Luke Judge

Open season

11:41am Thursday 12th August 2010

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Beauty and the Beast and Romeo and Juliet are just some of the open air treats ahead. Viv Hardwick reports.

TONIGHT’S performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, is one of five new productions being toured by the Chapterhouse Theatre Company. Chapterhouse is now in its 11th season of touring open-air theatre to some of the most beautiful country houses, castles and heritage sites across the UK and Ireland. From a first year of performances at some 30 venues with Romeo and Juliet in 2000, the company is now taking shows to over 100 places including Helmsley Castle, Fountains Abbey and Thorp Perrow Arboretum in the next two weeks.

From Shakespeare to The Mystery Plays and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to producing the first West End show ever to tour open-air, ART directed by Nigel Havers in 2004, the idea of pre-show picnics and an evening’s entertainment has become a growing part of a North-East summer.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Bowes is directed by Sid Wetherby with music composed by Richard Main has the added appeal of children being invited to come along dressed as woodland fairies and elves.

? Bowes Museum, DL12 8NP.

Tonight at 7.30pm. Box Office and information: 01833-690606 or Darlington Tourist Information Centre 01325-388666. 0871- 2200260 or seetickets.com.

Tickets: Adults £12, students/children £8, families (2+2) £35. Grounds open for picnics from 6.30pm, refreshments available. Bring rugs or low-backed seating.

The Dream moves to Helmsley Castle, Castlegate, Helmsley, North Yorkshire, YO62 5AB, tomorrow, 7.30pm. Box Office: 01439-770442 or 0871-2200260 seetickets.com Tickets in advance: Adults £12, Concessions/children £10. On the night: £14 or £12 Grounds open for picnics from 6.45pm.

? Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, Ripon, North Yorkshire, hosts Jane Austin’s Pride and Prejudice, adapted by Laura Turner, directed by Rebecca Gadsby with music by Richard Main on Saturday at 70pm Box Office: 0844- 249-1895 nationaltrust.org.uk/events Adults £15, Children £12 Grounds open from 6pm. Light refreshments available.

Pride and Prejudice moves on to Alnwick Castle on September 5.

? Georgina Sherrington, star of CITV’s The Worst Witch, takes the lead in Beauty and the Beast, by Laura Turner, at Thorp Perrow Arboretum, Bedale, North Yorkshire, DL8 2PR, on Saturday, August 21, 6pm Box Office: 01677-425 323 or Richmond TIC 01748- 828 742 or 0871-2200260, seetickets.com Adults £11, students and children £7, Families £30.

Grounds open from 5.30pm.

BREAK dancing, rap and modern dance are being included in a new version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet being staged by South Shields’ The Customs House at South Marine Park next week.

The Director Peter Lathan says: “Instead of doing an easy version of the show by sticking to it traditionally, we have decided to bring it into 2010.

“There will be break dancing, rapping and modern dress, a core cast of some of the region’s best actors and actresses and a chorus of young people who have never performed on stage before.”

The two lovers will be played by Alex Kinsey and Rachel Teate supported by a cast of North-East actors including Anne Orwin (Nurse), Donald McBride (Friar Laurence), Neil Armstrong (Prince), Tony Neilson (Capulet) and Kim Kitson (Montague) The cast is completed by Jamie Brown (Benvolio), Viktoria Kay (Mercutio), Charlie Richmond (Tybalt/Friar John), Jill Dellow (lady Capulet), Stuart Blackburn (Paris) and Iain Cunningham (Peter/Watch) Lathan adds: “Following on from last year’s hugely successful show I was keen to use as much of the core cast once again.”

Customs House executive director Ray Spencer says: “The support we have received from both South Tyneside Council and The Friends of North and South Marine Park has been fantastic and I look forward to seeing the results of the cast’s hard work.”

? Romeo and Juliet, South Marine Park, Wednesday- Sunday. Tickets: £10, £6 students, £30 family ticket. Box Office: 0191-454-1234 or customshouse.co.uk

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The city of Austin, Texas today unveiled details of a smart-grid project, aimed at figuring out how to make the electricity grid work as homeowners begin to put huge numbers of solar panels on rooftops.

“The goal of the Pecan Street Project is to provide one power plant’s worth of clean, renewable energy, and to produce it within the city of Austin,” said Brewster McCracken, the city’s mayor pro tem, at a press conference during a clean-energy summit in the city.

The “Pecan Street Project,” named after the city’s famed live-music boulevard, which used to be called Pecan Street but is now called Sixth Street, has backing from many corporate heavyweights, including Dell, GE Energy and Cisco Systems. The Environmental Defense Fund is also involved from the environmental side.

So far, no money has been devoted to the project, but city officials say they will work out the financing after the initial, brainstorming phase of the project ends next August.

In technical-speak, the project addresses the software challenges of “distributed generation” – the idea that people will start generating power from their homes, reducing dependence on centralized power plants.

It anticipates other, future challenges to the grid, including “smart” appliances (refrigerators that turn off briefly at hours when the grid is stressed by high demand, for example), as well as plug-in hybrids, which will consume large amounts of power but can also store it in batteries.

A number of other locales and utilities — including Boulder, Colorado (with Xcel Energy), Duke Energy and Illinois, to name a few — have also begun “smart grid” projects, though the particulars vary.

Austin officials say they can move more especially quickly because the local utility that is leading the project, Austin Energy, is owned by the city and therefore can easily carry out officials’ directives.

Unlike other states, Texas also has its own power grid, called ERCOT, which means that utilities in the state “can modify our system withough lengthy federal reviews or approvals,” said Mr. McCracken.

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