The Pantaloons

Last updated

The Pantaloons
Formation2004
TypeTheatre group
Purposecomedy, open air, Shakespeare
Location
  • United Kingdom
Artistic director(s)
Steve Purcell, Caitlin Storey, Mark Hayward
Notable members
Christopher Smart, Ross Drury, Edward Ferrow, Martin Gibbons, Kelly Griffiths, Neil Jennings, Alex Rivers, Chris Coxon,
Website http://thepantaloons.co.uk

The Pantaloons are an English touring theatre company specialising in open-air productions of the plays of William Shakespeare. Their work draws from a wide variety of popular theatre traditions, and is often performed for free in public spaces.

Contents

History

The Pantaloons were founded in 2004 at the University of Kent, performing an all-male, open-air production of As You Like It in Canterbury, Kent. [1] They regrouped the following year for a small-scale tour of The Winter's Tale , which involved their first free performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. [2] The scale of their tours has increased since then, and the company now tour extensively across the UK.

The Pantaloons have produced a variety of free performances every year since 2005 in public spaces such as The Scoop, London, Preston Park, Brighton, and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

Since their foundation, the company have performed:

The company began to attract national attention with their 2008 production of The Taming of the Shrew, with coverage in The Guardian and Independent newspapers focusing largely on their free shows and family appeal. [3] Their Romeo and Juliet was listed by The Sunday Times in 2009 as one of their picks for the summer. [4]

As of 2015, the company also give school workshops on Shakespeare for Key Stages 2, 3 and 4. [5]

Recorded media

The Covid-19 pandemic forced the early closure of their 2020 theatre tour of Bleak House. [6] To recoup lost box-office revenue, they adapted the show into a radio play and a crowdfunding model was adopted to finance the venture. [7] This is The Pantaloons' only full length show available in a recorded medium.

The play was adapted for radio and directed by Alex Rivers, while audio production and editing was by Chris Coxon. The cast were Edward Ferrow, Alex Rivers, Emily Beach, Neil Jennings and Chris Coxon. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brownsea Open Air Theatre</span> Theatre in Dorset, England

Brownsea Open Air Theatre is an open-air Shakespearean theatre company based in Poole, Dorset that have performed large theatrical productions since 1964. Annually, performing a play from the extensive works of William Shakespeare for three weeks in July and August, the production is set on the National Trust's Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour with boats transporting patrons to the island from Poole Quay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakespeare Santa Cruz</span>

Shakespeare Santa Cruz was an annual professional theatre festival in Santa Cruz, California, which ran from 1981 to 2013. After losing the financial support of the University of California, Santa Cruz, the company was relaunched through crowdfunding as Santa Cruz Shakespeare.

Shakespeare by the Sea was a summer outdoor event held at Balmoral Beach in Sydney's northern suburbs, using a band rotunda as a backdrop, that ran in summer for twenty-five seasons, from 1987 to 2011.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company (CSC) is a theatre company based in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 2002, by Ian Gallanar and Heidi Busch-Gallanar, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has grown into one of the twenty largest Shakespeare theaters in the United States under the leadership of Founding Artistic Director Ian Gallanar and Managing Director Lesley Malin. The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has performance spaces in Baltimore and Elliott City, Maryland. Its main indoor space, the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Theater opened in 2014 after a $7M renovation of the Mercantile Bank Building, a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In addition, The Studio, is located next door on the fourth floor of the Merchants Club space and is used for educational programs, rehearsals and as an alternate performance space for CSC. They continue to perform outdoor every summer at the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park in Ellicott City, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colorado Shakespeare Festival</span> Shakespeare festival in Boulder, Colorado

The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is a professional acting company in association with the University of Colorado at Boulder. It was established in 1958, making it one of the oldest such festivals in the United States, and has roots going back to the early 1900s.

In 1991 the Shakespeare Theatre Company, under Artistic Director Michael Kahn, initiated its annual Free For All performances in Washington, D.C.'s Rock Creek Park. Each year the Company performed a show free to the public, usually from a previous season. In 2009 the Free For All was moved indoors to Sidney Harman Hall, one of two theatres operated by STC in downtown D.C. This more accessible location allowed STC to perform rain or shine, offer matinees, maintain the artistic excellence of the production and increase the overall number of Free For All performances. Plans for future productions have been put on hold since the COVID pandemic began in 2020.

The Illinois Shakespeare Festival (ISF) is held in Bloomington, Illinois, United States at Ewing Theatre and in Normal, Illinois, United States at the Center for Performing Arts Theatre at Illinois State University. The Festival began in 1978 and celebrated its 45th season in 2023. The Festival has traditionally presented three plays. Although all three may be Shakespeare plays, the Festival has also included different types of theater, such as Restoration comedy, Commedia dell'arte, and works by contemporary playwrights.

The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival is an annual Shakespearean theatre festival in Philadelphia. Every year, The Festival produces two or three productions of Shakespeare's plays. Starting out as the Red Heel Theatre in 1989, and changing name and purpose in 1993, The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival is now the region's only theatre devoted entirely to Shakespeare's works. In 2008/9, they engaged in intensive planning with the board of directors and cultural and community leaders and decided to re-brand and rename the company to better reflect their programming. The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre now has several programs for adults and students including a lecture series featuring world-renowned Shakespeare scholars, Shakespeare School Tour which also tours in schools, and a Classical Acting Academy providing early career actors with intense classical training culminating in a free summer Shakespeare play for the public.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pendley Open Air Shakespeare Festival</span> Theatre festival in Tring, Hertfordshire

The Pendley Open Air Shakespeare Festival is, as the name implies, an annual festival dedicated to the plays of William Shakespeare. It takes place at the beginning of August at Pendley Manor, a hotel in Tring, Hertfordshire.

Mark Hadfield is an English actor.

Malachi Bogdanov is a theatre director. He was Associate Director of the English Shakespeare Company (1997–2000), and directed international tours of productions including A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Threepenny Opera, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus and an award-winning production of Richard the Third. Currently a freelance artist, he has directed over 70 professional shows and works all over the world.

First Folio Theatre was a not-for-profit theater company affiliated with the Actors' Equity Association. Founded in 1996, First Folio, originally named First Folio Shakespeare Festival, was located on the grounds of the Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States. First Folio utilized the "Folio Method" as developed by Patrick Tucker, who first introduced his approach to American actors, directors and teachers in a series of workshops sponsored by the Riverside Shakespeare Company of New York City at The Shakespeare Center beginning in 1982, which led to an awakened interest in the First Folio.

The Shakespeare by the Sea Festival is an annual event that runs throughout the months of July and August in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada that presents outdoor productions of the plays of William Shakespeare, as well as pieces related to the province and culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival</span>

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival (HVSF) is a non-profit professional theater company based in Garrison, New York. The festival runs a roughly fourteen-week repertory season each year, operating under a large open-air theater tent. Its productions attract a total audience of about 50,000 from the Hudson Valley, New York City, and 40 US states.

The Nashville Shakespeare Festival is a Shakespeare festival in Nashville, Tennessee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakespeare by the Sea, Los Angeles</span> American theatre company

Shakespeare by the Sea is a nonprofit organization that was launched in 1998 by Producing Artistic Director Lisa Coffi. Shakespeare by the Sea offers a free repertory season that runs for ten weeks throughout Los Angeles and Orange County. All performances are admission free. Each summer, the company tours about 20 cities for as many as 40 performances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgia Shakespeare</span> 20th/21st-century American theatre company

Georgia Shakespeare was a professional, not-for-profit theatre company located in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States on the campus of Oglethorpe University from 1985-2014. Georgia Shakespeare produced three plays annually, primarily between June and November. Twelve educational programs were developed in the history of Georgia Shakespeare. These programs included "The High School Tour", a "High School Acting Competition", "Camp Shakespeare", a "High School Conservatory", a "No Fear Shakespeare" training program for educators, after school residencies, school tours, student matinees, classes for professionals, and in-school workshops. At its peak, it welcomed 60,000 patrons annually to its performances.

Delaware Shakespeare is an outdoor Shakespeare festival that takes place during the summer months at Rockwood Park located in the city of Wilmington, Delaware. The mission of the Delaware Shakespeare is to create professional theatre and educational programs in order to further the understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare's works for the residents and friends of the State of Delaware.

Lucy Peacock is a Canadian actress best known for major stage roles at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada during the course of 30 years.

The New Swan Theater is an outdoor, portable theater that is assembled and disassembled each summer as part of New Swan Shakespeare Festival, the annual Shakespeare festival at the University of California, Irvine. It is a reduced-size replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.

References

  1. The Pantaloons
  2. "BBC - Kent - Entertainment - The Pantaloons: reinventing the classics". www.bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  3. Martin, Francesca (13 May 2008). "Ex-bankers take the Bard to the streets". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 16 September 2015. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  4. Wise, Louis (19 April 2009). "The hottest theatre for summer 2009". The Times . Archived from the original on 29 April 2009. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  5. The Pantaloons – Schools
  6. Bleak House | The Pantaloons
  7. Bleak House Radio Play | The Pantaloons
  8. ChrisCoxon.co.uk