As the term winds to a close, things at The Open Stage have been ramping up with the recent sellout season of Scene+ taking place.

Artistic Director for Hagley Theatre Company, Cameron Mattox, travelled to the UK some time ago and was invited to an event being held by a former student. He found himself not in a traditional theatre but in a bar, surrounded by talent scouts and agents. London Bites was an opportunity for emerging artists to showcase their talents, with each being given 10 minutes to present a monologue or short scene in the hope of being seen or making contact with important people.

The idea intrigued Cameron and so Scene+ was born: an extra performance opportunity for our students to show friends, family and the general public just how far they are progressing with their studies. Scene+ is a combination of scenes and monologues, gathered from all over the world and involves a number of different authors and genres. The scenes are not connected by any storyline and allow the students to experiment with their comedic and dramatic abilities. There are so many plays that cannot be staged by us in full (mainly due to cast size) and Scene+ is the perfect vehicle for our students to perform otherwise unseen and sometimes complex characters.

Our Scene+ audience are seated at tables and we offer a bar service, along with food. When Hagley’s School of Cuisine began it seemed the perfect opportunity to work with another branch of the College, and food service is now provided by Hagley’s culinary students. It’s a win-win situation as Theatre students add another performance and Cuisine students get to experience the thrills and pressures of a “live gig”.

We’ve now been staging Scene+ seasons for 10 years and have it pretty under control! We’ll be doing it again in November, so watch this space - but be quick as tables are snapped up in no time!