Roy Alexander Weise Archives - North West End UK

The Mountaintop – Royal Exchange, Manchester

1Oct

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

North West

The Mountaintop – Royal Exchange, Manchester

In 2009, the Memphis born playwright Katori Hall was unable to secure a venue in the United States for her new play 'The Mountaintop'. Instead, she brought it to London, where it received huge acclaim for the portrayal of Dr Martin Luther King on the eve of his assassination in April 1968. Now Roy Alexander Weise, the new Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange, has chosen this blisteringly funny and timely play for his debut here, and launches the Autumn season with an absolutely stunning production. The difficulty Hall had with this play in the US, centres around her portrayal of Dr King; rather than the hagiographic figure of grainy newsreel footage, we see King as a fully rounded human being with all the faults and foibles that entails. He smokes constantly, is unfaithful to his wi...

M6 Theatre Company to Stream Love in the Time of Corona Monologue Series

M6 Theatre Company will be streaming ten brand new monologues from Friday 26th June, written for young audiences in response to the coronavirus pandemic. From almost 500 entries, these new works have been produced following an online competition, open to writers of any experience. The challenge was to create a short piece of drama, up to 10 minutes long, telling stories of love and life in lockdown. Gilly Baskeyfield, Artistic Director of M6 Theatre Company said: “Since many of our building-based projects have temporarily been put on hold, we’ve been hard at work creating new ways to serve our communities and audiences. We embarked on the Love in the Time of Corona project in order to unlock powerful stories during this time of isolation. Choosing our winners wasn’t an easy ta...

The Mountaintop – Royal Exchange Theatre

As we continue with closed theatre doors, the Royal Exchange Theatre has stepped forward with a reading of an Olivier Award winning play that was written by Katori Hall. Directed in 2016 at the Young Vic, by the current Co-Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Roy Alexander Weise; this play has been reprised with its original cast, to perform a reading to communicate the plays important message, to assist in igniting community spirit. In partnership with Desara Productions and introduced by Katori Hall; the two artists perform the play from their homes. For those who have been watching plays at home for the last few weeks, it is a familiar sight to see actors framed by the computer screen. In this case there is a background of a motel room to give the mind some ...