 2008. Just imagine what a great Christmas present that would make for the theatre enthusiast in your family, to have The Stage delivered through your letterbox every week!

Remember, you will still enjoy a saving of almost 35 % if you subscribe at any time, but save even more by taking out a subscription before Christmas Eve.

To take advantage of this special subscription offer visit www.subscription.co.uk/thestage/noda or telephone 01858 438895 and quote ‘NODA’

                               The Singers of Tomorrow?

The National Opera Studio, with support from Arts Council England, would like to invite you to a Seminar on Wednesday 26th November 2008 at the National Opera Studio that will focus on where the Singers of Tomorrow will come from. This is an important issue that could affect the future of the art form in Britain.

Throughout the thirty years of the National Opera Studio’s existence they have trained 367 singers and 92 repetiteurs, and provided our national opera companies and indeed the great British public with outstanding talent.  But as an advanced training institution, they believe that they have identified a trend in terms of the kind of applicant they are attracting through the ‘supply chain’, which along with the rapid and constant economic and social change that defines Britain today, is impacting on their partner professional companies. They want to discuss this with you.

      Topics to be covered are:
• The perception that there are fewer British singers coming through the opera training process.
• The unrepresentative number of opera singers from ethnic minorities and diverse backgrounds.
• Opera companies can no longer cast the heavier Verdi/Puccini/Wagner roles from among British singers – is this something we should seek to reverse?
• The perception that entry into the profession is no longer as ‘easy’ for talented amateurs as it once was.

Please email k.jones@nationaloperastudio.org.uk to book a place. For directions on how to get to the National Opera Studio, click here

       IN A CINEMA NEAR YOU…OPERA AND BALLET FROM
     THE ROYAL OPERA HOUSE AND TEATRO REAL, MADRID

GET UP CLOSE TO WORLD CLASS PERFORMANCES

Exciting opera and ballet from The Royal Opera House and other leading European houses have arrived at your local cinema. Filmed in High Definition, an extensive line-up will be screened in cinemas all over the UK in digital cinema with 5.1 surround sound.

Coming up from Madrid’s Teatro Real will be Handel’s Tamerlano, starring Placido Domingo, at Vue cinemas nationwide in December (exact date tba) and at selected independent cinemas in November. A co-production with the Royal Opera House, Paul McCreesh conducts Graham Vick’s award-winning production. Tamerlano is a great Baroque tale of love, pride and sorrow. 

In December, two festive Christmas treats for the whole family transmitted live from The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.  The brand new production of Hansel and Gretel on 16 December (7:30 pm) and the first ever live ballet in cinemas, The Nutcracker on 28 December (12:30 pm).

Engelbert Humperdinck’s classic opera, Hansel and Gretel, is directed by Patrice Caurier and Moshe Leiser with their characteristic wit and a dash of deliciously black comedy. Conducted by Colin Davis and starring an international cast including Angelika Kirchschlager, Diana Damrau, Anja Silja, Pumeza Matshikiza, Thomas Allen and Elizabeth Connell.
A visit through the Land of Snow to the Kingdom of Sweets: it must be the seasonal favourite, The Nutcracker. This is something for everyone to enjoy, from the youngest in the family to the oldest.  Performed by the Royal Ballet, this event stars Alexandra Ansanelli and Valeri Hristov, with choreography and production by Peter Wright

For the list of participating cinemas and a full schedule of releases from now until June 2009, please go to: www.artsalliancemedia.com/opera

For further information, please contact: 
Allison Burr, Arts Alliance Media
Allison.burr@artsalliancemedia.com
Tel: 0207 751 7535

                             THE VOICE OF TOMORROW

'The Voice of Tomorrow' is no ordinary showcase. It is a unique competition and training programme to give you an opportunity to show your talent to the best in the West End Musical Theatre business.  So what's new in that? Well, here's the difference:  A limited amount of people who fall short of the standard will be asked if they would like to participate in 'The Training' course and then re-audition. They believe this is unique.

'The Show' will run for 3 nights at The Bloomsbury Theatre in the heart of London. Not only will performers have the amazing opportunity of performing in front our panel of top casting directors, musical directors and agents, they will also have a chance of winning some fantastic prizes in the process including a possible fully-funded Scholarship place into the Royal Academy of Music. They have also collaborated with the team at Channel 4's talent brand, 4Talent to offer opportunities to individuals who have, or are experiencing personal hardship.

This is an amazing opportunity for musical theatre graduates, amateurs, semi-professionals and professionals alike, or indeed anyone wanting that break into the world of Musical Theatre.

See their website for further information: www.voiceoftomorrow.com

                                  COWARDLY CUSTARD

A rare event is to take place in Lyme Regis on Friday 28th & Saturday 29th November 2008. Members from all the local amateur theatrical groups in the area are coming together for special performances of “Cowardy Custard”.

Why are members of all these groups coming together to stage this sparkling revue? To raise money for capital projects at the Marine Theatre – home to most of these groups' productions. Funds are urgently required to undertake vital improvements to the Front of House facilities at the popular “theatre with a view”. What better way to contribute to these much needed projects than by buying tickets for what promises to be a most enjoyable entertainment?

“Cowardy Custard” is a kaleidoscopic revue of words and music by The Master, Sir Noel Coward. Put together for the Mermaid Theatre in the 1970s it features all the most well loved of Coward's songs, “Don't Put Your Daughter on the Stage”, “Mad Dogs and Englishmen”, “I Went to a Marvellous Party”, “The Stately Homes of England”, “Nina”, “Let's Do It: Let's Fall in Love” amid readings from his diaries, vignettes from his plays and many other well-known melodies. It makes for a lovely entertainment full of romance, comedy and irony.

Among the performers you will recognise are Jerry Smith (Community Players), Brian Rattenbury (Lyme Regis Pantomime Society), Anne King (Lyme Regis Dramatic Society), John Challis (Lyme Regis Operatic Society), Kelly Street (BOF Productions) and members of the highly acclaimed Lyme Youth Theatre.

The production is being organised by Howard Earl, with staging organised by Joyce Pomeroy and musical direction by the award-winning Nick Lawrence. Accompaniment will be centred around the brilliant pianistic skills of the Marine Theatre's Administrator, Stephanie Dommett.

Tickets for the performances on November 28th and 29th went on sale on October 20th at
Martin Diplock's in Broad Street, Lyme Regis (01297 445500) who has kindly agreed to act as box office for this unique "coming together of local talent".

When: Friday, November 28th and Saturday November 29th 7:30pm Evening performances
with 3pm matinée on Saturday 29th November.

Where: Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis
How Much: £8.50 for evening performances, £6 matinée [no other concessions].

You can get more information:-
www.v4productions.org.uk

http://www1.dorsetforyou.com/LEARNING/communityMusicDiary.nsf/home?

        The soundtrack of our lives - Singing for the Brain

Robert Hurst retired in 2004 and wanted to combine his life-long passion for singing in light opera and musical theatre in a way that would make a real difference to people in the community who need extra support. Then, he found Singing for the Brain and it has changed his life!
 
People in Operatic Societies are just the people with the ability, nationwide to be among the pioneers in this wonderful work with people who have Dementia in our Communities and in our Care Homes. When Community Singing fell out of favour, our culture lost a vital ingredient – the ability to be continually uplifted singing.
.
Singing for the Brain groups are led by trained facilitators and are joined each time by a dedicated band of confident local Singers. For an amazing hour, much laughter is interwoven into the active programmes. Sessions have been carefully designed by experts to sustain mental and psychological well-being through stimulating and challenging singing and gentle physical activity
 
The Course Leaflet and Poster are available from:  kris.leaworthy@alzheimers.org.uk
Any further information is available from Robert Hurst:  robert@singingbrain.org

                                   Musical Dialogues:

British and Israeli Music on the Southbank
Sunday 30 November 2008, 11am – 10pm
Patron of the Day: Sir Peter Maxwell Davies
Honouree: Tzvi Avni, distinguished Israeli Composer

London's first joint celebration of British and Israeli classical music will take place at the South Bank Centre on 30 November

A symphony concert in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, two Purcell Room concerts, a talk, a film and foyer events will celebrate the connections and contrast between Israeli and British Music.  

The numerous outstanding Israeli performers on the international scene are well known, but as yet, the music created in the land of Israel since the early part of the twentieth century, is a treasure trove still waiting to be revealed.  It is a unique symbiosis of East and West and the assimilation of elements from diverse traditions, combining the strands of Jewish traditions and Arab and Middle Eastern music with the use of Western approaches.

The Festival will specially honour the esteemed senior Israeli composer Tzvi Avni, who will be featured in conversation with Humphrey Burton in the first Purcell Room concert.  Avni's works will be performed in each of the two Purcell Room chamber concerts by the Yehudi Menuhin School Orchestra and ensembles from Birmingham Conservatoire, the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music. The evening orchestral concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall will feature the UK premiere of Avni's piece 'If this be a Man', a song cycle for soprano and orchestra on poems by Primo Levi (1998).

The symphony concert will also feature ‘An Orkney Wedding with Sunrise’ by Peter Maxwell-Davies, the European premiere of Noam Sheriff’s Viola Concerto and Michael Wolpe’s Concerto for Oud and Orchestra, based on Israeli and Arabic folksongs.  Oudist Taiseer Elias, who heads the growing Arabic Music Department of the Jerusalem Academy, will be the soloist. The conductor of the Eden Sinfonia will be the prize-winning young Israeli rising star and protégée of Daniel Barenboim: Daniel Cohen.

The Purcell Room concerts will feature works by Joe Cutler, Oliver Kentish, Tzvi Avni and Lior Navok, as well as the winners of The Spiro Ark's Israeli Music Competition.

Artistic Advisor of the Festival is Michael Wolpe, Head of Department of Composition and Conducting at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, who has recently been appointed as the JMI Visiting Composer from Israel.  Wolpe says: 'There are many parallels and contrasts in British and Israeli music that are worth exploring and a vast output of music composed in Israel by successive generations since the early 20th Century. There will be exciting music of several styles to suit all tastes'.

The Festival is organised and presented jointly by the Jewish Music Institute's Forum for Israeli Music, whose Director is Dr Malcolm Miller and the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. It includes a week of workshops and masterclasses, seminars and performances on Israeli and Arabic music at major British music colleges and other venues.

There is a 20% discount when booking 3 Musical Dialogues concerts.  Tickets are available from the Box Office at the Southbank: Box Office 0871 663 2500 www.southbankcentre.co.uk   

For more details of all these programmes, contact Maureen Phillips:  admin@upbeatclassical.co.uk

Tel:  +44 (0) 1895 259441 and see the Jewish Music Institute Website www.jmi.org.uk

                  Changes to Awards for All England

Awards for All England, the Big Lottery Fund's small grants programme, will change from a joint grants programme to one run by the separate distributors.

Awards for All England is currently a joint Lottery grants programme supported by Arts Council England, Big Lottery Fund, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England. Following a review of the programme, each of the lottery distributors supporting the scheme will run their own small grants programmes from 1 April 2009.

Applications can still be made under the current arrangements until Awards for All England closes on 31 March 2009.

The Big Lottery Fund says that the new system `will mean that each distributor can better address the needs of their applicants and the themes they support`. It added that `it is anticipated that new money available for small grants in 2009-10 will be comparable to money that was available to community groups through Awards for All in 2008-2009`.

The new separate small grants programmes are as follows:

• Big Lottery Fund will launch a new small grants programme on 1 April 2009 awarding grants of £300 to £10,000 to local communities in 2009-2010.
• Sport England will provide small grants for sports ranging from £300 - £10,000 from 1 April 2009.
• Arts Council England will provide small grants through their existing ‘Grants for the arts’ programme, supporting awards between £1,000 and £100,000.
• Heritage Lottery Fund small grants will be provided through the existing 'Your Heritage' (£3,000 to £50,000) and 'Young Roots (£3,000 to £25,000) schemes.

www.biglotteryfund.org.uk

                                Batty Charitable Trust

The Batty Charitable Trust (BCT) is a grant making Trust. Its income is derived from gifts made by the Estate of the late Christina Batty (otherwise known as Christina Foyle). The BCT will generally support smaller charities in the UK and especially those working at grass roots and local community level. They normally award one year grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 to charities which can demonstrate that such a grant will make a significant difference to their work.

There are no deadlines for submission and applications will be received throughout the year. For details on how to apply visit www.battycharitabletrust.org.uk or tel: 0207 405 0225.

                            Milton Keynes Arts Association

area: Milton Keynes
deadline: 9 February 2009

Milton Keynes Arts Association distributes small arts grants on behalf of the Milton Keynes Council and the Milton Keynes Community Foundation.

What they fund:
Admin costs; venue and rehearsal space hire; publicity and marketing; professional fees; grants towards exhibition costs; purchase of materials and equipment; short-course fees; tape-slide projects; start-up grants; multi-cultural/community events; artist-in-residence projects; special needs groups; guarantees against loss for production costs, local arts and community festivals.

• The maximum grant is £1,500 for Groups and £500 for individuals
• The maximum start-up grant is £500.
• The maximum guarantee against loss is £500

www.mk-arts.co.uk

                                    Josef Weinberger

They are very proud to announce the release to amateur organisations of the sequel to Fame - The Musical
 
FAME FOREVER
Conceived and Developed by: David De Silva
Music by: Steve Margoshes
Book & Lyrics by: Ben H. Winters
 
FAME FOREVER -Reunion & Rebirth warps through twenty years revealing the fate of the original musical's characters, now all grown up, and their children who are now students of New York's famed LaGuardia High School of Music and Art & Performing Arts.

A school reunion brings them together and the story shows how talent is reborn in the young who carry the torch, like spiritual DNA, in their ambition for fame.

For those who haven't seen the original, FAME FOREVER will stand alone to entertain an audience and take them on a wonderful theatrical journey. A journey that shows the connectivity, in time, that we have to each other and the world around us by "connecting our past with our future."
 
FAME FOREVER - Reunion and Rebirth - The Rattonians, Congress Theatre, Eastbourne, July 2007, Mark & Melanie Adams, producers
 
"Every year The Rattonians think: What next? Finding shows to perform each year tends to be an increasingly difficult problem.  What will be available?  What will be popular?  What will be different? What is right for us?  We as a society, always try to do two things: put on a show that most will appreciate and enjoy.  Finding, selecting and choosing that show is not easy.  Different and appealing shows are a scarcity and we try to wait in the hope that one will come our way.  And out of the blue came a phone call from New York.  David De Silva telephoned Mark to see if he would stage the English premiere of FAME FOREVER, the sequel to the phenomenally successful and popular musical FAME.  Always eager for a challenge, The Rattonians saw that presenting FAME FOREVER, as a new musical, was an amazing opportunity."

With special permission, highlights from The Rattonians production of FAME FOREVER 2007 can be viewed here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=39484C72129C438F
 
Application forms and perusal materials are now available. 
 
 
Josef Weinberger are also very proud to announce the immediate release to amateur organisations of
 
SWEENEY TODD SCHOOL EDITION
The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
A Musical Thriller
Music & lyrics by STEPHEN SONDHEIM  Book by HUGH WHEELER  From an adaptation by CHRISTOPHER BOND
Originally directed by HAROLD PRINCE, Originally produced on Broadway by Richard Barr, Charles Woodward, Robert Fryer Mary Lea Johnson, Martin Richards in association with Dean & Judy Manos
 
This special School Edition has been masterfully adapted, working directly with Mr. Sondheim, to retain the dark wit and grand scope of the original work, with a few lyric and key changes to facilitate high school productions.
 
Application forms and perusal materials are now available. 
 
To receive a set of application forms for either title please email the following information to amateur@jwmail.co.uk
 
Show Title
Name of organisation
Name and address of proposed venue
Proposed dates (these can be approximate)
Your name and postal address
 

JOSEF WEINBERGER LTD.
12 - 14 Mortimer Street
London
W1T 3JJ
T: 020 7580 2827    F: 020 7436 9616
E: amateur@jwmail.co.uk
W: www.josef-weinberger.com

                                       HANBURY PLAYS  

                                                       

Hanbury Plays – hanburyplays@tiscali.co.uk – 01527 821584 – www.hanburyplays.co.uk                                                                   

                                    AWAKING BEAUTY

11 December - 17 January
Stephen Joseph Theatre - Scarborough
 
Words by Alan Ayckbourn
Music by Denis King
 
Directed by Alan Ayckbourn
 
A new musical filled with lust, laughter and just a little love
 
A wicked curse, a Prince, a Princess and some magic....but this is no fairytale.
Alan Ayckbourn's brand new musical is a wicked and wild take on Sleeping Beauty, with everything from wonderful music and songs to passion, lust and naughtiness. All done with the excellence of comic writing that Ayckbourn fans have come to know and love.
 
Any Amateur Group or Society can take up an exclusive discount to this exciting premiere.
Groups of 8+ can get tickets for only £10. Saving up to £8.50 a ticket!
Please contact the SJT Box Office on 01723 370541 to take up this fantastic offer, and quote: NODA OFFER when booking.
 
So why not bring your fellow society members along to the SJT this Christmas and enjoy a social outing with a difference? We hope to see you at the SJT for this world premiere...
 
www.sjt.uk.com

                                       BELOW STAIRS

As you may recall, the last edition of NODA National News featured an article about Below Stairs, the musical linked to fundraising for Cancer Research UK.

You may have seen that the Below Stairs web site stated that a 'NODA's Got Talent' competition has been launched in conjunction with the release of this show, with a £5,000 cash prize available.

Please be aware that this is NOT a NODA sponsored competition and that the use of the NODA name was not agreed with the competition organisers. The wording on the web site has now been amended, to ensure that there is no confusion. For clarity, by featuring the production in NODA National News, the Association is clearly happy to support this initiative, but has not agreed to having the competition co-branded, nor is there any liability for NODA regarding the cash prize on offer.