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Alexander Parsonage | |
|---|---|
| Born | 26 February 1980 |
| Occupation | Theatre director |
| Website | http://www.alexparsonage.com |
Alexander Parsonage (born 26 February 1980) is an English theatre director. He was nominated for a Total Theatre Award in 2009 as well as winning the Fringe Report Award for Best Artistic Director (Finger in the Pie) in 2012.
Parsonage was born in London, England. His father, Antony Cleary, is a British Historian and academic. His mother, Brenda Parsonage, was a British teacher and gymnastics instructor. Parsonage studied Philosophy and Politics at Warwick University and then trained for the theatre at the London International School of Performing Arts in London.
Parsonage is a founder and artistic director of the UK-based theatre company Finger in the Pie. Productions by Finger in the Pie which Parsonage has directed include Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (2005), Cenerentola (2007), The Snow Queen (2008) [1] and Red Hot Riding Hood (2008). Sweeney Todd: His Life, Times and Execution! (2009) [2] a devised piece conceived and directed by Parsonage, which conceived of Todd as a silent "clown in the tradition of Buster Keaton" [3] played at Jacksons Lane in Spring 2009 and toured to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Sweeney Todd: His Life, Times and Execution! [4] was nominated for a Total Theatre Award for 'Best Emerging Artist/Company 2009'. [5]
Parsonage is also an established cabaret promoter: he has been running Finger in the Pie Cabaret Showcase in London's Madame Jojo's since February 2006. [6] The event is listed as being 'London’s largest showcase of new Variety, Vaudeville and Burlesque' [7] In 2008 Finger in the Pie Cabaret was included in Time Out's guide to 'London's Rising Talent'. [8]
Parsonage is currently the artistic director of the international festival of mime, puppetry and cabaret, Mimetic, [9] based in the Millfield Theatre, in north London.
Whilst at the University of Warwick Parsonage founded the Warwick Student Art Festival [10] Held in 2002 it included a campus wide programme of performance and art including installation, painting, sculpture, live art and theatre. [11] The festival went on to develop into a campus wide multi-arts event, called the Warwick Student Arts Festival (WSAF). In 2004 it was reported by the BBC as being the "Largest student arts festival in Europe". [12]
Parsonage is also the co-founder of the London Alternative Fringe Festival (LAFF) with Imogen Thomas of Driftwood Media. [13] In 2009 the festival hosted eight productions occurring in eleven london venues including: Volupté Lounge, Madame Jojo's, Hackney Empire Marie Lloyd Bar, The Canal Café, Last Days of Decadence, Leicester Square Basement. [14]
Sweeney Todd is a fictional character who first appeared as the villain of the penny dreadful serial The String of Pearls (1846–1847). The original tale became a feature of 19th-century melodrama and London legend. A barber from Fleet Street, Todd murders his customers with a straight razor and gives their corpses to Mrs. Lovett, his partner in crime, who bakes their flesh into meat pies. The tale has been retold many times since in various media.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 different shows in 322 venues. Established in 1947 as an alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. As an event it "has done more to place Edinburgh in the forefront of world cities than anything else" according to historian and former chairman of the board, Michael Dale.
The Adelaide Festival of Arts, also known as the Adelaide Festival, an arts festival, takes place in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in March each year. Started in 1960, it is a major celebration of the arts and a significant cultural event in Australia.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 1979 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by Hugh Wheeler. It is based on the 1970 play Sweeney Todd by Christopher Bond. The character of Sweeney Todd first appeared in a Victorian penny dreadful titled The String of Pearls.
Adrian Anthony Lester is an English actor, director and writer. He is the recipient of a Laurence Olivier Award, an Evening Standard Theatre Award and a Critics' Circle Theatre Award for his work on the London stage, and has also been nominated for a Tony Award.
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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a 2007 musical slasher film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by John Logan, based on the stage musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler, which in turn is based on the 1970 play Sweeney Todd by Christopher Bond. The film retells the melodramatic Victorian tale of Sweeney Todd, an English barber and serial killer who, while seeking revenge on Judge Turpin who wrongfully convicted and exiled him to steal his wife, murders his customers and, with the help of his accomplice, Mrs. Lovett, processes their corpses into meat pies.
A spiegeltent is a large travelling tent, constructed from wood and canvas and decorated with mirrors and stained glass, intended as an entertainment venue.
Mrs. Lovett is a fictional character appearing in many adaptations of the story Sweeney Todd. Her first name is most commonly referred to as Nellie, although she has also been referred to as Amelia, Margery, Maggie, Sarah, Shirley, Wilhelmina, Mary and Claudetta. A baker from London, Mrs. Lovett is an accomplice and business partner of Sweeney Todd, a barber and serial killer from Fleet Street. She makes meat pies from Todd’s victims.
Brink Productions is an Australian theatre company based in Adelaide, South Australia, specialising in the ensemble-development of new writing.
Eric D. Schaeffer is an American theater director and producer based in Arlington, Virginia.
Frank John Ford was an Australian freelance writer, director, dramaturg and drama lecturer.
The Union Theatre is a fringe theatre situated in the borough of Southwark in London, England. It was established in 1998 by Sasha Regan, and has a reputation for staging musicals.
Frisky & Mannish is a British musical comedy double act, created and performed by singer Laura Corcoran and pianist-singer Matthew Floyd Jones. Known for their pop music parodies, the duo have toured the fringe festival and comedy festival circuits in the United Kingdom and Australia, and appeared on a number of British television and radio programmes. The act's name derives from two incidental characters mentioned in one couplet of Byron's Don Juan: "Lady Fitz-Frisky, and Miss Maevia Mannish, / Both longed extremely to be sung in Spanish"
La Clique is a cabaret/variety show with Australian roots first conceived for the 2004 season of The Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was originally performed in The Famous Spiegeltent with a small circular stage at fringe festivals, but since 2008 it was also performed for extended periods in permanent theatres keeping the same characteristic stage.
Manoel Felciano is an American actor, singer, and songwriter.
The North Wall Arts Centre is a performing arts centre in Oxford, owned by St Edward's School and shared with the city. It houses a 200-seat theatre, plus a rehearsal space, dance studio and a visual art gallery. The arts centre hosts touring theatre companies, musicians and other public events, as well as events by the school, with the aim to provide facilities and arts events both for St Edward's students and for the public at large.
The National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) is an arts organisation in the United Kingdom providing pre-professional education and musical theatre stage experience for young people. Based in London, it is constituted as a private limited company and as a registered charity. NYMT was founded in 1976 by director and playwright Jeremy James Taylor. Since its inception, it has produced over fifty productions at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, premièred thirty new musical theatre works, toured several times outside the United Kingdom, and had runs in the West End and on Broadway. Amongst the many alumni of the National Youth Music Theatre who have gone on to careers in the performing arts are actors Idris Elba and Jude Law, both of whom are also patrons of the organisation, along with Jonny Lee Miller, Dylan Strazar, Sheridan Smith, Connie Fisher, and Matt Lucas. Alumni have also included directors such as Jo Davies, and songwriters such as Tara Mcdonald.
