Latest news with #Crouch
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Harnett man charged with stealing Jeep
A Harnett County man faces a felony charge of obtaining property by false pretense and other crimes. Richard Alan Crouch, 40, of the 200 block of Riverview Place, northwest of Lillington, was arrested earlier this month on a felony charge of drug possession and later charged with an incident stemming from Jan. 29. In that latter case, Crouch allegedly stole a 1994 Jeep Wrangler valued at $500 from George Baker and received $200 for it from Southern Auto Salvage and Recyling, according to an arrest warrant. He was also charged with two misdemeanors, including larceny of a motor vehicle and possession of stolen goods. He is being held in the Harnett County Jail on bonds totaling $25,000, according to eCourts. Crouch has a lengthy criminal record, including a charge stemming from 2000 for indecent liberties with a child under 13. In that case, Crouch was convicted of assault on a child and sentenced to 60 days in jail plus two years of supervised probation. He has been arrested at various times over the years in Lee, Moore and Wake counties for such things as driving while license revoked, no driver's license, possession with intent to sell or deliver heroin, possession of meth, misdemeanor and felony larceny, shoplifting and uttering a forged instrument, according to eCourts. He previously listed addresses in the 2100 block of Rice Road in Sanford and the 1400 block of Post Office Road in northern Lee County.
Yahoo
a day ago
- General
- Yahoo
Police searching for missing 94-year-old man in Montgomery County
MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. () — The Montgomery County Department of Police (MCPD) is asking for the community's help in locating a 94-year-old man who went missing Tuesday morning. Police announced on social media that officers are searching for Leroy Albert Crouch, 94, who was last seen around 8:30 a.m. on May 27. According to MCPD, Crouch was last seen in the 15000 block of Layhill Road. Investigators said he was wearing a gray and brown button-up long-sleeved sweatshirt with grey dress pants and black sneakers. Crash involving 2 vehicles leaves multiple injured in Bethesda He was described as around 5 feet and 6 inches tall at around 150 lbs. Anyone who sees Crouch is asked to call the Montgomery County police non-emergency line at 301-279-8000. Check for updates. To keep up with the latest news and weather updates, download our Mobile App on iPhone or Android. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
New European
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New European
Jessie Buckley and the worst night of theatre in 50 years
Please don't even think about going to see Tim Crouch's An Oak Tree, a strange, self-indulgent, and, above all, mind-numbingly boring piece of improvised theatre that was first performed around 20 years ago and has since been periodically and sadistically revived with star names such as Hugh Bonneville and David Tennant somehow being persuaded to put in guest appearances. On the first night of this latest revival, the star name was Jessie Buckley. She is a good actress and an amiable human being who stood on stage with a script she hadn't seen before – that's one of the silly conceits of this show, the guest stars don't get to see the script beforehand – doing what she could to maintain her dignity as Crouch stood beside her accusing her of, among other things, defecating in her trousers. The play is supposedly about bereavement but it's so loosely written that it soon loses its focus. It's all quite honestly mystifying and often distasteful and I can genuinely say an hour and 15 minutes has never – in 30 years of theatregoing – gone by quite so painfully slowly for me in a theatre. Theatre-makers should always give the punters at least a sporting chance of enjoying themselves, but Crouch has determined on this occasion to give them absolutely no chance. I turned to my companion at the end – a seasoned theatregoer and former Sunday Times and Observer journalist – and asked him if it was just me. Was it really as boring and pointless as I'd thought it was? He said it was the worst night at the theatre he'd experienced in more than half a century.
Daily Mail
03-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mail
Peter Crouch and Rio Ferdinand brand Premier League guard of honour tradition as 'awkward' and 'EMBARRASSING' ahead of Liverpool's trip to Chelsea
Peter Crouch and Rio Ferdinand have both claimed they are not fans of giving a guard of honour to new champions as Liverpool prepare to receive one this weekend. The Reds clinched the Premier League title with four game remaining last week after thrashing Tottenham 5-1 at Anfield. A long-standing Premier League tradition sees opposing players honour the new champions by applauding them before each game. However, former Liverpool striker Crouch says he doesn't understand the gesture and that it's "embarrassing"'. 'I don't like it. Maybe it shows respect but I just don't get it. It's embarrassing for the team that comes out and it's entirely embarrassing for the team that claps them on the field. It's not for me', Crouch said. Six-time Premier League champion Ferdinand agreed, saying: 'I didn't like it. I've been fortunate to receive the guard of honour and be on the receiving end of it. 'Both are quite awkward. Crouchy's exactly right.' Liverpool will travel to Chelsea in their first match as new champions on Sunday before facing Arsenal, Brighton and Crystal Palace. Blues boss Enzo Maresca has insisted the Reds 'deserve' a guard of honour, with the west London club having also performed the gesture in 2020. 'Yes. It's tradition. We have to do that, and we are going to do that. They won the Premier League, so they deserve it,' Maresca said. He added added: 'In terms of the gap (between Chelsea and Liverpool), it is there, you can see this clearly. My feeling is we are (moving) in the right direction and hopefully this gap can be smaller and smaller and smaller. 'The difference is they have been consistent compared to us. For part of the season, we were very good, then we lost some games. 'This has probably been the main reason why. And also in terms of experienced players that know how to win games and these kinds of things, I think they have something more compared to us.'
The Guardian
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Why are Hollywood stars lining up to appear in a play they know nothing about?
The standard routine in theatre goes something like this: an actor is cast in a play; they read, learn and rehearse it; and then, at last, they perform it to an audience, who will hopefully soak up their hard work. But for Tim Crouch, one of the industry's chief experimenters, this exercise began to feel reductive. 'A lot of actor training is about holding focus within the stage and putting the audience into a receiving role,' says Crouch. 'I used to go to pubs and bitch about it.' An Oak Tree – his 2005 play that is now seen as a landmark work – was born directly from these frustrations. The script, which is written to be performed by Crouch and a new actor each night, celebrates its changeability. 'It is a finished piece, but it contains an unfinished element,' Crouch says. An Oak Tree's story concerns a meeting between two men: a father who has lost his 12-year-old daughter in a car crash (played by the actor), and the person behind the wheel (played by Crouch). The one basic requirement is that the actor arrives at the theatre oblivious. They must have never seen the play, nor read the script, and be willing to stand on stage with no idea what will happen over the course of the evening. Frances McDormand, Peter Dinklage, Mike Myers and David Harewood are some of the many names to have played Crouch's unwitting castmate over the years. One of the play's early performers was Toby Jones, who 'rocked up' at the Brighton festival run of the show in 2006. 'Tim said you don't need to know anything; come on stage, it will all become clear,' Jones laughs. Part of the appeal for him was the opportunity to 'go on a journey with Tim' and lean into the unexpected. 'In a way, it is about submission of control … it is very moving; there's quite a lot to take in'. Susan Wokoma, who performed in An Oak Tree at Rada in London in 2018, was similarly excited by the play's uncharted territory. 'When I started acting as a kid, there was so much ensemble work, and it was about trust,' she says. 'Then you become an actor, and there is absolutely zero risk.' After An Oak Tree finished, Wokoma 'missed it immediately because I had to go back to what we've decided theatre is. I felt proud that I was part of it – you're part of the largest company ever'. Now, 20 years after its conception, Crouch is preparing to celebrate its anniversary with a three-week run at London's Young Vic. Actors including David Tennant, Jessie Buckley, Meera Syal and Mark Gatiss are all due to take the second role in Crouch's ever-evolving drama. As the one constant, Crouch has now performed An Oak Tree 380 times at theatres all across the globe. He keeps a list on his laptop of actors who have joined the play's ever-growing company. His play, he says, 'is like a lizard; it loses its tail and regrows it'. Crouch started his career in the theatre company Public Parts and trained as an actor at the University of Bristol and the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. He branched out into writing with his debut My Arm, a play that uses objects from the audience to a tell a story about a man who holds his arm above his head for 30 years. 'I was an unhappy actor and didn't know what the fuck I was doing,' he says, '[and] I wrote My Arm just for myself'. But the play was a success, and from it grew An Oak Tree. 'I wanted to effectively keep doing what I was doing with My Arm – to use an actor's projection to turn a human into another human.' Nowadays Crouch is considered a master of form. His plays challenge the traditional expectations of theatre. But it's surprising to learn that An Oak Tree's narrative came before its structure, with Crouch writing a story about two men meeting up after the death of one of their children. Inspired by a sculpture by Michael Craig Martin, which labels what is clearly a glass of water as an oak tree, the father in the play turns a nearby oak tree into his daughter. In 2005, Crouch, alongside his now-longtime collaborator Andy Smith, wrote a play that 'aligned both' form and story. Originally, Crouch wanted the father to be played by a non-actor. 'But then it expanded into using a different actor every time,' he says. 'The story is about a man who is lost, played by an actor who is lost'. In rehearsals, Smith took the role of the unknowing actor/father. 'Kind of like Men in Black, Andy would erase his memory of the previous day's work,' he says. 'He would note me on my tone, clarity, and how enabling my instructions were.' The second character is still called Andy in the published playscript of An Oak Tree. Eventually, Crouch started to 'bring in friends' to see how they'd react. 'We'd talk to them afterwards and go: 'How was that for you? Was there anything that was unclear? Where did you feel overwhelmed?'' he says. After two preview runs in Germany, An Oak Tree opened at the now defunct Nightingale theatre in Brighton with Deborah Asante playing the role of the father. Putting the second actor at ease is hugely important to Crouch. He meets them an hour before the show to prepare them for what to expect. 'I start by saying they can't get it wrong, and they can't get it right,' he says. Taking part in Crouch's 'formal game' was a liberating experience for Jones. 'It was quite unsettling, but Tim has written it so you're constantly being reassured that however you're doing it, it's right,' he says. 'I remember coming off and thinking the play was just a beautiful idea.' Since then, Jones has encouraged any actor considering signing up for An Oak Tree to do it. 'I tell them they'll be absolutely fine'. Michelle Terry, the actor and artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe in London, who is on the cast list for the forthcoming Young Vic run, admits that she's been a fan of Crouch's work 'for ever' and lists off some of her favourite plays that he has written, including I, Malvolio, I Cinna (The Poet), and Truth's a Dog Must to Kennel in quick succession. 'I think anyone who loves theatre and works in theatre just thinks he's the best,' she says. The rules of An Oak Tree are followed closely by the actors. Also due to appear at the Young Vic is Game of Thrones actor Indira Varma, who has avoided talking to anyone who has been in the play before. 'We're not allowed,' she laughs. 'How do you prepare for something you don't know anything about? I think I'm just going to go with the flow.' 'It must be exciting for the audience,' she says, 'watching someone potentially make a twat of themselves but also maybe succeed.' The only thing that worries Terry is that the script's font might be too small to read; 'otherwise, it is just a beautiful offer to go and just be there'. Now big-name actors queue to perform in An Oak Tree, a play that began its life on the fringes. How does this feel for Crouch, whose work is created in antithesis to the mainstream theatre world where Hollywood Oscar winners dominate? 'I would very happily play to university theatres for ever,' says Crouch. 'But I think the play is more than that. It has something to say about the bigger structures that operate in theatres.' Clearly, Crouch's 'imperfect' play appeals to the masses. 'It took me a long time to have the confidence to call myself a playwright,' he admits. And yet Crouch has new ideas bubbling to the surface. He wants to write more work for children: his twist on A Midsummer Night's Dream, I, Peaseblossom, is on at the RSC in May. But, never once in 20 years has he been bored by An Oak Tree. 'It keeps my brain alive and alert,' he says. 'Until theatre changes profoundly, I will keep doing it.' An Oak Tree is at the Young Vic, London, Tuesday to 24 May.
