Welcome to our collection of TORn’s hottest topics for the past week. If you’ve fallen behind on what’s happening on the Message 
Boards, here’s a great way to catch the highlights. Or if you’re new to TORn and want to enjoy some great conversations, just follow the links to some of our most popular discussions. Watch this space as every weekend we will spotlight the most popular buzz on TORn’s Message Boards. Everyone is welcome, so come on in and join in the fun!
Continue reading “TORn Message Boards Weekly Roundup – July 30, 2012”
Category: Events
This Saturday (August 4) at 10.30am, Billy Boyd will narrate the story behind the first ever stage production of of J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Hobbit on BBC Radio 4.
The very first stage production, written by Humphrey Carpenter with music composed by Paul Drayton, was performed at New College School in Oxford in 1967.
Some of the choristers in that first production are now eminent in the musical world: choral conductor Simon Halsey, Opera North’s Martin Pickard and artist’s agent Stephen Lumsden. Composer Howard Goodall watched his older brother Ashley perform. They talk about their memories and of Tolkien’s presence in the audience on the last night.
Thanks to Ringer Andrew for the heads-up.
Update: Ringer HuanCry adds that Radio 4 is also broadcasting a documentary Tolkien in Love the day before.
Meredith Woerner of io9.com posted a video interview with Richard Armitage talking at Comic-Con 2012 about his role as Thorin Oakenshield. Asked if he had to update his character for modern audiences he said:
“I never really thought of updating it. I actually did the opposite. I thought of it as more kind of Greek tragedy. I looked at Shakespeare, a lot of my preparation I was looking at Henry V and bits of Richard III, just to find roots in British literature that were deeper. But I think making it feel contemporary the big themes of the story — loyalty and trust and camaraderie — I think those things are contemporary.”
Benedict Cumbatch the voice of Smaug and staring as the Necromancer in The Hobbit films, helps kick-off the BBC‘s coverage off the 2012 Olympic Games in this short feature.
If you want the chance to join us in Wellington to experience all the excitement of the World Premiere for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, you need to act quickly. With all the news and buzz surrounding comic con, spots on the tour have been very sought after. The Tour takes place the last week of November, includes hotel, our very own Premiere party, and about half your meals and all the transfers. What it does not include are tickets to the actual Premiere, which is an Industry event. There will also be a tour to the Hobbiton movie location, which is a must see now that it’s been restored to it’s filmic glory. The link below will give you better details on the dates, the itinerary and the pricing, which is ‘Land Only’.
NOTE: For full details on the trip, click here.
After a successful run in Washington DC last
year Andrew Upton, Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh have brought the Sydney Theater Company’s production of the famous Chekhov play Uncle Vanya to New York City. And it’s wowing audiences in the Big Apple.
Opening as a part of the Lincoln Centre Festival at the weekend, critics have praised the “uniformly brilliant cast” that includes Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving.
Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh are still slightly terrified by the play ‘It’s excruciating,’ says Blanchett. ‘What I find the most difficult thing to exist within is what Tamas [Ascher, the Hungarian director] describes in Chekhov as the “stupid silences” where everyone just falls into a silence that is utterly stupid, and their stupidity is revealed to them, and they are staring into a void.’ The production continues at the New York City Centre until Saturday.
[More]