Dozens of professional actors, directors & poets are joining student actors, directors & poets in a festival at the CAPITAL Centre at the University of Warwick this weekend (12th and 13th May) to celebrate the opening of CAPITAL’s new premises at Millburn House on the University campus.

The CAPITAL Centre is a partnership between the University of Warwick and the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) established to use theatre performance skills and experience to enhance student learning and to draw on University research and resources to shape the development of the RSC acting companies.

Saturday 12th May

On Saturday there will be: rehearsals for Love's Labour's Won, a play that Shakespeare hinted he might would write but never did now written by Jan Sewell and Penny Freedman; Brenda Leedham, Head of Wigs and Make-up at the RSC, will demonstrate how with the help of paint, putty and pastiche, she and her team are able to transform actors into the characters they play on stage; in a session called "Rhymes with Egg Bad" there will be musical fun with writer Peter Blegvad; and the presentation of a play entitled Queen Of The Whores - a new and challenging theatrical work tackling the unspoken truths of prostitution.

Also on Saturday afternoon: Gregory Award-winning poet Luke Kennard will read from his new book The Harbour Beyond The Movie in the Writer's Room; Peter Cant presents the first rehearsed reading of his new play; Little Thorns with special guest RSC associate actor Richard Pasco; a Eurovision poetry contest; the premiere of Love's Labour's Won; and an evening of performance poetry by guest poets including Roi Kwabena, Jane Holland, Shamshad Khan, Annouchka Bayley and Rob Gee.

On Sunday:

RSC assistant director Donnacadh O'Briain leads an interactive workshop session on Richard III; 12NOON-1pm - The Opening Ceremony: RSC Associates Harriet Walter, Richard Pasco and Barbara Leigh-Hunt, Warwick Vice-Chancellor Nigel Thrift and CAPITAL Director Carol Chillington Rutter; Professional company Fail Better present two of Beckett's short plays, Rough For Theatre II and Ohio Impromptu; leading members of the RSC discuss what ensemble playing means to them; an African Music workshop - Warwick graduate Adam Glasser leads an interactive music workshop;

Artistic Director of Northern Broadsides Barrie Rutter will presents his workshop The Long Breath on speaking Shakespeare's language and a session on Finding Falstaff; Tim Supple, artistic director of Dash Arts and creator of the highly-acclaimed Indian production of A Midsummer Night's Dream currently playing in Stratford will lead a masterclass; and RSC/Warwick International Playwright-in-Residence Adriano Shaplin will be running practical sessions on how to write a play.

On both days there will be an exhibition of photographs, presented by RSC actress Harriet Walter: entitled Infinite Variety celebrating the beauty of the ageing female face.

For further information please contact:

Professor Carol Chillington Rutter
Director of the CAPITAL Centre
University of Warwick
Tel: 02476 523649

Peter Dunn, Press and Media Relations Manager,
University of Warwick Tel: 024 76 523708
or 07767 655860 p.j.dunn@warwick.ac.uk

PR35 11th May 2007