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Post by couldileaveyou on Apr 22, 2022 12:13:42 GMT
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351 posts
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Post by cirque on Apr 22, 2022 12:20:55 GMT
you may well see a done deal-EW taking over and RSC evolve into total community theatre.hope i may be wrong. i hope for whole new team.....who could....? maybe Morris,Marianne Elliot,Dominic Cooke.....suspect not.....think EW .......
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Post by NeilVHughes on Apr 22, 2022 12:36:24 GMT
Not going to happen, my vote would be Tom Littler.
Only downside is that the magic and vitality he has bought to Jermyn St would be lost.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2022 12:42:19 GMT
Not surprised given the length of time he has been in the role, his age and having lost Antony last year. Greg is staying on Artistic Director Emeritus until the end of next year and is directing Richard III next week and at least one other production next year.
Taking on the Emeritus role allows Erica to stay on as the interim/acting AD whilst they search for a permanent replacement. How much Greg will be involved in this decision we don't know and whether Erica getting the job is a done deal we don't know.
It will be interesting to see what Greg does when he steps away will he still do a few things for the RSC as it is strange to just give an Emeritus role for 20 odd months but it just maybe allows him to finish his ongoing projects and recognises his position in the company but also allows the new AD to follow their own path. Plus they have Greg there for a while as a great source of advise if they wish to use it.
Antony was a fairly prolific writer and a very talented artist so it would be interesting whether there is unpublished work there Greg would oversee and have published or whether Greg would write his own autobiography and about his years with Antony.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Apr 22, 2022 12:52:51 GMT
Assume Greg wil follow the path of previous AD’s and become a freelance director, not sure of his experience outside of the classics but a comfortable retirement is in the offing with the bonus of taking up work as he sees fit.
Not sure whether the Emeritus role is a good idea especially if his successor is in place before the end of this year as he would continue to influence even if indirectly and what the RSC really needs is a clean break and in reality it would most probably help Greg to move on if he was no longer associated with the RSC which is inextricably linked to Antony whose ghost will always walk the corridors with him.
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Post by Jan on Apr 22, 2022 13:01:13 GMT
Not going to happen, my vote would be Tom Littler. Only downside is that the magic and vitality he has bought to Jermyn St would be lost. TL would be a better fit for the Orange Tree which is also recruiting a new AD - I think it would be a step up in terms of scale and funding on JST. On the RSC job, who'd even want it apart from EW ?
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 22, 2022 13:15:24 GMT
Whyman has directed so little Shakespeare. She was given the job because of other credentials IIRC. She does not have the track record with Shakespeare to even get on the shortlist for the job. One Shakespeare before the RSC and two more since. There may be more but those are the ones I have tracked down.
From what I can see, I have directed more Shakespeare plays than she has.
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Post by Jan on Apr 22, 2022 13:25:58 GMT
Whyman has directed so little Shakespeare. She was given the job because of other credentials IIRC. She does not have the track record with Shakespeare to even get on the shortlist for the job. One Shakespeare before the RSC and two more since. There may be more but those are the ones I have tracked down. From what I can see, I have directed more Shakespeare plays than she has. Suggest you apply ! Make it a two horse race. Can’t see anyone else of substance even applying. Simon Godwin maybe ?
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Post by Jon on Apr 22, 2022 13:29:46 GMT
Simon Godwin is based in Washington DC now so he's unlikely.
Does the RSC necessarily need a director to be AD? I think someone who's more of a producer might actually shake things up but it's rare in the UK to have ADs who don't direct, it's much more common in the US.
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Post by Jan on Apr 22, 2022 13:35:53 GMT
Simon Godwin is based in Washington DC now so he's unlikely. Does the RSC necessarily need a director to be AD? I think someone who's more of a producer might actually shake things up but it's rare in the UK to have ADs who don't direct, it's much more common in the US. If it’s not a director I think they’d be more likely to go for an actor.
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Post by lynette on Apr 22, 2022 13:38:09 GMT
Another vote for Tom Littler
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 22, 2022 13:38:35 GMT
None of my Shakespeare productions have had budgets exceeding £20k. So I could do loads of them using RSC funds!
Whoever does take over must put making great theatre ahead of any socio-political point scoring.
Great directors with casts who can speak and understand the texts - we don't need more than that.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 22, 2022 13:39:02 GMT
I produced for Tom Littler when he was a student...
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Post by Jon on Apr 22, 2022 13:47:44 GMT
None of my Shakespeare productions have had budgets exceeding £20k. So I could do loads of them using RSC funds! Whoever does take over must put making great theatre ahead of any socio-political point scoring. Great directors with casts who can speak and understand the texts - we don't need more than that. Which is why I think someone from a producing background rather than a directing or acting background might be good as an AD.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 22, 2022 14:17:21 GMT
You need someone with vision and a passionate understanding of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. That isn't going to be a producer.
Running the RSC is one of the top two theatre jobs in the UK. There should be half a dozen qualified candidates.
But we are collectively struggling to identify them.
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Post by cirque on Apr 22, 2022 14:47:37 GMT
i think its hard......whyman has such a hold on delivering all their community projects and diversity......she will be hard to replace for the board-even though a new team is essential.
imagine trying to set up new policies with Ew lurking#
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Post by alexandra on Apr 22, 2022 14:53:05 GMT
Oxfordsimon, I don’t know whether you’re familiar with current ACE funding criteria, but if you had a read of Let’s Create and the Levelling Up addendum (which in turn follows a government directive), it would explain why socio-economic factors are so important to organisations like the RSC and the NT and, in fact, all NPOs. If they need funding, they don’t have any choice.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 22, 2022 15:13:11 GMT
I am very aware of ACE and their corruption of the funding for the arts in England.
It is perfectly possible for major companies to focus on their core values whilst paying lip service to the nonsense that ACE talks about.
We need to reform ACE completely to save companies from this tick box mentality. And to strip away the nepotistic decision making that is at the heart of ACE.
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Post by Jan on Apr 22, 2022 16:01:14 GMT
I am very aware of ACE and their corruption of the funding for the arts in England. It is perfectly possible for major companies to focus on their core values whilst paying lip service to the nonsense that ACE talks about. We need to reform ACE completely to save companies from this tick box mentality. And to strip away the nepotistic decision making that is at the heart of ACE. I was talking to a well-known AD a while ago. They told me about a regional theatre that applied for, and got, ACE funding for the first time amounting to 10% of their normal income. After a couple of years they found that extra 10% was being spent entirely on fulfilling extra ACE requirements and reporting and admin and so on, so that it really hadn’t been worth applying for funds in the first place.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 22, 2022 18:45:42 GMT
Good point by Jon do you want an artistic programmer or an active director. Some people are better suited to either parts of the role. A producer might be very good at programming and finding original new work but then you'd need directors to bring these visions to life whilst a theatre director may create great productions but might not be so good at the programming/admin side.
If you do still have a deputy then I think that the AD and Deputy roles should be held by people from either side of the fence so you have a director and producer combination but in which roles it doesn't matter.
Greg is helming a play to go on stage this summer and has another planned for nest year as he is doing the Emeritus only until end of next year I don't see this treading on the next AD's toes too much. John Barton was advisory director there for years. I'd take the positive that Greg will be around and if you had someone from a none Shakespeare background they have Greg as a sounding board but he won't always be there.
Greg could have resumed his role but has chosen to leave Erica in situ so he has no current desire to resume AD work. I'd personally be very interested how involved in the recruitment process he may be. I've no idea how Theatrical recruitment works but an interviewing panel of Greg, the Executive Director and Board Chair or at least one Non Exec Board member would make sense to me.
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Post by alexandra on Apr 22, 2022 19:15:25 GMT
I am very aware of ACE and their corruption of the funding for the arts in England. It is perfectly possible for major companies to focus on their core values whilst paying lip service to the nonsense that ACE talks about. We need to reform ACE completely to save companies from this tick box mentality. And to strip away the nepotistic decision making that is at the heart of ACE. Perhaps. But in the meantime, there are criteria to satisfy (or boxes to tick as you would have it). And lip service really isn’t enough. If you said you were going to have a community element in a play, for example, and then you didn’t, you would very quickly lose your funding, particularly given the imminent diversion of funding to the Levelling Up for Culture Places (which do not include Stratford-upon-Avon, oddly enough). I agree with the person who said that it may not be worth some companies applying for funding. But that isn’t an option for the RSC.
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Post by Jan on Apr 22, 2022 20:21:18 GMT
I forget how the interview panel was constituted when Doran was appointed but I recall David Tennant was on it. I’d say it would be very very difficult for someone who’d never directed for the RSC before to get appointed and very easy for them to select a preferred in-house candidate as they always have done in the past.
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Post by sweets7 on Apr 22, 2022 22:28:28 GMT
Has he been there that long? I mean I don’t know what to think of his tenure…he didn’t do all he said he would. They didn’t get stars but some of the shows were good. I miss the company aspect of it. With them being in rep. I don’t know. That went fast. Feel for him loosing Sher.
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Post by Jon on Apr 23, 2022 0:25:20 GMT
Good point by Jon do you want an artistic programmer or an active director. Some people are better suited to either parts of the role. A producer might be very good at programming and finding original new work but then you'd need directors to bring these visions to life whilst a theatre director may create great productions but might not be so good at the programming/admin side. I've always found it interesting that the Royal Opera House, ENO, the South Bank Centre and Barbican have CEOs/ADs who didn't have experience in those sectors previously. Alex Beard came from the Tate, Stuart Murphy and Elaine Bedell came from Sky and ITV respectively while Will Gompertz was the BBC's Arts Editor, Now I'm not sure if that would work as well with the RSC having someone not from the theatre world run it but it would be a shake up.
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Post by paplazaroo on Apr 23, 2022 5:07:14 GMT
I think ACE play a big part in steering who gets these jobs, I’d be very surprised if it was another white man.
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Post by Jan on Apr 23, 2022 8:18:11 GMT
Has he been there that long? I mean I don’t know what to think of his tenure…he didn’t do all he said he would. They didn’t get stars but some of the shows were good. I miss the company aspect of it. With them being in rep. I don’t know. That went fast. Feel for him loosing Sher. He leaves the job with only a single theatre operating, the company aspect of the RSC completely destroyed, no obvious succession plan, and with not a single new actor or director having established themselves as RSC regulars during his tenure. He even failed in his very limited goal of producing the entire canon on the main RST stage. This was someone selected as the safe pair of hands continuity choice.
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Post by sweets7 on Apr 23, 2022 8:58:48 GMT
Has he been there that long? I mean I don’t know what to think of his tenure…he didn’t do all he said he would. They didn’t get stars but some of the shows were good. I miss the company aspect of it. With them being in rep. I don’t know. That went fast. Feel for him loosing Sher. He leaves the job with only a single theatre operating, the company aspect of the RSC completely destroyed, no obvious succession plan, and with not a single new actor or director having established themselves as RSC regulars during his tenure. He even failed in his very limited goal of producing the entire canon on the main RST stage. This was someone selected as the safe pair of hands continuity choice. Well yes…I don’t think it has gone very well at all. But COVID is responsible for some of that…the one theatre. I don’t think they would have got the plays done anyway. It’s the company aspect I fell most. That is what made the RSC somewhat different. Especially the summer season lot. It was amazing to see the companies there and in a variety of roles and lots came back, or where contracted, for a number of years so it was great to see their relationships develop and deepen. The depth of the RSC was amazing. That all went. Although I am in two minds about succession plans…every new boss should do their own thing. There shouldn’t really be a plan. But perhaps there should be some requirements to the role to preserve what about a place is its USP. I think definitely Inclusivity has really grown these past few years. But a lot of the fabric has been lost. And his partner did many of the big roles. That shouldn’t be allowed.
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Post by Jan on Apr 23, 2022 11:15:25 GMT
The fact they currently have only one theatre operating isn’t really due to Covid. The Other Place in Stratford has been more or less closed for his entire tenure and the Swan is now closed till 2023 at the earliest.
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Post by oxfordsimon on Apr 23, 2022 13:17:12 GMT
10 years in charge and where was the big success that would help fund the future of the company?
The original Wolf Hall double bill did extend in the West End but only managed a 5 month run in total. It did get a short Broadway season. They could have built on that with part 3 but screwed that up.
No musicals/family shows have transferred during his tenure
The Country House Much Ado/LLL did get further life at Chichester and then briefly into London. I think Queen Anne went from the Swan into the West End but didn't last long.
But that is about it.
Oh no. We did get the vanity project that was Death of a Salesman. A production that the RSC didn't need to stage and still didn't set the world alight
The Doran production style has always been somewhat pedestrian. He rarely truly surprises with his shows. And that has infected the rest of the company with a toxic lack of ambition.
So we have the failure to stage all the plays in the main house, the failure to develop long lasting relationships with new directors, the destruction of the ensemble and the failure to stage productions that can generate future income.
It has been a decade of disappointment, increasing mediocrity and failure to provide for the future.
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Post by Jon on Apr 23, 2022 13:23:15 GMT
Oppenheimer transferred from Stratford and was very good.
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