News from the lovely Offbeat Folks!
We are really pleased that our silly, funny and super cool spy musical Spy School – the Seventh Department is having a few outings around the country this July. Written as a Leavers Gala production for 10 year olds – but, honestly, I’d be happy to be in it and I’m not 10! Simple staging, great songs, large cast of spies – could it get any better? Go and have a quick browse and a listen…
The new Offbeat Theatre production is based very very loosely on the Frog Prince and we’ve called it The Frog King. Immediately you see the looseness of the story! In fact if you hop over (sorry) to the blog you might find a more detailed synopsis.
This pic is the Frog King’s head in construction (you can see the scale of it by comparing to the mannequin)
The winner of the talking sandwich prize for the most performed play from the Offbeat vaults has to be Rob Hockley’s Darkness in the Night, which is no surprise really. This moody and dark shot (shades of ‘Queen’), is from the students of Hereford 6th Form College, performing on Friday 28th April. Good luck! See you there…
In this version of ‘Alice’The Tweedles & Alice end up on a boat. This is a beautifully lit photo – clocks looking like stars. Fantastic. Love it. Retford Youth Theatre. Costumes by Offbeat.
The Offbeat ‘Alice’ costumes have had an outing! Retford Youth Theatre have been performing a version of ‘Alice’ (there are many) and from the few photos I’ve seen so far, it looks pretty amazing. Great set, moody lighting & I’m so chuffed that our costumes have added to the magic they have created. Well done all – this is one of the photos and I’m guessing a game of croquet has just been played …
This is more like it! We did a production of Beauty and the Beast a few years back and I created/assembled steampunk costumes for the musicians, stage crew and narrator/singer (pictured). About to create a whole lot more for a steampunk Alice in Wonderland costume hire. Watch this space…
Just looking through a few photos for steampunk costume pics and I found this fantastically moody shot from our Beauty and the Beast production a few years back. We did use steampunk costumes in that show, but not for the Beast (Joshua Herriott on the right with cool dreadlocks) or Mr Richman (Mark Cox cringing on the left with a stolen rose) .. so I’ll keep looking then…
Photo by Tom Flathers.
One of the things we do at Offbeat HQ is make costumes and props. We usually start with a production of our own and then, if there’s a demand, we hire them out! After a production of Alice’s Adventures last year, we decided to make some of the costumes available. Tigerlily, Violet and Rose are 3 of the Talking Flowers in the ‘Looking Glass’ part of Alice and these are the ‘mark II’ costumes (yes I did airbrush the mannequin’s arms out). A production, featuring these and other Offbeat costumes, will be taking place at Retford Little Theatre in a couple of weeks… (can’t wait for production photos).
We recently helped to costume a production of Romeo and Juliet for Bourne End Academy in Bucks. This looks like a suitably sombre, atmospheric shot of the final scene to me. The 20s style is so elegant and instantly associated with parties (of the rich) and gangsters. Good choice for Romeo and Juliet – we also do a ‘Punk Elizabethan’ ..now there’s a thought!
Some photos you never tire of. This is one of my favourites taken by Jim Rolt during a rehearsal by Conquest Youth Theatre for Darkness in the Night, one of Rob Hockley’s most popular plays. Performed all over the place, home and abroad, with success in One Act Competitions in the UK (Sodbury Players Youth Section – we still love you for that!), it just oozes daftness, darkness, Rob’s trademark witty, sharp humour and astute observations regarding teenage relationships. Four characters, an empty house, a cupboard, an egg whisk, many personal issues, romance, a few snacks … and the darkness of the underworld.
At Offbeat we surround ourselves with all things magical, strange and quirky. We love creating theatre - especially if it's magical, strange and quirky. Which it usually is.
