Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Let's have a Community Arts Centre in Tonbridge please....
Went to see that new Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris on Friday night. I'd heard it was Woody back to his best and so it proved. It was excellent at least, not sure it could beat Annie Hall or Manhattan though but that's beside the point. Leading man, Owen Wilson, was so convincing as the successful, yet unfulfilled, neurotic screen writer that he may as well have been Woody Allen himself thirty years ago. Just a shame I had to go all the way to the Stag Theatre in Sevenoaks to see it! To use the correct name that should be The Stag Community Arts Centre. Sounds like a good place to me so why can't Tonbridge have one? I've never been to the Angel Centre Cinema so I can't comment on the screen and sound quality. I'd love to see up to date films there so put some on and people will go. The next showing at the Angel seems to be Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy on November 30th which sounds great but why so infrequently?...
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6 comments:
+1 to this.
good idea TonbridgeBlog.
Could make use of that building between the park and the co-op on the high street.
You have already got a community theatre - at least thats what is says on the Oast Theatre web site. And you have juust missed "look back in anger".
When did you last go there?
It might say that it's a community theatre but is it really or is it just a little bit cliquey and clubby? Does it really reach out to the community and host community events and projects with schools etc.? I don't know the answer to these questions, by the way, I merely pose them? Is it getting involved in any meaningful way in the Tonbridge Arts Festival next year? This would seem to be a major oppotunity for the group to excercise its "community" credentials....
What!!!
Tonbridge Blogger. How long have you lived in the Town? About 20 years I believe. And you don't know about the Oast Theatre. I'm suprised. It's brilliant! Intimate auditorium, high quality performances, wide range of plays and musicals, low price bar, free parking (unlike the Stag) and a new production every month running for a week each.
As for cliques, not at all. Half the town are regulars there. You'll see many familiar faces in the audience.
Films at the angel centre.
They seem to cater for two markets: Kids films during school holidays, and what I would call 'grownup' films for a more discerning adult audience.
(always with an interval for ice creams etc.)
I've always thought the Oast Theatre was run by the same charity as the Stag. Is the Oast geographically in Tonbridge? Or is it in Hildenborough?
I know the Stag is partly run by a charity, but I'm not sure which particular charity. I also know that the council have renewed, or greatly extended the lease on the building, and injected some cash into it, so that makes it a "community" affair, meaning that it's simply added to your council tax in order to pay for it.
I think, if you want something to be oriented towards the community then it has to be paid for by all who take advantage of it.
Being a poet I am sure you will be going to your local EMForster theatre on Friday to see Carol Ann Duffy.
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