Latest Press Release:

Natural Theatre Company launches new Wedding Speech Writing Service

12th January 2012

Bath's Natural Theatre Company are used to being booked for wedding receptions, providing as they do a whole gallery of comic characters from a bevy of weeping brides to uninvited spoof guests to help jolly the proceedings along. On one occasion they even supplied a drunken vicar on request.

Now the company's Artistic Director Ralph Oswick has launched a new service which aims to help the Father of the Bride (or indeed the Best Man) to write and deliver their speech of a lifetime with confidence and humour.

Several nervous father-in-laws to be have already taken advantage of the service.

Ralph says:

"I help them to write a succinct and moving speech to include just the right number of corny jokes! Some come with pre-prepared material which is generally really heartfelt stuff which just needs some gentle editing. I teach them how to breathe, how to stop shaking and how to project.

The tutorial is quite intense and lasts about two hours. So far, all of them have blubbed on first reading, but I encourage them to think of something bad, such as how much the wedding is costing them, and this helps them through the wobbly passages!

They arrive looking tense and worried but leave with a new confidence, though I get nervous myself on the actual day wondering how they are getting on.

So far all the speeches have gone down a storm"

ENDS

For further information please contact: Ralph Oswick
ralph@naturaltheatre.co.uk, 01225 469131

 
Melbourne Comedy Festival 30 Mar - 24 April 2011

23rd February 2011

Bath's Natural Theatre Company is returning to the famous Melbourne International Comedy Festival in March to perform their unique brand of street theatre - as the company celebrates its 40th year of making people laugh and the festival celebrates its 25th.

After two previous visits they are honored to be invited back and show Australian audiences some of their new characters. The High Street Bowling Club will be dressed in their crisp white outfits and create a bowling competition anywhere and everywhere. In contrast, the horribly unhygienic costumed Pigeon Poo People have the passers by wondering if they are bird-like people or people-like birds. Both pieces have proved very popular since they premiered in Bath last year and in true Natural Theatre style will be engaging and entertaining on the other side of the world.

The comedy festival will also be treated to an evening performance of the successful stage show A Night at the Bijou - where the Naturals bring to life one of the 'best' horror B movie's The Bride of the Monster starring Bela Lugosi. The beautifully renovated 1920's cinema The Capitol Theatre will be the perfect setting for this performance. The aged (and odd) staff of the Bijou Cinema have been brought out of retirement, and with the added assistance from 'smell-o-vision' and 'wet-o-rama', recreate a traditional 1950's cinema experience...including the popcorn!

But don't feel left out if you're not off to Australia, as the Naturals will also be appearing at the Bath Comedy Festival, Sunday 3rd April, with The White Wine Arts Trail. Please see www.bathcomedy.com for further details.

To see if the Naturals will be at a theatre, party, launch, opening or on a street near you visit their website www.naturaltheatre.co.uk or if you're in Melbourne www.comedyfestival.com.au

ENDS

Contact: Sarah Huntington, Marketing Officer
sarah@naturaltheatre.co.uk, 01225 469131

Photographs: High resolution images available on request.

 
Fountain Of Natural Youth Street Theatre Workshops

19th February 2011

Thanks to support from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Natural Theatre Company is offering a series of street theatre workshops to twelve to eighteen year olds, starting on April 14th. These will lead up to promenade performances in front of thousands at Widcombe Rising in June.

Widcombe Rising 2010 celebrates the 200th anniversary of the Kennet and Avon canal and the street theatre will be based around the theme of a goddess who has risen from the waters. There are just forty places on the course, in two separate age groups, and rehearsals will take place once a week in St Matthew's Church, Widcombe and at the company's bustling production centre at Widcombe Institute.

This is a unique chance for young people to learn to perform in Natural Theatre's unique style and to use many of their props and costume facilities. The project will be run by Feargus Woods Dunlop and Heather Westwell who are both experienced performers and youth theatre practitioners.
They will be aided and abetted by renowned carnival costume designer Shula Newick.

The full course costs £40 per person and full details can be found on the news page.

 
Naturals Off To China For 5 Months

19th February 2010

Bath's Natural Theatre Company is pleased to announce that it has been invited by the British Council to perform at the British Pavilion at World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

The Naturals have performed their particular brand of humorous and quintessentially British street theatre at many of the international Expos in recent years, including Osaka, Kunming, Seville, Korea, Lisbon and Brisbane. They were of course resident at the Millennium Dome throughout 2000.

The British Pavilion in Shanghai is designed as a cathedral of light and has the appearance of a sculpture that has just been unwrapped. The 'wrapping paper' forms an undulating green piazza the size of a football pitch around the building and it is here the Naturals and other UK performers will be working.

The contract begins April 19th and will last for five months. Twenty two of the company's performers will be travelling to Shanghai, in groups of four or five. Temperatures in the city reach the middle nineties in August and what with the exceptionally high humidity, it remains to be seen if our Flowerpot masks, or rather the people wearing them, will wilt!

The Expo is huge and a metro line is being constructed to cope with the expected eighty million visitors. Over forty thousand people per day will pass through the British pavilion, which will help Natural Theatre's audience figures no end!

The organisers have requested the company's classic scenarios such as the Flowerpots and the Pink Suitcases, but in the week leading up to the Bath Comedy Festival, the entire company will be devising some new characters and pieces which will be presented for the first time on the streets of Bath on the festival's opening day, which falls appropriately on April 1st. The best scenarios will then be transferred to Shanghai. You saw it here first, folks!

Further details:

Ralph Oswick
ralph@naturaltheatre.co.uk
Tel. 01225 469131

 
Coneheads Land At The Pyramids!

7th January 2009

Bath's Natural Theatre Company has been invited to perform their unique brand of street theatre in Cairo. At the invitation of the British Council they will be appearing amongst the three million visitors expected to attend the Cairo Book Fair. This is the second biggest book fair in the world after Frankfurt and the team of actors will be there from 22nd to 24th of January.

In addition to attracting 3000 exhibitors, the book fair is attended by authors, buyers and publishers and has become one of the leading cultural activities in the Middle East. The United Kingdom is this year's guest of honour and ten leading British authors will be giving lectures and carrying out book signings. The Naturals will be performing in the avenues and piazzas in between the various pavilions that make up the exhibition grounds.

Natural Theatre has performed in Egypt before at the opening of the British Council's new facility in Cairo, and also at the National Library in Alexandria. However, this is the first time the general public will experience their work. Oddly, the organisers have not chosen the company's literature-related scenarios but have gone for the popular Pink Suitcases and Flowerpots routines. The Coneheads will also be in evidence (last seen next to the Pyramids!) plus the company's British Bobbies who will be keeping everyone in order.

The team will be regular Naturals Ric Jerrom, Mark Bishop, Rose Popay and Haf Morgan, all of whom are locally based.

To see if the Naturals will be at a theatre, party, launch, opening or on a street near you, visit their website www.naturaltheatre.co.uk

ENDS

Contact: Sarah Huntington
Marketing Officer
sarah@naturaltheatre.co.uk
t. 01225 469131

Photographs: High resolution images available on request.