Filed under: meetings | Tags: arts, drama, olympics, training, UK, volarts
I am aware that I have sometimes been guilty of excessive hyperbole in this blog but, on this occasion, I really have to say that our creative planning event last weekend with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford was totally brilliant!
We brought 65 representatives of voluntary arts umbrella bodies to Stratford-upon-Avon for the weekend to work with RSC staff and actors to develop ideas for the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival (one of the major projects within the Cultural Olympiad). As well as the various amateur theatre umbrella bodies we also invited representatives from a range of artforms, including music, dance and poetry, to look at how we might use the festival to encourage greater collaboration between amateur arts groups as well as with the RSC and other professional companies.
There was a fantastic mood and genuine learning in both directions. On Saturday we were in the RSC’s Arden Street rehearsal rooms. RSC Artistic Director, Michael Boyd, gave an opening speech in which he said “the World Shakespeare Festival, at the very least, will be a great project we can all enjoy but, at best, could be quite culture-changing: something very radical is happening in theatre in this country”. He concluded that “the combined forces of professional and amateur theatre provide potentially a massive engine of social cohesion and social intelligence”. I had worried that, after his words of welcome, Michael Boyd might then disappear but he stayed with us all weekend (right to the end) and genuinely listened and learned from the umbrella bodies. He was really excited about what we might do together and has asked for a follow-up meeting with us as soon as possible.
Michael Boyd addressing the RSC/Voluntary Arts creative planning weekend
After Michael’s welcome I talked about the false divide between professional and amateur that developed in the UK in the twentieth century and gave a brief overview of the various parts of the Cultural Olympiad. RSC Associate Director (and Director of the World Shakespeare Festival), Deborah Shaw, then explained the vision for the festival, in which a range of pro-am collaborations will form one of the three main strands.
We spent Saturday morning working in small groups (each with a mixture of RSC staff and amateur organisation representatives) to brainstorm the key elements, messages and legacies of the World Shakespeare Festival. The groups then reported back to a plenary session chaired by Michael Boyd which developed into a wide-ranging discussion about the potential of the festival.
Michael Boyd chairing the first plenary session at the RSC/Voluntary Arts creative planning weekend
On Saturday afternoon we took part in a series of workshops led by RSC staff, including ‘Movement’ with Struan Leslie, Head of Movement at the RSC, ‘Marketing and Press’ with Jo Litt, RSC Marketing Manager; David Collins RSC Head of Marketing and Nada Zakula, RSC Senior Press Officer, ‘Approaches to Shakespeare’s text’ with Lyn Darnley, RSC Head of Text, Voice and Artist Development, ‘Stage Management’ with Nicola Ireland, Stage Management Team for RSC’s Young People’s Hamlet and ‘Editing Shakespeare’s Text’ with RSC Assistant Director Vik Sivalingam. These workshops were excellent: they would have made a good series of TV programmes in themselves.
On Saturday evening we all went to see the new RSC production of ‘Twelfth Night’ at the Courtyard Theatre. It’s a wonderful show (see my review) and it was fascinating to spot aspects of this interpretation which had been explained to us in the afternoon workshops. I was particularly interested in the reaction of some of our non-theatre umbrella bodies, for whom Shakespeare is not particularly familiar and who had never seen an RSC production before, who were completely bowled over by it.
Justin Audibert leading a session at the RSC/Voluntary Arts creative planning weekend
Three of the actors from Twelfth Night gave up their day off on Sunday to come to show us how their rehearsal process works in a session led by Assistant Director, Justin Audibert. And 65 representatives of voluntary arts umbrella bodies got to spend several hours on the stage of the Courtyard Theatre dreaming up visions of what the pro-am part of the World Shakespeare Festival might look like. The RSC staff were brilliant throughout, but the voluntary arts representatives also rose to the challenge and were enthusiastic, creative and innovative. There was an inspirational mood from the start, made more magical when we got to work in the theatre on Sunday.
Struan Leslie leading a session on the stage of the Courtyard Theatre
In chairing the last plenary session I left the final word to Tom Williams – an amateur actor with around 50 years’ experience – who recited “Our revels now are ended” from The Tempest, which finishes “We are such stuff as dreams are made on”. It was a wonderful weekend and promises to be the start of an extremely exciting and productive partnership between Voluntary Arts and the Royal Shakespeare Company.
I was in Peterborough on Wednesday for a meeting of representatives of amateur theatre umbrella bodies to discuss the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival. At the end of October we are taking 100 representatives of voluntary arts umbrella bodies to Stratford-upon-Avon for a creative planning weekend where we will work with staff and actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company to plan the 2012 Festival. This is a fantastic opportunity for the voluntary arts sector to develop a model for working in collaboration with a major professional arts institution. Our meeting this Wednesday helped us to clarify our aims and ambitions for this project and enabled us to start developing some specific ideas about amateur involvement in this aspect of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad.
Robin Simpson.
I have been in London today for a further meeting with the Royal Shakespeare Festival about the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival. Members of the Central Council for Amateur Theatre, including representatives of the National Operatic and Dramatic Association, the Little Theatre Guild and (by phone) the Scottish Community Drama Association, talked to RSC Associate Director Deborah Shaw about how their members might get involved in the festival. We also discussed in detail the planned consultative weekend on 31 October and 1 November in Stratford-upon-Avon at which we will bring together representatives of around 25 voluntary arts umbrella bodies (across a range of artforms) to work with RSC staff to develop the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival.
Robin Simpson.
On Monday Reemer and I were at the Covent Garden office of the Royal Shakespeare Company to talk about the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival. We met staff from the RSC’s education, marketing and movement departments and had a very exciting discussion about the potential involvement of the voluntary arts sector. The RSC’s three visions for the festival are: to celebrate internationalism; to focus on young people; and to re-engage with the amateur arts. They were keen to stress that they want to involve music, crafts, visual arts and other artforms as well as amateur theatre. We emphasised the need to involve all the relevant national voluntary arts umbrella bodies in helping to plan the festival. To achieve this we agreed that the RSC will host a major voluntary arts consultative meeting in Stratford – probably in October 2009. More details soon … Robin Simpson.
Last Friday I was in Stratford-upon-Avon to meet Deborah Shaw at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Deborah is responsible for the 2012 World Shakespeare Festival which will take place from April – July 2012. Activities will happen around the UK but the main focus will be on London, Stratford and Newcastle. The RSC is hoping to work with schools and non-professional theatre and to use this opportunity to develop interaction between professional and amateur drama. There will be an emphasis on learning from each other and using Shakespeare to explore a wide range of themes in creative ways – not just a series of conventional staged productions. We are still at a very early stage: the details of the festival do not have to be finalised until September 2009. Deborah is keen to involve the Voluntary Arts Network and the amateur drama umbrella bodies in developing the way the festival will involve non-professional theatre. The RSC has agreed to host a major voluntary arts consultative meeting in Stratford in March 2009. This will provide an opportunity for the amateur theatre umbrella bodies and representative organisations to work with the RSC to help to design the World Shakespeare Festival. I think this in itself is a significant step forward – the voluntary arts being offered the chance to develop a way of working with the RSC that we hope will lay the ground for further similar collaboration beyond 2012.
Robin Simpson.
On Tuesday I was at the British Film Institute in London to attend the National Council for Drama Training Conference. It was good to hear about the development of the NCDT’s new strategic plan – particularly as the key element of the plan is going to be about widening participation. NCDT Director, Hilary Strong, is keen to encourage more young people from diverse communities into drama training. The conference included sessions on colour-blind casting and the new media landscape which led to some fascinating – and heated – discussions. It was interesting to hear the suggestion (and some emerging evidence) that, even in the world of online video, quality will out: despite the ease with which anyone can create and distribute drama, after the initial novelty wears off what will survive and flourish will be that which is well written, acted and directed.
