Music of the Spheres - project with sinfonia ViVA 06.12.11

This project aimed from the start to involve young people in creating their own music. Lincoln College, Nettleham Primary and Monks Abbey Primary Schools met at The Collection in October 2011 to take inspiration from The Four Seasons installation.

Following that, each school, with the help of workshop leader James Redwood, (double bassist Dave and viola player Nina) exercised their imaginations and wrote songs and instrumental music about enjoying the four seasons, change and the journey of life. 

As well as their own compositions, the children and students learnt two songs (complete with actions) to incorporate into the final concert:

"Ah poor bird

Take thy flight

Far above the sorrows of this dark night"

And......

"Seasons change with time

As the earth circles so slowly

Dancing round the sun

Hear the planets spin

Orbiting, ever evolving

Music of the spheres"

It was truly inspiring to see so many children get stuck in to music, and to also get to listen to ViVA playing Astor Piazzollo's 'Four Seasons of Buenos Aires' as well as some Bartok in between each specially composed piece.

 

It was a privilege to have been part of something that introduced so many kids to some great music, but as well as that it was FUN! Kids can be hilarious.

 

If you didn't get to see it this year, please PLEASE try and make it next year (fingers crossed it will be going ahead next year) - you won't regret it!

-Hilary Shepherd, Marketing Officer

This Is Just To Say... 26.11.12

"Would you call yourself a serial apologist?" asked Hannah Walker of the 12 people gathered round the table for her discussion-come-poetic-performance of 'This is Just To Say'.  How often do you find yourself apologising on a day-to-day basis?  Is 'sorry' always the right thing to say and do we always mean it?

For this exploration of apology, the Room Upstairs was transformed into a cosy, twinkling, confessional as guests drank wine and pondered the 'terribly British' overuse of this get-out-of-jail-free tool.  We measured the validity of one apology against another, we shared our own apologies, we read apologies from people from all over the country and we listened as Hannah twisted and turned the words into insightful, sometimes tongue-in-cheek sometimes heartfelt, verse.

This wasn't an average theatre experience.  You couldn't sit back and let the evening wash over you - the content was too real and too personal for that.  As Hannah gently questioned, explained, and shared her own experiences, we scribbled thoughts and ideas, asked our own questions and confronted our own lost apologies. 

For an hour I shared a conversation with a group made up of friends and total strangers, got lost in thought, and was moved to the verge of tears before laughing so much that my sides ached.  The discussions we had, the lines she spoke and the words I wrote stayed with me long after I had returned home and for me, that's exactly what theatre should do.

- Charlie Kemp, Audience Development and Participation Project Worker

BEHIND THE SCENES - "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"

Pantomime season has begun!

That means that everything Jamie Marcus Productions could possibly need from now until January 2nd is in our Auditorium as we speak...

 (Coming into work Monday morning shows that since Friday things have even spread into the Cafe Bar)

As well as all the backdrops there are numerous props hanging around - you may be able to guess who some of them belong to or where they appear in the story...

But the crew found it hard work shifting and lifting everything....

And here's a sneaky preview of the first dress rehearsal in the Drill Hall - in real pantomime style!

-Hilary Shepherd, Marketing Officer

Lunchtime Literature with Dr Jane: Middlemarch 28.10.11

Dr Jane, the lady in white. 

The stage is a chess board for this evening’s musical (see the Chess post).  Dr Jane is the White Queen; she can move in any direction. 

This month it’s Middlemarch by George Eliot, brick-sized and dense, ‘the book Tolstoy said made his great novels possible’. 

We settle down for an hour of biography, character analysis, political, social and religious context, text analysis.  Guess what?  It’s fun.  George Elliott becomes a friend we’re gossiping about (in a nice way, of course, most of the time).

The lights go up.  ‘Oh!  Look at you all!’ Dr Jane beams and we beam back.  Now for questions.  There’s never enough time.  It’s over too soon.

We spend an hour with a different genius each month.  It lifts us up, broadens our horizons.  Next month we’ll find out all about Erich Maria Remarque – All Quiet on the Western Front.  Can’t wait.

-Jenny Clarkson, box office assistant

Click here for info on All Quiet on the Western Front and find out about our other lunchtime literature talks

The Ice Book - 28.10.11

Technologies old and new are cleverly combined in Davy & Kristin McGuire’s miniature projected theatre performance, The Ice Book. Part animation, part book art and part performance, the show’s use of back projection onto pop-up book sets result in an experience that is both intimate and immersive.

It also conjures up the spirit of Georges Méliès and early film experimentation, Russian folk tales, magic lantern theatre and eastern European animation. So far so good – all of my personal interest boxes ticked.

The mechanical aspects of the performance – the lightbox and book – are well crafted and work beautifully. And you can sense how the origins of the miniature stage sets lay in full-scale theatre.

The McGuire’s had long held the dream of creating a theatre performance that opened up like a pop-up book and The Ice Book was created as a demonstration model to lure funding.

The back-projected animations play automatically during the performance while one of the artists, in this case Davy, turns the pages of the large pop-up book by hand to reveal each new scene.

However, I found that The Icebook’s story itself is the weakest part of the show. It’s familiar and simple (as folk tales are, I know), telling the the story of a mysterious princess who lures a boy into her magical world to warm her heart of ice.

Given the technical ingenuity on show, I would have liked to see a story with more invention and ‘magic’. It all just felt a bit flat and, well, one-dimensional. This is a minor quibble though (I’m beginning to sound like Barry Norman!) as the it is a special and unique piece of theatre and I’m genuinely excited to see what Davy and Kristin get up to next.

-Gavin Street, Marketing Manager

Chess 26.10.11

 “Chess”, not a show I was familiar with and given its youth production nature it seemed an unusual choice for production company DTC to stray away from the safer ground of shows like “Our House” and “Les Mis” that they have previously produced. 

However I can honestly say that the cast, crew and producers pulled it off.  The show used a smaller group of prominent characters compared to others and this worked to the casts strengths meaning the actors that performed were a much tighter unit and produced some good moments.  Sadly those moments were few and far between due to the sheer number of songs that Chess possesses, I know it’s a musical but when the first half runs at 1 hour 15 minutes and about an hour of that is similarly paced songs it gets quite laborious. 

The second half was better with a shorter running time and songs that had more character, including “One Night In Bangkok” and the one everyone knows “I Know Him So Well”.  All the songs were performed excellently though with some very strong voices being able to really stretch their legs.

An usual staging and minimal set forced innovative direction and lighting to be used so scenes could be distinguished between and the show didn’t become visually boring.  There were no legs and as a result no wings so all the stage was visible and the space was filled well by clever lighting conventions.  The crew who were dressed in white shirts and black ties sat to the side of the stage and took on acting crew member roles during scene changes.

In a sentence, the cast was better than the show with the audience feeling they’d had a good game but check-mate hadn’t quite been achieved.  I feel spurred on to look out for future shows produced by DTC thanks to Chess, one of which was hinted at after the final number when the theme from “The Phantom of the Opera” rang throughout the auditorium, a surprise to the cast as much as the audience it seemed, look out for that in 2012. 

-Tom Marcinek, Box Office Assistant

MBD: The Four Seasons (Autumn and Winter) 12.10.11

From the moment it entered the building, this pile of logs, old broken furniture, an old car in need of restoration, a couple of hospital beds, a selection of xmas trees, two old and adapted pianos and a host of modern LED lighting, sound equipment and computer projection equipment I immediately became involved in an experience I knew nothing about. 

The 4 Seasons.

 

Here at the Drill Hall we have been hosting Autumn & Winter with 2 ½ full days of fit up and then the opening night with over 100 people through the doors I can honestly say I can honestly say that Autumn is Awesome and Winter is enlightening. You find that you can relate to the story on more than one level and become part of it. Thank you Polly for letting me into your life and god bless.

-Gary Malam, Operations Manager



A video made from the launch night of the Four Seasons - a walk through all of the seasons and what the public thought:

Hear the soundtracks from the Four Seasons here

View a visitor's blog on the Four Seasons here

The Ash Walker 13.10.11

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, The Ash Walker is an at times sinister but moving account of the last man on Earth’s realisation and understanding of his part in the end of the world.

Having had a series of smaller studio theatre performances at Lincoln Drill Hall, The Ash Walker stands out among them as one of the best from Upstage Left Theatre Company.  As a one man show it was beautifully acted by Daniel Rex Cahil conveying the story with a level of humanity and depth often missing from solo performance.

Written and directed by Stuart McPherson, someone who writes often of the darker side of human nature and knows how to pile on the agony, The Ash Walker is no exception. However, McPherson manages to capture and hold the audience much better in this 45 minute show than in previous lengthier productions.

The story follows the accountability of one man’s actions that snowball out of his own control and leave him in a state of regret induced amnesia that he spends the following years trying to reverse.  Having lost the love of his life in a tragic terrorist attack and his own memory, the central character searches the burnt out remains of his world for answers only to find he is ultimately responsible for her death.

This was a poignant moving piece that deals incredibly well with one man’s life, love and loss. It is a play and performance that will be with me for a long time.

-Andy Farenden, box office assistant


See our other theatre events by clicking here

Frisky & Mannish's Pop Centre Plus 08.10.11

Frisky and Mannish’s Pop Centre plus was a riot of musical hilarity. From the moment they appeared on stage they had us in fits of laughter and up on our feet for a plethora of audience participation.

Their take on current pop music is refreshing, silly and insightful: from their classic rendition of The Wheels on the Bus set to Girls Aloud’s Sound of the Underground to their Bee Gees inspired take on Rihanna’s Rude Boy – complete with Mannish hitting the high notes (much to Frisky’s annoyance) – they were pure cheesy pop gold. Definitely my highlight of Lincoln Comedy Festival!

-Andy Farenden, Box Office Assistant

You can see what other comedy acts we have this season by clicking here

Jon Richardson and Shappi Khorsandi 07.10.11

I arrived at the Drill Hall with high hopes of laughter for this sell out night. I was particularly pleased with the value for money £15 for two top comedians!!

  

 Jon Richarson is a cynical perfectionist in the extreme. He makes humour of his talent to spoil a day over trivial things, and in his own words "why worry about the important things when there’s plenty of little things you can worry about?" Jon was funny and had the audience captivated with his anecdotes of how his obsessive thoughts lead to his strange curious behaviour - especially his difficulty in talking to women and maintaining a relationship.

 The beautiful Shappi on the other hand came stumbling on stage forgetting half of her props. It was clear Shappi didn’t share the same attention to detail as Jon, and she went on to pick on exactly the same young newly engaged couple at the front  as Jon did, and tried to make them and the audience share the same scepticism about long lasting relationships as she did. The show gave an insight to what it was like to grow up as a Iranian in England and her close but competitive relationship with her brother. She also talked about how her father’s political beliefs led to assassination attempts and now and again throwing in a references to her divorce. My only criticism of Shappi was I wasn’t really sure the direction of the show and it sometimes felt that she hadn’t actually

planned the show at all.

 - Finance Manager

You can see what other comedy acts we have this season by clicking here

Sinfonia ViVA 05.10.11

I didn't know what to expect of sinfonia ViVA - I'd heard good things since about them since their name popped up in our brochure, but I'd not even heard of them before then, never mind heard them play.

It's safe to say I was absolutely astounded. They are phenomenal! The sound they made was just amazing - the strings simply sang in every single piece.

Leader Benedict was great at keeping the audience engaged, and explaining the pieces before they were played, and everyone in the auditorium (which sadly was not very full) loved him.

Even though the whole thing was 2 and a bit hours it definitly didn't feel like it, and I freely admit to going home and youtubing the pieces

ViVA played that night.

- Hilary Shepherd, Marketing Officer

You can see what other classical music events
we have this season by clicking here

The Magnets 29.09.11

The Magnets' show on 29th Sept was the band’s second visit to the Drill Hall but it certainly won’t be their last… Not only are they fantastic musicians who really know how to put on a show, they’re also bloody nice blokes!

Working with them is a joy and they seem to get genuine enjoyment from every gig, even every song they perform.

They love talking to people before and after the show and this time they even agreed to a private performance in the afternoon which was one of the auction prizes from our Bangers & Mash Ball in August.

The atmosphere in the building during the gig is absolutely electric and people leave in such a good mood. In many ways it’s the perfect kind of Drill Hall gig and if you could bottle the Magnets on get it on the NHS I reckon the world would be a happier place…

-Simon Hollingworth, Director

You can see what other musical acts we have booked this season by clicking here

Lunchtime Concert 06.09.11

To be honest, this felt like quite a long concert...

However, it sounded great - the pieces were high-profile and probably nearly impossible to play, (see Concert details - Lincoln Drill Hall Website) but I found myself a bit too tired to concentrate fully!

It was a piano four hands solo, which is fairly unusual, and I remember thinking that one of the pieces had a nice tune to it, though I couldn't sing it now if you asked me to. The Drill Hall's auditorium was comfortably filled with people, mostly of the silver-haired generation, but no complaints from me as they all seemed to love it! :)

- Hilary Shepherd, Marketing Officer

You can see what other classical music events we have this season by clicking here