Arts Management Team

Below is a list of all the shows that are coming up for the Crescent Company, with the briefest of information letting you know the current stage of each show. There'll be links to further information (such as auditions) when available, but in the mean time, if you want to contact any member of the Arts Team, or the director of a specific show, email us at the address below, and we'll make sure your enquiry is passed on:

artsmanager@crescent-theatre.co.uk

2011-2012 Season Dates

Show Name	Where	Next Stage	Performance
The Crucible by Arthur Miller Director: Les Stringer	MH	In Rehearsal	25 Feb- 3 Mar 2012
Gabriel by Moira Buffini Director: James Allan	Studio	In Rehearsal	3 Mar - 10 Mar 2012
Great Expectations (CYT) Director: Gerry Lucas	Studio	In Rehearsal	22-24 March 2012
The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh Director: Liam Tombs	Studio	In Rehearsal	31 Mar - 7 Apr 2012
The Gin Game by D. L. Coburn Director: Jaz Davidson	Studio	In Rehearsal	14 Apr - 21 Apr 2012
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte Adapted by Polly Teale Director: Karen Leadbetter	Studio	In Rehearsal	5 May - 12 May 2012
Grand Hotel Director: Alan Marshall	MH	In Rehearsal	26 May - 02 June 2012
American Buffalo by David Mamet Director: Mark Thompson	Studio	Auditions 14th & 16th March	2 June - 9 June 2012
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Director: Andrew Smith	Tour & Studio	Auditions: Late March/early April	30 June - 7 July 2012 Summer Tour

More about the shows:

The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Miller's magnificent and horrifying dramatisation of the witch trials that tore apart Salem in 1692 is also a terrifying mirror to any society that allows fear, prejudice and greed to replace sense, logic and humanity. It's not so many years since the Crescent's tackled this - but it's such a masterpiece of modern theatre, can anyone really complain?

Gabriel by Moira Buffini
Buffini's a contemporary writer who's had a lot of work play at the Rep. This piece is set on Guernsey in 1942 - when the island was occupied by the Nazis. With their men-folk away, four women's struggle to co-exist with their German oppressors is thrown into disarray by the arrival of a wounded young man. Is he friend, foe or something altogether more otherworldly than either?

The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
This was the play more Crescent members wanted to see in the season than any other! It's an horrific piece - grim and gorgeous at the same time. A writer is interrogated by a brutal regime determined to find meaning in his tales of the pain and suffering of children. Expect the biggest dog-fight of the year to direct this one!

The Gin Game by D. L. Coburn
Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, two elderly residents at a nursing home for senior citizens, strike up an acquaintance. Neither seems to have any other friends, and they start to enjoy each other's company. Weller offers to teach Fonsia how to play gin rummy, and they begin playing a series of games that Fonsia always wins. Weller's inability to win a single hand becomes increasingly frustrating to him, while Fonsia becomes increasingly confident.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, adapted by Polly Teale
In many ways a classic re-telling of this well-loved tale, Teale's script, first performed by the company Shared Experience, imagines that Rochester's first wife, the original "madwoman in the attic" is actually a part of Jane's psyche from her first years of abuse as a child. There is lots of scope for imaginative performance and staging in this very successful adaptation.

Grand Hotel
Based on the 1929 Vicki Baum novel and play, Menschen im Hotel (People in a Hotel), and the subsequent 1932 MGM feature film, the musical focuses on events taking place over the course of a weekend in an elegant hotel in 1928 Berlin and the intersecting stories of the eccentric guests of the hotel, including a fading prima ballerina; a fatally ill Jewish bookkeeper, who wants to spend his final days living in luxury; a young, handsome, but destitute Baron; a cynical doctor; and a typist dreaming of Hollywood success.

American Buffalo by David Mamet
As with so many of Mamet's plays this deceptively simple tale of small-time crooks and swindlers is apparently about nothing at all - the reality, of course, is the world he creates is a microcosm of all that's good, bad and ugly in life in the twentieth century.

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
For the tour - what could be nicer than Austen's classic tale, played elegantly outside in some of the West Midlands most beautiful locations?

2012-2013 Season Dates

Directors' Submissions for all shows in the 2012-13 season are now open. The proposal form is available here.

Show Name	Where	Next Stage	Performance
Calendar Girls adapted by Tim Firth	Main House	Auditions June 2012 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	8-15th Sep 2012
The Caretaker by Harold Pinter	Studio	Auditions Jul 2012 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	6-13th Oct 2012
Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare	Studio	Auditions Jul 2012 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	3-17th Nov 2012
The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman	Studio	Auditions Aug 2012 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	24th Nov-1st Dec 2012
Wassail	Various	Auditions Sep 2012 Interested Directors please contact the AMT	Dec 2012
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie	Main House	Auditions Oct 2012 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	26th Jan-2nd Feb 2013
The Real Inspector Hound by Tom Stoppard	Studio	Auditions Nov 2013 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	17-23 Feb 2013
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller	Main House	Auditions Dec 2012 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	Mar 2013
Crescent Youth Theatre	Studio	CYT	17-24 March 2013
The Wooden Frock from Knee High	Studio	Auditions Jan 2013 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	6-13th April 2013
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles	Studio	Auditions Feb 2013 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	21st-27th Apr 2013
We Happy Few by Imogen Stubbs	Studio	Auditions Jan 2013 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	12th-18th May 2013
Musical - TBC	Main House	Auditions Jan 2013 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	May 2013
Colder Than Here by Laura Wade	Studio	Auditions April 2013 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	2 June - 8 June 2013
Summer Tour - TBC	Tour & Studio	Auditions April 2013 Directors' Submissions Due 31st March	June/July 2013

More about the shows:

Calendar Girls
Based on the now world-famous story of the ladies of the Women's Institute who decided to take their clothes off for charity.

The Caretaker
For many, this is Pinter's masterpiece; a black and brooding tale of interaction between men.

Much Ado About Nothing
Shakespeare's sunniest comedy pits Beatrice against Benedick; Claudio and Hero against Don John; and Dogberry against sense, logic and the very law he's supposed to uphold!

The Laramie Project
This important verbatim play tells the story of a small town's reaction to a hideous hate-crime perpetrated in the midst of the community.

The Wassail
Our annual yule-fest is a seasonal celebration of song and story.

And Then There Were None
The archetypal Agatha Christie thriller! 10 strangers gather on an island. Cut off from the main land, the bodies begin to mount up.

The Real Inspector Hound
Stoppard's hilarious one-act play is an affectionate but intelligent spoof of traditional murder mysteries (like the above)!

Death of a Salesman
Perhaps the greatest play of the twentieth century. Miller's tale of everyman Willie Loman captures an entire society in his tragedy.

The Wooden Frock
Kneehigh Theatre are renowned for their inventive, physical story-telling - this choice, voted for by Crescent Members, suggests they want to have a go too!

Oedipus Rex
Sophocles tragedy is second to none. As dramatically moving today as it was when it was first performed.

We Happy Few
Imogen Stubbs's play tells the story of a group of women during the Second World War who set out to take travelling Shakespeare to all corners of the British Isles. Funny, touching and patriotically stirring!

Colder than Here
This beautifully written and deceptively gentle play explores a family coming to terms with the impending death of their mother.