Arts Diary: Will Marriott

That’s the stage direction for Jane Birdsall, who plays Mrs Overall in the Spot on Musical’s production of Acorn Antiques The Musical. The Huddersfield based am-dram group is staging the play at Moldgreen United Reform Church, May 18 to 21. The enterprising group approached Steeton-based company Acorn, one of the largest suppliers of stairlifts in the world to help out with their staging – and have ended up with a free stairlift. Apparently Victoria Wood has changed the words of one of the songs to incorporate the words Acorn Stairlift and, as a result, the company has offered a free stairlift to all of the amateur groups producing Acorn Antiques the Musical throughout the UK this year.

You’ve been a music and art lecturer for 30 years, you retire, what to do? Andrew Wright’s answer was to share his knowledge with holiday makers. He has teamed up with Yorkshire businesswoman Debbie England to start a company holding opera tours to Italy called, somewhat unimaginatively, Opera Tours Italy. Working with the organisers of the country’s Puccini and Verdi Festival, the company will start taking opera fans to the country from the end of July. www.operatoursitaly.com

Street party fever is set to continue as a 1950s evening at Bradford’s National Media Museum will transport visitors to the era of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the Festival of Britain, accompanied by a live swing dance band and screenings from British film and television classics. On May 13, from 6-10pm, the museum is taking part in the nationwide Museums at Night 2011 project by opening the doors free of charge. Inspired by the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain, when postwar austerity was put aside and a mood of renewed hope and new beginnings swept over the country, the National Media Museum invites visitors to discover some of the flavour of the decade.

York Theatre Royal is looking for young actors to perform on the professional stage. Thea theatre’s In the Round Ensemble Season is staging Alan Bennett’s classic Forty Years On in September, but is starting to cast the play now and is looking for ten young actors to play a group of raucous sixth form schoolboys. They really are asking for trouble there. To find out more email [email protected]

With the announcement of the Turner Prize nominees this week, it turns out Yorkshire audiences will have a chance to see the work of one of the four shortlisted artists without even having to travel north to the BALTIC in Newcastle where this year’s Prize is being staged. Karla Black, one of the four up for the £25,000 prize, is currently displaying her work at Yorkshire Sculpture Park’s Longside Gallery. A visit will give you a chance to see her work away from the furore of the always controversial Turner Prize exhibition.