Lovesongs

For Frantic Assembly’s forthcoming tour of Lovesong, we recently ran a competition in our enews where we asked people to send us their favourite lovesongs. The entries were so good and varied, we thought we’d share the list with you. The full list is below, but we also made a playlist of any of the tunes that were available on Spotify...just in time for Valentines day.

Let us know if you’d add anything else.

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Roberta Flack

You're the One 
Shane McGowan/Maire Brennan
Circle of Friends Soundtrack

Bed of Roses
Bon Jovi



Heartbeat
Buddy Holly and the Crickets

Love Hurts
Roy Orbison

Romeo and Juliet
Dire Straits

Just An Old Love Song
John Stewart

Endless Love
Diana Ross and Lionel Ritchie

Ae Fond Kiss
Eddi Reader

Nocturnal Me

Echo and the Bunnymen

Lovin’ You
Minnie Ripperton

Dance Me to the End of Love
Leonard Cohen

Always
Atlantic Starr

May You Never
John Martyn

I Can't Make You Love Me
Bonnie Raitt

The Lady in Red
Chris de Burgh


Try A Little Tenderness
Otis Redding

At Last
Etta James

If Love Could Last Forever
The Bathers

Between the Bars
Elliot Smith

Wonderful Tonight

Eric Clapton

I Want You
Bob Dylan

I Feel The Earth Move
Carole King

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
Rod Stewart


This Must Be The Place

Talking Heads


Something
The Beatles


You Are So Beautiful
Joe Cocker

My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose
Karen Matheson

Couldn’t Love You More
John Martyn

Someone Like You
Van Morrison

Love Theme from Bladerunner
Vangelis

It’s Oh So Quiet
Bjork

That’s Amore
Dean Martin

Let’s Get it On
Marvin Gaye

Secret Love
Doris Day

Time After Time
Cyndi Lauper

I Surrender
David Sylvian

Lovesong described by The Telegraph as "a tribute to the durability of loving relationship" has been receiving rave reviews in the early part of its tour. It reaches the Citizens Theatre on Tue 7 February and plays until Sat 11.

“I’ve never seen such an instantaneous standing ovation…the piece beats with such profound truth that you’re held rapt “
The Telegraph ★★★★
“Lovesong is compelling, understated perfection…poignant and uplifting…a hugely memorable performance” 

The Stage
“It all works beautifully…This haunting play is shot through with compassion and tenderness.”
Plymouth Herald
"Lovesong is an atmospheric, gentle, humorous tear-jerker.” 

What’s On Stage ★★★★

More info on Lovesong

50p tickets! Yes, you heard us right, 50p.

This season the Citizens Theatre is doffing its cap to the good old days with a 50p ticket offer for Betrayal, King Lear and Krapps Last Tape/Footfalls.

Not even the Glasgow weather could keep them away!

We are offering:

10 tickets per performance for
10 performances of each show for just 50p!

These will go on sale for each show at 10am on the following dates:

Sat 25 February for BETRAYAL
Sat 14 April for KING LEAR
Sat 26 May for KRAPP'S LAST TAPE/FOOTFALLS

These tickets are only available at the theatre in person, so it's time to join a good old fashioned queue. You can't reserve in advance, it's first-come-first-served! Cash only. 2 tickets for person. Allocated price band II seats. Terms apply.

Don't worry if you can't make it down. The Citizens Theatre is committed to making its work accessible through concessions and standard offers such as £6 Previews and £10 Tuesdays, which you can book online!

In addition this season you can also get a CLASSIC PASS for the 3 shows listed above. See Pricing for info on this and other offers.

The Citizens (and Palace Theatre) facade back in the day!

No longer an unsung hero

Yesterday on Facebook, we posted some pictures of a surprise party for Frances Coyle who has worked at the Citizens Theatre for an astonishing 44 years and retires this year.

Photo by Richard Campbell

Frances who is 82, has been a friendly face behind the coffee bar for a great many years and is known to audiences possibly far more than some of the creative teams behind the shows!

Today we're delighted to announce that Frances is one of the first recipients of an Unsung Hero Award from The Stage.

You can read more about the Unsung Heroes and The Stage 100 Awards on The Stage website.

It is said that Frances has never taken a day off sick. Two of her eight children have also worked at the theatre and more recently one of her grand-daughters.

We'd like to offer a sincere thank you to Frances for her incredible service over the years and wish her the very best for a happy retirement!

Frances with the Front of House team

 Some comments from Facebook:

"Frances may you enjoy every minute of your retirement and let someone else serve you tea and coffee for a change. Much love. Claire x"
"Happy Retirement Frances, i remember working with you, cant believe you have been there all this time!! Great days with all the girlies!! Xxx"

"Frances has probably been the most constant and familiar face at the Citz as far back as I can remember. I hope she has a wonderful retirement and enjoys every minute of it. Best wishes"

Spring Season Brochure 2012

As you may already know our Spring Season 2012 is on sale. Our season brochure is at the printers and will be on doorsteps and in leaflet racks across the city early in January.

Here's a sneaky peek - click on the preview to view full screen and flick through at your leisure.

The season starts with a schools' production of Theresa Breslin's award-winning story Divided City, a stunning piece of visual theatre from Frantic Assembly: Lovesong (trailer below) starring Siân Phillips; 6 shows from the Glasgow International Comedy Festival and The Infamous Brothers Davenport by Vox Motus.




You can see the Citizens Theatre's own productions of Betrayal, King Lear and a Beckett double-bill of Krapp's Last Tape and Footfalls using our brand new Classic Pass, or for those of you not afraid of some old-fashioned queuing - you could take the risk of going for some of our 50p tickets! You can see information on special offers on our Pricing page.

Here's to a happy and fun-filled Christmas and New Year!

Both Little Ulla and Hansel and Gretel are on until 7 January, but if we don't see you for those, we look forward to presenting some amazing theatre in 2012.

Spring Season Talks

Brand new for 2012, we will be opening up a series of fascinating workshops to the public. These will allow you to get under the bonnet of theatre-making! Designed as pre-show events, they are specially programmed to open up the creative process on stage and allow audiences, students and school groups to get closer to our productions.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES
With Artistic Director Dominic Hill
Ever wondered how a play is put on stage? Fascinating insights into casting, rehearsal, design, lighting and costume.

BETRAYAL | Thu 15 March, 5.30pm
KING LEAR | Thu 10 May, 5.30pm
KRAPP’S LAST TAPE & FOOTFALLS | Wed 6 June, 5.30pm

THE MECHANICS OF THE STAGE
KING LEAR | Wed 2 May, 5.30pm
An informal look at how lighting and sound are used in King Lear and why they are integral parts of every production.

MUSIC AND TRAGEDY
KING LEAR | Fri 27 April, 5.30pm
Musical Director Paddy Cuneen discusses how he approached creating the musical landscape for this most powerful of tragedies.


All events take place in the Main Auditorium and will last approximately 40 minutes.

Cost: Individuals £2, Groups £1 (with ticket to show)
Book at Box Office: 0141 429 0022


These events above are open to the public, for a full run down of all educational workshops for schools, click the links below:
BETRAYAL
KING LEAR
KRAPPS LAST TAPE / FOOTFALLS

Charity previews

Each year we hold a fundraising preview of the Christmas show for a great local charity called the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice.

The ticket income for the first performance of Hansel and Gretel goes to the Hospice, whilst tickets to our second preview are free to invited groups. There is the opportunity for audiences to contribute additional donations to the Hospice in the foyer.

One of the signs - here at the theatre - that Christmas is nearly upon us, is the annual call for goody-bag-stuffers. Children who attend the charity previews get free goody bags. This year, as well as Citz merchandise, we've had generous contributions from the hospice itself, Candylicious and Glencrest.

The festive stuffing session, which was this afternoon - is our first real excuse of the season to stick some Christmas tunes on, start the "what are you doing for the holidays" banter and compete over who has the most efficient goody-bag-stuffing strategy. Martin's five-at-a-time this year took it a step too far! Here's a few colourful snaps of our afternoon:

   

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to the cast of Aladdin has a Waash at the Baths, who helped out this afternoon. Right, back to the grindstone.

In rehearsal - a Director's-eye-view

Guy Hollands continues his photo-blogging from the Hansel and Gretel rehearsal room. It's first preview this weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos from behind the scenes:
In rehearsal 1
In rehearsal 2

In rehearsal - more snapshots

Some more behind the scenes Hansel and Gretel snaps from Director Guy Hollands:

David Carlyle and Gemma McElhinney enjoying rehearsals

Jim Sturgeon enjoying not been trapped in a cage.

Inspired by Mr Hollands, here's my contribution. I spotted this up in wardrobe:

See more of Guy's snapshots.

Programme Design Winner!

A huge thank you to everyone who entered this year's primary schools' programme design competition - for Hansel and Gretel. Below are the 6 finalists.

The Winner - Emma Hay (from St Barbaras) was chosen by a panel made up of Guy Hollands (Director), representatives from Glasgow Dine Around (show sponsors) including Ryan James from The Buttery and Natalie Maynard from Malmaison Brassarie; as well as Cat McNaught (Marketing Manager).

Her design will grace the cover of every programme for this year's Christmas show. Well done Emma!

WINNER: Emma Hay (10) St Barbaras PS

Laila Begum (9) Ibrox PS

Anna Campbell (10) St Conrads PS

Katie McGowan (11) St Barbaras PS

Caley McGuinness (p6) Ibrox PS

Louise Paterson (10) St Bartholomews PS

Book a Glasgow Dinearound £15.95 dinner throughout November and be entered into a competition to win a VIP family day out. More info.

He hasn't forgotten about us!

OK, I admit that must be one of the cheesiest blog post titles I've ever written, but I couldn't resist. For those of you who aren't on Facebook, you'll not have seen the rather wonderful praise we received recently from none other than Simple Minds' frontman Jim Kerr.

"In Glasgow I always try to get to the Gorbals and the Citizen's Theatre. During my teenage years I was almost as passionate about the "The Citz" as I was about going to rock concerts. Good to see that the great work continues and the present "A Day In The Death Of Joe Egg" is testimony to that. The building has much charm and an atmosphere of the type that I miss. Small venues? Hmmm. Now there is a thought?"

Jim Kerr
Simple Minds Official Facebook Page

Thanks Jim!