Immersive Theatre - Further details have been revealed for a multi-million pound immersive theatre venue in London’s West End, which will be spread across seven buildings and 200 different rooms. Located in a former club and office block on Oxford Street, Space 18 will open on 13 April with immersive survival experience Variant 31.
The producers behind it - Dalton Dale, producing artistic director of Big Dreamer Productions, and Stephen McGill for McGill Productions - have revealed more plans for the venue. According to Dale, Space 18 will include five bars and a nightclub and has a maximum capacity of 1,500 audience members.
The project, which costs £2.5m, will become London’s first purpose-built immersive theatre complex. Last year, plans for another purpose-built immersive theatre, in Elephant and Castle, fell through, meaning when Space 18 opens in April it will be the first venue created in the capital specifically to stage immersive productions.
Manchester Date - Ariana Grande is to play in Manchester for the first time since 2017 when she headlines Manchester Pride in August. Twenty-two people died in a suicide attack outside her show at Manchester Arena in May 2017. The US pop star will return to the city to headline the LGBT+ event at a new 9,000-capacity outdoor venue at an old railway depot on Sunday 25 August.
The singer is currently at both number one and two in the UK singles chart and also has the number one album. She had previously said she would play a "a special show" in Manchester as part of her forthcoming world tour, but hadn't confirmed details.
Sound Winners - At the Oscars, Bohemian Rhapsody picked up both the Sound Editing and Sound Mixing Awards, making it the second year in a row a single film won for both categories. Rami Malek fronted the film as Freddy Mercury.
John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone won for Sound Editing, while Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali were awarded for Sound Mixing. When accepting the award, Warhurst recalled, “Working for Bohemian Rhapsody really was an honour, I mean, we got to work with Queen for our day job.”
Black Art - A theatre awards ceremony to honour black performers and creative talent in UK theatre is to launch this year. The first Black British Theatre Awards will take place in October, organised by Solange Urdang, the principal of the Urdang Academy in London. The Black British Theatre Awards will have 24 categories, including best male and female actors and supporting actors, best musical or play and and prizes to recognise backstage talent. Urdang said she was creating the awards because the industry needed a “concerted effort to raise awareness of the imbalance of talent”.
(Jim Evans)
26 February 2019

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