Who's to Blame for the Financial Crisis?

Listen to our new poem, by Martin Vander Weyer, who, appropriately enough, also happens to be the Arts Centre's Treasurer.

National Theatre Live comes to Helmsley !

Thursday 6th of September  7.00pm

The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time


Join us for the first screening of our brand new National Theatre Live series where Mark Haddon’s multi-award-winning novel is beautifully adapted into a stage play for the first time. In the intimate setting of the Cottesloe Theatre, NT Live will transport us to front row seats for this imaginative in-the-round production. Christopher is under suspicion of killing Mrs Shears dog. With an extraordinary brain, he’s exceptional at maths but ill-equipped to interpret everyday life. He has never ventured alone beyond the end of his road, but his detective work takes Christopher on a journey that upturns his world.
Starring Matthew Barker and Niamh Cusack.
Adapted from Mark Haddon’s best-selling novel by Simon Stephens.
Directed by Marianne Elliott.
Running time: approx. 2 1/2 hours including 20-minute interval

£12 / Concs: £10 (OFFER: All 3 NT Live shows: £30 / Concs £24)  Buy tickets now

The other two shows are : 11 October - The Last of the Haussmans with Julie Waters and Rory Kinnear,  directed by Howard Davies.

                                          1 November - Timon of Athens with Simon Russel Beale, directed by Nicholas Hytner

Three poems about power

Two poems entered earlier this year in our poetry competition's 9 - 12 year olds category:
The Volcano by George Leeming, read by Louise Fitton
Engine Power by Marcus Allen, read by Martin Vander Weyer

And one poem entered in the 5-8 category:
Vicious Sea by Teagan Jones, read by Louise Fitton

The Sunne Rising at Helmsley Arts Centre

The Sunne Rising by John Donne, chosen and read by David Powley because way back in the mid 1960s it was for him such an exciting discovery : the combination of caressive intimacy with the poet’s delight in playing intellectual games as he builds up his argument against the sun. The sentiment is so relaxed and everyday (for lovers, anyway) yet contained and conveyed in a poem so tightly controlled in its rhythms, phrasing, shape, sound and argument.
John Donne, born in 1572 but still very much alive.
Do you have a favourite poem? Let us know and why you choose it.
And don't forget to send us your own poems to read and display at the Arts Centre.

Don't miss two fabulous plays performed by our Youth Theatre

Starting tomorrow!!!

The Blues Sisters is a lively and inventive comedy with music. When Madame Chantelle's School of Dance and Deportment is threatened with closure by evil property developer Barnaby Sludge, Maddy, Becky and Annie are transformed into 'The Blues Sisters'. They take on the crooks, but will they save the day?

Rain on Me, Mark Rees' award-winning drama for teenagers, won the Quidi Vidi trophy at the Scottish Youth Finals in Dundee in June 2001. This is a modern Romeo and Juliet with overtones of West Side Story and Roxanne. While the drama is serious in parts, it is hugely entertaining and contains realistic and sometimes hilarious dialogue.

Thursday 28 to Saturday 30 June, 7.30pm
£6 / Concs £5 Students & Under 25s £3

buy tickets now

Hello to the blogosphere!

Hello to the blogosphere! 

Em here, Artistic Director, in my first blog since taking up the post at Helmsley Arts Centre six months ago. Better late than never!

Very exciting developments to tell you about as our summer programme is under way and there's lots happening. 

The main news this week is that we've just signed a contract with the National Theatre to stream some of their productions ABSOLUTELY LIVE in our cinema. We are one of only 160 venues in the UK to be doing this, and we're hoping both our theatre and cinema audiences will love this new addition to the programme. I went down to the National last week to hear how it works, and was really impressed. They dont just film one of their performances from the back of the theatre; they build a platform over some of the front seats, they rig cameras, cranes and anything they need to get the best filmed version, they do separate rehearsals to ensure the filming goes well - and then fill the theatre with a live audience as well. So it really is as if you, in our cinema, are sitting on the very front row of the Olivier, the Lyttelton or the Cottesloe Theatre, and watching it all as it happens.

Nicholas Hytner, AD of the National, told us about the shows we'll be getting. The first one is Thursday 6th September; The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime based on the book by Mark Haddon, filmed in the round, in the intimacy of the Cottesloe Theatre. Then on October 11th Julie Walters stars in bittersweet comedy Last of the Haussmans, which is getting rave reviews already. November 1st it's Shakespeare's Timon of Athens starring Simon Russell Beale, described by the Independent as "the greatest stage actor of his generation". This rarely-staged play depicts a society in the throes of post-credit crunch upheavals, and will be set in the present, so a topical production indeed. And on Jan 17th we'll be showing The Count of Monte Cristo, a big swashbuckling family spectacle in true National Theatre style. So - something for everyone. Get your tickets early!

Keep in touch. Tell us what you want to see at your arts centre, and thank you for your support.

More soon....Em

Poetry at Helmsley Arts Centre : The Ticking Clock by Christopher Ware

The Ticking Clock is read by the author.
Bonfire is read by David Powley
The Power of Vision is read by Rachel Shackleton
In Search of Inspiration is read by David Powley

Poetry at Helmsley Arts Centre : Bonfire by David Smith

David Smith's poem is from a collection of his poems called "Unnatural Workings",  published by
Quoin Publishing, Middlesborough. The poems reflect his farming upbringing and his observations whilst travelling in the international freight business.

A writer of both short stories and poetry his work has appeared in "The Sid  Chaplin Short Story Anthology", Red Squirrel Press and Assent.

He was born and lives in North Yorkshire and now he has joined forces with Helmsley Arts Centre as a member of  Ryedale Writers at Helmsley Arts Centre, to be launched at the Centre on Monday 16th July at 7.00pm, further details of which will be announced soon.

And remember, if you have a poem of your own you would like to have read (or to read aloud yourself) do let us know. Likewise, if there's a poem not your own that you particularly like let us know about it and  a little of why you like it so much.

Bonfire is read by David Powley

Ryedale Open Literature Entertainment

A meesage from John Dean:

Now, with April’s sweet showers around, a new open access occasional literary group is forming. Ryedale Open Literature Entertainment (ROLE), with the aim to share poetry, plays and prose, initially in Kirkbymoorside, then at various Ryedale venues.

Examples of activities which will assist the launch of  ROLE, directly or indirectly, include:

* the Scarborough Literature Festival 

* a book launch by poet Paul Munden: poems and photographs of Shandy Hall, Coxwold. Thursday 12 April, 7 -7.45 p.m. at Kirkbymoorside Library tickets available £1 now at the Library;

* poetry sharing at and around the Daffodil Walk in Farndale on Sunday 15th April

* a WEA literary course launch ‘True Voices of Feeling’ - Friends Meeting House, Kirkbymoorside   Monday 16th April 10.45-12.45 for ten weeks.

If you would like to help with these readings, or at others in the future, please contact John at 01439 771639 or email.

John Dean

Local writer wins award

A Ryedale author has won an award for her latest novel.

Jane Lovering, who works as a science technician at Lady Lumley’s School, won the award for the Romantic Comedy Novel of the Year at a ceremony in London.

The title was awarded by the Romantic Novelists’ Association for her novel Please Don't Stop The Music, the tale of a jewellery designer and a musician who keep secrets from each other and the world.

Please Don’t Stop the Music now goes forward to the Romantic Novel of the Year competition, which is influenced by public vote.

Find out more about the awards here.

'Playhouse Creatures' coming to the Arts Centre - 17th & 18th May

1699, and the theatres have re-opened after seventeen years of suppression. A bawdy and troublesome new age has begun, and with it the entrance of the first English actresses allowed upon the stage. Nell Gwyn, Elizabeth Barry, Rebecca Marshall, Mary Betterton: flesh and blood heroines admired by many, but living a precarious life... the gutters ever ready to reclaim them.

'Playhouse Creatures' directed by Jonathan Lewis is a Blue Aces Theatre production. In the following video Jonathan chats with some of the actors about the play and the process of putting it on the stage:
 





Blue Aces Theatre Ltd is a touring theatre company run in association with Helmsley Arts Centre and based in the Ryedale district of North Yorkshire. Founded by director Jonathan Lewis, the group produces high quality plays and educational workshops for local secondary schools, arts centres and theatres, (although we are keen to spread our wings and visit other areas!)

We have two ambitions. Firstly, every play we do matters to us; we choose projects with care and invest our work with a great deal of thought and passion. Secondly, we aim to give talented young actors the opportunity of working with professional performers. If you are aged between 16-30 and are serious about your acting, please get in touch.
Find out more about Blue Aces Theatre.

'Playhouse Creatures' is being performed at Helmsley Arts Centre on 17th & 18th May. Call the Box Office on 01439 771700 for tickets.

Our next film - 'War Horse' - 21 & 23 March

Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, "War Horse" begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets-British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter-before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man's Land.



Buy Tickets.