My area of work we call Shakespeare Nation
which is project based but it is our work
with communities and adults in those communities. And as I was saying in our small group, is
that the RSC is a touring theatre company,
although we’re synonymous with Stratford-upon-Avon,
we regularly tour to 14 partner theatres and
we call them our partners as opposed to just
venues we arrive at. And part of my work,
and part of the rest of the education departments
work, is to work within those cities and those
towns. And part of the Shakespeare Nation
project is to get to know the communities
that we don’t see inside the auditorium,
so to get to know those cities. And it’s
an inreach and an outreach, if you like, process:
One, it’s outreach, is us going and sharing
that work, our belief in Shakespeare and that
everybody has access to Shakespeare, and that
Shakespeare is a positive, sort of transformative
force. But also the idea that we want to work
with those communities because, to get those
communities inside our rehearsal rooms so
that when we’re making our work they have
an influence over the work that we make. So
getting our directors into those communities,
getting our actors in those communities, so
yes we’re sharing our work but when we go
back to make work we’re making work for
those people. So you’re fundamentally changing
the DNA of the work that you’re making.
So this comes along and sort of drives a coach
and horses through that, because we’ve been
doing loads of travelling around, loads of
getting out into those communities and we’ve
been making co-productions in six of those
places, including Bradford and Blackpool as
I was saying as examples there, so how do
we sort of cope with that?
