Arts Diary: Will Marriott

WEST Yorkshire’s guitar wizard Jon Gomm is going to reveal all his tricks.

Described by Acoustic Magazine as “one of the world’s most gifted and inspirational guitar players”, Gomm is taking a break from touring which has seen him visit Germany, Italy, Holland and Austria so far this year, to give a guitar master class in Bradford next month.

The workshop at Factory Street Studios in Bradford tomorrow, is open to all acoustic guitarists from beginners to advanced. “My playing style is quite unusual, involving percussive techniques and two-handed styles, so advanced players might still find themselves going back to basics!”, Jon told us. Info on 01274 682125.

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WHEN we received a note with the words Wendi Peters (best known as Cilla Battersby in Coronation Street) and pudding we thought someone was being a bit rude.

It turns out that visitors to Hull Truck Theatre are now able to sample her work both on stage and in the kitchen. Peters, it transpires, is a passionate cook and was one of the finalists in Celebrity Masterchef 2009. She also has her own blog, dedicated to her love of puddings. So, during her time on stage in John Godber’s April in Paris, Hull Truck will also feature one of Wendi’s recipes on its café-bar menu – her pear and almond tart.

GRIMSBY, a feature film version of Shakespeare’s Richard II plus 500 young people sounds like an intriguing recipe.

These are the ingredients for the Co-operative British Youth Film Academy (BYFA), embarking on an epic challenge to simultaneously make four full-length professional standard feature films, in four UK regions, during this year’s school summer holidays. So if you see 500 young people filming around Grimsby this summer, you’ll know what they’re up to – and we wish them all the best.

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GOOD luck to LIDOS, the Leeds am dram company. They’re at the city’s Carriageworks theatre next week, where they are staging Bad Girls, the musical based on the women’s prison drama.

They’re the first amateur company in the country to get the chance to do the show – and they’ve got a little bit to live up to – the show’s world premiere happened just down the road at West Yorkshire Playhouse in June 2007, before transferring to the West End.

As they’re raising money for Breast Cancer Care, we’re happy to support them. From June 7 to 11. Tickets on 0113 224 3801.

IS it art? We’re going to sit firmly on the fence. All we’ll say is that Amber Topaz, Rotherham lass, is bringing her burlesque evening show to Bradford in a couple of weeks.

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Her promoters have been in touch to say that Amber, one of the top artists in London’s thriving West End burlesque scene, is coming home to Yorkshire with her show An Evening of Burlesque.

She went to London to go to musical theatre school and ended up in Les Miserables before taking a different performing direction. The show is at Bradford’s St George’s Hall on June 17.

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