Adrian Curtin

The Climate Choir strikes again in King's Cross! 🎵🎶🎵 Rosebank, Rosebank, YOU SHALL NOT PASS! Burning the #Rosebank oil would emit more than 200 million tons of CO2, while not helping our energy security because the oil would be sold on the international markets. It's madness.

A view of London, taken from the Tate Modern. A large group of people, some holding British flags, can be seen on a bridge.

A large group of people, some holding British flags, can be seen on a bridge in London.

Also spotted: the far-right, en masse.

Part of the ‘Gathering Ground’ exhibition at the Tate.

Is ‘The Wizard of Oz’ at Sphere the Future of Cinema? Or the End of It?

www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/m...

Opinion | I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students.

"I Teach Creative Writing. This Is What A.I. Is Doing to Students." www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/o...

A handwritten score by Hugh Shrapnel

Hugh Shrapnel’s Improvisation Rite 44 (1969): 'Do something impossible, Do something possible; Make the impossible thing seem possible, Make the possible thing seem impossible'.

A paragraph of written text for a piece called 'Loud and Soft Laughter Music'.

A funny piece from Cornelius Cardew's The Great Learning (1971)

The Earthlings Family Orchestra has been creating music to, with & about the accompanying ambiences of Exeter's Lower Hoopern Valley. It's been interesting and surprising. I'll write it up soon. In the meantime, these silent pics show a little of the space we shared & the space we made.

ORGANS! clavichord, bon tempi organ, pipe organ, Venta organ, stylophone - Simon Belshaw has been 'converting pieces written to be played by a computer into pieces playable by musicians.' for our ECS concert 14/6. #ECSLostandFound #artweekexeter #artweekexeter25 #awe25
substack.com/home/post/p-...

Manchester University Press - Death in modern theatre Death in modern theatre - Browse and buy the Paperback edition of Death in modern theatre by Adrian Curtin

My book Death in Modern Theatre: Stages of Mortality, first published by @manchesterup.bsky.social‬ in 2019, is now out in paperback at a more affordable price. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526191236/ The subject matter may be 'heavy', but now the book is lighter...

Sign the Petition Stop the cuts to Arts, Design & Architecture courses at University of Plymouth

This petition was created by postgraduates at Plymouth University, responding to the proposed cutting of fine art, performing arts and music.

This would be a huge loss to creative education in the region as well as to the city's cultural ecology and wellbeing.

Please sign.

People in a screening room watching a film.

Staff & students @uniofexeterdrama.bsky.social attend an in-house screening of Romeo Castellucci’s strange yet beautiful piece Inferno (2008), inspired by Dante’s The Divine Comedy. What dreams may come!

The Orchestra Takes to the Stage - Manchester University Press By By Adrian Curtin If you have ever attended a traditional orchestra concert, or seen one represented on screen, you will know that the mode of presentation is formulaic and the level of stagecraft i...

I've written a short blog post for MUP's website: manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/blog/2025/04...

Thanks to @britishacademy.bsky.social and @uniofexeterdrama.bsky.social for funding and institutional support.

Manchester University Press - The theatrical orchestra The theatrical orchestra - Browse and buy the Hardcover edition of The theatrical orchestra by Adrian Curtin

My book The Theatrical Orchestra: British Music Ensembles Experiment with Performance is out! I write about some amazing groups and aim to convey the richness of their work. Please consider ordering a copy for your library. manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526177629/ @manchesterup.bsky.social

Many thanks!

A realistic sculpture of a male engineer, wearing a hi-vis jacket, kneeling in front of a communications box, ostensibly repairing it. The setting is an art museum.

Spotted at the Glucksman museum in Cork. I initially thought it was a real person.

Breaking: 200-strong Climate Choir stages flashmob in St Paul's Cathedral, demanding that @churchofengland.org - a top ten UK landowner - #rewild 30% of its land.

Nature is in crisis. Time to #RewildTheChurch!
@wildcard.land
#ChurchofEngland #nature #wildlife #choir #climate #whatwouldjesusdo

Banner design for 'The Voice Party', featuring a photograph of a mouth in place of a head atop a figure holding a raised fist.

Loré Lixenberg's call for The Voice Party, a participatory operatic political structure that proposes to radically musicalise the entire fabric of society. Taken from the open-access book, Classical Music Futures: Practices of Innovation: www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.116....

Exeter Drama finalists have presented devised work for audiences around the city. There were shows about female codebreakers, fast fashion, women’s football, AI, the nature of art, our relationship with light, political cabaret, & toxic relationships. Quite a mix!
@uniofexeterdrama.bsky.social

Two figures in a shopfront window wearing animal masks. A sign says ‘Solidarity is Sexy’. Another sign asks if you are the owner of a ‘feckless unemployed pet’.

A shopfront curiosity in Exeter.

Text of an old Japanese poem, with an English translation: "to what shall I/ compare this world of ours –/ to the white waves/ in the wake of a ship/that rowed off at dawn"

to what shall I / compare this world of ours –

A female dancer, presented as an ostrich, is near some swans by a body of water.

A dancer presents as an ostrich and is turned toward an actual ostrich.

‘The Ostrich Dance of Renita Kramer’ (1950s).

Statement from the Royal Musical Association on the School of Music at Cardiff University: www.rma.ac.uk/2025/02/03/s...

Sign the Petition SAVE CARDIFF UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Cardiff University is at the forefront of music education in the UK – a leader in composition, musicology and performance. Losing the music department would be a terrible loss to the cultural life of Wales and the wider musical world.

If you care about music at all, please sign the petition below.

‘The great moments in plays are not linguistic, they’re behavioural. The work of the playwright is the unlocking of human behaviour’.

Simon Stephens, seated, gestures at workshop participants, also seated.

A group of people seated in a circle in a studio space.

Simon Stephens enthusiastically leads a playwriting workshop for Drama and Creative Writing students at the University of Exeter. @uofedrama.bsky.social

Pieces of paper with written messages on them, affixed by clothes pegs to a clothesline on a wall. In the foreground, someone is taking a photo of the messages.

Supportive messages and tips from last year's graduating students @exeterdrama.bsky.social on display for this year's finalists as they begin work on their Practical Essay projects -- hat tip to @evom.bsky.social.

A framed photograph of Samuel Beckett’s hands, taken in 1980. The black and white shot shows Beckett’s hands on his knees.

Samuel Beckett’s hands, 1980.

Staging Sound. Reflecting theatre music and sound design This podcast accompanies the research project "The Sound of Theatre", supported by the Centre for Advances Studies at the University of Munich. We will explore questions around the current research in...

For all the interested in the role of music and sound in contemporary theatre, may I shamelessly plug my podcast (with many esteemed guests!) Staging Sound: stagingsound.podigee.io