The Fabularium » theatre and professional practice

Dec 23

by Gareth Price-Baghurst in News 0 comments tags: ACE, Appetite Stoke, Arts Council England, Badger and Fox, Birmingham Hippodrome, Cabaret, Christmas At Kew, Christmas Lights, Christmas Lights Switch On, Circus Sideshows, City of Culture, Collaboration, Coventry, Coventry 2021, Coventry City of Culture, Coventry City of Culture 2021, Coventry University, Dante Cabaret, Deda Derby, Fabularium, Festival Hall, Firm Footings & Faulty Bearings, Gloucester Culture Trust, Grimbert the Badger, Just So Festival, Kew Gardens, Lincolnshire, Live & Local, Live Music, London, Market Rasen, Mongolia, New Music, New Show, Noctium, October Plenty, Offsite, Outdoor Arts, outdoor theatre, Recording, Recording Studio, Reynard the Fox, Siberia, Siberian Moon, Stage Show, Summer in Southside, Tales and Trails, Tenbury Wells, Thank you, The Badger and the Fox, The Big Feast, The Fabularium, The Hare and the Moon, The Town Band of Bremen, The Valley Evesham, theatre, theatre and professional practice, There Be Monsters!, Tin Type Trailer, touring, Tundra Tales, Walkabout, Wild Rumpus

Past, Present and Future – Final Blog of 2018

Hey everyone, welcome to the final Fabularium blog of 2018! As it’s the last blog of the year, I’m going to update you on what we’ve been up to recently, what we’ve achieved over this past year, and what our plans are for next year. Sound cool? Awesome! Then let’s get to it! What we’ve been up to recently This December has been pretty busy for us, we’ve been working on new things in the run up to Christmas, as well as a fun venture northwards with Reynard the Fox… Last Reynard performance of the year We had our final performance of Reynard the Fox this year up in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire. We performed the indoor version of the show in the Festival Hall to a lovely, warm welcoming audience, and we were joined by the amazing Anna! Many thanks to Market Rasen Town Council and Live & Local for bringing us back up to Lincolnshire, and to our great audience! We had such a lovely evening performing, and it was a great way to end this year’s tour of Reynard the Fox. Though Reynard himself isn’t quite finished this year, because… Kew Gardens …he’s now in Kew […]

Goodnight, Dante Cabaret!

Well, that was a hell-of-a-production! (Apologies, there will be a few hellish puns, gotta get them out of the system.) 5 intense weeks of hard work and effort, song and dance, heavy metal, blood, gore, rude jokes, censorship, paint, saw dust, fabric, gaffer tape, van loading and unloading, lates nights and, of course, repeatedly shouting the band’s name out loud for comedic effect. Not to mention rehearsal, production and performance! It’s been a whirlwind and truly rushed past in the blink of an eye, but what a great time we’ve all had! Dante Cabaret had sellout run of 3 nights in The Box at Fargo Village, and has been one of our most ambitious shows to date. And we’ve absolutely loved it, and had an incredible team of 45 students that have been a pleasure to work with. Their effort, their dedication, their creations are commendable and amazing, so much talent, humour, discipline and strength. What a great bunch! We’ve thoroughly enjoyed this teaching experience, and hopefully the students have taken a lot away from it! It’s had some great lessons for us too, teaching us more about big indoor shows and how we manage ourselves in the step up in […]

Live Briefs @ Coventry University – WEEK 3

It’s been a BUSY week. The pressure was ON and with less than 2 weeks until opening night…. But the students are all rising to all the challenges and pulling out all the stops to get this production up and ready! The story line is being honed, the cabaret acts have been decided and being rehearsed throughout the week with major developments for production and make up, music is being written and rehearsed faster than you can imagine and marketing have been busy promoting this show like crazy! Check out Dante Cabaret Facebook and Instagram to follow live updates… Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dantecabaret18/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dantecabaret/ We also held an advanced Acro session to really push the students who wanted to develop that skill. We saw some amazing results in only a few hours and with boosted confidence the students began to combine tricks to start making a routine – The Boneyard Tumblers. We also attempted a 4 part harmony version of ‘Allegri’ with the 30 performers, and with only an hour or so for the separate parts to practice, the first time we pulled all 4 sections together sounded quite spectacular and is now indeed being used in the […]

Live Briefs @ Coventry University – WEEK 2

How goes it folks! Week 2 down, and it’s been another fun and adventurous one filled with construction, devising, improvising, clowning, singing and music, jamming, stilting, and general play! So the Wagon has been built and setup ready for the students to explore and become familiar with. We’ve been setting various devising tasks throughout the week for them to produce scenes that they can present on the Wagon, and there’s been some great developments and creations! We also took some time to explore clowning and audience clocking, so that the group can embrace the engagement they will have with their audience during the shows. One of our tasks was dishing out cabaret acts that we want to see in the show, and what the students came back with was wonderful! Amazing, entertaining, hilarious and downright dark humoured acts that had us in stitches as well as creeped out! They’ve really started hitting the nail on the head and produced some quality acts that will be fantastic for halloween! And so we’ve collected some together, asked for people to continue working on new ideas, and have a good handful of acts that we’re happy to start […]

There Be Monsters on the horizon!

The Big Blog Post Hello World! It’s been a little while… Apologies for the continued radio silence, we’ve been exceptionally busy, but if you’ve been tuning into our social media feeds then you’ll know just how crazy and exciting things have been recently! So, here is one of our infamous BIG UPDATES to give you an insight into what The Fabularium has been up to over the Summer. There Be Monsters! The biggest piece of news came a few months ago when we were fortunate enough to recieve Arts Council funding for our new Don Quixote-based promenade/walkabout performance There Be Monsters! We also recieved support from the wonderful people at the Birmingham Hippodrome, Deda Derby’s Offsite Programme, and Appetite Stoke. We spent June and July working with Jim and Matilda, two freelance actor-musicians we auditioned, to devise a new production that would promenade around the streets of Birmingham at Summer In Southside. This show was a step in a new direction for us, as we wanted to create a show away from the Animal Headpieces and exploring a roaming show, but still maintaining our key features of storytelling, live orignal music and mask work. On this show we also worked with Director […]

Jul 22

by Gareth Price-Baghurst in News 0 comments tags: company manager, Coventry University, future, Jessica Rowe, Just So Festival, learning and participation, management, Summer in Southside, The Fabularium, theatre and professional practice, touring, two become three

The best things in life are THREE!

Allow me to virtually introduce myself… I’m Jessica (Jes) the new co-company manager of The Fabularium *cue pyrotechnics and trumpet fanfare* I’ll be the one on the team (minus Lou, of course) without the unruly facial hair, but hey, I’ll try my best. – I’m absolutely thrilled to join Gareth, Josh and the team on this exciting journey into creating and help manage all things Fabularium. I have worked with the company since 2014, straight after graduating from Coventry University. Since then, I have been fortunate enough to tour with the company on their productions of ‘The Town Band of Bremen’, ‘Reynard the Fox’, ‘Carnival of Animals’ ‘Animalia’ at Just So Festival and currently our new show, ‘There Be Monsters!’ More about that soon…stay tuned! – In addition to all those wonderful adventures, I am also a freelance actress/facilitator and choreographer. I have been work-shopping in community settings and schools for the past year and am looking forward to seeing what The Fabularium can explore in the area of learning and participation. I have a passion for comedy, devising, dance, singing, a good roast dinner and not forgetting, my little doggie Maisie. – It’s been a […]

Nov 05

by Gareth Price-Baghurst in News, Rehearsals, Touring Antics 0 comments tags: Autumn, Avoncroft, Avoncroft Museum, Birmingham Hippodrome, Bromsgrove, Cambridge, Cambridge Folk Festival, Cheshire, Coventry, Coventry University, Cyclops, Denmark, FEI, GCT, Gloucester, Gloucester Culture Trust, International, International Maskefestival Naestved, Isan, Isanuk, Just So Festival, King Noble Lion, Live Music, London, Maskefestival, Naestved, October Plenty, outdoor theatre, Reynard the Fox, Spring, Spring/Summer Tour, Street Theatre, students, Summer, Summer in Southside, Summer Tour, the cautionary tales, The Cyclops and his Naughty Flock of Sheep, the Lions part, The Magical Moving Trees, The Naughty Flock of Sheep, The Plague Doctors, The Playful Peasants, The Tales Exchange, theatre, theatre and professional practice, Theatre Students

Our Summer and Autumn Shenanigans

How’s it going Fabu-followers? If you’ve been keeping tabs on our social media then you’ll know that our Summer Tour has been absolutely incredible, and Autumn has proven to be just as busy! Here’s an update on what we’ve been up to since our last blog: The Reynard Spring/Summer 2017 Tour The Reynard Spring/Summer 2017 Tour has been a very adventurous one, and we were ecstatic to hear so many great comments from our audience members! Reynard visited 18 events, with a total of 40 performances! All of which had a cracking turnout, so a HUGE HUGE HUGE THANK YOU for your everlasting support! You can check out our Facebook and Instagram feeds to see all the photos from the tour and see our usual shenanigans! Summer tour photos: Cambridge Folk Festival (left) and Summer in Southside (right) BUT!!! It would appear Reynard isn’t quite finished yet- Reynard in Autumn and Winter That’s right: you have 2 more opportunities to catch the rogue with red fur this year: Sunday 19th November – Wolford Wood, East of Cheltenham – 3pm (2:30pm walkabout) Sunday 10th December – Fulstow Village Hall (Lincs Rural Touring), Louth – 6:30pm (indoor version) More information for […]

End of New Landscapes, Start of Animalia, and Summer in Southside

Good afternoon! We’re extremely busy as always; prepping for tour, working with students, doing charity bike rides, but let me break this down for you: New Landscapes So, sadly, the New Landscapes module has come to an end, and it drew to a close with an almighty BANG! The Cautionary Tales for Children Considering Ill Behaviour was a resounding success, with great audiences on both show days. Thank you to all who came to see the show, the students did a magnificent job and we can’t believe our time with them is over, but we couldn’t be prouder of what they have all achieved! There are plenty of pictures and videos to see, just head to our social media pages to check them out (we took a lot of Boomerang videos on our Instagram, check them out! @TheFabularium) Animalia Rehearsals We got back in the rehearsal space this week with a group of Cov Uni theatre students and members of the Fabularium pool to prepare for our return to the Tales of Animalia at Just So Festival this Summer! We’re currently cycling through our repertoire, introducing the students to the animal characters, sheep, peasants, Cyclops and Trees, as well as rehearsing some […]

May 23

by Gareth Price-Baghurst in News 0 comments tags: Acrobatics, Coventry, Coventry University, dancing, Music, musical instruments, New Landscapes, outdoor theatre, Singing, the cautionary tales, The Fabularium, theatre, theatre and professional practice, tour dates

New Landscapes and Fabularium Tour Dates

Evening all! It’s been a busy two weeks since we last posted, we’re all full steam ahead for The Cautionary Tales next week! The students have been working brilliantly to pull the shows together, to sing harmoniously, and to tumble and roll (quite literally) in the acrobatic intro. As you can see below, they’re enjoying it too! Thursday is our last day to dress run the show inside and work out any last creases in the shows. Then, next week, we have an outdoor dress run on Tuesday, and then ITS SHOW DAY!!! We will be performing The Cautionary Tales: for children considering ill behaviour on Wednesday 31st May and Thursday 1st June, 12pm-2pm. To hear more about the event, visit the Facebook Event. We’ve also updated our tour dates page, check them out to see if we’re coming to a park/town/hall/school/theatre near you! Keep your eyes on our social media feeds to see how The Cautionary Tales go. Photos and posts to come! Happy Tuesday folks! Joshua the Fox x

The BIG Update

Good morning all! Firstly, a huge apology on the delay of our blog posts, it’s been a manic time for us with a mixture of different things in the pipeline that are coming to fruition, so I’ve been swept up in the whirlwind of it all and thus focusing on the paper trail that the whirlwind has scattered everywhere. But now, WE’RE BACK! So here is the BIG update! Arts Council Funding Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, People, Players and Peasants alike: WE GOT OUR ARTS COUNCIL FUNDING!!! We applied for funding to proceed with Phase 2 of Reynard the Fox; developing the show into an indoor version that is fit for rural touring venues. Alongside running New Landscapes in March, we returned to the rehearsal space ourselves to refresh Reynard and extend the length of the performance, playing with the script and characters and set. This also saw the return of our outside eye, the wonderful Niki McCretton from Stuff and Nonsense Theatre, who spent a few days with us to help explore the intentions of our characters and tighten all the nuts and bolts. Niki McCretton and our friend Maria joining us for our dress rehearsal The end result was a […]