Writing for Sardines magazine.

I have been writing for Sardines magazine for five issues now spanning from issue No 22 Spring/Summer 2014 to issue No 26 Spring/Summer 2015. My theatre writing has been as varied as full interviews with Warwick Davis, Brian Conley, John Godber and Howard Brenton to compiling and writing a twenty-five page First World War Centenary feature all connected with theatre.

I have also contributed a piece about Nottingham's Lace Market Theatre's twinning events with two theatres in Karlsruhe Germany and a separate piece about the making and playing of my play 'Greetings From The Trenches' which also played in Karlsruhe December 2014.

In the last issue I wrote a piece about Tweet Seating and the nature of annoyances in the theatre from audience members. Look out for a separate blog post about that very soon. Coming up in Sardine's issue 27 Summer/Autumn 2015 I have another full interview with the award winning playwright Mike Kenny who I met at Derby Theatre earlier this year.

Thanks to Paul and Fariba at Sardines for these continuing opportunities to contribute to their fabulous quality magazine.

Phil Lowe

Thanks for a great 2014. Here's to this year!

2014 Highlights: Having the chance to talk to and interview Warwick Davis, Joe McGann, Shobna Gulati, John Godber, Brian Conley, Johnny Pusztai, Howard Brenton and Marcus Romer with Roy Williams. Also having great mates in Rick and Janette Martindale , Cibele Ponces Alvarenga, Lena Maier, Thorsten Feldmann, Carsten Thein, Markus Kűnstler, and Paul Johnson and Fariba from Sardines Magazine. You guys at Sardines have made my year with all the opportunities to write and to be professionally published.

 

Thanks to the The Public Reviews for all the chances to review theatre and shows across the East Midlands. Your exacting standards make my writing better and my theatrical eye keener. Many thanks.

Especial thanks to all at the Jakobus Theatre for hosting my first professional show ‪#‎greetingsfromthetrenches‬ and all at the Theater Die Käuze for supporting it. Of course it wouldn't have happened with the fun and professional work of my great friend Emma Brown. Hopefully see you in Leiden again this summer honey.

Some new friends have entered my life in 2014 not least the wonderful Kev Castle. Many thanks to Jo McLeish for your great support likewise to Heidi McKenzie and all at Derby Theatre especially to Sarah Brigham to access to your rehearsals and to witness your directing styles.

For all the hundreds of followers and readers of my two blogs http://philloweactor.blogspot.co.uk and http://mugofstrongtea.blogspot.co.uk I wish you all a wonderful 2015 and can't wait to see what is around the corner to excite you all through my writing.

Finally thanks to all my colleagues at work who are genuinely interested to see me do well. You know who you are and I appreciate it. xx

 

Happy New Year all.

Professional Endorsements for my research, reviews and writing.

►“Philip has been a guest on my Sunday Morning Show on Nottingham Hospitals Radio and turned out to be not only very knowledgeable on the subject of theatre but an incredibly nice guy. So much so that I'm pleased to say that I always look out for Phil when I am out and about in my role as a theatre reviewer, just for a good chat and to compare opinions." Kev Castle

►“Phil has a highly skilled, articulate style; methodical and well-researched in his approach. Phil's writing technique is adaptable across a broad spectrum of publications. Having worked with Phil on numerous occasions at NottinghamPlayhouse, Phil has always met my expectations and never failed to deliver on commissioned pieces of work. I would encourage any Marketing/Communications team in an Arts venue to use Phil Lowe as a freelance writer/reviewer.” Jo McLeish. The Media Room.

►“Hi Phil, thanks so much for your review of Rhapsody, Magic of Queen. It is a really comprehensive, interesting and well written review, letter perfect on names etc. We wish other people took as much trouble and did as much research to get it all right. A BIG thank you from us and we hope that our paths get to cross another time.” Sarah and David Clarke – Rhapsody management.

►"As one of Sardines magazine's top journalists, Phil Lowe contributes regular well-received articles ranging from celebrity cover stories to specially complied features such as our recent First World War Centenary special. In the magazine publishing industry, professionalism, creativity and efficiency are of paramount importance - thankfully Phil has all three in abundance."

Paul Johnson. Editor in Chief.

►"Phil, through his many roles in profiling and supporting the arts, is a fantastic and much valued contact for us at Derby Theatre. He engages with, invests in, all strands of our work through conducting interviews and writing previews, blogs and reviews. He is also an active participant and audience member - his experiences from which also feed into the positive profile he provides us with. When conducting interviews with actors, directors, writers etc. he is always thoroughly professional, prepared and always extremely courteous to his interviewees. Thank you, Phil for being an immense support and ambassador for Derby Theatre ad the arts in the region."

Heidi McKenzie (Press and Marketing Officer, Derby Theatre)

►"It's been great to have Phil Lowe join us as part of the Big Issue UK arts reviewing team. His writing is knowledgeable and thorough and I appreciate his pro-active approach particularly when a quick turn around is required for a tight deadline." Vicky Carroll. The Big Issue.

Phil Lowe is a freelance creative and theatre writer. Contact Phil at phillming@aol.com

Sardines Magazine. WW1 Centenary feature and more!

I am proud to announce that I have written a World War One centenary special twenty-one page feature for Sardines Magazine (August edition - issue 23) plus an interview with John Godber, Joe McGann and Shobna Gulati. In the last issue Sardines published my interview with Warwick Davis (cover feature), a piece about myself as theatre reviewer and the twinning arrangement at Nottingham's Lace Market Theatre. It is an honour for me to be a contributor to this excellent
magazine.

 Paul Johnson - Sardines editor in chief - has done a fantastic job of editing my text and bringing the piece even further to life with some brilliant photo arrangements. Amongst the WW1 subjects (all to do with theatre) we feature the puppets from War Horse, an interview with Howard Brenton at The Globe theatre, insights into one production of Private Peaceful plus news and reviews from professional touring productions. Those include Northern Broadsides 'An August Bank Holiday Lark', Nottingham Playhouse's new play 'The Second Minute' by Andy Barrett and directed by Giles Croft and  Alex Gwyther's one man show 'Our  Friends, The Enemy'. Two amateur productions of 'Oh What A Lovely War' are seen in two very different ways and there is a great photographic compilation of pictures from many an amateur First World War play across the country. And much more...

The latest magazine - hot off the press - is chock full of articles that will be fascinating for any lover of the theatre and can be ordered through the Sardines website either as a single magazine or subscription or downloadable. Back copies can also be ordered through the same website.

The John Godber interview took place in the rehearsal rooms at the former Art College on Green Lane and I caught John mid-rehearsal with his production team and cast for a new touring production of his play April In Paris. He was a very straight talking and relaxed man in the interview and revealed some interesting thoughts on the success of his many plays and style of playing.

His actors, Shobna Gulati and Joe McGann were an utter delight to interview alongside John and were very amusing and insightful in their theatrical stories and tales of the rehearsal process.

Many thanks to Heidi McKenzie at Derby Theatre for arranging this interview. Also big thanks to Jo McLeish c/o Nottingham Playhouse and her own company The Media Room for her continuing support.

Well, that's a promotional flavour of my own contribution to this issue of the quarterly magazine - Sardines. I look forward to submitting more work and ideas in 2014.

Many thanks to Paul Johnson, Fariba and the Sardines team.

Phil Lowe

Twitter :PhilLowe7

Features in Sardines Magazine plus Sharing the Successes in my theatre writing.

Looking back over the last twelve months of theatre reviewing and professionally writing about and for the theatre I have built myself a good reputation as an interesting and inspired writer. My sincere thanks to Heidi McKenzie of Derby Theatre and Jo McLeish of Nottingham Playhouse whose generosity of support has been invaluable during this time. Equally to Paul Johnson of Sardines magazine who saw something in my writing and encouraged me along the way. Lastly to Abigail Rhodes the editor of The Boards who made positive comments about my theatre based ideas for their magazine and encouraged me to submit my articles which were subsequently published.

As well as having the honour to be a regular contributor to the illustrious Sardines theatre magazine I have been out and about throughout the cities of Derby and Nottingham reviewing a plethora of professional plays and shows and interviewing major playwrights such as John Godber, Howard Brenton and Nottingham based playwright, Andy Barratt. Other interviews have included the cast of The Second Minute, Shobna Gulati and Joe McGann, Warwick Davis and Barrie Rutter of Northern Broadsides.

For Sardines I have had three articles published; the cover article and interview with Warwick Davis, a piece about my life as a reviewer and another three page spread about Nottingham's Lace Market Theatre's twinning history with two German theatre companies. This sharing of European theatre is one of my great passions.

Howard Brenton Photo by Phil Lowe

Also for Sardines I have been compiling articles, interviews and reviews connected with plays about and concerned with the centenary of World War One. The result (August edition) will be a twenty page spread of fascinating text that shows off the best of amateur and professional work across the UK accompanied by stunning photographic images. It should be brilliant and collectable edition. As previously mentioned I recently had the chance to go the Globe Theatre in London to meet playwright Howard Brenton to interview him about his new play - Dr Scroggy's War.  The image below is 'hot off the press' and shows both Brenton and Godber on the front page. I was so intrigued by the headline that I had to phone Paul the editor to question it. I was ignorant that the term 'triple threat' was a drama school expression relating to the talents of dance, drama and singing. Well. you learn something new every day!

The issue also supports my World War One Centenary Special.

August edition number 23.

I also had the pleasure of meeting up with the Editor in Chief of Sardines, Mr Paul Johnson for this interview. This was a wonderful day that made me realise how important my on-going experiences and my BA (hons) degree in performance art were; all finally combining to create something of  great value to share with my readers. It is that very satisfying feeling that finally things are coming together and I am doing something that, despite the long hours of creative input and working around an un-connected full time job, I am achieving something of value to all. Through Paul's sterling editorial advice my writing is becoming ever sharper.

Cover of the July- August edition of The Boards

For the Lace Market Theatre I am a regular contributor to their 'The Boards' magazine that informs their membership and members of the public about the activities of the renowned amateur Nottingham based theatre group. The latest July/August edition was primarily about the April twinning event and included news about the sad loss of one of its members, John Holbrook. Magdelena Maier, a talented young actress from Karlsruhe features on the cover. The picture is taken from their amusing and energetic performance of Boeing Boeing.

 

I am also developing a script towards a performance in Karlsruhe, Germany, this coming December, about a fictional friendship between a two soldiers in WW1, a German and an English Soldier. The English title is 'Greetings From The Trenches' and it will be a performance in English and German with song from the exceptionally talented Emma Brown. It has an unusual poetic angle on the aftermath of WW1 and food privations and hopes for the future plus a ghost story. This is currently a work in progress but should be completed (in the scripted form) by August 2014. Emma's work can be discovered at www.ejebrown.com. The piece has also been submitted to Nottingham Playhouse for their Time & Memory opportunity.

And finally, I have been invited by Derby Theatre to present an amateur theatre award at the prestigious The Eagle Awards on Sunday 20th of July. I will be presenting the award for best Panto. Given that my fledgling 1970s and 1980s theatre experiences were through the amateur forum in Derby this will be such an honour. Phil Lowe.

Warwick Davis cover story with Sardines magazine

I'm extraordinarily pleased to announce that Sardines magazine are being gracious enough to publish not one but three of my theatre based articles in their forthcoming Spring/Summer edition out in May this year. There will be an article about my life as a theatre reviewer and why I do it, an article about The Lace Market Theatre in Nottingham and their theatre twinning adventures in Germany and finally; my major article is the cover story about the fantastic actor, Warwick Davis. I had the great pleasure of interviewing him half way through his national tour of the farce, See How They Run. Read how they had to take the wheels off a tea trolley to stop it falling into the front row and how fascinated the audiences are to see the Reduced Height Theatre Company's amazing to scale set of See How They Run plus lots of other amazing Warwick anecdotes and terrific pictures!

Sardines are publishing this interview with some brilliant photos from Warwick's wonderfully varied career so far in the Spring/Summer edition available from early May. Here is a sneak preview of the cover.

Sardines magazine is available through subscription and many other methods of purchase and all the details are at www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk.

Warwick's fantastic production of See How They Run is on tour at the following venues: Catch it while you can!

31st March - 5th April Wycombe Swan - High Wycombe

7th April - 12th April - Derby Theatre - Derby

14th - 19th April - Theatre Royal - Plymouth

22nd - 26th April - Darlington Civic Theatre - Darlington

29th April - 3rd May - Opera House - Manchester

6th May - 10th May - New Theatre - Cardiff.