Lyn Gardner is encouraged by the formation of the ‘new work’ department at the National Theatre – is it finally changing its culture and engaging with the wider theatre ecology?
One of the great challenges that faces any new regime at any theatre is how to craft the first couple of years from a standing start. What a new artistic team needs is a full larder of almost-ready development projects it can pick and choose to spark off each other. That’s particularly true if you are trying to nudge a theatre in a new direction, engage with a wider range of artists and appeal to a broader audience.
Rufus Norris’s announcement of his second season clearly demonstrates the shifts taking place at the National Theatre, with deputy artistic director Ben Power describing the programming of Bryony Kimmings’ musical, A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer, and Alexander Zeldin’s devised show Love as “totemic projects that seem to look forward to how we might want to work in the future”... Keep reading on The Guardian
One of the great challenges that faces any new regime at any theatre is how to craft the first couple of years from a standing start. What a new artistic team needs is a full larder of almost-ready development projects it can pick and choose to spark off each other. That’s particularly true if you are trying to nudge a theatre in a new direction, engage with a wider range of artists and appeal to a broader audience.
Rufus Norris’s announcement of his second season clearly demonstrates the shifts taking place at the National Theatre, with deputy artistic director Ben Power describing the programming of Bryony Kimmings’ musical, A Pacifist’s Guide to the War on Cancer, and Alexander Zeldin’s devised show Love as “totemic projects that seem to look forward to how we might want to work in the future”... Keep reading on The Guardian