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Hippodrome taking a green bow
Birmingham Hippodrome, the most visited theatre in the UK, has won an environmental award for its ongoing commitment and work on improving wastage, recycling and reducing its carbon footprint.
The theatre, which contributes an estimated £40
million to the local economy each year is the first theatre in the UK to
be registered to ISO 14001, an international standard for Environmental
Management Systems, now the most widely awarded EMS certification in the
world.
Mike Bradford, Director of Operations at Birmingham Hippodrome said “We are delighted to be the first theatre in the UK to be certified to ISO 14001 and listed on the QA Register. With 500,000 visitors per year it is important that we are committed to the environment. We have already changed the way we dispose of our waste, recycling has increased in the last 12 months by 110 per cent and modifications to the theatre's utilities means that we have reduced gas and electricity usage by 30 per cent in the last 5 years”.
Birmingham Hippodrome's on-going commitment to the
environment also includes:
-
Glass and Plastic recycling saving an average of 580kgs of Co2 per month
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Cardboard baled, compressed onsite, collected every 2 weeks for recycling (instead of two skips every week going to landfill)
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General waste compacted and collected every two weeks for recycling, reducing carbon footprint (instead of emptying one skip five times per week which then went to landfill)
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Administration - reduction of print consumption by 10 per cent
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Introduction of low energy lighting, sensor taps, and hand dryers
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Recycling bins located backstage and in administration
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Waste that cannot be recycled is sent to Tyseley incinerator Birmingham, which produces enough energy to power 40,000 local homes
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Ongoing work includes reduction of the theatre's water usage
Emma Fawcett-Jones, UK Business Manager for Certification International (UK) Ltd said: “We are absolutely delighted to award certification to ISO 14001:2004 to Birmingham Hippodrome. During the Initial Assessment, the organisation was subject to a rigorous audit, designed to fully test the management system against the requirements of the Standard and to assess its implementation throughout the Theatre. I'm pleased to say that through the commitment of Mike and his team, it was evident that Birmingham Hippodrome had made significant efforts to ensure that it was fully compliant in all aspects.”
The Hippodrome was also awarded an interest
free loan by the Carbon Trust which enabled the theatre to reduce its
energy bill by £17,500 per year through energy improvement measures.
Two years ago in The Building Controls Industry Awards 2007, Birmingham Hippodrome won the Energy Management Award for maintaining auditorium comfort levels whilst reducing energy usage.
Jan 20, 2010.
The
RSC Toolkit underpins
the company's Stand up for Shakespeare philosophy, which calls on
all school children to experience Shakespeare live, start Shakespeare
earlier and learn about Shakespeare through active teaching methods
which get them on their feet.
Aimed at both Primary and Secondary Schools, the RSC Shakespeare Toolkit for Teachers was launched by RSC Artistic Director Michael Boyd and the leading children's author Malorie Blackman and coincided with a London schools tour of the RSC's new Young People's Shakespeare production of Hamlet, directed by Tarell Alvin McCraney.
It
alsc comes on the heels of an
independent report by the
University of Warwick which shows that the RSC's way of working with
schools can lead to increased engagement by lower-achieving pupils,
improved behaviour, especially amongst boys, and increased achievement
for pupils of all abilities.
The RSC Shakespeare Toolkit for Teachers, (Methuen Drama, an imprint of A&C Black, £50, ISBN: 9781408114285) is an educational resource for Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 and has taken two years to get to publication.
ACTIVE APPROACHES
It combines accessible practical ways of playing with Shakespeare's text with the intellectual rigour and active approaches which are part of the RSC's rehearsal process and brings three of Shakespeare's most popular plays in the classroom to life – Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Pupils will be able to undertake drama-based explorations of the text, and there are teachers' notes and accompanying worksheets for lesson by lesson teaching of each play. Every single exercise, lesson and strategy in the Toolkit has been tried out with countless teachers and pupils in schools all over the country.
Michael Boyd said: "There is sometimes an assumption that Shakespeare is only for the highest achievers, that his work is too difficult for anyone else. Our work over the last four years has shown this to be nonsense. The tens of thousands of children we've reached with the help of many, many inspirational teachers have experienced Shakespeare in ways which have sparked their imagination and their aspirations.
"There
is no such thing as ‘Too thick for Shakespeare'. We want all
children to be taught Shakespeare in the active ways we know to be
effective and teachers to be supported in introducing these methods,
with training, resource materials and suitable assessment."
Jacqui O'Hanlon, the RSC's
Director of Education said: ‘Every year we work with over 2,500
teachers and 30,000 children and young people and they often tell us
that the activities we introduce them to produce all kinds of
interesting and significant results in the classroom, from improved
levels of attainment in reading and writing to increased levels of
self-confidence and motivation.
‘We know that we can't work in every classroom in the country and nor should we. What we wanted to do was create an easy-to-use resource which would offer a practical drama-based guide to teaching and appreciating Shakespeare for any teacher who wants to know more about how we work with text. We hope that teachers will become so confident about working in this way that they will be able to transfer the same approach to other texts"
"I
see the Toolkit as the crown jewels of everything we do. It is
inspired by the work our legendary voice director, Cicely Berry OBE
started over 25 years ago. Her mission was and is to breathe life
into Shakespeare's words.
"We have worked with five writers to develop it, all of whom have been part of the RSC's rehearsal processes. They have taken our ways of playing with the text and made them into lesson plans which we think any teacher can pick up and use – whether they are new to teaching or used to working actively with Shakespeare. We think there is something for everyone in this book."
The RRP is £50 but it is on an introductory offer of £38.50 on the RSC website.
More details:
http://www.acblack.com/drama/Books/details.aspx?isbn=9781408114285
http://www.rsc.org.uk/learning/8656.aspx
Classroom research findings
http://www.rsc.org.uk/standupforshakespeare/content/classroom_research.aspx
IT has been called "a feat of multiple characterisation, impeccable timing, vocal dexterity and precise physical control, performed with tremendous sensitivity and panache".
It is Guy Masterson's one-man
interpretation of
Under Milk Wood
and it will be at Worcester's Swan Theatre on Friday, February 12.
A world tour has included visits to Trinidad, New Zealand, Hong Kong
and Calcutta, with all 69 inhabitants of Dylan Thomas's hamlet of
Llareggyb coming vividly to life in a remarkable feat of performance and
memory.
The Swan's season's brochure does however take the subtlety out of the
author's choice of name for his fictional little community by calling it
Llareggub
Hippodrome takes a bow
BIRMINGHAM
Hippodrome, the
UK's busiest theatre and Birmingham's number one visitor attraction has
been recognized for its contribution to the arts and culture of the
region by scooping a top prize at the 2009 West Midland Tourism Awards.
The
Award was presented at a prestigious dinner
held in
Birmingham's International
Convention Centre hosted by BBC Midlands Today presenters Nick
Owen and Suzanne Virdee.
The
Hippodrome won the award against strong opposition from fellow nominees
Shugborough Hall & Estate and Guiding You in Warwickshire.
The
Award comes at an important time for Birmingham Hippodrome. In the
summer a Prospectus was launched detailing the vision for the theatre's
future development. Included amongst the aims was the development of an
international centre for dance; to further extend the theatre's reach
into the community by expanding its physical and creative capacity; and
to be a key anchor in the regeneration of the Southside district of the
city.
Birmingham Hippodrome is a major driver in both the success and
reputation of the arts in the region contributing more than £40m to the
local economy. It is home to the world's biggest pantomime and sells
more tickets for dance than any other theatre outside of London. It is
home to Birmingham Royal Ballet and DanceXchange as well as being the
English residence for Welsh National Opera.