Acclaimed British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor and regarded British director Michael Winterbottom will receive this year’s Raindance Icon Awards, presented during the festival’s 32nd edition (19-28 June).

Chiwetel Ejiofor will be presented with his award at Raindance’s Opening Gala UK Premiere of Tilman Singer’s CUCKOO at Curzon Mayfair on 19 June. Michael Winterbottom with be presented with his award during Raindance’s Jury Awards ceremony at Wonderville on 27 June.

“As part of Raindance’s midsummer celebrations, it’s a privilege for us to bask in the radiance that surrounds this year’s Raindance Icon Award recipients,” says Raindance founder Elliot Grove. “Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Winterbottom have made important and outstanding contributions to independent cinema, both in front of and behind the camera. We are proud to recognise and honour their achievements with this award.”
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Two young writers have been announced today as the winners of this year’s New Views programme, the National Theatre’s annual playwriting competition for young people.

House on Fire by Luke Fields, 17, from Aquinas Diocesan Grammar School in Belfast and Teulu by Emyr Strudwick, 19, from Merthyr College in South Wales, will be presented as staged readings, followed by a post-performance discussion with the writers and directors in the Gorvy Rehearsal Room at the National Theatre on 4-5 July, as part of the free New Views Festival. Luke and Emyr will have the opportunity to develop their plays from page to stage alongside Director of the National Theatre Rufus Norris (Nye), who will direct Teulu, and theatre director Emily Burns (Dear Octopus), who will direct House on Fire.

New Views is the National Theatre’s nationwide playwriting programme for students aged 14-19. Participating schools work with a professional playwright to mentor students in writing their own original 30-minute play. 500 plays were submitted for New Views 2024 from 90 schools across the UK.

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Heavy metal icons PANTERA will return to the UK and Ireland in early 2025 for their first tour in over 20 years. Featuring original members, vocalist Philip H. Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown, alongside guitarist Zakk Wylde and drummer Charlie Benante, the latest stretch of live dates continues the celebration of the lives of late founding members, drummer Vinnie Paul and guitarist Dimebag Darrell. The tour kicks off on 18th February in Glasgow with shows in Leeds, Dublin, Birmingham, and London (full dates below). Artist presale tickets & VIP for these dates will go on sale on Tue, 18 June at 10am BST and public on sale will begin on Fri, 21 June at 10am BST here & LiveNation.co.uk.

The tour will follow PANTERA’s appearance at the 2024 edition of Download Festival, the band’s first UK appearance in three decades, as well as dates supporting Metallica on their North American stadium tour.

“When a newly restructured PANTERA took the stage at Milwaukee’s American Family Insurance Amphitheater, the chorus of cheers that greeted them was a voluminous mix of both excitement and disbelief.” — Illinois Entertainer

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Due to overwhelming demand, Janet Jackson has added a second London O2 Arena show to her eagerly-anticipated Together Again Tour, taking place on Sunday 29 September 2024 – with special guest Wyclef Jean. Tickets will be available on general on-sale beginning Friday 14 June, 9.00AM BST on JanetJackson.com.

Presales: O2 and Artist presales begin on Wednesday 12 June at 9.00AM BST. Live Nation and venue presales begin on Thursday 13 June at 9.00AM BST.

The five-time GRAMMY ® Award-winning Rock and Roll Hall of Fame®️ Inductee extended her sold out tour to Europe off the back of the highly successful and sold-out North American leg. The European leg of this tour will start in autumn 2024 kicking off in Paris, France on the 25 September at Accor Arena before making multiple stops in the UK, Germany and Belgium before concluding the tour in Amsterdam, Netherlands at Ziggo Dome on the 10 October.

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The Producers of the hit musical sensation SIX, alongside casting partners Pearson Casting, are thrilled to announce that there will be an open audition process for the 2025/26 West End cast in both London and Salford in June.

The production team are looking for sensational triple-threat singer/actor/dancers required to perform the SIX wives of Henry VIII as they reunite to tell their stories in the form of a pop concert. They must have great contemporary pop voices, good comedic instincts, and be able to interact with an audience well and gigging experience is a plus. Auditionees must be aged 18 or over.

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Ammonite Studios today announces Soho Green Rooms, a brand-new three-day festival, which will bring together key players and creatives in the theatre and live event industries to explore the future of live entertainment. From 16 – 18 July at the Boulevard Theatre in London’s Soho, Soho Green Rooms will present three individual spaces for keynotes, panel discussions, product demonstrations, audience Q&A and networking. Tickets are on sale now and available here.
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The creative industries are today urged to get behind a careers week designed to lift the lid on jobs and pathways to encourage more young people to join the sector – and help fix a growing skills shortage.

Discover! Creative Careers and Creative UK are calling on employers in the creative industries to support more young people into the sector in the run-up to the 2024 careers week in November. It will see thousands of students paired with businesses across the creative industries, so they get a taste of possible careers through encounters with workplaces and employees. Its aim is to support the sector to attract more young people from all backgrounds into the creative industries, especially those from disadvantaged families, developing in turn a more diverse and inclusive workforce.

Government figures show that the sector is growing at more than 1.5 times the rate of the wider economy over the past decade, with the sector’s Gross Value Added standing at an estimated £125 billion in 2023. However, because of some misperceptions of the sector, general inequality of access and limited opportunities in some schools, the creative industries are often overlooked as a viable option for young people when considering their future careers.

Despite the clear economic value of the creative industries to the UK, the sector is also facing significant skills gaps and shortages, with almost half of creative employers reporting skills issues. Research by TIGA in 2023 revealed that 68% of games development studios found it difficult to fill vacancies in the workforce due to skills shortages, impacting on sector growth and delaying new releases.

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The UK creative industries are a success and writers are central to that. As the UK faces a General Election on 4 July, WGGB has today (6 June 2024) launched a manifesto which calls on whoever forms the next Government to implement our recommendations around four key areas, which we believe will protect, nurture and support UK writers.

Writers create the stories which form the bedrock of our world-leading creative industries, currently worth over £124 billion to the UK economy. Yet they are often underpaid, unprotected and their vital contributions overlooked.

Currently, whole sections of our industry are struggling to survive – theatres are closing or ceasing to develop new work, the number of UK independent films has been steadily reducing and our public service broadcasters are commissioning fewer original works.

This is reflected in what WGGB members have been telling us. A poll of WGGB theatre members post-pandemic found that 74% of playwrights had lost income due to the Covid shutdowns and 50% believed they would not be working in two years’ time. And a WGGB survey on writers and AI published in 2023 found that 65% of respondents believed that increased use of AI would reduce their income from writing, while 61% were worried that AI could replace jobs in their craft area. Continue reading