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Coming up

Apr 14, 2012 by Brian Pearson

 

Next up from Theatre in the Quarter will be our collaboration with Chester Mystery Plays. This year’s mini-mystery play will be a new production of Noah on the 22-24th June. This will form part of Chestival and take place in Chester’s Roman amphitheatre.

Following close on its heels will be a brand new community opera inspired by London 2012 (written by writer in residence Helen Newall with music by Matt Baker). The Chester Giants takes the legend of the Chester Giant who searches for a soul-mate throughout the four corners of the earth as a starting point. This 40 minute opera will be performed in Chester’s Amphitheatre and incorporates Across the World, the anthem developed for BBC Music Nation.

It will be a major community production and form part of the Chester Summer Music Festival’s BIG SING! weekend, engaging over 300 members of the local community (children, young people and adults), A Handbag of Harmonies and Giants galore! One not to miss.

Unmissable ‘Unsinkable’

Apr 02, 2012 by Brian Pearson

Months of hard work and commitment by the mammoth cast of over a hundred community actors, dance and drama students and members of Jigsaw Music Theatre paid off magnificently last week. Theatre in the Quarter’s community musical Unsinkable, produced in partnership with the Hammond School, played to sold-out houses and met with a hugely positive reception by audiences and critics.

“Wolfenden Brown and Baker’s epic community musical soars with emotion, from enjoyable Irish jigs to sweeping ballads, you can’t help but be swept away by this powerful musical…Once again Theatre in the Quarter prove just how important theatre is to the city of Chester and its local community in which it engages on a regular basis. With this epic musical, Artistic Director Matt Baker takes the company from strength to strength – the only disappointment is that it has such a short run!.” Reece O’Toole, The Public Reviews.

“Gargantuan, supreme, epic, phenomenal – just some of the words attributed to the new ship, the RMS Titanic, back in1912, which could equally describe ‘Unsinkable’, a 2012 retelling of the story of that fateful day in British maritme history.

Directed by Ruth Alexander Rubin, this joint producction between Theatre in the Quarter and the Hammond School is a gem…Everyone knows this show does not have a happy ending, yet when the sea dancers rush in through Judith Croft’s minimalist but hugely effective set and the searchlight highlights dead faces in the sea in the finale, shivers cannot fail to fly up the most hardened Titanic spine.”  Jo Henwood, Chester Chronicle.

 Thanks to everyone involved – you were all brilliant!

Titanic tale triumphs!

Mar 29, 2012 by Brian Pearson

 

The house was sold out for the opening night of Unsinkable on Wednesday and the show was greeted with great acclaim by the audience. The huge cast of over a hundred, of all ages from seven to seventy, brought the story of the Titanic vividly to life and sang and danced like angels. The show runs until Saturday at the Hammond School and there are still a few tickets left for some performances – for details of how to book, click here.

‘Unsinkable’ sets sail

Mar 21, 2012 by Brian Pearson

Theatre in the Quarter’s new large-scale community musical commemorating the centenary of the sinking of the Titanic will be premiered at the end of March, With a cast of over a hundred, including community members, Hammond School dance students and members of Jigsaw Music Theatre, Unsinkable will be a spectacular homage to this famous event.

Go see the Harmonettes!

Mar 21, 2012 by Brian Pearson

Anyone who saw The Harmonettes go into Orbit during its initial tour last autumn will tell you how brilliant it is. Now Charlotte, Georgina and Sarra, old friends of Theatre in the Quarter, will be performing it again at the Forum Studio Theatre in Chester on the 4th and 5th April. It’s fast, funny and full of Fifties favourites.  Be there or be square!

Olympic gold

Mar 21, 2012 by Brian Pearson

The sun shone, the crowds arrived and 700 performers took part in Matt Baker’s anthem Across the World on March 3rd. Three thousand spectators crammed Chester’s Roman amphitheatre for the occasion.

The mammoth production featured 10 choirs, pupils from 12 primary schools, Homegrown Dance Theatre, Chester Schools’ Concert Band, Chester the Giant City and soloists Robert Clack and Sarra Cooper. Across the World was Chester’s contribution to Music Nation, a spectacular weekend of music around the UK, organised by the BBC and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games as part of the Cultural Olympiad. It was commissioned and led by A Handbag of Harmonies and managed and coordinated by Theatre in the Quarter. Across the World was supported by Cheshire West and Chester Council and Cheshire Rural Touring Arts. The anthem will be performed again at the Olympic Torch ceremeonies in Chester and Tatton Park and will form part of Theatre in the Quarter’s Giant Opera in July. Here’s a link to a video of the anthem in rehearsal http://vimeo.com/37734029.

New year’s news

Jan 30, 2012 by Brian Pearson

2012 is going to be a busy year for us. In February Star of Wonder finishes its tour in Blackpool, as part of the Showzam Festival. At the end of March, our large-scale community musical Unsinkable is launched in collaboration with the Hammond School. Also in March, A Handbag of Harmonies, leading a massed choir of over 400 voices from across Cheshire, with children from many schools, the Chester Schools Concert Band and Homegrown Dance , will be performing TIQ’s artistic director Matt Baker’s anthem Across the World, commissioned by the BBC Music Nation project as part of the Cultural Olympiad.  The anthem will also feature at the Olympic Torch ceremonies in Chester and Tatton Park in May.

Continuing the Olympic theme, June will see the performance of The Chester Giants’ Opera. Our young people’s company, Jigsaw Music Theatre will again be contributing to the International School Theatre Association festival at Porthleven, Cornwall. And we’re pleased to announce that our Christmas show this year will be a bumper Chester musical version of A Christmas Carol.

Rehearsals for Unsinkable start

Jan 11, 2012 by Brian Pearson

Rehearsals are now starting for our community production of Unsinkable, in partnership with the Hammond School. This exciting large scale show commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the tragic loss of the Titanic.

 The company will consist of  community actors and choir from the Chester area, members of Theatre in the Quarter’s young people’s company Jigsaw Music Theatre, and A Level Theatre and Dance students from The Hammond School. Unsinkable (by Richard Wolfenden Brown and Matt Baker) was originally created and performed by Jigsaw Music Theatre as a piece of work for the Merseyside Maritime Museum in 1997. It has since been performed by several youth theatre and community groups around Britain and Germany. It was  performed in London as Stagecoach Theatre Arts’ National Showcase production in 2009.

The new production will be an exciting musical re-interpretation of this famous historical episode. It will be directed by Ruth Alexander Rubin, with musical direction by Matt Baker, design by Judith Croft, dance work by Katherine Jacob (Hammond).  Assistant Directors – Mandy Hatfield (Hammond) and members of Jigsaw Theatre Company Team

 Performances will be on 28 – 31 March at THE HAMMOND SCHOOL.

 

Cast members take a break from rehearsals to pose outside Garden Lane Church

Star of Wonder to illuminate Blackpool!

Jan 04, 2012 by Brian Pearson

We’ll be performing Star of Wonder at the Blackpool Grand Studio Theatre on 14 – 16 February 2012 during the Showzam! Festival.  There will also be a performance at Edge Hill University on 13 February. For booking details, click here

On Christmas Eve, 1899, under the watchful eyes of a packed house in Chester’s music hall, the impossible happens!  The fate of two young lovers hangs in the balance as the lines between illusion and reality, love and ambition are blurred by their encounter with the beautiful and exotic magician known as Isis, the Star of Wonder, self-proclaimed possessor of the lost secrets of ancient Egyptian magic.

Star of Wonder is a musical magical mystery.  It features magician and actor Paul Dabek, Michael Magnet, Isla Carter and Emily Barlow, and is created by the Theatre in the Quarter team (writer Helen Newall, director Russ Tunney and music director/composer Matthew Baker) whose previous shows  Silent Night and Home for Christmas have enchanted audiences across the region.