| Best Foot Forward | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Company | Mikron Theatre Company |
| Show type | Touring |
| Date of premiere | 25 March 2017. |
| Final show | 20 October 2017 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer | Maeve Larkin |
| Composer | Kieran Buckeridge |
| Director | Marianne McNamara |
| Musical director | Rebekah Hughes |
| Designer | Kate Morton |
| Official website | |
Best Foot Forward is a 2017 play by the Mikron Theatre Company. Written by Maeve Larkin with music by Kieran Buckeridge the play is a musical documentary about the history of the Youth Hostels Association (YHA).
Pearling Manor is a dilapidated youth hostel, somewhere in England. London businessman, Mr Grump, wants to buy the hostel and convert it into a golf club. To this aim he sends his junior, Guy, undercover to the hostel with instructions to do anything necessary to secure the sale of the hostel within a week. Guy arrives at the hostel under the pretext of taking part in a working party with Tiffany, the hostel manager and Connie, an enthusiastic hosteller (and also the spirit of the first YHA warden). Guy tries various attempts to sabotage the hostel but through scenes showing how and why YHA developed he is drawn to understand the traditions and aims of YHA and ultimately resigns his job to support YHA. [1]
The cast of four all played a main role as well as providing the other roles as well as the musical accompaniment to the songs. [2]
The play premiered in York in February 2017 and toured until October 2017. In keeping with Mikron's previous productions, staging of the play used a variety of venues from traditional theatres, community centres, outdoor venues and youth hostels. [3]
Reviews of the production were generally positive. The Stage said it "achieves an insightful balance between education and entertainment"; [4] the British Theatre Guide though it a "jolly, charming and good-hearted show that deserves to find appreciative audiences" although considered there was too much reliance on innuendo at times. [1] The Yorkshire Post considered there was little plot but that the reviewer came away having "been entertained and learnt a little", [3] while the York Press said the play was "sprightly" and "humorous yet cautionary too". [2]
Bradwell is an ancient village and modern district in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. It has also given its name to a modern civil parish that is part of the City of Milton Keynes. The village was adjacent to Bradwell Abbey, a Benedictine priory, founded in 1155 and dissolved in about 1540, but the abbey and its immediate environs were always a separate ecclesiastical parish.
The National Youth Theatre of Great Britain (NYT) is a youth theatre and registered charity in London. Its aim is to develop and nurture young people through creative arts and theatrical productions. Founded in 1956 as the world's first youth theatre, the NYT has built a reputation for producing actors such as Daniel Craig, Daniel Day-Lewis, Timothy Dalton, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Colin Firth, Derek Jacobi, Ben Kingsley, Ian McShane, Helen Mirren, Lysette Anthony, Rosamund Pike, Regé-Jean Page and Kate Winslet, among numerous others.
Grinton is a small village and civil parish in the Yorkshire Dales, in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. Close to Reeth and Fremington, it lies 9 miles (15 km) west of Richmond on the B6270 road.
Wymering Manor is a Grade II* listed building, which is the oldest in the city of Portsmouth, England, and was the manor house of Wymering, a settlement mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. It is first recorded in 1042, when it was owned by King Edward the Confessor. After the Battle of Hastings it became the property of King William the Conqueror, until 1084.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a musical with music and lyrics by Bob Merrill and a book originally by Abe Burrows but rewritten during pre-Broadway tryouts by Edward Albee. It is based on the 1958 Truman Capote novella and 1961 film of the same name about a free spirit named Holly Golightly.
Amanda Whittington is an English dramatist who has written over 30 plays for theatre and radio. Her work is widely performed by companies across the UK, with recent productions at Hull Truck, Oldham Coliseum, New Vic Theatre and Nottingham Playhouse. Be My Baby is a popular GCSE and 'A' level choice in English Literature and Theatre Studies. She currently has two titles in Nick Hern Books' Top Ten Most Performed Plays. In 2017, she was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy by Publication at the University of Huddersfield.
The Brudenell Social Club is a live music venue and social club in Hyde Park, Leeds, England. While being a social enterprise, it retains the "community atmosphere of its origins as a working men's club". The club is split into three areas—a 400 capacity concert room, a bar area and games room section and a second 400 capacity concert area, known as the Community Room, which opened in 2017.
The Jersey Accommodation and Activity Centre is a building just north of Gorey in the parish of Saint Martin, Jersey, in the Channel Islands. It was formerly known as the Industrial School, the Jersey Home for Boys, and Haut de la Garenne. Its previous uses have included being an industrial school, a children's home, a military signal station, a television filming location, and a youth hostel. In 2008 it became the focus of the largest investigation into child abuse ever conducted in Jersey.
Once Brewed is a village in Northumberland, England. It lies on the Military Road (Northumberland) B6318. A motorist arriving over the B6138 from the east will see the place name shield "Once Brewed", while those coming from the west will read "Twice Brewed".
The Youth Hostels Association is a charitable organisation, registered with the Charity Commission, providing youth hostel accommodation in England and Wales. It is a member of the Hostelling International federation.
YHA Ltd, trading as YHA Australia, is a not-for-profit of members trading corporation providing hostel and other accommodation, travel and associated service in Australia. It is a member organisation of Hostelling International.
Arthur M. Jolly is an American playwright and screenwriter. In 2006, he was awarded an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for his comedy The Free Republic of Bobistan.
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John Richard Tiffany is an English theatre director. He directed the internationally successful productions Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Black Watch and Once. He has won 2 Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, a Drama Desk Award and an Obie Award.
The Mikron Theatre Company is an English touring theatre company, founded in 1972, which is notable for its tours by canal boat during the summer months, and by road in the spring and autumn. The company believes itself to be the only theatre company in the world which tours by narrowboat.
Deborah McAndrew is a British playwright and actor, known for playing Angie Freeman in Coronation Street in the 1990s. She is also co-founder and Creative Director of the Stoke-on-Trent-based Claybody Theatre Company, and a visiting lecturer in the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts at Staffordshire University.
Maeve Larkin is an English actor and playwright.
Laurence Peacock is an English playwright and dramaturg based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. His Canary Girls, about the canary girls of World War I, was one of Mikron Theatre Company's two touring productions in 2016, and his In At The Deep End, about the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, is one of their two productions in 2017.
Edith Constance Alexander was a pioneer of youth hostelling in the United Kingdom. She was a founder member of the Youth Hostels Association in the UK and their first warden.