The Week in Light & Sound
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Creative Call - Schools should only be awarded an “outstanding” rating by Ofsted if they can demonstrate excellence in teaching creative subjects alongside academic ones, a leading education charity has claimed. The report is produced by the Edge Foundation, which aims to shape the future of education in the UK, and its calls echo those of bodies such as Arts Council England, which has previously said schools should only be awarded an “excellent” rating if they have a strong arts offering.
It raises concerns about the decline in schoolchildren taking GCSEs in creative subjects, claiming entries have fallen by 77,000 - 20% - since 2010. It also highlights research from Ofsted itself, which shows that creative subjects are effective at teaching skills such as collaboration, communication and decision making. The report goes on to recommend that the government should “restore creative subjects back into the heart of the curriculum” and “ensure that higher and further education institutions are properly resourced to deliver creative courses”.
Joseph Returns - A “re-imagined” production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is to run at the London Palladium next year, 28 years after it was first staged there. The Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical will play an 11-week season from 26 June. Casting and the creative team are to be announced. Joseph originally opened in the West End at the London Palladium in 1991, starring Jason Donovan. It was revived in 2007 at the Adelphi, with Lee Mead in the lead role, following a BBC reality show to cast the part.
Diversity Row - The Wales Theatre Awards have been cancelled permanently following a row over diversity earlier this year. The move comes after an open letter with more than 40 signatories criticised the nominations list for the 2018 awards for a “lack of diversity”. In particular, the letter condemned multiple nominations for “white-actors playing non-white roles”, arguing that the “challenges of representation should be dealt with intelligently”.
Following the letter, members of National Theatre Wales boycotted the 2018 ceremony, which took place in Newport on 27 27. The next awards were due to take place at the Blackwood Miners’ Institute in February 2019. A statement published on the Wales Theatre Awards website on November 24 said: “Wales Theatre Awards 2019 has been cancelled and the annual awards have come to an end.”
(Jim Evans)
4 December 2018
