RSC 2018

[lynette]

David Tennant doing anything would be a draw, hitster! The Other Place is coming along nicely. It might yet be 'the' place for good new writing. It lost the plot for a while but seems to be getting back on track.

[martin1965]

Aug 3, 2017 6:59:14 GMT Jan said:

Aug 2, 2017 17:02:21 GMT lucky700 said:

Everyone leaves. Someway. I am sure he will want to leave before he gets pushed - as everyone will/would be anyway.

His mentor John Barton never left, he's still there (I saw him in the audience at the Nunn War of the Roses production in Kingston actually, very frail).

He has been a mentor to the past few ADs hasnt he? He has to be a fair age now.

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2017 11:20:39 GMT lynette said:

David Tennant doing anything would be a draw, hitster!

Don Juan in Wilmcote by Mike Poulton after the play by Moliere

[martin1965]

Aug 3, 2017 11:20:39 GMT lynette said:

David Tennant doing anything would be a draw, hitster! The Other Place is coming along nicely. It might yet be 'the' place for good new writing. It lost the plot for a while but seems to be getting back on track.

Mmm maybe Lynette, still not sure why the theatre isnt open all year, nothing ive read or heard has explained why its only open for a few months.

[martin1965]

Aug 3, 2017 7:46:43 GMT Jan said:

Aug 2, 2017 20:25:09 GMT @hitster said:

Greg does turn 60 in November 2018 and Sir Antony will be 70 in June 2019 so I had thought that end of 2018-19 Winter or Summer Season might be when he decides to go. But with him wanting to complete the CW then that will likely take longer and they may want a hand over period so 2021/22/23 could be more realistic.

Also I wonder with Greg and Antony's long association with the RSC whether Greg could eventually move into the Advisory Director's role which John Barton and Cicely Berry hold. Both these two are elderly now so I don't know how much they actively contribute to these roles although I have seen Cicely at a lot of opening nights. Having Greg in a more full on "Advisory" role could mean that the RSC could go for a younger more adventurous choice as Greg's replacement.

If I was a younger more adventurous choice I wouldn't want Doran hanging around advising me. At present I really have no
clue who could take over from him, or more importantly who would want to - certainly no one young and adventurous springs to mind.

We have commented on it before but it is quite surprising how the ultimate company man like Doran has proceeded to completely abandon the idea of the RSC being a company (a group of actors and directors who commit to the RSC on a long-term basis).

Indeed Jan! Very odd. Also and this may have been covered already, why he hasnt programmed a Swan Jacobethan rediscoveries season as AD when he did two as Assistant.

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2017 11:29:13 GMT martin1965 said:

Mmm maybe Lynette, still not sure why the theatre isnt open all year, nothing ive read or heard has explained why its only open for a few months.

I expect it's due to a combination of budgetary constraints and the human resources required to develop work to present there. And the Festival model of presenting seasons is a good one - similar to HighTide in Aldeburgh and Walthamstow, and to Paines Plough's Roundabout Theatre popping up in your local town.

Also, TOP is intended to be a community resource for the immediate locality, available to amateur companies to hire to present their shows.

And it's used for academic research projects.

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2017 11:33:55 GMT martin1965 said:

Indeed Jan! Very odd. Also and this may have been covered already, why he hasnt programmed a Swan Jacobethan rediscoveries season as AD when he did two as Assistant.

Erica Whyman leads the Swan Theatre programme.

[Jan]

Aug 3, 2017 11:33:55 GMT martin1965 said:

Aug 3, 2017 7:46:43 GMT Jan said:

If I was a younger more adventurous choice I wouldn't want Doran hanging around advising me. At present I really have no
clue who could take over from him, or more importantly who would want to - certainly no one young and adventurous springs to mind.

We have commented on it before but it is quite surprising how the ultimate company man like Doran has proceeded to completely abandon the idea of the RSC being a company (a group of actors and directors who commit to the RSC on a long-term basis).

Indeed Jan! Very odd. Also and this may have been covered already, why he hasnt programmed a Swan Jacobethan rediscoveries season as AD when he did two as Assistant.

Maybe the two he did were just part of his job application for the AD job

[lucky700]

Aug 3, 2017 6:59:14 GMT Jan said:

Aug 2, 2017 17:02:21 GMT lucky700 said:

Everyone leaves. Someway. I am sure he will want to leave before he gets pushed - as everyone will/would be anyway.

His mentor John Barton never left, he's still there (I saw him in the audience at the Nunn War of the Roses production in Kingston actually, very frail).

Well he left as the big boss. Mentors can only advice and counsel. Their influence is entirely based on the recipient. Carlos of Spain was Francos mentee. Was not long ensuring everything of Francos disappeared.

Aug 3, 2017 8:59:53 GMT tributary said:

They're in a hard bind now as they really can't attract the top flight actors and directors to make work there. It's increasingly looking like they're going to lose some funding. They're just a big regional theatre, dedicated to Greg and Antony. What they're not is a national company.

Well this I do put at the feet of Doran. Last few years of Boyd and even the end of the company they were doing g very nicely indeed with their actors. Ones who were growing in name and talent. Doran came in and talked about stars but forgetting the logistics. Most live in London. Many will have children and other work they don't want to be away from for six months to live in Stratford. Big stars probably don't want to commit six months to a run. With this on every night.  So they can't go home. NT when they do plays for external dedicated periods are not in rep and they are  other on every night and this attracts the top theatre stars of the moment anyway.

RSC need to rethink. They need to go Boyds route of full company and contract them for a few years. That way they can make the decision to move to Stratford  Making it easier on families. Or they need to abandon it and give people the flexibility of only being in one play. Waldmann did this this year. Last time he was there, 2013, he was in  all plays.  Now he has young school age children and it just is too impractical for a period of six months. Or they need to shorten the seasons or shorten the length of any one play in the season so to a out 12 weeks. Bigger name actors would be more likely to go for this and especially if families were in London. 

[Jan]

Aug 3, 2017 13:52:47 GMT lucky700 said:

Aug 3, 2017 6:59:14 GMT Jan said:

His mentor John Barton never left, he's still there (I saw him in the audience at the Nunn War of the Roses production in Kingston actually, very frail).

Well he left as the big boss. Mentors can only advice and counsel. Their influence is entirely based on the recipient. Carlos of Spain was Francos mentee. Was not long ensuring everything of Francos disappeared.

Aug 3, 2017 8:59:53 GMT tributary said:

They're in a hard bind now as they really can't attract the top flight actors and directors to make work there. It's increasingly looking like they're going to lose some funding. They're just a big regional theatre, dedicated to Greg and Antony. What they're not is a national company.

Well this I do put at the feet of Doran. Last few years of Boyd and even the end of the company they were doing g very nicely indeed with their actors. Ones who were growing in name and talent. Doran came in and talked about stars but forgetting the logistics. Most live in London. Many will have children and other work they don't want to be away from for six months to live in Stratford. Big stars probably don't want to commit six months to a run. With this on every night.  So they can't go home. NT when they do plays for external dedicated periods are not in rep and they are  other on every night and this attracts the top theatre stars of the moment anyway.

RSC need to rethink. They need to go Boyds route of full company and contract them for a few years. That way they can make the decision to move to Stratford  Making it easier on families. Or they need to abandon it and give people the flexibility of only being in one play. Waldmann did this this year. Last time he was there, 2013, he was in  all plays.  Now he has young school age children and it just is too impractical for a period of six months. Or they need to shorten the seasons or shorten the length of any one play in the season so to a out 12 weeks. Bigger name actors would be more likely to go for this and especially if families were in London. 

I know an actor currently working for them. Lives in London. Confirms the Stratford season is a big pain from a personal viewpoint. If no London transfer results you can see many actors not being interested.

[lucky700]

Aug 3, 2017 13:52:47 GMT lucky700 said:

Aug 3, 2017 6:59:14 GMT Jan said:

His mentor John Barton never left, he's still there (I saw him in the audience at the Nunn War of the Roses production in Kingston actually, very frail).

Well he left as the big boss. Mentors can only advice and counsel. Their influence is entirely based on the recipient. Carlos of Spain was Francos mentee. Was not long ensuring everything of Francos disappeared.

Aug 3, 2017 8:59:53 GMT tributary said:

They're in a hard bind now as they really can't attract the top flight actors and directors to make work there. It's increasingly looking like they're going to lose some funding. They're just a big regional theatre, dedicated to Greg and Antony. What they're not is a national company.

Well this I do put at the feet of Doran. Last few years of Boyd and even the end of the company they were doing g very nicely indeed with their actors. Ones who were growing in name and talent. Doran came in and talked about stars but forgetting the logistics. Most live in London. Many will have children and other work they don't want to be away from for six months to live in Stratford. Big stars probably don't want to commit six months to a run. With this on every night.  So they can't go home. NT when they do plays for extended periods in rep and  this attracts the top theatre stars of the moment anyway.

RSC need to rethink. They need to go Boyds route of full company and contract them for a few years. That way they can make the decision to move to Stratford  Making it easier on families. Or they need to abandon it and give people the flexibility of only being in one play. Waldmann did this this year. Last time he was there, 2013, he was in  all plays.  Now he has young school age children and it just is too impractical for a period of six months. Or they need to shorten the seasons or shorten the length of any one play in the season so to a out 12 weeks. Bigger name actors would be more likely to go for this and especially if families were in London. 

Course it is. If you have dependents particularly. And not every part calls for a 25 year old. They need to think about this hard. Long filming periods for TV often only film 4 days so the stars can go home. 

It is something Stratford needs to think about. Long contracts or shorter ones with half the time in London. Or something. 

[Jan]

If they had a London base they could originate some productions in London to run for a whole season then transfer for a short season in Stratford, treat it like a tour. Even when they were at the Barbican for 12 months a year, and then 6 months, they never really did that though. They actually rehearse some of their productions in Clapham as far as I know, used to anyway, to reflect the fact the actors and directors live in London.

There is an account somewhere of an ill Robert Stephens after a Friday Stratford performance of King Lear queuing for the bus to Coventry to get the last train back to London for the weekend. At the same time the directorate (Noble?) were in the habit of flying first class to USA to arrange transfers.

[Deleted]

That sort of London base will never happen. Additional public funding will be dispersed around the UK, away from London. And the competition in London now would make a year-round RSC there risky and unsustainable. That's why all the RSC work in London is done on a commercial basis, with some funding from the City of London for the Barbican work. The early, pre-season rehearsals of the first plays are still done in Clapham but final rehearsals are in the new bespoke rehearsal studios in The Other Place. All the production departments are situated in Stratford. The three theatres exclusively designed by and for the RSC are in Stratford. It makes sense now for all RSC work to originate in Stratford. All the casting issues mentioned above are true, and casting policies have to adapt all the time to changing circumstances of the UK acting profession and the changing programming model of the RSC. Personally, I like the present non-star system because the presence of the occasional star actor risks distorting the focus of the production and of the audience. And I like the present system of acting companies working together on a group of productions, although I'd prefer it if they all worked across two or three theatres. Of course, some plays will be separately cast if they are to tour or have unusual casting specifications or have straight runs not played in rep .

[Jan]

Aug 3, 2017 15:58:38 GMT @honouredguest said:

That sort of London base will never happen. Additional public funding will be dispersed around the UK, away from London. And the competition in London now would make a year-round RSC there risky and unsustainable. That's why all the RSC work in London is done on a commercial basis, with some funding from the City of London for the Barbican work. The early, pre-season rehearsals of the first plays are still done in Clapham but final rehearsals are in the new bespoke rehearsal studios in The Other Place. All the production departments are situated in Stratford. The three theatres exclusively designed by and for the RSC are in Stratford. It makes sense now for all RSC work to originate in Stratford. All the casting issues mentioned above are true, and casting policies have to adapt all the time to changing circumstances of the UK acting profession and the changing programming model of the RSC. Personally, I like the present non-star system because the presence of the occasional star actor risks distorting the focus of the production and of the audience. And I like the present system of acting companies working together on a group of productions, although I'd prefer it if they all worked across two or three theatres. Of course, some plays will be separately cast if they are to tour or have unusual casting specifications or have straight runs not played in rep .

The RSC funding is already on the basis that they have a London base, it wasn't reduced at all when they withdrew from London thus cutting the number of productions running per year by 50%, it's about time their grant was cut accordingly.

[martin1965]

Aug 3, 2017 11:55:33 GMT @honouredguest said:

Aug 3, 2017 11:33:55 GMT martin1965 said:

Indeed Jan! Very odd. Also and this may have been covered already, why he hasnt programmed a Swan Jacobethan rediscoveries season as AD when he did two as Assistant.

Erica Whyman leads the Swan Theatre programme.

Does she? Since when?

[martin1965]

Aug 3, 2017 15:31:43 GMT Jan said:

If they had a London base they could originate some productions in London to run for a whole season then transfer for a short season in Stratford, treat it like a tour. Even when they were at the Barbican for 12 months a year, and then 6 months, they never really did that though. They actually rehearse some of their productions in Clapham as far as I know, used to anyway, to reflect the fact the actors and directors live in London.

There is an account somewhere of an ill Robert Stephens after a Friday Stratford performance of King Lear queuing for the bus to Coventry to get the last train back to London for the weekend. At the same time the directorate (Noble?) were in the habit of flying first class to USA to arrange transfers.

Back in the dark ages before the M40 extension and Chiltern trains. I was on a bus back to Cov with Robert Stephens after a performance of Julius Caesar! You then connected with train to Euston, seems mad now but if you didnt have a car that was the only way from London!!

[Jan]

Aug 3, 2017 17:26:56 GMT martin1965 said:

Aug 3, 2017 15:31:43 GMT Jan said:

If they had a London base they could originate some productions in London to run for a whole season then transfer for a short season in Stratford, treat it like a tour. Even when they were at the Barbican for 12 months a year, and then 6 months, they never really did that though. They actually rehearse some of their productions in Clapham as far as I know, used to anyway, to reflect the fact the actors and directors live in London.

There is an account somewhere of an ill Robert Stephens after a Friday Stratford performance of King Lear queuing for the bus to Coventry to get the last train back to London for the weekend. At the same time the directorate (Noble?) were in the habit of flying first class to USA to arrange transfers.

Back in the dark ages before the M40 extension and Chiltern trains. I was on a bus back to Cov with Robert Stephens after a performance of Julius Caesar! You then connected with train to Euston, seems mad now but if you didnt have a car that was the only way from London!!

Interesting. My anecdote was probably true then. The context of my quote was someone complaining that Stephens was playing Lear, was ill and in fact dying, and the RSC couldn't manage to provide a car to take him back to London on a Friday night so he was queuing, Lear-like, at a bus stop. I remember going there and back via Coventry several times, once stayed on the bus in Coventry by mistake and ended up at some other damn place, Leicester I think.

[Deleted]

Aug 3, 2017 17:20:42 GMT martin1965 said:

Aug 3, 2017 11:55:33 GMT @honouredguest said:

Erica Whyman leads the Swan Theatre programme.

Does she? Since when?

Three or four years ago.

[martin1965]

Aug 3, 2017 20:54:50 GMT Jan said:

Aug 3, 2017 17:26:56 GMT martin1965 said:

Back in the dark ages before the M40 extension and Chiltern trains. I was on a bus back to Cov with Robert Stephens after a performance of Julius Caesar! You then connected with train to Euston, seems mad now but if you didnt have a car that was the only way from London!!

Interesting. My anecdote was probably true then. The context of my quote was someone complaining that Stephens was playing Lear, was ill and in fact dying, and the RSC couldn't manage to provide a car to take him back to London on a Friday night so he was queuing, Lear-like, at a bus stop. I remember going there and back via Coventry several times, once stayed on the bus in Coventry by mistake and ended up at some other damn place, Leicester I think.

Hilarious! Not sure how you managed iy as the bus only did that trip and was run by Guide Friday who rather imfamously were the losers in the tourist bus war in SUA years ago!

[lucky700]

Aug 3, 2017 20:54:50 GMT Jan said:

Aug 3, 2017 17:26:56 GMT martin1965 said:

Back in the dark ages before the M40 extension and Chiltern trains. I was on a bus back to Cov with Robert Stephens after a performance of Julius Caesar! You then connected with train to Euston, seems mad now but if you didnt have a car that was the only way from London!!

Interesting. My anecdote was probably true then. The context of my quote was someone complaining that Stephens was playing Lear, was ill and in fact dying, and the RSC couldn't manage to provide a car to take him back to London on a Friday night so he was queuing, Lear-like, at a bus stop. I remember going there and back via Coventry several times, once stayed on the bus in Coventry by mistake and ended up at some other damn place, Leicester I think.

That makes me very sad but has it ever been otherwise. As in has anyone in power ever given a damn about the plebs. Other way round now for big stars.

[Deleted]

Can you give a reference for Lear queueing at a bus stop? I don't remember that bit. I do remember that he voluntarily gave away his power. And he didn't go to London either.

[joem]

If working there is such a problem why not resite the RSC to Stratford in London and pretend Shakespeare was born there? The actors can then complain about the high cost of living in London if they still need something to grouse about.

[lucky700]

Aug 3, 2017 21:38:09 GMT joem said:

If working there is such a problem why not resite the RSC to Stratford in London and pretend Shakespeare was born there? The actors can then complain about the high cost of living in London if they still need something to grouse about.

No one says working there is a hassle. To be honest they all seem to have a great time. The problem is simply the logistics of those with dependents and commitment in London being reluctant to sign up for six months and be away from family. I think anyone can understand that. 

[joem]

Aug 3, 2017 21:42:54 GMT lucky700 said:

Aug 3, 2017 21:38:09 GMT joem said:

If working there is such a problem why not resite the RSC to Stratford in London and pretend Shakespeare was born there? The actors can then complain about the high cost of living in London if they still need something to grouse about.

No one says working there is a hassle. To be honest they all seem to have a great time. The problem is simply the logistics of those with dependents and commitment in London being reluctant to sign up for six months and be away from family. I think anyone can understand that. 

I can understand it but for those of us who love the theatre it's like "aren't you unlucky?". Imagine people who have to commute every day at great cost to do boring jobs or end up exhausted from menial, manual jobs. If I was an actor in the RSC I think I'd count my blessings.

[lucky700]

Aug 3, 2017 21:54:15 GMT joem said:

Aug 3, 2017 21:42:54 GMT lucky700 said:

No one says working there is a hassle. To be honest they all seem to have a great time. The problem is simply the logistics of those with dependents and commitment in London being reluctant to sign up for six months and be away from family. I think anyone can understand that. 

I can understand it but for those of us who love the theatre it's like "aren't you unlucky?". Imagine people who have to commute every day at great cost to do boring jobs or end up exhausted from menial, manual jobs. If I was an actor in the RSC I think I'd count my blessings.

 But the question was about why they find it hard to keep biggish names there. If you can do the same job down the road and be at home why would you take one for six months elsewhere when you may have young children and/or a family/relationships that need you to be around. It isn't thumbing your nose, it is just reality. Think Tennant would commit to six months there working every night now he has 4 kids. Most of whom are at school?