... Dancework BATTERSEA ARTS CENTRE THE PROGRAMME which Dance-work presented recently at Battersea Arts Centre provided five works in a short but quietly enjoyable evening. The five dancers rely on no gimmicks to make their mark, but they present themselves as an honest, inventive and hard-working team. Stuart Hopps' The Check Up was decidedly droll. Christine Juffs played a tense, bustling and ...

... Minstrels return to seaside Futurist THE BLACK and White Minst rels are returning to Scarbo rough's Futurist Theatre next summer with a special 20th an niversary production. It will be the eighth year since I960 that the famous Minstrel Show has played at the Futurist which Is owned by London theatrical impre sario Robert Luff, the man behind the Minstrel Show. Their IS-week season, which ...

... Blackpool stages its own 'Artist of the Year' contest BLACKPOOL, northern Mecca of summer shows with a dozen palatial theatres and scores of workingmen's clubs and cabaret venues, has come up with its own Artist of the Year cont est. The brainchild of new up-and- coming agency, Edwards-Randall Entertainments, in conjunction with Blackpool and District Federation of Concert Secretaries, the ...

... Vegas chiefs plan Midlands ents centre by ROY GILLARD NIGHTCLUB CHIEFS from Las Vegas want to open a £1 million entertainment centre in Birmingham. They aim to stage international cabaret with a top class floor show every night. Visits of the big stars will, they say, be timed to coincide with events such as the International Motor Show at the NEC when companies have plenty of cash to spend. ...

... Midlands ice rink to become disco and theatre? From ROY GILLARD in Birmingham CAMPAIGNING councillor Alan Harrod has come up with a do-it-yourself scheme to trans form Bearwood Ice Rink near Birmingham into a disco and theatre. He is applying for planning per mission to use the dilapidated build ing for a disco three nights a week and as a theatre for family shows on another three nights. The ...

... CESARS PALACE TOURIST PLAN BY ERIC HARRIS LUTON COULD become a summer tourist centre if plans by Ladbroke's, who own Cesars Palace, are successful. ine company pians to entice tourists from London in a uni que package deal which will undercut the big London enter tainment venues. From June, tour operators and coach companies will ferry tourists from London, to international cabaret shows which ...

... Trinder to play Lido Cliftonville TOMMY Trinder will be the star of this year's summer show at the Lido Theatre, Cliftonville, near Margate. He opens an eight-and-a-half week season there on Thursday, July 5. Tommy last starred at the Lido 15 years ago. He will appear in Trin- der's The Name to be presented this year by Duggie Chapman who staged the successful Al Johnson Minstrel Show at ...

... Nixon tribute A GALA EVENING is being organ ised during April as a showbiz tribute to the late David Nixon. Friends and members of the profes sion who would like to be associated with this event, which will be in aid of radiation therapy equipment for the Royal Marsden Hospital, are asked to write to David Nixon Tribute, c/o THE STAGE. ...

... Ice show BLACKPOOL Pleasure Beach wel comed the return of the cast of its touring production, Showtime on Ice, who returned to England on January 29 after a short season at Royal Dublin Society, Simmons Court Pavilion, Ballsbridge, Dublin. The cast of 16 boys and girls, headed by Blackpool-based Julie Ann, sometimes performed five shows a day. The 45-minute shows were performed in a 700-seat ...

... Country at Blackpool COUNTRY MUSIC will be show cased as a major attraction in Blackpool this season when George Hamilton IV headlines at the Winter Gardens Pavilion during the peak months. Joining Hamilton and his backing group the Numbers will be the Duffy Brothers, Raymond Froggatt with Captain Flint, Laney Smallwood and Pete Sayers. The Country Music Show (replacing the usual straight ...

... The Living Dead LEICESTER KEN HILL has written many spoof horror shows for Leicester's Phoenix Theatre, and this year's Christmas show follows the pattern established by Dracula, The Mummy's Tomb and Curse of the Werewolf. The theatre's associate director, Chris Martin, has directed this generous mixture of intrigue, mys ticism and humour with great ability. Nazi agents readily ...

... Soft Shoe Shuttle SOHO POLY JOHN HAI KIN'S first play to be produced at the Soho Poly is a taut and intriguing drama. Called Soft Shoe Shuttle it is set at some un specified point in the future, in an 1 ngland where immigrants are no longer at liberty since the govern ment's declared policy is to repat riate them. It is a play with many twists to it. where nothing is quite the way it seems. ...