UK Theatre Network Reviewer

REVIEW TEAM CONTINUE TO GROW AT UKTN

Our review team has grown significantly over the past few years and I hope to start to introduce you to more of the people behind the scenes who are helping to grow audiences around the world.

Lucy Komiser (pictured left), is our latest recruit from New York. Lucy's a New York-based writer, and a member of the Drama Desk, the organization of New York theatre critics. In her "day job," she writes articles on international affairs for major U.S. and foreign publications and is writing a book about the offshore bank and corporate secrecy system. Her theatre reviews have a decidedly political focus.

Jon Cuthbertson (pictured centre), is a reviewer and presenter and was recently seen cornering the stars of stage and screen at the recent BAFTA awards. Jon's a talented performer as well and you will find him singing, dancing and making audiences laugh on stages in Glasgow.

Katy Reddin-Clancy (pictured right), is a model and actress who has recently returned from New York and now works in London. She comes from a long line of actresses in her family and her Grandmother is still keeping busy as a London based agent. Katy is reviewer and presenter of our London based theatre. 

BAFTA Scotland

Once again UK Theatre Network brings exclusive material direct to your inbox within hours of the event. We were privileged to have been invited to film at the BAFTA Scotland Awards tonight in Glasgow's Raddison Hotel.

Our team were on hand to interview and film on the red carpet and the stars flowed in. Often we were the only crew who knew who was who.... hehe..

IN fact, we were the ONLY crew who interviewed Jenni Falconer. A quick view of the BAFTA website this week told me that the GMTV and Entertainment Today presenter was hosting the event, so the Internet works its magic yet again.

Other stars of film and TV who are also appearing on a stage near you, are Darius Danesh, who is playing Billy Flynn in Chicago in the West End from 21st November. Darius gave us his Manager's number so that we can follow up with his progress in his debut performance in the West End. Keep in touch at www.UKTheatre.TV

We also met with Suzanne Shaw, hot from her role in Summer Holiday and currently in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Ambassadors Theatre in Milton Keynes. Suzanne said that she is soon to appear in Blood Brothers ! You heard it here first folks ! But then again it could be only Hearsay :-)

AND THE WINNERS ARE.....

A full list of the Winners are published at the www.UKTheatre.Net website.

UKTheatre.TV Latest News

Well where do I start ?

You probably know about the plans for UKTheatre.TV already but in case you haven't, its basically getting as much theatre filmed and put online in the interests of promoting
UK theatre to a worldwide audience. We are also uploading Actors Showreels and Stage Performances already filmed. Around the country we are enhancing our team of reviewers with film crew who will work together and do interviews and reviews to camera. From this we will be bringing Pay-Per-View theatre to the web shortly.

Edinburgh
The Edinburgh crew got together very quickly, largely due to Director Diana Elmegaard's enthusiasm and energy. We filmed Stand Up Spartaki at The Stand in Edinburgh which was a production of theatre sketches and performance poetry and along with actress Karen Douglas there were two MSPs in action (Robin Harper and Mark Ballard). Rosalind McCaig interviewed the cast and Tim Welburn, Ben Fleming and Paul Diffey were in action with the cameras. We also filmed The Art of Silence (review online) and we will be including that material with the others in a programme not unlike Film 2005 but for Theatre.

Glasgow
The Glasgow crew had an initial interest but when we set a date of 1st November for the filming of NTS, there were clashes of dairies. So we decide to use the Edinburgh crew to do the filming in Glasgow. It wasn't ideal as they had to travel all the way through but Tim Welburn was committed to the job at hand. Gillian Dodds also joined us for her debut performance with UKTN and we were delighted when she rose to the challenge.

Next up.....
The BAFTA Scotland Awards are on next week and as I had chatted to Alison Forsyth, head of BAFTA Scotland, at the NTS event (Alison is the one in the middle of the top pic), I contacted her office and found out that there are "red carpet" opportunities. So, we've got our next assignment already. We also have offers of filming plays further north so we are looking at the deal there.


Manchester
Director Michael Wray and his team are getting together on the 10th November and we have had initial offers from a few plays to review to camera including a full production to film.

London
Producer Anna Lindgren is now on board and we have been invited to the People Show to film The Obituary Show. It may be too short notice to get a film crew organised but we are going to make some initial enquiries. 2 weeks notice is much better for planning purposes but we're always up for a challenge.

Ireland
I've had initial contact from a very experienced Director in Ireland who is keen to help grow the network over there. So that's developing well.

USA
We currently have reviewers in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia out of recent marketing I had done. I have also been promoting the concept on bulletin boards and gaining an increasing interest. The hits on the website are now averaging 4-5000 per day (1.5m per year) which hasn't been seen for a while, so the profile of the network is growing and this is shown on UKTheatre.Net Visitor Statistics.

More updates in the coming days........

New Presenter for UKTN

A warm welcome to our new presenter for Glasgow, Gillian Dodds. Gillian first assignment was none other that the launch of National Theatre of Scotland and she managed to get some exclusive interviews. Her approach is to make her guests feel relaxed and comfortable and ensure they enjoy the experience. We look forward to seeing Gillian's interviews on UKTheatre.TV 

UK Theatre Network

UKTheatre.TV were at the launch of the National Theatre of Scotland. Our team managed to get exclusive interviews and these will be shown on the website. Here Blythe Duff is given initial tips on how to talk to camera :-)