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Comment by Tim Price on June 28, 2011 at 10:40

Med, yes I know Kate, she is fantastic director. I'm sure Kate would agree, she's interested in the best new writers, not necessarily the best new Welsh writers, so the competition for her attention is fierce. 

Part of me thinks this is a brilliant thing, part of me thinks it's a scandal ACW money is going to non-Welsh new writers when there's such a poverty of opportunity here. But then, I've never been to Mold, so my hypocrisy rings just as loud. I am unclear of my own thoughts on this issue. But I think we can all agree Clwyd concerns itself with the UK theatre industry rather than the Welsh theatre industry and so to answer your point, I don't think Clwyd are going to answer my clarion call in any hurry.

Comment by Rebecca Gould on June 28, 2011 at 6:19

Hi Kevin, for 'tiny', many apologies, I just looked up the population it's actually bigger than I thought!

Comment by Rebecca Gould on June 28, 2011 at 6:05

Hi Tim,
Your second post made the original questions much clearer for me. I was going to ask John, what he meant when he said ‘I would like to see the Sherman free’, free from what? But I guess he meant free from the instructions that currently come with Sherman funding?

I’ve banged on before about their needing to be a greater volume of plays commissioned in Wales - properly commissioned at ITC or TMA rates. RAW nights and readings are great, but where do they go, really? Why are we developing all these new plays if they can’t be seen in full productions by audiences around Wales, what’s the point? If more plays were commissioned and more full productions committed to, then we’d have a chance of seeing the range of writing in Wales, plus of putting that writing on to the world stage and most importantly in front of ‘proper ‘audiences.

Yes it all comes back to investment, (Meredydd - I hope my facts are straight, I suspect we may just view the amounts involved differently?). I understand that the Royal Court’s annual ACE grant is 2.5 million, Soho 650 thousand, The Royal Exchange in Manchester, 2.4 million, Liverpool Everyman 1 million and so on. More money would allow us all to be braver, undoubtedly.

So Tim, in answer to your question, -avoiding the obvious point that is bugger all to do with me -yes I still think the Sherman should tour and yes I think they should commission plays in Welsh and English, and in order to ensure the best plays are produced they should commission far more, and should be much better funded to do this - where's my magic wand! Seriously though, all of Wales needs to be involved in judging which plays are good or bad, not just the Chapter crowd in Cardiff. If the powers that be understand this, money and mouth spring to mind. Meanwhile ‘the financial decision IS the artistic decision, so it’s also where you choose to spend the money that counts and bravery gets you more money, look at NTW, Gecko, Opera Group, The Traverse, Punch Drunk, Slung Lo, Tate Modern etc etc.

Too many brilliant Welsh directors, have been saying it for years, but we really need a committed, properly funded new writing company/venue, somewhere in Wales, probably in Cardiff and probably at the Sherman, here there should be a new play on every month, some of could tour. If one or two of them are dull, no worries, there will be another along next month.

NTW have proved in their first year they have a vision and an ambition that delights (and sometimes distresses). It's worked, it’s travelled. They’ve made some mistakes but it’s made people engage, sit up, take part and take notice of theatre in Wales. Of course NTW should put on some new plays too, but at the moment isn’t the danger that if they’re not very good, then all Welsh writing will be maligned? It’s not the same for Scottish writing, when there’s a dull play at the Traverse, it doesn’t count for everything. NTS was showered with praise for Black Watch and generally in the articles, the Traverse was mentioned as the brilliant home of Scottish new writing.
To conclude I think being bold and asking for more, should go hand in hand, despite the darkness of the hour.


PS Meredydd, i had lots more to say on your points too, but its all moved on, so more later i hope

Comment by Kevin Johnson on June 28, 2011 at 5:20

That's the difficult thing about writing, isn't it? You can't always give it the nuances you can by talking. What I meant was that we have the opportunity to talk (forum) but we aren't talking (lack of people). I expressed myself poorly, altho' forum means 'market place', so basically we have a market, now we need customers!

 

Let me also be clear that I understood you just wanted the debate, you weren't 'slagging off' anyone. I respect the former rather than the latter, criticism can be a positive thing, indeed it's probably why NTW have this site. Sorry if I seemed a little sensitive on the issue of the Passion, it's because we had so little going for us in Port Talbot ('Tiny'? Really? Still hurts!) and it was such a big deal that I rush to defend it. As good a piece of theatre as it was (And it was VERY good) I believe it's effect on the town will carry on for years to come. 

 

As for it being a bugger to attend, I understand mate, I'm dependent on public transport too, it's just that I found it so frustrating that we finally had a National Theatre & the response was so lack-lustre. I found John to be both approachable & knowledgeable. Of course that could be just because he agreed with me on most things!       

Comment by meredydd barker on June 28, 2011 at 4:34

@McGrath. Yes, there's a season about Manning I would have thought. Assange's treatment of him, in particular, is deeply disturbing. The USA on the other hand are behaving as you would expect.

@Price. Don't forget Clwyd have got a new writing director called Kate Wasserberg. She's there for a reason.

@Johnson. You can't blame the forum for a lack of response. Only the people on it. Forum and people are one and the same, no? Sorry if I've got you wrong there. As for The Passion I should have been clearer in stating that those were questions that could be asked. They were points made to me and I thought them interesting. Actually having a pop at Sheen and the show would have been as effective as Lancelot attacking the castle walls with a sword and a bad attitude in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. 

I'll turn up if I can. It isn't a bus ride away, though. I've said it before. Much to my chagrin it's a bleedin' bugger during the week. And I made a point of meeting John not long afterwards.

Comment by National Theatre Wales on June 28, 2011 at 3:30

Meredydd - good to get an update on what you're doing.  Inconvenience sounds like a great project in particular - gave me Manchester flashbacks just thinking about it!  Sorry about the Bradley M clash, although I suspect there's more than one play to be written on that subject.  As for beauty versus prickliness - your comments are a hedgehog's worth of spiky charm! 

Comment by Tim Price on June 28, 2011 at 2:20

I think there's probably a thread worth opening in the writer's forum about Meredydd's points about the Passion/Criticism in general.

 

In an effort to keep things on the track of the original question, I think John expresses far more articulately than I have (even in my own head) thought the opportunity new building offers to the Sherman team.

 

I do agree, the Sherman should be given the option to tour if they have a piece of work that screams the need to be heard elsewhere, and to work in Welsh if the right piece comes along, but at the moment, they are required to tour, and required to commission in Welsh, regardless of what's put in front of them.

 

I guess what I'm asking for is the Sherman to be given the freedom to ignore touring (and possibly Welsh) and concentrate on exactly the stuff that everyone else is ignoring; developing emerging writers.

 

Theatre Gen, and NTW don't develop emerging writers (to discuss John?) but they do tour and they do work in Welsh. Sherman Cymru has to develop new writers, tour, and work in Welsh, without mentioning it's truly amazing youth work, yet it is the poorest funded of the three.

 

Doesn't anyone else think this is just a bit mental?

 

The Sherman has done great stuff with the RAW nights etc, and I can't help thinking, if it was freed of it's ACW shackles a bit, they could be banging out RAW weeks every month, and out of that frenzy of new plays, we might find a piece that transfers to the main stage, and then tours! and it might be in Welsh! Who knows.

 

All rights to contradict oneself reserved.

 

 

Comment by Kevin Johnson on June 28, 2011 at 2:01

I'm  not quite sure where this discussion is at the moment, so forgive me if I go off the point a little.

 

Firstly the Passion, which I was part of & saw close up, was not about 'Michael Sheen - Superstar', and he was keen to avoid that image, it was his gift to his home town. The effect of it is still carrying on in Port Talbot ('Tiny'? Ouch!), it has given people a lot to talk about, given us a new sense of pride and it has energised the local art scene. Not bad for a mere play eh? And it was only seen by 12,000 people. And yes, it needed him at the centre to get it done, what of it? He put in over 2 years work and was shattered at the end. Maybe it was a vanity project of sorts, but if so, we could do with a few more of those. 

 

I fully agree with you that there must be a place where these questions can be asked and debated, and from your writing, yours is an opinion I would like to hear more of, but you can't blame the forum for lack of response, only the people on it. When John McGrath was first introduced at an open public meeting at the Sherman, only about 15-20 people showed up. Everybody's chance to ask the new Artistic Director of NTW a question and nobody came? Decisions are made by the people that turn up. So turn up!

 

That's not a dig at you, that's for everyone. I was involved in a new writing group in Swansea, I wanted to develop closer links with NTW & said so to John, he sent two of his people to our next open night, such was his commitment to new writing.         

 

Anyhoo, that's my four penn'orth, the ball is in your court Sir. In the words of Macbeth:"Let's get it on"!

(Could have been Marvin Gaye, I always confuse those two)

Comment by meredydd barker on June 28, 2011 at 1:49

Is it me who's been writing beautifully? Probably not. Is it me who's been prickly and infuriating? I hope so. That said-

I think also that when we throw opinions out in a discussion we often do so to test them and get a response - whereas on a forum they stay there fixed, somehow representing who we are.

Ah. Ok. I actually have never seen it that way. I reserve the right to contradict myself and be proven wrong on forums. Honestly, if my opinions do seem fixed  then I need to reappraise how I go about busting into a room shouting the odds.

That said, if I was more consistently vocal, then more people than my wife would know that I was working on a play about Bradley Manning. Ah well...

So for the record, I'm writing a play about Edward the First for Theatr Clwyd called Longshanks. I'm second drafting a play about money, The stone Roses generation, seratonin, and car boot sales called Inconvenience - will be sending it to The Bush probably. This is based on the short I did for Dirty Protest last year; thanks Tim, that makes us quits! (I hate exclamation marks but that one was fully deserved) Last year I wrote a two hander called Bluetooth about a writer and his soldier friend who comes back from Afghanistan but is actually fine, enjoyed it in fact, can't wait to go back. I haven't read that for a year, so I'm looking forward to reviewing that. And finally, for now, I'm rewriting a play called The First to be Killed by the Good Guy as a novel. I'm enjoying that process immensely.

Your last paragraph John; yes, exactly, let's hope so, please.

Comment by National Theatre Wales on June 28, 2011 at 0:32

Hi All, sorry to come to this discussion (the Tim Price - Sherman - Passion - etc one) a bit late, but it's been fascinating to catch up.  It's interesting for me to consider why I didn't respond to Tim's original blog, which I thought about quite a bit after he posted it.  As Meredydd indicates, within the world in which you are working - i.e in this case Welsh theatre - it's one thing to give your opinion to someone you are chatting to in a bar, and another to leave it bare for all to see on a forum.  I think also that when we throw opinions out in a discussion we often do so to test them and get a response - whereas on a forum they stay there fixed, somehow representing who we are.  In my case, an opinion here about new writing policy in Wales might seem like a long-term policy statement, when it's actually more a thinking-aloud.  I fully appreciate Meredydd's point that this worry can be even more significant when you are posting in view of people who might be commissioning you. 

 

However, as someone who does commission, I have to say I have only one ambition when looking for writers and looking at writing - to find and nurture the best possible scripts.  I'd be a fool to have any other goal.  The prickliest, most infuriating comments in the world won't deter me from that. And if they are beautifully-written prickly, infuriating comments they may well do the opposite!

 

This site can only ever going to be one of the places where we discuss theatre in Wales, but discussions like this one show that it can be a lively and passionate place.  Like NTW itself, it's only part of a picture, but can help create a richness and complexity overall.

 

As for my thoughts on the Sherman/new writing/touring: in the spirit of encouraging open expression and with the caveat that this is just what I think right now, not what NTW thinks forever:  My feeling is that new writing, and particularly new writers, need a space where fragility is allowed and nurtured.  This is very hard to achieve on tour, where the rigours of very different venues and audiences demand a robustness that often comes later in a writer's development.  I would like to see the Sherman free to decide the right format for showing each piece of new writing that it develops - without a pre-determined need to take a certain amount of work on tour.  I know that might have difficult consequences for other venues, but from a selfish viewpoint, the approach that allows the most flexible, nurturing approach to writers early in their careers is most likely to mean that there are writers around for NTW to commission in the future!  So I'd love to see the Sherman given maximum freedom to be a flexible new writing theatre once it re-opens.  I'd also like to see more new writing on the main stage - as that is a challenging space for writers to fill.  However, if this is the case, everyone, including funders, will need to accept that this might have an impact on box office; new writing on a biggish stage is a risk, but one that a new writing theatre should be allowed to take. 

 

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