Reading’s Progress Theatre, on the Mount in Redlands, has temporarily closed its doors from today, and cancelled this season’s shows, because of the coronavirus epidemic.
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The view from Katesgrove Hill
Category: The Mount (page 1 of 3)
Reading’s Progress Theatre has opened its competition for new, unpublished and unstaged short plays, Writefest 2020. The theatre will stage the winning entries in autumn 2020 and the deadline for competition entries is 26 April 2020.
By Gillie Tunley and Brenda Sandilands.
‘The Haunting of Hill House’ at the Progress Theatre. Photo © Richard Brown.
Progress Theatre are staging the suspenseful The Haunting of Hill House by F. Andrew Leslie, adapted from the novel by Shirley Jackson. It is directed with chilling panache by Matt Tully and polished production by Tony Wernham.
Parade of shops on Christchurch Road
Northcourt Avenue Residents’ Association (NARA) chair Simone Illger told Reading Borough Council (RBC) that the Christchurch Green in Reading was being “devastated” by unsympathetic development, at the planning applications committee on 15 January. RBC nonetheless approved the change of use of the ground floor 60 Christchurch Road from a dry cleaners into a restaurant, saying that their own local plan didn’t allow them to choose otherwise.
‘Wyrd Sisters’ at the Progress Theatre. Photo courtesy of (c) Aidan Moran
We are greeted at the Progress Theatre by a smiley and welcoming Chris Moran, director of this production, Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters. Chris is a Progress veteran. The director’s notes in the programme are in tune with how she is in person: full of enthusiasm and love for theatre and up for a challenge. As we are talking I realise that I recognise her voice and my other half kindly points out that she played Joyce in Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls. Of course she did, and she was excellent in it.
The MERL’s new yarn bomb
Thank you to all our readers and regular and occasional contributors for making it a wonderful year on Katesgrove Hill. We hope that you continue to enjoy reading or contributing to the Whitley Pump in 2020.
Romeo and Juliet at the Progress Youth Theatre. Photo © Richard Brown
The Progress Youth Theatre (PYT) is performing Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet until Saturday 14 December at their theatre on the Mount, off Christchurch Road in Reading.
By Gillie Tunley & Brenda Sandilands.
‘Hangmen’ at the Progress Theatre. Image (c) Aidan Moran
It’s 1965 and it’s the end of hanging. Or is it? The Progress Theatre are staging Martin McDonagh’s edgy and darkly comedic Hangmen this week, directed with passion and purpose by Steph Dewar.
‘The Children’ at the Progress Theatre. Photo (c) Richard Brown
This week, the Progress Theatre are staging Lucy Kirkwood’s perturbing post-apocalyptic play The Children. Insightfully directed by Ali Carroll, it raises profound questions about the poisoned legacy of the present.
By Gillie Tunley and Brenda Sandilands.
WriteFest 2019 at the Progress Theatre. Image (c) Richard Brown
The Progress Theatre are staging their fourteenth annual WriteFest this week, featuring seven scintillating new short plays of dramatically contrasting genres, written, directed and performed by its multi-talented members.
Thomas Homes site at the corner of Silver Street and Crown Street in February 2019
There were 12 new planning applications in south Reading this week. They may be discussed at one of the next Reading Borough Council planning applications committees.
Bethan Perkins and Owen Goode in “The Writer Bird”
From left: Samantha Bessant and Emma Wyverne in “The Swastika Party”
Bethan Perkins and Owen Goode in “The Writer Bird”
From left: Stephanie Gunner, Emma Wyverne, Megan Turnell, Samantha Bessant in “The Swastika Party”
The Progress Theatre will be launching two projects for new writers this autumn. Reading Playwrights is a set of workshops for new playwrights and Scratch Reading is an opportunity for playwrights to see their work staged.
By Gillie Tunley and Brenda Sandilands.
King Lear at Reading Abbey (2019). Photo (c) Richard Brown.
The prodigiously talented Progress Theatre Company are staging Shakespeare’s King Lear in the atmospheric surrounds of Reading Abbey this month. This harrowing tale of human folly is directed with shimmering insight by Dan Clarke, assisted by Louisa Cowell and Matt Urwin and produced by the inspirational Carole Brown.
There were eight new planning applications in south Reading this week. They may be discussed at one of the next Reading Borough Council planning applications committees.
The Progress Youth Theatre is performing Natalie Mitchell’s punchy feminist polemic When They Go Low this week, until Saturday 6 July.
By Gillie Tunley and Brenda Sandilands.
‘Top Girls’ at the Progress Theatre. Photo (c) Aidan Moran
Progress Theatre are staging the exuberant Top Girls by acclaimed author Caryl Churchill this week. It is directed with passionate verve by Rebecca Moir and explores the timeless theme of female empowerment.
Brickwork at the Mount
Christ Church, Reading from Glebe road
MERL
This year’s carnival of art in Redlands, Katesgrove and around Reading University’s Whiteknights campus, the Whiteknights Studio Trail, takes place on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 June. Venues are open from 11am until 6pm on both days.
By Brenda Sandilands and Gillie Tunley.
“Peter’s Wife” at the Progress Theatre. Photo (c) Aidan Moran
Reading’s Progress Theatre are staging two new plays as part of their Progress Premieres this month: Dan Clarke’s fascinatingly ambiguous Equivocators and the compelling Peter’s Wife, by Christine Moran.
By Sue Beckett and Adam Harrington.
One Million Tiny Plays About Reading. Photo (c) Aidan Moran.
All human life in Reading is observed in One Million Tiny Plays About Reading at the Progress Theatre this week, a series of vignettes that includes pet funerals on Caversham bridge, chuggers competing for custom on Broad Street, a boy regretting his choice of barber, an awkward marriage proposal on the Oracle ‘beach’ and a touchingly sad picnic at Reading old Cemetery.
By Gillie Tunley and Brenda Sandilands.
Nora (Tara O’Connor) and Torvald Helmer (Chris Pett)
Progress Theatre are staging Ibsen’s timeless classic, ‘A Doll’s House’, in a lovingly crafted production by Adrian Tang. It is a play about domestic revolution and a woman’s place in society and these powerful themes resonate still today.
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