David Riley, Author at Blackpool Social Club

08 Jul

Wordpool: Poetry Competition

David Riley0 CommentsLocal News

Two poetry events graced the closing day of this year's Wordpool Festival at Blackpool Central Library. The first was hosted by Terry Caffrey, a poet from Liverpool. He has appeared in many schools up and down the country giving his talks and examples of performance poetry. He has an approachable style, getting his audience involved with some nice touches ranging from simply asking people's names to generating compliments, e.g. to one person: "you have listening eyes." Despite a sore throat he produced fine performances that depended a lot on the sound of words and music. He tried successfully to be…

14 May

Grand Words Launch Event

David Riley0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

Grand Words is a one act play writing competition run in conjunction with The Grand Theatre for people in the north west of England. It has run at the Grand since 2009 and is about to launch its search for plays for 2014. The launch will be marked by a variety of readings of work from last year’s competition, including the winning entry, The Agios Dionysios Writers’ Circle, a comedy drama by Theresa Stoker of Lancaster (featured image shows her receiving her award from 2013 winner, Zoe Lamond). It will be accompanied by a short work, The Tale of Two…

01 May

Joan Humble joins Civic Voice

David Riley0 CommentsLocal News

Joan Humble, former MP for Blackpool North and Fleetwood and current Chair of Blackpool Civic Trust, has been appointed as a trustee on the Board of Civic Voice, the national charity for the civic movement. Mrs Humble said: “I was very pleased to be asked by Dr Freddie Gick, the Chairman of Civic Voice, to join this important national campaigning organisation. Civic Voice represents 290 civic trusts and societies with 75,000 members. I look forward to attending my first board meeting and telling people about the work we do in Blackpool. I will then also be able to report back…

03 Apr

Preview: Blackpool Shakespeare Festival

David Riley0 CommentsLocal News, Visual Arts & Exhibitions

The stage is now set for the Fylde Coast’s 2014 Shakespeare Festival which celebrates the life and works of England’s most famous playwright. The brainchild of Councillor David Owen, Deputy Mayor of Blackpool, the festival has proven hugely popular and has attracted applicants, both younger and older, from across the Fylde coast. He asked people from across the region to come forward to perform one of Shakespeare’s plays or sonnets to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. And groups have rushed to take part with a huge programme featuring everything from a puppetry performance of A Comedy of Errors…

28 Mar

Preview: Dead Good Poets’ Workshops

David Riley0 CommentsVisual Arts & Exhibitions

The Lancashire Dead Good Poets meet on the first Friday of each month for an open mic session of poetry at the Number 5 café on Cedar Square, next to St John’s Church in Blackpool town centre (6pm start). At these they have a theme that people can use to write their own poetry (it is not obligatory to follow it and writing can be on all subjects). Fairly recently, they have started to run two hour workshops at Blackpool Central Library on the Saturday prior to the open mic sessions, from 11am to 1pm. The workshops are free and…

12 Mar

Eternal Love

David Riley1 CommentTheatre, Dance & Performance, Visual Arts & Exhibitions

The Grand, no doubt through a lot of hard work, have secured a partnership with the English Touring Theatre to do big, ambitious drama. The first production of that collaboration is currently showing; the revival of Howard Brenton's Eternal Love, first produced at The Globe, London, in 2006. Etermal Love is based on the medieval French love story of the scholars Abelard (played by David Sturzaker) and Heloise (Jo Herbert) and set against the background of the machinations of the church and philosophy in the 11th and 12th centuries. It is produced in a way that mixes humour, song, dance,…

23 Oct

Shakespeare Festival

David Riley0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

The Deputy Mayor of Blackpool has launched a campaign to celebrate the life and works of William Shakespeare. Councillor David Owen wants the complete works of Shakespeare to be publicly performed next spring to mark the 450th Anniversary of the bard’s birth at Stratford-upon-Avon on 23 April 1564. The project, he says, can involve the whole of the Fylde Coast with any number of local societies, community groups, work colleagues, schools and colleges getting involved. Cllr Owen said: William Shakespeare’s impact on the English language, our culture and the culture of wider world is virtually unparalleled and I feel that…

18 Oct

Female Poets of World War One Exhibition at Fleetwood Library

David Riley1 CommentLocal News

Go to Fleetwood library and, on a series of boards near the front door, be prepared to meet an astounding collection of people. Most were women, many now largely forgotten, but their stories will amaze you. From female poets of the First World War to the many activities of that time carried out by women who travelled the world, the exhibition ranges from poetry to spying, flying aircraft, setting up countries and more - all centrally involving women. The famous are here: Gertrude Stein, poet and cultural lynchpin in Paris, Agatha Christie who wrote poetry and met her second husband…

30 Sep

Review: Holmes and Watson – The Farewell Tour

David Riley0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

'Before slipping into well-earned retirement, Sherlock Holmes has prevailed upon his long-time companion Dr Watson, his landlady Mrs Hudson and Inspector Lestrade of Scotland Yard to join him in a farewell tour of the British Isles. For the first time ever they will re-enact one of the detective's most baffling unrecorded cases - The Case of the Prime Minister, the Floozie and the Lummock Rock Lighthouse - an affair upon whose outcome the security of Europe once hung by a thread. Shrouded in secrecy until now, this case has finally been approved by the government for public disclosure.' So say…

23 Sep

Preview: Sherlock Holmes at Thornton Little Theatre

David Riley0 CommentsTheatre, Dance & Performance

Thornton Little Theatre will be home to Angus and Ross Theatre Company on Wednesday 25 September as they bring their comedy play, Holmes and Watson on its farewell tour of the British Isles. Holmes and Watson are brought to life by Julian Finnigan and Dominic Goodwin as they re-enact one of the detective's most baffling unrecorded cases - The Case of the Prime Minister, the Floozie and the Lummock Rock Lighthouse! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTeGbChW1c4 It's an affair upon whose outcome the security of Europe once hung by a thread, and it was shrouded in secrecy until now. The case has finally been…