The 39 Steps celebrates launch of schools version with nationwide competition
Theatre news
TO CELEBRATE the release of the performance rights to an abridged schools version of The 39 Steps, which is currently in its ninth award-winning year at the West End’s Criterion Theatre, the production is offering schools a chance to win a free trip to see the show from Monday, April 6 to Thursday, June 25, 2015.
The winning entry will also win a free 39 Steps themed workshop with Theatre Workout Education and free performance rights to the abridged schools version for a year upon publication with Samuel French Ltd in 2015.
The 39 Steps is a laugh-a-minute, fast paced comedy, with a cast of just four actors playing over a hundred roles through the course of the show. Schools will be able to download three different extracts from the new schools script from www.love39steps.com/schoolscompetition. You can choose one to perform, or all three. The deadline for entries is Monday, March 30, 2015.
The 39 Steps are looking for inventive use of costume, props, staging – in the West End production, luggage trunks are used to become train carriages in a death-defying rooftop chase, and a car (also made with chairs, a lectern, and a handy steering wheel). Children don’t need to stick to a cast of four, there are 16 roles across the three script extracts to choose from.
Once the school has planned, staged and rehearsed their scene or scenes, all participants need to do is film a performance and submit the entry, where a panel made up of the West End production team and some of the West End actors will judge the best entry.
Theatre Workout Education create bespoke theatre workshops for student groups visiting London’s West End and are the official workshop partners for The 39 Steps. Full details can be found at www.theatreworkout.com/.
Based on John Buchan’s 1914 spy thriller The Thirty Nine Steps and adapted for the stage by Patrick Barlow, The 39 Steps follows dashing hero Richard Hannay in a dangerous tale of cat-and-mouse from London to the Scottish Highlands. In this hilarious production four actors play over 130 characters in 100 minutes.
Current cast are Richard Galazka (the eponymous hero Richard Hannay), Alix Dunmore (the three women in Hannay’s life, Pamela, Annabella and Margaret) and the myriad other roles are played with breath-taking speed and dexterity by Tim Frances and Daniel Tuite.
NB: How to submit your entry:
Full terms of entry can be found at www.love39steps.com/schoolscompetition/. If you accept the terms, upload your entry to DropBox (www.dropbox.com/) and protect the video with a password. Then simply send your link from an official school email address, with a password if required, to 39schoolscomp@akauk.com.