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The theatre community in Scotland has greeted the new National Theatre programme with a mixture of elation and expectation. Here, the company’s director of new work explains how he’ll help deliver what’s being promised.
or me. there were some very vivid theatre highlights of 2005. There was (irid lron‘s Hilary ()‘Shaughnessy aged by flour and framed by a night-lit lidinburgh castle conjuring up angels in Debenhams: Victoria’s White Star performing their scathing and deeply moving version of (‘hristine Aguilera‘s Beautiful at 'l‘ramway; Wee
Stories creating an awe-inspiring Arthurian world of
epic proportions ottt of a cornflake packet. ()n this evidence. there's no doubt that theatre is changing.
A year ago Vicky Featherstone. our artistic director. wrote in these pages about the ambition of the company as she girded her loins for the job of creating a National Theatre from scratch. A year later and here we are with a 12 month programme of work and a talented company of theatre makers.
My area of responsibility is new work. This involves working with our world-class playwrights to create ambitious new plays and vital reimaginings of old ones. But I also want it to involve creating forms of theatre that have never been seen before. Scotland‘s theatre artists have always looked beyond their closest neighbours for stimulation. Fused with Scotland‘s deep love of storytelling. this has led to a robust. generous and. above all. highly theatrical drama tradition.
I want to add fuel to this fire with the creation of the NTS Workshop. This is the engine room of new work and the first port of call for any artist who wants to develop ideas with or through the company. Its aim is to develop projects to realise their full potential and create new forms of theatre through a programme that encourages risk-taking and demands excellence. The Workshop is virtual in that it has no fixed abode but is able to take root in any appropriate space throughout the country.
We encourage ideas from playwrights and in doing so the Workshop operates as a development—focused literary department. But we also vigorously encourage the submission of projects where the primary creators are directors. lighting designers. choreographers. composers and other artists. We aim to create an environment which fuses all these crafts to produce pioneering forms of theatre.
In the development of our relationships with other artists and companies we will be rigorous in our explorations. investigations and exchanges of ideas in order to fully exploit this opportunity to innovate.
We already have an extraordinarily talented number
of artists and companies forging new partnerships through the Workshop: Vox Motus working with Stephen Greenhorn. Poorboy. the site specific experts
from Angus working with Sti'athclyde Passenger
10 THE LIST :3; 18) Jan 2000
WE WILL BE RIGOROUS IN OUR EXPLORATIONS, INVESTIGATIONS AND EXCHANGES OF IDEAS
Transport (watch this space!) and Licketyspit working with Scottish (‘hamber ()rchestra on an incredibly ambitious piece of children's theatre. And there are many more where they came from.
I’m also excited about working closely with Simon
Sharkey. our other associate director. whose area of
responsibility is learning. Something very interesting is happening in Scotland to work which has traditionally been classed as avant garde or exclusive. There‘s an emerging generation of theatre makers who are producing work that is innovative and cutting edge btit also fiercely accessible. Random Accomplice. Vox Mottts and Highway Diner are all companies that are as likely to take inspiration from heist movies. American sci-ft and music gigs as from Ibsen and Chekhov. That‘s their vocabulary and the vocabulary of their young audiences — the same audiences that we so often thrust productions at under the banner of Tlli (Theatre in liducation). llow thrilling that the traditionally opposite ends of theatre. the avant garde and Tlli. are starting to twist around to meet each other and so a line becomes a circle. What this will lead to in terms of new forms of theatre. I have no idea. But I know that it will be exciting and vital.
The definition of theatre is changing and new work is as likely to be found in a department store or up a mountain as it is behind a proscenium arch. Next month ten directors will join forces in a once in a lifetime event that will mark the opening of the National Theatre of Scotland. Taking the word ‘home’ as ottr starting point. we have been working with creative teams to make new pieces of theatre in unexpected locations across Scotland. Going to the theatre may never be the same again.
For the full NTS programme, see www.nationaltheatrescotland.com
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PLUCKING FRUITS FROM THE CULTURAL BUSH
I Ethan Hawke is set to get behind the camera on The Hottest State and he should have a fair idea about the original author‘s vision for the story. what with it having been written by one Ethan Hawke. The boy-meets- girl, girl-dumps-boy saga is set in a grungy New York of aspiring actors. writers and singers . . . Roots Manuva has his follow-up album to Awful/y Deep pencilled in for the Summer while fellow London street poet Kano has just announced a UK tour which includes a stop-oft at Edinburgh's Venue in March . . . Brace yourselves as filming has just been completed in Lithuania on Highlander: The Source. Directed by Brett Leonard (The Lawnmower Man), the new installment stars Adrian Paul reprising his role as the immortal Scottish swordsman. Duncan MacLeod . . . Sacha Baron Cohen is set to star in a fact- based movie about a Hasidic Jew and a grizzled rock musician who (own a band. Curly Oxide and Vic Thrill is being scripted by Mean Girls writer Tina Fey . . . Fresh from not showing up to Elton's hen do. Madonna has been loaning Out her writers and producers to her kissing cousin Britney Spears for her post- sprog comeback. Seems that she wants her new sound to be a cross between Madonna and Kylie. Quite what she thinks she's been doing all these years is anyone's guess. Avril Lavigne is set to make her acting debut in Fast Food Nation. the movie of the book by Eric Schlosser. which analysed the naughtier sides of the quick snack industry. when overly large meals were just a glimmer in Morgan Spurlock's eye. Patricia Arquette and Kris Kristofferson are also down for pans.