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Comment by Alex Murdoch on March 11, 2014 at 9:36

Good plan John & NTW, look forward to hearing more and Go the idea of not naming it Dramaturgs! And of it being not like trad literary departmentness...

Comment by Kaite O'Reilly on March 11, 2014 at 8:44

That seems to cover all bases and really responds to the varied comments made during this great discussion. Thanks to all who've thrown stuff up here for us all to think about - I've found the process really informative and stimulating. More power to you Dr John and NTW for this initiative - essential given the current realities we all face. x

Comment by Greg Cullen on March 11, 2014 at 8:40

Its been an interesting discussion. In the 1980's I started The Wales Playwright's Group, with amongst others, Ed Thomas and Charles Way. The intention was to lobby for playwrights so that they might expect more from their careers in Wales than a Guardian review by David Adams, a short run of a play they had, quite possibly, spent years mulling over or simply being a craftsman brought into to deliver to a very specific brief set by a Community/TIE company.

Made In Wales, the then "new writing' company of Wales was in serious decline as indeed was the Sherman Theatre. Our idea was for the smaller theatre space at the Sherman to become a dedicated new writing theatre in both languages and to encourage an internationalist perspective by collaborating and exchanging with new writing companies abroad. At that time and indeed today, the curse of the Welsh Playwright (well one of them anyhow) has been the short run given to a new play, therefore the space would also be used to resurrect fine Welsh plays which had often had as little as a week or two of performances. Any writer will tell you that we learn so much more when we get a chance to rewrite after an initial production.

The beauty of ACW Research and Development Grants, the WMC's Incubator Projects etc, is precisely that it enables artists to see their work in front of an audience, all the better to know what to do next. The downfall of the WPG was a division of opinion as to whether we should become a producing company, or remain a lobbying group who would engage theatres in Wales to honour their responsibilities to writing.  A geographically disparate group of writers, email or no email, were never going to run a company. Companies need clear identity and leadership otherwise they sprout committees like hormonal teenagers sprout pubes. Neither have any chance of reaching a consensus as to which direction to grow.

Writers are a part of the collaborative nature of theatre making and need to be brought into its centre, not further isolated.  Therefore John's idea for a dramaturgical structure which embraces a multidisciplinary approach from the outset has "legs" I think.

Historically Wales has produced many potentially great Playwrights. As someone who has written here for over thirty years I have sadly seen many give up. One of the problems has always been a lack of really first rate directors and/or dramaturges who can show the writer to the brow of their next personal hill.  Hopefully, this can be addressed now.

Having introduced a playwrights group when Artistic Director of the National Youth Theatre of Wales and led the Cymru Ddu Project hosted by the now bankrupt BVSNW (yup, they didn't pay me) I know that following through on new writing initiatives is vital. By that I mean, getting them produced. Who needs even more Welsh plays gathering dust on shelves?

Ryan Romain and I are wont to rant about the need to teach writing in Wales and this too should be part of any future project.

Comment by Jonah Jones on March 11, 2014 at 7:29

Excellent!

Comment by meredydd barker on March 11, 2014 at 6:58

Very good indeed.

Comment by carmen medway-stephens on March 11, 2014 at 6:43

Ardderchog/excellent John, diolch

Comment by Phil Morris on March 11, 2014 at 6:16

Sounds like a good proposal to me.

Comment by Tim Price on March 11, 2014 at 6:11

Great stuff John. Can we call them 'NTW Story Ninjas'.

Comment by National Theatre Wales on March 11, 2014 at 6:07

Thanks everyone for the productive discussion around Dramaturgs.  Here's a proposition for your feedback.  NTW recruits a group of 6 Dramaturgs to be part of our writer development work over the next year.  Each would be given a £500 honorarium to cover their attendance at four group meetings over the year.  In addition there would be a pool of £6,000 (average £1k per dramaturg but more flexible than that) to support dramaturgy on NTW seed commissions or commissions.  This could involve in-depth feedback on 1 script or lighter touch input on two or three.  A further £1k would be put aside for expenses and for speakers to come to meet the Dramaturgs Group.  There would be an open application process with a panel of me, another NTW bod, and two writers who aren't applying.  The 6 Dramaturgs chosen would include 4 writers and 2 theatre artists with different backgrounds - e.g. director, designer, live artist, etc.  The group could rename itself something more exciting than NTW Dramaturgs Group!  Let me know what you think. 

Comment by National Theatre Wales on March 11, 2014 at 5:58

Hi All. We're recruiting for a new Resident Artist to hang out and get creative with NTW during our fourth year of productions. Here's all the info - it comes with a £10k bursary so well worth a look!

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