What theatre have you seen outside of the north east that you would like to see in the north east?

Kate Craddock, 11 July 2012

Kate Craddock, Annabel Turpin, Jo Cundall (joined very late on by Hannah Clarke-Stamp, followed by Anthony Baker, then Annie Rigby and Helen Green)

I called this session as I was interested in hearing from other attendees about some of the work that they have seen, or are interested in seeing, with view of potentially programming this work in GIFT (Gateshead International Festival of Theatre) next year. I was keen to hear whose work people are interested in seeing and why.

This wasn't really the conversation that happened.

What actually took place was a conversation between myself (Kate) and Annabel and Jo about north east theatre makers whose work is interesting to each of us and why, and also how we can support each other more in various ways. We realised we were in a great position and able to have a meeting together that outside of this context would take weeks to set up. So we made the most of that opportunity, and out of that conversation came a number of possibilities including awards or prizes for GIFT next year that are supported by ARC and Northern Stage as venues.

The ARC award was born.

Gradually we got back to talking about artists and companies that would be great to see at GIFT, or in the region more, and this conversation was contributed to by those people who joined us late on. Some of those companies and artists mentioned were:

Rash Dash (who can be seen as part of Northern Stage at St Stephens in Edinburgh this year)

The Wooster Group

Rimini Protokol

Robert Wilson

The Team

Robert Lepage

Silviu Purcarete

Forced Entertainment

Freddy someone and a popcorn piece

Michael Clark

Obviously some of these might be a little ambitious due to the scale of the festival, but also, as Annie Rigby came and pointed out at the end of the conversation - aim big and we want a big name!

Tags:

North East, artist support, artists, Programming, programming