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Radio 4 Front Row: How Nationalistic Should National Theatres Be? |
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The written introduction reads: The current criticisms aimed at National Theatre Wales, that neither their productions nor their casts are Welsh enough, echo the criticisms that the National Theatre of Scotland faced a few years ago. Joyce McMillan, theatre critic for The Scotsman, and Dr Emma Schofield, associate editor of Wales Art [sic] Review discuss what it means to be a national theatre. Stig Abell introduced the programme with the theme “How nationalistic should national theatres be?” In excerpt: JM: What a lot of boards fail to do is to make sure that the top candidates for these jobs have some knowledge of the Scottish creative scene. It is astonishing sometimes to see boards appointing people who literally know nothing about the place, don't know its geography, don't know anything about its recent cultural history. Yet no-one in England would ever think of appointing someone, say, to be director of the National Theatre who knew nothing at all about English theatre and didn't know that Manchester is sort of north of Birmingham. That sort of thing happens all the time in Scotland. National theatre has to provide a forum in which a nation can see itself and its life reflected. It is also very important to have a national theatre that will, and can, stand on the international stage and take that voice out across the world. “The Strange of Prudencia Hart” has been to an amazing number of places. “Black Watch” toured for almost ten years. ES: [Nationality] It does matter because we need that connection with Wales and people want to see that connection, whoever is in charge...One of the aims of National Theatre Wales, when it was established, was to work with local communities and it is very difficult to do that effectively unless you have an understanding of what's going on in those communities, the history, the background, the challenges. It shouldn't matter but it does...They are doing an awful lot of work at community level. What we do know so far is National Theatre Wales have been quite eager to talk to actors and directors...and are eager to respond. Full feature at iPlayer below |
| BBC Radio 4 web site: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0001ccl |
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Friday, November 30, 2018 |
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