Erica Whyman: Celebs Rumors

Studio Ghibli classic My Neighbour Totoro.The world premiere of the stage adaptation, directed by Phelim McDermott and featuring puppets created by Basil Twist, will have a limited 15-week run at London’s Barbican from October 2022 until January 2023.My Neighbour Totoro follows sisters Mei and Satsuki, who move to an old house while their mother recovers from a pretty severe illness. While exploring the neighbouring forest, Mei stumbles upon a magical world of cryptids, creatures and monsters, including the titular Totoro.Erica Whyman, the RSC’s acting artistic director, said: “Adapting this deeply loved magical story for the stage is the next chapter in our longstanding commitment to making spectacular and accessible productions that see the world through the eyes of children,” adding that the show would attract “a wide range of theatre audiences as well as loyal fans of the original film”.Ranking it the ninth best Studio Ghibli film in 2018, NME described My Neighbour Totoro – created by Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki – as “an iconic film that captures so purely how we find strength in our families” as well as “the perfect introduction to Ghibli and the antidote to the rainy-day blues”.The RSC’s stage version will be adapted by Tom Morton-Smith, who praised the film as a “very wholesome, beautiful world that washes over you”.“These young girls are discovering nature for the first time, so there are long shots of a snail on a leaf or a fish in a stream or a frog jumping in a puddle,” he said.

Naman Ramachandran Madeleine Mantock (“Charmed”) will make her Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) debut with “Hamnet,” the stage adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel. Set in 1582, “Hamnet” follows Agnes Hathaway, a natural healer who meets the Latin tutor, William Shakespeare and they create a life together and make a family. As Shakespeare moves to London to discover his place in the world of theater, Hathaway stays at home to raise their three children. When the plague steals 11-year-old Hamnet from his loving parents, they must each confront their loss alone. And yet, out of the greatest suffering, something of extraordinary wonder is born.

K.J. Yossman The U.K.’s industry-led skills body ScreenSkills has teamed with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to offer workshops on live performance.The workshops, titled “Live Performance Goes Digital” and led by the team behind the RSC’s stage-to-screen productions, will be open to regional theatres and touring companies as well as independent producers, directors, stage managers and other live performance professionals to share understanding on how to capture live performance.

Sir Antony Sher, the acclaimed UK theater actor who also starred in Shakespeare In Love and Mrs Brown, has died aged 72.